WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.799 This episode is sponsored by StationWise, the 00:00:02.799 --> 00:00:05.860 first staffing software to be truly firefighter 00:00:05.860 --> 00:00:09.240 proof. Now you may be wondering why I have software 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:11.820 as a sponsor when I focus usually on physical 00:00:11.820 --> 00:00:15.000 and mental health of the first responders, and 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:18.420 I will tell you exactly why. For the first time, 00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:21.699 this is a staffing platform that also is able 00:00:21.699 --> 00:00:25.140 to integrate wellness information through core 00:00:25.140 --> 00:00:29.120 load tracking, exposures, and wearables integration. 00:00:29.780 --> 00:00:33.140 Now, of course, StationWise focuses on staffing 00:00:33.140 --> 00:00:36.420 and allows you to manage staffing, choose vacation 00:00:36.420 --> 00:00:40.700 picks, put in rules for leave and trades, and 00:00:40.700 --> 00:00:43.600 even deploying strike teams. But through the 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:46.759 latest programming in AI automation, they have 00:00:46.759 --> 00:00:49.640 streamlined this process to free up battalion 00:00:49.640 --> 00:00:52.159 chiefs so they can focus on what they're supposed 00:00:52.159 --> 00:00:54.899 to be doing on the operational side and the fire 00:00:54.899 --> 00:00:58.009 ground. Now, StationWise is also able to monitor 00:00:58.009 --> 00:01:00.469 not only how many calls we've responded to in 00:01:00.469 --> 00:01:03.210 a shift, but the duration of the call, therefore 00:01:03.210 --> 00:01:06.530 the rest and recovery in between, thus monitoring 00:01:06.530 --> 00:01:09.129 the sleep deprivation that degrades our health 00:01:09.129 --> 00:01:12.069 and performance. It's accessible not only through 00:01:12.069 --> 00:01:15.030 the computer, but also on Apple and Android devices, 00:01:15.349 --> 00:01:17.989 meaning that you can access it not only within 00:01:17.989 --> 00:01:21.450 the station itself, but outside as well. Now, 00:01:21.469 --> 00:01:23.730 one of the most powerful features of StationWise, 00:01:23.790 --> 00:01:26.609 in my opinion, is the ability to run reports. 00:01:27.069 --> 00:01:30.590 Therefore, for example, be able to see just how 00:01:30.590 --> 00:01:33.629 much money is being used on overtime that could 00:01:33.629 --> 00:01:36.569 actually be front -loaded for proactive staffing, 00:01:36.890 --> 00:01:39.930 as well as setting alarms knowing when you are 00:01:39.930 --> 00:01:43.090 hitting overtime parameters. And another important 00:01:43.090 --> 00:01:46.129 feature is the integration of other programs 00:01:46.129 --> 00:01:49.170 and software for payroll, training, reports, 00:01:49.489 --> 00:01:52.920 etc. Now, StationWise is trusted by numerous 00:01:52.920 --> 00:01:57.459 agencies in California, Texas, and Idaho. And 00:01:57.459 --> 00:02:00.060 if you want to hear the full story from the founder, 00:02:00.120 --> 00:02:03.439 who he himself is a son of a firefighter, listen 00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:08.680 to episode 1163 with Marcus Edwards. And if you 00:02:08.680 --> 00:02:11.979 want to book a demo or learn more, go to stationwise 00:02:11.979 --> 00:02:16.069 .com. Welcome to the Behind the Shield podcast. 00:02:16.210 --> 00:02:18.069 As always, my name is James Geering and this 00:02:18.069 --> 00:02:20.030 week it is my absolute honor to welcome on the 00:02:20.030 --> 00:02:24.689 show elite off -road racer and firefighter Kellen 00:02:24.689 --> 00:02:28.349 Walsh. Now in this conversation we discuss a 00:02:28.349 --> 00:02:31.189 host of topics from his journey into the world 00:02:31.189 --> 00:02:34.610 of motorcycle racing, overcoming a near -death 00:02:34.610 --> 00:02:41.849 injury, TBIs, Area 51, the Dakar Rally, sleep 00:02:41.849 --> 00:02:45.300 and performance, ketamine, and so much more. 00:02:45.819 --> 00:02:48.199 Now, before we get to this incredible conversation, 00:02:48.439 --> 00:02:51.060 as I say every week, please just take a moment. 00:02:51.479 --> 00:02:54.580 Go to whichever app you listen to this on, subscribe 00:02:54.580 --> 00:02:58.240 to the show, leave feedback, and leave a rating. 00:02:58.860 --> 00:03:02.139 Every single five -star rating truly does elevate 00:03:02.139 --> 00:03:04.819 this podcast, therefore making it easier for 00:03:04.819 --> 00:03:08.300 others to find. And this is a free library of 00:03:08.300 --> 00:03:13.219 almost 1 ,200 episodes now. So all I ask in return 00:03:13.219 --> 00:03:16.340 is that you help share these incredible men and 00:03:16.340 --> 00:03:19.620 women's stories so I can get them to every single 00:03:19.620 --> 00:03:22.520 person on planet Earth who needs to hear them. 00:03:23.139 --> 00:03:27.560 So with that being said, I introduce to you Kellen 00:03:27.560 --> 00:03:50.319 Walsh. Enjoy. Well, Kellen, I want to start by 00:03:50.319 --> 00:03:52.500 saying two things. Firstly, thank you to our 00:03:52.500 --> 00:03:54.840 mutual friend, Dr. Jonathan Edwards, for making 00:03:54.840 --> 00:03:57.919 this connection. And secondly, he's amazing. 00:03:58.139 --> 00:04:00.120 Actually, I just saw him recently. It was fantastic. 00:04:00.580 --> 00:04:02.740 Oh, okay. And then secondly, I want to welcome 00:04:02.740 --> 00:04:04.840 you onto the Behind the Shield podcast today. 00:04:05.039 --> 00:04:07.060 Well, thanks for having me. Appreciate it. I've 00:04:07.060 --> 00:04:09.439 watched some of your shows and I enjoy what you're 00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:11.479 doing. It's pretty interesting. And I travel 00:04:11.479 --> 00:04:13.020 about two hours to work every day, so it's a 00:04:13.020 --> 00:04:15.539 good listen for me. Yeah, there's one episode 00:04:15.539 --> 00:04:20.379 each way then. All right, so very first question, 00:04:20.439 --> 00:04:22.480 where on planet Earth are we finding you today? 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:26.680 I'm at home, finally. Not very often I'm at home, 00:04:26.699 --> 00:04:29.680 but I'm in Alamo, Nevada, a little tiny town 00:04:29.680 --> 00:04:31.300 in the middle of nowhere, about two hours north 00:04:31.300 --> 00:04:34.500 of Vegas, straight north of Vegas, literally 00:04:34.500 --> 00:04:36.579 in the middle of nowhere. It's an amazing place. 00:04:37.079 --> 00:04:39.019 Beautiful. Well, very first thing, what took 00:04:39.019 --> 00:04:42.399 you there specifically? My family's been here 00:04:42.399 --> 00:04:47.480 since 1864 in this area. They've been running 00:04:47.480 --> 00:04:49.879 cattle here forever. My wife's family's from 00:04:49.879 --> 00:04:51.319 here. I think her family's been here since the 00:04:51.319 --> 00:04:54.660 early 1900s. They have a little cattle ranch 00:04:54.660 --> 00:04:56.819 here as well, and her family ran cattle here. 00:04:57.319 --> 00:04:59.939 It's in the desert. We're in Nevada, but it's 00:04:59.939 --> 00:05:02.779 a little, we have a little stream that runs through 00:05:02.779 --> 00:05:04.339 the whole valley, so it's kind of a little fertile 00:05:04.339 --> 00:05:06.779 valley. There's always been animals and plants 00:05:06.779 --> 00:05:10.399 here. It's called Paraniget Valley. It's like 00:05:10.399 --> 00:05:13.660 an Indian name for a valley of waters. But it's 00:05:13.660 --> 00:05:16.540 a little piece of heaven for us. There's fields 00:05:16.540 --> 00:05:18.379 out here you can't see. We're on 45 acres, but 00:05:18.379 --> 00:05:21.240 there's fields. There's green. So for the desert, 00:05:21.319 --> 00:05:22.740 it's a pretty nice little place. And it's a good 00:05:22.740 --> 00:05:25.779 place to raise a family and kids. Do you know 00:05:25.779 --> 00:05:28.860 what got your ancestors to go to there specifically 00:05:28.860 --> 00:05:31.240 when they had the whole place to choose from? 00:05:32.279 --> 00:05:35.540 You know what? I'm not really sure. A lot of 00:05:35.540 --> 00:05:38.860 my dad's family, which is the Walsh family, um 00:05:38.860 --> 00:05:43.000 were cattle ranchers um i know some of my other 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:45.079 family and some of my wife's family came here 00:05:45.079 --> 00:05:47.939 and kind of settled here as back in the day when 00:05:47.939 --> 00:05:50.019 the mormons had come out west and then they sent 00:05:50.019 --> 00:05:52.779 some of the families out to kind of um settle 00:05:52.779 --> 00:05:55.040 some towns and sell some areas and her family 00:05:55.040 --> 00:05:57.180 came out here and settled this area as like a 00:05:57.180 --> 00:05:59.740 mormon colony and las vegas as i don't know if 00:05:59.740 --> 00:06:02.120 you know or not was kind of settled by uh some 00:06:02.120 --> 00:06:03.600 mormons as well as they came out and settled 00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:07.160 that area so very interesting Well, you mentioned 00:06:07.160 --> 00:06:09.939 about being born and raised there. Tell me what 00:06:09.939 --> 00:06:12.160 your parents did and how many siblings you have. 00:06:13.120 --> 00:06:15.579 So I have a younger brother and a younger sister. 00:06:15.959 --> 00:06:18.720 I'm the oldest. There's not a lot to do out here 00:06:18.720 --> 00:06:21.300 for work. Most people drive to Vegas or we're 00:06:21.300 --> 00:06:23.500 pretty close to Area 51. We call it the Nevada 00:06:23.500 --> 00:06:25.579 test site. So there's quite a few people that 00:06:25.579 --> 00:06:28.040 work out there. My brother is actually a fireman 00:06:28.040 --> 00:06:30.480 out at the Nevada test and training range. So 00:06:30.480 --> 00:06:33.259 out of the test site. My dad was a fireman in 00:06:33.259 --> 00:06:37.079 Las Vegas. He was a captain for 28 years. His 00:06:37.079 --> 00:06:40.120 brother was a captain also on the Clark County 00:06:40.120 --> 00:06:42.980 Fire Department in Las Vegas. And then my grandpa, 00:06:43.180 --> 00:06:46.939 who was a cattle rancher, he got married to his, 00:06:47.019 --> 00:06:49.839 my grandma was a lamb. They're pretty famous 00:06:49.839 --> 00:06:51.879 there in Vegas. And he says, you're going to 00:06:51.879 --> 00:06:53.759 stop cattle ranching and come down and get a 00:06:53.759 --> 00:06:55.819 real job and be a fireman. So my grandpa started 00:06:55.819 --> 00:06:58.019 on the Clark County Fire Department in 1955, 00:06:58.160 --> 00:07:00.800 and he was on the fire department there for 37 00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:05.779 years. Amazing. I kind of grew up at the breakfast 00:07:05.779 --> 00:07:07.740 and dinner tables. Family's really important 00:07:07.740 --> 00:07:10.079 to us and listening to all the stories. They 00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:11.819 have another brother who's a cop in Las Vegas. 00:07:12.160 --> 00:07:15.040 So between him and then my grandpa and my dad 00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:18.319 and his brother who are firemen, we always got 00:07:18.319 --> 00:07:20.120 to hear stories and they're running calls together. 00:07:20.540 --> 00:07:24.319 I remember as a little kid, it was always, you 00:07:24.319 --> 00:07:25.620 know, they would come home and they'd just tell 00:07:25.620 --> 00:07:27.399 stories and we'd sit at the breakfast table and 00:07:27.399 --> 00:07:30.269 just listen to them. what happened that shift 00:07:30.269 --> 00:07:33.649 and that what happened the shift before and and 00:07:33.649 --> 00:07:36.490 it was pretty interesting when you look back 00:07:36.490 --> 00:07:38.889 now with this kind of veteran lens that you have 00:07:38.889 --> 00:07:43.509 what were the pros of growing up in a firefighter 00:07:43.509 --> 00:07:45.930 family and then if any what were the cons of 00:07:45.930 --> 00:07:50.149 being a child of a firefighter um i think the 00:07:50.149 --> 00:07:57.060 pros was my dad was around quite a bit um He 00:07:57.060 --> 00:08:00.160 was my high school football coach. He was able 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:02.560 to do that, you know, in between shifts. And 00:08:02.560 --> 00:08:06.040 he, I ended up racing. He wasn't a racer, but 00:08:06.040 --> 00:08:07.560 I just started liking motorcycles and started 00:08:07.560 --> 00:08:10.439 riding out to the desert in my backyard. And 00:08:10.439 --> 00:08:12.779 he was around and supported me a lot through 00:08:12.779 --> 00:08:15.579 that. Now the shifts were crazy, you know, work 00:08:15.579 --> 00:08:17.860 on Christmas and work on New Year's. New Year's 00:08:17.860 --> 00:08:19.639 is huge in Vegas, so we never saw him on New 00:08:19.639 --> 00:08:22.199 Year's or anything like that. But he was around 00:08:22.199 --> 00:08:24.769 quite a bit to help support all of us kids. uh 00:08:24.769 --> 00:08:26.629 in a lot that we did so that was definitely a 00:08:26.629 --> 00:08:32.210 plus and growing up um just hearing those stories 00:08:32.210 --> 00:08:34.669 and raising us kids you know the way that they 00:08:34.669 --> 00:08:37.490 did my grandpa still had cattle and worked on 00:08:37.490 --> 00:08:39.850 the cattle ranch as well as being a fireman up 00:08:39.850 --> 00:08:42.710 here and so it was a good life i think some of 00:08:42.710 --> 00:08:44.809 the maybe some of the negatives was my dad was 00:08:44.809 --> 00:08:47.789 gone a lot i don't remember we always did christmas 00:08:47.789 --> 00:08:50.129 it wasn't always you know we opened presents 00:08:50.129 --> 00:08:52.669 because to get to work in vegas from where we're 00:08:52.669 --> 00:08:55.120 at it's almost two hours So if he was working 00:08:55.120 --> 00:08:56.899 Christmas Day, we woke up at four in the morning 00:08:56.899 --> 00:08:58.600 to open our presents. Or if he was working New 00:08:58.600 --> 00:09:02.480 Year's and working Christmas Day, we were always 00:09:02.480 --> 00:09:04.220 kind of juggling our schedules and stuff like 00:09:04.220 --> 00:09:05.919 that. You know, we missed a lot of the holidays, 00:09:05.980 --> 00:09:08.000 but that's kind of the fireman life. So we got 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:12.659 used to it. You mentioned about your, did you 00:09:12.659 --> 00:09:16.360 say your brother works in Area 51? Yeah, he works 00:09:16.360 --> 00:09:19.480 for the NTTR, the Nevada Training and Test Range 00:09:19.480 --> 00:09:21.830 Fire Department out there. Okay, well, before 00:09:21.830 --> 00:09:24.950 I forget to ask this question, what are some 00:09:24.950 --> 00:09:28.350 of the funniest myths and what are some of the 00:09:28.350 --> 00:09:32.429 unknown realities of actually living and or working 00:09:32.429 --> 00:09:35.649 in that area? I don't know. He doesn't tell me 00:09:35.649 --> 00:09:39.649 anything. He can't say anything. We grew up out 00:09:39.649 --> 00:09:41.230 there. I mean, we're right next to that place. 00:09:41.350 --> 00:09:45.169 But I know that they're busy out there. They 00:09:45.169 --> 00:09:46.529 got a lot of stuff going on. They don't run a 00:09:46.529 --> 00:09:48.610 lot of medical calls per se. Their call volume 00:09:48.610 --> 00:09:51.110 is not huge. but i know that uh every day they're 00:09:51.110 --> 00:09:55.309 quite busy whether it's um standby for for this 00:09:55.309 --> 00:09:56.889 training or that training or if it's standby 00:09:56.889 --> 00:09:59.330 they have planes in the air or they're doing 00:09:59.330 --> 00:10:00.870 flights stuff like that they're sitting out on 00:10:00.870 --> 00:10:02.850 the runway and stuff like that so i know they're 00:10:02.850 --> 00:10:06.730 quite busy out there doing stuff what about in 00:10:06.730 --> 00:10:08.990 the town itself have there been any conversations 00:10:08.990 --> 00:10:11.690 of sightings or anything or is it people from 00:10:11.690 --> 00:10:13.809 away from that area that actually obsessed with 00:10:13.809 --> 00:10:18.450 it no it's i mean Definitely stuff going on out 00:10:18.450 --> 00:10:21.169 there. I think it's more like a lot of development 00:10:21.169 --> 00:10:22.870 of aircraft and stuff like that. I remember my 00:10:22.870 --> 00:10:26.529 dad telling stories that they saw the stealth 00:10:26.529 --> 00:10:30.090 bombers and B -1 bombers and stuff before they 00:10:30.090 --> 00:10:32.870 were even out. If you see a stealth jet and you 00:10:32.870 --> 00:10:34.850 don't know what it is, it looks pretty much like 00:10:34.850 --> 00:10:38.090 a UFO, I guess you could say. And then being 00:10:38.090 --> 00:10:40.370 a cattle rancher, there's stories of my grandpa 00:10:40.370 --> 00:10:42.850 and even my father -in -law tell stories of other 00:10:42.850 --> 00:10:45.070 cattle ranchers that would come up on their cows 00:10:45.070 --> 00:10:47.429 and they're like, torn apart with like a laser 00:10:47.429 --> 00:10:50.250 and like almost inspected with like a laser and 00:10:50.250 --> 00:10:53.090 kind of uh picked apart you always hear stories 00:10:53.090 --> 00:10:55.110 like that but i've never seen anything like that 00:10:55.110 --> 00:11:00.129 but uh um it's it's we get a lot of people to 00:11:00.129 --> 00:11:01.269 go out there and stuff like that but they're 00:11:01.269 --> 00:11:03.470 just doing stuff out there as far as technically 00:11:03.470 --> 00:11:06.230 trying to you know all the aerodynamics and stuff 00:11:06.230 --> 00:11:07.590 like that for flight and stuff like that and 00:11:07.590 --> 00:11:10.509 i've been out there with my off -road background 00:11:10.509 --> 00:11:12.250 a little bit i've had an opportunity to do some 00:11:12.250 --> 00:11:15.279 um military training trying to teach guys how 00:11:15.279 --> 00:11:17.200 to ride bikes side by sides and their off -road 00:11:17.200 --> 00:11:19.120 trucks and stuff like that so i've kind of been 00:11:19.120 --> 00:11:21.240 out there a little bit as well and stuff like 00:11:21.240 --> 00:11:27.879 that so no anal probes as of yet not yet well 00:11:27.879 --> 00:11:30.019 you mentioned again about starting this whole 00:11:30.019 --> 00:11:32.679 journey riding a bike out in your backyard in 00:11:32.679 --> 00:11:34.720 the desert so kind of walk me through that from 00:11:34.720 --> 00:11:36.620 the childhood point of view you know what what 00:11:36.620 --> 00:11:38.759 were other sports that you were playing and then 00:11:38.759 --> 00:11:40.980 what was the beginning of this obsession with 00:11:40.980 --> 00:11:44.259 the motor side So yeah, we live in this little 00:11:44.259 --> 00:11:47.759 tiny town. Sports are huge here. A lot of good 00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:50.960 kids. We play eight -man football, but the whole 00:11:50.960 --> 00:11:52.639 town comes. It's one of those stories where the 00:11:52.639 --> 00:11:54.799 whole town comes out, watches the basketball 00:11:54.799 --> 00:11:56.539 game, watches the football game. It's what the 00:11:56.539 --> 00:11:59.220 town talks about all week. And I think in the 00:11:59.220 --> 00:12:01.159 last eight years, our football team's lost like 00:12:01.159 --> 00:12:03.059 three games. I think in eight years, they've 00:12:03.059 --> 00:12:05.740 won. I can't remember. They've lost the championship 00:12:05.740 --> 00:12:07.639 maybe once or twice. They just won the championship 00:12:07.639 --> 00:12:10.179 again. My wife played all sports. My wife right 00:12:10.179 --> 00:12:12.860 now is the... volleyball high school coach, and 00:12:12.860 --> 00:12:14.320 then my daughters were playing volleyball. They 00:12:14.320 --> 00:12:16.320 just won the state championship about a month 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:19.460 ago. So sports is huge for us here in the small 00:12:19.460 --> 00:12:22.580 little town. Everyone gets out. It really is. 00:12:22.620 --> 00:12:24.659 It's almost like they kind of go back in time, 00:12:24.679 --> 00:12:26.740 but all the kids go down to the dunk ball courts 00:12:26.740 --> 00:12:29.980 and play. They play games. They call them night 00:12:29.980 --> 00:12:33.240 games. It's super safe. I mean, my kid, we're 00:12:33.240 --> 00:12:34.879 about four miles from town, and he'll ride his 00:12:34.879 --> 00:12:36.519 scooter down to the middle of town, and they'll 00:12:36.519 --> 00:12:40.419 play games and, okay, be home at 1130. or whatever, 00:12:40.580 --> 00:12:42.940 11 o 'clock, and we don't see them, and we're 00:12:42.940 --> 00:12:44.919 pretty sure they're safe down there playing. 00:12:45.159 --> 00:12:47.000 And so growing up in a little town like that's 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:50.000 pretty cool. So sports was huge. My dad, like 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:51.799 I said, my dad helped coach our high school football 00:12:51.799 --> 00:12:56.100 team. So I played football and basketball. And 00:12:56.100 --> 00:12:58.759 then I don't know why, but for some reason I 00:12:58.759 --> 00:13:01.539 just started, I have a love for motorcycles and 00:13:01.539 --> 00:13:03.759 started riding motorcycles. My dad knows nothing 00:13:03.759 --> 00:13:06.519 about them. In fact, I asked him to change oil 00:13:06.519 --> 00:13:09.340 one time before a race. because I think I was 00:13:09.340 --> 00:13:11.879 playing basketball. And he changed the oil, but 00:13:11.879 --> 00:13:14.299 he forgot to put it back in. And I went about 00:13:14.299 --> 00:13:17.539 13 miles in the race and blew that bike up. But 00:13:17.539 --> 00:13:19.399 he had to buy me a new one. That was the first 00:13:19.399 --> 00:13:21.659 new bike I got, and he had to buy it. And my 00:13:21.659 --> 00:13:23.659 parents made me buy everything. But I just loved 00:13:23.659 --> 00:13:27.019 motorcycles and just started from there. Literally, 00:13:27.120 --> 00:13:29.659 my backyard is the perfect place, hundreds and 00:13:29.659 --> 00:13:32.340 hundreds of miles of nothing but desert. And 00:13:32.340 --> 00:13:34.419 so I just started riding, started racing locally. 00:13:35.210 --> 00:13:37.070 went in kind of local championships and kind 00:13:37.070 --> 00:13:39.289 of moved up to the national stage. And it just 00:13:39.289 --> 00:13:42.070 kind of took off from there. What was it about 00:13:42.070 --> 00:13:45.649 your journey that created you, you know, being 00:13:45.649 --> 00:13:48.049 a champion in these events? You know, if you 00:13:48.049 --> 00:13:50.110 didn't have the mentorship, for example, from 00:13:50.110 --> 00:13:54.529 a parent? I think growing up in this town, we're 00:13:54.529 --> 00:13:57.669 hard workers. I mean, everyone here, you know, 00:13:57.669 --> 00:13:59.830 all the kids in the high school, they play sports, 00:13:59.970 --> 00:14:02.049 but they play like three or four different sports. 00:14:02.110 --> 00:14:05.100 Nowadays, all the kids usually just, kind of 00:14:05.100 --> 00:14:07.299 zoning on one sport and play one sport. The kids 00:14:07.299 --> 00:14:08.840 here are hard workers. They're in the summer, 00:14:08.879 --> 00:14:11.399 they're baling hay and working cows, and they're 00:14:11.399 --> 00:14:14.120 out and about. I don't think anyone's sitting 00:14:14.120 --> 00:14:17.639 at home and playing Nintendo or Xbox or anything 00:14:17.639 --> 00:14:20.259 like that. Everyone gets out and about and does 00:14:20.259 --> 00:14:22.840 stuff here. It's a very active town. So I think 00:14:22.840 --> 00:14:26.019 growing up that way was a good way. And then 00:14:26.019 --> 00:14:29.179 also my dad being a fireman, and he's mentally 00:14:29.179 --> 00:14:32.320 tough. I mean, my dad is probably... one of the 00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:34.200 hardest workers i know he'll go out there and 00:14:34.200 --> 00:14:37.559 dig a ditch still and even on the fire department 00:14:37.559 --> 00:14:39.080 they said he was one of the hardest workers you 00:14:39.080 --> 00:14:41.279 know i mean as a captain he'd be out there you 00:14:41.279 --> 00:14:43.200 know overhauling and working hard and dragging 00:14:43.200 --> 00:14:46.220 hoes and i think just having him growing up and 00:14:46.220 --> 00:14:48.460 with my family and grandpa and running cattle 00:14:48.460 --> 00:14:51.159 and and doing all that stuff just you work hard 00:14:51.159 --> 00:14:54.360 and it kind of prepares you mentally and for 00:14:54.360 --> 00:14:56.539 racing on the national stage it helped a lot 00:14:57.690 --> 00:14:59.669 What about career aspirations? What were you 00:14:59.669 --> 00:15:01.129 dreaming of becoming when you were in the high 00:15:01.129 --> 00:15:05.950 school age? I always kind of wanted to play football, 00:15:06.009 --> 00:15:07.629 and then I took after my mom, and I'm real small 00:15:07.629 --> 00:15:10.789 and skinny. And then I always wanted to race, 00:15:10.809 --> 00:15:12.269 but I wasn't really quite sure it was there. 00:15:12.370 --> 00:15:16.049 And then I think it was, I turned 16, and I actually 00:15:16.049 --> 00:15:18.470 got a factory support ride from a company brand, 00:15:18.669 --> 00:15:20.049 a motorcycle brand called Husqvarna, and they 00:15:20.049 --> 00:15:21.490 were trying to make a big push back in the U 00:15:21.490 --> 00:15:24.190 .S. And I think that year we won the championship, 00:15:24.309 --> 00:15:27.620 won a couple of races, and I think... I remember 00:15:27.620 --> 00:15:29.980 being 16, I made almost $20 ,000 that year. And 00:15:29.980 --> 00:15:31.759 I was like, for me, that was huge. I was used 00:15:31.759 --> 00:15:34.220 to having to pay for my gas, pay for tires, pay 00:15:34.220 --> 00:15:36.460 for gear, pay for everything. And I actually 00:15:36.460 --> 00:15:37.600 made a little bit of money that year. I was like, 00:15:37.679 --> 00:15:40.200 maybe we could do this. Maybe we could do this 00:15:40.200 --> 00:15:43.639 for a living. And from that point on, I tried 00:15:43.639 --> 00:15:46.700 and I pushed hard and tried to make it work for 00:15:46.700 --> 00:15:48.980 a long time. And I thought it was maybe possible. 00:15:49.039 --> 00:15:51.240 I saw some heroes of mine that were racing and 00:15:51.240 --> 00:15:53.639 making it work, like Danny Hamill and Ty Davis 00:15:53.639 --> 00:15:55.600 and a few off -road people. And they were making 00:15:55.600 --> 00:15:56.960 a living at it. And I was like, oh, it might 00:15:56.960 --> 00:15:59.960 be possible to do this. And so I worked really 00:15:59.960 --> 00:16:02.620 hard at that. I kind of always had the fire. 00:16:02.700 --> 00:16:04.120 I mean, I knew it wasn't going to last forever. 00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:06.659 It wasn't going to be a long -time deal. And 00:16:06.659 --> 00:16:08.340 so I kind of always had the fire department on 00:16:08.340 --> 00:16:12.399 the back burner, kind of plan B, I guess you 00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:15.639 could say. So walk me through that pre -fire 00:16:15.639 --> 00:16:18.860 department then. What level did you get to? Again, 00:16:18.940 --> 00:16:21.919 what served you well in competition? And then 00:16:21.919 --> 00:16:25.179 what, if any, were some of the injuries or things 00:16:25.179 --> 00:16:31.259 that made you shift away from it? Yeah. From 00:16:31.259 --> 00:16:34.259 16 years old, I started making a little bit of 00:16:34.259 --> 00:16:37.240 money. And then obviously there's a lot of injuries. 00:16:37.299 --> 00:16:39.179 I think some of my first big injuries were concussions. 00:16:40.339 --> 00:16:42.340 Hit my head a couple times, got knocked out really 00:16:42.340 --> 00:16:45.240 good. And then I was playing high school football, 00:16:45.340 --> 00:16:46.539 and I remember getting a couple concussions. 00:16:47.019 --> 00:16:48.899 And I knew I'd have a concussion if I kind of 00:16:48.899 --> 00:16:51.720 hit my head, and I got nauseated. And if I got 00:16:51.720 --> 00:16:52.980 nauseated and started throwing up, I'm like, 00:16:53.059 --> 00:16:55.700 yep, that was a good one. Back then, we didn't 00:16:55.700 --> 00:16:57.340 know a lot about concussions, you know what I 00:16:57.340 --> 00:16:59.480 mean? I mean, looking back at it now, I never 00:16:59.480 --> 00:17:01.139 would have let me play some of those football 00:17:01.139 --> 00:17:03.879 games or go back out on the race course knowing 00:17:03.879 --> 00:17:05.640 I had just hit my head the weekend before, you 00:17:05.640 --> 00:17:10.460 know? But it was different back then. But ultimately, 00:17:10.619 --> 00:17:14.480 I kind of did the race thing. Luckily, when I 00:17:14.480 --> 00:17:16.519 graduated high school, I'd had a couple of bad 00:17:16.519 --> 00:17:17.900 injuries, but I was having probably the most 00:17:17.900 --> 00:17:20.599 success I had was riding for a company, Kawasaki 00:17:20.599 --> 00:17:24.599 Motorcycles. And it was a tough decision for 00:17:24.599 --> 00:17:27.440 us being from the Mormon church, the church of 00:17:27.440 --> 00:17:28.619 Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints. We usually 00:17:28.619 --> 00:17:30.920 go on a mission when we're 19. And I had the 00:17:30.920 --> 00:17:32.240 opportunity to try to decide if I was going to 00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:34.380 go on a mission or stay home and marry my high 00:17:34.380 --> 00:17:36.519 school sweetheart or leave for two years and 00:17:36.519 --> 00:17:38.789 give up racing. And I ended up leaving for two 00:17:38.789 --> 00:17:41.309 years, which is kind of good looking back on 00:17:41.309 --> 00:17:44.529 it now, kind of give my brain a rest, even though 00:17:44.529 --> 00:17:46.269 I was having quite a bit of race success then. 00:17:46.490 --> 00:17:48.109 But I went on mission for two years and then 00:17:48.109 --> 00:17:50.089 came back and picked up the racing right where 00:17:50.089 --> 00:17:53.289 I left off. You mentioned about the head injuries 00:17:53.289 --> 00:17:55.349 and we were talking, you just literally had an 00:17:55.349 --> 00:17:57.789 incident again when you were racing yesterday. 00:17:59.019 --> 00:18:03.420 With this high incidence of TBIs in your profession, 00:18:03.579 --> 00:18:06.500 probably coupled with some other psychological 00:18:06.500 --> 00:18:09.299 stuff, because most of us that are chasing adrenaline 00:18:09.299 --> 00:18:11.880 usually are compensating for something else. 00:18:12.420 --> 00:18:15.019 What is the mental health conversation in your 00:18:15.019 --> 00:18:17.000 world when it comes to the sports side? Are you 00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:19.559 seeing a lot of addiction, suicide elements that 00:18:19.559 --> 00:18:23.960 we see in the fire service as well? Yes, especially 00:18:23.960 --> 00:18:27.560 in the off -road, what you call like the... the 00:18:27.560 --> 00:18:30.359 extreme sports athletes. Um, and they get that. 00:18:31.359 --> 00:18:34.099 I see it quite a bit, not only from the, the 00:18:34.099 --> 00:18:36.900 injury side, which is frustrating, but the, the 00:18:36.900 --> 00:18:39.279 concussion side. And then the, they're used to 00:18:39.279 --> 00:18:41.140 that adrenaline rush and they're used to that, 00:18:41.220 --> 00:18:43.259 you know, all the people being around on the 00:18:43.259 --> 00:18:44.940 social media and everything like that and that 00:18:44.940 --> 00:18:47.599 rush. And then when that kind of fades away or 00:18:47.599 --> 00:18:49.240 when they get the concussion like that, it kind 00:18:49.240 --> 00:18:52.640 of, I mean, we know it, it has a direct effect 00:18:52.640 --> 00:18:55.539 on, on, um, unfortunately there's been quite 00:18:55.539 --> 00:18:57.759 a few people that have, taken their lives and 00:18:57.759 --> 00:19:00.940 chosen the suicide route and it's tough there's 00:19:00.940 --> 00:19:02.579 a lot of people in our sport who get injured 00:19:02.579 --> 00:19:05.660 get addicted to the pain pills and it kind of 00:19:05.660 --> 00:19:07.720 goes down a very long road after it gets addicted 00:19:07.720 --> 00:19:10.940 to the pain pills and it's tough to come back 00:19:10.940 --> 00:19:13.079 and then the mental side there is it really messes 00:19:13.079 --> 00:19:15.059 them up we see it quite a bit just like on the 00:19:15.059 --> 00:19:18.279 fire department very similar type of deal and 00:19:18.279 --> 00:19:20.059 I think that that underlines it you know we see 00:19:20.059 --> 00:19:21.960 it in the seals we see it in music we see it 00:19:21.960 --> 00:19:24.890 in Hollywood you know this there's There's a 00:19:24.890 --> 00:19:27.230 lot of us that find ourselves in certain areas 00:19:27.230 --> 00:19:30.609 that are driven by early life. And in our field, 00:19:30.710 --> 00:19:34.049 wearing a uniform, a lot of times it's wanting 00:19:34.049 --> 00:19:35.990 to protect, wanting to be there on someone's 00:19:35.990 --> 00:19:38.950 worst day, wanting to fill the void with excitement. 00:19:39.990 --> 00:19:42.390 And then you have that tribal element, you have 00:19:42.390 --> 00:19:45.250 the identity. Well, these are all universal human. 00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:48.420 concepts so you can take that blueprint and apply 00:19:48.420 --> 00:19:51.559 it to other professions or other sports and it's 00:19:51.559 --> 00:19:53.839 the same exact conversation and if you watch 00:19:53.839 --> 00:19:56.259 the the documentary the weight of gold you see 00:19:56.259 --> 00:19:58.519 it in the olympians you know these these athletes 00:19:58.519 --> 00:20:00.460 have been training since they were children as 00:20:00.460 --> 00:20:03.660 you said one single sport they finally podium 00:20:03.660 --> 00:20:06.220 and then they age out and they're like well now 00:20:06.220 --> 00:20:09.299 what who am i you know who i you know what is 00:20:09.299 --> 00:20:11.819 my identity i've always been a swimmer or whatever 00:20:11.819 --> 00:20:14.730 it is And now they're having to re -find who 00:20:14.730 --> 00:20:18.710 the person was pre -fire service, pre -Olympic 00:20:18.710 --> 00:20:22.009 gymnastics, whatever the thing is. Yeah, exactly. 00:20:24.490 --> 00:20:27.210 Yesterday, we had a race last weekend where I 00:20:27.210 --> 00:20:28.730 just hit my head yesterday. We crashed last night. 00:20:28.890 --> 00:20:31.829 But it's a smaller race. It's not like the Baja 00:20:31.829 --> 00:20:33.670 1000. It's more like a loop race. So it's like 00:20:33.670 --> 00:20:36.869 a 15 -mile loop. And the owner of our team called 00:20:36.869 --> 00:20:39.289 Concrete Motorsports here has a company out of 00:20:39.289 --> 00:20:42.420 Texas called Ameritex. But he did an event for 00:20:42.420 --> 00:20:45.200 vets. They have this organization there. Then 00:20:45.200 --> 00:20:48.680 he gave the vets a ride in one lap in the trophy 00:20:48.680 --> 00:20:50.380 truck, which is mind -blowing. You probably don't 00:20:50.380 --> 00:20:52.299 know much about trophy trucks, but it's a $1 00:20:52.299 --> 00:20:54.380 .5 million truck. There's nothing like it in 00:20:54.380 --> 00:20:57.400 the world. It handles bumps and jumps at 120, 00:20:57.759 --> 00:21:00.480 130 miles an hour. It's mind -blowing. But we 00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:02.019 got to bring some of the vets out, and we gave 00:21:02.019 --> 00:21:07.299 four vets a ride each morning. And it's the same 00:21:07.299 --> 00:21:10.849 scenario with the military. the background that 00:21:10.849 --> 00:21:12.430 they've had, the trauma injury that they've had, 00:21:12.470 --> 00:21:13.890 the things that they've seen, kind of the same 00:21:13.890 --> 00:21:16.710 thing that these extreme sport athletes are seeing. 00:21:17.029 --> 00:21:18.869 And even on the fire department, the same thing. 00:21:18.890 --> 00:21:21.710 It's the same story, like you just said. And 00:21:21.710 --> 00:21:23.650 those guys were awesome. I got to talk to them. 00:21:23.730 --> 00:21:26.190 And it was kind of after I got my concussion 00:21:26.190 --> 00:21:27.410 last night, we're kind of talking about some 00:21:27.410 --> 00:21:29.250 of the same stuff. But for those guys to come 00:21:29.250 --> 00:21:30.849 out and get that adrenaline rush in that trophy 00:21:30.849 --> 00:21:32.970 truck. The guy told me, he said, I haven't had 00:21:32.970 --> 00:21:34.650 my heart rate that high since I was last deployed. 00:21:34.890 --> 00:21:36.990 He's like, that was amazing. Felt that rush again. 00:21:37.109 --> 00:21:38.569 It was just something cool that the owner of 00:21:38.569 --> 00:21:40.769 our team did this last weekend, actually yesterday 00:21:40.769 --> 00:21:43.750 and Saturday. So that was pretty cool. But going 00:21:43.750 --> 00:21:47.230 back to, honestly, some of the extreme sports 00:21:47.230 --> 00:21:49.670 guys, just like you said, they're getting done. 00:21:49.750 --> 00:21:51.089 They're like, okay, well, now what do I do? I've 00:21:51.089 --> 00:21:53.230 done nothing but ride motorcycles my entire life. 00:21:53.269 --> 00:21:56.029 I don't have any other skill sets. But I've got 00:21:56.029 --> 00:21:59.900 quite a few people. The fire department's a good 00:21:59.900 --> 00:22:01.559 answer for that. I mean, the fire department, 00:22:01.759 --> 00:22:04.660 I mean, let's be honest, it does give you that 00:22:04.660 --> 00:22:06.200 adrenaline rush, whether it's a car accident 00:22:06.200 --> 00:22:07.859 or you're trying to save someone's life or going 00:22:07.859 --> 00:22:09.819 into a big fire or something like that. It kind 00:22:09.819 --> 00:22:12.880 of fills that void, and it's a good career for 00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:14.559 a lot of those guys who are trying to transition. 00:22:15.200 --> 00:22:18.119 And it's, you know, you've got that good family 00:22:18.119 --> 00:22:19.619 atmosphere at the dinner table and stuff like 00:22:19.619 --> 00:22:22.000 that. So it's a good stepping stone, I guess 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:25.259 you could say, for a lot of athletes like that. 00:22:26.180 --> 00:22:29.059 Absolutely. Well, what made you actually transition 00:22:29.059 --> 00:22:34.440 to full -time firefighting? I had a bunch of 00:22:34.440 --> 00:22:36.259 injuries, string of injuries besides concussions. 00:22:36.500 --> 00:22:41.619 I remember I think 2004 is my first big one that 00:22:41.619 --> 00:22:43.559 really kind of caught me off guard and like made 00:22:43.559 --> 00:22:46.059 me start thinking about it. But I ended up breaking 00:22:46.059 --> 00:22:48.220 my femur and shattering my pelvis down in Mexico. 00:22:48.539 --> 00:22:50.160 We weren't even racing. We were pre -running. 00:22:50.200 --> 00:22:51.799 So you have a chance to go and look at the course 00:22:51.799 --> 00:22:53.940 and kind of make lines and figure out where you 00:22:53.940 --> 00:22:56.380 want to go on race day. I ended up crashing in 00:22:56.380 --> 00:22:58.700 the middle of nowhere in Mexico and laid there 00:22:58.700 --> 00:23:00.680 for eight hours with a broken femur and a shattered 00:23:00.680 --> 00:23:02.779 pelvis. I didn't know my pelvis was that bad 00:23:02.779 --> 00:23:04.980 at the time, but I had a line off the course. 00:23:05.720 --> 00:23:07.980 For those who are kind of familiar with Baja, 00:23:08.039 --> 00:23:09.599 you can kind of choose different lines. I was 00:23:09.599 --> 00:23:11.160 kind of off. It was going to be a little bit 00:23:11.160 --> 00:23:13.880 faster spot. I hit a rock, went over the handlebars, 00:23:13.960 --> 00:23:15.200 and the bike ended up hitting me in the back. 00:23:15.259 --> 00:23:16.880 I think that's what broke my femur and my pelvis. 00:23:17.059 --> 00:23:20.640 But, yeah, I literally couldn't crawl from where 00:23:20.640 --> 00:23:23.299 I was at. i knew my femurs broke i didn't know 00:23:23.299 --> 00:23:25.119 how bad my pelvis was but i could not physically 00:23:25.119 --> 00:23:28.140 get you know 50 yards over to where the actual 00:23:28.140 --> 00:23:30.700 course was and so i ended up laying there for 00:23:30.700 --> 00:23:32.400 three or four hours before someone found me and 00:23:32.400 --> 00:23:34.319 then at that point there was no way i was getting 00:23:34.319 --> 00:23:36.839 on a motorcycle or even like a race truck i could 00:23:36.839 --> 00:23:39.619 not physically sit in a seat uh to get out of 00:23:39.619 --> 00:23:42.420 there and so long story short after eight hours 00:23:42.420 --> 00:23:45.420 we got a pickup truck to me um strapped me in 00:23:45.420 --> 00:23:47.019 the back of the pickup truck and we'd go a little 00:23:47.019 --> 00:23:49.319 bit and i could just feel my hell of a grinding 00:23:49.319 --> 00:23:52.119 and I'd go a few throw up a little bit go a few 00:23:52.119 --> 00:23:53.519 more miles throw up a little bit because we're 00:23:53.519 --> 00:23:56.339 in a very remote hard to get to sand wash in 00:23:56.339 --> 00:23:58.279 the middle of nowhere in Mexico and they couldn't 00:23:58.279 --> 00:23:59.900 fly me out because it was storming so none of 00:23:59.900 --> 00:24:02.119 the helicopters would fly them so anyway long 00:24:02.119 --> 00:24:05.359 story short we got to a little town called San 00:24:05.359 --> 00:24:07.559 Felipe after San Felipe there was a little bit 00:24:07.559 --> 00:24:10.299 of a clinic there with the ambulance they took 00:24:10.299 --> 00:24:12.500 me up to the border to Calexico then from Calexico 00:24:13.620 --> 00:24:15.740 They flew me to Las Vegas where Dr. Jonathan 00:24:15.740 --> 00:24:17.980 helped me get surgery and all the proper care 00:24:17.980 --> 00:24:20.099 I needed. But that was the first one that kind 00:24:20.099 --> 00:24:23.059 of like took me to recover a while. And then 00:24:23.059 --> 00:24:25.819 from then on, when you're racing at 100 miles 00:24:25.819 --> 00:24:27.859 an hour on a bike, you're kind of always like, 00:24:27.940 --> 00:24:30.819 oh, I wonder if I want to crash or if I hit that 00:24:30.819 --> 00:24:33.180 rock again. So when I was young, you never think 00:24:33.180 --> 00:24:34.900 about that. You're just wide open all the time 00:24:34.900 --> 00:24:37.599 going, you know, balls on the wall. So that one 00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:39.259 got me thinking. And then after that, I had a 00:24:39.259 --> 00:24:43.910 long string of. I had a contract with KTM at 00:24:43.910 --> 00:24:45.390 that time, and I was supposed to do the Dakar 00:24:45.390 --> 00:24:48.029 Rally. And I did the Dakar Rally, which that 00:24:48.029 --> 00:24:50.210 year we started in Barcelona, Spain, went down 00:24:50.210 --> 00:24:52.470 through Spain, went across the Strait of Gibraltar, 00:24:52.630 --> 00:24:55.650 raced through Mauritania, Mali, Senegal, through 00:24:55.650 --> 00:24:57.470 the Sahara Desert, and we finished at Dakar, 00:24:57.470 --> 00:25:01.130 Africa. And I missed the last two years of that 00:25:01.130 --> 00:25:02.769 contract because of injuries. Crashed another 00:25:02.769 --> 00:25:06.130 time in Mexico, got knocked out, broke my shoulder. 00:25:06.589 --> 00:25:09.569 And then the other time I crashed really hard 00:25:09.569 --> 00:25:13.450 in... Washington State. Shattered both my ankles. 00:25:13.569 --> 00:25:15.690 Had two casts on my ankles. Couldn't walk for 00:25:15.690 --> 00:25:18.130 a while. I remember my wife leaving to work. 00:25:18.210 --> 00:25:19.410 She's like, I've got your lunch. It's at the 00:25:19.410 --> 00:25:21.529 bottom of the fridge. Crawl over to the bottom 00:25:21.529 --> 00:25:22.849 of the fridge and get your lunch and I'll be 00:25:22.849 --> 00:25:26.170 back at dinner time. And then there's a few other 00:25:26.170 --> 00:25:28.910 injuries. We were testing in Mexico with KTM 00:25:28.910 --> 00:25:31.730 and I ended up doing like a tank slap or what 00:25:31.730 --> 00:25:33.910 we call. Hit the tank and I thought I just kind 00:25:33.910 --> 00:25:39.089 of hit my testicles pretty good. This is one 00:25:39.089 --> 00:25:41.690 of those. I get home and long story short i waited 00:25:41.690 --> 00:25:43.670 a couple days and then i couldn't walk and it 00:25:43.670 --> 00:25:46.369 was the size of an apple sorry for the for the 00:25:46.369 --> 00:25:50.849 no no you're fine you're amongst friends i ended 00:25:50.849 --> 00:25:52.329 up going to the hospital there and the guy's 00:25:52.329 --> 00:25:53.630 like oh yeah you got an infection here's some 00:25:53.630 --> 00:25:55.329 antibiotics and the next day it was about the 00:25:55.329 --> 00:25:57.849 size of an orange and i was like this is the 00:25:57.849 --> 00:26:01.039 most pain i've ever been through I'm either just 00:26:01.039 --> 00:26:03.000 going to end it all or something's got to happen. 00:26:03.099 --> 00:26:05.380 I ended up going to a urologist and then he's 00:26:05.380 --> 00:26:07.359 like, oh yeah, I think you had testicular torsion. 00:26:07.440 --> 00:26:08.720 That was the first thing they should have checked 00:26:08.720 --> 00:26:11.700 for. We've got to cut that thing out right now. 00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:13.880 So that was actually before I even had any of 00:26:13.880 --> 00:26:17.799 my kids, but I lost one of those. So just a combination. 00:26:18.039 --> 00:26:20.920 It's hard. You get a little bit of salary, but 00:26:20.920 --> 00:26:22.880 you're getting paid as you go to races and stuff 00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:24.740 like that. So if you're not going to races or 00:26:24.740 --> 00:26:26.099 you're at the hospital or you're trying to get 00:26:26.099 --> 00:26:29.059 back into it, it makes it really tough to make 00:26:29.059 --> 00:26:32.180 a living. and to support a family. And so I did 00:26:32.180 --> 00:26:34.759 that for a few years. You kind of get it on the 00:26:34.759 --> 00:26:36.559 couch where you're injured. Then you finally 00:26:36.559 --> 00:26:38.539 get back up to race pace. You get back into shape, 00:26:38.619 --> 00:26:41.559 which takes almost a year. And then you get hurt 00:26:41.559 --> 00:26:43.079 again. And then you kind of start at the bottom 00:26:43.079 --> 00:26:45.960 and you do that again. And it's a mental game. 00:26:46.039 --> 00:26:47.619 It's frustrating and it's hard to make a living. 00:26:47.720 --> 00:26:50.660 And finally, I was like, they say in off -road 00:26:50.660 --> 00:26:53.680 racing with age comes the cage. And so I tried 00:26:53.680 --> 00:26:56.319 to make that transition into racing trucks and 00:26:56.319 --> 00:26:57.720 something with a roll cage and a five -point 00:26:57.720 --> 00:27:04.250 harness. If you could be the voice in everyone's 00:27:04.250 --> 00:27:08.269 ear, where would that middle ground be between 00:27:08.269 --> 00:27:13.250 chasing excellence in extreme sports and life 00:27:13.250 --> 00:27:16.650 -altering injuries and death that we see in everything 00:27:16.650 --> 00:27:22.470 from motocross to skydiving, et cetera? So tough. 00:27:22.750 --> 00:27:24.250 I'm going to tell you right now, I've had three 00:27:24.250 --> 00:27:27.190 personal friends that are really close to me 00:27:27.190 --> 00:27:31.630 that have died doing what I do. There was a KTM 00:27:31.630 --> 00:27:34.109 with me who did the Dakar rally with me. Him 00:27:34.109 --> 00:27:36.890 and I were two of the youngest kids to do the 00:27:36.890 --> 00:27:40.150 Dakar rally. And he ended up getting paralyzed 00:27:40.150 --> 00:27:42.789 a couple years after that. So he's been paralyzed 00:27:42.789 --> 00:27:45.250 for probably 15 years. Still a great friend, 00:27:45.309 --> 00:27:50.009 great guy, but life -altering change. And unfortunately, 00:27:50.130 --> 00:27:52.450 in the sport of off -road motorcycles, it seems 00:27:52.450 --> 00:27:56.450 like the dangers are there to get paralyzed quite 00:27:56.450 --> 00:27:59.180 a bit more. My teammate at... red bull and ford 00:27:59.180 --> 00:28:01.599 right now his 16 year old son just got paralyzed 00:28:01.599 --> 00:28:05.380 and uh it's tough where do you draw the line 00:28:05.380 --> 00:28:07.759 you know i still ride a little bit for fun and 00:28:07.759 --> 00:28:10.319 my boy rides a little bit um but there's that 00:28:10.319 --> 00:28:14.500 risk and it's like really should i i'm 42 years 00:28:14.500 --> 00:28:16.180 old should i be going to the motocross track 00:28:16.180 --> 00:28:19.079 and and doing this you know it's kind of always 00:28:19.079 --> 00:28:21.799 in the back of your mind but um it's it's tough 00:28:21.799 --> 00:28:24.460 like you like you said and in the the desert 00:28:24.460 --> 00:28:27.950 racing is My personal friend died in Mexico at 00:28:27.950 --> 00:28:33.509 the Baja 1000. And, you know, just a freak thing. 00:28:33.609 --> 00:28:35.890 But you just never, you know, where do you draw 00:28:35.890 --> 00:28:37.849 the line? You know, I have other firemen. There's 00:28:37.849 --> 00:28:39.609 quite a few firemen that ride motocross. And 00:28:39.609 --> 00:28:42.170 he's like, oh, dude, I just crashed and I freaking 00:28:42.170 --> 00:28:44.269 tweaked my neck. I could have just, you know, 00:28:44.289 --> 00:28:46.069 I mean, you always think about that. It's that 00:28:46.069 --> 00:28:50.089 give and take. It's still a great adrenaline 00:28:50.089 --> 00:28:53.069 rush. It's a great exercise. Nothing else clears 00:28:53.069 --> 00:28:56.500 my mind. like going on a motorcycle ride. So 00:28:56.500 --> 00:29:00.480 mentally, it's a great, great to clear my mind. 00:29:00.480 --> 00:29:03.079 I'll be angry or stressed out about stuff. My 00:29:03.079 --> 00:29:05.559 wife will be like, you need to go for a ride. 00:29:05.640 --> 00:29:07.279 I'm like, you know what? You're right, I do. 00:29:07.619 --> 00:29:11.279 So it's tough to draw that line. I had a few 00:29:11.279 --> 00:29:13.970 skydivers on the show, base jumpers. they were 00:29:13.970 --> 00:29:16.130 saying that one thing that was contributing to 00:29:16.130 --> 00:29:20.130 the deaths in their profession was people seeing 00:29:20.130 --> 00:29:22.690 some of these extreme stunts on social media 00:29:22.690 --> 00:29:26.069 without the understanding of how many thousands 00:29:26.069 --> 00:29:28.769 of jumps they had taken to get there and then 00:29:28.769 --> 00:29:30.950 shortcutting it and then ending up, you know, 00:29:30.970 --> 00:29:33.369 one of these horrendous, you know, flight suit 00:29:33.369 --> 00:29:36.410 tragedies or whatever the thing is. Is there 00:29:36.410 --> 00:29:40.269 that same element in your profession where maybe 00:29:40.269 --> 00:29:42.750 there isn't the diligence in the progression 00:29:42.750 --> 00:29:45.369 of the sport and the shortcuts are causing more 00:29:45.369 --> 00:29:49.650 unneeded deaths? Unfortunately, yeah. I mean, 00:29:49.650 --> 00:29:52.210 my little boy will sit and watch YouTube videos 00:29:52.210 --> 00:29:54.430 all day long. And he's into mountain biking right 00:29:54.430 --> 00:29:55.970 now. And he watches these mountain bikers. I'm 00:29:55.970 --> 00:29:58.250 like, bud, these guys make it look so easy. But 00:29:58.250 --> 00:30:00.109 you're not going to go do a double backflip over 00:30:00.109 --> 00:30:02.829 a jump. You know what I mean? It's tough. And 00:30:02.829 --> 00:30:04.190 they make it look so easy. But those guys are 00:30:04.190 --> 00:30:08.269 insane athletes. They work hard at it for the 00:30:08.269 --> 00:30:09.970 last 10 years. You know what I mean? What they're 00:30:09.970 --> 00:30:12.289 doing is it's actually mind -blowing what they 00:30:12.289 --> 00:30:14.329 can do. And then you got these kids who watch 00:30:14.329 --> 00:30:17.250 it. No, we can go do a backflip. It's not that 00:30:17.250 --> 00:30:19.589 easy. They just make it look easy. So, yeah, 00:30:19.710 --> 00:30:23.299 for sure, it is changing our sport. all forms 00:30:23.299 --> 00:30:25.480 of racing right now are insane like the level 00:30:25.480 --> 00:30:27.740 because people are doing it there's families 00:30:27.740 --> 00:30:29.740 that have kids since they're like three years 00:30:29.740 --> 00:30:32.019 old they're training for motocross they go to 00:30:32.019 --> 00:30:33.559 private school they've never been to a public 00:30:33.559 --> 00:30:36.700 school and all they do all week long is train 00:30:36.700 --> 00:30:39.099 and then they race every single week into their 00:30:39.099 --> 00:30:41.279 lives it's it's actually almost out of control 00:30:41.279 --> 00:30:46.279 um i almost didn't want my boy to race like that 00:30:46.279 --> 00:30:49.420 because for one i can't afford it for two it's 00:30:49.420 --> 00:30:51.220 it's it's a tough life you know i mean like we 00:30:51.220 --> 00:30:53.869 talked about it's They do that their entire lives, 00:30:53.970 --> 00:30:55.849 and they get one podium, and then they're like, 00:30:55.950 --> 00:30:59.869 now what? So my boy, he's in middle school. He 00:30:59.869 --> 00:31:01.829 plays basketball. He plays football. He plays 00:31:01.829 --> 00:31:03.710 baseball. He rides motorcycles. He just broke 00:31:03.710 --> 00:31:06.309 his arm in football this year. But I think it's 00:31:06.309 --> 00:31:08.450 good to be well -rounded and to see what he really 00:31:08.450 --> 00:31:11.809 enjoys and try all the different stuff. I think 00:31:11.809 --> 00:31:14.289 there's a danger as well, more so now than ever 00:31:14.289 --> 00:31:16.650 of living vicariously through your child. You 00:31:16.650 --> 00:31:18.450 know, there's a lot of, I've said this, a lot 00:31:18.450 --> 00:31:21.470 of Uncle Rico's out there, you know, allowing 00:31:21.470 --> 00:31:24.529 your kid to just explore all the things that 00:31:24.529 --> 00:31:26.369 are fun. And I mean, I used to ride bikes on 00:31:26.369 --> 00:31:28.609 my farm. I love, I love riding bikes, but never, 00:31:28.650 --> 00:31:32.109 never to any amount of actual skill. But, you 00:31:32.109 --> 00:31:34.029 know, if you're, if you're immersing them and 00:31:34.029 --> 00:31:36.289 then they're like, dad, this is all I want to 00:31:36.289 --> 00:31:38.089 do, then yeah, you obviously have to, you know, 00:31:38.089 --> 00:31:40.589 help them down that path. But I think there are 00:31:40.589 --> 00:31:42.920 a lot. lot of parents that are grooming their 00:31:42.920 --> 00:31:45.200 children from such a young age. You see these, 00:31:45.259 --> 00:31:47.799 you know, MMA fighters that are like seven, eight 00:31:47.799 --> 00:31:49.700 years old and you're just cringing like, you 00:31:49.700 --> 00:31:52.019 know, it's only a matter of time before they're 00:31:52.019 --> 00:31:54.119 going to have a really bad injury. And for what 00:31:54.119 --> 00:31:56.779 were they dreaming of doing this? Or is it because 00:31:56.779 --> 00:31:59.180 mom and dad thought that's what, you know, I 00:31:59.180 --> 00:32:01.220 want a world champion one day. And is that the 00:32:01.220 --> 00:32:05.319 best parenting philosophy or are we kind of getting 00:32:05.319 --> 00:32:08.420 too far away from the well -being of our child 00:32:08.420 --> 00:32:12.160 versus fame and performance? Yeah, no, exactly. 00:32:12.220 --> 00:32:14.539 We see that in motocross specifically. They call 00:32:14.539 --> 00:32:18.700 it a moto dad and a pit mom, but the dad's out 00:32:18.700 --> 00:32:20.579 there screaming at their kid at the top of their 00:32:20.579 --> 00:32:23.519 lungs at every lap as they come around. And yeah, 00:32:24.900 --> 00:32:26.920 it's almost getting out of control. Like I said, 00:32:27.039 --> 00:32:28.960 any form of racing, the level is just because 00:32:28.960 --> 00:32:31.079 people are pushing the level, the envelope so 00:32:31.079 --> 00:32:33.559 much. Even in our trophy truck racing and in 00:32:33.559 --> 00:32:36.619 the Dakar rally in the cars, it's like everyone's 00:32:36.619 --> 00:32:38.730 pushing. Like we just... We were supposed to 00:32:38.730 --> 00:32:40.430 do the show before Morocco and I left for Morocco. 00:32:40.569 --> 00:32:43.069 But the pace that we were running in Morocco 00:32:43.069 --> 00:32:46.210 this last race was insane. And it's almost uncomfortable 00:32:46.210 --> 00:32:49.069 to race at that speed. But that's what you have 00:32:49.069 --> 00:32:52.230 to do if you want to be towards the top. And 00:32:52.230 --> 00:32:54.490 our pace was off in the beginning. And we tried 00:32:54.490 --> 00:32:57.589 to find another level. And so it's just everyone's 00:32:57.589 --> 00:32:59.109 trying to push the envelope. You know what I 00:32:59.109 --> 00:33:03.170 mean? And it's a slippery slope. Going back to 00:33:03.170 --> 00:33:05.349 Mexico, you're lying there with a broken femur. 00:33:05.720 --> 00:33:07.880 a shattered pelvis. We know obviously about the 00:33:07.880 --> 00:33:09.700 blood loss when it comes to those kinds of injuries. 00:33:10.140 --> 00:33:13.640 What was your self -talk getting yourself through 00:33:13.640 --> 00:33:15.339 that when you're lying there, not knowing that 00:33:15.339 --> 00:33:16.980 you're going to be discovered for, you know, 00:33:16.980 --> 00:33:23.440 several hours. My cousin was with me and he finally 00:33:23.440 --> 00:33:25.720 found me after sitting there for two hours because 00:33:25.720 --> 00:33:27.279 we got to a meeting point and I wasn't there. 00:33:27.319 --> 00:33:28.940 So we kind of backtracked and he ended up finding 00:33:28.940 --> 00:33:31.579 me. His great plan was he just wanted to lay 00:33:31.579 --> 00:33:33.599 next to me in Mexico and cover us both up with 00:33:33.599 --> 00:33:37.559 sand and we were going to die in Mexico. That 00:33:37.559 --> 00:33:46.319 was my first big injury. I had a little bit of 00:33:46.319 --> 00:33:48.220 medical training at that point because of my 00:33:48.220 --> 00:33:50.220 dad being a fireman and everything. I didn't 00:33:50.220 --> 00:33:51.980 know they extended to what my pelvis was. My 00:33:51.980 --> 00:33:54.259 pelvis was really bad. The worst thing is in 00:33:54.259 --> 00:33:56.059 the back of your sacrum where all your nerves 00:33:56.059 --> 00:34:00.480 run through, I had a lot of nerve damage. I broke 00:34:00.480 --> 00:34:02.920 the, shattered the pelvis, and it had shifted 00:34:02.920 --> 00:34:04.900 about four or five millimeters, and it had really 00:34:04.900 --> 00:34:06.500 messed up all the nerves that run through your 00:34:06.500 --> 00:34:10.760 sacrum and everything like that. But I didn't 00:34:10.760 --> 00:34:12.139 really know what to do. I don't know how I got 00:34:12.139 --> 00:34:13.199 through that one, to be honest with you, because 00:34:13.199 --> 00:34:15.900 it was eight hours there, three hours to get 00:34:15.900 --> 00:34:17.500 back to the town of San Felipe in the back of 00:34:17.500 --> 00:34:19.039 a pickup truck, and I could just feel the bones 00:34:19.039 --> 00:34:20.980 grinding, and I just remember throwing up and 00:34:20.980 --> 00:34:23.039 throwing up. And then I remember getting in that 00:34:23.039 --> 00:34:24.880 Mexican ambulance in San Felipe, and they had 00:34:24.880 --> 00:34:27.480 taken me to the border. And that guy was driving 00:34:27.480 --> 00:34:29.820 so horrible. And I thought I was going to die 00:34:29.820 --> 00:34:31.719 in the ambulance. I was like, get me out of here. 00:34:31.760 --> 00:34:34.000 I'd rather just drive in the back of a truck. 00:34:34.139 --> 00:34:37.780 But then finally, when I got to Calexico, I think 00:34:37.780 --> 00:34:39.059 they drug me up pretty good when I got in the 00:34:39.059 --> 00:34:43.119 plane. But I think I've relied on that situation 00:34:43.119 --> 00:34:47.280 a lot in my life. And it's gotten me through 00:34:47.280 --> 00:34:50.280 a lot of different scenarios and situations. 00:34:51.860 --> 00:34:54.239 I think that situation's even helped me on the 00:34:54.239 --> 00:34:57.570 fire department quite a bit. i guess what they 00:34:57.570 --> 00:34:58.969 say what doesn't hurt you makes you stronger 00:34:58.969 --> 00:35:02.030 so yeah in theory what doesn't kill you it doesn't 00:35:02.030 --> 00:35:04.409 make you stronger that didn't kill me so i definitely 00:35:04.409 --> 00:35:07.670 got stronger from that one so i want to hit kind 00:35:07.670 --> 00:35:10.289 of the the mental and the physical let's start 00:35:10.289 --> 00:35:12.409 with physical first you've had obviously that 00:35:12.409 --> 00:35:14.570 was your sounds like your most major injury but 00:35:14.570 --> 00:35:16.809 you've had other ones as well what are some of 00:35:16.809 --> 00:35:20.980 the elements of rehab uh physical therapy that 00:35:20.980 --> 00:35:23.360 you found have worked to allow you to get back 00:35:23.360 --> 00:35:26.219 to a performing at a high level at your sport 00:35:26.219 --> 00:35:30.000 and then ultimately even the fire service i think 00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:31.300 the biggest thing and i tell people a lot of 00:35:31.300 --> 00:35:33.420 people this is patience i mean things you just 00:35:33.420 --> 00:35:36.500 got to be patient i remember getting hurt being 00:35:36.500 --> 00:35:39.539 impatient being like okay talking to dr edwards 00:35:39.539 --> 00:35:41.500 all right doc because he was our that's how i 00:35:41.500 --> 00:35:43.800 met jonathan was he was our red bull ktm doctor 00:35:43.800 --> 00:35:45.960 and he went to dakar with us and did a lot of 00:35:45.960 --> 00:35:48.800 the races I'd be sitting on the couch being bored, 00:35:48.840 --> 00:35:50.860 like, okay, John, what can I do? Can I do this 00:35:50.860 --> 00:35:52.760 even faster? Can I do this to get back faster? 00:35:53.000 --> 00:35:55.639 Can I start doing this? You just got to be patient. 00:35:57.340 --> 00:35:59.940 Shoot, even four or five years ago, I crashed. 00:36:00.059 --> 00:36:01.599 We were at a race with my boy, just having fun, 00:36:01.699 --> 00:36:05.079 and I shattered all my ribs, punctured my lung, 00:36:05.139 --> 00:36:07.800 had a hemothorax, nemothorax, shattered my scapula, 00:36:07.820 --> 00:36:09.400 which my other scapula was already plated, so 00:36:09.400 --> 00:36:10.860 I didn't let him plate the scapula this time. 00:36:11.559 --> 00:36:14.420 But at that point, you just don't heal like you 00:36:14.420 --> 00:36:15.920 used to, and you got to be patient. You know 00:36:15.920 --> 00:36:19.659 what I mean? Gosh dang, I just tell everyone, 00:36:19.699 --> 00:36:21.780 I see all the kids getting hurt. It's like, you 00:36:21.780 --> 00:36:23.840 just got to be patient. Take your time. There's 00:36:23.840 --> 00:36:27.139 absolutely no reason to hurry over an injury. 00:36:27.320 --> 00:36:29.500 You know what I mean? Heal it right. Do the proper 00:36:29.500 --> 00:36:33.019 rehab and stuff like that. And honestly, those 00:36:33.019 --> 00:36:35.099 injuries, a lot of them are mental. Yeah, it's 00:36:35.099 --> 00:36:37.519 the physical aspect, but mentally, it wears on 00:36:37.519 --> 00:36:41.889 you. I can't remember who it was now, one of 00:36:41.889 --> 00:36:45.250 the PTs or injury specialists I had on the show, 00:36:45.329 --> 00:36:47.849 they were talking about when your injury feels 00:36:47.849 --> 00:36:50.610 like it's healed, it's usually at about 80%. 00:36:51.279 --> 00:36:53.099 And I thought that was really important to remember 00:36:53.099 --> 00:36:56.639 because there's this kind of fallacy in the fire 00:36:56.639 --> 00:36:58.760 service that it's a badge of honor to get back 00:36:58.760 --> 00:37:01.119 from an injury as quickly as possible. Like everyone's 00:37:01.119 --> 00:37:03.219 just waiting for you to come back to the engine. 00:37:03.300 --> 00:37:04.860 And then when you do, they're all going to applaud 00:37:04.860 --> 00:37:07.900 and give you medals. No one gives a shit. You 00:37:07.900 --> 00:37:09.599 know, you come back when you're supposed to come 00:37:09.599 --> 00:37:11.800 back. But understanding that, yeah, you know, 00:37:11.800 --> 00:37:14.400 what you might be expected to do, obviously your 00:37:14.400 --> 00:37:16.380 city, you might get there for a shift. You have 00:37:16.380 --> 00:37:18.179 this mass shooting and now you're dragging people 00:37:18.179 --> 00:37:22.929 around. If you're trying to rush rehabilitation, 00:37:23.590 --> 00:37:25.650 your chances of re -injury are going to be a 00:37:25.650 --> 00:37:27.610 lot higher than if, just like you said, you're 00:37:27.610 --> 00:37:30.590 patient, you make sure that not only the pain 00:37:30.590 --> 00:37:33.730 is gone, but you've actually forged the strength 00:37:33.730 --> 00:37:36.989 and the mobility that you need to be as close 00:37:36.989 --> 00:37:39.389 to 100 % as possible. That is a time to then 00:37:39.389 --> 00:37:42.989 get back on the rig. Yeah. I think I look back 00:37:42.989 --> 00:37:44.469 at every single one of my injuries and say I 00:37:44.469 --> 00:37:47.989 came back too soon. And it's tough. It's a mental 00:37:47.989 --> 00:37:49.510 struggle when you're sitting on the couch or 00:37:49.510 --> 00:37:51.769 when you're just doing physical therapy every 00:37:51.769 --> 00:37:54.969 day and then trying to come back. Your mind starts, 00:37:55.190 --> 00:37:56.909 you know, just the wheels start spinning, but 00:37:56.909 --> 00:37:59.849 you just got to be patient. It's a tough situation. 00:38:00.289 --> 00:38:03.369 Like you said, that's a good perspective of, 00:38:03.409 --> 00:38:05.170 you know, when you think you're ready, you're 00:38:05.170 --> 00:38:07.750 about 80 % ready, honestly. And that's a good 00:38:07.750 --> 00:38:09.750 way to put it and just be patient. Easier said 00:38:09.750 --> 00:38:12.710 than done, of course. Absolutely. Well, from 00:38:12.710 --> 00:38:15.130 the mental point of view as well, there's that. 00:38:16.050 --> 00:38:18.230 I think it's a dangerous place mentally for a 00:38:18.230 --> 00:38:20.289 lot of us because you are taken from all the 00:38:20.289 --> 00:38:22.070 things that you love, your tribe, your identity, 00:38:22.210 --> 00:38:25.469 your purpose. I had the same thing with minor 00:38:25.469 --> 00:38:28.590 meniscus tears, nothing compared to the stuff 00:38:28.590 --> 00:38:30.469 you just told us about. And then I fucked up 00:38:30.469 --> 00:38:32.750 my back pretty good lifting a patient about 10 00:38:32.750 --> 00:38:37.980 years ago. So that mental element is tough. especially 00:38:37.980 --> 00:38:41.280 when you are going back into a sport that was 00:38:41.280 --> 00:38:45.039 the cause of the injuries how do you get past 00:38:45.039 --> 00:38:48.860 the mental hesitation the fear that you you know 00:38:48.860 --> 00:38:51.840 is is a self -preservation mechanism within the 00:38:51.840 --> 00:38:55.539 human body to not have that hesitation the next 00:38:55.539 --> 00:38:57.440 time that you're racing the next time that you're 00:38:57.440 --> 00:39:01.960 on a bike And that's tough. Like I said, that, 00:39:02.019 --> 00:39:04.239 I can go back to that femur injury in Mexico. 00:39:04.659 --> 00:39:07.420 And from then on, anytime I was going 100 miles 00:39:07.420 --> 00:39:09.579 an hour plus, it was kind of always in the back 00:39:09.579 --> 00:39:11.579 of my head. And you hit a rock and you almost 00:39:11.579 --> 00:39:13.460 crashed. And you're like, oh, my gosh, I almost 00:39:13.460 --> 00:39:15.320 crashed. I could have just broke my other femur 00:39:15.320 --> 00:39:16.840 or something. It's always in your head. I think 00:39:16.840 --> 00:39:18.860 the same thing. It's when you're lifting a patient 00:39:18.860 --> 00:39:20.800 or anything at work and you've hurt your back 00:39:20.800 --> 00:39:22.880 before that, and you go like, oh, this is how 00:39:22.880 --> 00:39:24.340 I hurt my back the last time, you know, doing 00:39:24.340 --> 00:39:25.900 this exact same thing, lifting this patient. 00:39:26.570 --> 00:39:28.530 For me, the biggest thing was physical therapy 00:39:28.530 --> 00:39:31.829 and trying to get stronger. I think mentally, 00:39:31.949 --> 00:39:35.469 I think we can all agree, physical therapy and 00:39:35.469 --> 00:39:39.369 working out is such a great, man, it just gets 00:39:39.369 --> 00:39:41.449 your mind in the right place. You know, if you're 00:39:41.449 --> 00:39:43.829 down or whatever for that day and you go work 00:39:43.829 --> 00:39:45.989 out and do something strenuous and physical, 00:39:46.210 --> 00:39:50.250 it just releases those chemicals in your mind 00:39:50.250 --> 00:39:51.929 that get you kind of back in place for me. So 00:39:51.929 --> 00:39:55.769 for me, working out, even now, is just a huge, 00:39:56.230 --> 00:39:58.949 Help for me is just going to the gym. Cool thing 00:39:58.949 --> 00:40:00.889 with Red Bull, Red Bull is one of my personal 00:40:00.889 --> 00:40:04.030 sponsors and they're a great company. They really 00:40:04.030 --> 00:40:06.309 do truly care about their people and they spend 00:40:06.309 --> 00:40:09.190 a lot of money and investment into their athletes 00:40:09.190 --> 00:40:11.809 to get them mentally strong and physically strong. 00:40:12.710 --> 00:40:15.210 And so the last time I got a concussion really 00:40:15.210 --> 00:40:18.289 good was probably September. And Red Bull has 00:40:18.289 --> 00:40:20.150 a, it's called the APC, it's Athlete Performance 00:40:20.150 --> 00:40:22.150 Center. There's a few of them throughout the 00:40:22.150 --> 00:40:24.619 world. One's in Santa Monica, California. They 00:40:24.619 --> 00:40:28.340 would go to the APC and they'll run a bunch of 00:40:28.340 --> 00:40:30.719 blood tests. They do a bunch of blood work. They 00:40:30.719 --> 00:40:32.619 have a mental coach. They have a physical coach. 00:40:32.679 --> 00:40:35.380 They run a bunch of streamlined tests. UCLA is 00:40:35.380 --> 00:40:37.199 right next to them. So I ended up, because of 00:40:37.199 --> 00:40:40.480 all my concussions and my brain injuries, I ended 00:40:40.480 --> 00:40:42.380 up getting with some doctors at UCLA and going 00:40:42.380 --> 00:40:45.019 through your baseline. And UCLA is one of the 00:40:45.019 --> 00:40:50.139 top leading hospitals and research into TBIs 00:40:50.139 --> 00:40:53.590 and concussions and leading sports. when you 00:40:53.590 --> 00:40:55.289 can come back and what not to do and what to 00:40:55.289 --> 00:40:57.530 do. And that's kind of evolving. The whole TBI 00:40:57.530 --> 00:41:00.449 thing, brain concussion thing is fairly new and 00:41:00.449 --> 00:41:03.630 it's changing almost yearly. But to be able to 00:41:03.630 --> 00:41:06.349 go to the APC and meet with the doctors at UCLA 00:41:06.349 --> 00:41:09.489 who are up on the latest and the best recovery 00:41:09.489 --> 00:41:12.630 and things to do for your brain, I'm pretty lucky 00:41:12.630 --> 00:41:14.289 to be able to do that. And that helped out quite 00:41:14.289 --> 00:41:17.769 a bit. Have that at my exposures is pretty dang 00:41:17.769 --> 00:41:22.150 nice. Absolutely. You talked about transitioning 00:41:22.150 --> 00:41:24.289 to the fire department. We've talked about all 00:41:24.289 --> 00:41:27.210 the injuries you had prior. Was that something 00:41:27.210 --> 00:41:29.730 that you had to declare at the front door as 00:41:29.730 --> 00:41:34.469 far as the previous injuries? I don't think I 00:41:34.469 --> 00:41:38.190 did. I think when I entered the academy, I was 00:41:38.190 --> 00:41:40.989 in pretty good shape as far as like, yeah, I 00:41:40.989 --> 00:41:42.730 still have a rod in my femur. I have a bunch 00:41:42.730 --> 00:41:46.550 of metal in my scapula, my shoulders. and my 00:41:46.550 --> 00:41:48.710 my ribs are all plated on one side because i 00:41:48.710 --> 00:41:51.989 shattered my ribs and couldn't breathe but um 00:41:51.989 --> 00:41:54.769 i think when i went into the academy i was in 00:41:54.769 --> 00:41:56.489 pretty dang good shape like i said working out's 00:41:56.489 --> 00:42:00.010 a good nothing crazy but just working out for 00:42:00.010 --> 00:42:04.289 me is a good mental you know rehab for me and 00:42:04.289 --> 00:42:06.710 uh i think physically i was pretty good when 00:42:06.710 --> 00:42:09.280 i went to the academy um and i knew what it was 00:42:09.280 --> 00:42:10.760 going to kind of take you know with my family 00:42:10.760 --> 00:42:12.519 and the fire service and what i needed to do 00:42:12.519 --> 00:42:15.199 so i don't think it was really the biggest thing 00:42:15.199 --> 00:42:17.380 for me is my ankles were so bad like we jog every 00:42:17.380 --> 00:42:19.820 day in the academy and we'd stand all day long 00:42:19.820 --> 00:42:22.539 in the academy and gosh dang my all right i did 00:42:22.539 --> 00:42:24.300 have to get my ankles injected throughout the 00:42:24.300 --> 00:42:26.960 academy quite a bit just to help me get through 00:42:26.960 --> 00:42:29.940 that part but and i entered the academy i waited 00:42:29.940 --> 00:42:32.059 till i was a little bit older um i did the racing 00:42:32.059 --> 00:42:34.059 thing for a while so i didn't go into the academy 00:42:34.059 --> 00:42:38.340 i got hired at Clark County when I was 28 years 00:42:38.340 --> 00:42:41.099 old. I think I turned 29 after my probationary 00:42:41.099 --> 00:42:44.300 year. And the academy, I think Clark County is 00:42:44.300 --> 00:42:47.019 known as a pretty tough academy as far as physically 00:42:47.019 --> 00:42:50.579 demanding. We went into the academy, started 00:42:50.579 --> 00:42:52.760 July 11th, which you know how hot it gets in 00:42:52.760 --> 00:42:55.320 Vegas, especially in turnouts. And we run every 00:42:55.320 --> 00:42:57.139 day in turnouts, train every day in turnouts. 00:42:57.139 --> 00:42:59.659 And you're in July. I think we had, I can't remember 00:42:59.659 --> 00:43:02.119 what it was, almost 60 days of heat was over 00:43:02.119 --> 00:43:05.989 100 degrees during our academy. And honestly, 00:43:06.090 --> 00:43:08.630 all that racing stuff and all those injuries, 00:43:08.750 --> 00:43:11.110 I think helped prepare me for the Academy. And 00:43:11.110 --> 00:43:14.030 even now, I can go twofold. The Academy and the 00:43:14.030 --> 00:43:16.489 things that we learned there and staying calm 00:43:16.489 --> 00:43:18.349 in stressful situations, stuff like that, it 00:43:18.349 --> 00:43:20.449 helps me today in the racing. It kind of goes 00:43:20.449 --> 00:43:23.010 back and forth. It's kind of weird to say it, 00:43:23.070 --> 00:43:26.250 but both career paths kind of help each other 00:43:26.250 --> 00:43:27.969 out and strengthen each other, and I get whole 00:43:27.969 --> 00:43:29.530 strengths from each one. It's actually pretty 00:43:29.530 --> 00:43:33.650 cool. With the heat and the academy, I can relate 00:43:33.650 --> 00:43:35.989 completely because my first, I did Fire Academy 00:43:35.989 --> 00:43:38.610 Orlando, a little bit less temperate. I think 00:43:38.610 --> 00:43:40.909 it spanned even the winter, so not too bad. But 00:43:40.909 --> 00:43:42.989 then I got hired in Hialeah, which is Miami, 00:43:43.230 --> 00:43:46.329 over the summer. Then went to Anaheim, California, 00:43:46.650 --> 00:43:50.110 did an academy over the summer. And then I think 00:43:50.110 --> 00:43:52.610 Orange County again was Orlando area over the 00:43:52.610 --> 00:43:55.110 summer. But those two, Anaheim and Hialeah in 00:43:55.110 --> 00:43:57.710 full turnout years. You know, with whatever it 00:43:57.710 --> 00:43:59.590 is, a million percent humidity. I mean, it's 00:43:59.590 --> 00:44:02.349 just awful. So I can totally relate to that. 00:44:03.070 --> 00:44:05.250 I can't believe you did more than one academy. 00:44:05.329 --> 00:44:08.050 I get anxiety if I want to talk about doing another 00:44:08.050 --> 00:44:11.409 academy. So you did a couple of them, but that 00:44:11.409 --> 00:44:13.710 was tough. Our academy was tough, but it was 00:44:13.710 --> 00:44:16.010 good. You know what I mean? We're just going 00:44:16.010 --> 00:44:17.369 back. I meant to say this when you were talking 00:44:17.369 --> 00:44:19.309 about the rehab. This is an important thing as 00:44:19.309 --> 00:44:20.809 well. And I guess it's layered now because you 00:44:20.809 --> 00:44:23.389 said how ready you were at the front door for 00:44:23.389 --> 00:44:28.610 Clark County. When you get hurt in a lot of places 00:44:28.610 --> 00:44:32.030 in fire departments, unless you have a kind of 00:44:32.030 --> 00:44:36.309 sports medicine background facility that you 00:44:36.309 --> 00:44:38.130 send your firefighters to, a lot of them you'll 00:44:38.130 --> 00:44:40.050 go to a regular workman's comp facility like 00:44:40.050 --> 00:44:43.010 here. I was basically the only person that was 00:44:43.010 --> 00:44:46.010 under about 70 in the rehab place that I was 00:44:46.010 --> 00:44:48.929 at. A lot of elderly people with post -hip surgeries 00:44:48.929 --> 00:44:51.670 and that kind of thing. And so they're just not 00:44:51.670 --> 00:44:54.719 used to it. rehabbing you to that high level. 00:44:54.920 --> 00:44:58.360 And going to your point, when I did get hurt 00:44:58.360 --> 00:45:01.280 from my back, my goal was, you know, there was 00:45:01.280 --> 00:45:02.860 an imbalance. That's what made me get hurt in 00:45:02.860 --> 00:45:04.500 the first place. So addressing that, but then 00:45:04.500 --> 00:45:07.099 addressing the strength and by doing, you know, 00:45:07.139 --> 00:45:09.960 deadlifts and some of these other movements beyond 00:45:09.960 --> 00:45:13.420 where I was before. that then gave me the confidence 00:45:13.420 --> 00:45:15.860 like okay when i lift that patient i don't have 00:45:15.860 --> 00:45:18.099 to be worried because i can pull whatever it 00:45:18.099 --> 00:45:20.360 is or i can pick the sandbag up which is you 00:45:20.360 --> 00:45:23.320 know even worse than the patient so patient to 00:45:23.320 --> 00:45:25.679 your point the the gym i think is a really important 00:45:25.679 --> 00:45:29.000 place for you to to to create that confidence 00:45:29.000 --> 00:45:31.480 again in your body knowing that you're not gonna 00:45:31.480 --> 00:45:33.699 fall apart the next time you ask you to do something 00:45:33.699 --> 00:45:37.739 yeah no exactly that was my point if you know 00:45:37.739 --> 00:45:40.280 that you can lift more you do more hey i just 00:45:40.280 --> 00:45:42.139 did more yesterday at the gym or we just did 00:45:42.139 --> 00:45:43.900 a skills course and i did way more than that 00:45:43.900 --> 00:45:46.099 mentally it puts you in the right place and then 00:45:46.099 --> 00:45:49.159 you're not trying to compensate somewhere else 00:45:49.159 --> 00:45:50.579 you know what i mean or lift something else and 00:45:50.579 --> 00:45:52.219 get hurt again you're not going to re -injure 00:45:52.219 --> 00:45:55.840 that so yeah exactly absolutely well you mentioned 00:45:55.840 --> 00:45:58.000 about coming from this you know smaller town 00:45:58.000 --> 00:46:01.500 were there any aha moments when you yourself 00:46:01.500 --> 00:46:04.239 are now the one from the family in the uniform 00:46:04.239 --> 00:46:07.219 seeing you know the vegas area behind the curtain 00:46:07.219 --> 00:46:11.019 um yeah so our little town here we have a volunteer 00:46:11.019 --> 00:46:13.579 fire department and you know when i turned 18 00:46:13.579 --> 00:46:17.340 i signed up for it um and i got to run a bunch 00:46:17.340 --> 00:46:19.119 of calls out here we live on a two -lane highway 00:46:19.119 --> 00:46:22.440 and i got to see some gnarly gnarly traffic that's 00:46:22.440 --> 00:46:25.940 right when i was 18 multiple fatalities cars 00:46:25.940 --> 00:46:29.000 crashes head -ons with semi -trucks um and that 00:46:29.000 --> 00:46:33.239 kind of you know got me into it and i'm like 00:46:33.239 --> 00:46:35.579 actually i really do want to do this i enjoy 00:46:35.579 --> 00:46:37.920 helping these people out here i remember one 00:46:37.920 --> 00:46:40.179 call specifically out here we had a head -on 00:46:40.179 --> 00:46:43.420 on this highway and um the lady was in the back 00:46:43.420 --> 00:46:45.820 seat and her brother and her husband were in 00:46:45.820 --> 00:46:48.880 the front and they both were killed and and this 00:46:48.880 --> 00:46:51.760 i'm 18 i think just a volunteer out here helping 00:46:51.760 --> 00:46:54.219 i'm with her because she's probably likely she 00:46:54.219 --> 00:46:57.139 was probably the least uh had the least amount 00:46:57.139 --> 00:47:00.050 of injury And I'm sitting and talking with her 00:47:00.050 --> 00:47:01.429 and all she did is sit there and thank us. Thanks 00:47:01.429 --> 00:47:02.849 for coming out. Thanks for helping. I'm like, 00:47:02.889 --> 00:47:05.630 you just lost your brother and your husband and 00:47:05.630 --> 00:47:07.289 you're sitting here thanking me for helping you. 00:47:08.250 --> 00:47:09.889 That's really what got me into the fire service. 00:47:09.949 --> 00:47:12.829 But I'm wanting to do this and help out like 00:47:12.829 --> 00:47:15.010 that. And that was at 18. And that's why I was 00:47:15.010 --> 00:47:17.050 like, I know I'm going to do this when I'm done 00:47:17.050 --> 00:47:20.349 racing. This is what I want to do. But being 00:47:20.349 --> 00:47:22.929 from our little town here, it's going down into 00:47:22.929 --> 00:47:25.969 Vegas. I mean, we see. We cover the Strip, and 00:47:25.969 --> 00:47:28.650 I was on the Strip as a rookie for a couple years, 00:47:28.849 --> 00:47:31.769 and then when I promoted to be an engineer, we 00:47:31.769 --> 00:47:33.489 have a fire station right at the bottom of the 00:47:33.489 --> 00:47:35.789 Aria Casino, and we're right there on the Strip, 00:47:35.789 --> 00:47:39.150 and it's a rough station. You don't want to stay 00:47:39.150 --> 00:47:40.590 there too long because you're not getting any 00:47:40.590 --> 00:47:43.409 rest, and it's actually quite miserable in the 00:47:43.409 --> 00:47:45.530 summertime there. You're up all night running 00:47:45.530 --> 00:47:49.530 on not the most favorite calls, actually stupid 00:47:49.530 --> 00:47:53.739 calls, a lot of drunk people. Yeah, I mean, we 00:47:53.739 --> 00:47:56.719 see some, Vegas is pretty gnarly. I don't think 00:47:56.719 --> 00:47:59.179 my family, we kind of, I kind of tell my wife, 00:47:59.219 --> 00:48:01.280 she's kind of out here in the middle of nowhere 00:48:01.280 --> 00:48:02.840 and she doesn't really have a clue what's going 00:48:02.840 --> 00:48:04.380 on in Vegas, which is a good thing, you know 00:48:04.380 --> 00:48:06.059 what I mean? But there's definitely some, Vegas 00:48:06.059 --> 00:48:09.400 is a crazy place and Vegas is busy. I mean, every 00:48:09.400 --> 00:48:11.139 weekend, there's millions of people come to Vegas, 00:48:11.260 --> 00:48:13.599 whether it's Formula One, we just had the NFR 00:48:13.599 --> 00:48:16.840 rodeo there. Well, it's a Raiders game. Now they 00:48:16.840 --> 00:48:19.039 got a hockey team. They're building the A stadium. 00:48:19.619 --> 00:48:21.659 I mean, Vegas is popping off right now. It's 00:48:21.659 --> 00:48:24.940 crazy. You mentioned the wrecks that you had 00:48:24.940 --> 00:48:27.960 near your town. What were the backstories between 00:48:27.960 --> 00:48:30.519 the head -on collisions? Were they impatient 00:48:30.519 --> 00:48:33.059 drivers trying to pass or what were you seeing 00:48:33.059 --> 00:48:38.039 over and over again? There's a lot of impatient 00:48:38.039 --> 00:48:39.920 drivers. There's a lot of sleepy drivers out 00:48:39.920 --> 00:48:41.380 here. I don't know if you've been out in the 00:48:41.380 --> 00:48:44.400 West Coast much, but from my house to Las Vegas. 00:48:45.050 --> 00:48:47.210 it's 74 miles and there's probably four turns 00:48:47.210 --> 00:48:49.550 in the road it's nothing but dead straight and 00:48:49.550 --> 00:48:51.889 it goes for miles like at one point i can see 00:48:51.889 --> 00:48:53.989 the road 50 miles down and this is dead straight 00:48:53.989 --> 00:48:58.610 going to the desert um and honestly we had talked 00:48:58.610 --> 00:49:00.210 about being my small town a lot of people go 00:49:00.210 --> 00:49:01.949 to vegas for work and there's construction guys 00:49:01.949 --> 00:49:03.590 who leave here at two in the morning in the summer 00:49:03.590 --> 00:49:07.289 work in vegas and come back um this is kind of 00:49:07.289 --> 00:49:09.989 a story that's kind of close to my heart but 00:49:09.989 --> 00:49:13.090 uh We had a good guy here in our little town 00:49:13.090 --> 00:49:15.090 that was a fireman. He worked with my dad. Every 00:49:15.090 --> 00:49:17.130 once in a while, they'd carpool as firemen here, 00:49:17.210 --> 00:49:19.070 but he was taking the engineer's academy, so 00:49:19.070 --> 00:49:21.429 he had to stay after. He didn't carpool. And 00:49:21.429 --> 00:49:26.590 I think he'd had a rough night at work, and he 00:49:26.590 --> 00:49:28.130 went to the engineer's academy in the morning 00:49:28.130 --> 00:49:30.030 when he got off work, and then he grabbed a couple 00:49:30.030 --> 00:49:33.389 groceries for his wife and was on the way home. 00:49:33.590 --> 00:49:35.730 Not sure what happened, but he went head -on 00:49:35.730 --> 00:49:40.289 with a semi -truck, and he didn't make it. They 00:49:40.289 --> 00:49:43.849 lived literally two doors down from us in this 00:49:43.849 --> 00:49:46.650 little town. My wife was best friends with his 00:49:46.650 --> 00:49:48.090 wife. I obviously knew him because he was on 00:49:48.090 --> 00:49:51.849 the fire department. He had three kids. And yeah, 00:49:51.909 --> 00:49:56.550 it was a tough situation. But it's sleeping. 00:49:57.010 --> 00:49:59.550 I think a lot of it's sleepy drivers and impatient 00:49:59.550 --> 00:50:02.409 drivers on this highway. It's pretty dangerous. 00:50:02.530 --> 00:50:04.730 We've had quite a few construction workers who 00:50:04.730 --> 00:50:07.530 are from our little town that have fallen asleep. 00:50:08.239 --> 00:50:09.940 And they've had bad accidents on this highway 00:50:09.940 --> 00:50:13.239 and have passed away. So I guess it's part of 00:50:13.239 --> 00:50:15.300 living out in the middle of nowhere, I guess 00:50:15.300 --> 00:50:19.079 you'd say, but yeah. The sleep conversation comes 00:50:19.079 --> 00:50:21.159 up a lot. It's something I talk about constantly. 00:50:21.340 --> 00:50:23.019 I mean, I don't know if it's come across your 00:50:23.019 --> 00:50:25.280 radar, but, you know, even looking at the shifts 00:50:25.280 --> 00:50:27.199 and the number of hours that we work in the fire 00:50:27.199 --> 00:50:30.239 service at the moment. And then also when we 00:50:30.239 --> 00:50:32.380 start, you know, a lot of us do commute. I commute 00:50:32.380 --> 00:50:34.960 at an hour and a quarter. basically usually each 00:50:34.960 --> 00:50:37.780 way for most of my career okay yes exactly so 00:50:37.780 --> 00:50:40.460 yeah you know yeah so you know you're you're 00:50:40.460 --> 00:50:42.920 having to get there at 7 7 30 to relieve whoever 00:50:42.920 --> 00:50:46.139 your your person is you know early so they can 00:50:46.139 --> 00:50:48.179 get home before they get banged out again so 00:50:48.179 --> 00:50:50.340 we're getting up you know four some people are 00:50:50.340 --> 00:50:53.280 getting up even earlier um or five in my case 00:50:53.280 --> 00:50:55.960 excuse me and so you're sleep deprived even on 00:50:55.960 --> 00:50:58.039 the way to work and then you go to work and then 00:50:58.039 --> 00:51:01.699 you have your hopefully 24 god forbid 48 hour 00:51:01.699 --> 00:51:04.579 shift and then we're driving back and you know 00:51:04.579 --> 00:51:07.559 how many of us do we lose on the way home you 00:51:07.559 --> 00:51:09.920 know and whether it was deliberate and it's a 00:51:09.920 --> 00:51:11.679 mental health issue whether it was accidental 00:51:11.679 --> 00:51:14.420 with the sleep you know these are these are big 00:51:14.420 --> 00:51:16.280 parts of the conversation you know if you're 00:51:16.280 --> 00:51:17.960 going to ask someone to come in and not sleep 00:51:17.960 --> 00:51:20.340 for 24 hours we've got to give them the rest 00:51:20.340 --> 00:51:22.219 and recovery to make sure that they can get home 00:51:22.219 --> 00:51:26.699 safely as well yeah honestly i think probably 00:51:27.940 --> 00:51:31.820 The biggest con of being a fireman in Las Vegas, 00:51:31.940 --> 00:51:34.139 and I'm not complaining at all, but the biggest 00:51:34.139 --> 00:51:36.599 thing is the sleep for me. I didn't really realize 00:51:36.599 --> 00:51:40.420 it until I was an engineer at Station 32 in Las 00:51:40.420 --> 00:51:43.300 Vegas on the Strip at ARIA. Vegas is a night 00:51:43.300 --> 00:51:45.059 town. If you've been to Vegas, everything is 00:51:45.059 --> 00:51:47.380 open 24 hours, and honestly, the city doesn't 00:51:47.380 --> 00:51:50.119 even come to life until 9 o 'clock. So we're 00:51:50.119 --> 00:51:53.179 working a 24 -hour shift. We are up constantly 00:51:53.179 --> 00:51:58.929 all night. we're getting mandatory a lot. So 00:51:58.929 --> 00:52:01.250 we do a modified Kelly schedule. So we'll work 00:52:01.250 --> 00:52:04.170 24 hours on 24 hour off. We'll do that five times. 00:52:04.210 --> 00:52:06.489 And then we are the last one in the Las Vegas 00:52:06.489 --> 00:52:08.329 Valley. It does six days in a row of six days 00:52:08.329 --> 00:52:11.530 in a row off. So you're going to work 24 hours. 00:52:11.969 --> 00:52:15.269 You might get mandatory for 48 and then you'll 00:52:15.269 --> 00:52:17.190 do your normal shift and you'll work 72 hours 00:52:17.190 --> 00:52:20.329 in a row. And I was at that busy station. Every 00:52:20.329 --> 00:52:23.320 time I get mandatory. Someone would call me up 00:52:23.320 --> 00:52:24.679 and say, hey, you want to switch? And you can 00:52:24.679 --> 00:52:26.500 just stay there at 32. I'm like, well, I'm already 00:52:26.500 --> 00:52:28.960 here. So I would literally almost get like 72 00:52:28.960 --> 00:52:31.639 hours of not much sleep at all. And then I'd 00:52:31.639 --> 00:52:33.239 try to drive home. And then you're trying to 00:52:33.239 --> 00:52:35.619 function on a daily basis. I got four kids, you 00:52:35.619 --> 00:52:38.360 know what I mean? And I think that was, if I 00:52:38.360 --> 00:52:40.119 look back at it, that was probably some of the 00:52:40.119 --> 00:52:45.239 darkest times in my career is that sleep deprivation 00:52:45.239 --> 00:52:47.940 messes you up. I'm going to be honest with you. 00:52:47.980 --> 00:52:50.639 That really messes with your mind. I would come 00:52:50.639 --> 00:52:54.119 home. tired, barely not even to function, let 00:52:54.119 --> 00:52:56.659 alone trying to be a dad or attend my kids' events. 00:52:57.320 --> 00:53:00.440 And I, for some reason, was always just pissed 00:53:00.440 --> 00:53:01.900 at my wife. You know what I mean? You're just 00:53:01.900 --> 00:53:06.000 angry. You're not yourself. And it messes you 00:53:06.000 --> 00:53:08.400 up. I think that's one of the biggest things 00:53:08.400 --> 00:53:12.400 of being a fireman is the sleep. And where we're 00:53:12.400 --> 00:53:14.539 at in Las Vegas, we're the city that doesn't 00:53:14.539 --> 00:53:17.539 sleep. We're known for that. And so that's been 00:53:17.539 --> 00:53:19.199 a tough one in my career. I think probably the 00:53:19.199 --> 00:53:21.409 biggest thing that... caught my eye when I first 00:53:21.409 --> 00:53:24.530 started looking you up and looking at your podcast 00:53:24.530 --> 00:53:27.230 was the things that you're talking about and 00:53:27.230 --> 00:53:30.510 the shift change and maybe doing, you know, most 00:53:30.510 --> 00:53:32.429 of the people in Las Vegas and other fire departments. 00:53:32.550 --> 00:53:34.889 So we have Clark County, we have Las Vegas, we 00:53:34.889 --> 00:53:36.210 have the city of Henderson, we have North Las 00:53:36.210 --> 00:53:40.409 Vegas. Everyone else is on a 4896. But yeah, 00:53:40.449 --> 00:53:44.769 I think, and the question has come up and we're 00:53:44.769 --> 00:53:46.610 a pretty old school fire department, traditional 00:53:46.610 --> 00:53:51.980 thing. Everyone likes their six days. But I would 00:53:51.980 --> 00:53:53.300 say that's probably one of the biggest things 00:53:53.300 --> 00:53:56.400 that I want to look into is maybe trying to do 00:53:56.400 --> 00:54:00.360 the 24 -72 or something like that. Yeah. I mean, 00:54:00.380 --> 00:54:02.260 this is it. The science just shows. I don't want 00:54:02.260 --> 00:54:03.820 to go down this rabbit hole again because I talk 00:54:03.820 --> 00:54:05.679 about it so much on the show. But when you look 00:54:05.679 --> 00:54:09.119 at the science, 24 hours is pushing it. And it's 00:54:09.119 --> 00:54:11.360 funny because I will ask you the same exact question. 00:54:11.440 --> 00:54:13.780 Take your firefighter helmet off now. Now put 00:54:13.780 --> 00:54:18.480 on your off -road helmet. pre any of these important 00:54:18.480 --> 00:54:22.460 races would you ever not sleep for 24 or 48 hours 00:54:22.460 --> 00:54:25.760 before the race absolutely not especially as 00:54:25.760 --> 00:54:27.820 i get old you realize how important it is you 00:54:27.820 --> 00:54:30.840 know as i get older um absolutely not i think 00:54:30.840 --> 00:54:32.159 the dakar rally you're probably not familiar 00:54:32.159 --> 00:54:34.380 with the dakar rally but that's one of the it's 00:54:34.380 --> 00:54:36.699 known as the toughest race in the world and they 00:54:36.699 --> 00:54:40.889 they it's 16 days in a row racing And the reason 00:54:40.889 --> 00:54:42.449 that makes it so tough is because you get sleep 00:54:42.449 --> 00:54:44.809 deprived. You're racing for 10 or 12 hours a 00:54:44.809 --> 00:54:47.050 day. You're coming back and doing the stuff you 00:54:47.050 --> 00:54:48.349 need to do to get ready for the next day. And 00:54:48.349 --> 00:54:50.150 that's what makes it the toughest race in the 00:54:50.150 --> 00:54:52.510 world is that sleep deprivation. And sometimes 00:54:52.510 --> 00:54:55.329 at work, it feels like, you know, we're at the 00:54:55.329 --> 00:55:00.849 Dakar rally again. Because as I get older and 00:55:00.849 --> 00:55:03.050 looking back on it, that's the toughest thing 00:55:03.050 --> 00:55:06.869 I would say of being a fireman. Yeah. Well, I 00:55:06.869 --> 00:55:08.980 think if you look at the... Anyone that's come 00:55:08.980 --> 00:55:10.639 on here that's either on the coaching world or 00:55:10.639 --> 00:55:13.179 the athlete side, you know, that is the number 00:55:13.179 --> 00:55:15.000 one thing. If you're going to forge performance, 00:55:15.260 --> 00:55:17.340 you need to have rest and recovery and sleep 00:55:17.340 --> 00:55:19.579 is the absolute most important pillar of health. 00:55:19.719 --> 00:55:21.159 I mean, you know, you've got sleep, you've got 00:55:21.159 --> 00:55:22.920 water, you've got nutrition. Those are the things 00:55:22.920 --> 00:55:26.420 that we 100 % need. And then you look at the 00:55:26.420 --> 00:55:29.539 high, you know, the support, like you said, with 00:55:29.539 --> 00:55:31.360 Red Bull that is surrounding these high level 00:55:31.360 --> 00:55:33.630 athletes. And then you look at the... people 00:55:33.630 --> 00:55:35.869 that we rely on on our worst day to save our 00:55:35.869 --> 00:55:38.690 children's lives. And the chasm couldn't be any 00:55:38.690 --> 00:55:41.849 wider. And it's so crazy that we turn our backs 00:55:41.849 --> 00:55:44.750 to all the science on, you know, not only longevity, 00:55:44.809 --> 00:55:48.190 but high level performance that we have from 00:55:48.190 --> 00:55:50.630 everyone else, tier one operators and high level 00:55:50.630 --> 00:55:54.230 athletes and sports scientists. And we say, well, 00:55:54.269 --> 00:55:56.530 no, we can just, you know, work 72 hours and 00:55:56.530 --> 00:55:58.630 we'll be fine. And you ask, you know, I was having 00:55:58.630 --> 00:56:02.360 a conversation with a friend today. In the trucking 00:56:02.360 --> 00:56:05.079 world, you can only drive for so many hours before 00:56:05.079 --> 00:56:07.699 you have to rest. Now, I'm not saying that that 00:56:07.699 --> 00:56:09.880 should be applied directly to the fire service 00:56:09.880 --> 00:56:13.099 in a 24 -hour, but certainly have a stipulation 00:56:13.099 --> 00:56:15.059 that after that, you need to have rest and recovery. 00:56:15.280 --> 00:56:18.199 But you can't drive a semi for more than whatever 00:56:18.199 --> 00:56:22.300 it is. I'm making it up, 14, 18 hours. But you 00:56:22.300 --> 00:56:24.619 can be behind the wheel of a million -dollar 00:56:24.619 --> 00:56:30.340 aerial and not sleep for 72 hours. Perfectly 00:56:30.340 --> 00:56:32.179 fine. You can't be at the control of a plane 00:56:32.179 --> 00:56:35.199 without X amount of sleep, but you can be behind 00:56:35.199 --> 00:56:37.760 the steering wheel of a fire engine or cutting 00:56:37.760 --> 00:56:39.880 the roof, you know, four floors up on an apartment 00:56:39.880 --> 00:56:43.880 and that's fine. So it's crazy how we've literally 00:56:43.880 --> 00:56:47.019 turned our back to all the science that shows 00:56:47.019 --> 00:56:51.219 what we need for longevity and performance with 00:56:51.219 --> 00:56:53.880 this kind of, we'll just do more with less. And 00:56:53.880 --> 00:56:55.940 at what point, you know, is enough enough? And 00:56:55.940 --> 00:56:58.769 we actually finally acknowledge. the information 00:56:58.769 --> 00:57:02.309 that's out there yeah and i'm sure you've talked 00:57:02.309 --> 00:57:04.650 about it on the other shows but just you could 00:57:04.650 --> 00:57:06.389 go down a whole nother rabbit another rabbit 00:57:06.389 --> 00:57:08.889 hole of just the lack of sleep and how it messes 00:57:08.889 --> 00:57:11.630 up your hormones and chemicals and i just had 00:57:11.630 --> 00:57:14.750 some blood drawn at red bull and i knew my testosterone 00:57:14.750 --> 00:57:17.989 was low because of the sleep habits that we have 00:57:17.989 --> 00:57:19.869 in the fire department but and because of my 00:57:19.869 --> 00:57:22.889 previous injury and and my testicular torsion 00:57:22.889 --> 00:57:26.849 and losing one of my boys But my testosterone 00:57:26.849 --> 00:57:30.090 level was like 137 or something like that. Crazy 00:57:30.090 --> 00:57:34.570 low. And it's a combination of my previous trauma, 00:57:34.670 --> 00:57:37.230 but also the fire department and lack of sleep. 00:57:37.309 --> 00:57:40.110 It messes kind of everything up in your body. 00:57:40.230 --> 00:57:42.630 You got to have that rest. And so, yeah, exactly. 00:57:42.789 --> 00:57:45.409 We could go on and on about it, but it's important. 00:57:46.289 --> 00:57:49.789 And let's be honest, it's still a job. We love 00:57:49.789 --> 00:57:51.170 it and everything like that. And it's my second 00:57:51.170 --> 00:57:54.500 family, but... I look back at those years and 00:57:54.500 --> 00:57:57.079 I don't remember, and my wife will tell you right 00:57:57.079 --> 00:58:00.559 now, when you were at that station and you were 00:58:00.559 --> 00:58:02.460 working all those hours, you were not yourself. 00:58:02.820 --> 00:58:06.860 You were not your regular dad. I honestly think 00:58:06.860 --> 00:58:09.420 I missed a lot of two years of my kids' lives. 00:58:09.480 --> 00:58:11.639 I don't remember when I would go to their volleyball 00:58:11.639 --> 00:58:14.119 games or their sporting events and their competitions. 00:58:14.840 --> 00:58:18.179 I just remember being in a fog and a haze. You 00:58:18.179 --> 00:58:19.380 know what I mean? And I don't really remember 00:58:19.380 --> 00:58:21.320 even functioning. My wife's like, you got to 00:58:21.320 --> 00:58:22.500 like talk to your kids. I'm like, I don't want 00:58:22.500 --> 00:58:24.260 to talk to them. I can barely even like stay 00:58:24.260 --> 00:58:26.300 awake. You know what I mean? Let alone. And then 00:58:26.300 --> 00:58:28.059 she would say that. And then I get even grouchier 00:58:28.059 --> 00:58:29.199 and they get mad at her and it would just kind 00:58:29.199 --> 00:58:30.980 of blow up. You know what I mean? It was a, you 00:58:30.980 --> 00:58:33.760 looking back at it now, it's, it messes you up. 00:58:33.800 --> 00:58:36.539 You know what I mean? So it is important discussion. 00:58:37.920 --> 00:58:39.920 And looking at for future firemen, like even 00:58:39.920 --> 00:58:41.940 my, my, my oldest daughter just got married and 00:58:41.940 --> 00:58:43.920 my son -in -law's thinking about it and what 00:58:43.920 --> 00:58:45.659 he wants to do for life and telling him all the 00:58:45.659 --> 00:58:48.170 options and business owner. he's at that point 00:58:48.170 --> 00:58:50.110 in life where he's trying to figure out what 00:58:50.110 --> 00:58:51.670 to do, which is a tough point, you know, and 00:58:51.670 --> 00:58:53.250 he's thought about the fire department and we've 00:58:53.250 --> 00:58:55.110 talked about the same discussions and stuff like 00:58:55.110 --> 00:58:58.190 that and the pros and the cons. And he sees me 00:58:58.190 --> 00:59:00.449 when I come home and I'm pretty tired and I just 00:59:00.449 --> 00:59:01.989 don't talk, you know what I mean? You can tell 00:59:01.989 --> 00:59:05.250 us the difference. So, um, yeah, it's something 00:59:05.250 --> 00:59:08.349 that we've got to address and, and help, you 00:59:08.349 --> 00:59:09.710 know what I mean? Especially the new firemen 00:59:09.710 --> 00:59:11.469 that are coming on and going to work like that. 00:59:11.929 --> 00:59:14.190 Yeah. Well, the new firemen that are coming on. 00:59:15.050 --> 00:59:17.929 to understand strength and conditioning, emotional 00:59:17.929 --> 00:59:21.670 health, relationships. I mean, they're more tuned 00:59:21.670 --> 00:59:24.429 in, which is amazing. That's fantastic. But now 00:59:24.429 --> 00:59:26.929 it's more glaring than ever. And where we've 00:59:26.929 --> 00:59:28.869 really got in trouble, I think, is we've confused 00:59:28.869 --> 00:59:31.929 the job, the profession, which I love to the 00:59:31.929 --> 00:59:33.730 point where I haven't worn a uniform for seven 00:59:33.730 --> 00:59:36.309 years and I'm still advocating for our men and 00:59:36.309 --> 00:59:39.650 women. But between that and the way that we're 00:59:39.650 --> 00:59:42.059 worked. And in the fire academy, they weren't 00:59:42.059 --> 00:59:43.780 telling you you're going to be doing, you know, 00:59:43.780 --> 00:59:46.559 56 hours a week and mandatory overtime. And they 00:59:46.559 --> 00:59:48.880 were just talking about, you know, pulling hose 00:59:48.880 --> 00:59:52.119 and, you know, cardiac arrhythmias and all the 00:59:52.119 --> 00:59:55.800 things like the actual job itself. So having 00:59:55.800 --> 00:59:57.880 the discussion about better working condition 00:59:57.880 --> 00:59:59.960 doesn't mean that you're not into the job. Actually, 00:59:59.960 --> 01:00:01.559 it's the opposite. Because if you want to be 01:00:01.559 --> 01:00:03.940 a better version of yourself as a medic or a 01:00:03.940 --> 01:00:06.340 firefighter, you need the rest and recovery. 01:00:06.619 --> 01:00:08.519 Because as you said, if you're, you know, cross 01:00:08.519 --> 01:00:11.139 -eyed because you're so exhausted. how effective 01:00:11.139 --> 01:00:13.920 are you compared to if you'd been well rested? 01:00:14.000 --> 01:00:16.579 So I think this is such an important conversation, 01:00:16.719 --> 01:00:20.159 but we've got to shake that kind of ego of it's 01:00:20.159 --> 01:00:22.119 soft. If you're talking about wanting time off, 01:00:22.199 --> 01:00:24.699 no, like every other high performer in the world 01:00:24.699 --> 01:00:28.559 values their rest and recovery. Yeah, no, exactly. 01:00:28.719 --> 01:00:30.659 If my dad and my grandpa heard me talking right 01:00:30.659 --> 01:00:32.380 now, they'd say, go be in such a little baby 01:00:32.380 --> 01:00:34.539 and get to work. I mean, you're fine. You know 01:00:34.539 --> 01:00:37.699 what I mean? They did it for 37 years, but yeah, 01:00:38.179 --> 01:00:40.860 you gotta, you gotta, you gotta, shake that tradition 01:00:40.860 --> 01:00:42.840 you know i mean and be realistic and be like 01:00:42.840 --> 01:00:44.679 hey i'm not functioning on my days off or something 01:00:44.679 --> 01:00:48.460 you gotta do something about it so but yeah it's 01:00:48.460 --> 01:00:50.440 it's we could go down that rabbit hole for a 01:00:50.440 --> 01:00:53.519 while all right we're changing the rabbit hole 01:00:53.519 --> 01:00:56.199 speaking of holes actually um i had a guest on 01:00:56.199 --> 01:01:00.440 rob banghart who was a former addict formerly 01:01:00.440 --> 01:01:03.889 homeless And he actually lived in the tunnels 01:01:03.889 --> 01:01:06.769 beneath Vegas. And I'd never heard that before. 01:01:07.210 --> 01:01:09.630 There's an author, Johan Hari, that first told 01:01:09.630 --> 01:01:12.389 me about it. Talk to me about just homelessness 01:01:12.389 --> 01:01:15.190 in general. And have you been exposed to that 01:01:15.190 --> 01:01:17.130 kind of underground network that I've heard about? 01:01:18.489 --> 01:01:22.469 Oh, absolutely. It's insane in Vegas. I mean, 01:01:22.489 --> 01:01:25.969 I think almost everywhere in the US, the homeless 01:01:25.969 --> 01:01:31.039 is a problem. As firemen, I'm going to say. Of 01:01:31.039 --> 01:01:33.280 our medical calls in Las Vegas, I'm going to 01:01:33.280 --> 01:01:36.639 say over half are on the homeless. And a lot 01:01:36.639 --> 01:01:38.800 of them, it's repeat callers. A lot of them, 01:01:38.800 --> 01:01:40.940 this time of year, they're cold or they're hot. 01:01:41.000 --> 01:01:42.400 They just want to go to the hospital. It's a 01:01:42.400 --> 01:01:46.440 huge problem in Las Vegas. But I was exposed 01:01:46.440 --> 01:01:49.019 to it as a rookie. We have our main fire station, 01:01:49.119 --> 01:01:51.699 Station 18, right there off the Strip. It's just 01:01:51.699 --> 01:01:54.559 east of the Strip on Flamingo. The homeless are 01:01:54.559 --> 01:01:57.559 insane there. But there's a whole hierarchy. 01:01:58.139 --> 01:02:00.719 I mean, there's the underground tunnels. And 01:02:00.719 --> 01:02:02.639 there's like the landlord of this tunnel and 01:02:02.639 --> 01:02:05.000 you have to pay rent to this guy to stay down 01:02:05.000 --> 01:02:07.159 there and you have to do this. It's insane. I 01:02:07.159 --> 01:02:10.300 had no idea. And we've had multiple fires in 01:02:10.300 --> 01:02:12.639 the tunnels and we've had multiple fatalities. 01:02:13.400 --> 01:02:15.340 They have all their bedding back there. If you 01:02:15.340 --> 01:02:18.139 go in the tunnel, they will pull electricity 01:02:18.139 --> 01:02:20.360 from a power light or somewhere, run it to the 01:02:20.360 --> 01:02:22.320 ground, run it into the storm drain. They'll 01:02:22.320 --> 01:02:24.119 have power down there. They'll have microwaves, 01:02:24.159 --> 01:02:27.619 toasters, coffee machines. They have beds back 01:02:27.619 --> 01:02:31.500 there. They have shelves built. It's really quite 01:02:31.500 --> 01:02:36.000 insane. The whole system they have down there, 01:02:36.039 --> 01:02:37.539 and we've had fires down there, and we've had 01:02:37.539 --> 01:02:41.219 multiple fatalities. I remember, not recently, 01:02:41.300 --> 01:02:45.639 but a few years ago, we have our tech team, heavy 01:02:45.639 --> 01:02:49.280 rescue team, and we had a tunnel that basically 01:02:49.280 --> 01:02:52.179 went from one side of I -15 to the other on the 01:02:52.179 --> 01:02:53.780 south end of town, and the whole thing was on 01:02:53.780 --> 01:02:55.800 fire, and there ended up being two fatalities 01:02:55.800 --> 01:03:01.079 in that one. But it took us... I didn't go down 01:03:01.079 --> 01:03:02.360 inside the tunnel or anything like that, but 01:03:02.360 --> 01:03:04.980 it was probably four or five hours before we 01:03:04.980 --> 01:03:07.360 got all the smoke cleared out of the tunnels. 01:03:07.539 --> 01:03:09.619 And I remember sitting there. This is the true 01:03:09.619 --> 01:03:11.659 story. I'm sitting in the tunnel. There's smoke 01:03:11.659 --> 01:03:14.320 billowing out of it. I'm an engineer, so I'm 01:03:14.320 --> 01:03:16.199 just kind of sitting out of the smoke pumping 01:03:16.199 --> 01:03:18.500 water. And I remember hearing this noise coming 01:03:18.500 --> 01:03:20.239 up out of the tunnel. I'm like, what the heck? 01:03:20.239 --> 01:03:22.320 That noise is getting louder and louder. And 01:03:22.320 --> 01:03:23.820 the tunnel's just high enough, and there comes 01:03:23.820 --> 01:03:26.900 a guy on a scooter. riding a scooter up out of 01:03:26.900 --> 01:03:28.739 the tunnel out of the smoke he had his scooter 01:03:28.739 --> 01:03:30.820 down he's like yeah i'm about like a half a mile 01:03:30.820 --> 01:03:32.900 down into the tunnels where all my stuff is i 01:03:32.900 --> 01:03:34.500 saw the smoke so i started riding my scooter 01:03:34.500 --> 01:03:37.119 out it's it's crazy that they live down there 01:03:37.119 --> 01:03:40.559 like that i had no idea before i got hired Well, 01:03:40.619 --> 01:03:43.599 Rob is doing an amazing job now of trying to 01:03:43.599 --> 01:03:46.179 help people get out of addiction, get out of 01:03:46.179 --> 01:03:48.039 homelessness and doing it in a very holistic 01:03:48.039 --> 01:03:51.139 approach. So not just getting clean as far as 01:03:51.139 --> 01:03:53.920 the addiction, but housing, job creation, the 01:03:53.920 --> 01:03:56.280 whole thing. So you can really put someone back 01:03:56.280 --> 01:03:59.980 on their feet again. Whether you're seeing this 01:03:59.980 --> 01:04:02.239 through the media, whether you're seeing it firsthand, 01:04:02.719 --> 01:04:06.860 what is the reason that you have... such a homeless 01:04:06.860 --> 01:04:09.099 problem. I mean, a lot of people talk about the 01:04:09.099 --> 01:04:11.139 emptying of psych wards in the Reagan administration. 01:04:11.599 --> 01:04:14.539 I would argue that addiction seems to be a large 01:04:14.539 --> 01:04:16.460 part of this as well. But what are you seeing 01:04:16.460 --> 01:04:20.539 with your own eyes in your area? In my area, 01:04:20.559 --> 01:04:22.840 my station where I'm at right now, if I go out 01:04:22.840 --> 01:04:27.539 my barn doors, there's a big storm drainage ditch. 01:04:28.639 --> 01:04:30.860 And there's probably no less than 150 homeless 01:04:30.860 --> 01:04:33.059 right outside there. That whole ditch is full 01:04:33.059 --> 01:04:35.139 with tents. They'll come and clean it out once 01:04:35.139 --> 01:04:37.280 in a while, and then they'll move back in, or 01:04:37.280 --> 01:04:39.820 when it rains, they come out. Literally, I can 01:04:39.820 --> 01:04:42.380 take a picture of it, and it looks like a camp 01:04:42.380 --> 01:04:47.300 down the entire storm drain. We talk about it 01:04:47.300 --> 01:04:49.059 quite a bit, and we run on a lot of the same 01:04:49.059 --> 01:04:50.900 people. There's obviously the addiction issue. 01:04:50.960 --> 01:04:54.840 I think it's a combination of the mental side. 01:04:55.530 --> 01:04:57.829 And then once you combine that with a drug addiction 01:04:57.829 --> 01:04:59.889 and the street drugs, it's a bad combination 01:04:59.889 --> 01:05:03.070 with mental and drugs. And then you get what 01:05:03.070 --> 01:05:04.710 you have there. And then once you get there, 01:05:04.789 --> 01:05:07.010 you're desperate and you start doing things, 01:05:07.150 --> 01:05:11.329 you know, stealing and cutting wire and copper 01:05:11.329 --> 01:05:14.190 down, stealing catalytic converters to try and, 01:05:14.190 --> 01:05:17.570 you know, feed that drug addiction. It's a bad, 01:05:17.610 --> 01:05:21.010 bad circle. But I think when you combine the 01:05:21.010 --> 01:05:23.489 mental side and then you combine it with a drug 01:05:23.489 --> 01:05:26.860 addiction, it's... It comes into a bad situation. 01:05:28.320 --> 01:05:30.760 It just seems to me, we had a lot, obviously, 01:05:30.800 --> 01:05:33.559 in Orange County, Anaheim as well. I'm thinking 01:05:33.559 --> 01:05:35.500 about it. I don't remember it as much in Hialeah, 01:05:35.619 --> 01:05:39.460 but every city, every municipality has a version 01:05:39.460 --> 01:05:41.639 of this. I mean, LA and San Francisco, obviously, 01:05:41.780 --> 01:05:45.719 extremely dense. And it just blows me away because 01:05:45.719 --> 01:05:49.260 you would assume that the money we spend on the 01:05:49.260 --> 01:05:53.239 resources responding to men and women. experiencing 01:05:53.239 --> 01:05:54.840 homelessness i think is the right way of saying 01:05:54.840 --> 01:05:59.099 it um you could proactively put that into addiction 01:05:59.099 --> 01:06:02.199 counseling you know housing job creation mental 01:06:02.199 --> 01:06:05.059 health counseling etc etc and are you going to 01:06:05.059 --> 01:06:07.340 get everyone of course not but i think you could 01:06:07.340 --> 01:06:11.260 get a large part of of those men women children 01:06:11.929 --> 01:06:14.250 off the streets if we just gave them the resources 01:06:14.250 --> 01:06:17.449 that they need but what you hear more often than 01:06:17.449 --> 01:06:19.250 not you know not so much from our profession 01:06:19.250 --> 01:06:21.150 but from the law enforcement side is just kind 01:06:21.150 --> 01:06:24.469 of shooing them off to another jurisdiction rather 01:06:24.469 --> 01:06:26.369 than saying well why are these people on the 01:06:26.369 --> 01:06:28.949 streets in the first place you know being an 01:06:28.949 --> 01:06:32.230 altruistic nation with you know a lot of our 01:06:32.230 --> 01:06:35.070 religious beliefs being about you know helping 01:06:35.070 --> 01:06:39.269 and kindness and community how can we address 01:06:39.269 --> 01:06:41.809 the nucleus of this problem, which in turn will 01:06:41.809 --> 01:06:43.449 then reduce the number of people that are on 01:06:43.449 --> 01:06:47.349 the streets. Yeah, it's such a tough situation. 01:06:47.489 --> 01:06:51.550 And I think I can guarantee almost all the homeless 01:06:51.550 --> 01:06:54.389 people that we've ran on are all alcoholics. 01:06:54.389 --> 01:06:55.789 They wake up in the morning, they start drinking 01:06:55.789 --> 01:07:00.170 a beer and it's that addiction. That addiction 01:07:00.170 --> 01:07:03.949 just tears away at your soul. You know what I 01:07:03.949 --> 01:07:09.659 mean? For us, it's weird. I just ran on a homeless 01:07:09.659 --> 01:07:12.099 guy who was in our area. So I'm on the northeast 01:07:12.099 --> 01:07:14.199 part of town now. Luckily, I'm kind of off the 01:07:14.199 --> 01:07:16.840 strip, not quite as busy. And I got a little 01:07:16.840 --> 01:07:18.460 bit of seniority. I got a bit off the strip. 01:07:18.559 --> 01:07:21.059 But we ran on a guy, Jimmy. He was up in my area. 01:07:21.179 --> 01:07:23.400 And I remember running on him 10 years ago as 01:07:23.400 --> 01:07:27.639 a homeless person down by Station 18 in Flamingo. 01:07:27.699 --> 01:07:29.380 I'm like, Jimmy, what the heck are you doing 01:07:29.380 --> 01:07:32.400 up on this side of town, man? And he's been, 01:07:32.559 --> 01:07:37.769 I think some of them, whether it's the... The 01:07:37.769 --> 01:07:40.889 mental trauma that they have or the combination 01:07:40.889 --> 01:07:45.489 of the addiction, but that's what they, he is 01:07:45.489 --> 01:07:48.610 completely happy. If you gave him the resources 01:07:48.610 --> 01:07:51.710 that he would need to get off the street, he 01:07:51.710 --> 01:07:53.590 would not choose that. He would stick to the 01:07:53.590 --> 01:07:55.429 street. He's been there for 10, 15 years. That's 01:07:55.429 --> 01:07:58.309 what he knows. He knows how to work the system 01:07:58.309 --> 01:08:00.849 and get alcohol, get his drugs and go on the 01:08:00.849 --> 01:08:02.690 strip and pedal for a little bit, get the money 01:08:02.690 --> 01:08:06.269 he needs, then go back off the strip. So I think 01:08:06.269 --> 01:08:09.110 there's a lot of people in Las Vegas who have 01:08:09.110 --> 01:08:11.210 been homeless for years. They've made a living 01:08:11.210 --> 01:08:13.190 out of it. It's what they know. They're comfortable 01:08:13.190 --> 01:08:15.590 with it. And they're not going to change. That's 01:08:15.590 --> 01:08:17.770 what you know until the day he dies. I guarantee 01:08:17.770 --> 01:08:19.250 he's going to be an alcoholic. He's going to 01:08:19.250 --> 01:08:21.250 be homeless. Now, if you were to take alcohol 01:08:21.250 --> 01:08:23.670 out of the equation, could you maybe get him 01:08:23.670 --> 01:08:25.130 up out of the streets? Maybe it would change 01:08:25.130 --> 01:08:26.850 him. But he ain't going to choose that right 01:08:26.850 --> 01:08:29.250 now. And no matter what you do, you can't make 01:08:29.250 --> 01:08:30.829 him. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't 01:08:30.829 --> 01:08:32.090 make him drink. You know what I mean? He's going 01:08:32.090 --> 01:08:35.850 to choose that. Now, flip it. We also ran out 01:08:35.850 --> 01:08:38.029 of a guy that was living in this car. He was 01:08:38.029 --> 01:08:40.470 a blot from our station. He says, yeah, I've 01:08:40.470 --> 01:08:44.789 got kicked out. I have a job. I go to work. I 01:08:44.789 --> 01:08:47.609 cannot pay for rent. He's like, just a single 01:08:47.609 --> 01:08:50.029 bedroom apartment? He's like, the one I was in 01:08:50.029 --> 01:08:52.710 was $1 ,200 a month. I just got kicked out of. 01:08:52.970 --> 01:08:55.989 And it's trash. It's disgusting. Plus, he's got 01:08:55.989 --> 01:08:58.069 to pay the other utilities. He's like, I just 01:08:58.069 --> 01:09:01.069 can't afford it with my job. I have a car. I 01:09:01.069 --> 01:09:02.649 pay my insurance on my car and everything like 01:09:02.649 --> 01:09:05.739 that. Perfect example for what you're talking 01:09:05.739 --> 01:09:07.920 about. He needs better resources to help him 01:09:07.920 --> 01:09:10.800 get off the street to get better, and then he 01:09:10.800 --> 01:09:13.039 can kind of establish himself. But it's a slippery 01:09:13.039 --> 01:09:16.779 slope, like you say. It's tough. And I'm going 01:09:16.779 --> 01:09:19.140 to say about half of the, probably about 50 % 01:09:19.140 --> 01:09:21.060 of the homeless that we have would probably choose 01:09:21.060 --> 01:09:24.140 to stay on the street. Well, it's interesting. 01:09:24.220 --> 01:09:26.359 If you look at some countries in Scandinavia, 01:09:26.439 --> 01:09:29.220 I think also Japan, there are nations that have 01:09:29.220 --> 01:09:31.779 zero homelessness. And they're human beings just 01:09:31.779 --> 01:09:34.119 like us. So the question is, well, what are you 01:09:34.119 --> 01:09:37.880 doing differently? What are these factors? And 01:09:37.880 --> 01:09:40.539 obviously it's cultural, but we can start today. 01:09:40.680 --> 01:09:43.039 Can you save the people that you're talking about? 01:09:43.279 --> 01:09:45.079 I mean, there's many that I can think of that, 01:09:45.100 --> 01:09:47.100 yeah, that would be a really hard fight. I mean, 01:09:47.119 --> 01:09:49.699 they're probably all dead now anyway, but the 01:09:49.699 --> 01:09:52.020 ones that are just so far gone that it would 01:09:52.020 --> 01:09:55.220 be such a hard uphill battle, still worth the 01:09:55.220 --> 01:09:59.619 try, but you probably can't. But that next generation, 01:09:59.819 --> 01:10:01.680 you know, and you look at, you know, the opioid 01:10:01.680 --> 01:10:04.220 crisis in America, like that was started by a 01:10:04.220 --> 01:10:06.560 drug company, you know, predominantly, you know, 01:10:06.560 --> 01:10:10.979 the OxyContin crisis that then created the heroin 01:10:10.979 --> 01:10:13.260 crisis, which is now the fentanyl crisis. You 01:10:13.260 --> 01:10:16.479 know, there's these obvious transitions. 10 % 01:10:16.479 --> 01:10:18.720 of our homeless are veterans. So these are men 01:10:18.720 --> 01:10:20.640 and women, whether they actually saw combat or 01:10:20.640 --> 01:10:23.430 not, that were. serving with the american flag 01:10:23.430 --> 01:10:25.350 on their shoulder and now they're living under 01:10:25.350 --> 01:10:27.890 a bridge so where are these kind of elements 01:10:27.890 --> 01:10:30.390 that we can start addressing it before people 01:10:30.390 --> 01:10:34.130 you know become too lost into this void yeah 01:10:34.130 --> 01:10:36.069 and that's a good point i think it needs to be 01:10:36.069 --> 01:10:38.130 addressed something before like you talked about 01:10:38.130 --> 01:10:42.130 and i mean it's definitely an issue in our and 01:10:42.130 --> 01:10:44.130 like you say i travel the world quite a bit i 01:10:44.130 --> 01:10:47.289 don't i don't you don't see any homeless in you 01:10:47.289 --> 01:10:48.930 know i'll be in saudi arabia in a couple weeks 01:10:48.930 --> 01:10:52.340 and you know that situation there's Yeah, it's 01:10:52.340 --> 01:10:54.180 a different world in other places, but I think, 01:10:54.180 --> 01:10:56.800 like you said, you've got to address it in the 01:10:56.800 --> 01:10:59.960 beginning before it gets way out of hand. 100%. 01:10:59.960 --> 01:11:04.380 Well, speaking of mental health crises, interestingly, 01:11:04.680 --> 01:11:06.699 a story that I haven't really managed to find 01:11:06.699 --> 01:11:09.279 anyone from that event to come on the show yet, 01:11:09.380 --> 01:11:13.399 but your city had a tragic attack a few years 01:11:13.399 --> 01:11:17.659 ago. So firstly, were you on when the Vegas shooting 01:11:17.659 --> 01:11:21.289 happened? No, I was off. I came in that morning 01:11:21.289 --> 01:11:24.069 after they'd been up all night on the shooting. 01:11:24.109 --> 01:11:27.529 So I came in that morning. I don't know what 01:11:27.529 --> 01:11:29.670 it is about that event, but I feel like unlike 01:11:29.670 --> 01:11:31.909 the Pulse shooting, which we had locally here, 01:11:31.989 --> 01:11:35.569 which was right next to my old station, with 01:11:35.569 --> 01:11:38.409 the Vegas one, it seemed to have come and then 01:11:38.409 --> 01:11:40.890 disappeared from the news outlets pretty quickly. 01:11:41.170 --> 01:11:43.890 And aside from the, you know, well, what happened? 01:11:43.930 --> 01:11:46.399 Who was this person? Why did they do it? element 01:11:46.399 --> 01:11:49.319 of it i can imagine being a first responder or 01:11:49.319 --> 01:11:52.579 a you know good samaritan that made such a different 01:11:52.579 --> 01:11:54.560 that difference that day and then the kind of 01:11:54.560 --> 01:11:57.399 story is swept under the carpet not to be discussed 01:11:57.399 --> 01:12:00.000 again so that's just my perspective from thousands 01:12:00.000 --> 01:12:02.819 of miles away it seemed compared to other events 01:12:02.819 --> 01:12:06.819 that we've had what you know what needs to be 01:12:06.819 --> 01:12:09.600 told about that event and the impact that it 01:12:09.600 --> 01:12:15.119 had on your community um you you kind of hear 01:12:15.119 --> 01:12:17.060 that I think you're right. I mean, honestly, 01:12:17.119 --> 01:12:18.739 to this day, I still don't know anything about 01:12:18.739 --> 01:12:20.560 the shooter, what his motives were, really what 01:12:20.560 --> 01:12:23.659 he was from, any of his reasonings or anything 01:12:23.659 --> 01:12:27.199 like that. It was kind of, I think now that you 01:12:27.199 --> 01:12:29.859 say it, you look at it, you're like, yeah, they 01:12:29.859 --> 01:12:32.779 want their people to come to Vegas. And, you 01:12:32.779 --> 01:12:37.920 know, Vegas is a town of, we live off of all 01:12:37.920 --> 01:12:40.779 the people coming in. So they probably did maybe 01:12:40.779 --> 01:12:44.270 sweep it under a little bit. I remember coming 01:12:44.270 --> 01:12:47.050 into work that day and my station was clear on 01:12:47.050 --> 01:12:48.989 the north end of town out by the speedway. So 01:12:48.989 --> 01:12:50.630 we're kind of ways away from where that incident 01:12:50.630 --> 01:12:53.390 happened. They got called up obviously to it 01:12:53.390 --> 01:12:56.270 and ended up staging right close to it. And there 01:12:56.270 --> 01:12:58.229 was a lot of people. We've had a lot of training 01:12:58.229 --> 01:13:00.930 and debriefs on it since then. And I think the 01:13:00.930 --> 01:13:04.029 biggest thing that we had an issue with was there 01:13:04.029 --> 01:13:07.010 was so many good Samaritans who were loading 01:13:07.010 --> 01:13:10.140 people in pickup trucks. and injured people and 01:13:10.140 --> 01:13:12.380 people who had been shot, throwing them in pickup 01:13:12.380 --> 01:13:14.539 trucks and taking them to the emergency room 01:13:14.539 --> 01:13:16.420 that they knew of, you know what I mean? And 01:13:16.420 --> 01:13:18.220 the emergency rooms were just overwhelmed with 01:13:18.220 --> 01:13:21.199 the amount of people that were coming in and 01:13:21.199 --> 01:13:23.180 just couldn't handle it because there were just 01:13:23.180 --> 01:13:25.340 people just by the pickup trucks, literally bringing 01:13:25.340 --> 01:13:27.659 pickup trucks full of people in that were injured. 01:13:27.800 --> 01:13:29.560 So we've done a lot of training on that since. 01:13:30.460 --> 01:13:33.100 Well, I mean, let's be honest, Vegas, with the 01:13:33.100 --> 01:13:34.359 amount of stuff that's going on, the millions 01:13:34.359 --> 01:13:36.079 of people that are coming in, like we just talked 01:13:36.079 --> 01:13:39.189 about Formula One and everything like that. Unfortunately, 01:13:40.710 --> 01:13:42.529 it's probably going to happen again and we need 01:13:42.529 --> 01:13:44.930 to be prepared. And our department and the Valley 01:13:44.930 --> 01:13:47.829 have done a pretty good job of helping us with 01:13:47.829 --> 01:13:51.890 large scale events and being prepared for what 01:13:51.890 --> 01:13:57.810 if something does happen again. Did that incident 01:13:57.810 --> 01:14:00.850 have a ripple effect? Did it change the way you... 01:14:01.899 --> 01:14:03.739 with with equipment with training with that kind 01:14:03.739 --> 01:14:05.899 of thing did it did it make people think oh my 01:14:05.899 --> 01:14:08.039 goodness you know we need to rethink some things 01:14:08.039 --> 01:14:11.680 yeah i think so there's always an event like 01:14:11.680 --> 01:14:15.060 that yours you can think of you know a bunch 01:14:15.060 --> 01:14:16.520 of things that you could do to improve and i 01:14:16.520 --> 01:14:20.000 think uh whether it was metro and the county 01:14:20.000 --> 01:14:23.300 and and everyone there's things that we need 01:14:23.300 --> 01:14:24.880 to do better we could have done better you know 01:14:24.880 --> 01:14:27.659 i mean there's always room to improve and i think 01:14:27.659 --> 01:14:29.560 communication is always a big deal and stuff 01:14:29.560 --> 01:14:33.260 like that so unfortunately when that does happen 01:14:33.260 --> 01:14:35.159 it kind of puts you in your place like okay we 01:14:35.159 --> 01:14:37.079 need to train this on this better and the next 01:14:37.079 --> 01:14:38.300 one that's going to come is going to be totally 01:14:38.300 --> 01:14:40.279 different there's probably going to be a you 01:14:40.279 --> 01:14:42.659 know things that we need to do better again on 01:14:42.659 --> 01:14:44.939 that one but the level of training we just did 01:14:44.939 --> 01:14:47.279 some training uh and it was actually really good 01:14:47.279 --> 01:14:51.960 training for uh basically a similar situation 01:14:51.960 --> 01:14:55.159 and we have our mactac gear and we have you know 01:14:55.159 --> 01:14:57.340 helmets and bulletproof vests and we'll put on 01:14:57.340 --> 01:14:59.260 and we'll have the metro with us and it was a 01:14:59.260 --> 01:15:00.960 it was probably one of the best trainings that 01:15:00.960 --> 01:15:03.699 i've done recently as far as realistic and something 01:15:03.699 --> 01:15:04.960 that we're going to probably encounter in the 01:15:04.960 --> 01:15:09.739 future the reason i asked that was where i used 01:15:09.739 --> 01:15:13.510 to work in orange county the pulse club was My 01:15:13.510 --> 01:15:17.109 second Jew. So we had Orlando Station 5's area, 01:15:17.210 --> 01:15:19.789 and then we butted up against it. But I'd moved 01:15:19.789 --> 01:15:22.750 to the fire department that protects Disney, 01:15:22.869 --> 01:15:25.130 and that shooter actually had gone to Disney 01:15:25.130 --> 01:15:27.630 Springs first, which was my area currently, but 01:15:27.630 --> 01:15:30.140 I was overseas when the shooting happened. So 01:15:30.140 --> 01:15:32.640 very strong connection between the two. But I 01:15:32.640 --> 01:15:35.760 come back from vacation after this has happened, 01:15:35.819 --> 01:15:38.399 expecting to be overwhelmed with, you know, new 01:15:38.399 --> 01:15:40.520 trainings being scheduled and equipment. And, 01:15:40.539 --> 01:15:42.720 you know, wow, this is a near miss. This almost 01:15:42.720 --> 01:15:44.319 happened to us because they have him literally 01:15:44.319 --> 01:15:47.000 on film wheeling the guns in a stroller out to 01:15:47.000 --> 01:15:49.539 the springs. There's too many cops around. He 01:15:49.539 --> 01:15:51.500 loads it all back up and then he goes to pulse 01:15:51.500 --> 01:15:55.159 and murders all those people. And but that's 01:15:55.159 --> 01:15:59.069 not what happened. It was nothing. Zero. And, 01:15:59.170 --> 01:16:01.029 you know, I'm pulling this out of the shadows 01:16:01.029 --> 01:16:03.029 partly because it is, you know, public knowledge 01:16:03.029 --> 01:16:05.550 that this is what happened. But secondly, there 01:16:05.550 --> 01:16:08.050 is no greater training opportunity than a near 01:16:08.050 --> 01:16:11.090 miss. It didn't actually happen to you in your 01:16:11.090 --> 01:16:14.170 area. So those are the ones that you don't brush 01:16:14.170 --> 01:16:15.609 under the carpet. Those are the ones you're like, 01:16:15.670 --> 01:16:18.149 my God, we were given a second chance. Let's 01:16:18.149 --> 01:16:20.010 make sure that we are ready. God forbid this 01:16:20.010 --> 01:16:23.430 happens. But the worst thing you can do is shrug 01:16:23.430 --> 01:16:25.550 your shoulders and say, well, it didn't happen. 01:16:25.609 --> 01:16:30.770 So we're okay. Yeah. And I think our department, 01:16:30.989 --> 01:16:35.250 I mean, they knew that we could have done stuff 01:16:35.250 --> 01:16:36.649 better. And they're like, hey, this is probably 01:16:36.649 --> 01:16:38.130 going to happen in Vegas again. Let's be honest. 01:16:38.250 --> 01:16:40.729 And the other perspective we got, there was actually 01:16:40.729 --> 01:16:43.630 quite a few firemen on our department who were 01:16:43.630 --> 01:16:46.270 at the event and actually had family members 01:16:46.270 --> 01:16:49.340 who. I believe there was a couple from people 01:16:49.340 --> 01:16:50.720 from our department that had family members that 01:16:50.720 --> 01:16:53.340 were injured from the incident. So, and they 01:16:53.340 --> 01:16:55.680 were on scene and we got an inside view of what 01:16:55.680 --> 01:16:57.180 they could have done better, what could have 01:16:57.180 --> 01:16:58.880 happened better and how it was happening and 01:16:58.880 --> 01:17:00.619 what was going on. And so that was kind of helpful 01:17:00.619 --> 01:17:04.000 as well. But like you said, it's, I think there 01:17:04.000 --> 01:17:06.739 was, you know, you know, two more instances in 01:17:06.739 --> 01:17:09.100 the country, you know, this last weekend, it's, 01:17:09.100 --> 01:17:13.060 it's unfortunately we could go down a whole nother 01:17:13.060 --> 01:17:16.340 rabbit hole of, of that, but it's, it's. unfortunately 01:17:16.340 --> 01:17:19.520 not when but it's not if it's when it's going 01:17:19.520 --> 01:17:21.079 to happen again in vegas to be honest with you 01:17:21.079 --> 01:17:23.840 and so i think we've done a good job of of done 01:17:23.840 --> 01:17:25.939 training and and trying to prepare ourselves 01:17:25.939 --> 01:17:30.460 what about triage i had john spurr on the show 01:17:30.460 --> 01:17:32.699 a few years ago now and he was one of the first 01:17:32.699 --> 01:17:35.899 medics on scene in the aurora shooting um years 01:17:35.899 --> 01:17:39.010 ago And he was saying that the way the kind of 01:17:39.010 --> 01:17:42.069 stark triage was when you actually are in one 01:17:42.069 --> 01:17:44.130 of those events, like the respiratory rate, well, 01:17:44.189 --> 01:17:46.649 there was tear gas being thrown in and everyone 01:17:46.649 --> 01:17:50.189 was running. And, you know, the heart rate, of 01:17:50.189 --> 01:17:51.850 course, their heart rate's up. They're terrified. 01:17:51.909 --> 01:17:54.210 And so it kind of made you realize that some 01:17:54.210 --> 01:17:57.760 of the training. albeit well -intentioned, maybe 01:17:57.760 --> 01:18:00.560 didn't have the correct application as we see 01:18:00.560 --> 01:18:03.720 so often now, these mass casualty events. Have 01:18:03.720 --> 01:18:06.279 you leaned into a different type of triage system 01:18:06.279 --> 01:18:09.899 or are you still using the STAR? No, we've gone 01:18:09.899 --> 01:18:11.300 through a couple of different triage systems 01:18:11.300 --> 01:18:14.920 and we actually have changed within the last 01:18:14.920 --> 01:18:17.260 couple of years of a different triage system 01:18:17.260 --> 01:18:19.380 as well. And in those events, like when we still 01:18:19.380 --> 01:18:22.489 have an active shooter, We're going in quick, 01:18:22.529 --> 01:18:24.170 but we're going in with Metro, and we're going 01:18:24.170 --> 01:18:25.689 to have Metro guys with us, and they're going 01:18:25.689 --> 01:18:27.510 to be protecting us with guns. Obviously, we 01:18:27.510 --> 01:18:29.369 don't have guns. We'll just have the helmets 01:18:29.369 --> 01:18:31.489 and the vests, but it's more of like a quick 01:18:31.489 --> 01:18:35.949 triage. It's kind of like a system, basically. 01:18:35.970 --> 01:18:39.050 If they're savable or they can walk, get out. 01:18:39.130 --> 01:18:42.470 If not, then we're going to roll on to someone 01:18:42.470 --> 01:18:44.649 who's going to have a chance to be saved better 01:18:44.649 --> 01:18:46.590 because you don't know how many people are going 01:18:46.590 --> 01:18:50.390 to be involved. So we've changed the triage system 01:18:50.390 --> 01:18:52.729 a couple of times and the latest one's a little 01:18:52.729 --> 01:18:58.350 bit different, but it's flexible because you 01:18:58.350 --> 01:18:59.329 just don't know how many people are going to 01:18:59.329 --> 01:19:00.890 be involved and how many resources you're going 01:19:00.890 --> 01:19:04.750 to have as far as getting people out. They brought 01:19:04.750 --> 01:19:06.770 in, I think it was called safe training right 01:19:06.770 --> 01:19:08.489 towards the end of my career. I think we did 01:19:08.489 --> 01:19:10.170 it in Orange County and then a little bit in 01:19:10.170 --> 01:19:13.579 the last place. It was always kind of geared 01:19:13.579 --> 01:19:16.300 really towards a school. And we'd had discussions, 01:19:16.479 --> 01:19:18.880 especially in Disney, we were like, well, hey, 01:19:18.979 --> 01:19:20.659 this happened in Disney Springs. It happened 01:19:20.659 --> 01:19:22.579 in one of the theme parks. This really isn't 01:19:22.579 --> 01:19:24.779 applicable because you're not clearing room by 01:19:24.779 --> 01:19:26.520 room. It's kind of like the lock on. You had 01:19:26.520 --> 01:19:28.159 two officers at the front, two officers at the 01:19:28.159 --> 01:19:30.039 back, and you'd be working the patients in between. 01:19:31.220 --> 01:19:33.680 What has been the adaptation as far as working 01:19:33.680 --> 01:19:37.060 with the law enforcement side, protecting you 01:19:37.060 --> 01:19:39.460 in some of these large spaces that you also respond 01:19:39.460 --> 01:19:45.840 to? For like an active shooter with the law enforcement, 01:19:46.039 --> 01:19:48.000 we're going to have the command presence with 01:19:48.000 --> 01:19:50.699 both entities there. It's probably the biggest 01:19:50.699 --> 01:19:52.960 thing is communicating and then going in as quick 01:19:52.960 --> 01:19:55.859 as we can. Obviously, time saves as well if you've 01:19:55.859 --> 01:19:57.779 got bleeders and stuff like that. So getting 01:19:57.779 --> 01:20:01.220 in quick, but also keeping us safe with Metro 01:20:01.220 --> 01:20:03.500 as well. I think the biggest thing that now we 01:20:03.500 --> 01:20:05.979 were just talking about it is another thing that 01:20:05.979 --> 01:20:09.199 they changed after we call it October shooting, 01:20:09.319 --> 01:20:11.770 the Oktoberfest shooting. In Vegas there was, 01:20:12.010 --> 01:20:16.550 we also were sending units to the hospitals to 01:20:16.550 --> 01:20:19.229 create like another triage system once they get 01:20:19.229 --> 01:20:22.090 to the hospitals to help with the influx of people 01:20:22.090 --> 01:20:23.609 that are coming to the hospitals. The hospitals 01:20:23.609 --> 01:20:25.930 were just overwhelmed at that point. So we're 01:20:25.930 --> 01:20:29.109 going to have, they're sending an engine or two. 01:20:29.640 --> 01:20:32.479 with a captain and crews and setting up an incident 01:20:32.479 --> 01:20:34.600 command system at the hospital as like a second 01:20:34.600 --> 01:20:37.220 triage system to help the hospitals and to communicate 01:20:37.220 --> 01:20:40.420 hey we're full send these people here send these 01:20:40.420 --> 01:20:43.699 people to the next hospital or whatever so i 01:20:43.699 --> 01:20:46.659 think that was a one of the big pullaways from 01:20:46.659 --> 01:20:51.220 that event for future training Really interesting. 01:20:51.319 --> 01:20:53.380 And this is why these conversations need to happen. 01:20:53.420 --> 01:20:55.180 This is why we need to learn from these events. 01:20:55.239 --> 01:20:57.279 And we can't kind of brush them under the rug 01:20:57.279 --> 01:20:59.520 or ignore them if they didn't happen on our front 01:20:59.520 --> 01:21:02.779 yard, because there's so much value in storytelling, 01:21:02.920 --> 01:21:05.819 having the humility to say this didn't go as 01:21:05.819 --> 01:21:07.539 well as we expected, which is fine. It was an 01:21:07.539 --> 01:21:09.920 absolute disaster scene. Of course, not everything's 01:21:09.920 --> 01:21:12.159 going to be going right. But what can we learn 01:21:12.159 --> 01:21:14.399 from it? And then what as a profession nationally 01:21:14.399 --> 01:21:17.159 or internationally, can we then share with everyone 01:21:17.159 --> 01:21:19.460 else? Hey, this happened. We tried this. You 01:21:19.460 --> 01:21:22.079 know, we put a triage station up at the ER itself. 01:21:22.239 --> 01:21:24.819 So all these good Samaritans, we could actually 01:21:24.819 --> 01:21:27.159 triage them before they go into the ER or even 01:21:27.159 --> 01:21:29.279 send them to a different hospital. That's the 01:21:29.279 --> 01:21:31.340 first time I've heard that. I mean, these lessons 01:21:31.340 --> 01:21:34.720 are so important and it's not about judging and 01:21:34.720 --> 01:21:36.979 shaming departments if everything didn't go right. 01:21:37.399 --> 01:21:39.699 It's just the only thing we can do from a bad 01:21:39.699 --> 01:21:42.140 event is learn the lessons that we got from them. 01:21:43.079 --> 01:21:45.039 Yeah, no, exactly. Swallow your pride and what 01:21:45.039 --> 01:21:48.420 can we do to become better? It happened. we need 01:21:48.420 --> 01:21:50.180 to be better. Obviously we can be better. And 01:21:50.180 --> 01:21:51.699 even in our trainings, like our Mac tech trainings 01:21:51.699 --> 01:21:54.020 with Metro and stuff, every training we'll do 01:21:54.020 --> 01:21:55.739 a hot wash and like, Hey, this could have been 01:21:55.739 --> 01:21:57.699 better. And we just did that training. It was 01:21:57.699 --> 01:21:59.520 less than a month ago. And I'm like, this is 01:21:59.520 --> 01:22:01.359 actually a real situation. We could have done 01:22:01.359 --> 01:22:04.159 this better. I didn't even hear what was happening 01:22:04.159 --> 01:22:05.399 in the other room. You know what I mean? And 01:22:05.399 --> 01:22:07.640 there's just so much you can learn from, from 01:22:07.640 --> 01:22:10.199 those situations. But like you said, from the 01:22:10.199 --> 01:22:11.859 situation, pulling from it and be like, Hey, 01:22:11.880 --> 01:22:14.739 and we did the, our department did a whole breakdown 01:22:14.739 --> 01:22:18.289 of it. We had. Our first captain who was on due 01:22:18.289 --> 01:22:20.989 did a great job, but he was just a brand new 01:22:20.989 --> 01:22:23.170 captain there. And they were actually already 01:22:23.170 --> 01:22:26.430 out when they first got the call. And then the 01:22:26.430 --> 01:22:28.550 other thing too is they were getting so many 01:22:28.550 --> 01:22:32.050 911 calls because people were running into different 01:22:32.050 --> 01:22:35.850 casinos. And so that casino would call 911. And 01:22:35.850 --> 01:22:37.590 then they were thinking they were having an active 01:22:37.590 --> 01:22:40.229 shooter in that casino. And so they didn't know 01:22:40.229 --> 01:22:42.600 how many active shooters they had. And that really 01:22:42.600 --> 01:22:44.319 was throwing everyone off. And then you were 01:22:44.319 --> 01:22:46.920 trying to send people to that casino. You started 01:22:46.920 --> 01:22:49.239 trying to send crews and fire stations, trucks 01:22:49.239 --> 01:22:52.140 to that casino. And it was really, at the beginning, 01:22:52.239 --> 01:22:54.880 it was, honestly, it was, like you said, it was 01:22:54.880 --> 01:22:57.439 a mess. No one had a clue of what was really 01:22:57.439 --> 01:22:59.779 happening or what was going on. We had reports 01:22:59.779 --> 01:23:01.859 of active shooters all up and down the whole 01:23:01.859 --> 01:23:04.039 entire strip because people were just running 01:23:04.039 --> 01:23:05.520 in that were injured and saying they were shot, 01:23:05.659 --> 01:23:08.560 you know. So a lot to learn from those situations 01:23:08.560 --> 01:23:12.279 and a lot to improve upon for sure. What about 01:23:12.279 --> 01:23:15.279 post -event as far as the mental health of the 01:23:15.279 --> 01:23:17.840 responders? What did that look like? And again, 01:23:17.960 --> 01:23:19.619 were there any things that were done well, any 01:23:19.619 --> 01:23:21.220 things that maybe weren't that would need to 01:23:21.220 --> 01:23:29.199 be discussed and revamped? Yeah, our department, 01:23:29.220 --> 01:23:32.260 and I think all departments, are trying to ramp 01:23:32.260 --> 01:23:34.020 up and do better with the mental health side, 01:23:34.100 --> 01:23:36.960 right? I remember I came in that morning, and 01:23:36.960 --> 01:23:38.640 a lot of the guys who were coming in, we were 01:23:38.640 --> 01:23:42.859 basically... relieving a lot of the guys who 01:23:42.859 --> 01:23:44.680 had just been there all night and they were all 01:23:44.680 --> 01:23:47.800 going to our training center and they were basically 01:23:47.800 --> 01:23:50.119 going to kind of have a hot wash and go over 01:23:50.119 --> 01:23:52.060 everything. And anyone who needed extra help 01:23:52.060 --> 01:23:53.600 or anyone who was struggling or had questions, 01:23:53.659 --> 01:23:56.800 it basically set up, you could almost call it 01:23:56.800 --> 01:23:59.239 like almost like another command post at our 01:23:59.239 --> 01:24:00.840 training center for all the guys who had just 01:24:00.840 --> 01:24:03.340 ran the call. And they went over there and went 01:24:03.340 --> 01:24:05.060 over everything that they had questions and, 01:24:05.079 --> 01:24:09.479 and, uh, we've hired, um, you know, like a nurse 01:24:09.479 --> 01:24:10.920 and everything that kind of helps with our mental 01:24:10.920 --> 01:24:12.800 side as well. And I know she was there and took 01:24:12.800 --> 01:24:16.260 care of a lot of stuff. So they're trying to 01:24:16.260 --> 01:24:19.239 do better because it is, it is right. Those are, 01:24:19.260 --> 01:24:22.020 we know that they can have an effect on us mentally. 01:24:22.060 --> 01:24:24.239 And so they're trying to do better. Obviously, 01:24:24.260 --> 01:24:25.920 just like the whole incident, there was things 01:24:25.920 --> 01:24:27.819 that we needed to do better and that we can do 01:24:27.819 --> 01:24:31.060 better in the future for those situations. But 01:24:31.060 --> 01:24:33.260 I do remember that basically everyone that was 01:24:33.260 --> 01:24:35.359 involved in it went straight to our training 01:24:35.359 --> 01:24:39.130 center. and tried to get a rundown and go over 01:24:39.130 --> 01:24:41.289 everything that happened. And if they needed 01:24:41.289 --> 01:24:43.090 help to stay there before they went home to their 01:24:43.090 --> 01:24:46.890 families, you know. Oh, good. Speaking of that, 01:24:46.989 --> 01:24:49.630 we're going to get to Jonathan and Ketamine in 01:24:49.630 --> 01:24:52.489 a little bit. When you reflect back now, you 01:24:52.489 --> 01:24:54.470 know, we talked about sleep deprivation. We talked 01:24:54.470 --> 01:24:57.310 about TBIs, you know, even, even the kind of 01:24:57.310 --> 01:24:58.789 mental health struggle when you're rehabbing 01:24:58.789 --> 01:25:02.439 from an injury, what have been the. the lows, 01:25:02.619 --> 01:25:05.060 if any, as far as your career and the emotional 01:25:05.060 --> 01:25:06.899 mental health, and then what have been some of 01:25:06.899 --> 01:25:09.859 the tools that you've used to, to pick yourself 01:25:09.859 --> 01:25:16.600 up again? Um, for me, like just listening to 01:25:16.600 --> 01:25:18.000 the stories kind of growing up, I think maybe 01:25:18.000 --> 01:25:21.359 I have like a, I wouldn't say like a, an emotional 01:25:21.359 --> 01:25:24.640 support crew, but I grew up listening to those 01:25:24.640 --> 01:25:26.539 stories. And so I was not really prepared for 01:25:26.539 --> 01:25:29.520 them. But my family would come home and talk 01:25:29.520 --> 01:25:33.500 about them, my dad and his dad. And probably 01:25:33.500 --> 01:25:35.899 not the greatest thing, but I think that's the 01:25:35.899 --> 01:25:37.439 way they kind of coped with it. You know what 01:25:37.439 --> 01:25:39.140 I mean? They talked about it and talked about 01:25:39.140 --> 01:25:41.659 their calls and the instances. And I think they 01:25:41.659 --> 01:25:43.260 got it off their chest. You know what I mean? 01:25:43.819 --> 01:25:46.340 And to this day, I mean, I don't come home and 01:25:46.340 --> 01:25:48.439 tell my wife a lot of the calls and stuff because 01:25:48.439 --> 01:25:50.140 she doesn't want to hear that. But if I need 01:25:50.140 --> 01:25:53.550 to, I can talk to my dad about it. I don't think 01:25:53.550 --> 01:25:55.609 a lot of other people have that resource. I'm 01:25:55.609 --> 01:25:57.529 kind of lucky, maybe a little bit different, 01:25:57.649 --> 01:26:00.710 where it is I have those resources. And I go 01:26:00.710 --> 01:26:03.369 up to my grandpa's house to this day, and he's 01:26:03.369 --> 01:26:07.210 92 years old. He's pretty dang old and can barely 01:26:07.210 --> 01:26:08.869 move. But I go up there, and that's all he does 01:26:08.869 --> 01:26:11.550 is talk about his calls. And I was there with 01:26:11.550 --> 01:26:14.810 my kids the other night, and I got to where I'm 01:26:14.810 --> 01:26:17.050 like, I need to start recording his. He's not 01:26:17.050 --> 01:26:19.149 going to be around much longer. I need to start 01:26:19.149 --> 01:26:20.630 recording all his stories. And we've heard the 01:26:20.630 --> 01:26:22.189 stories. It's the same story that he tells over 01:26:22.189 --> 01:26:24.069 and over. But I actually did record the story. 01:26:24.170 --> 01:26:25.949 I set my phone up on the table and recorded it. 01:26:26.149 --> 01:26:29.470 And he was telling my kids, I think my daughter 01:26:29.470 --> 01:26:31.149 had asked him what was the first fatality he 01:26:31.149 --> 01:26:33.390 saw. And he says, I remember when I was first 01:26:33.390 --> 01:26:35.649 on the fire department, we went into a room, 01:26:35.930 --> 01:26:38.630 we pushed the door open, and there was an eight 01:26:38.630 --> 01:26:42.569 or nine -year -old girl who was dead. And we 01:26:42.569 --> 01:26:46.840 could see on her door. Because of the soot, we 01:26:46.840 --> 01:26:48.680 could see her hand marks trying to find the door 01:26:48.680 --> 01:26:50.560 and trying to get out of the room. And he's like, 01:26:50.619 --> 01:26:53.680 that stuck with me. And that was, shoot, that 01:26:53.680 --> 01:26:56.939 was, you know, 60 years ago. And he remembers 01:26:56.939 --> 01:26:58.600 that to this day. And he told that story. I was 01:26:58.600 --> 01:27:00.880 able to record it. But not that that's coping 01:27:00.880 --> 01:27:03.039 with it. And that stuck with him since that day. 01:27:03.119 --> 01:27:06.000 I'm sure he'll never forget that. And he told 01:27:06.000 --> 01:27:09.319 my kids that. It was kind of cool that my kids 01:27:09.319 --> 01:27:11.220 got to hear that. It was a pretty traumatizing 01:27:11.220 --> 01:27:15.529 story. But that's kind of the way that. For us 01:27:15.529 --> 01:27:16.850 as a family, I guess we've kind of coped with 01:27:16.850 --> 01:27:18.710 it as we talk about those stories and the tragedies 01:27:18.710 --> 01:27:21.430 that we were able to try and help with, you know 01:27:21.430 --> 01:27:24.310 what I mean? Yeah, it's a horrible story, but 01:27:24.310 --> 01:27:25.970 we're there trying to help that person, you know 01:27:25.970 --> 01:27:27.550 what I mean? And we've got to save a few of those 01:27:27.550 --> 01:27:30.409 incidences and change the situation for those 01:27:30.409 --> 01:27:33.270 people. So I think it's a little bit different 01:27:33.270 --> 01:27:36.029 for me, but that helps being in the firefighter 01:27:36.029 --> 01:27:38.500 family, if that makes sense, James. Yeah, no, 01:27:38.579 --> 01:27:40.380 it does. It does. The ability just to talk. I 01:27:40.380 --> 01:27:44.140 mean, Dana Ali was on here years ago, and I remember 01:27:44.140 --> 01:27:47.180 her saying that, you know, in theory, we shouldn't 01:27:47.180 --> 01:27:48.960 even have peer support teams. And what she was 01:27:48.960 --> 01:27:51.479 saying was if we actually were cohesive as a 01:27:51.479 --> 01:27:54.619 station and really created an environment for 01:27:54.619 --> 01:27:57.510 us to be. vulnerable in front of each other and 01:27:57.510 --> 01:28:00.010 and the fire uh you know the dining room table 01:28:00.010 --> 01:28:02.229 was still a place where everyone talked and there 01:28:02.229 --> 01:28:04.590 were no phones then that is your peer support 01:28:04.590 --> 01:28:06.350 you know that is your ability to offload and 01:28:06.350 --> 01:28:08.350 it sounds like you had that with this generational 01:28:08.350 --> 01:28:12.329 firefighter family at home yeah and that's a 01:28:12.329 --> 01:28:13.609 perfect way of putting it i've never thought 01:28:13.609 --> 01:28:16.430 of that too but like we shouldn't have peer support 01:28:16.430 --> 01:28:18.250 teams because we should be that family at the 01:28:18.250 --> 01:28:20.390 dinner table and i come home to my family and 01:28:20.390 --> 01:28:22.079 i have that we should be able to have that at 01:28:22.079 --> 01:28:24.060 station. And maybe I need to do better at doing 01:28:24.060 --> 01:28:25.819 that with the newer guys who are at my stations. 01:28:26.279 --> 01:28:28.119 And they can come and talk to us in the mornings 01:28:28.119 --> 01:28:30.720 when we're having, you know, before we get relieved. 01:28:31.619 --> 01:28:34.119 That's a good point, James. I need to do better 01:28:34.119 --> 01:28:36.000 at that and make sure those guys can open up 01:28:36.000 --> 01:28:38.619 to me and be in their support team instead of 01:28:38.619 --> 01:28:42.199 going. I mean, honestly, with my history and 01:28:42.199 --> 01:28:44.140 tradition, I'm not going to probably go to the 01:28:44.140 --> 01:28:45.979 hug lady or whatever you want to call it and 01:28:45.979 --> 01:28:48.720 talk to her about certain situations. Maybe I 01:28:48.720 --> 01:28:50.260 need to talk to him about my cruise in the morning 01:28:50.260 --> 01:28:51.979 when we get off. And we do do that to a certain 01:28:51.979 --> 01:28:53.220 extent. You know what I mean? Everyone grabs 01:28:53.220 --> 01:28:55.899 their coffee or Red Bull in the mornings and 01:28:55.899 --> 01:28:57.619 sits at the table and talks about the shift that 01:28:57.619 --> 01:28:59.659 we had. Maybe we need to do better at that. I 01:28:59.659 --> 01:29:01.140 think maybe that's a tradition that's maybe kind 01:29:01.140 --> 01:29:03.899 of gone away from the fire department. I remember 01:29:03.899 --> 01:29:06.760 my dad and my grandpa talking about that. They 01:29:06.760 --> 01:29:08.960 would sit and talk about it. And that was literally 01:29:08.960 --> 01:29:11.420 their second family away from home that they 01:29:11.420 --> 01:29:13.359 ate, slept with, and fought fire with. And they 01:29:13.359 --> 01:29:15.739 would talk about those conversations on their 01:29:15.739 --> 01:29:17.819 days off. Maybe we need to do better at that. 01:29:18.520 --> 01:29:20.680 Yeah. Well, it really broke my heart. I'd left 01:29:20.680 --> 01:29:23.239 the fire service almost just in time, really, 01:29:23.340 --> 01:29:26.680 when COVID happened. And I'd hear of these fire 01:29:26.680 --> 01:29:28.560 stations and they weren't allowed to sit next 01:29:28.560 --> 01:29:30.000 to each other, weren't allowed to eat with each 01:29:30.000 --> 01:29:32.880 other. And, you know, you've got probably in 01:29:32.880 --> 01:29:35.000 some cases, less calls in more dense populated 01:29:35.000 --> 01:29:37.539 areas, more calls, a lot more fatalities. And 01:29:37.539 --> 01:29:39.760 then they're coming back and, you know, don't 01:29:39.760 --> 01:29:41.819 have that at all. And then you add in the smartphones 01:29:41.819 --> 01:29:44.279 and you've got this. It's kind of destruction 01:29:44.279 --> 01:29:46.340 of exactly what it used to be. And, you know, 01:29:46.359 --> 01:29:48.260 earlier in my career, like Anaheim, that was 01:29:48.260 --> 01:29:51.539 it. We'd sit at the dining room table for hours 01:29:51.539 --> 01:29:55.079 sometimes talking until we got a call. Yeah, 01:29:55.100 --> 01:29:57.699 no, exactly. And I think we're getting away from 01:29:57.699 --> 01:29:59.439 that. Like you say, maybe COVID helped start 01:29:59.439 --> 01:30:01.319 that, but we need to kind of go back to that 01:30:01.319 --> 01:30:03.340 and help these newer guys coming in for sure. 01:30:03.920 --> 01:30:06.979 Be more of a family to them, be the support team 01:30:06.979 --> 01:30:08.779 to them. So that's something that I think we 01:30:08.779 --> 01:30:10.119 could do better for sure as a fire department. 01:30:11.079 --> 01:30:13.550 Absolutely. Well, we mentioned Jonathan Edwards. 01:30:14.050 --> 01:30:16.369 How we were connected was the fact that he was 01:30:16.369 --> 01:30:19.149 now using ketamine to help when it comes to the 01:30:19.149 --> 01:30:21.369 mental health side. I think anesthesiology is 01:30:21.369 --> 01:30:23.949 his world. And he's not the first person out 01:30:23.949 --> 01:30:25.729 on the show that came through that profession 01:30:25.729 --> 01:30:28.270 and then found the therapeutic mental effects 01:30:28.270 --> 01:30:31.310 of that drug. Have you actually yourself gone 01:30:31.310 --> 01:30:39.510 down that path? I have not. Jonathan has become 01:30:39.510 --> 01:30:43.380 a personal friend. and we've talked about it, 01:30:43.420 --> 01:30:45.939 and we haven't really talked about this, but 01:30:45.939 --> 01:30:49.000 I've been able to do some military training, 01:30:49.100 --> 01:30:51.020 and I've been able to work with some of the top 01:30:51.020 --> 01:30:54.699 SEALs in the U .S. and do a bunch of their training 01:30:54.699 --> 01:30:57.140 as far as, I don't know if you know this, but 01:30:57.140 --> 01:31:00.100 the SEALs use off -road motorcycles more so now. 01:31:00.220 --> 01:31:02.399 They use side -by -sides. We have an M version 01:31:02.399 --> 01:31:05.039 of the Polaris Razor, which is the military version 01:31:05.039 --> 01:31:08.000 of the Razor, and they also have an off -road 01:31:08.000 --> 01:31:10.619 truck that they use for some of their... stuff 01:31:10.619 --> 01:31:12.579 and i've been able to work with with some of 01:31:12.579 --> 01:31:15.920 those guys and amazing guys and and the military 01:31:15.920 --> 01:31:19.560 i know that those guys are using that route and 01:31:19.560 --> 01:31:23.340 there's even more um we were just talking about 01:31:23.340 --> 01:31:25.020 this weekend actually with the group of vets 01:31:25.020 --> 01:31:27.680 that were at the race with us that we're doing 01:31:27.680 --> 01:31:31.199 and there's um even more than the ketamine i 01:31:31.199 --> 01:31:33.579 can't remember what it's called but they're going 01:31:33.579 --> 01:31:37.319 yes they're going down to mexico it's not on 01:31:37.319 --> 01:31:40.300 tijuana and they're doing those quite a bit And 01:31:40.300 --> 01:31:44.199 I know that even those guys that were talking 01:31:44.199 --> 01:31:46.359 this weekend, it's helped them out quite a bit. 01:31:47.340 --> 01:31:50.239 Yeah, even from the TBI side, they're showing 01:31:50.239 --> 01:31:54.920 that I think Ibogaine and psilocybin both are 01:31:54.920 --> 01:31:57.989 having... you know brain healing properties basically 01:31:57.989 --> 01:32:00.710 neurogenesis or neuroplasticity whatever the 01:32:00.710 --> 01:32:03.149 official term is for the healing that they're 01:32:03.149 --> 01:32:05.170 seeing but yeah the damage is actually being 01:32:05.170 --> 01:32:07.609 um healed and we used to think the brain was 01:32:07.609 --> 01:32:09.090 like you know when it was done it was done you 01:32:09.090 --> 01:32:10.789 couldn't bring it back but they're they're seeing 01:32:10.789 --> 01:32:13.329 some of these plant medicines actually you know 01:32:13.329 --> 01:32:16.890 change that and see see growth again so not only 01:32:16.890 --> 01:32:19.800 you addressing the psychological issues a lot 01:32:19.800 --> 01:32:22.000 of these people have but also the physiological 01:32:22.000 --> 01:32:25.500 issues so it's very exciting in the first responder 01:32:25.500 --> 01:32:27.720 military world and for us as well there's the 01:32:27.720 --> 01:32:30.680 343 fund there's a siren project there are organizations 01:32:30.680 --> 01:32:34.159 that will send firefighters you know emts medics 01:32:34.159 --> 01:32:37.760 cops to these same type of retreats really i 01:32:37.760 --> 01:32:40.140 did not know that so they were asking me Is there 01:32:40.140 --> 01:32:42.180 any, do you know of any, are they sending firemen 01:32:42.180 --> 01:32:43.500 down there? Is there any firemen that are doing 01:32:43.500 --> 01:32:45.140 that? And I said, I don't think so. I didn't 01:32:45.140 --> 01:32:47.039 actually know that. And I know that the military 01:32:47.039 --> 01:32:49.479 is getting big on it, especially with some of 01:32:49.479 --> 01:32:51.119 the retired SEALs and stuff like that. They're 01:32:51.119 --> 01:32:53.180 huge into it. And it's helping a lot of the guys. 01:32:53.380 --> 01:32:56.140 And I actually did not know that there was firemen, 01:32:56.159 --> 01:32:59.640 first responders that are going down and doing 01:32:59.640 --> 01:33:02.539 that. Yeah, I'm actually going to be doing a 01:33:02.539 --> 01:33:06.000 version of that in February, if everything stays 01:33:06.000 --> 01:33:09.789 as it is. Because for me, it's less. I'd say 01:33:09.789 --> 01:33:12.050 less about TBIs. I was a martial artist most 01:33:12.050 --> 01:33:13.850 of my life, and a lot of people punched me and 01:33:13.850 --> 01:33:16.949 kicked me in the head. And I did stunts, so there 01:33:16.949 --> 01:33:18.770 was some of those where you took a hard hit. 01:33:19.689 --> 01:33:22.189 But also, it's like the thing beneath the thing. 01:33:22.289 --> 01:33:24.029 I've never been troubled, kind of like you. I 01:33:24.029 --> 01:33:26.689 think the kind of family that I grew up with, 01:33:26.850 --> 01:33:28.649 I grew up on a farm. There's a lot of healing 01:33:28.649 --> 01:33:31.130 elements to my upbringing, despite the traumas. 01:33:32.229 --> 01:33:36.119 But there's the brain fog. not feeling like you 01:33:36.119 --> 01:33:38.479 ever get like a full deep, deep night's sleep. 01:33:38.640 --> 01:33:41.739 There's, you know, GI issues. There's some things 01:33:41.739 --> 01:33:43.699 like, okay, there's clearly some shit that I'm 01:33:43.699 --> 01:33:46.640 not seeing that I wouldn't need to unpack. So 01:33:46.640 --> 01:33:49.140 I'm hoping that that will be, you know, that 01:33:49.140 --> 01:33:51.960 little, you know, find that little chest that's 01:33:51.960 --> 01:33:53.720 locked away somewhere in our minds that you can 01:33:53.720 --> 01:33:56.300 open and start processing it. And now you, you 01:33:56.300 --> 01:33:58.180 know, because it's for me, it's about optimizing 01:33:58.180 --> 01:34:00.920 now. I'm not struggling. I don't have flashbacks 01:34:00.920 --> 01:34:02.439 or any of the things that some of our men and 01:34:02.439 --> 01:34:04.770 women struggle with. But how much better can 01:34:04.770 --> 01:34:08.390 you just be as a husband, as a parent, as a writer, 01:34:08.689 --> 01:34:10.729 as a firefighter, whatever it is, if these are 01:34:10.729 --> 01:34:14.930 going to unlock the next level? And I think this 01:34:14.930 --> 01:34:16.890 is a good argument in mental health. Stop thinking 01:34:16.890 --> 01:34:19.899 about it as in it's a weakness. I'm broken. These 01:34:19.899 --> 01:34:22.939 same therapeutics can forge performance. You 01:34:22.939 --> 01:34:25.640 will be better at primary searches on the roof, 01:34:25.760 --> 01:34:29.460 your pediatric codes. You will be an optimal 01:34:29.460 --> 01:34:31.600 firefighter if you can address the things that 01:34:31.600 --> 01:34:33.720 need to be addressed within your mind, within 01:34:33.720 --> 01:34:36.279 your body. So I think if we look at this as a 01:34:36.279 --> 01:34:38.420 performance -enhancing tool as well, it takes 01:34:38.420 --> 01:34:41.539 away some of that stigma that's around not only 01:34:41.539 --> 01:34:43.479 the mental health conversation, but also the 01:34:43.479 --> 01:34:47.449 drug conversation. Yeah. And it's funny, we were 01:34:47.449 --> 01:34:49.170 just literally talking about this last night 01:34:49.170 --> 01:34:52.409 and the night before. The owner of our race team 01:34:52.409 --> 01:34:54.430 I've become really good friends with, and he'd 01:34:54.430 --> 01:34:57.449 gone down and done it in Mexico. And he's like, 01:34:57.470 --> 01:35:00.029 I cannot believe it's not legal in the U .S. 01:35:00.369 --> 01:35:03.229 for what he was doing. And he's like, I don't 01:35:03.229 --> 01:35:05.569 tell many people this. And he ended up telling 01:35:05.569 --> 01:35:08.909 the story. And the way that it helped him, it's 01:35:08.909 --> 01:35:11.529 literally life -changing. So he's actually taken 01:35:11.529 --> 01:35:14.630 multiple vets down there and helped them do it 01:35:14.630 --> 01:35:17.119 as well. And he actually ended up taking some 01:35:17.119 --> 01:35:20.560 of his family members down there and his girlfriend. 01:35:21.539 --> 01:35:24.880 Because for him, he's like, the way he told me 01:35:24.880 --> 01:35:28.260 the story, and just to hear how it changed his 01:35:28.260 --> 01:35:31.819 life, that's huge. And it's still affecting him, 01:35:31.840 --> 01:35:33.819 and it's made him a better person to this day. 01:35:34.079 --> 01:35:35.979 He's like, it was a great experience for me. 01:35:36.039 --> 01:35:39.420 I'm like, I'm kind of like you, where I really 01:35:39.420 --> 01:35:42.300 haven't had those issues. I've had a lot of concussions, 01:35:42.319 --> 01:35:44.689 so it's probably coming down to that. Was it 01:35:44.689 --> 01:35:47.289 USLA? And I've had over 25 good concussions. 01:35:47.310 --> 01:35:49.109 I've had eight or 10 times where I've been knocked 01:35:49.109 --> 01:35:51.010 out and don't remember anything for a long time. 01:35:51.270 --> 01:35:53.270 So I'm sure maybe down the road it's coming. 01:35:53.350 --> 01:35:56.449 But luckily with my family and my faith and everything 01:35:56.449 --> 01:35:58.229 like that, I've been able to not have any issues 01:35:58.229 --> 01:36:01.029 and mentally haven't had those issues, but I 01:36:01.029 --> 01:36:03.170 know that they're real. And if there's something 01:36:03.170 --> 01:36:05.909 that we can do to fix it, how good is that? Or 01:36:05.909 --> 01:36:07.430 to even help with it or help these guys cope 01:36:07.430 --> 01:36:10.170 with it. We should be taking advantage of that. 01:36:10.649 --> 01:36:13.100 Yeah. Well, I mean, even going back to what we 01:36:13.100 --> 01:36:15.619 talked about earlier, imagine if people had access 01:36:15.619 --> 01:36:18.960 to, you know, some of these therapeutics, Ibogaine, 01:36:18.979 --> 01:36:21.560 for example, imagine the impact on homelessness 01:36:21.560 --> 01:36:24.220 in America. Like you could just get someone to 01:36:24.220 --> 01:36:26.779 basically zero out their opioid addiction, their 01:36:26.779 --> 01:36:28.880 alcoholism, which we're seeing. Exactly, or to 01:36:28.880 --> 01:36:31.760 reset it, whereas there's no other way that we 01:36:31.760 --> 01:36:35.060 know of right now in our, you know, we cannot 01:36:35.060 --> 01:36:37.560 do that. And some of the military guys we're 01:36:37.560 --> 01:36:40.039 talking about, it was like a reset button for 01:36:40.039 --> 01:36:42.529 them. and their issues you know i mean how huge 01:36:42.529 --> 01:36:46.050 can that be you know so yeah that's a pretty 01:36:46.050 --> 01:36:50.229 interesting topic for sure absolutely well i 01:36:50.229 --> 01:36:51.789 want to go to some closing questions be mindful 01:36:51.789 --> 01:36:54.109 of your time before we do though are there any 01:36:54.109 --> 01:36:56.770 other elements that you want to talk about or 01:36:56.770 --> 01:36:59.149 even any other kind of calls as we reflect as 01:36:59.149 --> 01:37:00.949 far as you progressing you through your career 01:37:04.750 --> 01:37:07.350 Um, no, not really. I mean, it's been a, like 01:37:07.350 --> 01:37:08.710 you said, it's, it's, it's interesting because 01:37:08.710 --> 01:37:10.189 of my family history and everything like that. 01:37:10.229 --> 01:37:12.869 But, uh, uh, it's been a, it's been a good career 01:37:12.869 --> 01:37:15.710 for me. I've really enjoyed it. Um, for me, I'm 01:37:15.710 --> 01:37:17.670 almost kind of doing two careers. I'll do the 01:37:17.670 --> 01:37:19.609 racing thing. And sometimes I just come back 01:37:19.609 --> 01:37:21.569 and I'm like, I'm so glad to just go back to 01:37:21.569 --> 01:37:23.829 work to sit with my fire station guys and just 01:37:23.829 --> 01:37:26.350 to run a couple of calls. And, and the racing 01:37:26.350 --> 01:37:28.430 can get stressful to me, to, to be honest with 01:37:28.430 --> 01:37:30.989 you, not to sound like a baby, but it's a lot 01:37:30.989 --> 01:37:32.550 of work. It's a lot of travel and it's a lot 01:37:32.550 --> 01:37:34.920 of stress. Um, just like we're getting ready 01:37:34.920 --> 01:37:37.479 for Dakar this year and we've got some big sponsors 01:37:37.479 --> 01:37:39.619 and those sponsors are expecting us to do really 01:37:39.619 --> 01:37:42.520 good. And, uh, you know, Ford's put a lot of 01:37:42.520 --> 01:37:44.239 money into our program and if they're spending 01:37:44.239 --> 01:37:45.619 that much money, they want to win. Anyway, there's 01:37:45.619 --> 01:37:47.800 a lot of stress. And so sometimes it's, it's 01:37:47.800 --> 01:37:49.340 good for me to just come home and I go to the 01:37:49.340 --> 01:37:51.199 fire station and go to work. So I've really enjoyed 01:37:51.199 --> 01:37:54.520 pretty lucky to have the fire department and 01:37:54.520 --> 01:37:57.220 then also the racing career. It's, it kind of 01:37:57.220 --> 01:37:58.699 helps each other hand in hand, to be honest. 01:37:59.980 --> 01:38:01.939 You just hit on a topic. Actually, I'll just 01:38:01.939 --> 01:38:03.359 quickly go to that. We were talking about the 01:38:03.359 --> 01:38:05.479 work week. One of the pushbacks that I've had 01:38:05.479 --> 01:38:08.140 is, well, if we give these guys more time off, 01:38:08.159 --> 01:38:11.039 they'll just work more. And I've always said, 01:38:11.079 --> 01:38:12.579 well, firstly, that's a very arrogant thing to 01:38:12.579 --> 01:38:14.600 say. You don't own these people. They just work 01:38:14.600 --> 01:38:17.560 when they're supposed to be working. But there's 01:38:17.560 --> 01:38:20.199 a difference between having so many vacancies 01:38:20.199 --> 01:38:21.979 that there's so much overtime that work more 01:38:21.979 --> 01:38:24.600 means more hours at your fire department and 01:38:24.600 --> 01:38:26.979 another sleepless night versus doing something 01:38:26.979 --> 01:38:31.000 on the side. And if you had a fully staffed four 01:38:31.000 --> 01:38:34.520 platoon system, 2472, that's, you know, attracted 01:38:34.520 --> 01:38:36.619 people back into the fire service. So you've 01:38:36.619 --> 01:38:39.060 got nice long lists again, like we used to. And 01:38:39.060 --> 01:38:41.439 so the overtime now is few and far between still 01:38:41.439 --> 01:38:43.439 there, you know, especially for events and stuff, 01:38:43.479 --> 01:38:47.090 but not crippling like it is at the moment. Now 01:38:47.090 --> 01:38:49.010 you've got the opportunity for more rest and 01:38:49.010 --> 01:38:51.649 recovery and time to focus on something else 01:38:51.649 --> 01:38:53.609 that you love doing. And this is exactly kind 01:38:53.609 --> 01:38:55.069 of what you're doing at the moment, even though 01:38:55.069 --> 01:38:58.050 the shifts aren't set up for this. But you've 01:38:58.050 --> 01:38:59.970 got another entire profession. You've got another 01:38:59.970 --> 01:39:02.810 entire tribe, another identity, another ability 01:39:02.810 --> 01:39:05.369 to make money so that, God forbid, you can't 01:39:05.369 --> 01:39:07.930 be a firefighter anymore. You've got a safety 01:39:07.930 --> 01:39:10.789 net. And I think that's so important. You know, 01:39:10.789 --> 01:39:14.319 just being a firefighter. there's a lot of downsides 01:39:14.319 --> 01:39:16.760 to that including when you transition out everything 01:39:16.760 --> 01:39:19.520 that you were is gone versus you've got this 01:39:19.520 --> 01:39:22.539 side passion that you also do where you know 01:39:22.539 --> 01:39:24.319 apart from when you're racing obviously every 01:39:24.319 --> 01:39:26.880 night you're in your bed you know with your your 01:39:26.880 --> 01:39:29.699 family and you know um you know having dinner 01:39:29.699 --> 01:39:31.680 and all the things you're not working overnight 01:39:31.680 --> 01:39:35.279 so i think there's so much to be said for being 01:39:35.279 --> 01:39:38.539 all in for 24 hours And then being passionate 01:39:38.539 --> 01:39:40.380 about something on your days off as well. I think 01:39:40.380 --> 01:39:42.220 that's a good thing, not a bad thing, as long 01:39:42.220 --> 01:39:44.220 as you're not working throughout the night every 01:39:44.220 --> 01:39:49.220 night. Yeah, and I agree. Like my dad, he had 01:39:49.220 --> 01:39:52.000 nothing else. His party part was his life. He 01:39:52.000 --> 01:39:55.520 retired. And I remember going over to the house 01:39:55.520 --> 01:39:58.079 one day. He lives not too far from me. He's like, 01:39:58.140 --> 01:40:01.600 I used to have respect and a job. Now I'm just 01:40:01.600 --> 01:40:04.399 your mom's laundry folder. He didn't know what 01:40:04.399 --> 01:40:05.800 to do when he first retired. You know what I 01:40:05.800 --> 01:40:09.000 mean? Um, you gotta have that. I think just like 01:40:09.000 --> 01:40:10.699 we were talking about sports, right? These kids 01:40:10.699 --> 01:40:12.319 are all in one sport their whole entire life. 01:40:12.359 --> 01:40:14.159 They just get burned out and then they don't 01:40:14.159 --> 01:40:16.640 know what else to do. Um, for me, like, like 01:40:16.640 --> 01:40:18.619 talking about it, it's almost like a release. 01:40:18.699 --> 01:40:21.239 I go to the fire department and have a few calls, 01:40:21.319 --> 01:40:23.020 stressful nights, long nights, and then I can 01:40:23.020 --> 01:40:25.279 come home and do that racing thing. And it kind 01:40:25.279 --> 01:40:28.100 of like is another reset for me and helps me 01:40:28.100 --> 01:40:30.390 mentally. Same thing when I'm done racing or 01:40:30.390 --> 01:40:31.670 whatever, like I was just talking about. When 01:40:31.670 --> 01:40:33.369 I'm stressed out about that, I can come back 01:40:33.369 --> 01:40:34.689 and go to the fire station. It kind of helps 01:40:34.689 --> 01:40:36.170 me reset as well. I think it's good to have. 01:40:36.670 --> 01:40:38.029 You've got to have that stuff, right? You've 01:40:38.029 --> 01:40:41.670 got to have something to fall back on to release 01:40:41.670 --> 01:40:44.689 that stress. Let's be honest. I mean, the fire 01:40:44.689 --> 01:40:47.710 department, it can wear on you. You've got to 01:40:47.710 --> 01:40:50.109 have something when you get home, whether it's 01:40:50.109 --> 01:40:52.010 a project or something like that, to work on 01:40:52.010 --> 01:40:54.409 just like we're talking about. So I agree with 01:40:54.409 --> 01:40:57.060 you on your scheduling. Yeah, you're going to 01:40:57.060 --> 01:40:58.920 have more guys sign up or whatever, but that's 01:40:58.920 --> 01:41:01.039 going to be the guys that want to sign up and 01:41:01.039 --> 01:41:03.039 work, that are willing to work. You're not forcing 01:41:03.039 --> 01:41:05.520 the guys who knows what someone's going through, 01:41:05.579 --> 01:41:07.760 whether it's a divorce or something at home as 01:41:07.760 --> 01:41:09.539 well as the job, and it's just stressing them 01:41:09.539 --> 01:41:11.439 out to the max. It's going to give those guys 01:41:11.439 --> 01:41:13.699 an opportunity to rest up and kind of mentally 01:41:13.699 --> 01:41:17.270 reset, and you need that. Yeah. Well, even, you 01:41:17.270 --> 01:41:19.210 know, the cause of the divorce is, as you said, 01:41:19.329 --> 01:41:21.270 when we go home and we're exhausted and then, 01:41:21.289 --> 01:41:22.829 you know, you're supposed to be home. There's 01:41:22.829 --> 01:41:24.210 an event you're going to do with your partner 01:41:24.210 --> 01:41:25.689 or your children. And now you've got to call 01:41:25.689 --> 01:41:27.409 them and say, hey, I got forced. I'm not coming 01:41:27.409 --> 01:41:29.850 home after all. Now that other partner has to 01:41:29.850 --> 01:41:32.829 be a single parent for another 24, 48 hours on 01:41:32.829 --> 01:41:35.010 top of what they're trying to do. You know, these 01:41:35.010 --> 01:41:37.770 are all fractures to our relationships with our 01:41:37.770 --> 01:41:40.869 partners, with our children. So when you get 01:41:40.869 --> 01:41:42.770 people home when they're supposed to, you know, 01:41:42.789 --> 01:41:46.579 for 42 hours a week. the impact that it's going 01:41:46.579 --> 01:41:48.680 to have on relationships in the fire service 01:41:48.680 --> 01:41:50.899 is going to be amazing so hopefully you won't 01:41:50.899 --> 01:41:53.119 have any as many people going through divorces 01:41:53.119 --> 01:41:55.579 and these kind of things because yes there might 01:41:55.579 --> 01:41:58.039 be a you know like with my first marriage just 01:41:58.039 --> 01:42:00.880 those two personalities weren't destined to be 01:42:00.880 --> 01:42:03.039 together forever but i've got lots of friends 01:42:03.039 --> 01:42:05.140 that were head over heels in love with their 01:42:05.140 --> 01:42:07.979 partners and i watched the job break them down 01:42:07.979 --> 01:42:09.859 and it destroyed their marriage and it was the 01:42:09.859 --> 01:42:11.720 job that did it you know the way that they were 01:42:11.720 --> 01:42:15.090 worked rather than how we could do it in a healthy 01:42:15.090 --> 01:42:18.609 way. So I think that we joke about the people 01:42:18.609 --> 01:42:21.210 saying in 10 years, you'll be on your third divorce 01:42:21.210 --> 01:42:23.449 and have an alcohol problem. There's nothing 01:42:23.449 --> 01:42:25.770 funny about that. And we can turn that around. 01:42:26.369 --> 01:42:29.329 If you went to a bank or a supermarket or whatever, 01:42:29.489 --> 01:42:30.850 and that was what they told you at the front 01:42:30.850 --> 01:42:32.529 door, you'd be like, what the fuck are you doing? 01:42:32.989 --> 01:42:35.170 How is that a thing in this business? But in 01:42:35.170 --> 01:42:37.890 our profession, we laugh about it. So I think 01:42:37.890 --> 01:42:41.350 we could really make it an emotionally and relationship. 01:42:42.780 --> 01:42:45.380 healthy profession if we address this issue too 01:42:45.380 --> 01:42:47.699 so i mean there literally are no downsides to 01:42:47.699 --> 01:42:50.520 be honest but this is a massive one imagine if 01:42:50.520 --> 01:42:53.640 you had a lot of firefighter marriages that stayed 01:42:53.640 --> 01:42:58.359 intact that in itself is worth the fight there's 01:42:58.359 --> 01:43:00.159 always room for improvement right and this is 01:43:00.159 --> 01:43:02.180 an area that i see that we need to improve upon 01:43:02.180 --> 01:43:05.399 and i've already talked to one of my good friends 01:43:05.399 --> 01:43:06.680 who's a chief and said hey what do you think 01:43:06.680 --> 01:43:08.899 about this what can we do about this and i think 01:43:08.899 --> 01:43:11.140 we're a long ways out but i think it's something 01:43:11.140 --> 01:43:13.939 that needs to be addressed my good friend who's 01:43:13.939 --> 01:43:16.340 on the fire department he told me when i was 01:43:16.340 --> 01:43:19.560 at station 32 he's like dude that station almost 01:43:19.560 --> 01:43:23.220 cost me my marriage i'm like i was i i knew it 01:43:23.220 --> 01:43:24.840 dude i like i know like now that i look back 01:43:24.840 --> 01:43:26.260 on it i'm like you're absolutely right he's like 01:43:26.260 --> 01:43:28.539 no dude it's like i'm telling you i was not the 01:43:28.539 --> 01:43:30.359 same person i'm like i know he's exactly right 01:43:30.359 --> 01:43:32.319 so there's definitely things that we need to 01:43:32.319 --> 01:43:34.939 do to improve right and it's sooner the better 01:43:34.939 --> 01:43:38.380 because we're changing lives so yeah i really 01:43:38.380 --> 01:43:40.279 appreciate what you're doing with that to be 01:43:40.279 --> 01:43:41.779 honest with you and i'd love to have you come 01:43:41.779 --> 01:43:44.600 out and to our fire station and talk and work 01:43:44.600 --> 01:43:47.420 on things that we need to do to get that you 01:43:47.420 --> 01:43:50.840 know changed yeah well i hope it becomes a nationwide 01:43:51.550 --> 01:43:53.470 you know, profession standard. I mean, it really 01:43:53.470 --> 01:43:55.930 does. So the rising tide lifts all ships. The 01:43:55.930 --> 01:43:57.689 first, you know, early adopters obviously are 01:43:57.689 --> 01:44:00.369 going to forge a path. Plano, Texas has just 01:44:00.369 --> 01:44:03.189 gone to it. They're doing it in four years, but 01:44:03.189 --> 01:44:05.930 they've initiated it now. So that's a lot closer 01:44:05.930 --> 01:44:09.119 to you. You know, the West Coast is... It's interesting, 01:44:09.180 --> 01:44:11.159 like Southern California, it's like, you know, 01:44:11.159 --> 01:44:12.899 they've never even thought of that concept. But 01:44:12.899 --> 01:44:15.479 if you go Pacific Northwest, they actually have 01:44:15.479 --> 01:44:17.720 four platoons, but they have debit days. So their 01:44:17.720 --> 01:44:19.399 thing is obviously we'll make those debit days 01:44:19.399 --> 01:44:22.220 go away. So all these different things, the Northeast 01:44:22.220 --> 01:44:25.239 has been working 42 hours for a long, long time. 01:44:25.479 --> 01:44:27.920 So it's getting all these wires to connect, getting 01:44:27.920 --> 01:44:30.340 these people to realize, A, you know, they deserve 01:44:30.340 --> 01:44:32.479 it and their families deserve it. B, it's absolutely 01:44:32.479 --> 01:44:35.220 possible. C, the money is there. It's just all 01:44:35.220 --> 01:44:38.289 downstream with overtime. And then D, how do 01:44:38.289 --> 01:44:40.250 you figure out how to work in your department? 01:44:40.430 --> 01:44:42.630 If Plano, Texas can do it in four years, you 01:44:42.630 --> 01:44:45.710 can do it in four years. So I think, I feel it's 01:44:45.710 --> 01:44:48.229 exciting. So, but if I can help in any way, just 01:44:48.229 --> 01:44:52.689 let me know. Will do for sure. All right. Well, 01:44:52.770 --> 01:44:54.930 the first of the closing questions, is there 01:44:54.930 --> 01:44:57.449 a book or are there books that you love to recommend? 01:44:57.670 --> 01:44:59.689 It can be related to our discussion, excuse me, 01:44:59.689 --> 01:45:02.130 our discussion today or completely unrelated. 01:45:03.119 --> 01:45:06.260 uh dr jonathan uh edwards has written a couple 01:45:06.260 --> 01:45:09.180 books and that are really good and john's really 01:45:09.180 --> 01:45:12.819 good at uh he understands the mental side as 01:45:12.819 --> 01:45:15.079 well being an athlete himself and being a doctor 01:45:15.079 --> 01:45:17.000 now and jonathan's put out some really great 01:45:17.000 --> 01:45:19.140 books you can look up his website uh jonathan 01:45:19.140 --> 01:45:20.939 edwards but you've had him on there before as 01:45:20.939 --> 01:45:24.159 well i'd recommend those for sure absolutely 01:45:24.159 --> 01:45:27.920 what about uh films documentary television any 01:45:27.920 --> 01:45:31.119 of those that you love Documentaries. I love 01:45:31.119 --> 01:45:33.500 documentaries. Hearing about people that do amazing 01:45:33.500 --> 01:45:36.779 things that inspire me. I'm flying a lot overseas 01:45:36.779 --> 01:45:39.260 and everything like that. And on our flights, 01:45:39.319 --> 01:45:41.220 I always get to watch a documentary. And for 01:45:41.220 --> 01:45:44.060 me, motivating documentaries are people that, 01:45:44.159 --> 01:45:47.439 extraordinary people who do things and accomplish 01:45:47.439 --> 01:45:50.479 things. It's just amazing that motivates me. 01:45:50.579 --> 01:45:55.020 I love good documentaries. I can't think of one 01:45:55.020 --> 01:45:58.689 offhand that I've just watched or anything. uh 01:45:58.689 --> 01:46:01.789 for me also podcasts and i travel a lot like 01:46:01.789 --> 01:46:04.609 we talk about even to work two hours a day for 01:46:04.609 --> 01:46:09.289 me podcasts that are uh motivating um that talk 01:46:09.289 --> 01:46:11.710 to people i mean you've even had some great podcasts 01:46:11.710 --> 01:46:14.430 as well of people that are motivating that are 01:46:14.430 --> 01:46:16.850 just doing great things in life and that inspire 01:46:16.850 --> 01:46:19.550 me to be better you know what i mean so podcasts 01:46:19.550 --> 01:46:22.109 and documentaries like that are really good and 01:46:22.109 --> 01:46:24.609 like i'll get off work in the morning drive two 01:46:24.609 --> 01:46:27.430 hours to alamo I'll pop in a good podcast and 01:46:27.430 --> 01:46:30.149 it kind of helps me reset as well. So just doing 01:46:30.149 --> 01:46:32.449 those things and listening to those things that 01:46:32.449 --> 01:46:34.250 are positive and upbeat that make you want to 01:46:34.250 --> 01:46:37.710 be a better person. I like a lot of the military 01:46:37.710 --> 01:46:41.010 podcasts as well, you know, that the Sean Ryan 01:46:41.010 --> 01:46:43.329 show and just talking to people have done amazing 01:46:43.329 --> 01:46:44.949 things in life, makes me want to be a better 01:46:44.949 --> 01:46:48.149 person, inspires me and helps me to realize that 01:46:48.149 --> 01:46:52.300 I don't have life that bad, you know. Speaking 01:46:52.300 --> 01:46:54.659 of amazing people, is there a person that you'd 01:46:54.659 --> 01:46:57.079 recommend to come on this podcast as a guest 01:46:57.079 --> 01:46:59.800 to speak to the first responders, military, and 01:46:59.800 --> 01:47:03.119 associated professions of the world? Yeah, I'll 01:47:03.119 --> 01:47:05.819 give you. I've got a good fire. One of our battalion 01:47:05.819 --> 01:47:08.840 chiefs, who's now our assistant chief, he was 01:47:08.840 --> 01:47:11.380 a captain of mine for a while. He's just a good, 01:47:11.399 --> 01:47:14.199 inspiring person, good person. He's always working 01:47:14.199 --> 01:47:16.859 hard, doing better. You need to talk to him and 01:47:16.859 --> 01:47:18.479 you need to talk him into making sure that our 01:47:18.479 --> 01:47:20.239 department gets on to the different schedule. 01:47:21.000 --> 01:47:25.560 We can make that happen. All right. Well, then 01:47:25.560 --> 01:47:27.220 the last question before we make sure everyone 01:47:27.220 --> 01:47:30.020 knows where to find you, what do you do to decompress? 01:47:33.239 --> 01:47:36.520 Family. Spend time with my kids. I don't get 01:47:36.520 --> 01:47:39.539 to see them quite as much as I can, but just 01:47:39.539 --> 01:47:42.340 my kids are inspiring to me and want me to be 01:47:42.340 --> 01:47:46.569 a better dad. You know what I mean? There's not 01:47:46.569 --> 01:47:48.989 much you can do in this life that you can take 01:47:48.989 --> 01:47:51.010 with you, but I believe that your family and 01:47:51.010 --> 01:47:52.689 the associations that you have with your kids 01:47:52.689 --> 01:47:55.890 and the way that you raise your kids is going 01:47:55.890 --> 01:47:58.529 to stick around forever. It's going to be your 01:47:58.529 --> 01:48:01.489 legacy. Being able to spend time with my kids, 01:48:01.630 --> 01:48:03.869 try to help them to become better, be an example 01:48:03.869 --> 01:48:08.560 to them is something that just... And for our 01:48:08.560 --> 01:48:11.479 belief and our religious, that's what this life's 01:48:11.479 --> 01:48:13.460 all about, is being able to raise good family, 01:48:13.539 --> 01:48:14.979 raise good kids who are going to be productive 01:48:14.979 --> 01:48:18.819 in society. And my kids are inspiring to me to 01:48:18.819 --> 01:48:21.859 see the things that they love to do, to watch 01:48:21.859 --> 01:48:24.859 their lives develop and stuff like that. It's 01:48:24.859 --> 01:48:27.500 a great, great reset to me, just being able to 01:48:27.500 --> 01:48:29.520 spend some time with my kids and being able to 01:48:29.520 --> 01:48:34.960 see how simple they take life. And yeah. And 01:48:34.960 --> 01:48:38.399 family is important to us in my faith and stuff 01:48:38.399 --> 01:48:41.000 like that. So, you know, I'll stick with family. 01:48:41.140 --> 01:48:44.859 And then also, I love mountain biking and motorcycle 01:48:44.859 --> 01:48:47.359 riding. If I need to reset or go get some exercise, 01:48:47.640 --> 01:48:50.600 I'll go mountain biking or I'll go ride my motorcycle. 01:48:50.659 --> 01:48:52.500 And it's the ultimate, you know, just clears 01:48:52.500 --> 01:48:55.119 my mind. It's a good, you know, mental workout 01:48:55.119 --> 01:48:57.520 and a good physical workout. It's something that, 01:48:57.579 --> 01:49:00.380 it's my go -to. I don't get to do it very much 01:49:00.380 --> 01:49:02.720 anymore. And you got to be careful not to get 01:49:02.720 --> 01:49:05.159 hurt, but that's my go -to is mountain biking 01:49:05.159 --> 01:49:08.739 or going to ride in motocross. Love it. Yeah. 01:49:08.760 --> 01:49:10.279 With the family, I think this is what I've talked 01:49:10.279 --> 01:49:12.579 about a lot with, you know, just, just again, 01:49:12.640 --> 01:49:13.880 the environment that we're talking about a minute 01:49:13.880 --> 01:49:16.460 ago, as far as the way we're worked, there's 01:49:16.460 --> 01:49:18.319 a lot of chasing of money, you know, when it 01:49:18.319 --> 01:49:21.039 comes to negotiations, it's the pay raises, but 01:49:21.039 --> 01:49:22.680 I always say, well, what's the ultimate currency? 01:49:23.020 --> 01:49:25.260 The ultimate currency, in my opinion, is time 01:49:25.260 --> 01:49:27.119 with your family. because you can never, ever 01:49:27.119 --> 01:49:30.479 get that back. So, you know, that's the same 01:49:30.479 --> 01:49:33.579 as you. For me, that's what I always look forward 01:49:33.579 --> 01:49:35.640 to. That was my decompression was time with family. 01:49:35.739 --> 01:49:38.319 So sometimes that gets a little blurred, especially 01:49:38.319 --> 01:49:40.720 when we're exhausted and, you know, running to 01:49:40.720 --> 01:49:44.939 the ground. But if not for them, then who? Yeah, 01:49:44.960 --> 01:49:49.840 no, exactly. And I got to find a balance. You 01:49:49.840 --> 01:49:50.939 know, we're always trying to balance in life, 01:49:50.979 --> 01:49:52.420 but my balance is off right now. I'm going to 01:49:52.420 --> 01:49:54.920 be honest with you. with the fire department 01:49:54.920 --> 01:49:57.260 and in order for me to make all my races i do 01:49:57.260 --> 01:49:58.600 a bunch of shift trades which are allowed to 01:49:58.600 --> 01:50:01.239 do so when i am home i'm not actually home i'm 01:50:01.239 --> 01:50:03.060 at the fire station repaying people back for 01:50:03.060 --> 01:50:06.039 all my shift trades and unfortunately my family's 01:50:06.039 --> 01:50:08.060 kind of taking the back seat it seems like so 01:50:08.060 --> 01:50:10.300 i need to do a reset and figure out a better 01:50:10.300 --> 01:50:12.539 balance in my life right now as well and put 01:50:12.539 --> 01:50:15.819 my family first so i'm glad we were able to talk 01:50:15.819 --> 01:50:18.979 about it today yeah me too well for people listening 01:50:18.979 --> 01:50:21.239 if they do want to learn more about you follow 01:50:21.239 --> 01:50:25.390 you where are the best places online I'm old, 01:50:25.449 --> 01:50:27.670 so I'm horrible at social media. Red Bull says 01:50:27.670 --> 01:50:29.210 I even need to do better and I get in trouble 01:50:29.210 --> 01:50:32.029 for not posting a bunch of stuff. But Kellen 01:50:32.029 --> 01:50:35.029 Walsh, K -E -L -L -O -N, Walsh, W -A -L -C -H, 01:50:35.189 --> 01:50:39.369 at Instagram, Facebook. Also the Dakar Rally. 01:50:39.369 --> 01:50:41.770 If you follow the Dakar Rally, if anyone's interested 01:50:41.770 --> 01:50:43.550 in the Dakar Rally or knows what it is, if you 01:50:43.550 --> 01:50:45.810 don't, it's quite interesting. It's getting ready 01:50:45.810 --> 01:50:48.529 to happen in January. It's the longest, toughest 01:50:48.529 --> 01:50:51.880 offer. off -road race in the world. The Dakar 01:50:51.880 --> 01:50:54.800 rally .com has a website. It's a daily updates. 01:50:54.960 --> 01:50:57.220 It's, I think it's in like 90 different languages 01:50:57.220 --> 01:50:59.760 and broadcast all throughout the world. If you 01:50:59.760 --> 01:51:01.920 go to Europe or anywhere else in the world, the 01:51:01.920 --> 01:51:04.260 Dakar rally is huge. Everyone knows what it is. 01:51:04.760 --> 01:51:07.760 Not quite as big in the U S but it's getting 01:51:07.760 --> 01:51:09.539 bigger, but we have the Dakar rally coming up 01:51:09.539 --> 01:51:13.579 in January. It's in Saudi Arabia. Ford puts out 01:51:13.579 --> 01:51:15.579 a good, they do a good documentary on it. I can 01:51:15.579 --> 01:51:18.050 send you the links. to the documentary from last 01:51:18.050 --> 01:51:22.210 year uh ford did a really good job um so uh myself 01:51:22.210 --> 01:51:24.069 and i we never talked about this but i'm just 01:51:24.069 --> 01:51:26.310 a i'm just a navigator i don't even drive right 01:51:26.310 --> 01:51:30.029 now um but uh my driver's name is mitch guthrie 01:51:30.029 --> 01:51:31.569 we're getting ready to do deck car so it's the 01:51:31.569 --> 01:51:34.170 big one for us it's like the super bowl um so 01:51:34.170 --> 01:51:36.409 that's our biggest race in january and it's pretty 01:51:36.409 --> 01:51:37.949 interesting to follow if you're not familiar 01:51:37.949 --> 01:51:40.649 with it check it out and follow along in january 01:51:40.649 --> 01:51:43.909 it's it's it's intense brilliant well good luck 01:51:43.909 --> 01:51:46.869 i'm sure i'll speak to you before but uh With 01:51:46.869 --> 01:51:48.850 that being said, I want to thank you so much. 01:51:48.909 --> 01:51:50.489 I mean, like we said, we had to kind of go back 01:51:50.489 --> 01:51:52.270 and forth to make this work, as you alluded to, 01:51:52.310 --> 01:51:54.550 your station or your training or your racing. 01:51:54.630 --> 01:51:57.430 So I'm so glad that we got to sit down. I mean, 01:51:57.449 --> 01:51:59.310 we've been all over the place today with our 01:51:59.310 --> 01:52:01.289 discussion. So I want to thank you. Yeah, we 01:52:01.289 --> 01:52:03.989 have. So I want to thank you. I wasn't sure what 01:52:03.989 --> 01:52:05.609 we were going to talk about. But no, no, I appreciate 01:52:05.609 --> 01:52:07.470 your patience with me. I've enjoyed it. And like 01:52:07.470 --> 01:52:09.489 I said, ever since Jonathan told me about you, 01:52:09.529 --> 01:52:12.210 I've really enjoyed your podcast. It's helped 01:52:12.210 --> 01:52:14.630 me. Pass the drive time a lot, actually, with 01:52:14.630 --> 01:52:16.390 some good, valuable information. So thanks for 01:52:16.390 --> 01:52:18.409 what you're doing. Keep up the good work.