The Sevan Podcast - #269 - Ricky Garard

Episode Date: January 17, 2022

Ricky is a CrossFit Games athlete, but he is also an enthusiast of all things outdoors. He loves snowboarding, skating, mountain biking, and surfing. He owns a van that he can live in and take on life's adventures. After having a rough go with illness while in the United States, he is soon to be headed back to his home in Australia to begin the 2022 CrossFit season. Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/ Watch this episode https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC59b5GwfJN9HY7uhhCW-ACw/videos?view=2&live_view=503 Support the show Partners: https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATION https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca. Please play responsibly. Bam, live. Bam, we're live oh my goodness a word of advice a free word of advice I know usually I'm very conservative

and I keep to myself but on your fasting day don't drink 10 cups of coffee you know what I saw this weekend there's all these brands and stuff But on your fasting day, don't drink 10 cups of coffee. You know what I saw this weekend? There's all these brands and stuff around here. There was this bottle of something that was basically just spray sodium. I know a lot of times when people fast, they do a little shake of salt or whatever in their water because it's often something that you don't want to be deficient of especially if the fast is going to be longer so i've never seen that before have you ever seen that spray sodium no but but i like that business just water and salt in the

bottle and sell it it looks like an axe bottle yeah yeah oh you saw it too yeah they gave me some b o a maybe it was a company oh is it pressurized so it's like aerosol yeah it's like a list i think so like do you try it caleb i did it's it was like a berry salt taste like it literally just tasted like salt with like a little bit of berry i don't think you should aerosol stuff into your mouth i have no there's no science behind that it's not like i just i just don't think so whatever you know what i mean yeah it's weird it's a weird concept you know this stuff's good yes that's so good had a nice a nice conversation with jeff uh in vendor village the other day, and he gave me this bottle to try. If I was wealthier, I would do that on the reg, like four times a day.

That stuff's good. You haven't tried it yet, Brian? I took a couple yesterday, but that was the first day. It tastes good, huh? That cayenne pepper sting a little bit? I don't know. The taste wasn't memorable one way or the other for me.

I put it under my tongue and just hold it in there. Savor every last drop. Where's Ricky? Oh, wow. Sarah's flow. Where's Ricky? Ricky had a meeting and he is running a few minutes late

so yesterday and the day before and the day before and the day before and the day before we covered an event called wadapalooza in miami and on sunday was my fasting day and so to stay on my fasting day i normally used to have like one or two cups of coffee. And yesterday I seriously probably had like 10. And my stomach is unsettled. I'm not going to lie to you. My stomach is unsettled. And stomach is not like the exact word I'm looking for.

What's below your stomach? Where does stuff go after your stomach? Your bowels, like your intestines. Yeah, that spot. That spot's acting weird. Lots of caffeine would leave that to you. Here's a link that I i this is supposed to i'm going to dig into my notes for my live call-in shows while we wait for uh ricky i don't know why this is on here oh your live

call-in shows oh no i know i'll try to keep it cool here this one's good you'll like this please disregard me and in these next 10 minutes. Yes, I think that's fair. This is James Sprague's dad. Patrick. Yeah, I don't know how. So is this this weekend? Yeah, yeah, he was competing. He wasn't first for a majority of the weekend.

I just want to say I don't know for sure if the non-elite divisions swimming workout have been completely finalized in every division um obviously there were some complications with that and uh i know as of last night they were not and even the morning talk i've had written written an article in which i had said that olivia kerstetter had come second in her division and now as of this morning she's listed as first in her division so if you're trying to track any of the non-elite divisions just be aware that they there still could be some room for change in some of those throughout the day today i believe uh i i don't have a uh jessica you you better watch your mouth i don't have a peptic ulcer or whatever the fuck you're talking about. How dare you?

Go to your room. Peptic ulcer. Your mom has a peptic ulcer. No, I didn't break my fast. Hey, did you meet this dude, Brian? No, I didn't realize he was here. I kind of put it together last night with either a comment or something you had

said, but I would have loved to have met him. Unless I did meet him and he's got an alias or something. Dude, someone needs to cast that dude in a movie. He is so cool looking. Did he get my joke? Yes. Yeah, I did. Sorry.

I should have laughed a little. I mean, I'm not myself. Sometimes it's like I have a peptic ulcer. I don't have a peptic ulcer. Do you know what that is, Caleb? You're a doctor, aren't you? Yeah, for sure. No, not really.

It's just like when your stomach has a lot of acid in it and then it just like irritates the lining of your stomach. And then it can just kind of like cause you to want to vomit or like shit yourself basically. Yeah, I'm – this is not cool. This is not cool. I'm peeing out of my butt, but it's like oil. It's like if I just – if I did it on a pan, I could make eggs on it. It's just oil coming out i don't know how there's oil coming out from god okay um so look by the way when you watch james sprague's dad

workout this is what i look like when i work out but with lighter weights but it's just like everything looks just like a little too heavy no matter how much is he's lifting look at that's what happens to old guys. Like the pop is gone. It's all, it's all just muscling it. You see that? It's just all reverse curls and stuff, man.

How did he do Brian? Um, I don't know. He was, I think he was in first most of the weekend. It's I think the 50 to 54 division. Let's see what it says right here. When I was talking, when I was, no, he was in first most of the weekend. It's, I think, the 50 to 54 division. Let's see what it says right here. When I was talking about it and you were shaking your head,

were you disappointed in what I was saying? Or were you shaking your head at your screen? I don't know. I'm writing an article. He finished second in his division. What? Ladies and gentlemen, 80% of my attention is on my bowels uh i think that the spot below my stomach according to um caleb and uh 92 of uh brian's attention is on paper he's writing

so um caleb's here i think caleb caleb's 72 here so between the three of us i didn't prep for ricky at all. Okay, I will show you guys another. Well, he's so, you know, he's a man of many words, so you won't have to fill very many gaps in conversation, probably. I'm going to make so many long, uncomfortable silences on this.

Let me see. I'm trying to avoid any vaccine stuff because oh yeah this is a great video you ready for this one look at this one this is awesome uh here we go these are notes from your live call-in shows like these are topics i was going to talk about on my live call-in shows this is why it's important for first responders to do um crossfit by the way look i think that's the guy i think that's the guy who is uh movement is everything tactical practical and medical that's why caleb does cross it did you see that uh did you see that truck compiling in hold on let me

see if i can refresh that okay here we here we go. Look at this thing. And the guy in the neon, that's the guy who's in the subsequent video? I hope so. That's what I'm telling myself just for fun so that I can enjoy the video more. I mean, dude. Holy cow. I mean, he must have – it's too bad we couldn't see the left side there. He must have rolled because that thing was fish channeling way to the left.

Yeah. It gets pretty treacherous when, I mean, even if it's like, like when in Virginia, that was, and they had people like semi trucks, like they just couldn't see anything ahead of them and they were basically doing this so when you have like a mass casualty like this it becomes a bit of a

problem and if you're not prepared for it it can be even worse hey that looks like some like it doesn't even look like um yeah, strong coffee is good. It's really good. It's like a treat, and there's no jitters with it. I don't know how they do that. I wish I had some right now actually. The amount of strong coffee I had this weekend was unwieldy. That's usually what I'm drinking, by the way.

You know that blue cup that I drink on the show sometimes? That's strong coffee. Do you have the black one where you just put one little scoop or do you have the, I have the morning fix and I like it. I think the way, same way you do. I drink it with a glass of whole milk. You probably know.

I showed the owner that I do that and he's like, Oh, I've never seen that. I was like, Oh, that's weird. You did it on your Instagram. And I was like,

I also do it that way. And I had been doing it that way before I saw you post it one time. And I just assumed, like, that's what a lot of people do. Yeah, it's awesome. Maybe it's just the cool kids, though. Okay, here, I can't help it. Sorry. We'll do one COVID post.

Here we go. do one covid post here we go uh for those of you who um go to church and you're concerned about getting um sick from the priest uh or getting the priest sick this priest has covered himself in 3000 plastic oh no that's rich farnley he's just getting ready to jerk 315 three times that he puts on that plastic suit first remember when he had all that did you see when he had like seven belts on yes that was awesome it took me a while to get that this is the equivalent here oh my goodness well over over the top probably i i watched this video and video, and I laugh at the priest for all those plastic bags, and then I just switch to that girl's butt. And then the next 12 times I pretend like I'm watching the video,

I just stare at that butt. I mean, that butt is crazy. You know, I hadn't actually noticed it until you said it, and now that you said it, I can't see anything else. Yeah, it's incredible. I like it. See how on the bottom of her butt cheek how the denim is like crinkling? I like that look for some reason.

It's cool. It's better than just like the smooth look. Anyway, we live in a weird world. That should be titled lack of faith. Lack of faith. No, no, I don't want to get all mushy right now, but I could, I should just do a whole thing on what success looks like, even though like I have no business talking about that, but we'll brand stutter. If you want to know what success is, watch what he's doing. This is the problem.

You can meet a thousand people and you won't come across someone like him. And when you do, you won't even know it. But he's basically a guy like if you left him alone in a field, he would build a house, plant a garden, and make a self-sustaining ecosystem. The guy cannot stop creating and working. And he's just some kid we met on Instagram and he's just taking the podcast and just running ahead with it. He's just like, and I'm just like, yeah, cool. It reminds me of the early days of CrossFit. Actually, we were all, it was just growing so fast and there was so much room for creativity. Greg

and Lauren just let us just go buck wild. A priest in a full body suit, but I don't write any of that stuff i mean i i i read through them and i'm like hey i guess that sounds like uh how i feel oh you know what's crazy is how how trippy people are um he posted he wrote something about jason hopper and then jason hopper reposted it and said don't think for a second that um uh was that a naked guy behind you, Caleb? Don't think for a second that I – don't think for a second that Sevan wrote that or something and people are like, are you and Jason fighting? No. Without Jason, my show is nothing. I don't fight with anyone.

I love everyone. Peace and love. I love Craig Ritchie. He should come on the show. He's a good dude. Just kidding. I am not the Rogan of CrossFit. I did tell you I had a... What was that?

I think your YouTube's open it is not we're streaming live on Pornhub too is your Pornhub open oh that's it yes my Grindr date must have left that open did you hang up on me earlier because I made that joke yeah it wasn't

I don't mind if you make those jokes about me but I have a lot of respect for that guy oh and he could hear I didn't i don't mind if you make those jokes about me but i have a lot of respect for that guy oh and he could hear i didn't appreciate it he's not here oh oh wow so you didn't mind that i was making fun of you you minded that i was making fun of him yeah and i thought we were gonna delay 15 so I was going to try to finish that article. Maybe take a deuce. Hi, Ricky. Hi, Siobhan.

Is it weird that you're such a handsome man, but we can't see you? The world's missing you. What is going on? You look like – can you turn the lights on in the room? Yeah, the lights are on. Give me one second. All right. That's what I said to my wife.

Oh, wait a minute. What happened then? Oh, there we go. Okay, I have a list of 642 questions. Where were you on the night of december 2nd 2017 and what did you have in your hand what did you eat that night he's prepared i swear if someone says some dumb shit in the comments, I will ban you for life. I'm not even fucking kidding.

No one has to come on this show. And, uh, and, and, and Ricky's coming on the show and it's like, he's in our living room and I treat people in my living room all the same way.

You say something fucking stupid and get the fuck out of here. Ricky, I don't, I, I wanted to try to say hi to you this weekend. I saw you a few times, but we were kind of moving in opposite directions, but I'm Brian. Nice to meet you. Yeah. Nice to meet you, Brian. I didn hi to you this weekend. I saw you a few times, but we were kind of moving in opposite directions. But I'm Brian.

Nice to meet you. Yeah, nice to meet you, Brian. I did see you out there analyzing the floor, but I didn't get a chance to say g'day. And this is Caleb. He's behind the scenes, but now he's under the table. Now he just took off his pink underwear. And if I say something like, Ricky, that was a great lift you did in 2015 then caleb starts searching the internet to put it up or he pops on and goes no seven that was

2017 and he corrects me awesome hey so you went to dubai then you came home well you came to the semi-great country of the United States. And you went to Vegas where you train, right? Yeah. From Dubai, I went to LA because that was the direct flight. It's like 16 hours straight to LA. And then I drove from LA to Vegas and camped out there for three weeks. Are there direct flights? Did you take a direct flight from Australia to Dubai as well?

Yeah, I did. Yeah. Yeah. 14 hours. So just to kind of put in perspective of how far you traveled to get here. Very long way. And did you roll with your lady? Did your lady go to Dubai?

Yeah, she came with me. And you guys sat next to each other in the plane? Yeah, we did. me, yeah. And you guys sat next to each other in the plane? Yeah, we did, yeah. And some other guy. And I'm guessing his name wasn't Benny. Nah, not Benny. Did his shoulders encroach onto your seat? Nah, she was in the middle.

You're a good dude. You didn't take the middle seat? You weren't like, honey, go ahead. Nah. You don't have to sit next to this filthy American. How was L.A.? Did you get to see L.A. at all? Nah, we spent a night at Venice Beach.

Oh, man. It was horrible. It really is horrible, right? Yeah, I couldn't believe it. Hey, had you been there before? Yeah, I went there in summer in 2017. That was like where we went after the games and had a bit of a holiday. And it was nice in summer, but it was not a nice place.

Yeah, tell me what you saw. So for those of you who don't know venice los angeles california the united states earth planet earth is falling apart as we know it and what happened is a couple years ago um these there's became this movement to just hate police officers it's completely insane it's completely insane it's completely insane and there became this movement to hate police officers and so police officers and so police officers are just chilling now i mean not chilling's a little extreme but they're just not engaging criminals like why would they they don't want to get in trouble and so they've stopped

engaging criminals and crime is just on the rise everywhere it's nuts and so one of the places that's falling apart is los angeles and venice beach one of the most some of the most expensive real estate in the United States of America and the world has now gone to shit. I can't believe you got to see it firsthand. Yeah, it was just harmless people everywhere. OK, so let me let me say one thing here. That's a total mischaracterization. Those aren't homeless people. Those are drug addicts.

You have to understand that people. Oh, I want to help the homeless people those are drug addicts you have to understand that people oh i want to help the homeless people the other day i saw a video of a guy and it's like man covers homeless man with jacket and homeless man gets up and beats up man and robs him i don't know if you guys saw it it went viral on instagram he's not covering a homeless man he's covering a drug addict who needs his next fix yeah you jackass i woke up to two homeless men fighting in the street did you just get in and throw some blows too yeah i actually wanted to help one of them because the other guy was winning he was like bashing him up with his guitar i was like this isn't fair do you see anything like that in Australia ever? No.

No populations of drug addicts living outside? There's a little bit of it in Sydney, but nothing like that. And definitely not where I'm from. Can you put in perspective what part of Australia you're from? I don't think a lot of people are probably not familiar with the geography of Australia in general. My perspective is that you live a little bit more rural Australia. Yeah. So if you think of Sydney, it's about an hour and a half down from Sydney and then inland probably like an hour off the beach.

It's like a town called Middagong is the town where I'm from. Why? Why? That's like people who live in California but town where I'm from. Why? Why? That's like, that's like people who live in California, but live in like Fresno. Why? If you search Mittagong, it's near Wollongong.

That's, Wollongong is where I moved to, to, to get away from, uh, the boringness and find some, something to do. Yeah.

You belong walking around in a pair of shorts and your shirt off near the beach like that should be your primary uh goal that's that's where i'm from yeah yeah that's it oh oh oh i was wondering like i did that on accident no caleb hijacked the screen i see what's i see what's going on here. Yeah, but I'm not sure what the population is, but it's not very much. But it's a small little town. Everyone knows each other. Everyone's slept with each other's girlfriends.

My kind of town. Your sister's your wife. Hey, to put it – how many people does Australia have, 30 million people? I'm not sure. Last I heard, 24. Okay. Well, that's a good thing because, you know, in Iceland, they only have 300,000 people, speaking of island nations. And so everyone is actually – it's not it's not only that you everyone has slept with everyone's girlfriend everyone slept with everyone's sister mom dad cousin everything so at least you have enough people to kind of space that shit out a

little bit that's it i know some of you are like oh he's so funny that's so crass no it's neither funny nor crass it's just just the facts. The facts. It's the truth. So you go to Venice Beach, and do you think that's where you got COVID? No, I think I got it on the plane. To Vegas? To LA, from Dubai. Oh, okay.

You want to know something crazy, Ricky? I was in Dubai in 2019, and I think I got COVID on the plane back from Dubai in 2019. About two hours into it, I started feeling a fever, and it was an absolutely miserable flight. That was before COVID was even a thing? Well, no one had really heard of it, but the previous sanctional was in Chengdu, China. And guys like Tommy Marquez and a couple of athletes, Luis Vikstrom, for example, had competed there or covered the media and then traveled to Dubai and I hung out with them, came home, and I was just like terribly sick

for like five days after getting back. Actually, I haven't really been sick at all since then. So I think I might've gotten it real early on. Yeah, you got that natural immunity. Luis Vikstrom? Does that name deserve to be? No one knows who the fuck Louise Vickstrom is. Do you know who Louise Vickstrom is, Ricky?

I'm sorry that Brian's mentioning lower-tier athletes in your presence. Like, keep it games athletes, sir. Hiya, Brian. Louise Vickstrom. That's not what Louise Vickstrom is. I resent that response, Siobhan. I saw a paper from the Department of Defense the other day that they knew that SARS was around in 2018 from Project Veritas and that they released in 2020 that the cure was ivermectin. Did you see those papers, Brian?

No, but I'm pretty convinced that at this point you could go online and find evidence to support whatever claim you want to. So I don't spend much time doing that. So you – so then you – so you spent – you hole up in a hotel room for four days with your girlfriend. Yeah, we're in like a – Is it bad? Yeah, it's fucked. I don't even remember. I don't even remember it. I want to forget about it.

But, yeah, it was a horrible time. We were in like a pretty shitty hotel. I wouldn't even call it a hotel. I'd call it a motel where cheap people try and live and they crank music all night and you can hear people next door and arguments going on out in the car park um that's where it was staying it wasn't far off the strip we were just stuck in there for four days just like in bed just feeling like shit and just hurting uh like muscle soreness

bones hurting like that kind of like deep flu stuff Yeah, just deep aches in the joints and muscles. My head was going to explode, and I just couldn't eat, and I couldn't control my temperature. I was getting in the hot shower because I was freezing, and then I'd start sweating. Have you ever been that sick before? No. sweating and then have you ever been that sick before no i had you know i mentioned that these that i got sick in 2019 like that two years before that i got the flu and it was equally as bad and all the things that you're describing where you just want to forget it and you like it was like

five days of delirium and all this stuff yeah yeah but i think that that's you know kind of important to put in context is like people get really sick from the flu and always have and people die from the flu and always have. And this, you know, it's not anything that anyone wants to deal with, but it's not like a unique thing that's just happened to people in the last two years. Like these kind of illnesses have come and gone for people for you know centuries millennia yeah i never i never get sick like it was a shock to me and just almost this whole trip i feel i have been sick and it's not a it's not a good time how old are you 27 you know what it is it's because you're standing upside down when you're in the united states you're used to standing like this now you're on the other side of the earth and you're like this and all your shit just running down to your head. Man, my head hurts still right now.

I had the flu once probably five or six years ago and it was the craziest sickness I've ever had. It was like what you said. And basically I remember like walking to my bed and I couldn't even make it and I laid on my, in my bedroom and just told my wife to cover me with as many blankets as she could. And to just bring me a bucket of water. And I, and I, I seriously was ready to die.

My, I, my bones hurt, but when it was over, it was over in one second. Was yours over in one second? Like all of a sudden I just broke a sweat and I was like, Oh my God.

But it was so bad. It was not carried on. Like I felt better. Like I could go on with my and I was like, oh, my God. But it was so bad. It was not carried on. I felt better. I could go on with my day and do things, but it wasn't over in a second. I'd have some ibuprofen, and I'd think that I was getting better, but it was just the ibuprofen kicking in. I'd be good for like three or four hours, and then I'd feel it wearing off, and I'd be like, oh, shit, give me some me some more hey did you ever think that you might die were you ever like

or your girlfriend gets scared because there is so much media you know what i mean everyone's dying bodies in the streets we're like oh shit i'm gonna die nah didn't get that intense how about your girlfriend though she's a girl girls do that like they have uh what did someone i'm gonna get in so much trouble for bringing this up. They have estrogen malfunctions. How about girl? Did she think she was going to die?

She was fine. She was just worried about me. She was? Yeah. She didn't quite get hit as hard as me. She was sick but didn't have, like, the headaches and the body chills and that. She was sick but didn't have the headaches and the body chills and that. She just had the body aches and just normal fever, couldn't eat.

That's because you games athletes are carbohydrate addicts. You guys run your bodies ragging and beat up on your immune systems and then you guys just sit around and just suck down sugar all day to be explosive. You guys are like race cars. True or false? My partner reckons I live off thin air and sunshine. Do you not eat a lot? Compared to some, I don't eat much. I struggle to eat during training and before training,

but at nighttime I ate a lot, a lot of food. Yeah. You are lean. You are lean. How much do you weigh right now? Oh, I don't want to know,

but I lost, I lost 10 pounds when I had COVID and I probably lost more now. Cause I've been to the toilet a lot. Yeah. I've been to the toilet four times this morning. I normally weigh 200 pounds, like 89, 90 kilos. So you think you're below 190 now? I hope not.

I think I'm about 86, which is 187 maybe. No. So you're not a little pinner like Taylor Self, that guy who was in Miami. You're a little thicker than him. Yeah, not like that. Yeah, good. There he is. There he is.

Hey, do you have someone who helps you with your social media? No. No. You don't have a professional photographer? Do you have an agent? Yeah, I've probably just gotten with an agent after this weekend. Oh, really? Before that, I had nothing and no social media help.

I have a couple of photographers that have come and shot some stuff now and then, but I don't have anyone that I work with all the time. and shot some stuff now and then, but I don't have anyone that I work with all the time. Do you know if many Australians have any agents or representation like that? I mean, obviously Tia and maybe Cara, the really, really big ones, but outside of them? Yeah, no. That's all I know of, to be honest.

Yeah, I'm not sure. James Newberry has one. He was selling that product that helps you get rid of lice in your dreadlocks. I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sure he has one. And Khan, I'm not too sure. But it's definitely something you need. Did you talk to – was Khan – you've made the decision to come to the U.S. now

to, like, spend some time here? I wasn't, wasn't sure I'd kind of come here to try it out and see if that's what I wanted to do, but I'm actually flying home today, back to Australia. Oh, we're going to get to that. That's a complete mistake.

I'm going to try to discourage you to do that. Go on, Brian, do you have a follow up question for that? No, no, I just, I know that Khan had spent some time out there in Vegas,

and so I didn't know if you'd maybe talk to him in trying to decide if that was something you wanted to do. Yeah, I was definitely thinking about it, staying longer. But, yeah, Australia is too good. The life I live back home and the lifestyle I have and the people around me, it's just like I'm happy with that and that's what I want to have leading into the season and across the games this year.

So I think that's my best place to be for this season. So that's what I'm going to do. Caleb, can you pull up his Instagram? be for this season so that's what i'm gonna do kayla can you pull up his instagram hey um uh ricky um so when you fly back where will you land sydney and then will you have to do 14 is the town you live in in the same region as sydney or will you have to quarantine twice no i'm i'm fine i'll go straight back in i'm double vaccinated so if you're double vaccinated they they leave you alone oh really you just land and you're free they just open the door of your cage of the plane and you're free yeah i'm out straight straight home yeah has that changed

has that changed recently because the all the athletes that went back from the games still had to go through that quarantine process. Yeah, it all changed. November, maybe? November? Okay, because I just was a UFC fighter I was talking to who had to do 14 days in the city he landed in, and then when he switched to another city, he had to do another 14 days. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that's what James Newbery had to do another 14 days yeah yeah yeah that's what um james newberry had to do 14 days in sydney and then adelaide which is another flight had their own rules of another 14 days so he did 28 days like that's insane yeah that's crazy um caleb will you scroll to the picture of him in front of he's in front of like a VW bus or a van, that one. So who took that? That's my car. That is your car? Yeah.

Who took that? ET is his name. ET. He's just a local guy, just a local videographer. He shoots like models and stuff like that. He knows a bit about CrossFit, but he's not heavily into it. Yeah, you don't want someone who's heavily into CrossFit to do it. I'm telling you, dude.

So someone said, hey, whatever's going on with Ricky's Instagram and his social, he has good agents and he has good handlers. And so it's pretty cool to hear you say that you don't because that's just you and you're just representing yourself really well. I mean, dude, you should get into modeling. That's a crazy photo. That is – I mean, that's the dream right there. That's what every kid in the United States wants to be doing between the ages of 17 and 25.

He wants to have a good body. He wants to jump in a van, and he wants to snowboard or skate or do some shit like that. You can say my mountain bike is in there as well you can see yeah yeah yeah i didn't see it until you said it yeah yeah i got my like my towel my helmet and there's a there's a bed in there the fridge that's uh that's how i live what is that what make is that what's that what is that van like what make is it oh it's a hyundai hyundai oh we don't even have those in the states huh i have a hyundai sonata but not this kind of cool van ricky on a given week or maybe in a month how much um activity do you do that's outside the gym mountain biking snowboarding whatever the or surfing whatever you guys do yeah a lot a lot

like during the week it's kind of pretty pretty tame just like all crossfit lots of training between the home gym and in benton where i train and then then like Thursdays is usually like an active recovery day. So I usually go to the – we've got like an outdoor 50-metre saltwater pool like right on the beach. So I go there and do laps, do my laps there. And then it only takes me like an hour and then I've got the whole day to do whatever else i want i'm not spending four hours in the gym so usually i take the dog for for a skate along the boardwalk and

take him for a swim and then i'll go up into the mountains and get on my mountain bike and just pedal for a few hours and and ride down the hills and so it is a good-ass life. Yeah, it's awesome. And you got your brother there. Yeah. Any other siblings besides Benny? Yeah, I got two sisters. Do you see them a bunch too?

You still see Benny a bunch, right? He's in your town? Yeah, I've been living with him the last year. Oh, that's awesome. Live with him and his wife. Yeah, we set up a place in with a home gym and it's not far from the beach and got a yard there for the dog and all our mountain bikes and surfboards and just yeah it's a good good life but yeah my sisters um they're older than me they're both into crossfit as well they just they do it just for health there you go jeff jeff evans uh so who's pushing you these days are

you training with benny who's your guy who's your like okay let's get in there i need someone to push me do you have one of those and is it benny yeah benny's not really pushing me like in the workouts, like side by side, but he's mainly the one that's like in my ear barking at me during the workouts and gearing me up for the lifts and the strength and all that. But pretty much just training with the members of the gym. We've got a couple of athletes there that are striving to do well, and they're super motivated. They literally don't miss anything on the program.

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Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card. Terms apply. Yeah, pretty much just been training at the gym on the side while the class is happening, and we're all just kind of out the back there, just gearing each other up and having a good time. Are you self-motivated? Yeah.

And do you know what drives that? Like, are you trying to prove something to your dad, to your mom, to God? Do you like discomfort? Like, do you know what's driving you? I just, for for one i just enjoy working out i just love pushing myself i love the endorphins you get from training and like also i'm good at it and if you're good at something it's always enjoyable you know But, yeah, I've always believed that I can be one of the best in this sport, so that's why I've never given up and that's why I'm still here today

to prove that point. Why do you think that? Just from, yeah, like how I train, the results I'm getting in training, my comparisons with the other top guys and their times and the weights. Are you disciplined? Yeah, fairly disciplined. Probably not as disciplined as some, but that's just not really my style. I like to have a lot of variety and not be too much of a robot

and kind of enjoy the journey as well as try and do well. Yeah, I mean, there's definitely not only one way to do it. Some people, maybe they read the Matt Fraser retiring article and they're like, man, I have to be locked in on every detail of my life from here to here to here to get there. forth best in terms of his career accomplishments. And he's, you know, pursued a career and a relationship and a kid, and he has fun with his friends and does all this other stuff. He has got a totally different balance and still achieves that. And here, a guy like you, who's, you know, you're out and out back there doing your thing with your buddies, you're training hard, but you have some balance in your life. So I don't think there's anything wrong with that at all. I do. I think there's something horribly wrong with it hey did you did you

we'll get back to that in a second i don't believe you i i don't i don't i think that you don't believe us yeah i don't believe either of you well we'll get into this again uh i mean because i hang my hat up every day on like i there i think that all these people these guys who are at this level that ricky's at are like there's something in them like i will outwork everyone i will be more disciplined than everyone i like someone else is quitting i am not fucking quitting i am not going to take today off from the podcast i am because just because i worked fucking eight hours a day i'm gonna get wake up and i'm gonna see ricky this morning like there's like you're not getting to the top of the mountain unless you unless you like

have a little bit of like, fuck you in there. I don't think he's saying that he doesn't work hard. He's just smoking hash from morning to night. I think it's pretty obvious that he's working hard. You just heard on his active recovery days, he swims, he skates, he bikes. On his other days, he's four days in the gym. He's got a great group of guys that are pushing him all the time. Probably they're giving him messages right now saying, hey, man, you're traveling around the world getting sick.

We're over here beating your ass when you get back. Yeah, pretty much. I definitely need to get back there and get back to what I was doing. Did you see Matt? Did you and Matt and or you and Pat? So this this Palooza was the first time you were in a space with them since 2017, right? Yeah, that's right. Did you run into either of them?

I ran into Matt, but I didn't run into Velner at all. And how was that with Matt? Because he's been quite vocal about you. It was actually all right. He was surprisingly pretty nice to me. I was walking into the hotel to go and check in and register for the event and um he was walking out with the buttery bros and i kind of said g'day to them and then turned around and he was there and he um said g'day and how's uh how's the flight and how long you been

here and told him all that and told him I was in Vegas and it was cold and he said, oh, cold, you should try and come live where I am. And then that was kind of it and he was kind of on the go and he went that way and I went that way and that was it. Ricky, in your life, have you spent any significant amount of time in snow or a snowy environment? Oh, like I go to the snow. I've been in the snow every year since I was like four years old. My parents take me up to the mountains once a year for like three days and just like a family holiday every year.

But I never spent like weeks in a cold environment like that are you glad you got that out of the way like when you saw matt were you like okay like obviously like if i was going to that event there's so many people there that i talk shit about that i would want to like i would either not want to see them in fucking at all or i'd want to see them right away and just be like, you know what I mean? Just get through the weird. Was it like, oh, good, check that off the list. Okay, I don't have to think about that anymore. I mean, I'm sure he felt the same way, I'm guessing.

Yeah, it was kind of like that. I just wanted to see them all and just get it out of the way before the competition started and just like whatever happened happened and just move on um yeah it was it's a bit of a relief would you how would you have done in this if you were fresh how would you have done in this competition would you would you beat pat whoop his ass send him back to fucking can with the $25,000. That dude took $100,000. Yeah, that's a lot of money. I think me being healthy, if I had turned up like I did before Dubai, I was very healthy and just left Australia and preparation was awesome.

Everything was feeling good. I think I would have done really well. Definitely top two. You know, I talked to Pat a bit and and i like pat and there's this sentiment out there that hey um ricky shouldn't be getting this attention this is lame blah blah blah and and they're forgetting they're forgetting that life is all about a story like like how much cooler is it when you watch the sunset knowing that um the earth is going around the sun and that the earth spins you know like everything you can add to to the depth of the story that the earth spins one rotation every 24

hours that it's circling the sun that there's trillions of other stars when you don't know that the story is so less fulfilling it's like people, dude, this is a great fucking story here. It may not be ideal for you. You may not be proud of it, but for the fans, it's a great story. And all of these things exist because people care. It's like this podcast. If people didn't watch it, I wouldn't fucking do it. I'm not like, wow, this is really my creative outlet, and I really need to express myself. I would do it if I was the only person on earth. No bullshit.

If there were no people watching the CrossFit Games, you would be outside fucking hunting food and bringing it home to your chick. Well, you'd have a harem, not fucking in a stadium in Florida. Right? I mean – Sure. Sure. stadium in Florida right I mean it's true is it is it is it um has it been stressful for you the last four years like are you every day do you wait like when you go into situations like this are you like god what did I do to myself by fighting again this method are you like okay are you like I I've you've just embraced it like this

is this is this is my role I'm just riding this one out. And I pretty much embraced it. Like, the first year was tough. Like, just accepting it all and coming to realization with what was going on and what situation I'd put myself in. But pretty much, like, CrossFit saves me as well as it kind of buried me, if you know what I mean. Like I had to still get to the gym and work out because it just made me feel better and that's what kept me going.

And at one point I thought like maybe I meant to go back and pursue my dream of playing professional professional rugby that was my dream as a kid and I tried to go back down that path and I moved I moved states to go on a train and trial contract for a semi-professional team. And that didn't go to plan because obviously the band carried over, but a full on move. Wait a second. The band carried over? Yeah. Yeah, it did.

So I was with this team up in Queensland. If you're from Australia, it's the Capras is the name. They're a feeder club to the Penrith Panthers, which is a professional team in Australia. And I did pre-season there and the trial games and I was like fully involved with the team and felt like, oh, cool, I'm going to be able to relive my childhood dream and give this thing a go.

But then the club was in contact with ASADA over there and back and forth, emails, whatnot, and then it turned out that the organisation over there recognized other drug organizations that follow the same protocols and procedures as WADA. So they're going to carry over the sanction and what I did into their rules and they said you can't participate here for four years either. Okay, assholes. Does that make you happy?

Yeah. Make you happy? Was there any time during that four years where it was really difficult or you thought about just giving it all up, like all of it, the CrossFit, the rugby? No, no, not – was never going to throw it in because I was, like, working some trade jobs and concreting and doing some carpentry and stuff, and I was like, this isn't the life for me.

Like, if I don't make something out of this, this is what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life. So after the rugby thing fell through i was like all right crossfit it is i'm just gonna wait it out and if i'm going to come back in rugby or crossfit in 2021 22 i'm gonna be more likely to be at the top of the sport in crossfit than rugby so had you ever thought about uh mountain biking are you good enough at that did or were you ever good enough at that yeah not quite i didn't quite do it long enough as a kid to be that good at it um but i did think about at one point because there was like one part of the event

that I was really good at which is called like Enduro which is kind of up and down pedaling, going downhill and I got into, I did a few competitions of that and did pretty well but it was just a bit too like

how do you, where's the direction of this sport, like where do you go where do you compete like crossfit yeah it's less defined than the others yeah the others it's like clear like this is where you gotta go is where you gotta compete you gotta come this it's just more but obviously competing is in your pedigree like you are you are made to compete you want to be out there yeah trying not testing yourself against other guys yeah for sure that's competing is where where i shine and that's what i love to do he took his girlfriend away from three other dudes uh um i by the way i relate to you very much on um like after you leave crossfit

uh you get kicked out of crossfit uhFit. It's sort of your healing too. You know, I was fired from there and, you know, part of me wants to, in one hand, I have a flamethrower and I want to burn the whole fucking place down. In the other hand, I, you know, want to embrace it and hug it and kiss it. I don't think maybe I've made it

as far as long as you on the journey. I'm still occasionally burning this motherfucker down. But I also embrace it with the other hand. Everyone's got those two voices on their shoulders. So did the Buttery Bros interview you? Did they film your interaction with Fraser? No, they didn't. Not at that point.

Oh, those pussies. Are they documentarians or what? No, they didn't. Not at that point. Oh, those pussies. Are they documentarians or what? Yeah, I know, right? Could have been the best part of their film. Yes, yes. They already milked the fuck out of you once. Why not go for a second round? I bumped into them briefly somewhere in the arena,

and they asked if they could interview me and I was like yeah go for it you've been to Guadalupalooza before haven't you yeah 2015 as a little little spring chicken so this is seven seven years later yeah six seven years later is it is it quite a bit different than you remember yeah it was similar just times 10 just very similar setup just the flag of stage was a bit bigger the bay side was pretty similar just a bigger grandstand and just a lot more people uh hamilton blair are those dreadlocks i'd love to hear him speak about the percentage of top tier athletes that use PEDs in CrossFit. Do you have an opinion on that?

I hope to say no one. Yeah. Do you really say that? Because I think it's no one too. And people will be like, dude, 10 people tested positive over here. I just know because I've been around it fucking forever, and I just don't see people doing it. Yeah.

I don't think there is like we all work very hard we're very motivated disciplined machines that just love crossfit and we spend hours in the gym and we look like the way we are because of the the way we train and the amount of hours we spend in the gym and the food that we eat um when you did that interview with chase why did you do that and was that weird like i don't know who i felt um more that's not the right word i don't feel bad for anyone but i'm just like it wasn't a conversation it was just like an interrogate like he was just going through all like i mean he was good i mean he went through all the checkpoints but i'm like why is ricky like why why did you do that was just like just was that just like taking one giant shit for you

like okay let's just get this pretty much pretty much this is what it felt like yeah it was intense like i was very nervous i had a week's notice and kind of was told what was going to be going to be asked and i knew everything that was going to come at me and just had to um face it and tell my truth and story and it was pretty intense but did you feel free afterwards or did you feel dirty i felt very yeah you did uh yeah felt good felt lighter that's how you laughed when you asked about the big shit everyone knows that feeling yeah i knew i had to do it sooner or later and it was just it was good to get it out of the way and i think it was um i think transparency is one of the best things just for the world for healing in general and i think it was cool that um you know in in the past when there were people

who did things that quote unquote didn't fit the the narrative um like a Ronnie Teasdale or a Ryan Fisher or CrossFit always kind of like shun them. Don't give them any attention. And this Dave made the decision to go the opposite way, which I, which I totally am on board with to embrace it. This is us. Embrace it. Bring the guy on. Then he kept promoting you on his Instagram. And do you, do you have a relationship with him? I mean,

now that he's dead now, but I mean, before he died, not, not really. I like, I've never really spoke to him like on Instagram or like a personal, personal chat,

but everything I've had to do with him, it's always been – I've always respected him and we've always seemed to have gotten on well and he's always kind of seen something in me and he's always been nice to me. But I only interacted with him at the games in 2017 and that was it really. Was it surprising to you that he's been reposting your stuff over the last several months?

Yeah, it was a little bit, but I think he was just trying to get a bit of hype, a bit of hype going, a bit of retaliation, a bit of exposure, more people wanting to see what it's all about. He also, I um dave understands hardship i mean he had he hasn't had a he hasn't had an easy life yeah so i think he he yeah and like someone said in the comments here everyone loves the comeback story or the guy you know who who digs himself out of a hole yeah i think he respected what I'd been through and that I'd done my time. And he was probably happy to see me come back.

And everyone probably thought I wasn't going to come back. So he was getting behind that I was. And he was proud of me for doing it. That's what I hope. It's crazy how much you're putting on the line now it would be so easy to okay you took your band just run your gym stay in your little hole get your girlfriend pregnant and just kind of stay hidden right instead instead you come back and you compete hope i'm not gonna throw up you come back and you compete. Hope I'm not going to throw up.

You come back and you compete so that the whole fucking world can judge you. So that the 50% of the people who have been talking shit about you can hope that you fail and flop. And the other 50%, I mean, do you know what I mean? You're setting yourself up to make the haters happy. And yet you just keep pushing through. I mean, unless you just don't think like that yeah i don't really think like that to be honest okay then ignore what i said don't listen to me i'm bad for you i just focus on me and my life and what i want to achieve and i don't the comments and everything has never never gotten to me ever like people seem so worried about oh don't look at the comments and don't get distracted and hope you're all right.

It doesn't get to me. I don't care. I just see them as little ants that cross the footpath and you just walk over the top. I'm focused on one thing and I enjoy doing it and this is my life, so I'm just going to continue on with that um i did so the the when you did the interview with chase um you were talking about this stuff called rad 140 and while you were talking about it um i immediately looked it up and tried to

buy a bottle because i wanted to take some and i'm just like oh fuck it and i'm like man this is so weird this is supposed to be like some negative shit about it but all of a sudden i'm like and then i and i put it in the shopping cart and i was gonna buy it it was like 140 to the bottle and then as i'm checking out there's like this warning it says this shit will enlarge your prostate oh and i'm 49 i can't and i already had a dude stick his finger in my ass and tell me my prostate's like shaped a little. I mean a medical professional. Well, he said he was a medical professional. Yeah.

And then lately I've been – so I didn't get it. I didn't get stuff. But lately I've been hearing that, hey, you guys are fucking out of your mind. That shit doesn't even – say that again? I said don't buy it. It doesn't do anything. Yeah. Is that true so lately

i've been reading i've read that in a few places like hey you guys are fucking idiots that stuff didn't even fucking help them yeah it's it's stupid you should it doesn't do anything i didn't know it's just another bullshit supplement i didn't notice anything on it or anything off it anything on it or anything off it. Crazy. And someone told you that that was okay to take. Yeah. And then you also took it and you went to regionals and you passed the drug test.

Yeah. So like good to go. Yeah. He said ants. I know. I love, I like, I actually liked that too.

I, I, when he said he steps across them on the footpath against, he doesn't even squish them. He steps over them like a kind soul. I really, I enjoyed that too, actually quite a bit. Ricky, during the last four years, at some point, it seemed like you, you decided that you were going to like participate in the competitions, the biggest competitions of the year in your own gym.

You were going to try your best to replicate the floor setup, do the workout, sometimes even at the same times as watching the guys that you want to eventually compete with again. How did that come about? Was that a conversation with some friends or was that an idea that you had? Yeah. And were you doing it before you started telling the world that you were doing it? No, not really.

I kind of always told the world I was doing it. It was just an idea between me and my brother. We just thought, what's a better way to see where you're at than verse them on the TV or online? And it was just like a way to keep me motivated and prove that I belong up the top and that I can mix it with those guys. And that's just the way it went. Before doing something like that,

would you taper off your training a little bit to get ready for a weekend of intense events, or was it just a part of your training? No, it was just part of training. It was just like, oh, let's give it a go and turn on the TV, and this is what we're going to do, and then just start the clock and send it. This guy, Crumb Daddy, says it absolutely does work, but you have to get it from a pharmacy, not the internet. I can't go to a pharmacy.

I just want to order that shit. Crumb Daddy? Is this a reliable source? No, no. crumb daddy this is who we're getting this reliable source no no most the uh most the time during the during the four years i was working during the day so most of my training was in the afternoon with the with the class and or i'd finish work early to come and do like the online qualifier workouts and verse them on the TV or whatever before the, before the classes came rolling in. Did you, Oh, that's not the stuff that I saw.

The stuff that I was going to buy was yellow pills in a clear bottle. Yeah. And it's cheap. And the stuff I was going to buy was like 140 bucks. It's crazy that you can, the internet's an amazing place 115 five-star reviews um ricky when you grew up are all your brothers and sisters um blood related yeah the same mom and same dad yeah yeah yeah and and where where are you in the pack i'm the youngest you are yeah i'm one of four. I'm the youngest. You are? Yeah, I'm one of four and I'm the youngest. And what's your dad do for a living? My dad is a school teacher.

Oh, no shit. And so is my mom. Oh, wow. What do they teach? What grade? My mom teaches primary school, so she teaches K-6. And then my dad teaches like behavior disorder so all the kids that get kicked out of school go to his school oh wow wow yeah those are called i think continuation

schools in california did you ever go to one of those no no he must be a pretty patient man. Yeah, he's very patient. Like one of the most patient people you've met. Yeah, that shit is rough. And what was it like growing up? So if your parents were teachers, you guys didn't have a lot of money. Like you shared a bedroom with Benny. Yeah, yeah, bunk bed. Benny, yeah.

And you guys are all – One room and my two sisters in the other room. Just had like a house that came on a truck and lived on five acres in the land. Just had some cows and horses and had a creek that ran through and we just had heaps of dogs and just used to run around, do whatever we want. You're a country boy. Yeah. Do you guys wear shoes when you're growing up or take them or leave them? If we're going over the fence in the back paddock, we'll throw some shoes on.

He doesn't need toe spacers. He played outside barefoot as a kid. Yeah, that's it. I know that life. That's the – and I bet you Colton Mertens knows that life. That's the Georgia life in the United States. You said your home came on the back of a truck. So you lived in like what we call here in the States, I think it's called like a double wide.

Yeah. It came on two trucks and it got connected and they put it all together and then my dad built like a big deck, like a veranda all the way around it and then he just kind of expanded off it. He put a pool in and a spa and like another little barn house off the side of it for us teenagers to live in when we grew up. And does he still – yeah, is it like that? Yeah, pretty similar.

Yeah, that second one. And does he still live there? Yeah, he still lives there. My older sister lives there now too. And you've moved from – when. And you've moved from there. When I say you've moved from there, you're closer to the water now, you said? You're about an hour closer to the water or no? Yeah, I'm on the water now in Wollongong.

And do you see your family very often? And what's that like? Yeah, I see them a lot. Because the gym is located where they live. So where I live on the beach is like 40 minutes from the gym, so I'm up there most days. And then I'll pop into mum and dad's place and say g'day and hang out for a bit.

Sometimes I'll stay the night if I don't feel like driving home. Are you glad to have your girlfriend stay the night too? She's not allowed. i'm joking you never know yeah she's good uh so what do you do so that's a lot you commute and you commute every day in that van like when you drive that's your your day driver too yeah yeah yeah what do you listen to on this commute? Just the radio, usually. You're not tuned into the Savant podcast? Oh, I'm in the Savant podcast, yeah.

All right, just checking, just making sure. Who are Ricky's favorite CrossFitters? Would he like to pick the brain of any of the men or women? Aaron Patnode. Thanks, Aaron. Is there anyone like, like Tia's in your town? Is there any party you're like, yeah, that'd be cool to spend a week with her? Or not your town, but your country, your island. Or Kara, or do you have any desire to be like, oh,

all those people go to Mayhem. I wonder if it would be cool to just go to Cookville for a week. If there's someone I look up to in CrossFit, it's definitely Rich Froning. He was one of the reasons we got into the sport when me and my brother started. We used to watch videos of him and try and copy what he was doing. But the other athletes, like, I'm more inspired by bigger celebrities and sporting stars. In terms of CrossFit, mainly Rich Froney.

And what do you mean? Like you're inspired by other people out of like basketball, football, rugby? Yeah, rugby, UFC, even like actors actors savann just had a half pass how did you get into so you have a picture with minganu yeah yeah how did you get into the pi for those of you don't know ricky was in vegas he trains with uh justin kotler's your coach yeah yeah is he still your coach even though you're coming back to australia yeah yeah um and uh that's the home of i think bethany shadburn and uh daniel brandon and delugos and karen pierce was there um uh are you so so you were there how did you end up going into the

pi what were you doing there that's um ufc's headquarters that's what uh they call their performance institute yeah yeah it was awesome uh bethany sees a lady there for for body work like treatment uh you just call them pts over here physical therapists yeah so um yeah what do you call them in australia physios physios chiros osteos so pts in australia is personal trainer so so she says hey do you want to see my dude over there my chick over there you're like yeah so you go over there and she starts like pushing on your body and like just taking kinks out and stuff yeah that's that's how it went yeah i went I went there and it cost a lot of money, but it was definitely worth it. The treatment was awesome. And I kept asking her, I was like, is Frances here?

Oh, wait, you did? You're like, isn't that weird? Shouldn't you just be like minding your own business? Or you're like that much of a fan too? Yeah, I love it. You never know. It might be the only time they end up in the same building or something like that. You got to take the chance.

Yeah, she said like all the athletes are going through there all the time like there's always people floating floating around but she said francis lives in vegas so he's always there and um the first two times i was there she's like oh he's here somewhere and i was like oh i'd love to meet him and then the third time i was there, he popped his head into the room and seen what was going on. I think he wanted to know who my girlfriend was. She was sitting there watching what I was doing. And then he'd come in and ask what was going on.

And I was like, holy shit, I've got to get off the table and ask for a photo. The lady let me up and then shook his hand, and my hand just got swallowed. And then, yeah, I got a photo, and that was about it. Caleb, can we look at his Instagram real quick? Yeah, this is a crazy picture. So those of you guys who don't't know this guy is also fighting this weekend and probably is gotta be top top one or two uh biggest heavyweight fights in ufc history

yes it's so it was on my story oh i'm gonna post it um when he fights and wish him luck oh good do you ever scroll down a little bit though sorry caleb a little bit more i just want to see one thing let me let me look through those for a second. There's another picture I'm looking for. Let's see. Keep going. Oh yeah. Yeah. Right there. The one, is that your girlfriend right there? Leaning over there. Yeah. He was staring at your girlfriend. You're right. Double check that. Make sure you had that right. All right. all right um and then so did you do any training in there no no training they walked me around the places it was awesome uh ice baths

hot tubs cryotherapy saunas had all their food there like like a kitchen bar or smoothies and all their supplements and then upstairs was like a full training area smoothies and all their supplements. Then upstairs was like a full training area, that octagon with like a little stadium around it. And then downstairs was like all the strength conditioning, all the weights and machines and all that. Do you think that that's something that Cutler has a vision of creating eventually for, you know, CrossFitters? Yeah. Yeah, i think so i i was talking

to him about it and said like the ufc said it was amazing like and he's kind of said that that's kind of a small version of what he's envisioning a small version in vegas um did you meet bethany shadburnadburn's, that guy Moses she works with? No. Black dude. She made this post where she's doing all this stuff with her body. Yeah, yeah. You didn't meet that guy?

I want to have that guy on the podcast. That stuff she does is pretty crazy. Do you do any of that stuff? Not her partner partner is it i know i know i don't think so this guy's name is moses some another i reached out to on instagram want to have him on the show yeah i meet that guy no i didn't meet him did you see him do you know what i'm referencing that stuff she does where she basically tries to articulate her joints through all of their like furthest range of motion and yeah yeah it's pretty it's pretty crazy stuff it

looks like it takes incredible patience and focus beyond what i have yes i don't think i have the patience for that stuff but you just say it again each to their own yes you destroyed the pack uh oh is that him let me see oh yeah yeah i reached out to this guy yeah i can't wait to have this is you haven't worked out with that guy no no um looks like a smart dude yeah with that collar shirt yeah and in front of a whiteboard um you destroyed the pack in the bike event at the games that year yeah like. Like it wasn't even like, it was like weird. It's like no one else had been on a bike before.

Where were they? I was turned around and I was like, Oh, no one's there. Um, does that mean biking's not a good event for the CrossFit games? Because do you think it's a good event for the CrossFit games? Yeah, I think it's great good event for the CrossFit Games? Yeah, I think

it's great. Not for you. I mean, as a test of fitness. Does it belong in there as part of the test of fitness? Probably a better question for Brian. He might have a better opinion.

Brian? Yeah, I don't see why not. I mean, when I asked Ricky about the biking and he said, you know, I was pretty good at it, but maybe not as good as I would need to be or didn't have as much time invested in it. But he has enough time invested in it to be amongst the best of the CrossFitters. But that's true for so many things.

But even better than, he was better than the best of the CrossFitters. Yeah, but the same things happen with swimming. You see Janikowski. He doesn't even have to try. He wins a swim event by three minutes. You see guys that are – like Fraser rarely ever changes Olympic lifts, and he could still snatch 300 pounds when competition came because he had a decade of experience doing that. Or people that have high-volume spring ring muscle-ups.

Yeah, or Guimairo. He's just faster than everyone else got the fast twitch muscle fiber he ran a lot growing up those types of things like it's everyone has their little things that they excel in and that's your opportunity to make the points but just because one guy's way better than everyone else or one woman's way better than the rest of the field doesn't mean that it's not a good test. Sevan can grow a beard in a week. Yes, I am actually, this is, I was completely clean shaved four days ago and I am also, I am going to,

I'm going to try to grow a beard. I don't know if I can do it. Do you ever grow, do you ever grow anything bigger than that, Ricky? And what you got? That's about it, mate. That's about all I got. And then, and then you cut it off?

And it just turns to pubes. Right, yes, mine too. That's the all I got. And then you cut it off? And it just turns to pubes. Yes, mine too. That's the problem with mine. Mine looks like someone shaved their crotch and then took some glue and just went. It's pretty gross. What time is your flight today? 5.50 p.m. Okay.

And is that a hotel room or an apartment you're in? It's an Airbnb. Okay. So you vacate there. And you go to Australia. And when do you come back to the States? Do you wait until the games? Yeah, I'll be waiting until the games, yeah.

So you do the semifinals? Probably July. I mean, who knows? They might not even be able to pull the games off without Dave. Yeah. That shit just might just fall apart. Hopefully not. What, Brian?

You don't think so? Think the show goes on? I do. Has to. I don't know if it has to. Ricky, had you ever met Roman Krennikoff before you were in Dubai? No.

No, I hadn't. I haven't seen him in a few years, but he's a pretty unique specimen, I think, in the CrossFit space. Was it fun competing with him?

Yeah, it was awesome. He's a big dude. He was impressive in Dubai. He did really well. I'd say, you know, obviously he's, for different reasons, has also not been able to compete live in the CrossFit Games for the last four or five years that he's been probably, you know, definitely good enough to.

As a high-level competitor, are you hopeful that he'll be able to get over there eventually? And, I mean, do you want to go against the best? He can stay in Russia. It's all good. He's that good, huh? It'd be good to have him there. He deserves it.

Hey, when you did that run, so did you see what happened to the girls, the ladies that went after you? They made it in that first event i think where they made a turn too early and they shortened their race yeah and did they and they went before you guys right yeah yeah so when you went up had they had they fixed that so that that error couldn't happen yeah like that's where the race started like i can't believe they turned the girls around there like from there on it was just like straight up for like 100 meters and like that's where people were picking each other off and that's where i gapped everyone and got ahead and did you pay for that the rest of the week was that a smart move i mean you destroyed the pack you came down

and we're like where is everybody yeah Yeah, no, I was fine. You were fine. Yeah, I wasn't sore at all. Was it difficult footing, uncomfortable running in the snow? Is that something you have experience with when you're running in sands, comparable, anything like that? Up the top where it was compact, it was pretty fine. But down the bottom where it was real soft and slushy it

was kind of like running in in real like loose sand um but i i had a good choice of shoes which i think helps me a lot i think a lot of the boys were complaining about their shoes when you when you went to miami and you said you that's where you met your agent. You picked up your agent. Yeah. I met him in Dubai, but we got chatting here in Miami. And was that the point? Was that the thought? Like, hey, after you met him in Dubai, you're like, hey, I'm going to Miami. Let's meet again.

Yeah, I didn't even think like this is who I want to work with. He just reached out to me and he was interested and wanted to set up a chat so i was like yeah let's let's can you tell us who it is yeah snort snory oh awesome yeah and and what about him did you like that made it like why go with him why not with um uh uh oki for cooper these other guys who are out there? I said Jared is an agent too. That guy I had on the podcast. I didn't know that.

The Zellos Games guy is, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he just – I got on with him really well in Dubai. Just from the get-go, he was easy to get on with, easy to talk to. He seemed super passionate about the sport and his athletes and, like, I'd kind of get on with Sarah pretty good. I was talking with her over in Dubai and she has great things to say about him and, yeah, it was just something I was willing to have a chat to him about and get to

know him more we literally sat at the cafe down here in miami for like three hours three and a half hours having a chat getting to know each other oh let's end the podcast while brian's gone is seven dancing around trying to get him to be comfortable first or has he already asked him asked him what if he's gay or straight what am i supposed to ask him his girlfriend i know he's straight i think he's straight are you gay or straight ricky uh still figuring that out i understand i understand me too uh brian i'm gonna uh i'm going to let Ricky go. I don't want to use all my questions because I'm going to have him on again. Will you come on again, Ricky?

Yeah, for sure. Was this easy? Yeah, easy. Easy peasy. All right, good. That was super enjoyable. Apparently, I was supposed to check out of my hotel room 50 minutes ago, so probably good. I told him when you got up, I go, let's end the podcast so when brian comes back we're gone i can still hear you

uh caleb uh thank you caleb thank you from the bottom of my heart ricky gerard thank you brian friend thank you uh uh what a great weekend good to have have you on. Um, we will do it again. I think very soon. That was easy. That was fun. It'd be cool to have you and your brother on at the same time. Um, I've had some great interactions with your brother at the CrossFit games. He's funny as shit. Um, and, uh, all right. Thanks man. Thanks for having me on. Appreciate it.