235. Kelly Slater: 11x World Surfing Champion Shares His Diet Protocol, Training Routine, and Recovery Tips

23:09Gary Brecka:Yeah. And so the idea behind judging surfing is you're trying to imagine what is the outermost limit of what can be done on a wave, what's the most high difficulty and whatever. I mean, are you trying to perform on that wave? Are you actually trying to do things on your board that are, you know, different difficulty levels so that a judge sees you and goes, wow, we just got a full 360? Not necessarily because the wave doesn't always ask for the most difficult thing. You know, sometimes it's just a nice brush stroke. You know, it's just a nice turn at the right speed. It doesn't have to be the crazy fastest thing in the world.

23:51you know sometimes depending on the pace of a wave it might want you to go slow or fast or do something radical or something that's much more subtle but it's the control with which you do it it's the you know the efficiency of body movement all these sort of things but i i don't i i guess the best way to kind of go about learning about judging maybe would be watching gymnastics like a floor exercise yeah because the commentators talk you through it so oh you can see how they just stepped when they landed there. Right. Or they flared their arm at a certain place in a high dive. Or, you know, in these different sports that are judged, you know, high-level people can point out the small little things that detract from what the scoring would be.

24:36And so you would kind of hope for that in surfing. But sometimes even, you know, all of us pros will be sitting around watching a heat. We'll see somebody ride a wave and we'll hear a score pop up that's either high or low. And we're like, what the hell is that? Right. You just, out of the blue, we're like, what did they see that we aren't seeing? Right. But then, you know, we're all humans with the emotions. So sometimes it's your friend and sometimes it's somebody you want to lose. There's all these things that are biased. And so the judges do their best to try to be robots. And just try to judge the skill set.

25:09But there's surfers in their own right. But then, you know, getting back to the feeling thing, when you watch somebody surf, if you understand surfing and you're trying to score it or decide what's better or worse, you can almost feel what that person feels. And there's a thing in surfing about claiming. People claim a ride or claim a maneuver, and you can tell if somebody really feels it or if they're trying to sell it to the judges. Right, right. I need this score, so you're just like, yes. And you can tell that, okay, that guy's way better than, that's not close to his best maneuver. so he can't be that excited about that but it could be a close heat and he needs to get through there for a certain result at the end of the year or in this contest or whatever and so he might be excited not because it was the greatest maneuver but because he does think that he beat that person or she thinks she beat that person so there's different reasons why you might claim a wave but the most respect in surfing has always come from guys that don't claim anything at all and there are guys like some of the older guys that would never do a hand gesture at all and those are the guys you always look back in history.

26:18Yeah, you look back in history, guys, I got to respect Tom Carroll. I got to respect Tom Carroll. Like certain guys that just never threw their hands in there. They're just like, hey, give it to me or not, but I did my best.

26:28Gary Brecka:That's awesome. So when you were pursuing this sport and these world championships, were you constantly moving around the world chasing the best waves? Yeah, I've been a nomad for like 40 years. Really? Yeah. And what are some of your favorite places in the world? Uh, I, when, if people ask me, I just say like Fiji is probably my favorite place to go. Really? Yeah. The people are so nice. The surf's really good. The weather's warm. The fishing's good. The diving's good. It's like all the things that I want to do are there. You can even golf on the mainland. Yeah. But, um, but yeah, just in and around the ocean's great there.

27:05And, and really the people are just so kind, like the nicest people you'll ever meet anywhere in the world, the Fijians. like we had a contest there some years ago and we went to a local school and the kids wrote a song for us and sang it like a hundred kids singing us a song they wrote just for our contest really yeah so that's cool and and everyone i think everyone in every village can sing in like three four five part harmonies yeah they're all just like these beautiful voices and they can all play instruments and but they're just so welcoming and and such nice people that so you would head to Fiji for a certain time of the year and just...

27:40It can be whenever, but typically through our summer months is the best time down there, which is their winter months. Our winter, their summer, it tends to be a little bit like cyclonic weather.

27:51Gary Brecka:Yeah. It'll be super hot, really humid. The surf's not especially great that time of year. Yeah. And they can get some cyclones and storms, but... And I noticed you've been very vocal about conservancy. I mean, and it stands to reason that you love the ocean and you respect the waves and you respect nature so much. But how did that come about? Did you just build a respect and a love, not just through the sport, but for the ocean and for the environment? Or was it, did you see things going on that just kind of turned your stomach and you became this evangelist for the environment? I mean, talk a little bit about like your, you know, why you're so passionate about conservancy.

28:34Gary Brecka:I mean, even your sunscreens, you know, you talk about how they're not, they're really safe. Yeah, well, I guess I don't resent that word, but I wouldn't want to be called an evangelical about it because I hate when people are too preachy about anything. But I just, we do have to think about generations after us and our kids and leaving a better place for them if we can, you know? Yeah. I don't think that even needs to be explained, really. Yeah, well, some people. It's got to be explained to some people. No, I know, but I think some people are just disconnected from that environment and that nature.

29:18and maybe they're just all business and live in a big city and they don't go experience that kind of stuff. But if you go to a place like Bali, you'll see the effects of modern times and plastic pollution and stuff. I don't jump on every bandwagon around climate change and that kind of stuff, but it's really clear. I think we can all easily agree, because there's a lot of things where people don't agree on certain things, but we can all agree that there's a lot of plastic pollution in the ocean and all over the place. I think that's different than carbon emission. Yeah, that stuff can be debated back and forth.

29:53But when you see an ocean full of plastic and then the wind changes and it all washes up on the beach when the season changes and it's disgusting and you literally can't even walk on the beach, that's when everyone needs to get together and go, okay, we need a solution for this.

30:07Gary Brecka:Yeah. And you wonder where all that comes from. Are we just throwing trash into the ocean? Is it boats throwing it overboard? No, a lot of it... Well, in that particular situation, the Balinese like to say it's all the Javanese. It's somebody else. And it's all coming from Java. But I think it's just that my friend in Bali explained it to me probably best. And he said, look, when I was a little kid, we ate all our food wrapped in banana leaf. And we would eat the food and then we'd throw the banana leaf out. And eventually that turned into plastic. And we just kind of kept throwing the plastic out.

30:40And so a lot of waste, and there's not a really great infrastructure for garbage in some of these places. So through no fault of any individual person, it just tends to be that there's not the infrastructure for it. And there's a lot of weird local politics around these things, even in small areas. But it doesn't go to a central place to be processed right. And on small islands, it's not easy to get rid of a bunch of plastic. What do you do with it? You create a mountain on a tiny island. You got to bury it, I guess, you know?

31:12Gary Brecka:I mean, they're starting to melt it down and turn it into other stuff. Yeah, I think you need to melt it at about 5 ,000 degrees so it really turns to a tiny bit of ash. I mean, that's one way to deal with it. Yeah, and then all that stuff burns. I think ultimately we're going to have to figure out how to take plastic, melt it back down to turn it into fuel more easily, which is not a hard process at all. It's just there's not an infrastructure for it. Right. And that's not a perfect solution because that's more air pollution, but you know the stuff you can really see is like it makes it obvious for everyone that you need to deal with it but yeah I don't know I don't like to get too preachy about it but I just try to you know in my own life I do my best to recycle all I can and I hope that when that recycling bin goes that the right thing is done with it at that end but yeah I always question that too yeah and I hear a lot of times it's just not so that is disheartening you know yeah I mean we live in Miami I mean, we had the condo that we were in had a recycle chute and a trash chute.

32:14Gary Brecka:And for like a year and a half, we would put recycle down the recycle chute and trash down the trash chute. And one day I had something show up at the receiving and I actually saw that they came into the same bin. And it was just piled up on one side of the bin and piled up on the other side of the bin. And we were going through all that effort. I think you want to feel like you did the right thing. Yeah, you felt good when you were upstairs, but when you went downstairs and saw the real thing. But I don't know. One time my mom came out of my house and I was taking apart all this cardboard and putting, recycling that and then plastic over here and then garbage over there or whatever.

32:45And she's like, what are you doing? Just throw it all in one. And I said, no, I just, I feel like I want to do the right thing. So then my mom started recycling all of her cardboard and plastics and stuff. And I'm like, well, maybe I affected one person, you know. That's paying it forward, man. I love it. But, yeah.

32:57Gary Brecka:You know, in sometime around September last year, you had a Pernovar body scan. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That was actually this year. Was it this year? That was in June this year. Or June this year. And it was kind of a shocking health update for you. I know that you've talked about it. And there were these lesions in your bone? Yeah, I'd have to go back over the skin. There was only a couple of mild to moderate things to even be concerned about. But I think the thing that really shocked people was how much scoliosis I have. I have a very curvy back, you know. and the people I've worked with over the years have called it functional scoliosis.

33:40Clearly it's working. I figured out a way for it to benefit me in some situations, I guess. But now, I told you before, but I had hip surgery six weeks ago, total replacement. And I've been fighting that for 30 years, 33, 34 years.

33:59Gary Brecka:Yeah, you told me you actually tore your labor when you were 19 and you won your world championship when you were 20. I mean, I don't know how many people realize that, but you won the world championship with completely torn labrum. Yeah. And, you know, torn labrum is not something that just heals itself. I mean, it's scars around there, but it doesn't really go back to being a labrum. Super fun, Gary. You should try it. Yeah, no, I'll live the rest of my life and not try it. I've torn bicep tendons, not even completely. I just actually did a podcast with TJ Dillashaw, and he was talking about how he won, you know, two championship UFC fights with, you know, both his shoulders.

34:34Gary Brecka:being torn and even how he had one of his traps, part of his trap, you know, put into his shoulder to try to replace the, you know, the rotator cuff. That's so crazy what you're saying, yeah. And fighting at that level and you're like, wow, he still became a world champion, in his case twice, in your case for decades. But like I said, the adrenaline takes over, you know, and like what TJ was saying too, like once you get in the fight or you get in the surf and the waves are big or you're in an intense situation competitively, the adrenaline kicks in and you don't feel pain the same way. Your pain receptors aren't waking you up.

35:10They're like you're trying to put them backstage. Yeah, backstage. Adrenaline does that.

35:17Gary Brecka:I mean, I've worked with a lot of UFC fighters and they say that you don't feel the pain until after the fight. Yeah. And I can understand that. I mean, time when all that adrenaline is high. I know. I was watching those fights this weekend with Marab and Petr Jan. and Petr Jan had this his approach was basically let Murab hit him But he had his hand here he was blocking and he kept because he's peppering him with that But he's like well I'm blocking this but he was staying within range because that was his plan or whatever He was staying within range and just taking those shots. Why? Well because it was allowing him his own counter shots and and defensive wrestling and stuff I guess but I mean I saw a breakdown on it online It was explaining all that but he was really taking those because that was a range he wanted to be at Yeah, so like these guys just know like I can get hit that's not gonna knock me out If it was the only one shot I took today I wasn't ready for it probably hurt me but when that adrenaline's kicked in You know like you you see some of these guys take a couple hundred shots in a fight.

36:16Oh, it's it's

36:17Gary Brecka:I go to plenty of fights and I'm never yeah I sometimes I see you guys impressed. It's a it's really since becoming a MMA fan about 20 years ago. It's really um it's really taken the intensity off of injuries for me so like i see some of these guys just like their freaking eyes hanging out you know like they're just so cut and and they're happy and they're just spurting blood and they're like no i want to keep fighting don't call this fight off you know yeah yeah so i'm like if my fin cuts me and i got you know i need three stitches i'm like i could probably surf a little longer you know it's like it gives you a perspective where like I was charming for sharks in your case, so.

36:54Yeah, maybe, depending where you're at. But it's not as, for me, it's become less scary to get injured after seeing what these guys willingly put themselves through. Yeah.

37:05Gary Brecka:Yeah, I've interviewed a few of the greats, and what you really begin to respect at that level is the amount of strategy and thinking that goes into it. I've heard Dana White talk about the difference between being a good fighter and a great fighter is composure. and I imagine the hardest time to maintain your composure is when somebody's actively trying to hurt you. And it's also hard to not get pissed off. Pain just immediately causes you to flick your switch, especially when somebody else inflicted. If you cut it on your board, you're not actually angry. But if somebody else cuts you, you'd be angry at them.

37:42It reminds me of a fight from that last card. Terrence McKinney was fighting and he just starts mopping this guy in the first minute of the fight, he's just so aggressive. And the other guy's just boom, boom. He's just like a punching bag, you know? And he's getting rocked. And you can see he's like covering up and he ends up on the ground at one point. And I was thinking to myself, I'm like, I wonder if this guy's got a plan, you know, or if he's just like so dazed right now from getting hit. And then a minute later, he wins the fight. Wow. Yeah, he just turned it around. He just, he ended up tapping out.

38:12Wow. I think it was a tap out. Wow. But, you know, after getting completely rocked and beat up for like a minute and a half, but then his plan was I gotta keep some cardio and energy and then Terrence McKinney kind of faded and as soon as he faded the other guy turned it on so they you know it depends on that approach are you gonna come in aggressive or are you gonna come in and be defensive and counter

38:35Gary Brecka:yeah I mean when you were surfing did you did you ever have those moments where like you picked up the board and walked to the edge of the ocean and you just looked at the waves and you're like I'm over this like Like, did it ever become monotonous? It's funny because Andy Irons, who I mentioned before, he and I had a big rivalry, and that went on for about six or seven years or something. So that motivated you? Yeah, but then he and I became pretty good friends, and we kind of dropped the whole thing. We kind of got past both of our peaks in the rivalry and stuff. And I remember being in the water with him.

39:10We're in Huntington Beach, and there's about 30 ,000 people on the beach. and he was really like, he was in a real like personal growth phase and he was like trying to get some things together in his head and, you know, step back from the surf thing, like being the pro surfer a little bit and do some personal growth. And I remember he looked up at the beach and he goes, fuck, I hate this. That's what I mean. He just looked at the beach and goes, I fucking hate, I just don't even want, why am I even, why did I put myself out here? I don't even want to be here right now. And I was like, yeah, I've totally felt that before.

39:46Gary Brecka:I've done so many things in my life that I was really excited about when I started. Like, you know, I was a competitive amateur triathlete for two years, three years. But I got out of the water one time after the Chesapeake Bay Half Ironman. And when I got home, I put my bike on the garage wall and I didn't get back on my bike for like three years. I was just over it. And by no means did I have even remotely the level of commitment that someone like yourself went through for decades to stay at the top of that game and want to do the same thing and not ever feel like you've mastered the sport. Because at some point, you have to feel like, I've been a world champion so many times over such a long period of time.

40:32Gary Brecka:I've already mastered the sport. And I'm fascinated by the mindset. Gary, I get paid to go surf around the world. Well, that's true. money's a motivator too okay there it is that's what I was looking for we broke the news on the ultimate human podcast this is all about money I mean I get that too it's not all that hard one of my best friends quit the tour when he had he had requalified for the following year but he had decided to retire and go get a job and about a year later we're in Australia and I'm in the contest and he's working. He had to go to the contest because it was part of his job.

41:12He had to fly to Australia to do some work at that event. And I'm like, dude, what are you doing? You should still be on this tour right now. And he's like, I'm an idiot. He's like, I was making more money going surfing. He's like, now I work all freaking day. He's like, I'm here. I can't even surf nearly as much as I want. I got to find a break because I'm working the whole time. And he was like, I should have stayed on tour until it ran out. And I'm like, yeah, exactly. Yeah, you're like, I'm still at it, bro.

41:39Gary Brecka:Yeah, so he... But I can't imagine that there's a lot of money in surfing unless you are at the... No, most of our money is sponsorship dollars. And, you know, you got to get a certain notoriety and that kind of thing. But the money in surfing has dried up a little bit in recent years because surfing was built on the backs of these... Originally from the 60s and 70s where these guys wanted to go surf around the world. So they started companies to sell clothes and wetsuits so they could fund their own surf trips. That's really how the Rip Curls, Billabongs, Quicksilvers of the world started. Really?

42:13All the big brands from surfing. And then if you extend further out, then you go into like Volcom and other brands that were started by surfers as well. But they basically were like a means to an end to get around the world and go surf these places they wanted to go. And Quicksilver started by, it was Alan Green and John Law in Australia, and they, we can get a couple of friends and they made some surf trunks and we're selling them out of the back of the, literally out of the trunk of their car. And then they make enough money to go on a surf trip.

42:41Gary Brecka:Yeah. And then they realize like, oh, well, all these surfers need gear. That's an authentic brand. Yeah. And then all these surfers need gear. And then, you know, their other friend started a wetsuit company and that was Rip Curl. And, you know, eventually then all those brands ended up like Quicksilver started making wetsuits and Bill and Rip Curl started making clothing. Right. So then everyone's making everything. Right. And then surfing through the 90s and early 2000s really was peaking as far as the brands go. I remember. I mean, I remember. Quicksilver was OP. Yeah, OP. Remember OP, the corduroy shorts?

43:15But Quicksilver had a big thing because I was a Quicksilver guy for 23 years. And it was Quicksilver, Roxy was the women's line, and DC was the shoes. So those three brands were powerhouses through our industry and skating with DC's shoes, obviously. but you know quicksilver is so wealthy they're making so much money and so all the surfers and skaters and sponsored athletes and you know models and all that sort of stuff were all making really good money from the brands and um and then eventually a lot of them became public brands and they were kind of chasing stock price instead of just like making what authentically made them great brands it was more worried about like the company structure than it was about the product right that was being made and and then outsiders came in and started buying you know take over these companies and stuff and it really changed what surfing was yeah you know in the last past 20 years and those companies also own they didn't own the tour but they sponsored each of the individual tour events yeah and they had the media rights so they would run their media rights you know billabong would run them the way they want quicksover the way they want and they would own everything from that particular event.

44:26Now we have a world tour. The WSL took over from what the ASP, it used to be called ASP. And they took it over and they own all the media rights to all the events now. So it's not the individual sponsors. So that kind of changed as well. And you know, you could argue good and bad points about that, but it changed what our sport is to some degree. But the brands, the original brands are not what they were. And I don't know if there's anybody at any of the companies that would try to claim that they are the same right it just it just changed the environment's changed and now new brands are coming in um i mean like i created my own brand um it's called outer known how's that doing we're doing all right yeah you gotta be man you're the greatest surfer of all time john john florence created a brand called florence marine and um you know a couple of the other surfers started other brands that are kind of filtering their way into taking over space in the surf shops and stuff.

45:23So there might sort of be this rebirth of some of the origins of brands starting with surfers. And that's how surfing became an industry.

45:33Gary Brecka:One of my favorite biohacks outside of breathwork by far is mineral salts, Baja Gold Sea Salt. It's got all of the trace minerals that the body needs. You know, most of us are not just protein deficient, meaning amino acid deficient or fatty acid deficient. We are mineral deficient. So a quarter teaspoon of this in water first thing in the morning will make sure that you get all of the essential minerals that you need. It tastes amazing. In fact, I made a steak today. I actually made a grass-fed steak with grass-fed butter, and I put just mushrooms and a little bit of rosemary, and I sprinkled Baja Gold sea salt all over the top.

46:04Gary Brecka:Try it. It'll be your new favorite for cooking, too. It's the cheapest and one of my favorite biohacks. I don't know, a$15 or$20 bag of this will probably last you five years. It's literally the world's best biohacking secret. Now let's get back to the Ultimate Human podcast. Yeah, and I think looking at a career that spanned as long as yours did, I mean, obviously conditioning is a big part of being a surfer, and most of your conditioning, I imagine you just got in the water by doing your sport. I just surf a lot. But were the things that you did outside, and I mean, now that you're in your 50s and you're still competing, you know.

46:38Yeah, not full-time now. I quit the full-time competing about a year and a half ago, but I'll still do it. That's not that long ago, bro. No. That's 53, so. When I was 52. Okay, 52.

46:48Gary Brecka:so yeah i mean competing till you're 52 i mean i can't think of many sports i mean not even really golf are there a lot of 52 year old golfers well there's the the champions 52 year old nfl players that's for damn sure when you turn 50 in golf on the pga you you join the champions tour so that's you know all the they got a little exit legends yeah you know phil mickelson would be a young guy on that tour right now but that would be the freddy couples of the world and and uh that sort guys but but but what what are you doing to stay conditioned i mean as as maybe as surfing is decrescendoing i mean i know that you're big and you know you're a big believer in the biohacking longevity space yeah i became i'll tell you my my history of i i grew up my mom hates this and she thinks that this is a personal attack on her i swear it's not mom i love you you did a good job you raised three boys by yourself and he actually spoke highly about you before the podcast, just, you know, off camera.

47:40But, you know, we just, we just didn't, and I don't think people in the 60s and 70s really worried about it. You know, my older brother's born in 69. I was born in 72. My younger brother in 78. But back then we were, you know, the first world and we got the best food in the world or whatever. We ate tons of sugar. I mean, I grew up, I always tell people I grew up on Oreos and Doritos. I mean, literally ice cream, cupcakes. We're going to have to cut this out. You realize this. I'm just kidding. That's started from the bottom. Now we're here. Yeah. No, it's you were exercising your ass off. Yeah, I mean, I was super active, but, but, uh, I ate tons and tons of sugar.

48:17I used to have, I remember I'd, I'd wake up in the morning before high school and, uh, you're, you're going to hate this Gary. You're going to, you're going to like hold this against me here. But I used to make like a chocolate milkshake in the morning for breakfast. And I would literally throw like ice cream cookies hershey syrup like whatever i could find like into this this would be my and i would drink it on the way to school and then by the end of the first period i'd be doubled over with a stomach cramp for the record that was before you were a world champion oh yeah this when i was a teenager okay good yeah but bro i'm a florida i'm a florida man i'm from coco beach like this is what you eat you know i mean it could have been beer yeah no it's crazy when i

49:00Gary Brecka:I talk about, you know, it's crazy. I mean, TJ talked about that too in his early career, like in his 20s when he was fighting on, you know, the show. Ultimate Fighter? Ultimate Fighter. When he's fighting on the Ultimate Fighter that, you know. His diet was no good? That is complete garbage. But I mean, I think now, you know. There's too much information now. There's too much information. For you to be in denial of it. But so my sort of, I would call it a health journey. My health journey started in my early 20s. Did it really? and I was in a health food shop. Good, because so did your professional career, so good.

49:35I was in a health food shop in Solana Beach or Encinitas down in Cardiff called Kai's and I ordered a juice or sandwich or something and then I was standing there waiting for my food and there was a tape. There was one thing for sale on the counter and it was a tape by a guy named Dr. Joel Wallach, who maybe you know the name. And it was$1. They weren't trying to make money from it. They were just trying to get people to listen to stuff from a health guru. So I bought that tape, and this is when we had cassettes in the car. Oh, I remember it. And so I'm driving around, I would just listen to this thing.

50:10And he started talking about how he had done like 17 ,000 animal autopsies, 3 ,000 human autopsies. And he said, no one dies from old age. There's no such thing. You die of a deficiency of something over a long period of time. You get a disease, blah, blah. And I just was like, wow, this is fascinating. And I had just, I had already become world champ at this time, but I was like, this is fuel from my fire right here. This, I'm going to actually like start being healthy. And so I got, I got super into, um, I started just trying different diets, like food combining, you know, I did food combining for a while.

50:47I met, I became familiar with the Gracie's from going to, from going to, uh, Rio for contests every year. and then um i eventually met hickson and hoist and hoyler and all those guys but i had read their book prior to that a friend of mine had written a book about him and um i think two different friends of mine have written books about the gracie family now but i started reading about their diets and you know they talk about food combining and then i started looking into it what is trophology and why don't proteins and carbs go well together blah blah and i started kind of like experimenting with that on myself and seeing how I felt.

51:23And I realized I had more energy and I sleep less and I digest better and I don't have stomach problems. And so I kind of just became really sort of fascinated with health in the body. And strangely enough, my mom was an EMT and firefighter. So she went to medical school for some degree of time to learn what she needed. And so I kind of already had this, like maybe this genetic thing in my DNA where I wanted to learn about the anatomy and and digestion and all that stuff so i i um i was traveling in my early days when i first got on quick show i was traveling with a guy named tom carroll who was two two-time world champion but tom was one of the few guys that cross-trained and really

52:05Gary Brecka:talked about diet and so he trained off the waves oh yeah yeah he was he was doing all sorts of cross-training and tom was like crazy fit super strong everyone talked about how big his calves were and like his thighs were i mean and and uh it was actually funny because back at that time he also wore super tiny shorts so his like leg muscles would just like jacked like yeah like explode his like tiny trunks you know like yeah almost looked like it would rip him in the side because his legs were so powerful yeah and he surfed that way you know he surfed with all this power and energy he was known for that and tom became like a big brother to me and we were i think I was like 18 years old.

52:42I was in Australia with him. I kept telling him how I didn't have much energy. And the night before we had eaten pasta, I had a spaghetti bolognese. And he goes, well, maybe it's because of the proteins and the carbs together or something. He's like, have you ever thought about that? And that was the first time I ever heard about food combined. I'm like, no, what does that mean? How do you know this stuff? What do you mean? You just eat food and it gives you energy. I just never really put the equation together. And unfortunately, we're not taught that in school. They don't really give you any kind of formal education about that, especially in public schools.

53:19And so I was just kind of shooting from the hip, trying to learn this stuff, traveling around the world, and I became really sort of infatuated with it through my 20s. And then I got into like water fasting and master cleansing. Oh, that's great, man.

53:34Gary Brecka:I think water fasting is – if you can master fasting two, three times a year, I mean, those are game changers. I do big water fasts on my platform, take thousands of people through water fasts, and there's always these life-changing, literally life-changing testimonials that we get out of it. I went about 15 years ago. I was doing a master cleanse for about, I think I did 10 days with the tea, with the cayenne pepper and stuff. And anyways, I was about four or five days in, and I went golfing with one of my best friends and his dad. And his dad had a couple groups of friends there that were all doctors.

54:08It was like this doctor outing. They go golf every Thursday or Friday or whatever. So I was with them. And afterwards, they're having lunch. And he said, you want something? And I was like, oh, no, I'm doing a fast or a cleanse. What are you talking about? And I started telling him about it. And they're like, why are you doing that? I said, well, I'm going to let my digestion heal. I'm not going to be digesting food for almost two weeks. So that can all just relax and heal and settle down. And they're like, what do you mean? I'm like, well, if you don't eat food for a long period of time, You're doing salt flushes every morning.

54:39They probably thought you were out of your mind. I'm doing the smooth and the move teas and blah, blah, blah. And they're like, you don't need to do that. You just take the stuff that we take to get a colonoscopy. And that just flushes everything out. In 24 hours, nothing else is in your system. And I was like, well, what about mucoid plaque? And they're like, what are you talking about? These are doctors. Wow. And so literally that day, I was driving home and I had to stop to go to the restroom. It was the first time I ever got mucoid plaque to come out of my body. Yeah, no, I've done that. And that is gnarly.

55:13I was like, what is this? Did I just, like, did my intestine just come out? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, sorry to get graphic for people out there, but I think a lot of people that watch your show probably know this stuff. Oh, they do. And if you haven't, you need to go and Google mucoid plaque and how to get it out of your body. But after days and days and days of hydrating and no food, stuff starts to loosen up. And you're like, no wonder I'm nutrient deficient. No wonder I don't digest food properly. No wonder this and that is unhealthy or people getting cancer left and right. And then you feel the lights come on, right?

55:49The lights come on. And literally your eyesight changes. Yes. Everything. I tell people that and they think I'm crazy. And I got so excited, man. I got so excited when I got my first mucoid plaque from my body. Well, because afterwards you feel amazing. I remember that day. I remember exactly where I was. I was like, yes, this is a real thing. Because I'd seen all these stories of people online. Yesterday I was watching something and this guy was talking about getting parasites out of his body. And I saw him and he's like, I don't want to show you because people don't like to see that stuff. But if you want to, I'll send you some pictures.

56:21and um but when when you first make a change you're in control of with your body it's so exciting

56:28Gary Brecka:it really is exciting and inspiring and when you feel the shift in such a short period of time it's it's also inspiring you're like wow this is how i used to feel all the time i remember this feeling it should have been so many years that i've just adjusted my new state of normal yeah there were just so many oreos between that period a lot of them no but i i tell people So that's one thing I'm a little evangelical about is water fast, and I tell people all the time. Oh, man, me too. And they're like, oh, so I just shouldn't drink water for 24 hours? I'm like, I mean, I should only drink water for 24 hours?

57:01I'm like, no, what you got to do is you got to go at least three days. You got to get past that day two because day two sucks. Yeah. And I'm like, day three is awesome. Day three is amazing. Day three is great. It's so true, man. And, you know, day three, you're like, whoa, I'm awake again. I'm alive. My thoughts are clearer. um you know i was telling people i told a few people the past year a year or two ago i did one and on day three i surfed played golf and worked out pretty hard that day on the beach with a couple of my buddies i never lost any energy like throughout the whole day i had full energy and actually was i think i did four days that that one and i was like why don't i just go for like 10 i yeah when you're when you're already there once you're at day three you can keep going

57:43Gary Brecka:In fact, a lot of people come out of my three-day water fast and go four or five. I tell them don't go past seven without medical supervision because sometimes you think you can keep going and you don't want to get an electrolyte imbalance. You can go much longer. I just think that you need to really know what you're doing. But you're right. A three-day water fast is game. I've done three of them in the last year with tens of thousands of people. And it is always still shocking to me the stories that come back from our three-day water fast. In fact, you can download three-day water fast. Especially people who aren't already quite healthy.

58:14Yeah. If they do it. And all of a sudden, they're like, whoa. And it's just about no one that can't go 24 hours to 72 hours without eating.

58:24Gary Brecka:Yeah. You're mentally so tied to food. Yeah, it's addiction. You think I'm going to die on a flight from Miami to LA if I don't eat over Colorado. Right. You know, if I don't eat before we land, I will expire before we get to the airport. Yeah, it's crazy. So tell me a little bit about how, like, exercise, longevity has changed for you. I mean, what are your go-to protocols now? You were talking about cold plunge, sauna. Yeah, no, I love – I feel like sauna into cold plunge is like the lazy man's way to work out. You know what I mean? Like, you get your cardio hit. You get your cardio hit. I guess if that's all you're doing, yeah.

59:04Yeah. Well, yeah, but, I mean, typically I'm just, like, surfing a lot, and then I play a lot of golf. Yeah. I don't cross train a whole lot, but I do a little jujitsu and I, you know, I'm kind of like a binge workout person where I get into it and then I'm like, okay, whatever. I'm going to be lazy and surf for a while. Yeah. Well, surfing's still, you know, really cardio. Usually when I'm in Hawaii, I get in really good shape just because I just surf every day. You know, it might be three to five hours a day in the water.

59:35Gary Brecka:Yeah. and then try to get myself to run the beach a little bit. How do you keep from just getting fried? You're wearing your sunscreen? You know what? If I'm somewhere tropical or it's super hot, I wear sunscreen. But I am lucky. I've had tanned skin my whole life. I was like, you could probably have mistaken me as being like half black when I was a kid because my mom just put me in the sun. We were in the sun all day. and I was so darkly tanned when I was a kid. Much darker than I am now. There's a picture of me and my brother in the bathtub. I'm like two or three and we're both naked. You can see our butts and my butt is white and the rest of my skin is like dark, dark, dark tanned.

1:00:19Really? Like I look Hawaiian or something. Yeah. But I just always like being tanned. The more tanned I am, the less I get burned. I don't know.

1:00:28Gary Brecka:Well, that makes sense. That's your natural defense mechanism. I went to Bali a few years ago for three months, and the day I got there, my friend who's kind of pale was tanner than me. Because I'd been surfing in wetsuits for the past six or eight months before that, and I was so angry. There's no way you're darker than I am. And so I just made it my mission to get super dark again. That's easy to do when you're surfing all that time. Especially in Bali. But in certain places, the sun is just so violent, you have to be covered up. no matter how good your skin is. But, yeah, I mean, I've suffered some skin damage and stuff.

1:01:07I got spots on my head. Actually, I went to a dermatologist yesterday and I'm trying to address it now, just 50-something years of just in the sun as much as I could possibly be. Is there things you're concerned about? No, nothing that's turned up to look bad or anything, but it's just discolorations and stuff over a long period of time. They call them precancerous. I don't know. I feel like you just keep an eye on them.

1:01:28Gary Brecka:Yeah. Yeah. So, so what are your go-tos now? Sauna, cold plunge? Do you do red light therapy? Yeah, do some red light therapy. I sometimes sleep on a beamer mat. PMF. Yeah. Yeah. And then, um... You know, the thing is, whether you knew it or not, you were spending so much time, you know, moving your body and grounded. You know, I mean, touching the surface of the earth is one of the healthiest things that you can do. Yeah. And so all that time, you're just discharging into the earth. Your body was very grounded. you know, I mean, all that time on the beach and in the water, the ions for the water is so good for you, man.

1:02:05Gary Brecka:There's a reason why you feel great at the beach. Yeah. You know, I mean, sometimes at the beach, you just smell the ozone, you know, it's like, it smells like that ozone. Yeah. You know, the negative ions. Yeah. And, and do you, do you, do you feel disconnected when you're, you're not near the ocean? I mean, it's in such a big part of your life. Yeah. To some degree I do. when I was younger, I would feel it much more if I didn't surf for a few days even. I would go crazy. But now, I mean, I haven't surfed in a couple months because of this. But I caught two waves the other day. You did? We were at our surf ranch and I caught...

1:02:41Since you're... Because this is only two weeks old, right? Six weeks old. Six weeks old. Yeah, but like five days ago, I caught two waves. Really? It didn't feel right. So I'm like, I'm not going to... And, you know, I can surf to where I'm putting no pressure on my hip, you know, If I want to push it, I can, but I can also surf, and it's about as much pressure as if I'm standing. I'm not manipulating it or whatever. You've perfected it, I think it's fair to say. Well, it's pretty easy to stand there and feel like I'm just standing there. So I don't have to work hard if I surf. So I just rode a couple waves just to see how this thing feels, and I did a couple little turns, and I'm like, I'm not ready.

1:03:16So I'm going to just wait another few weeks. Are you rehabbing it right now? Yeah, I've been going to physio and getting deep. I get a lot of Thai massage. Just go until I scream. Really? Is it painful? Thai massage? Yeah. Never had a Thai massage. Oh, really?

1:03:33Gary Brecka:No. Oh, yeah. I think it's the best. It is? But, I mean, it's painful during it. Painful, yeah. But you notice it. It hurts you're not getting injured, you know? But, I mean, do you notice it the next day that you're more limber or you're more range of motion? You really do. And then I tend to do a stretching session afterwards, you know, for a short period of time. and I compare it to before and after. But I usually go home and take a hot bath or sauna right afterwards and get some electrolytes. I'm going to get you on the hydrogen tablets. Yeah. Yeah. Because that is a game changer for inflammation and tissue repair.

1:04:06Gary Brecka:I always throw them in my water. That's these little guys right here. Here, I'll throw one in your water there. Let me see your water glass. Boom. Let's throw two in there. All right. It's a selective antioxidant. It'll help with the inflammation. Perfect. Do you have any pain anywhere right now? Done.

1:04:24My lower back's been really affected by the hip.

1:04:28Gary Brecka:So let me know how that is when you're done that. It's going to take about two minutes to dissolve and then just whack it back. If I'm not totally out of pain tomorrow, I'm going to let you know it. If you're totally out of pain, you better tell me. Well, we're working out in the morning, so I'll check in with you. You know, I tore my ACL, my MCL, and I actually cracked the lateral half of my tibial plateau off. Jeez. I'm pretty bad at knee injury. How? Oh, dude, I knew you were gonna say that. I was gonna try to talk fast so you wouldn't ask. Yeah. I wish I had a better story, but I mean, this was years ago, 2008, I think.

1:05:05Gary Brecka:Drunk late at night. Really? I had had a few cocktails. I was actually at an insurance convention and I had a few cocktails. And I think I had taken - Had to call it out, didn't I? I had taken three jujitsu classes, including the first day where all you basically do is stretch and meet your instructor. Is this pre-biohack Gary Bracken? No, this is way pre-biohack. And I had taken three jujitsu classes, and so I thought I was a badass. I knew how to pull somebody by me and then choked them, and that was it. But you're supposed to kind of stand there and let me do it to you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got to come at me like this.

1:05:38Gary Brecka:Punch like this, and then I'm going to up block, and then I'm going to chop you in the neck, and then I'm going to sweep your foot. and when I sweep your foot, you have to fall down. You know, it's like, help me out here. So I had three jujitsu classes and I'd watched a lot of UFC, so I felt pretty good about myself. And I had a few cocktails and I was at an insurance conference and my business developer, who was a division one wrestler. Oh, here we go. We started like mouthing off to each other. He was like, he goes, dude, just so you know, I would mop the floor with you. And he was like, let's just not even have this conversation.

1:06:10Gary Brecka:And I was like, well, we could go up to the suite and figure it out, you know? And I hit the presidential suite up there. You're like, I'm gonna guillotine this guy. Yeah, I'm gonna grab his wrist. I learned that two sessions ago. I'm gonna pass him and then I'm gonna be behind. I'm gonna re-nature choke him. And it worked so good in my second jujitsu class. There's this thing called a kimura, I'll get him. Yeah, it's James. And he was a little spark plug. This is a little muscular spark plug. And he was actually fresh out of grad school and he wrestled through grad school even too. So we pushed all the furniture aside and my whole staff went up there.

1:06:49Gary Brecka:And it started friendly. And then I really started trying and he wasn't. And he hip tossed me and my leg got stuck on the side of his knee. He did not mean it at all. And everybody heard it go. I mean, it was just this big popping, tearing sound. One girl actually got sick. And then I was sitting on the floor. I'm so glad I asked. my knee was cocked to the side and it was like oh this is not good so maybe we can cut all this out and it's terrible for my career and your buddy's like hey tell me about the jiu-jitsu class this is 20 years ago just for the record all three of them yeah 20 yeah 20 odd years ago and um and but anyway the the point that i was trying to make when you rudely interrupted me and asked me what happened uh was my i remember my surgeon said this he goes the surgery went perfect he's like uh you got great cadaver tissue in there the surgery went as good as it could go but he said that's 30 of your journey 70 of how your knee will treat you for the rest of your life is how dedicated you are to post-operative rehab and i listened to the doctor and i yeah um and and he yeah he was he was a great surgeon um still is a great surgeon and so i just dedicated my life And he said, there's going to be a point in rehab where it feels like you're just tearing pages out of a phone book.

1:08:10Gary Brecka:You know, meaning your progress is, in the beginning, you have lots of progress. You start to get range of motion. The pain starts to go down. But he said, when the progress seems immeasurable, keep going. And I took his advice. And, you know, it was a few years later. I was an amateur age group champion for the state of Florida in triathlons. And I, you know, knock on Woodman, I've had no pain, no loss of range of motion. I never complain about my knee. doesn't bother me in bad weather. So maybe, you know, with your hip, that post-operative rehab is just so incredibly important. Yeah. You know, how dedicated you are because a lot of people will just stop when it's just not painful anymore.

1:08:47Gary Brecka:But the muscle atrophy is still there and you really haven't retrained the muscles and your body still thinks you're injured and then you're out playing basketball one day and, you know, you do it again. All of a sudden, I feel great, Gary. See? I'll give you an affiliate link. No, this is great. This is why I pee so much.

1:09:07Gary Brecka:So you're still doing the rehab for it? Yeah. In fact, I'm just getting to the point now where I can start to actually train. I'm getting a range of motion. Have you battled on injuries during your career? No. That's really fortunate. I've been super fortunate. My worst injury was I broke my foot really bad in 2017. Surfing? Yeah. How do you break your foot surfing? I've broken my feet four times. surfing. It's pretty calm. It's not as uncommon as you think. The board flipping into me this way. So basically what happened with this one, this was the fourth time it broke in either toes or metatarsals.

1:09:48Wow.

1:09:48Gary Brecka:It comes up that violently. Yeah, so the board just flipped into me. So three times the first two times it happened to me I was on a wave. I don't know know how your surf knowledge is but i was basically in the barrel of a wave with my back to the wave and the lip of the wave landing here and that lip when it lands it explodes back you know you see when a wave breaks and it explodes right so inside the tube that comes back up in the tube at you like this and so uh the first couple times i did it the lip landed there and pushed the board this way and the board flipped towards me and broke toes and or metatarsals ah the first time I did I broke two metatarsals another time I broke a couple toes ah and then I broke um then the last one I did I wasn't on a big wave it wasn't anything very exciting it was a wave that was all closing out like the wave was finishing and I pulled into the wave when it broke and I was just going to dive off and while I was in there I was like should I dive or should I ride it out because in a wave when you if you stay on your board longer sometimes the energy kind of dissipates a little before you even wipe out so like you've you've kind of fallen after the worst part of it if you fall just before it all breaks you can get sucked up and over on the in the lip of the wave and hit the bottom and stuff right this wave wasn't even there was no factor of that it was a not a very big wave at all and I pulled in and I was kind of in two minds should I jump off or should I ride it out and my leg was straight and all i can figure that happened was some part of the wave i was facing the wave too so it was a different angle but somehow the board violently got pushed into me and my leg was straight so something had to break in the chain yeah so i broke all five metatarsals across the top of my foot all five yeah you mean you literally snapped your foot i put a new joint in my foot basically wow it's a brutal injury i broke the liz frank joint um I broke the second, third, fourth metatarsal in a line diagonally, and then the fifth one cracked up over here, high in the metatarsal.

1:11:59It was a really bad injury. Yeah, how long did that take you out? About a year and a half. Year and a half? Yeah. You had surgery? I had surgery on it like two weeks after it happened because the foot swole. It must have been the gnarliest x-ray. The foot swelled up so bad. Yeah, I'll show you the x-ray. the foot swelled up so bad that I couldn't fly because it was like the foot expanded so much so my doctor basically said look just like let the swelling go down a little ice it for a few days before you fly I was in South Africa and I had to fly double red eye to get home oh my god so elevation for 10 hours elevation for 10 hours right and um when I got home my foot was even bigger than right after the injury so then had you had the surgery or no you had the surgery I was going to fly home and see my surgeon.

1:12:47He's a good buddy of mine. He lives right near me. And so he came over to my house to see my foot. And he's like, yeah, I'm going to have to wait because when I do surgery, it's going to blow up again. And it's going to – your foot's so big it would rip the stitches out. You know, it'll rip them through your skin. So he's like, we're going to have to let that thing settle for a few days. So it was really quite a good –

1:13:05Gary Brecka:Were you just putting in ice buckets? What were you doing? Yeah, basically. Yeah. So it was basically like a good two weeks before I got surgery. And then it blew up again. And then I had pitting edema for like three months. It was terrible. And then I started surfing a little too soon on that one. Yeah. I did that in July, and I surfed the contest in December. I actually did all right in the contest. You did that injury in the contest? No, I did the injury just before I had to compete, like an hour before I was going to compete. So I was out of that contest. But then I surfed the contest in December.

1:13:40I did it in July. I surfed the contest in December. but it wasn't a contest where I had to do maneuvers. You know, we're not turning. We're just pulling in the tube of the wave. So I'm kind of essentially just kind of going straight on waves. So it wasn't really. So for you, that's like a walk in the park. Well, it's just, it's easier than having to move around small waves. Right. It was sort of medium sized waves where you're just going straight in the tube of the waves. And it's a, in a weird way, it's kind of safer for the foot. That makes any sense. Yeah. So I was able to do it, but it was, it was probably done with me, but I was just so excited to surf that contest.

1:14:10That's, that's my favorite event. So I wanted to surf it. But then in February, I got all the hardware out. I took all the screws and stayed. It was three plates and 16 screws or something. Oh, my God. So I took those out, and then I had to – I swear that the healing from that second surgery was harder than the surgery, I think. Wow. Like getting that stuff out. My doctor basically just said, hey, when the cuts heal, you should be all right. But I got the whole pitting edema in my foot again and stuff, like where you push your thumb in it, it would just leave a hole in your foot. It was disgusting.

1:14:47It was almost like dead tissue. And so I wasn't getting much circulation, so the healing didn't happen for very long. Typically, I've broken bones many times, and four weeks the bones healed, six weeks the calcium fills back in, and your bone looks normal on an x-ray. I broke that in July. I got the x-ray done in February, and the calcium was just filling in. Wow. Because one bone shattered in like eight pieces or nine pieces. Oh, my gosh. And another one was in like four or five pieces. Yeah. So the blood flow was obviously not very good. Yeah, plus it probably shattered a lot of blood vessels.

1:15:21The doctors who did it were a little concerned. Actually, my normal surgeon, he sent me to someone else. He goes, he's like, I could probably do it, but these guys are really good at it, and I'll send you to them. So these two doctors in Burbank did it. and they said they were basically like taking tweezers and putting a little piece of bone back together and trying to like glue them back together. Yeah, yeah. And they weren't sure that my foot would, they weren't sure if the bone would sort of like heal properly.

1:15:49Gary Brecka:Yeah. And then - We all spend one third of our lives sleeping. One third, that's 25 years of your life on a mattress, breathing it in, absorbing it through your skin. The US mattress industry is the most chemical heavy in the entire world. 96 % of mattresses contain petroleum foams. 92 % use chemical flame retardants. You wouldn't eat that, so why would you sleep on it? The Ultimate Snooze is different. No petroleum, no fiberglass, no boric acid, just GOTS certified organic cotton and wool. 100 % natural Talalay latex and made in America. It's the only mattress that I back, Gary Brecca, because it meets my standards for human optimization.

1:16:30Gary Brecka:Sleep chemical free. Visit theultimatesnooze.com and use code ULTIMATE for 10 % off. Now let's get to sleep. Now let's get back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. And would you say you got back to 100 % after that? No. No? Still haven't. You're still haven't? Yeah. So then 10 months after my original injury, so this is May of the next year, 2018, I went to Fiji and I was surfing. There was a really big swell, so I went to chase big waves. No problem on the big day. The next day was kind of small. And I just did something dumb on a wave, and I heard it all over again, and I tore the plantar plate between my first and second toe.

1:17:10Just, like, ripped it. Because there was so much scar tissue. That ligament. Yeah. Wow. I tore it. And so I was on, then 10 months after my original injury, I was back on crutches.

1:17:21Gary Brecka:Oh, no. And I remember it was, like, on the island where we stayed. I was walking with crutches, and I just started crying. I'm like, I can't believe 10 months that I'm like, I think I'm worse than I was 10 months ago. Yeah. It was, that injury hurt, that hurt worse than the original injury. Oh yeah. No, that's it. It was tearing a ligament off the bone. Oh my God. It was so painful. So basically that took me till about the end of 2018. And what did they do for that? Did you go in and have it surgically repaired? I didn't know. I just kind of waited it out. Oh, dude. Yeah. It's like brutal. Yeah, it was brutal.

1:17:55Yeah. But I still get these weird phantom nerve pains through my foot. They're not weird phantom nerve pains. They're from injury. You know what I mean? Yeah. But, well, I'll get like a shooting pain, and then it doesn't stick around. Like, it doesn't keep going. But I'll get plantar fasciitis all the time because I golf, and then I'm pushing off that foot off the toe of that foot, off the ball of that foot. And then by the end of the day, if my foot's just – if I've walked a lot or whatever, I feel like my foot has shortened up so much and it feels like it's going to tear sometimes. Yeah.

1:18:30Gary Brecka:Do you see yourself when the hip injury, you know, when the hip repair heals, do you see yourself just even going back into competition for fun? Yeah. Yeah, a little bit. Or even just going back into competition. I mean, I'll probably compete. 53 isn't that long ago. Yeah, but I'll probably compete for at least another decade. Not necessarily professionally or high-level competition, but there's a lot of team events and fun events that I want to do too. But I would say as far as like tour events, I don't know, for the next two, three, four years, there's a couple events I really love that I definitely have a chance at.

1:19:14Really? That's awesome. Yeah, that suit my strengths. yeah and what is that basically like a little bit bigger waves with with barrels like hollow waves that's you know that's probably what after all this time has has uh become my my real strength

1:19:34Gary Brecka:and is there ever that one that like is it you know either you're inside the barrel of a wave or you're dropping down the face of a huge wave is there ever that one that's just like that's it oh yeah just like i'm like spiritually connected to what i do now is it when you're inside the barrel of the wave because i always think you sent me it goes like slow motion yeah on those ones yeah certain ones are like slow motion but then you will have certain ways in your lifetime in there there's a few ways i can think back in my lifetime over 30 40 years that really certain just individual waves stand out really yeah what was it that stood out about it being inside the barrel or yeah usually just some just the sheer size of it and the speed going down the face of it or no and just just how well you connect with the wave maybe how deep or how long you get in the barrel or you find just the perfect wave you've been looking for years for that one wave at that one location you know because every wave is different every there's no two waves alike there's a lot of waves that are similar on the right side that come at the right angle at the right height the right part of the reef that you're surfing at um so there are waves that look very alike but then there's no two waves alike and and it's really about how far you can push yourself to take off deep and late on the wave and still make it and match the speed of the wave right you don't always have to be going super fast in order to have a great ride you know yeah that's maybe a super fast long deep tube is the most impressive thing and most exciting thing Yeah.

1:21:11But, you know, sometimes it, you know, like I was saying earlier, sometimes going slow and pacing what the wave's asking you for is the right thing.

1:21:17Gary Brecka:Yeah. But it is probably always more exciting when you're, you know, as deep as you can possibly be on a wave and going as fast as you possibly can go. Yeah. And the thing's trying to outrace you and you keep up with it somehow. That's the most exciting. That's got to be. Especially on a big wave that's, you know, like super dangerous. Yeah. Yeah. So where does this go for you? You continue to compete? I mean, are you working on things outside of surfing? I'll just put an outburst on the competitive thing because there's just one or two events that are on the tour that I really like that if offered a wild card I would accept and still compete on that level.

1:22:00There's a couple of events that are just fun events I'd like to do with my friends or like teammates. And then, you know, besides that, like I'm a new dad again. And I have a 29-year-old daughter who lives in Lauderdale, actually. And then I have a 17-month-old son. And, you know, I look forward to him starting to surf. He's ridden seven waves in his life. Has he really? And he also ridden...

1:22:22Gary Brecka:17 months? That's awesome. Not on his own. Those are all with me. But four in the ocean and three in the wave pool. Yeah. And two in his mom's belly when he was halfway here. So he's sort of ridden like nine waves. Yeah. It's kind of funny. That's so cool, man. It's 17 months. I would have no idea where to even start counting how many waves I've ridden in my lifetime. Yeah. But he's on seven right now. Dude, he's going to outride you, brother. Yeah, he will. But hopefully. How's the Wade Pork doing? It's going really good. It is? Yeah, it's super fun. It's a super fun experience. Is it like family-oriented?

1:23:00Do you have partners in that? I'm actually not an owner. I sold my share of it. my partner and I started it in 2014, finished in 2015. 2017, we sold it. Oh, wow. But we're founders of it, so we still get rights and access to use it a few days a year and get invited up there with other groups of friends that are going. But it's become a real – it's become a destination for surfers that have been there already that want to go back over and over and over again. And, you know, the thing with wave technology is they're not cheap, and ours is the most expensive. I can't imagine it's cheap to actually make consistent waves in a pool.

1:23:41It's getting more and more cheap, but the concrete costs a certain amount. Energy costs a certain amount. Energy is not even the high cost. The concrete really is to make the pools and to build out with some of the hardware. And you guys did that on your own in 2014? Yeah. Did you burn a lot of your fortune doing that? I was worried that I was going to end up burning all the money I ever made. Yeah, yeah. That seems like a labor of love. And I definitely would have had it not done well. But, you know, people loved it and it turned into something and it's become a good business for the guys who own it.

1:24:17But, yeah, I don't own it, but it's, you know, I'm super proud of it and I still feel like it's mine, you know, like it's ours.

1:24:24Gary Brecka:Is there anything you're working on on the horizon? Is there an entrepreneur in you that's going to come out? Well, I'm building a way full in Austin. Everybody's moving to Austin. I know. What is it? Is it Joe Rogan? Like what's sucking people down there? Literally, I did a podcast in the Middle East with a modest influencer, and she was moving from the Middle East to Austin. Well, I got into golf in the mid-90s, and about five, six, seven years into playing golf, I met a guy named Mike Meldman. And Mike owned this golf course that I love to go to on the Big Island, and built a community around it.

1:25:08A few years later, I got into the idea of making wave technology. wave technology. And then I started imagining I could build, you know, in surfing what Mike's done in golf, we could build these communities around a wave pool and people wouldn't want to live there. And so we worked on it for years. That was the ultimate goal for me with this wave pool technology. And so long story short, Mike's group and my group are partners to build this wave in Austin.

1:25:39Gary Brecka:Oh, wow. And it's going to be a community? Yeah. It's a private community. private wave and uh it's about like seven minutes from the airport the good thing about it it's underway now yeah it's all right we're we broke ground january this year that's kind of a big deal dude you seem so humble about it yeah i'm just building this homes with a wave pool i i don't get too other than that i don't really anything i've learned i've learned with wave pools you don't get you don't get too invested until there's a wave running uh okay you know what I mean like don't get your hopes up too much you know like oh she kind of likes you but you haven't gone on your first date yet yeah yeah that's a lot of money and a lot of concrete that's hard to move around if the wave doesn't work yeah yeah but there used to be a wave on this property it was a wave called inland and it was a different technology and it was like a very early days technology of wavefuls and um and then the guy who owned it also built a brewery there that they never used.

1:26:36So there's a brewery on the property and there's just, they have all the permitting and water rates and all that kind of stuff. So it was kind of the perfect place for us because Central America, there's people from all over that want to fly and come surf these waves. And there are a lot of people who are going to be members that already do have some kind of, like, either a business or for some reason go to Austin. Some members that live there already that are going to be members of our club. that's cool so but yeah it is like a boom town i mean i was i was there a year or two ago and you know you get invited to these parties and it's pretty much every person you see in the media and biohacking world and podcast world and yeah blah blah no no it's it's i mean austin seems to be

1:27:22Gary Brecka:taken off and what's cool is you can get outside of austin you can actually get a lot of land and yeah you know there's a um you know i know i know a lot of folks that are actually getting like outside of Austin into the countryside, and you can actually still get decent plots of land out there. Yeah. And eventually I want to ride things out on a regenerative farm. So I'll dump all this silliness in Miami, and eventually I want to be on a regenerative farm. That's cool. Yeah, yeah. Where? Do you have something light up? I've looked at two places. I've looked at Tennessee, and I've also looked at Colorado.

1:27:56Gary Brecka:There's an 11 ,000-acre one that I really like, and there's another plot of land in Tennessee. The weather's a little bit less seasonal in Tennessee. Yeah, you got to have at least 10 ,000 acres, right? But I mean, just to have cattle, chickens, horses, and I want to really get into the regenerative, sustainable farming. I have 11 acres. Listen, I don't even have an 11th of an acre. I don't know what I have here in the 20 ,000 acres. I do. I actually have some land on the Big Island in Hawaii. Oh, do you? I got 11 acres up in the rainforest up there, like at 3 ,500-foot elevation. But next to me is 270 ,000 acres that can never be built on or anything.

1:28:36See, that's cool. It's really cool. So if you want to hike, there's like cows roaming it and stuff, you know, wild boar.

1:28:43Gary Brecka:Yeah. I mean, there's not such a thing as a wild cow, right? I think on this property, I mean, they're not. They just got out. Yeah, they just got out. But they just roam free. I mean, I think most of them are tagged and owned by somebody. but good luck finding them on 270 ,000 acres if you don't have them tagged or GPSed. So I have a group I call my VIP group, and this is like the group that I really pour myself into. These are the community that I'm really building, and I do private podcasts with them, and I do Q &As and stuff like that. So they've got a couple of questions that they want to ask you here.

1:29:21Gary Brecka:So we're going to, as we wind down the podcast, we'll go in and answer some of my VIPs' questions. When you say private podcast, what do you mean by that? So we just shut the cameras off, and I let them submit questions to the guests. So I tell these folks who's coming on the podcast. Yeah. And then so they knew you were coming, and they submit questions to you. Oh, cool. Yeah, I normally don't tell the public who's coming on the podcast. We like to surprise, not even tease it. every week, keep it really entertaining. But these guys I let know ahead of time and then they prepare questions and they get some really good questions for you.

1:29:57Gary Brecka:There's a couple of them here. If you're interested in becoming a VIP, you can go over to theultimatehuman.com forward slash VIP and just sign up to be one of my VIPs. But as you may or may not know - I'll do that. Yeah, it's 97 bucks a month. There we go. It's practically free.

1:30:15Gary Brecka:But I wind down all my podcasts by asking my guests the same question. and it's what does it mean to you to be an ultimate human it's funny because when i walked in here i mean obviously i know your show and i know it's called the ultimate human but if if you were just a random guy walking down the street and you had a shirt on that said the ultimate human people like man that narcissist yeah yeah he's narcissistic i think some people think that i'm saying i'm the ultimate human so maybe i should say i should maybe put podcast on here so people don't think I'm an asshole. One of my best friends, he owns a bunch of smoothie shops, actually has one here, Sun Life, if you know that.

1:30:51He lives in Austin. He has one there too. And he wears a shirt all the time that says cult leader. Oh, no. Yeah. It's so funny. Because he has a smoothie shop. I just don't know how many people, you know, there's some percentages of people who don't get the joke. I mean, I get it, but I think if I just saw him wearing cult leader, I probably wouldn't get it at that time. Yeah. What does it mean to be the ultimate human? I think it means finding your purpose in life and living up to your potential. Wow. In the simplest terms. And if you don't know what your purpose is, finding it. And a lot of times it's just helping other people or something simple.

1:31:32Yeah. But I find myself off purpose a lot. you know and it takes something sometimes to shake us up to get us back into like what's the right direction for us and and then you also go through phases in life where you don't know what that what that next thing is and there's there's some level of that for me right now you know getting out of pro surfing or you know like i said i got paid to go surf chase waves yeah which is great it's the best job in the world yeah but um you know what's next and where do you challenge yourself and stuff and i guess i'd like to for my own self from my own ultimate human share i love to network i love to put people together that have the right you know thing that can help someone else out like you should meet that person and do this with them you know and it could be music it could be health it could be surfing could be film yeah anything um i'm passionate about all those things highly passionate about all those things but uh i think it's um you know taking all all of your own special sauce and and putting it in the the right place to be able to uh help other people and help the world yeah i think that's great man kelly man thank you so much

1:32:47Gary Brecka:for coming on the ultimate human podcast it's a lot it's been a pleasure having you i even i think my my wife enjoyed the shark conversation more than anything yeah we didn't even have to go This dude knows more about sharks, by the way. We should do another whole podcast on sharks. It's just because the surf world is so affected by shark attacks that we study that information. Because some aspect of each one could come in handy one day. But there's certain places in the world you go with South Australia, South Africa, Northern California, the Northeast of the US on the East Coast. There's these pockets of sharks.

1:33:25You just know it. Yeah, there's been a lot of attacks and stuff. So it's really good to be informed about where you're at and what the potential is. I mean, you've lost close friends to shark attacks. Yeah, shark attacks, drownings, all sorts of things. But yeah, shark attacks are, it's just that primal fear we all have. And Jaws is probably one of the most impactful movies. That was the worst movie ever. Probably one of the most impactful movies ever. It probably was. Because, I mean, it came out when I was about six or so. I'll never forget it. And now if you went back and watched it, it seemed cheesy.

1:34:06Gary Brecka:Yeah, it'd be goofy, yeah. Because we got AI and, you know, we had Avatar. Yeah. But, yeah, I mean, the way the movie made it seem like the shark was actually hunting people. Yeah, and we didn't know. I think most people didn't know how great whites hunted or what the event would look like. You know, so that opening scene where the girl's swimming at night and she's by the buoy and then the shark's dragging her and she's above the water and she's getting dragged back and forth. It's so unrealistic to what a shark attack actually is. Right. You know, they come and bite you. Well, they probably had the hydraulic thing moving her back and forth.

1:34:41There's only so much they could do about that. And then there's the beach scene where, you know, everyone's in the water screaming and running out and you're hoping your kid's not in there still. Right. So it's just like it plays on that ultimate fear.

1:34:52Gary Brecka:Oh, they did a great job. I still remember Jaws. And I remember actually going to, I guess, Disney World or Universal Studios and seeing the actual model of that. And it was this vinyl shark. I mean, it looked pretty fake up close, but I guess when you just did flash pictures of it, it really. I don't know if this is true or not, but I heard as a kid, I heard that the story was kind of based on the shark that had attacked a couple people or they think the shark had attacked a couple. Same one. Up in Montauk or somewhere. When I was like 13 or 14, I went in this bar or restaurant or whatever in Montauk and they had caught this shark.

1:35:29And it wasn't the biggest shark in the world, but they think this one had attacked a couple people or whatever. And they had the head of it mounted in this restaurant. Oh, wow. And that was a story I was told as a kid. But between then and now, maybe my story's changed. a little bit of a neurodegenerative memory or something well listen man we're going to have

1:35:48Gary Brecka:you back on the ultimate human maybe we talk about shark attacks at some point in the future but thank you so much for coming here thanks for the podcast and until next time guys that's just