The Sevan Podcast - #71 - Ultimate Hawaii Trail Run

Episode Date: July 10, 2021

The Sevan Podcast EP 71 - Ultimate Hawaii Trail Run @ULTIMATEHAWAIIANTRAILRUN @OKEEFMR @SEVANMATOSSIAN @UNCLE_HOFFY The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.com Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/ Sevan's Stuff: https://www.instagram.com/sevanmatossian/?hl=en https://app.sugarwod.com/marketplace/3-playing-brothers 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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Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. Mexican last name. I want it to be Juan Carlos so bad. That's what his nickname is.

You can change your name. I can't change his name. No, but you can change yours. You should go. Oh, change my name to Juan Carlos? Yeah, I like that. If you love it, go with it. You're a good dude.

You empower people. I see you're good at what you do, O'Keefe. You don't argue people's limitations. You support them. You believe in them. I'm going to have to be as big as your guy's head. You need to get closer. Yeah. How big is your guys's head you need to get closer yeah how big is your head do you have a gigantic head yeah it's pretty good size i get my helmet's a five gallon bucket

the reason his head is so big is because it's swollen from the amount of times that it's made contact with mother earth in different ways shapes and forms if you've i mean you've obviously spent some time together his his throttle is always down trying to figure out you know how can i wreck something or someone in the process yeah i thought it was just waterlogged from too much time in the ocean, like a sponge. You know, like a bunch of everything. It's good, though. It works perfect. Aaron, could you ask the person who's vacuuming there to vacuum in the background or whatever?

Like, can you just be like, oh, you're good. You are a good dude. you are a good dude we i uh matt o'keefe is here because um all we care about is the numbers and the second best podcast the seven podcast has ever done is with matt o'keefe i was gonna say like what am i what am i doing here for this i mean we're i love you guys but it seemed like a an odd pick for me uh and uh aaron um aaron's here because he's supposed to be the one we're interviewing. And Juan was supposed to be here because he was the pretty face. Like, I had all the bases covered. I had the draw with O'Keefe, the good-looking dude, with Juan Gonzalez.

And then I had Aaron, who's just the mouthpiece, just the brains of the outfit. I like this. So I get to fill Brian Friend's role in this? I don't talk at all and then drop something super insightful at some point and then go away? Is that how this works? Isn't that noise really bad? It's very bad. Very bad.

I got to find Sarah how to turn this. I'm going to break it with a hammer. Yeah, that's not cool. You don't want to do that. It's too much. Or you can do it on your computer. This is perfect, actually. This is absolutely perfect.

Here's Juan right here. Juan can go on his computer, too. Okay, cool. He has the link. Will you tell him to go on the Chrome browser, Aaron? I will. Oh, so that's good. So we'll get the sound twice as much is that how that's

that's gonna work good yeah and um i'm no uh hvac guy but i would have someone come and look at that ac by the way sounds like you have a bearing loose yeah sarah should be here in any second um matt where where are you you said you're in nantucket i i am i'm with my family my father my sister her family my family uh on nantucket was here for the week little little break that's in the that's in the northeast of the united states you're you're on the atlantic ocean yeah a little island just off the coast of cape codod. And Aaron is out in the middle of the Pacific in Hawaii. There we go. And I am on the other side of the Pacific from Aaron.

I'm in California. Aaron, what time is it there right now? It's 11 o'clock. In the morning you ready to start the show you ready to start the show aaron yeah let's go so who is the best surfer you've ever seen who's a local in hawaii that no one knows? Who is the fucking playground legend? Who's the guy? Just everyone knows.

That's the guy. No one knows his name except for you and the locals. I don't know. That's a tough one. There's so many. There are so many? It's like when you... On Chrome.

Aaron, it's like when you say that's the hottest chick ever and your friends like you've said that 12 times today and they're like yeah there's three million of them it's like that it's like there's so many great there's so many good surfers here it's hard to like to like gauge that i mean i thought you were gonna name yourself that was my first um yeah but but you know uh yeah i don't even know there's like if i mean there's i can't even honestly it's a hard one to put down is there a guy on the island that everyone knows who's the best or like these three kids guy titus he's like almost 70 years old and he's like a legend a legend. We have all looked up to him. He kind of like is the godfather of surfing on Kauai. And he's still surfing?

Still surfing. He went with me this past year. We go toe surfing, and he was charging still at 70. Is he in shape? Oh, yeah. He's a crossfitter oh he is? he goes to CrossFit Anahola

he's one of the Anahola boys I worked out with him one day there and Aaron explained after his legendary status I mean Aaron tell them about some of his accomplishments he's like the greatest big wave surfer in the history of surfing yeah he's like

he was one of the heavy, heavies growing up over here. He would like – like people would fly over here to – and he would kick them all out. He would keep this place very protected, you know, and he would charge. You know, he would be like – he would just – and he would like surf Waimea Bay just pumping. He pioneered like toe surfing with Laird Hamilton guys and the foiling and just everything.

He's just a well-rounded athlete that's just, you know, just rips and just well-respected, plays music. He was sponsored by Quicksilver his whole life. They flew him all over the world. So he's very like, you know, he's a unique individual. He's a dying breed over here. What's his name again? Titus Kinimaka.

Oh, and he's a Hawaiian. He's a Hawaiian. 100% Hawaiian. That's just not around anymore. Are you born on the Island? Yeah, I was born and raised on Kauai. And how did you end up there?

How did your parents end up there? My parents just moved my, actually my grandpa moved over here for work. And then my parents followed him over, him over here. And then they just fell in love with it. And this never left. Do you have,

do you have any dirt twirler in you? Or were your parents, like, got any hippie in them? Like, drum circle? No, my parents are kind of, my dad was a contractor. My mom was, they're pretty, like, middle class style people. You know, just, like, I was raised in the dirt. All our houses that I was, you know, raised up in were unfinished. My dad was a contractor so they're all unfinished and the windows weren't in the plastic was there you know is this it's just

hey juan you know turn this thing off someone needs an ass whooping oh that was quick ac on ac off that thing's gonna i'm gonna hit it with a hammer. We just lost half our listeners. So you grew up on the island and life's good there? Yeah. As a kid? Yeah. It's like – it's just different, you know, growing up over here. It's like a small – it's like being raised in a village, you know,

in a small community. Everybody knows everybody. And it's a real special place growing up. It's hard to describe it. It's just like everybody who I – I mean, everybody knows everybody. You can't like – that's how it was back in the day. How many people are on the island? There's like 60,000 now.

And when it's filled with tourists, how many does it reach? What's the top? Oh, man. Right now, since the island is open back up, it is like – it is out of control. I've never in my whole entire life – I've never seen anything like this. It's – You think there's 300,000 people there? I've never seen anything like this. It's, um, you think there's 300,000 people there?

Oh, there's probably over a hundred thousand now. Okay. There's tourists coming in and bucket loads and it's good. It's good. But what's happened is during COVID everything shut down and a lot of businesses went out of business. And then now that there's so much people here there's no there's no everybody's just got lines that you can't i don't even go

to restaurants because the lines are like around the corner and you can't get a reservation and it's good for businesses that are here but then again it's like even like rent-a-cars there's no rent-a-cars people are coming locals are renting out their rent-a-cars right now because there's which is great so the locals making the money for the rent-a-cars to support them so there's a lot of benefits from it but just the overrunning of the island and the one of the biggest things over here is there's so much people so much money coming over here right now it's really making it the cost of living just to buy a house the rentals it's just really choking out the local community it's it's a it's a really dire situation right now for the local community that i grew up in explain oh okay everyone there he is that's our eye candy

everyone just look at juan gonzalez don't look at the three old guys on the left. You're here to be objectified. There you go. Yes. And you and Juan work together? Yeah. Juan moved over here about five years ago. Okay. And where do you guys work?

What's your operation there? We run the Keala Foundation. And what is that? It is a nonprofit organization, 501c3, that provides free CrossFit gyms for kids on the island. So we have three gyms on the island and we provide fitness, education on prevention, on the drug and alcohol problem that's happening that they're going to face. And, um, and yeah, we just give them a home. Uh, Juan, I got bad news for you, buddy. You got to shut down because we're getting an echo off of Aaron's computer. Yeah. Yeah. Don't sit farther from the computer though though see if like you can upstage that big

old head of his and just like that all that manliness we need eye candy do you just lose hoff's video no i got it i got it oh you got it okay i turned it off for you so you wouldn't have to look at him ho Hoff, tell them how many people you support, how many kids that go through there. I mean, it's like I've been over there. Sivan, you've been over there. But it's one of the most unbelievable things that goes on on a daily basis. I mean, what Hoff does in that foundation services is so special. So tell them more about it.

Don't be humble. So I've been sober for 24 years. This is kind of the't be humble. So I've been sober for 24 years. Just kind of the back story on this. I've been sober for 24 years. I got involved in meth and drugs growing up over here. And the environment over here that we face as kids growing up, it's not a threatening drug culture environment. We basically go to the beach and it's our uncles and our aunties that are hanging out, smoking weed, drinking, you know, so it's not a threatening arena.

And we go there and it's just like, it's, it's like an automatic paved road right into that lifestyle. And cocaine's like weed over here. It's just all that stuff. It's just, it's not a problem. You know, it doesn't look like a threat and then and now we have tons of methamphetamine a lot of methamphetamine a lot of um fentanyl and there's all kinds of action going on fentanyl and how old are you hoff i'm 47 so at 33 you got so uh 25 i'll be 25 years sober this year

and you said you were 47 i'm 47 so for at the age of 22 years old you got sober yeah that's right and when i got sober over here i was like i couldn't all my friends are getting i basically couldn't hang out with them you know i basically I basically just told him, oh, screw off. I can't. You guys are, I just can't. And then I, so what I did was I started, I grabbed kids, really young kids. I did. And I just took, I ran them into the ground.

I take them surfing, diving. And so I can have fun. You know, I would go to AA meetings, but it's all old people there. So it wasn't really like an attractive environment for young kids. But I knew like, if I left that space, I would be dead, you know, because suicide was like where I was ended up, tried that several times. And, and then luckily I didn't succeed. So I'm still here, as you can see, luckily, and then, but yeah, then I hung out with these kids and these kids saved my life. You know, They basically saved my life from the predatory drug problem over here.

Okay, hold on. I got to unpack some of this. Give me a second here. Give me a second here. So at 22 years old, you're getting sober. I contextualize that with myself. I think I smoked weed for the first time when I was 22. So at 22, you've already lived a long life.

How old were you when you started using? Like I was like nine or 10. Oh shit. And that's just like, that's just like you. I deal with 11 year olds, 10 year olds. And yeah, it's 13. One of the kids is here is 13. It's a really tragic epidemic that's so overlooked on this island. Beautiful island, but the most deadliest place to raise your kid. Let me, you don't think it's just because you lived it and so you're looking for it and maybe it's not really that bad? Oh, no, it's bad.

We have probably the highest rate of suicides over here, drug overdoses. You know, the families that I deal with are just, just ravaged and broken in the local community too. It's, it's, it's no joke. Like, like what I see, I, I, everybody knows me as a sober guy. So I'm the guy that everybody comes to, to be able to, to, to get help. And my, I mean, my phone, it's constant. The amount of the people that I deal with is it's nobody should, I wouldn't wish that on anybody and it's and it's like my family members you know it's like everybody I grew up here in my like like watching my big family just being wiped out and nobody doing nothing about it absolutely zero you know our

state our county they just they have no idea how to handle it. So you have this island with 60,000 people and basically every road and every turn, there's some temptation to – There's one road. Young age. Okay. There's one road. The one road is littered with marijuana, methamphetamine, fentanyl. And why is it so easy to do? Because you're not in school or because it's

just the adults aren't parenting or it's it's not threatening you know you're down at the beach it's a beautiful beat over here you can have a couple beers smoke some weed hang out go surf and you know and a lot of the best surfers that we that we look up to are just drug addicts you know we're like this guy rips in the water so i want to and these kids like you know we want to be we aspire to be like these guys and they're just all strung out junkies and the in the culture is that if you were at like at the beach at 10 years old and your uncle was smoking weed he he might just give you a puff of his joint oh yeah they're giving you beers go buy me a good i mean you're basically a bartender at a very young age boy go grab me i'll give you a dollar go grab me a beer from the cooler

you know you start doing that stuff you know uncles will send you here you know and it's just that's that's that's the way it's all set up you know it's probably and so i didn't understand this story so at 22 years old you join aa and is it you who are these kids that you started running with, these sober kids? Were they kids that you were trying to help? They weren't sober. They were just younger kids who haven't been affected by the drug problem yet. They were headed into it. So these were just younger kids that a lot of them today, how I learned this program, actually survived the the drug thing that's that you know the drug epidemic

because when they were with me i educated them i gave them all the tools i told them about what's going to get them what was happening happened to me how i fell into it and then some of these kids they went into it but they knew what was happening and they were able to come back out early and then, and join the CrossFit gym that I, that I started running. And, and the, but they were prepared like the kids, what we do with our classes now was we prepare these kids with the tools to be able to survive. What's going to try and kill them, you know, over here. So you're 22 years old. And when you say kids, you're talking about 15, 16 year olds.

I was grabbing like 10, 12, 13, 14-year-old kids. Any of the kids that wanted to come with Uncle Hoffy, I would just take them. I would go early in the morning, take them to those dawn patrols, surfing, running in the – just going surfing unreal places. So you're helping them, but the way you tell the story is they saved your life. Yeah, because I had – Is that because they kept you busy? Yeah, they kept me busy and doing fun things and this real simple life, just right there with me, just running. And I didn't realize that until after some time when I was like, man.

So that's why I dedicate my life to these kids because I wouldn't be here living this beautiful life that I have if it wasn't for those kids. And did you relapse ever? No, never. So did any part of that not relapse and have to do with the fact that you were surrounded by these young people that you felt an obligation to be a good role model to? Yeah, well, I've always maintained a solid environment to be around. Like my house has always been like a halfway house i've a lot of my friends came and lived with me over the years that i was always taking so my house was

based as a it was probably the only halfway house on the island for years it probably how many people is how many people do you think have stayed with you over the years oh i can't even count there's hundreds of people that have got their life. I've been here for five years. It's probably been like 50 people. Yeah. Like in just five years, I have done like three to six months stints with us. I mean, when we're there for the run, you know, it's inevitable one of the evenings we're on the back porch with literally like 60 people.

What we're doing is having uh like essentially an aa meeting and 50 of the people there aren't in sobriety or aa and they're you know taking it in with us but man it's magic i mean honestly everything that hop is describing is how it works like you you know you see yourself in other things you either see people struggle or you see people that could you know lead that path and it invigorates you to you know help you know people helping people a is like not rocket science it's literally just people talking about their problems you know relating to each other and helping each other out and i mean what what goes on with kiala. I mean, it's hundreds of kids that he's

teaching to not take the path that he took. I mean, and at the time, I'm sure a lot of them later in life realize what they were given, but they're just having fun. They're working out and eating and hanging around with a lot of good people. What he's providing them a service essentially to to stay away from is man what so life-altering it's crazy because the stuff that goes on over there it's hard to describe unless you see it no no hyperbole here i throughout the years that i've known aaron um probably six different people have told me stories of going to his house for one of these

shit. I don't know what it is. A love fest, just sitting around eating and talking to people, telling their stories and truth. And, and like, I can think of like five or six people who've told me that, holy shit, like I had an awakening there. Like something happened to me there. You should come do it. And I'm like, nah,

I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm scared. I'm good. I'm good for you, Siobhan. But it's the best way I can describe that,

that the environment over here is just being accepted exactly the way you are as broken as you are. You know what I mean? You're just, we're all equal. And you just learn to be able to be okay to just be transparent, you know, just talk about like, dude, this is what, and no judgment. Just like, bro, right on. Like I could take my shirt off there and it would be cool.

You could take your shirt off and, you know, and whatever, you know, and just be like, you know, that's Savan right on. Savan's not perfect. We all know that. Oh, shit. So, but it's okay because you know what I mean? I'm not perfect. I have, you know what I mean? I'm not perfect. You know what I mean? I'm the farthest thing from perfect, but a lot of good things come from imperfect people.

I think it's no perfect people are allowed. Let's put it that way. So basically everybody is welcome. You have an identity in the community. So let me go back. So at 22 years old, you basically start helping people as a method for your own kind of ad hoc rehab. Like you weren't like some yogi studying. You just knew that if you help these other kids, that it would in turn help you. Yeah. And it was like when I, when I was at the bottom of the bottom, when I went into treatment,

you know, I was, I tried to commit suicide three times and just like, I had people wanting to bury me looking for me. You know, I had, I had cops looking for me because I owed them money because I sold them stolen stuff. And I just had, my mom would grab her purse and follow me around the house because I would steal everything. You know what I mean? It was just that. And then I hit a bottom and then somehow I made it to a treatment center. And it was like Christmas Eve. I was just like I was in there and, you know, I don't preach God to anybody or whatever.

I have my own relationship with God that's, you know, that's to me, it's very beautiful. It's personal. But I was sitting in there in the fetal position. I was laying in my bed in the fetal position in a bunkhouse with like 50 people and I just said God if you're real you need to come now because I there's no way out of this I was like because all I wanted to do is get high and I couldn't see my self without getting high you know and it's it's a it's a trap you know totally possessed and then this peace came over me and everything was washed away and this voice that said Aaron you're going to be okay and it was like it was pretty much like I had my glasses on backwards my whole life. And then I put them on and I could see everything for what it was. And I knew exactly what I had to do from that point on

to make a change, to get where I'm at today. You know what I mean? A lot of it's been faith, but I've, it's always been through like, I have to help other people, you know what I mean, with this gift, because not many people, it's a real selfish world, and everybody's out to get their own, but that's like the worst way to go about life, you know, when you learn how to start helping people, and that's when you really start living, When all you're thinking about is my personal family, my bank account, my mortgage, my this and that, you're doing a huge disservice to the way you live. Because we're, as human beings, I truly believe our highest level of existence

is when we're giving back and helping others. Was this facility in Kauai, this one, where you had this? Okay, I was trying to catch you. You said there wasn't anything in Kauai, so there's some consistency there. And in this moment when this peace comes over you, did also the awareness that you would spend the rest of your life paying it forward or did that just come naturally? Yeah, I just knew already that was like the only way yeah that's the only way like i get to keep what i have is by giving it away you know that's the only way that i can live what i have today is just by by giving it to others you know and it's there it is people the only way you get to keep everything is to give away

what you have you cannot believe that is true until you experience that yeah and the only way you're going to learn how to if it's true is if you start doing it and most people are afraid to do that because they're so selfish that's scary as shit too man it's so it's the scariest i mean you you nobody barely hardly anybody lives that way, you know? So I've had a similar experience to what you're saying. And, and I was thrust into it too. Like I didn't, I didn't like find it under a rock myself. You know what I mean? I was thrust into that position too. Here, let me throw you at the bottom of the pit and you hit the ground. You're like, shit, I got nothing. And then hopefully you realize oh shit now i have everything right

i mean it's a tough some people think i hear some people think that you can you can make that journey consciously i i'm yet to hear one person who's made that journey consciously usually it's like it's gotta be ripped out from under you yeah you gotta have a train wreck i wish it wasn't i wish you'd be like okay 100 burpees and take two vitamin c and you wake up in the morning and there it is and it's like if you're living that if you're living that you're gonna hit it sooner or later because if you're living a selfish lifestyle it's all about me my bank account this and that blah blah blah you're the bottom's coming it's only a matter of time hopefully sooner later, because this is something you want to achieve early in life so that you're not like 70 years old. I know this isn't the point of this podcast, but how about the people who aren't?

How about the people who are just in the daily grind and they're like somewhere in the middle and they swim in the middle for fucking 90 years? To me, those are low impact people they're just that they're like it's like what if they don't get a meth addiction to bring them down to the bottom is what i'm saying i almost feel like i mean i don't really know i can't that's what i think that's where i think um CrossFit really does a great job is giving those type of people purpose, giving those type of people adversity, allowing them to struggle and work hard. And that's where they can then start to be like, wow, I want to do something more with my life. I'm capable of much more. I mean, and I just speak that from personal experience. Like, I kind of was just floating through the motions and then got into CrossFit. And then all of a

sudden, you know, now I'm like, I'm trying new things. I'm trying harder. I want to improve. I have some goals now. And that's where I think CrossFit is just so valuable to everybody. Because yeah, you don't like we accept everybody. Even if you're not a drug addict or like hit rock bottom, completely lost your entire life. You can join our program as a happy, healthy individual. And through CrossFit, through learning vulnerability, through being transparent, you will be able to, you know, open up your mind to what's possible. You get to see transformations. And that's one of the biggest things that I teach our students is that you're not stuck the way you are.

I always remind them that as many times as possible. If you clumsy, you're not always going to be clumsy. Like you can change it. If you're not the smartest kid in the, you know, like you can change that. And so the same thing, like if, if you're just kind of like, don't have purpose, don't got, you know, like come to our, go do some CrossFit. Like it's, I know it's like, wow, how's CrossFit going to help me find my purpose. But it's, it's, it's that, it's that you starting to, starting to do some individual work.

You know, a lot of things happen in a CrossFit class or in a CrossFit workout. And that's something I definitely see that will help someone who is just like that, stuck in the middle person. Because they're going to see. They're going to see their scores on the board. Why do I have like the slowest time? You know, it's just human nature we want to improve so it really highlights that that you like to be comfortable or not um and and i think that's that's a huge part of our program because we work with kids savon you know

like and adults yeah i mean adults are like kids um and the. Dude, a lot of the kids we have are great kids. They have great mindsets. A lot of them aren't troubled. They've been with us for years now. And the CrossFit just continues to push them, to empower them, to give them confidence and to get them out. And then you start to see their parents start to be questioning like why is my kid so like i'm not this way how's my kid now starting to be so you know um confident and then all of a sudden their parents are coming in and you know we we

just we we really we really enjoy like you know finding where you're at and then elevating you from wherever you are. And one has a point too, like that comment about people in the middle, that's how, that's, that's been a tool that I used to reach people. Because when you, when you, like a lot of my friends that wouldn't go to, didn't want to go to AA and the kids like that, when I, when I, when I first started CrossFit, like I started taking them to the gym and then we were, it created that environment where we started suffering together. There was that bond. So that's the whole reason.

The only reason I got behind CrossFit was because that is the most important tool, is being able to create that bridge of transparent communication between each other. And as soon as I seen that, I was that was like well this is huge right here if this is used in the right way you'll do some powerful stuff with it and it's and it's and it's the fitness is a benefit but the bridge into the person is the goal for us because that's where you make the change that's where you they start to have the um the awakening that you know what i mean it's like the elevator doesn't have to go all the way to the bottom they can stop and they can get off there and then just start going back up you know and it's an environment you cultivate that um that like

there's a lot of commonality there with what we would experience in aa right you know it's like it's like it's a normal world scenario really for people listening to relate to it's you know we all suffered and go and talk about it and you know have that commonality and you know it's something that's really the bridge for us in recovery but it's a similar in a crossfit gym it's what attracts i think a lot of people in recovery to crossfit um as well you know it's funny because you're you know what you're describing juan's always been very well juan's incredible anyway but he's always been very incredible to me and i'm sure he is aaron because you know we had that what we were provided is this you know um we we dug a hole for ourselves and that hole allowed us to you know see light and you know give back and not want to have people kind of go through what we go through

or have you know or you know and tread that path but you know for one to dig in on something like this not necessarily having dug that path is those things are fascinating to me um because i think it's speaking to what you're saying is like you know people getting this without you know or putting themselves out to to serve in that manner maybe not with what experiencing he and i have but um it's you know it's it's it's amazing crossfit crossfit so well you know we talked a lot about this on the podcast we did together I don't know where I'd be without it it provided

an amazing filler for a huge gap in my life at a time I was like really lost you know so it's it's a crazy cool fortunate piece of all of us.

Juan's an example of it. He came over here. Yeah, Juan's an example. He came over here. He's not a drug addict and all those things like that, but he came over here from Vegas, and he was – Yeah, and Vegas is gnarly, man. He was hooking up with all the ladies, and he was this whole little dirtbag guy.

He came over, and now he went through the steps and all that, and he's a whore. He wasn't hooking up with them. They were hooking up with him. Yeah, that's what it was. dirtbag guy came over and now he went through the steps and all that and he's like he's a whole he wasn't hooking up with them they were hooking up with him yeah that's what it was dude i had a complex drunk drunk white girls like would terrify me it was just it was not okay no i'm just kidding but now he's like you know now he's yeah it changes life and he's like dude he's i wouldn't you know and i'm really picky about role models that I stick in front of these kids. And, you know, Juan is like a hundred, a hundred, this is, yeah, maybe 80%, not a hundred, a hundred percent of a person that I would, I feel confident that he's going to be able to inst takes going through the steps, becoming transparent and actually taking hard,

take having hard conversations and moving forward in a different direction that, you know, away from what feels so normal, you know, and that's, it's super cool to see. It's,

you guys are talking my talk for sure. I try to tone it down because people just, it's such an enormous leap for people who, who don't do CrossFit to even understand. But one of the telltale points is we all know people who've quit CrossFit, and you see what happens to them right away. They spend the next year talking about how they wish they would do it again. They don't have time, and you kind of see their lives fall apart. And as Greg Glassman once said, if you do CrossFit, three things are going to happen to you. Your relationship is going to get better or you're going to get out of it.

You're going to get a promotion or you're going to quit your job. There was one other thing. I can't remember. But there were these things, and all of us who have done it have seen it. And from early on, and I would present this to Greg and Lauren, and they weren't fans of this, but there's a Taoist saying that stop thinking and all your problems will go away. that stop thinking and all your problems will go away. And there's something about putting yourself in oxygen deprivation where when you're working out really, really hard, you have this. And if you guys don't like my model, that's okay, but bear with me here.

You have something that's awareness. Maybe you guys call it God. And as you put your body through tremendous struggle, it shifts between your intellect and your body. And it's going back and forth as your intellect shuts down and starts giving more attention to your body. as you pass through that middle space you can sort of attach to the higher power yeah and that is a a profound piece that happens to everyone who's doing crossfit they're cultivating awareness of a higher power or i don't even have to say that

they're cultivating awareness and they don't even know it. It's a byproduct of it. So I always thought that this movement was in a crazy evolutionary leap for mankind, not just his DNA and the things that Greg likes to call the scientific things in the objective world, but there's something else. And then, of course, all of the community aspect that you're saying, like Hoff and I could not even know each other and we could be in a room with 10 other people and after 100 burgers, we're all looking at each other like holy shit now we got some shit to talk about yeah now we have something in common right and we kind of look at each other like we're all in love with each other wow we made it so i i i i feel you guys um uh i want to talk about one thing real quick and then and then we'll go back there the reason why we jumped on the call is flash forward from when hoff was uh 22 years old and he got sober and was helping kids. And today he's running something called the Ultimate Hawaii Trail Run. And I was looking on your website.

Let me get my screen closed for a second. And last year there were 642 runners, 58 states and provinces, eight countries, and 2,000 plus runners. Now it's the virtual. That's an impressive event to throw during the COVID response era. Huge support. So it is a place where a lot of high-profile people flock to. Who goes to that? And then we'll go back and talk about how you built it but who who what is the event who attends it who can attend it is it just for just elite athletes is it just like is there a waiting

list to get in like what's it's it's for everybody i mean we have pretty much every top crossfit athlete all the top surfers all all the, you know, they come and support it. But this is an event for everybody. It's not just. My mom can go. Your mom can go. And your grandma. You know what I mean?

And the run is always, I tell people, it's a beautiful hike or it's going to be a nightmare. Either way you take it, you can have it how you want it, you know. I'll be careful about my experience. just make sure i don't deter anyone don't let him fool you keeps telling his experience is my favorite i'm just like oh my god and i need detail and somehow you still get people to come yeah i had details hoff so i had red sorry go ahead I had red clay washing out of my ass for about three months after that event so that's all you have to say that's all yeah that's all that wasn't red clay that was a that was I'll leave that one okay Hoff so so tell me what is the event like like I need to know everything like How long is the run?

Where do people stay in the hotel? Where do they sign up? Where does the money go that people pay to – what are all – If you're planning on coming this year, what you would want to do is definitely sign up for the run. What's the date? Start to get a rent-a-car right now. And then we do have – I mean the best thing to do that a lot of people are doing is just going on to vrbo or um um you know just looking on the island for there's a there's a lot of really good rates right now for september because that time all the kids go back to school and so that's

a very good time where the island's a lot slower but we are experiencing a lot of people so it is good to um get your rent a car get your get hotel. And you can get like rooms down at the Kaloa Landing. They've always supported us. You can get a two-bedroom that sleeps for $700 a night. But it sleeps eight people, you know, and it's beautiful. I mean, you can sleep 10 people in there if you wanted. If you're just coming, you get it. And it's, I mean, it's huge.

And that's it with the discount code. If you go to the Ultimate Hawaiian Trail Run site, you can click there. But then also don't hesitate to go look for other places on the south side. You don't want to go up north. It'll be a nice little drive. But south, east, or west would be the general area you'd want to be to do it. And what's the date of it? September 18th.

But it starts – we have a golf tournament. The first event is going to have a golf tournament. The first event is going to be a golf tournament that starts on the, it's on Wednesday. It's on the Wednesday. So, um, you know, we, the, the whole week kind of gets built up, uh, just being in the gym, right? So when we just talked about CrossFit, these are people from all over the world. We've never met that. We just start to do workouts. So we have a pretty awesome schedule in the morning and the evenings, every day leading up to the run. Um we have a pretty awesome schedule in the morning and the evenings, every day leading up to the run.

Starting on what day? Starting on what day? Starting Monday. Monday. We call it Monday. Trail run week starts. Okay. Different athletes, different people that show up, you know,

a little bit earlier, a little bit later. But Monday we'll start like our trail run schedule. The gym will have, you know have whoever is here of our friends, CrossFit athletes. I like to call the Hawaiian trail run the CrossFit all-star game. It's like whoever ends up doing well, whoever is happy with their performance, did really well, they end up coming to the run. That's what kind of always happens. So fresh off of whatever happened at the CrossFit games,

now we have all these athletes. They're coaching classes they're working out with people um and it's like no olsen you got jason kalipa miranda all the all these guys that are veterans and yeah they're they're coaching the classes they're doing seminars and this it's it's awesome pretty pretty special time and it's not like where they meet, you know, and it's like where they see somebody at the games and they're just kind of like, oh, you know what I mean? This is actually, you're there for a week, so you're actually getting to know these people.

And then the last day you're running with these people, so you actually build a genuine relationship, like, with these people. You know, they're not just athletes. They're like, you get to actually meet them on a human level where it's like hey this you know let's china cho you got tasia all these guys and they're just we're all here having fun helping the community just doing it you know helping others yeah i think he he really nails it like um you go to these events you don't ever get to talk to them you know you want you get it you might get a

picture and it's just like they're kind of here. They're really welcoming. We've created this environment. They trust us. We're in a gym, and you actually get to hang out with and work out with your favorite CrossFit athletes. It's really cool. And, yes, this year we're going to be doing a golf tournament this year on Wednesday at Poipu Bay. I have just recently gone into golf.

I absolutely love it um and uh i just it's just something that uh we're we're excited to go for it's it's at poipu bay which is um a really historic course um in golf there's four majors so the winners of each major would play at this tournament or at this course um for a good 15 years so just lots of history awesome course and you know just like uh just a lot of friends in the CrossFit space you know it's um they're looking into getting to new sports new things and golf is definitely like just emerging as this sport that um very similar to CrossFit right like when you play football you're not playing football like how they play football right but like us in a crossfit gym we can do the same workout as someone doing at the crossfit games

um you know with different ways different scalings golf kind of has that same vibe same community um and so we're excited to go for it um that This is a tradition where we pick, not going to say our most talented athletes or our most talented students, but just our most consistent, best attitude. Like this is a way that we treat our students that are very consistent and calm. And we pair them up with um you know special coaches and the community gets to see our kids do awesome workouts and and really throw down you know like i i it's like my mini games like i feel like i get to pretend to be dave craster i get to come up with these super fun workouts and just and watch them grind through it, you know, in front of everybody. So that it's just really cool to see. And then Saturday is the trail run, you know,

bright and early we're up in Omao. And, and just the vibes are high from building the entire week of working hard, being the gym, seeing each other around the Island. And then, and then those trail run happens. Yeah. And the run is always like – it's my masterpiece. It's always a 510K-ish run. Like one year, the 5K was actually almost a 10K because I measured it wrong. Oh, yeah. I was there for that. It's just – you just got to keep people wondering what they're getting into. You can't just make it like definite.

I can go the whole week. go ahead man i was gonna say there's a uh you know i don't know if they i can't remember if you still do this but one year you had a choice you could go straight and it was the 5k or you could turn left and it was the 10k those of us that chose left chose very unwisely it was like you immediately walked in and then slid down. It's like a scene out of Goonies. Like you slid into this like mud pit of hell and like you're climbing. That was a wedding. It was like torrential rains. Like I was like, I'm surprised nobody got hurt.

I think one or two people did. I think I was there. What year was that? I think I remember hearing about that. I was going back into the porta-potties every 10 minutes praying, going, please, God, just nobody. And I remember the day after I walked and I seen some of these mudslides that people were going down, like into barbed wire fences.

Is that normally where you pray, by the way? I do it anywhere I can. Anywhere I can. I was just like, every chance I get, Siobhan. I hear you. I hear you. Just checking. I think it's the first person to ever break Matt Fraser.

He broke Matt on that run. Matt was like, all right, I'm walking this one out. I'm done. It's like when they said, ready, set, go. It's like you just roll the dice. So you can go for a week long um there's a week-long schedule that you can sign up for or you can just you can you can you can just show up on saturday and do the run too right yeah and what's the point there's no shortage of unreal stuff to do on kawai. But you will also help people too.

By that, I mean Monday, there'll be something they can do. Wednesday, there's something they can do. And even if I don't want to golf, if I just want to go hang out, I can go hang out, walk around, get something to eat at the cabana, have a drink, whatever. It's very user-friendly over here. And you'll be keeping people together. There'll be stuff that people can do. Yeah. It's a lot of social.

We're going to do our best to just training to provide like, like a directory almost of like our favorite businesses, our favorite hikes, beaches to go to. And, you know, just, just give great information to our guests that are coming so they can

experience Hawaii in an awesome way. What's the name of your gym, Hoff? There's CrossFit Poipu. There's CrossFit Kekaha and CrossFit Anahola. And where is your headquarters? The CrossFit Poipu is right in Poipu. Yeah, in the south. That's the name of the area.

And is that near where the trail run starts? Yeah, we're like three minutes up the road. And is that where the meetup will be on Monday, the original meetup and workout? The meet will be over at the gym over there. The kids event will be at the church. Okay, tell me the name of that for those people who don't know. It's CrossFit Poipu is the name of the gym. P-O-I-P-U.

Okay, good. Were you going to say something, Matt? CrossFit Poi Poo is the name of the gym. P-O-I-P-U. Okay. Good. Were you going to say something, Matt? Yeah, I was going to say there's an amazing luau. What night is that? Friday or Saturday night after the run? I mean, you even see Dan Bailey on stage singing. I mean, strumming his guitar.

Honestly, that's a great finish piece uh in koala landing which is where i've stayed when i went it becomes a really fun hub you just at the point and people who want to come and enjoy a lot of their famous favorite crossfit athletes they just chill at the pool there and um that's that becomes like a really cool central hub of things when people aren't, you know, at the gym or doing other things, activities. Plus, the hiking is understated. I think every year there's like, you know, 30 or 40 of us will meet up somewhere and do some hiking. You end up on top of some mountain somewhere overlooking the most picturesque view you've ever looked at in your entire life. It's really, there's no shortage of stuff to do.

Yeah, we're going to have a, we're going to get a twist with the luau this year. I'm going to do it like how it was when I, when I grew up, it's going to be really, it'll be like a real luau. None of the hotel style luau's, but we're going to really bring it back. And, you know, I have a bunch of my Hawaiian friends. We're going to be cooking the pigs in the ground and the whole, you know what I mean? It's going to be, it'll be. Are're going to be cooking the pigs in the ground. It's going to be – Are you going to do a stand-up routine again, Hoff?

The year I was there, you did a stand-up basically the whole – Oh, yeah. In between everything, people were dying. Yeah, I just – whatever. I just get up there and just let it loose. Let my ADHD shine. That was crazy. You were so funny.

So why do you do this? What's the – this is a fundraiser? Yeah, so we do you do this? What's the, what's the, this is, this is a fundraiser. Yeah. So we do this to be able to fund our program for the year, you know, and it's and I mean, even if you can't come and do the run, I mean, if you were, you can go to our website and say, you know, if we're getting $5 continual donations, $20 donations, you know, even from the smallest donation to the biggest donation i mean everyone is um is so necessary for what we do over here it's um because it's to me this

whole program is the last lifeline for a community that i grew up in that will be extinct if and just overwashed and basically turn kawaii into a commercial island you know what i mean it's a commercial it's the i i'm a part i'm attached to the real aloha on the island of this local community and i'm trying to preserve that and and keep it alive you know and it's like it's i i don't i nobody deserves to not experience what I experienced growing up because it's beautiful. This hat living in an, in a, in a family environment where you can go and feel totally loved by everybody. And just like, you know, this is the Aloha. You can't even describe it, you know, but everybody deserves that. And I don't want that to be just, just washed away. I'm going to fight until the day I die to keep it alive. And this is what I'm doing. So the money goes – so this is this ultimate Hawaii trail run, which is – tell me the date again. September 18th.

Say what? September 18th. Is that the Monday it starts or that's the official date of the run? That's the day of the run. So on September 18th or the week before the September 18 18th people pay the money they to to enter your to your run they come out to the beautiful island of kawaii all the funds that you raise then go to basically supporting and you're gonna have to tell you the same the name of the foundation for me again foundation kaola foundation which is basically a giant room filled with

mentors and good people and fitness equipment and you basically give kids direction and an outlet through being around good mentors and good movement we give them a structured home we're just giving them a home

that's going to always be there for them. And we do, we not only that, you know, we also have, we also have jujitsu that's open. You know,

the, the, the run also funds a hula halal and a, and a motorcycle club that has the only motorcycle track where we do the run. It helps fund them to be able to have a place for all the kids to go there with their parents to ride dirt bikes so it's there's so many areas that this foundation supports in the community that it's um when you really dig in to look at it it's just it's it's it's beautiful you know and it's um how many kids and families are you working with now oh like me like kids we got we're doing about 80 kids a day easily and

and that's after covid so we were doing like 500 kids we were doing a lot there was a lot of kids but now we're moving back into covid was actually good because it got us to we were actually it was just growing so fast so it's actually a reset for us to restructure it so it will be able to handle the um the weight of all the kids coming you know you were seeing 500 kids a day a month there was probably 500 active kids in our program you know within a week we might see 500 different kids. Wow. Hey, listen, people. You have to contextualize that.

This is an island with 60,000 people. To be running a program that has 500 kids, that's one in every 120 people. Let's say one-third of the island is kids. That's 10,000 people. And if they're're seeing 500 that means one in 20 kids was using this facility yeah and the only way this facility runs is through the ultimate hawaii trail run raising money yeah and i said it's crazy i mean those numbers are crazy dude that's like that's nuts i see the impact when one kid gets this he has such a major impact in the community because a lot of the kids I remember when I was out there and I was messed up you know what I mean I I was very aware

of the person who had their stuff together because that's what I wanted but I wouldn't let anybody know that I'll play like I got it all together but deep down inside I wanted that life I wanted I wanted to be able to hold a job be be able to work, you know what I mean, and get a nice car and be heading in that direction. And, you know, so one of those kids, and I've, you know, the first kid I took into this program was, you know, for example, the parents were giving her drugs to go sell in school because they thought she could make some money to buy her new car.

And then they think that's healthy in helping their kids. I took the kid in. The kid came and lived with us. And now she's a successful mom. She had a kid at a young age. But her kid's not in CPS. It's not a broken family she's actually like still married and like it's just like it's a testament of what you know that one kid if everything i did was just for that one kid it's worth it you know because it's like that it's

just amazing to see that but then there's so many other kids like that that that i see that savon something that hoffy has taught or said before is that like kawaii is like legit like a petri dish like we we are really making some serious change here i've been here for five years i've gotten to see kids go from high school have a goal to play football, make the football team. Like in college, I've seen elementary kids, now middle school, you know, middle school to high school. So we get to see this transformation. These kids are so much different from a kid that doesn't do CrossFit. Like when I get a new kid in class, you can see how blown away they are by other kids that have been with us for years.

And I am truly excited to see what these kids are going to grow up to do. You know, we are constantly telling them, you know, we're encouraging them to be productive members of society. You know, something I always remind them, like literally there's five year olds, six year olds in my class. And I point at him and tell him, like, dude, you're going to be 30 one day. Like, what are you going to look like? What are you going to be, what are you going to be doing? What you do today matters. Like, and then, so just getting them to understand their purpose, training, you know, mindset, like, dude, like you said, what, like, it's what you just pumped me up with the with the numbers that you I don't think a number is the way you do. And yeah, everyone

talks about us like our community knows about the foundation, the classes we do. And I'm really, really excited over like 510 15 years to see, like like what these kids are going to be acting like. Cause, um, and who are they going to influence, man? We're all just mirrors here. We have a tremendous response. We're all role models, whether you want to be or not. We have a tremendous responsibility to be, to, to, to, to, to, to show our best front without, with still being authentic. I'm not saying that you can't be free and you have to be fake, but like, Hey man, you think it's okay to smoke a cigarette? It's not only hurting you, but it's telling everyone around you that it's okay.

Yeah. Everyone around you. It's okay. And so what's it tell people when you do a pull up or when you climb up a tree and everyone sees you climb the tree and get a Frisbee down, it tells everyone around you. That's okay. Wow. I want to be that person who can climb the frisbee like i love that do you remember that kid i wasn't that kid but there was always i wasn't that kid talking to college there was a kid in the sixth grade if a ball went

in the tree that dude was up there getting it and you're like damn he's a beast you know what i mean everyone's like and you and you admire him and everyone wants to be that kid and so i feel you i mean yeah i if if you're in 500 kids out,000 kids, and who knows if there's even that many, that's an enormous impact on one of the – and imagine this too. Kauai is probably one of the most famous places in the world. Yeah. And yet there's only 60,000 people there. We have an obligation to bare minimum to take care of the kids. And right now we're also doing –

Not even take care of them, sorry. That's like they don't need to be taken care of. They need to not be down. Yeah. Right? And educated. They just need – A big part of what we do, I feel –

Juan, I want to say one more thing. Sorry. And who gives a fuck if the athletes are going to be there? If Matt O'Keefe is going to be there, the second biggest guest ever in the history of my podcast, that's the pool. That's I mean, I had a bunch of athletes on, Oh, look at that handsome man behind O'Keefe. That was O'Keefe when he had hair. That is a, by the way, your head looks amazing. The three times you took it off, you must've just, yeah, that's pretty.

Nice. Yeah. Stop fighting i mean god i want to touch it i just want to rub it but uh but o'keefe is uh yeah go out there and see super agent matt super agent matt o'keefe and boy matt you got great vibes dude so one of the things that we're doing too right now sorry juan i'll get off my horse one of the things we're doing right now is we're like actually creating these guys are putting down the curriculum so that they'll be able to, people will be able to do this. We'll be able to like help, help a gym. If they wanted to do this program with the kids,

we'll be able to like assist them with, it's not going to be just like, oh, here's the programming. They'll get support from us to be able to help the coach start to become transparent so that he can be able to affect the kids and be able to be a real role model and be able to speak his life experience into these kids in a way that we do over here. So that's in the process right now. These guys have been working hard on that. So that's something that's going to be exciting. We're making this so it can go anywhere in the world and it'll change the community.

I do want to say something about that because that's um it you know my first experience there that was my immediate reaction was like you know there's some special sauce here um and it is you know hoff and team um but there's a there's got to be a way to you know yeah to get this out because there's, you know, it's such a special program that can be, you know, useful anywhere in the world. And I know Hoff and the team have worked really hard to figure out best ways to do that. But if people are listening to this and are interested in this come,

you know, whether you do the run or not show up early and help, but like think about and look at this program because it can affect your local community. It's something that obviously has well, there's stats with what Hoff has done, but this problem is not exclusive to Kauai. This is everywhere. Any local community can have a ton of benefit from this. And these guys want to help.

So, you know, they need people that want to take the initiative to help, you know, spread that message and word and get this thing started. You know, when I went there and experienced that first time, and he and I talked a lot about this that year, there's got to be a way to get this out further than just the island i mean i'll help for the rest of my life you know with you know the the island you know you know or this foundation helping succeed on that island but uh i really would love to see this thing you know you know some people receive these same gifts in other places because it's really special okay if you're still having troubles lighten the stove at your house yeah yeah i have i got my my family's starting dinner over here tell them to use a match man that's like 18 tries man just get a match and throw it on the spark dude what's up that's's funny. Sorry, Aaron. Go ahead.

It's coming together. We're no different than any other community in the world. We're a special place over here. It's very exotic. Like Juan was saying, I realized a long time ago that this place is like a petri dish and nobody leaves. I can measure the success in the community. We've been doing it for

10 years now watching this and it's um i mean it's when we get this programming done with the with the the way it's set up it's going to be it'll be life-changing for communities and it's not it doesn't take a lot of money to start it it doesn't take a lot of you know overhead and all this you can actually just take this stuff and start running with it. And as long as you are able to help coach the person and that's going to be in front of these kids on how to like work through their stuff so they can actually be able to talk about it, their life experiences, the stuff that everybody always feels so uncomfortable to talk about, you know, your, your stories are your, your greatest tool that

you have. And when you can become okay with them and help these get, you know, experiences and share these, how it was affected with you and this and that, man, you'll have a powerful coach. You'll have a coach that not only gets people fit, but it transforms lives, like walks people back from the gates of hell. You know's like and it's for real i've watched this over and over work successfully for the past for so many years and it's like and i just want everybody to be able to experience this because how long have you guys been how long has the run been in existence what year is this going to be sure what do you say here okay it's been so many years yeah can i can i just touch on the curriculum again real quick um yes i like it how i like it how hoff says something and juan's like okay let me

unfuck this a little bit and hoff's the boss but but one but you can tell how much he trusts juan hey why don't you just put your hand up his ass and talk for him juan just be like yeah i mean let's go i love hoss you know he's taught me a lot who doesn't i just i just want to really share just my side of the curriculum you know um um we're just really and because because for me growing up i just feel like we just didn't know a lot of things. Like, right? We didn't know sugar was bad. We didn't know that. I was taught not to talk about my feelings.

Not to, you know, not to cry. To hide everything. To always seem like everything is okay. And something that Hoff has taught me through the 12 steps is true vulnerability. True transparency. How to deal with problems, not only suppress emotions, but as things come up. So what we've decided with our curriculum is that we're teaching the 12 steps, you know, obviously in a kid's format. And the reason we were excited about it is because like, right. CrossFit is magic.

CrossFit works. Greg Glassman, one of my favorite quotes by Greg was, the greatest adaptation is between the ears. It's just that mindset you develop. And something that we've learned through just the CrossFit Kids course is that when we work out, we create new neurons in our brain. Like new neurons are being created. We are in the best moment to learn something is once we've done some physical activity.

So after we're doing some physical activity, that's where we provide a message. That's where our curriculum or our programming is going to be the most valuable. It's not the workouts. It's the messaging that the coach is going to be receiving and going to be taught how to deliver to the age group that they're working with. And it's incredible, man. We're really teaching kids step by step. And I know that 12 steps seems super gnarly to me, it was like 12 steps. Like, I'm not a drug addict. I don't even do that. But honestly, it's simply one of the greatest tools to deal with any problem you've ever had.

It doesn't have to be drugs. Any issues you have, if you run it through those 12 steps, you will come out enlightened and a better person and being able to actually deal with the problems. And, um, you know, as well as the workouts are going to be amazing, huge shout out to, to, uh, street parking, NC fit, um, CrossFit mayhem, uh, Doug from CrossFit park city. Um, they're, they're. They're basically giving us workouts and we are just tailoring them, modifying them for kids, for students, for middle school and elementary school. We're working on some key games. And our biggest thing is that it's the fitness, the games, that's all fun and game. That know, that's all the fun part.

But the real meat is when we're able to teach a kid through experience of a physical activity about how to handle something in their life. You know, like, for example, dodgeball. Dodgeball is one of the greatest games. But dodgeball is a game of honesty. Like, when you look at it. And we teach them. We highlight that part. You know? Tic-tac-toe. Tic-tac-toe is a game of honesty. Like when you look at it and we teach them, we highlight that part, you know, tic-tac-toe, tic-tac-toe is a fantastic game, but tic-tac-toe is all about being to make

good decisions under pressure. Can you make a good decision under pressure? You know, and for kids to be able to align those type of thoughts, we've just, we're excited to see what, what that turns out. And that's, that's what we're trying to give to our community is not just that these are awesome workouts it's how do you tie in a message that really resonates with a human being that is going to help them grow going to help them prepare for their future going to help them be a you know productive member of society and to be able to deal with their own problems um as they grow up. So that's kind of like what we've been working on.

Well, there you go. And that's where your money goes, people. You get to go to Hawaii. Oh, is that a piece? You can be a selfish prick or the most giving person in the world, but either way, you get to go to Hawaii. And I think Juan just described it perfectly of how your money is going to be spent. They're going to take your registration money, and that's where it's going to go it's going to go to making kids better and especially if you have kids you want all kids to be better because it's the world all

our kids are going to live in and this is and i've always i've always said that the solution is in the community and it's this is a big problem and where to even start to make a difference and it's like i mean every every individual anybody who's listening you're you're a part of the community you're a powerful individual that can become a part of what we're doing even if it's like donating five dollars a month like i said whatever's to create something that's going to go and affect all these other communities i see this thing going out, being dropped in any community, and just instantly giving that community an opportunity to have something to stand behind that's going to change the community.

And it's not like one of those if it, maybe, or will, it will change the community. You know what I mean? It's a definite 100% will work in the community because it's proven a hundred times over over here. So it's pretty cool. Were you going to say something, Matt? Sorry, I cut you off. No, it's fine.

You guys touched on something that I think is it's funny. And Hoff can relate to this most, which is like when you have you go through your recovery process and you learn the 12 steps and you know you're part of that community and a one of the things that comes across you pretty quickly is like wow this could be very applicable to just the average person's life and to hear that you know what they're doing with this with kids is applying that to you know not necessarily a scenario of recovery is like music honestly because it's um it's a people who and if i you know here like you know people probably like you know eyes will glaze over with this because you know i think people in recovery a lot of times do you know think that they got all the answers through this

experience through aa but i will tell you something that you know that process they got all the answers through this experience through aa but i will tell you something that you know that process um for even people that haven't struggled necessarily with you know the object of alcohol or drugs you can apply it to anything in life um and they're proof of it you know applying it to these kids um and their process and growth and maturation is is amazing honestly i i tell you like that that um that magic that piece that's the secret sauce like that getting out like that's that that's a bit that's a big thing that i don't think a lot of people have applied a lot of energy to the general you know general market what you would say's not a market, but like that, man, for people to be able to receive that gift and not have to go through the

struggle and pain to get there is awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, I mean, I've always like alcohol and drugs is just a symptom of a bunch of suppressed feelings that we've just never dealt with or we've been taught to deal with. suppressed feelings that we've just never dealt with or we've been taught to deal with and when when you when we drugs and alcohol there's other things there's sex money whatever you want to talk about whatever it is that you can you know to make yourself feel better you know we'll

use that to feel better you know what i mean because it's like all the suppressed stuff it's just over time and it's stuff, you know, you just start not feeling comfortable in my skin. You see everybody's happy and you're just kind of like, you know, you get that fake happy face on like, Oh, I'm doing great. But inside you're really dying inside, you know, and it's just, um, the 12 steps, the way that stuff's set up, just takes it, takes all that away when you, when you start working through it, you know, It just takes all that away when you start working through it. You know, it's the most unbelievable thing that's been set up to actually change people's lives.

You know, and it's just to understand it's not just alcohol and drugs. That's just the symptom of a tool that we use so we don't have to feel the way we feel. You know, it's a quick way to change the way you feel. You know, a quick way to change the way you feel. A quick little high, but then down the road, it stops working. You should do 100 burpees instead. Yeah. I do it every day. It's great. You want to escape the noise of your brain or the discomfort?

When you were sharing that, Savant, earlier, I read this book from Eckhart Tolle, and he described it. He saw the human condition is lost in thought. That's the state of the human condition. They're just everywhere, but now everywhere, but in the moment. he speaks very succinctly on the subject of hey, your mind got you in this problem. It's not going to get you out. You're not going to think your way out of this one, buddy. Yeah, you nailed it.

You read a lot of Eckhart Tolle? Yeah, him. There's another book that's written by Emmett Fox. Blasphemy, blasphemy, Mr. Hoff. You ever heard of Emmett Fox? No. The book Power Through Constructive Thinking. Those are the big book that the Bible's good. It took me a while to be able to understand that.

That's a tricky one. And then Emmett Fox, The Power Through Constructive Thinking. That's where the AA book was written from that. The book's like over 100 years old author. I may have to text you that again. I came and read my own writing. I just wrote it. Power Through Constructive Thinking. Yeah, it's pretty deep. Have you read that one, O'Keefe?

I have not read that one. I'm down. I'm in on that. I've read the book. We'll have a race for time. Who could read it the fastest? I've been telling everyone. I've been telling Juan all about it remember i give that book to people that you

can't put it down dude it's like one of those as it's like and he talks about a lot about the process of like being of service and giving and you know how important that is and it's like it's pretty he just nails it you. It goes straight for the juggler when you start reading it. If you don't want to read it. Is he still alive? Is he still alive? No, he's dead.

Oh yeah, he's dead. The 12 steps were built on from that book. I will give one piece of sage advice for those who attend this run. When Hoff asks you to take a ride or do this with him or just take caution okay that's all i have to tell you is take caution if you know you hey you want me to teach you how to surf you want me to take a ride you want to take a ride in the atv your life is being taken into his i got a

story oh keith caught me in my own game so after that he's gonna say caught you in your underwear yeah so after the event, so we went. He's like, let's go up the coast. I'm like, okay, I'll make it a little bit of time. We'll go run up the coast on my boat, the Nepali coast. So we cruise up there, and Matt Frazier's like, dude, I want to jump off the cliff. I'm like, okay, I got the cliff for you to jump off. So we come all the way around the corner.

It was me, Matt. We had Matt Bickle, Matt Frazier,cer my friend all on one boat all on one big boat Eugene and then and you one from Australia oh James Newberry James Newberry so we're ripping around the corner we pull up to this cliff it's like a 70 foot cliff I'm all there's your jump now you're gonna go up on the over here climb up on the rocks and then climb up the backside and jump over and Matt looks at me he's all bro you're coming with me up on the over here, climb up on the rocks and then climb up the backside and jump over. And Matt looks at me. He's a pro. You're coming with me. I'm like, no, I'm not. I got to drive the boat. And then and then.

And then he saw, bro, I drive boats all the time. I'm like, no. And then I was trying to get out of I turn around. I'm only going to jump if all these guys go and jump. And they're like, let's go jump. I was like like so we ended up so we went up my friend bishop got cut up climbing up on the rocks and then we're going up the scaling this cliff and once you're going up it it's like there's this one point where it kind of like goes out and over you're like committed i like kick a rock off it rolls down cracks sam dancer in his head hits my other friend Bishop and

then we get it and I'm like freaking out I'm just like oh my god I'm getting up to the top and this is so high I'm like I just got a jump I can't even like coffee's not good I can't even think if I sit there for a second I'm gonna be screwed and then they're gonna have to get it because you can't climb back down there's no way you can climb back down and then so i go up there and i get up there and i just jump i bump first thing i get i build everybody i just was way ahead i just jumped in the water and then bickle jumped and he like does it hurt does it hurt he did he broke his what his tailbone yeah he did something to his tailbone and it's this is one of those cliffs where it's tight, all right?

So as the waves come in and out, it can be like 10 feet less, depending on when you jump. And Matt isn't scared of many things. When he came back, he was like, good choice. Good choice not driving the boat. That was scary as shit. And they all come back like, Sam Dancer's got blood coming down his face your matt's feet are all cut up i'm like what are what are we doing right now you know yeah and you guys don't even

drink you don't have an excuse no one has an excuse like oh this is this is probably not a good idea but we're already here so let's just see what happens well but the the climb up like this is the best part there's some footage of this out there the climb up is not like you know you walk up the side of a hill to this thing you're skill climbing without ropes up the side of a cliff to get to this free solo hawaiian style dude right before i climb so i look at matt i'm like and i never i'm always like dude you gotta come jump i look at Matt, and I never, I'm always like, dude, you got to come jump. I look at Matt Beckham, I'm like, bro, if there's ever one time you don't have to do something that I'm asking you to do, this is the one time you can, like, bow out if you want. Wear a helmet when you're with Hoppy. Yeah, wear a helmet.

Before we go, I do want to say this as we wrap up here. All kidding aside, we're having some fun on here. It do want to say this, um, as we wrap up here, all kidding aside, we're having some fun on here. It's important to go to the Hawaii trail run. Okay. He's a great guy. Juan's a great guy, but if you don't know Aaron Hoff,

um, you should, you should meet him. It's, um, he's the kind of, you'll meet a lot of people in your life and there's some people you'll meet that you will never forget.

And Aaron is extremely loving, but there's something intangible about him. Yeah, he's very they call him Uncle Hoffy. And it's not it's not because like, oh, it's a nice thing to say. It's because if you if you had if you ever had a great uncle and I had a lot of great uncles, he really is that guy. You can hug him the first time you see him. You can call him anytime. He is a – when you meet him, you'll know exactly why he's in the position he's in. You'll see why he's so well-connected and why everyone wants to be around him, why everyone wants to participate in what he's doing.

The guy shits rose petals. I'm not joking. So you'll be stoked. You'll be really stoked he's a he's a he's a legend he uh in his own right in so many facets um and uh i just i just wanted to say that that's so wrong is like the perfect cap because you know all those reasons to go to kawaii or you know kawaii you know matt no like forget it honestly you will leave there and be like i met uncle hoffy he's a friend for life this guy he's changed my life i mean he's he has that profound effect on anybody you meet so how big it is next to wine

it doesn't yeah it doesn't matter how cool like you pick the coolest you pick the coolest person oh my goodness oh my goodness i gotta say you guys dude it's laurie he looks like what was the guy laurel and hardy which one was the one that wore a little hat that's who he turned into when he puts on wands. This is impressive. You got Savant to dress up today, too, guys. No hat. This is a big day.

Got a v-neck on. I can't believe you noticed. I got this whole selection of awesome James Pierce t-shirts that I never wear. I can't even believe you noticed that I was wearing something like this. It's just a t-shirt, but damn. You're looking good. You got your hair, too. Thank you. Yeah, i got a haircut i was um i was trying to grow the beard and hair out for a while and then i was just like dude i just can't do this this is too much i grew my first beard

not so and i just felt like i had a wet hot towel around my face and i just couldn't do it i was like i'm gonna go it's fun because people are nicer to you but what is that it's fun because people are nicer to you people but what is that? It's fun because people are nicer to you. People start treating me like an old man and they're like, everyone's all nice and you can get away with saying whatever you want, but then you're just food start, you know, it's a good,

I'm 49, but when I have a beard, I look like I'm 69. I pull it off. Good. I run it. Juan's been working on his beard. It's just coming in right now. I'm 33. Juan's been working on his beard this whole night. It's just coming in right now.

I'm 33. Juan doesn't even have a few. I did. Look, O'Keefe just went gangster. Are you going to go to the games and set up and podcast all week? Is it going to be in my backyard? Probably not. Yeah, then i'm not doing it dude i'm kind of i i'm in i'm in heaven man i'm in heaven i cannot i cannot get out of my oodle loop i am a creature of habit

i am just living the dream in my little my little little my little santa cruz area and now i'm just taking i mean if i could say we're at a 121. No one's going to hear this. I'm just taking over the podcast game. I'm just addicted. I'm just doing one a day. I'm tearing it up. The numbers are exploding.

Good for you. We had like – last week we had 35,000 downloads in just one week just on the Sevan podcast. That's crazy. On iTunes and Spotify. That doesn't even include YouTube. And we've only been doing it like two months hard. Wait, another two months? That's awesome.

Yeah. Another two months, I'm going to have to change my number so Hoffie can't call me anymore. Yeah, it'll be like, it's not street level anymore. Yeah. It's up there in the booze town. But I like how you tempted me, O'Keefe. You figured me out when you're me, O'Keefe.

You figured me out when you're like, are you going to come to the games and podcast? I mean, if someone broke into my house and took my podcast gear there, I'd have to go. What, Savant, are you going to try to come out anytime soon? We'll have to stage that. We don't have any planes. No, I'm not going anywhere where there requires a mask. I'm not doing any of the theatrics. I'm not doing any of the fuckery.

I'm just like, fuck you. I'm sorry to be so crass with you kind, wholesome gentlemen, but I'm here with my three boys. We do martial arts five days a week, CrossFit every day, tennis, go to the beach. Yeah, your boys are pretty awesome. Well, when things settle down, dude, I'd love – I think it would be rad if you would come and bring the boys, man. They'd love it out here.

The thing is, is if I did come, I would probably come for like three months. No shit. I would come and like set up a tent in Hoffie's backyard and have my whole family stay there. My wife would love that. But I can't go somewhere for a week. I have to go there and become a – I'd have to go anywhere i go i'd want to go like for three months yeah you could be i am a hippie actually i'm a pretty i'm barefoot right now what is a house right next to his house

that i'm i'm sure you can camp out in right right hoffy yeah yeah we got a spot for you savann are there squatters in there now i don't got to kick no one out who do you not like i'll make sure they're in the house while you're there i love everyone even the people even the people who hate my guts i like everyone it's good to be like that yeah well thanks so's fun. Yeah, well, thanks so much for doing this and helping, you know, what we do. Peace and love. Hey, and you're the only person who's ever invited people on. So this podcast was supposed to be with Hoff,

and then I find out from O'Keefe and Juan that they're coming on too. Like Hoff doesn't tell me. He tells them they're coming on, and then they tell me. They just, you know, we're coming on the podcast with Hoff. No, just making things happen because we've then they tell me hey just you know we're coming on the podcast with Hoff you know just making things happen cause you got a lot going on you know I just got a status

I love it what? it's less work for you you have a podcast every day now you got 30,000 people downloading in a week and man that's a lot of work 35 buddy 35 35