Welcome to the Ocean Water Podcast.
I have my good friend today, Toby Cunningham,
2003 Billabong XL paddle wave winner.
Massive amounts of street cred.
And then also a movie that Toby stars in called Magnetic
has just gone up on Netflix
and I'm really, really happy for you for that.
Congratulations.
That's a little bit of a professional introduction to Toby.
He has spent the last five plus years
living in Nazare, Portugal,
where he's a part of the small sort of underground,
although not so underground big wave surfing community
that's been developing there for the last decade.
And then just on a personal note,
Toby and I lived together for three years in San Diego.
Toby was my roommate.
Totally straight, okay.
Really, really, really good times together.
Yeah, we did.
A lot of that we'll get into today, but.
But.
Blowing up fireworks in the house, that's fun, man.
You gotta tell them all about that.
We actually did use to light fireworks in our apartment.
Yeah, it's fun.
Didn't we wait, Ramza, didn't you put an M80
by the Spilla up?
Yeah, I put an M80 on him.
Like, I put a pan over him just so that it'd blow a hole
in his chest, but then he threw it off
and it went on the floor and blew up,
and that's why we didn't get any deposit back
because it literally just put a huge hole in the floor.
So they didn't like us too much.
If us lighting fireworks in our apartment
would have ever come up on my interview
in when I got hired for working with the recording,
probably would have not gotten hired.
I don't know, he might have liked you.
If one of the questions would have been,
is now is it true that you and your roommates
used to wake each other up by putting an M80s on each other?
I would have had to say, yeah, actually we did.
There was a season where we thought that was funny,
but the best one was the time that you threw an M80
inside the popcorn that Ramza's making in the kitchen.
And you threw his popcorn.
Oh, so good.
I can't believe we didn't die.
Wild.
It's fun.
It's good to talk to you, bro.
So just tell everybody, so when you're home these days,
where do you like to go to eat and what do you get?
I like to cook.
So my wife and I love to cook
and so we'll get super fresh fish from the market.
And that was just caught.
I mean, it's a fishing village here, so it's really easy to get fresh fish.
And we just grill it.
We have a barbecue and then we just get organic greens
and pretty much munch on that.
Or we'll go out for a steak or whatever.
The steak's so good here.
And gosh, that's pretty much lunch.
And then I don't eat dinner.
I do intermittent fasting.
So I eat dinner at 2 o'clock.
And then I don't eat until breakfast, which is at 8 a.m.
I pretty much do what Ryan actually had inspired me a long time ago
to put a bunch of superfoods in one little place.
And that's pretty much my breakfast, like 16 different things
and just smash it all together.
And it's really good.
Still do it.
Thanks for the smoothie plug, dude.
I've been into that stuff for a while.
Yeah, and so what do you, Toby, what are you doing these days
and how did you get into it?
So my wife and I, I mean, we run a YouTube channel called Crypto Tips.
So it's talked about cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, Ethereum, all those other things.
It's pretty much decentralized platforms.
And then we're in the process of writing a book as well on it.
And let's see, then we hold classes as well on it.
So Heidi is like one of the first females to be in the space.
And so it's been kind of a good introduction for the world
to see crypto in the eyes of a female.
And then we hold a book on it.
And then we hold a live on YouTube.
We go live on YouTube at 5 p.m. Eastern time on Mondays.
So, yeah, that's what we do.
And so we're on for about 35, 40 minutes.
Heidi talks about like crypto space and I talk about the economy and stuff
and what I see what's happening.
So it's a lot of fun.
Otherwise, when the surf is giant here, which is usually pretty giant
because they have this huge canyon right off the coast here.
It's like the second largest canyon in the world.
And the waves just get funneled in there and become pretty much the biggest surf in the world.
Definitely the biggest surf in the world.
So I have a team of tow surfers that we like to go out and have fun
and play some crazy stuff out there.
So it's fun.
No, crazy is always an interesting word when you start to dig around it.
So I'll give you an example.
So I'll never forget the time, I think it was like 2012.
There was a huge swell that came into San Diego
and the waves were breaking over the end of the OB pier.
And it was like super windy.
It was raining.
And you like had your wetsuit on.
I could see the waves from our place.
I'm like, hey, dude, what are you doing?
You're like, oh, I'm going to go jump off the pier
and I'm going to surf that reef at the end of the pier.
And you can go.
And I was like, I don't think so, dude.
It's like 20 foot storm surf and you had a 6.0.
You like stormed out of our place with a 6.0 and you went, you got a few waves.
But the kicker was the time we went down to Todos.
You've always been a really humble guy, which I love.
And you're like, hey, go surf Todos with me.
It's going to be double overhead.
It'll be super fun.
So I think it was like me and you and Drew Tedes and Marco,
we like chartered a boat, got out of Ensenada.
We'd go out.
I'm suiting up on the boat.
I'm like, oh, that's super fun.
The colors looks good.
I suit up.
It's like double overhead.
And then all of a sudden I see a 35 foot sneaker set.
And I was like, oh, no, I think I'm good.
I'm going to go surf.
That's it.
Yeah.
So I felt like I was going to start.
That was a fun trip.
It was a fun trip.
It was a fun day.
Yeah.
Waves that are like 25 faces and smaller.
That's me.
So you're one of the really small percentages of people whose brain is...
I mean, unless it's barreling, then it's cool. Like Chopo, like so for instance, like I really
like to heating this wave called Chopo. So the wave there could be 10 foot and just amazing.
But it's a giant barrel. So that it's, you know, it's a real big challenge. So I really like the
challenge of the ocean. And if it doesn't present a challenge, then I don't know, kind of lose it.
But I hear you. So for people that are meeting you for the first time, that don't know who you are,
that screen saver, that virtual background that you have, that's actually a photo of you
surfing that way. That's not just something, some stock being pulled off of the internet.
Yeah, that's actually, it's switched the opposite way. So that's actually a left.
So I'm goofy, but... So you're living in Nazareth, also you're a film that you started called
Magnetic, just got onto Netflix. Congratulations, dude. Yeah, thanks, man. Yeah, good. It was awesome.
And in typical Toby fashion, everything was understated, which I love. And, but it's really
good to just see you just enjoying your life with your wife and surfing big waves. I know that's
what you love. And the part that I love is just knowing you really well, it was, you had a line
in there, but you know, you used to surf big waves probably a half a dozen times a year when we were
living together in San Diego. Now you get to surf it every day. So congrats, bro. Thanks, man. Yeah,
you got to come out here. We'll get you into a small one. Welcome to Portugal as soon as we can.
And I'd like to stay there with you guys and then we should have... Awesome. Yeah, I look forward to it.
So no fireworks. No fireworks.
All right. So what are some things that current Toby might say to 20 year old Toby?
The sky's the limit pretty much. I mean, I wasn't a super confident 20 year old. I love big waves,
but I just wasn't, I couldn't picture myself, you know, making something of myself like really big
or whatever. So like, you know, I had faith in God, but it was pretty immature at that point. So
it was really hard to really pursue like giant goals just because I really didn't have the
confidence and I really didn't have that much faith either. So I was like, I'm not going to
catchon more with this than you guys now. But I try as much as I can. Like, I thought it was
impossible. And like you came through that designer era, and you realized the waterways
really didn't have a lot more weight in them. All right. Yeah. I mean, I lived next to the
life, people are just telling me, hey, you know, stop what you're doing.
You know, you need to get a regular job.
You need to, you know, do this and that and this.
And I just always thought, oh, this is wrong.
You know, I don't want to do that.
So probably just stay away from the crowd and really do your own thing.
Because if you're sticking with the crowd in life, you're really not going to
accomplish anything amazing.
And I'm saying that from experience.
So it really was hard to pry away, get out of the jaws of the crowd.
But yeah, that's definitely what I would say.
Great advice, brother, and you're living it.
Yeah.
What are you curious about right now?
What are you interested in these days?
I'm really interested in trying to, I know that sounds weird, but trying
to bank the unbanked.
So there's like 2.6 billion people around the world that are unbanked.
And finances is one of my just, I love it.
If there's so many, so much depth to it and trying that's pretty much why we
are in crypto as well, because it is the chance to bank these people.
So for instance, in order for me to, for like a dollot in India to set up a bank
account, they can't because they don't have adequate forms of ID.
They don't have, you know, the necessities to show that they are a worthy person to
go ahead and open up a bank account.
Whereas with crypto, I can just send stuff, money from all around the world,
Bitcoin or whatever, to anyone.
It doesn't matter who it is, whether it's legal or illegal, it doesn't matter.
I can still send money to that person.
And I can literally set up a bank account for somebody that has no internet access.
So that is really cool.
And I'm pretty stoked on this new technology and governments hate it, but I
really love it.
So yeah, I'm really, that's pretty much my main curiosity right now.
Other than that, there's so many different things health wise and I can go on about
that, but that's probably the main thing is that.
Yeah, I mean, the cat's out of the bag.
As you said, there are 2.6 billion people who can't find, we don't use traditional
banking.
Yeah, they can't.
Most of it's built around control and usury and technology is increasingly
disruptive to so many parts of our world.
And one of the areas that it's disrupting on a massive scale right now is banking.
And you're right.
The powers that be, the governments don't like that.
No one likes it when they're leveraging powers taking over the world.
The power is taken away from them.
It doesn't matter what the industry is.
The reactions are always the same.
And so that's true in finance.
It's true in so many, it's true in water.
It's true in so many different sectors when you really try to help people.
And so that's really exciting, man.
Yeah, it's pretty cool.
What's exciting about it is there's a lifetime of work to do in what you're
interested in.
Yeah, for sure.
Cool waking up every day and being so engaged and realizing if I spend every
waking moment learning about this and trying to help people, there would be 10
lifetimes I want to do.
Yeah, that's it, man.
For sure.
So what are some, what's something that you have failed at?
I mean, fail is an interesting word.
I don't really look at things as failure, but like learning.
So, I mean, it's kind of like if I fall in a wave, did I really fail?
Not really, because I mean, it's just another ride as well underwater.
And you learn a little bit for each wipeout.
You learn how to hold your breath.
You learn how to stay calm.
So there's give and takes.
So fail, I mean, I failed a couple of tests, but I mean, I don't really, I
don't look at a lot of things as failing.
And, you know, I like this one verse that says, gosh, what is it, Ruhemann's
5, 3 through 5.
Geez, I cannot believe I forgot it.
It's about perseverance and letting it finish its work.
Yeah, yeah, like God pretty much, you know, uses what you think you failed at
or whatever to do good through it.
So, how did I forget?
What's the verse?
I totally forgot it.
God works.
God uses all things that work together.
Work for good.
Yes.
For those who love God.
So it's like, yeah, so I can view my life as there's a lot of things that
I, a lot of trials that I went through, but, you know, that kind of made me to
the person I am now.
Yeah.
Thanks, Ryan.
What do you know about kind of what's your understanding of the landscape
right now, as far as like water in the world?
What would be your thoughts on that?
You're really well read.
I mean, I think there's, there's plenty of water for people, but it's just like,
companies have monopolized water in a way to where they're taking water from
the land, not letting people have it.
And also, you know, the cleanliness of the water as well.
That's what I, I mean, if you look at like India or whatever, Bangladesh,
like where, where you're setting up, I mean, the water, a lot of villages
have like crappy water.
So there are people dying of dysentery and, and all those things.
And that's like dysentery, people dying of dysentery is like one of the leading
causes of death in the world for third world.
So, I mean, that's like huge.
It just shows that like people need clean water.
So, I mean, that's like huge.
It's more huge than any virus.
It's more huge than anything.
So yeah, there's not a lot, a lot of clean water out there.
No, there's not.
And you hit the nail on the head and there's plenty of water in the world.
The problem is governments and other agencies can want to control the supply
so that they can charge cash and treat it as a commodity.
Yeah.
But that's one view of water.
One view of water is that it's a commodity.
So if your view of water is a commodity, then of course you would want to
control the distribution and charge people for it.
That's one view.
Then there's our view and ocean water's view is that water is a fundamental
human right and it's not a commodity.
Yeah.
That water should be free, price point of zero, and accessible and clean
to the people that need it.
So the reason why ocean water will have 10 lifetimes of work is because
there are no people currently that I can find on the internet or by referral
that are doing small scale off the grid desalinization projects where they
distribute ocean-based water for free.
Zero.
Hard to believe.
We're either geniuses or the bar has fallen so low.
That's it.
Yeah.
I've often said to my wife, how's it possible that we're going to have
a 45-year-old grandfather, me, 46 now, is the person having conversations
on the internet about this?
How's that even possible?
Yeah.
And I still don't have an answer to that question, but it's certainly
interesting.
Part of it is the return on investment.
When you invest in a privately funded system, you're basically betting
on people's good nature, their godly nature, that they're going to treat
the system with respect and that they're going to distribute that water
for free and they're going to meet needs.
Yeah.
And I've been in the industry for a long time.
I've been in the industry for a long time.
And it's been a long time that I've been in the industry for people to
meet needs.
Yeah.
And I do believe in people's good godly nature.
And I believe that.
There are.
As people start to understand.
That the reason why.
This problem isn't being solved.
It's being solved by the people who are in the industry.
And as that network grows.
Then the water problem will be, can, can get solved.
It's much like, it's much like 60 years ago, if you go back 60 years.
Most of the.
Important prestigious.
Information.
The people who are in the industry.
They're going to be able to access that information.
So the way you had to access that information was by attending.
An island school.
And then along with attending the island school,
you got to access the information that you got to get the relationships
that came from being part of that network.
That's not, that's no longer how the world is now.
The internet's changed all that.
Now anyone in the world can get the information that they need.
And that's the way it is.
And so.
You can't get an answer to anything.
If you have a smartphone at eight seconds.
A smartphone plus good internet access,
you can get the right information in eight seconds,
but you still have to know the right questions.
And so.
The reason why I'm so committed to these conversations.
I do, I do this once a week.
Is because we want to get people talking about why it's important.
Why it's important to have a conversation.
And then we want to get people talking about how important it is.
There are a lot of parallels that, you know, we, we've not,
we've not.
Chatting.
In depth like this in a while.
Cause we used to be roommates and now you live on a different.
But.
There are a lot of parallels between.
The decentralized aspect of.
In the world and.
The decentralized aspect of water.
Yeah.
And the deep-sea, deep sea.
The deep sea of the water.
What's that?
In the, in the redistribution of power.
Redistribution of control and power.
The marginalized.
That's really exciting, man.
Exciting.
It's exciting to talk about that.
It's what's also been,
what's also interesting too about our friendship is how.
Is how you and I have been, have been,
Right, huh?
Out there playing in the ocean.
Yeah.
I know.
I mean, I think there's a lot of hope as well with this.
I think that the crypto side will eventually wash through
to every aspect of life, which is decentralization.
Because we've seen what centralization actually does.
It destroys the world, kills people.
It puts you in the hands of people that are psychotic
and that don't care about you.
I think a lot of people are catching on
to decentralization.
I'm hoping that this really wins out.
So this will be great.
Well, centralized systems always,
they always corrupt and abuse.
Decentralized systems always empower and serve over time.
Yeah.
Most people start to understand that.
And the reason why is because the power is just true.
Yeah.
Remember the old saying,
you hear it absolute power corrupts absolute.
Absolutely, yeah.
Decentralized power.
Sword acted.
Curs absolutely.
Yeah.
There's a different way and there's a better way.
And a lot of what you do,
I'm gonna imagine with your wife is you're sort of,
there's kind of two ways to tackle problems.
One way is you raise a bunch of money.
That's one way money's important.
The other way is you raise minds.
Yeah, that's it.
Raising education.
There you go, raising minds.
Yeah, for sure.
Raises the money.
You can raise the money and never raise the minds.
Yeah, that's it.
But if you raise minds and you get people.
That's university for you.
That's it.
You're in a traditional setting
or not in a traditional setting,
but it's important that you adopt that framework.
Sure.
It's an operating framework.
That's really interesting.
Yeah, that's it.
That's interesting.
This is great, man.
I would love to do this again.
Our 20 minutes is absolutely flown by.
That's fun.
You're one of the-
I don't know how much time that was.
Well, it was.
Well, you have so much to say.
It's a boost to share.
So much perspective.
You live in a big life.
You live in a wonderful life.
And just-
I think we both are.
Well, thanks, dude.
We're trying.
Yeah, man.
Yeah, for sure.
We're really trying, dude.
And let's do this again, dude.
Yeah, okay.
That sounds great.
Just let me know.
Again, congratulations, dude,
on your wife and living in Portugal
and your new film on Netflix
and all the great things you're doing, brother.
And we'll do this again, dude.
Last thing, dude.
Any last words that we need to hear from Toby today?
Last words.
I mean, I've pretty much said it all.
I think, you know,
like I said, stay away from the crowd.
You're not gonna go anywhere with them.
So do your gifted-
I know this sounds really cheesy or whatever,
but you gotta put your mind to what you're gifted at
and you gotta find that.
Otherwise, you're gonna live a pretty boring life.
I was pretty bored in life until I found out my passion.
And now I literally cannot wait to wake up and get up.
It's so fun.
So I think Ryan's found the same as well.
And yeah, he could attest to that.
Thanks, brother.
Yeah, cool, buddy.
Your wife, and thank you for your time today, man.
No worries.
All right, I'll see you in Portugal soon, dude.
See you, buddy.
All right, I love you, bro.