Chris Bertish: Big-wave surfer, trans-Atlantic paddle boarder, speaker, and author

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I'm Guy Kawasaki and this is remarkable people. This episode's guest is Chris Burtish, a South African surfer, paddleboarder, speaker and authority. Among his many accomplishments, he won the 2010 Mavericks big wave Invitational surfing contest. He almost died that day. But he didn't let that minor detail stop him. In 2017, he completed a solo 4700 mile, 93 day journey from Morocco to Antigua on a paddleboard. This set a Guinness World Record for the first solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean on a stand up paddleboard. Millions of people are experiencing isolation because of the Coronavirus Podcast. You'll learn what it takes to survive 93 days of isolation on a stand up paddleboard in the Atlantic Ocean. By the way, do you know why it's unwise to catch and eat fish as you're paddling across the Atlantic? Keep listening to learn why this is true. A few explanatory notes Burgess refers to Jeff several times in this interview. This would be Jeff Clark, the person who discovered Mavericks and surfed it alone for years. A school of dorado fish escorted Birdish. Dorado is another name for Mahi Mahi. They are typically 15 to 30 pounds and 3ft in length. A leash is the long cord that surfers wrap around their ankle or calf at one end and connect to their surfboard or paddle board at the other end. In this case, though, birdish attach one end to his vest, buckle your seat belts because you're about to learn what it takes to win Mavericks and paddle across the Atlantic Ocean. Hi, I'm Guy Kawasaki and this is remarkable people. And now here's Chris Burdish.

I remember just realizing that in order to become one of the best, I couldn't do what everyone else was doing because I wasn't a paid professional athlete. So I needed to do things differently. So I remember working out from different aspects of all different facets of big wave surfing, how I could distinguish myself from everyone else. And I just looked at the physical aspect. I looked at the mental aspect, I looked at the equipment, and then I looked at the locations and I broke it down into those sort of four aspects of it. And then I decided to try and work on each aspect and focus on each aspect of those to become the best that I could be in each one of those four elements, to be able to separate myself from everyone else. So I looked at the equipment and I was using really, really small equipment. I refined that equipment. A lot of people don't use small boards in big ways because it means you get in later and it means that you are in way more critical sit. But I figured out that if I was using smaller boards, I could surf differently to everyone else. And if, you know, if big wave surfing was judged on how critical and how late you could take the drop and complete it successfully, I knew that if I could do that, if I could use those boards successfully, I would be able to distinguish myself from everyone else out there. But that would mean that I would have to be so confident in my physical ability. So I believe that physical fitness breeds mental confidence. I went about designing and developing my own version of training to be able to make me as stupidly, ridiculously fit as I could be across all different elements. In this day and age now, in whatever, 20, almost 2020, you know, there's all these big wave athletes that are now doing these apnea training courses and these borderman courses and what have you. But in 2000, there wasn't anything like that that exists. My training that I developed for myself was very unique and no one was doing it. I actually ended up training alongside in the pool with one of the freediving world champions in South Africa. And one day she was like, ah, I see you training every day. It's amazing. Like, I'm training for the world championships and I'm training for free diving. But I see you doing this underwater apnea training. Like, I've never seen anyone else do that. What are you training for? I said, I'm training for big wave season. She said, wow, I've never seen any surfer ever train like you, trainer. I said, well, this is the second time I've been at the pool today. And she's like. So I said, I train in the morning before work between 5 and 6, and then I go to work, work a full day, and then I train after work as well. And I think what I figured out from that, I was training twice a day, six days a week. And 80% of that was pool training and 60% of the pool training I was doing was all apnea underwater training. And I got to a point that when I went over in 2001, it's a very difficult space to try and to try and put into words. I got to a point where I was so fit across swimming, running, underwater training that I was just oozing confidence. I felt like I was invincible. And it's a good thing and a bad thing. It's a double edged sword because when you get into that space then you literally believe that you are Superman and you can achieve anything. So you do things that you never normally would do because you're so confident within yourself that you cannot fail. So you put yourself in places that you should never be in. And because you're so confident with yourself that 99% of the time you make it out. And then if you don't, you, you so fit and, and, and you, you've got such a confidence within yourself that you normally get yourself out of situations that you, you shouldn't either.

How many miles were you running a day? How far were you swimming? Were you swimming sprints? Were you swimming long distance?

Yeah, I mean it's such a, it's such a deep, interesting combination. So I work out a program that takes me about six months to get from base fitness to, to peak fitness. If your base fitness is really good, you can do it within three to four months. But I basically learned like, and you get so in tune with your body and so in tune with your mind that like I could have one beer at night and I could feel it in my system and I could feel it in the consequences of my training for the next five days onwards. When you're so in tune with your body that you can feel those kind of things and the significant impact that even just one beer would have in your system, it's qu. Remarkable that you can notice your performance levels on that sort of scale. I think I was doing three, three to five days a week. I was running probably short distances, like five miles kind of thing. And then I was in the pool every day, twice a day, six days a week. And I was, I was doing at least a mile underneath the water. Obviously not, not once off, that would be something. But I was doing a little, you know, I was doing a little over a mile underneath the water. And then I'd do above the water training and then I had different sprint reg that would basically mimic what would happen if I got caught inside by a five wave set. And then I would also mimic what would happen if I fell taking off on a wave. And not get a full breath and then still get hammered by a wave and then the multiple waves afterwards and mimic what would happen in all the different scenarios. So I basically mimicked every single worst case scenario of training at your extreme level in a capacity where you're not getting a lot of breath.

Don't you think that most people train for the best case? A lot of what you just described is for the worst case.

Right.

When you fell, when you're pulled under and all that, as opposed to the wave you catch and ride.

Well, that, that you just get from experience that comes from being out there. But how do you pre plan for when things go right is easy because you're planning for that when you're out in the ocean and all whatever the 20 or 30 years of experience that you've done up to that point should train you for that. But what gives you the confidence to be paddle into a wave and put yourself in harm's way and take off in a critical place? That only comes from a confidence that you have that you can get from knowing that you can sustain yourself for an extended period of time underneath the water and knowing that you will survive and knowing that you've done absolutely everything in your physical and mental and emotional space to be ready for that situation. So I always work on a philosophy which is plan for the worst and hope for the best. Because if you plan for every single worst case scenario, then you've minimized the risk and you can proceed with confidence and then your outcome is generally successful. And seeing that I'm still here, it means that my training worked. You're right.

Yes. Bring us to that specific contest and like what happened there?

Well, I tried to, you know, I tried to save up to be at that event. I made the top 24, taken 10 years to get to that point. I tried to come over for the time period that it was going to be to where they'd possibly run the event over a two month period where the likelihood was the highest. And I'd done fundraisers at home in order to be able to raise enough money. And you know, I think my, my biggest sponsor, their donation to me going over and representing my country was getting given two wetsuits towards my trip. That was, that's the definition of sponsorship in our country. Yeah, it's pretty soul destroying. But I think what you learn by being, what I've learned by being South African is that because you have to work so hard at creating the opportunity for yourself that it makes you incredibly driven and incredibly focused. So when you do get the opportunity. You put everything on the line to make it count because you know that that might be your one and only last chance. And that's why I've always believed, I always support the underdog because the underdog never discard the underdog. Because the underdog will do everything in its power to rise above its normal level and standard, to be able to do things that it normally, normally would never be able to achieve. Because it knows that it'll do whatever it has to to be able to succeed.

Do you think that too much money is worse than too little then?

Yes, definitely, for sure. Because you don't have the. You don't have the passion and you don't have the grit and the courage and the determination that really, that really drives you. When you've got everything on a golden platter, it's hard to have that, that same mindset where you've had to fight and scratch to be able to get that opportunity. And no matter what happens, you're going to give it everything you've got and you're going to show up at your best and go beyond normal and become the most extraordinary version of yourself you can be in order to ensure the best possible outcome. I was here for about a month and they didn't have the event and I was trying to stay the whole time. And then my girlfriend, my partner at the time got diagnosed with a really hectic life threatening illness and I had to fly back. I ended up deciding to fly back and look after him through surgery and everything else and that pretty much took. It was on Christmas day that I flew back and I had to get on literally a find out that morning. I had to try and get on a flight that afternoon. And in our world those tickets are really expensive and on Christmas Day it's probably the worst time you can fly home. So it cost me like more than around the world ticket to be able to fly home. And I spent two months looking after and it pretty much drained every single bit of money that I had in my life. And I remember being in one of the sales appointments, I was looking after multiple different brands as a sales agent at the time. And I was with my assistant, we were selling Crocs at the time. Don't judge me. Don't judge me. Crocs. And I remember looking, I remember speaking to a client and it was about three days before the end of the wedding period. I realized that like everything that I dreamed of, this was like the last year that I decided that I was going to put everything into trying to get into the event. And so. And if it didn't happen, then that was going to be it for me. And I remember looking down at, like, my ATM bank slip underneath the table While we are selling to the client. And I remember, like, I was overdrawn to the absolute max across every single one of my accounts. And I had, like, the equivalent of 321rand to my name, which is the equivalent of probably about $140 left to my name. I wasn't even There wasn't even. That was, like, less. It was, like, ridiculous. It was like, yeah, it was like, 30, $25 to my name. And I was trying to think of, like, how I was going to get through the rest of the week, Let alone the rest of the month. And that's when I got a phone call from Jeff. And I saw his number, and I excused myself. And he said, hey, listen, I don't know if you realize there's a giant swell on the forecast. Is there any way you're going to be able to get here if we decide to call it? And I said, well, I'm completely broke. I have no idea how I'll make it happen, but if we call it and you think it's going to happen, I. I'll find a way. And put down the phone. He said, well, you better look into. Start looking at flights. I put down the phone and I apologized to my client. I said, sorry, I've got to go and just quickly fly to America. And I think he thought it was an April fool's joke. And I said, no, really, I've actually got to walk out now and fly to America. And my assistant took over. I walked downstairs, got in my car, and drove straight to the airport. And I think a lot of people don't understand, Especially in this country, that I'm flying from South Africa. It's probably one of the furthest places in the world that you can possibly fly. And there are only a couple of flights that are going to get you here in time if you need to be here in 48 hours, because it can sometimes take 42 hours or so to get here. And I had kept my bag with my passport and all my gear in my backpack, ready the whole time that I was back home, Just in case that phone call happened. So my boards were in there, My wet suit was in my car, my bag with my passport, Everything was ready. So I walked downstairs, got in my car, and drove straight to the airport. And while I was driving the airport, I found my brother who was in travel. I said, please see if you can find me a flight that's going to get me there in time because I'm actually on the way to the airport now. And just before I got into the airport, he phoned me back. He said, chris, you won't believe it. There's one flight that if you need to get there in the next 48 hours, that will get you there in time. There's one seat left on the flight and you have to check in within the next 25 minutes. So unless you on the way to the airport or coming into there, there's no way you're going to make it. And I said, I'm actually just pulling into the airport right now. And then I ended up going into airport and just grabbing my board bag and running through. And it was like Moses and the parting of the sea because I was like running through my people flying everywhere trying to get out of the way in this giant coffin board bag I was dragging around with me and got to the counter and then phoned up Jeff. I said, hey, listen, what's the story? Like, I've got to get on this flight. There's only one that's going to get me there in time. It's closing in, you know, 15 minutes. There's one seat on the flight. I have to make that call. And Jeff turned around and said, we're having a little bit of trouble making that decision this year. If you phone me back in like two or three hours time, I'll be able to let you know clearly that was the wrong thing to say because that was it. That was that moment of truth and that junction. I think sometimes in life we all get to. And it's what you do with that decision, I think, that defines you and defines a lot of the outcomes. And sometimes you just have to have the courage to be able to step beyond your fears and find out what lies beyond. And if you. You've worked on something for so long, I think I always try and look at every single situation that I need to make a decision and think to myself, if I look back on the situation in five or ten years time with the decision that I'm wanting to make and the choice that I'm about to make, would I ever regret the decision that I made? So I thought to myself, okay, if I didn't make a plan and get on this flight right now, and I found out in 48 hours time that they ran the event and I'd missed that one opportunity and I would never forgive myself for the rest of my life. So I was like, okay, screw it, I'm going no matter what. No matter what. I phoned my brother and said, hey, listen, can you book that flight? And he was like, yeah, yeah, it's cool. Give me your card number. I said, no, no, use your card number. And he didn't have enough money either. And I ended up borrowing money from, like, three different friends to be able to get the money in that moment to be able to jump on that plane and get that flight out. So I flew out on that flight without even knowing if the event was going to run. And while I was in the air between Cape Town to Jobur to Amsterdam, while I was in Amsterdam, I had this, like, this horrible epiphany where I realized that if I got to Amsterdam and found out that Jeff hadn't called the event on, I didn't even have enough money across all my different accounts to be able to change my flight, to be able to even fly back home. And that's when you are, like, the definition of what I call all in. And I believe that, like, everything that's happened in my life since that point and everything that I've been successful with has been with that sort of mindset. It's been putting everything on the line for what you believe in. And the next book that I'm writing is called all in, and that's on the transatlantic. And it actually comes from. There's another term for it, which is a monk state, which is called a maksha state, which means that you give up and you put everything on the line for what you believe in. And it's a very powerful space because you go to extraordinary lengths because you let go everything that's important to you, and you're so passionate about what you believe in, that you're prepared to die for what you believe, no matter what. And generally, when you ever put yourself in that space, you always succeed because failure is not an option. Yeah. So I ended up finding out when I got to Amsterdam that they called the event on. And then I flew from Amsterdam to. I think it was Houston. And as we're coming into Houston, I had, like, one connection that would just get me there in time. And it was the storm that was hitting the west coast causing these massive waves. It caused a massive of snowstorm at Dallas. And I arrived in and the announcement was that they were going to possibly close the airport. And I got into America for the first time. And when I get into America and immigration, then I get stuck in the queue for two Hours. And I was watching the time disappear between my flight boarding and I got through immigration, I literally left my Crocs right there on the floor and went across two different terminals. And literally just as I got to the, they're calling my name to deplane me. And as I got to the airstairs, she was like, Ah, Ms. Burdish, we've been waiting for you. We just about to offload you off the plane. And then she took my ticket and she was like, oh, oh, there's a problem with your ticket. Some of these tickets that we have from the long haul flights, they don't check you through all the way through. So there's a bit of a problem with the ticket. What you need to do is you need to go outside the terminal to the external check in branch, you need to change your tickets and you get another flight out in the morning. And I was like, no, no, no, it doesn't work like that. Like, I have to get on this flight. This is the only flight that will get me there in time for like the Olympics of big wave surfing. You don't understand, you have to get me on this flight. And she's like, no, sorry, there's nothing I can do about this. We've seen this happen. The flight is now closed. There's nothing I can do about it. I went down on my knees and I shake. Please, you don't understand. Being on this journey for the last 10 years, you have to let me on this flight. It's. I don't know if you watched the movie the Terminal with Tom Hanks. If you don't let me on this flight, I'm gonna be roaming your airport for the next five years stealing and cheeseburgers from you because I can't even fly back home. And either she was scared of me or she suddenly felt sorry for me. And I think sometimes in life you meet these people that have had some similar experience and suddenly they click into a different gear and they realize that they need a help. And her name was Grace, Amazing Grace. And she ended up saying, hold on a second, let me see what I can do. And she ran down the little tunnel and three minutes later she came back with a naughty grin in her face. And she looked at me and she said, Ah, Mr. Bertish, I'm going to remember that name. I want you to go over and do me proud. I've done something very special for you. And she ended up giving making a plan to put me on the jump seat on the plane on that flight, which I still don't know how that happened.

Sounds a little illegal.

Yeah. But somehow we made it work. And I got on the flight and flew the next part of the route to, to San Francisco. Had taken me like 42 hours in transfers and stuff to get there. And then I arrived at like one o' clock in the morning. And the event was now gonna start at 7 or 7:30 or whatever. And I arrived and we waited the baggage carousel for little stuff to arrive. And all things come and all things go. No more things come, all things go, no bags. So you know, I learned from a guy called Clark Abbey in Hawaii. He's like, don't panic, panic after you panicked. And I realized, okay, I don't have, don't have my bags. It's all just has all the stuff that normal human beings have, like clothes and T shirts and all the stuff that we normally have. But then I realized it actually had my wetsuit and it had my two leashes, big wave leashes and what have you. And I was like, okay, I can borrow a wetsuit, I can manage it as long as my boards arrive and we're good, you know. So I waited the baggage oversized for the stuff to come. And all the golf clubs and canoes and stuff come and go and come and go, no boards. So I went to the baggage handling guy and I was like, please, you've got to tell me like this big board bag, it's a coffin with like three fine tuned like big wave Mavericks guns been designed and built for this wave, for this location, for this event that I've been trying to get into for the last 10 years. They must be out there, you can't lose them. He's like, oh, sometimes they just don't make the connection. I'm sure you can just like rent one from the beach. And I was like, rent one from the beach. What you're trying to say to me is like, I've arrived at the show of jumping Olympics and you've lost my horse and you're telling me to rent a donkey, that's what you're telling me. And yeah, it was just an incredible journey. And then I ended up realizing that none of my equipment arrived, nothing arrived. So I literally had the shirt on my back and in jeans and a warm top. And that's all I had was born to just about arrived for like the biggest event of my entire life. And little did I know that it was going to be one of the biggest days in surfing history. I didn't have enough money to get a taxi. So I phoned Jeff, Jeff came to pick me up, got back to his place about 2 o' clock in the morning, slept for what seemed like minutes and got up at like 5:30, borrowed one of his boards and I had a backup weight suit that I had here and wanted to go get some booties and leashes and stuff all together and then went down. I felt like I'd won the Amazing Race just getting to the beach that day.

You know, it seems to me that that whole story, it contradicts what every parent would say, right? You gotta get a good night's sleep, you gotta get a good breakfast. You have to have your equipment all prepared and ready. You need to be able to focus on the thing. And you had none of that and you won. So what's the lesson?

So the lesson is, I think for the year, the two years before, I had prepared to try and make things as difficult for myself, become accustomed to the most difficult and challenging conditions. Across everything that I did, I tried lots of different boards. I'd worked with Jeff on one of the first computer shapes, so he had my files and stuff in the system. And even though the board that I borrowed wasn't my one, it was off one of my, one of the first designs and shapes that were. So I knew that the rocker was the same, I knew that the outline was roughly the same. And I'd been using these boards now for almost 10 years, so I had a really good feel for the equipment. I'd left a backup wetsuit just as a worst case scenario. He had backup book and stuff. So like, and I try to go out in it at Mavericks in the most difficult and challenging conditions, no matter what, and of using lots of different equipment. We were talking about earlier, I think planning for the worst and hoping for the best, like knowing that you prepared no matter what worst case scenario throws at you and then, and then remaining true to, to what you set your mind to achieve, no matter what. I was walking through the contest area and that massive wave hit the contest whole site and washed away like, I don't know, 100 odd spectators. And I dropped all my equipment and I'd mother over one arm, two kids over the other, and it wasn't really how you'd normally prepare for like the biggest event from your life, you know, it was crazy. And then when I got out into the water, I just remember putting that contest vest on and it was like everything just went calm and went quiet. Even though there were these massive bombs detonating all around us and the waves were Breaking in places that none of us had ever experienced. They were breaking 200 to 300 yards further out than any anytime we had ever been out there before. So all the lineups that we had that we used normally to be able to line up and be in the right place for surfing, these giant waves work completely irrelevant. We had built those liners for ourselves for over 10, 15 years of surfing experience. And they were all null and void because the waves were so exponentially larger than anything we had ever paddled at that particular point. And then within the First, I got one small wave which was, I don't know, 30, 40 foot face or whatever relative to the day. And then about 10 minutes into that heat, we got caught inside by, still to this day, the biggest waves that I wave that I've ever seen landed literally 10ft in front of us. And that's the time when you go, you know, you think to yourself, like, I've done every single thing in my power to be ready for this exact moment. This is what you've trained for. And that's not the time when you think to yourself, I shouldn't have had those 10 tequilas last night. You and maybe I should have spent more time in the pool. That's what you've trained your last 15 years for, that moment.

And when you see how big was that wave that you got?

It was at least 60ft that landed right in front of us, dragging you almost a mile underneath water.

It dragged you almost a mile.

And I lost the ability to be able to use my arms and legs and lost the ability to be able to even speak. So when your body starts shutting down all its main functions in order to survive, all it's doing is it's limiting your, your use of your arms and legs. And then it limits your ability to be able to speak because all it's doing is taking all the blood from all its extremities into protecting and looking after the heart in order to keep it, keep it going. And so it's only focusing on breathing. Then you know you're pretty close to death.

So I can tell you when I see a six foot wave, it scares the shit out of me and I won't go out. Okay, so like, how are you different than most people who have that reaction? They won't go out. It's like too scary. But you, you see that as an opportunity. Is it mental? Are you crazy? Am I a coward? Like, what's the difference between you and me?

I find that it's a, it's an Interesting question, Guy. And I find it fascinating because, you know, a lot of people look at people that are doing extreme things and to them it seems crazy, but it's only crazy from according to your frame of reference. So it's what is your frame of reference in regarding to what is Norma and what is extraordinary and what is then superpowerability or that level of extreme athlete that you think is crazy. But I think I never went from surfing one foot waves to 60 foot waves. It was a gradual progression of keep on incrementally pushing your boundaries and pushing your limits. And every time you got into a fearful state, you push your limit a little bit further than that and then you got a little bit scared. But then you went back and you did it again and again until your comfort zone shifted and your new normal and your new frame of reference shifted incrementally. And if you keep on doing that over an extended period of time, suddenly no one sees the jump from one foot waves to four foot waves. All they see is you surfing 60 foot waves. And that seems crazy to them, but they've never followed the journey and seen how long it took you to get to that point and how many 5 foot waves and how many 10 foot waves, how many 12 foot waves, how many 15 foot waves, how many 20 foot waves and so, and so on. And I think you can apply that to literally anything. All of us have fear. Fear. Fear is common to everyone. It's just how you manage that fear, how you process that fear, and how you turn adversity or challenge or fear to your advantage. If you realize that fear is one of the greatest tools to be able to harness your own personal, greatest potential, focus your energy, focus your mind, extrapolate any of your normal functions to enhance state, to be able to do something that you should not normally ever achieve because you have endorphins, then you have adrenaline that then harness your immense and most extraordinary power within yourself as a human being to do things that you shouldn't normally do. Once you learn to be able to harness that, manage that process, that and regulate it in a very systematic way, then you can really go beyond what most people normally don't think is possible. And when you realize that that process puts you in a space and a place that allows you to do that, then you almost want to unlock that on a regular basis because it makes you realize what you can achieve if you learn to be able to manage that new ability. Most people use fear as something that paralyzes them not to go forward. But if you Use fear as an enhancer, and you realize that it's actually reminding that you're on the right track and you need to keep on going forward, because it's beyond your fears and beyond that comfort zone. That's where the magic happened. And that's where your greatest potential lies, just beyond that fear, beyond that comfort zone. And that's where you get into a step where flow is possible, where your greatest self is possible, where you evolve, where you learn, where you grow, and that's where life happens. In those moments, I think I had about five waves that I had land on my head. And when people talk about having nothing left, I don't think people really realize what that actually means. When your body starts shutting down all its functions, that's when you know that you have nothing left. And I remember the last wave that went over me. I was trying to get to the surface, and I couldn't get to the surface. And I finally got up, and then I could see one of the ski drivers coming in. One ski driver got taken out by one of the waves, and then the next wave behind. I was trying to hold my hand above the water so he could come in and get me. And I remember trying to take one more stroke to stay keep my head above the water. And that's when I realized, like, my body wasn't responding at all. And it's a terrifying thing to have that sensation where you're telling your body to keep your head above the water by taking a stroke and you're telling it to do something, and it doesn't. It doesn't respond, and you feel yourself sinking underneath the water, and there's nothing you can do about it, no matter what you're telling your body to do. And I remember just thinking, okay, well, if he doesn't get me, that's. I'm done. And apparently there was literally just. My hand was sticking out of the water. That's it. And one of the rescue guys came up and grabbed my hand. Frank, I think it was karate, pulled me out of the water, straight onto the back of the sled. This mass of white water came over us. And I remember just being bouncing around on the back of the sled, and he was still holding me on with one hand, and he's shouting at me, hold on, hold on. And that was one thing I couldn't do, because I couldn't even move my arms and legs. And then we eventually came out of the white water. He bounced out into the channel, and we're on the way out to the Channel. And he was looking down at me because he could see I was just. I was just completely. There was nothing left of me. And he was shouting at me, do you want me to take you to the paramedics? Do you want me to take you to the paramedics? I remember looking it up at him and trying to get out of my mouth, yes or no, but nothing would come out. And it's quite an interesting thing that you try and understand what's happening in your system in that moment where you're telling your body to do things and they're not responding, even right down to the point that you try to speak and nothing comes out of your mouth. And we got to the back line and he's going to drop me off at the paramedic boat and what have you. And there was another set that came in and two other guys were caught inside. And I was like, I just managed to get enough energy into responding to him. I said, well, just drop me on the backup board. Yeah, I'll be fine. And he said, yeah, yeah, I'll come back and get you and transfer across. And he went off to go and save some other people. And I just remember lying on my backup board there and lying literally face down on my board with my arms hanging over like, literally face down like almost like a corpse. And I thought to myself, well, that's it. Like I'm done. I've come as close to drowning as a human being can come without actually blacking out completely. And then I remember lying there just getting my breath and trying to process, like how much time there was in the heat and everything else. And I was, hold on a second. I had this flashback of a picture that my dad gave me that was on my wall in my room when I used to study for exams. He had it on his business desk before he passed away. And it was a picture of a frog. And the frog's getting eaten by a stork. I don't know if you've ever seen it before. And he's like halfway down the stork's throat and he's got his little arms outside the stork's throat, he's throttling the stork and underneath it it says, never ever, ever give up. And I remember just having like such a clear, vivid realization of that. And I'm like, you know, like I'm halfway down the stalk's throat. But you know what? I'm not dead yet. And I never want to look back in 10 years time at this same situation and say I never tried. So no matter how long it's going to take for me to paddle back out to the back line with I don't get another wave or not is irrelevant. But I'll take whatever it needs to take to be able to get me back out to the back line. So I'll never be able to look back and say I never tried. And it literally took me almost like 15 minutes of the rest of the heat almost to get. Like, there was about four and a half minutes left on the heat by the time I got to the back. So it took me like three times longer than normally did. And I remember sitting so far wide because I knew that if I got caught by another wave, it wasn't a matter of. Of if I might. There might be a 15% chance that I might survive. There was zero chance. There was, like, not. There wasn't 1%. There wasn't 10. It was zero chance that I would survive if I got caught by another way because I was so physically drained. And I remember sitting there and I remember sitting up on the board, seeing the guys sitting, like, where their waves are breaking. And I looked down, and we're watching. It was like 4 minutes and 20 seconds left, and I was like, okay, well, that's done. You know, I've done. I've done everything in my power to do what I said I was going to do. I'll never look back. And I never tried. I made it out.

Yeah, sitting on your board.

So I was sitting there and I was just waiting, and I thought, okay, well, that's it. In the day, I know that I'll never look back. And everyone back home will be like, geez, amazing that he even paddled back out. I think all the people that got caught inside by that set, I was the only one that ended up paddling out afterwards. And then I saw this big set coming on the horizon, and I was like, oh, okay, well, I'm safe here in channel. Everything's good. And the first wave came in. Second wave came in. Two guys caught it. The other guys were caught inside by the next one. And then the last wave of. For, like, some random reason, you can call it fate, you can call it destiny, you can call it whatever you want, but it came at, like, 30, 40 degrees, completely different angle to all the rest of the waves. And I remember seeing this wave coming, and I'm sitting, like, way in the channel. I'm thinking to myself, that wave's coming right towards me. But there's no way a wave can ever possibly break where I am. So I'm safe here. I'm safe. There's nothing. I don't have to worry about it. And the wave just kept on coming and getting, growing and growing. I was like, oh, my God, this weight, can it possibly break? And then I thought to myself, well, all I'm going to do is I'm going to flip around my board, I'm going to flop down and I'm going to take all the energy that I have and I'm just going to wait for the one perfect moment and I'm going to take all the energy I have and put into one giant stroke. And if I catch it, I catch it. If I don't, I don't. That's because that's all the energy that I have. And I waited and suddenly the wave picked me up and I was like, I couldn't believe that it was actually looked like it was going to break. And I put all the energy, I took one stroke and still to this day, it's the only wave I've ever caught in my entire life, ever like that, with one stroke. And suddenly it got me in and I finally got to the bottom and because it was breaking in such deep water, it didn't break as intensely. So I managed to get up and get out into the channel. And I remember pulling into the channel and just going, yeah, like the siren, like the siren went for the end of the heat and it was like I'd actually won the event, but I'd actually only just survived the first heat of the day. And then it was like 20 minutes later where they're like 15 minutes later where they called, like, got into the boat and I was just happy to survive, you know. And I remember them calling out the results of the heat and they're like, oh, in first place, Carlos Burleigh, big wave world champion from Brazil, and. And second place, Jamie Sterling from Hawaii. And then also in third place, going through to the the next round, Chris Burdish from South Korean. I was like, yes. I was like, oh, no. Because I couldn't actually fathom, like, that I'd actually made it through. And I was actually going to have to go back out there and compete, like, compete in the waves that were just getting bigger and bigger and like they'd already got to the point that they were the biggest paddle in waves in the history of big wave surfing. And then during the day it just got bigger. And I think the most challenging thing was the next heat and trying to reset, you know, to Let go of all those fears that I'd had during what had happened in that first heat, and try and literally, literally push a reset button, let go of all your fear, and then refocus on what your mission and your vision was. And then my game plan for the rest of the contest became completely different. It was just about. It was literally about, get two waves, survive, don't die, go home. Like, that was gameplay, that was strategy. And, I don't know many other events around the world, across any sport, where your strategy is don't get killed, don't die, go home. Like, with everything attached. And that day was very unique, and I was just very fortunate that I just ended up getting two really good waves in the quarters and semis, ended up getting barreled in the semifinals. It got me into the finals, and then I got into the final and the final. The wind had got slightly onshore, the tide had dropped. It got a little rugged, and even though it was bigger than anything else that anyone had ever paddled into, like. Like I'd surf those conditions. Like, most people go out and only surf Mavericks when it's clean and it's perfect and even if the waves are big and stuff, I've been training in, like, the worst conditions. Like, I would go out there by myself when it was windy, when I was rainy, when it was cross shore, offshore, onshore. Like, there would be days where, like, I got caught in the mist. My board went around Mushroom Rock. I went down on the other way around. I almost drowned. No one else around. Like, almost like when Jeff started surfing. And that's why I think we had this amazing connection, because I was doing things like he used to do in the old days. But I think, like, we were talking about, it's about resilience, and it's about building up a resilience and a mindset to be able to be uncomfortable and becoming so uncomfortable with the uncomfortable that you can. You can deal with change and really difficult environments so much better than anyone else because you train for it and you plan for it. And I think a resilience mindset is about becoming uncomfortable. I mean, coming comfortable with the uncomfortable space.

I would say to completely change the topic, though, that in entrepreneurship, 99.9% of founders train for when things go wrong, right?

When things go hard, beyond.

And it's all about scaling and going public and cashing out and, you know, all that. Nobody plans for. Product is late. Nobody's buying it, running out of money.

I find that quite interesting because in all the different businesses that I run. I always plan for every worst case. You know, plan for every worst case scenario and think of what happens if things don't work out. What, what is your alternative? What is your solution? How do you find another way to do this? How do you find a different way to map this? How do you market this in a different way to everyone else?

I think it's very interesting that on the one hand, you have to be a believer and an optimist to even try, but then you have to flip that bit and plan for the worst, which I don't think people can do both.

No. Yeah, I believe you can. Because I believe that there's opportunity and adversity in everything. And you look at any. You know, in that new talk that I was doing about unlocking your superpowers, it's about every single great entrepreneur and every single great businessman or success story, 99.9% of them. It's a story about how you've learned, learned through how you've learned and grown through your challenges, how you have turned your adversity and your greatest fears into your greatest tool and greatest superpower, yourself. And that's what separates the best from the rest. It's like how you, how you take. How you take the feedback and the stimuli that you get that is negative and you flip it into a positive, and how you transcend that which makes you stronger, and you ended up using that as your greatest tool.

Switching gears 93 days, you paddle across the Atlantic.

Yes.

Okay, so most people would say that is insanely impossible. So when you think about paddling across the Atlantic by yourself, do you simply not see the impossibility of that? Are you in denial? How does that work?

I think you couldn't have probably said it better. Better. But the last part of it, I don't believe. So. I believe exactly as you said it. Like, I just. When I, I guess when I get something in my mind that I, I focus on, like I've gone through all the preparation and the training to be able to get to a certain point. And then I go, okay, if I can do that, that and that, and if I've learned this, this, this from doing the 12 hour, the 24 hour record, the 24 hour Guinness World Record, if I do the seven day open ocean thing, trip up the west coast completely unsupported, unassisted, if I can do that unsupported and unassisted, then if I can build the right craft where I can find solutions to the challenges that I faced on that last journey, which Was how do I avoid getting out of the sun, how do I avoid having a solution for water and food and all those kind of things and a place to be able to sleep, to be able to remove myself from the really intense environment for short periods of time. If I can find solutions for all of that, then why would I need to go up a coastline? Then surely I could be self sufficient enough to be able to cross an ocean. And if I can do that, I'd already started attaching all these projects that I did to Operation Smile and the Lunchbox Fund, which was to feed kids in Africa and pay for operations. So I figured if I could raise enough money to be able to pay for 10, 20 operations through what the stuff that I was doing and feeding hundreds of kids, if I could build the right craft and I could take that line up the coastline and string it across the Atlantic and become completely self sufficient and unsupported, then I could not only change the lives of hundreds, I could change the lives of like hundreds of thousands and maybe millions. For me, it was just the next next logical step. And as much as that sounds really weird to a lot of people, like how does it going from 200 miles up the coastline, go to 4,500 miles across an ocean on a craft that's not even a meter wide, not even 6 inches above the water, and is only foot and a half longer than my normal open ocean board will. To me, I like there are some times in your life where you just, you just, you have a feeling and you just know no matter what anyone else says, you just know that it's possible and you know you can do it no matter what anyone else says and they can try and put doubt into you, into your mind. I just knew it. I just knew it was possible and I knew that I could do it no matter what anyone said.

When someone who doesn't follow a sport like that sees a CNN spot special, this guy just crossed the Atlantic 93 days by himself, paddling, they look at that and say that's impossible. But as you say, you started on a one foot wave, then a four foot wave, then a six foot wave, then a 20 foot wave, then a 60 foot wave. They only see the 60 foot wave. And so that's a very valuable lesson. You know, they didn't see that you went across the English Channel and then.

You went, yeah, they didn't see the English Channel, they Didn't see the 12 hour records, they didn't see the 24 hour records, they didn't See the 350ks that I did up wild and all that stuff that I learned along and all the lessons that I could apply and all the foundation that I built. And they didn't know that I'd been sailing all my life. And I'd done multiple transatlantic crossings on a yacht. I'd surfed and sailed in Morocco, I'd surfed and sailed in the Canary Islands, I'd surfed and sailed in Antigua. All the locations that I'd left from Morocco and I was going past the Canary island. So in, just in case there was a, there was a massive problem and I needed an exit strategy. I needed, I knew the different locations. I knew Antigua because I'd raced and sailed there, I'd surfed there. So everything is part of every single cog in that, in that little mechanical engine I'd experienced and I'd gone through. The only thing I hadn't done was paddle this little craft that had never been designed before, that we designed using all my sailing experience, all my surfing experience, all my big wave surfing experience, and all my stand up paddleboard experience across all the different journeys and put it all together to be able to create something that didn't exist, that would never be done before, to hopefully inspire the world and change what's possible.

There's a lot of nerds who might listen to this. So I just, I, I just gonna give you a few topics. Just tell us how you did this on this trip. So, food, okay.

Freeze dried food, which was, was a challenge because the company that I was meant to get all the freeze dried food, which I had been napping out and planning for six months before, went bankrupt a week before I left. So that was not sponsored. We didn't get the right, the right freeze diet food that I panned out and we only ended up getting three different packs for 93 days. So, so you know, 180 different versions, but only two, three different packs. And the one pack was Nazi Gorang and that gave me the run, so I could never have that. So there were only actually two different packs.

Okay.

Ham and Leek, which was absolutely horrendous. Leaks. I hate leeks. That was challenging because your body and your mind won't allow you to have the same thing, even though you think that it's not a problem. But when you have it every single day, twice a day for 93 days, your body starts revolving. Revolting. I'm not saying it's revolting because it is revolting to taste. Yes, it's revolting to taste. But your body actually will not accept it. So you have to work out ways to mentally trick your mind and manipulate your mental space to be able to add in different things, change the color of the bag, put it in different things to be able to trick your mind so it actually will take it in. Okay, water. Fascinating. A little water desalination unit. So I had a mini water desalinator which would run off my little solar panels off the top of the my craft. And that ran most of my systems. So it ran my AIs, it ran my sat nav, it ran my little GPS machine, and it charged my batteries so I could film GoPros and also link up with my sat communication system so I could send my little captain's log out once a week to the world, which was my inspiring message to the world, which was sometimes very difficult to be inspiring when you felt like you were in the process of trying to die. Wap, watch, watch. @ that time, I had a suuntu, I think Phoenix 5, which would management monitor my stroke rate. So I worked out roughly what I was doing on a daily basis from a stroke rate. And by the time I finished, I think it was on 2,475,672 strokes.

Okay.

Cameras. I took five different GoPros and I used had different mounts in different locations. So sometimes I put them on underneath of the craft and when I was cleaning the bottom of the craft so I could film myself, either clean the bottom of the craft or there would be a story to tell from the shark that ate me with the GoPro camera that would have filmed it, because I believe that was like my black box. So I think it's important for the story to be told no matter what, so people could know what happened to.

Me. Why do you have to clean the bottom of the boat in a 90 day.

Trip? Okay, so there's what's called goose barnacles that start taking over the bottom of your craft that quickly. Yeah, yeah. Within two weeks, you already start growing. If you don't scrape them off that quickly, they start growing like a carpet and they'll slow you down by almost half a knot. And if you multiply half a knot by 24 hours, suddenly that becomes a lot. And you multiply that by 93 days. I didn't actually have enough food to be able to get me through. I only had enough food to get me through 95 days. And we had already, when I had a massive leak in the craft where I thought I was going to sink halfway through the journey I lost damaged about five days of food. So I was already short three days of food. So already in the last week I was already on rations and I had already lost 20% of my entire body mass. Well, amazing thing is I was using most of. I was using all the Apple products along the journey. Oh, you were 11 inch Mac. And I was using two iPhones. One iPhone was a backup of the other iPhone for a communication device which Bluetooth to my little satellite dish. And then my everyday. I was doing updates on the weather and the routing on my Mac and I was charging it all through solar. Really? Yeah, I mean that's couldn't. You couldn't get more of a better story of using tools for. And it's survival innovation to create.

Impact. You only took one.

Mac? I only took 11 inch. 11 inch air was incredible. It survives everything. The funny thing that I found interesting was that all the cables just got eaten. Like I took five cables, five live phone charging cables. I was on the last one by the time I got there because the salt just. The salt just eats everything. It's fascinating. But the devices work like a charm. So they doubled up as my music and my like, I took a lot of whole. Like a whole lot of little audio programs that would get me through different parts of the.

Journey. And what, what does Chris Burgess listen.

To? Huh? Queen. Rock on. Yeah, a little bit of everything actually. Yeah, right from. Right from orchestral to classic to rock to alternative to country to a little bit.

Everything. So this sounds like a dumb question, but can't you catch fish or.

Something? Okay, it's not a dumb question at all. I think that's a really clever question. And most people would just assume that you do sashimi area. I did take fishing gear with for that reason, but what I learned was that my craft was so small that the only type of fish that I was going to catch out there unfortunately were really big Dorada. And there were two problems with that. So Dorada is like dolphin fish or tuna. They became like my companions out there. I had a family of Dorada that became like my literally like a wolf pack. And they would swim with me every day, like four of them on my left and four of them on my right. And they would make eye contact with me and they almost adopted me like the alpha male wolf pack. So you didn't want to eat them? I didn't want to eat them and sort of fell in love with them. But that.

Was. Did you have soy.

Sauce? So the funny thing is that that was the one reason. But Actually, the more significant reason, which I didn't realize at the time, was that I got charged by multiple big great white sharks out there. And because I was so small, my craft was so small. What I realized after the first time I, someone like breached underneath me and hit me and almost knocked me off from my craft. I realized that when it happened a week later when I got bumped and scraped literally five days later in the middle of the night. And it's the most terrifying thing when you're lying in this tiny little pod when you're only separated by literally less than inch and fiberglass and you hear this like bah and scraping off on the side. It makes you realize how really insignificant you are in the middle of the ocean and there's no way you can escape and, and it's their home. And what I realized on the second time around was that I was obviously the right size and shape of a slow moving whale calf that had maybe got separated from its mother. So I was a soft target and that was a terrible realization to come to. So every time I thought of wanting to fish, the type of fish that I would, that I would be catching would be really big. And Big Dorado's are really powerful fish. One, they were already my friends and two, if I had to catch one of them to try and get them up onto my deck and try and kill with a massive knife, the likelihood of me stabbing myself or you know, trying to rip the big hook out of its mouth and getting it infected and getting, you know, septicemia, all that kind of stuff became. Because my space on my deck was literally the size of this table. Not even like a meter long by not even a meter wide. So you try and wrestle a five foot tuna on a deck that size, the likelihood it's going to do, damn. And then there's going to be blood everywhere. And then you cut this beautiful fish up and you take three beautiful steaks and you eat it and then you put it into the fridge, right? There's no fridge. And then you've got this massive bleeding fish, this beautiful fish that's bleeding everywhere, attracting more of the creatures that have just tried to eat you like that are bigger and longer than your craft, that you're fearing for your life, that it's going to happen again and the outcome is not going to be very positive for you because the first two were pretty as close as it comes to, to being eaten and breached on by a 25 foot great white. It's a, it's a very humbling experience. Where you have a great white and you're not in a cage and you're not with a shark boat doing a shark tour and you see the creature and then you think to yourself, okay, well just step up off my craft into the bigger boat which I'll be safe on. Then you realize that's not available and you are thousands of miles from any other human being and any other help. And that's when you realize how completely alone you really.

Are. You're just.

Protein. Yeah, exactly. Snack?

Yeah. You were paddling at night, resting during the.

Day. No, I did it sort of a regime which was four hours on, two hours off. But I know you never really. So in that hour that you have off, like, well, let's say two hours of that, of the two hours, one hour goes to navigation, solving problems, dealing with challenges, checking your navigation, and the other hour goes to eating, prepping your next meal, prepping your next hydration pack and then making water and everything else. So there was never a time where I slept for more than an hour and 25 minutes when things were good for 93 days. Yeah. And then when things were really bad, I never slept for more than four and a half to nine minutes because I was getting semi inverted by.

Waves. So taking this maverick story, this transatlantic story, not a lot of people are going to be surfing 60 foot waves or doing this transatlantic stuff. So what's the lessons that they can look at you and say if he did it, I can, I gotta up my game. What's the lessons of your life that you know, someone working at Apple or Google or, you know, I think.

It'S really just simple as like dream bigger, think bigger. You can do anything you set your mind to achieve. And if you, if you put your mind to something, try, try and do something on a daily basis. We only have one life. So live it like you've got to find what you're passionate about. And when you find out what you're passionate about, then work at it and give it everything you've got. And when you do that, then you become really great at it. And when you become really great at it and you're passionate about it, then you have a battery pack that doesn't run flat so you put in more time and energy into it until you become extraordinary. When you become extraordinary, then it's your duty to be able to give back and help others. And I believe that we can all do and be become far greater than we ever imagined. And I think our only thing that's holding ourselves back is Ourselves and our belief in ourself that we can actually, we can blueprint our life in whatever way we imagine it to be. And if we believe in it and we have the courage to be able to follow that, we can, we can achieve literally limitless potential of whatever we set our mind to. You can literally blueprint your life and then go out and create it. And I believe that because like I wrote the, I wrote the captain's log for finishing the transatlantic five days before I did it because we're in like a hectic storm. I wasn't gonna have time to be able to ride. It was just like I was trying to get there. I knew that if I missed that island, I was gonna, I was gonna miss the entire Caribbean island chain and end up in Venezuela. I didn't have visa, I didn't have enough food to get there. It was going to take another three weeks. Like I was probably gonna die if I missed it. So I had to get there. So I wrote the captain log for me finishing on that, that day in Antigua. And it was exactly how it happened, exactly down to every single detail that I wrote in the captain's log of that finishing day. Why? Because I'd watched that movie thousands of times in my mind of what it was going to look like, what was going to feel like, what, what it was going to taste like, what it's going to smell like. I could see the people's faces, I could see the seagulls flying. I could watch that movie in 4k vivid HD like it had already happened. Because in my mind it had already happened. All I was doing was just pulling it into reality. And you can do that for everything. That's why people go, oh gee, you done surfing? And you've done now this big thing. Because you can, you don't have to just be good at one thing. You can be good at multiple different things. So whatever you set your mind to achieve. And you can talk about a 10,000 hour rule or whatever and. But you have to become so consumed and so passionate in what you wanting to achieve that it's real. And the mind doesn't know the difference between what you create in your own mental space to actually what is reality. And you can fool it in to be able to create any reality before it exists. And that's how every idea is brought into reality. It's just having the courage to be able to follow that and then taking every single step and every single strategic choice you make that will help you get there. And then you use your raz which is, you know, your reticular activating system, which is like your mind's filter that helps you bring in everything that you need in order to be able to make that happen. And as soon as you understand how to use that, then you can manipulate that and supersize and amplify tenfold. So everything you need to be able to get you to achieving what you want to do will come into your life because you strategically are bringing it in your subconscious and yourself and your conscious mind until it becomes your reality and you're living it before it even happens. And then all you do is you bring it into it attitude. I think that's what you.

Do. So in short, it's all.

Mental. 90% of it's.

Mental. What's the other.

10? Passion, grit, courage, purpose. What I've realized from the journey that I've just done is that when you're, when you're driven by passion and powered by a purpose greater than yourself, then it'll help you overcoming obstacle and challenge and help you even achieve the seemingly impossible. And we all have our own storms to face in life. We all have our own challenges to face. And it's just if you take daily steps and actions, you believe in yourself and you never ever give up, you can literally achieve anything seemingly.

Impossible. Fantastic. I hope this episode empowers you to go out and push through your fears. One of my fears is a six foot wave and I promised Bertish I'd push through that. My thanks to to Jeff C. And Pig Fitzpatrick who helped me push through my fear of podcasting. Mahalo. Also to Neil Mikimoto Pearlberg for introducing me to Chris. Here's one more story from the Atlantic Crossing. Wrap your mind around being pulled through waves by a gigantic.

Squid. So like I know whales, I've been swimming them all my life. And the way that I was getting pulled in like a jerking way and I was getting pulled through the top, I was in the middle of like the worst storm that I had on the entire journey. So, so I was getting pulled right through the top of like five meter waves in, in 14 to 45 knots of wind, which is one down from a full blown like category one hurricane. And I was getting pulled against the conditions at 1.5 knots through the conditions which shouldn't, that shouldn't be possible. I had a personal anchor out and I, and I was in my little cabin. I could see myself just sheets of water going over the cabin as I was getting like dragged through the top of these waves and, and I Was like that shouldn't be possible, I should be going with the conditions. And when I figured it out I managed to get my little satellite phone on and managed to send through the actual thing. I sent a message to my routing and forecasting guy in Scotland. He's done a couple of transit. I was like this is what's happening. I'm in the middle of a fucking massive storm. I'm just trying to survive. The conditions have got even worse. But this is what's happening. I'm going forward into the conditions that shouldn't be possible. I've narrowed down to only two different things that it can possibly be. But it's so far fetched that I need someone to actually confirm what I'm thinking because I think I'm going fucking nuts. And about four minutes, four and a half minutes later I got the most terrifying digital message back on any device that I've ever received. Which is like Chris, you've said Chris, you either caught on a giant whale or a giant squid that's caught in your parachute anchor that's going to drag you under. I suggest you take immediate evasive action otherwise it's going to drag you and the craft down with it. So I managed to tie like time it so the next wave went over. I got into all my safety gear and everything went far away again. So I've got my big deck knife out and I time to cut out. And as I got out I managed to put my, my leash on my big wave leash which was attached to the other part of the craft and to, to my harness and as I cut the line I, I was. Because everything was happening so fast I didn't have time to think through because there was no manual that said you get, get pulled under the waves by you know. So I managed to like cut the line and as I cut the line the other back half of the line which goes to the other half of the, the parachute anchor goes around to the, the stern of the craft. So the line, the load of the, of the, the line getting cut spun the craft around and flipped it upside down. And then I was obviously attached through my leash and my safety line. So then I got thrown over board, I got it and then I got taken underneath the craft and when it spun around everything all the lines went around. So then I got caught underneath the craft in the water at like 2 o' clock in the morning in 40 to 50 knots of wind in 5 to 7 meter seas like Terra, like the most terrifying like conditions you can imagine. I'm Stuck getting dragged underneath the water. The one line went around my center board, wrapped around me underneath the water. So now I'm trapped underneath the water in the middle of the storm, in the middle of the night, and somehow I still had my knife in my hand. And I remember trying to cut the line from in between myself. And as I cut the line, I just heard just like. And there was a line, like, cutting through my finger, which cut through, like, almost right down to the bone to free myself. And thank goodness my one safety snapped and my big wave leash engaged. And I pulled myself back up. And I remember looking down, I actually thought my finger had been ripped off. And thank goodness I hadn't actually taken my, my gloves off. And I had wrapped every single one of my fingers like a boxer, with that, like, oxide tape to stop the blisters. And if it wasn't for that, I would have probably either lost my finger or would have gone right down to the bone on both sides. But I hadn't taken my gloves off in three and a half weeks. I hadn't taken them off once. And that probably would save me. If I hadn't unlocked my hatch, that would have been game over. And it's the vigilance. It's a vigilance, vigilance and the, the routine to ensure that you never, ever let your guard down at that kind of thing. Because if, if I had, at any particular point, if I had left my hatch open and I got caught by a wave sideways, game over. And when you get fatigued and when you get tired, that's the first thing you do. You get careless with little things in you. If you get careless, you're done. I realized that if I got separate, like, that's why I had a backup of a backup of backup. Like, even my, my harness that I had was a climbing harness harness that I had a, that I had a tether that was going from the deck of the craft to my harness, which had a breaking strain of like 5 tons. Then I had another line that went from my steering system, which went up to my harness. So when I fell overboard, it would pull this steering system right, so the craft would turn up into the wind. And then if those two snapped in, my big wave leash would engage. And that's something that I'd been using all my life, which had never let me down. And two of those things had snapped once during the storm, and my one engaged. And I realized that if any time the wind was above 12 knots, which was 90% of the time, if I got separated from my craft at any particular time, the chance of me being able to swim back to be able to get it, was zero. Not 5%, not 10%. Separate from the cross and you're dead. Game over. Like, no percentage ratio can help you. Like, you're done. And that's, like. That's pretty scary when you. If you figure out you get it wrong, you.

Die. Please wash your hands and practice social distancing. We all have to do our part in this battle against the coronavirus. This is remarkable, people.