S7E13 -- Inside the Ultraman Florida Rift: Disqualification, Licenses Revoked, and What Comes Next

A champion crowned, then stripped. A director ousted. A brand reorganized. We trace the real timeline behind the Ultraman Florida shake-up—starting with a handlebar-mounted, voice-activated camera and ending with revoked licenses, refund confusion, and a newly relaunched qualifier under different leadership. As hosts who’ve watched this community grow, we unpack the roles of Ohana Loa, Sheryl and Dave Cobb, and former race director Jen McVeay, and explain how board decisions moved from private meetings to public fallout.

You’ll hear how conflicting accounts took shape: was Stephen Keller offered a path to a time penalty through accountability, or faced an ultimatum tied to removing a video and apologizing? We lay out the verified statements, the disputed claims, and the rule at the center of it all—filming during competition—so you can assess what fairness and precedent should look like at the ultra-distance level. Then we zoom out to the operational consequences: licenses revoked, negotiations over race assets that reportedly stalled, and athletes stuck between emails and Facebook posts while trying to recover entry fees, deposits, and travel costs.

Looking ahead, we map the new race landscape: Ultraman Florida accepting applications under current board control, Arizona canceled for 2026 pending review, Canada continuing with small recent fields, and a first-year Mexico event led by a seasoned organizer, Van Sanchez. We also share what Jen is building next—a new ultra format that’s been years in the making—and what that might mean for athletes choosing between legacy branding and organizer trust. Our aim is clarity: who owns what, what’s canceled or confirmed, and how to navigate the next few months without losing your season. If this helped you get your bearings, subscribe, share with your crew, and drop a review with your take on the penalty, the process, and the path forward.

Chapters

• 0:00 Why This Special Release
• 0:53 Who Owns Ultraman Now
• 2:10 Florida Director Removed
• 3:23 The Keller DQ Backstory
• 5:36 Board Statements And Pushback
• 7:11 Ultimatum Or Not
• 9:13 Licenses Revoked And Negotiations
• 11:18 Refunds, Emails, And Confusion
• 13:02 What’s Canceled, What’s Not
• 14:03 Jen’s Next Move
• 15:06 The Qualifier Landscape Shifts
• 16:20 Athletes Caught In The Middle
• 17:42 Final Thoughts And Subscribe

Transcript

Larry Ryan: 0:29

Today's special edition is the audio taken from a video that I posted on my YouTube channel. If you prefer to watch the video, go to youtube.com and search 515 the Ultra Podcast. Please subscribe while you're there. Welcome to a special 515TheUltra Podcast video. I'm Larry Ryan, host of the show. I know that I am a source for many in the Ohana, so I would like to address what has been publicly disputed recently about the Ultraman Florida race. I first heard that Jen McVeigh was out as race director from a few different people coming out of Ultraman Canada at the beginning of August. It is my understanding from my sources that sometime between February of 2025, after the disqualification of Stephen Keller from Ultraman Florida and the Ultraman Canada event that took place in August, that the parent company of Ultraman, Ohana Loa, dissolved the Ultraman board, created a new one, and revoked the licenses Jen had for both Ultraman Florida and Ultraman Arizona. Ohana Loa, as the parent company, owns the Ultraman brand and licenses the name to race directors for fees and the travel expenses associated with going to the races. Ohana Loa was previously owned by Jane Bacchus, but is now owned by Cheryl and Dave Cobb. They are both the owners of the brand as well as two of the board members and race directors for Hawaii World Championships. Hopefully that clears up who the players are and their roles. The timeline of this aligns with Ohana Loa's Facebook post on September 24th. On August 4th, 2025, we ended the contract between the Ultraman Florida Race Director and Ohana Loa. We expressed our intention to put on Ultraman Florida 2026 and requested the information to help make the transition easier. In response, the race director agreed to issue full refunds to all athletes currently registered for 2026. I asked Cheryl if she was interested in appearing on the podcast to explain what has happened. And she replied with a written statement declining as she is too busy working on races but offered this. Ohana Loa attempted to resolve disagreements, but unfortunately we could not resolve the disagreements, so we ended the contracts. There is more to the statement that she sent me, and I will add that further on in this video. But for now, I would just like to start here. Neither party, Jen, nor Ohana Loa Representative Cheryl Cobb have expanded on the disagreements between the two. But one can assume it all relates back to the disqualification of the Ultraman Florida champion Stephen Keller. That happened three weeks after the event, and it was instigated and enforced by the members of the Ohana Loa board. So, first, let's do a quick catch-up on what happened to Stephen Keller. The reason that Steve was disqualified is that he was using a voice-activated camera on his bike to gather footage for Ultraman promotional videos. Steve was excited to attempt to be the first person to complete five Ultraman races in a single calendar year when the addition of Ultraman Mexico was added to the brand. Working with videographer Phil Cuppernel of Rambling Bear Media, the two were attempting to raise the profile of the Ultraman brand by creating a series of videos chronicling the feat. Here's a little of what that looked like. Here's what he posted. Now, I'm just gonna talk over this because I'm not a hundred percent sure that YouTube will allow the Pharrell song that goes with this video. I believe, though it's not confirmed, that Jen saw the value of what Steve was doing as a race director and believed that she had the right to make the call. She did not penalize Keller at the race. Also important to know, Steve Keller and Jen are friends. Steve has raced, crewed, and volunteered at many of Jen's events. He coaches 515 distance athletes. He's also a previous champion at Ultraman Florida and Ultraman Arizona. So three weeks after the race, the Ohana Loa board met and DQ'd Steve and stripped him of his title for breaking the rule of filming during the race, which you can see here. There has been a lot of speculation online about who within the board instigated the move toward penalizing Keller. Here's what the Ultraman World Championship posted on their Facebook. As a board, and based on precedence around this type of violation, the directors of UM Arizona, UM Florida, UM Canada, UM Mexico, and UM World Championships determined the penalty to a rule violation that was made public by the violator. The Board of Aloha Hana conducts its business privately and will continue to do so in the future. The fact that so much of our business is now public knowledge is quite concerning. Now, according to Stephen Keller, in a call with Cheryl, he was asked to remove the video, make a new video apology, and based on that level of apology, his penalty would be decided. He refused to do that, but he did apologize for breaking the rule. Here's what he posted on Instagram.

Steven Keller: 7:35

Alright, well I thought it was time that I made it official. The five Ultraman attempts in one year is over. Ultraman Arizona is this weekend, and I will not be raised. To tell this story, we have to start with the end and work backwards. According to Ultraman Florida, the Ultraman board has decided that I should be disqualified from the Ultraman Race. The Ultraman Florida Race Director has told me that I have not broken any rules, but the board has forced this decision. The rule that has come into question is the allowance of having a camera on your bike. As some may have seen, I posted a video after each day's cycling portion, and uh I included a video I recorded that was with a voice-activated camera on my handlebars. Uh during and after the event, the race organizers were aware I had this camera and nothing was ever said. Um but about a week ago I received a call from the head of the Ultraman board, and this is now three weeks after the event. There'd been no communication between me and the board up until this point. During the call, the Ultraman Hawaii Race Director confirmed that the Ultraman Canada Race Director was very upset about the allowance of a camera on the bike. And that the Ultraman Canada Race Director was adamant about not letting this go without me getting penalized. I was told that I would have to remove the video and make a new video with an apology, and that the board would determine my penalty based on the apology video that I produced. During this two to three minute call, I apologized for breaking any rules and admitted that I was unaware of this rule. The head of the Ultraman board said she believed me, but it was creating more work for her and the board now. I expressed that everything I was doing up to this point was purely with the intention of helping Ultraman as a brand, as a whole. And her response was that everything I had done was a net loss for Ultraman. So after a day or so of thinking about my situation, you know, one, the Ultraman Canada race director was personally coming after me. Uh, two, the head of the Ultraman board saying that the total of my efforts was a net loss for them. And three, the fact that I was given an ultimatum before any discussion or conversation. I just decided it was best to let go of this project. My purpose for taking on this challenge was to celebrate and promote Ultraman. It was never about my ego or whether I could do five Ultraman races. It was to help a brand that has given a lot to me over the years, but was clearly dying as the race numbers continue to decline year over year. Ultraman never asked for my help. So I probably should have just stayed out of their way because it seems like they're on a path that's different than me. I never asked Ultraman for anything in return for trying to support them. I made them aware of my intentions at the beginning. But this is how they decided to demonstrate their version of Aloha, Ohana, and Kakua. So I want to thank everyone who has helped and supported me along the way. Congratulations to the winner of Ultraman Florida, Teramasu Matsuda. And I appreciate once again everyone's support.

Larry Ryan: 11:57

Again, this fact of the ultimatum is in dispute. According to Cheryl in a slow twitch article by Kevin McKinnon, Steve was not offered an ultimatum. He was told there would be a penalty regardless of what he did, as he had violated a rule. The consensus of the board was to give him a significant time penalty rather than a DQ, had he taken the opportunity to be accountable for his actions. Now, I don't really know what accountable for his actions would have entailed. Um, and obviously this never played out in that way. Slow Twitch and Facebook had plenty of back and forth in the comments on what happened back at that time, including Ultraman Canada race director Brad Sawa going back and forth with a number of people, as he was being cited as the person on the board who brought the issue forward. Jen has held to not sharing what was said in the board meeting, but both of these stories cannot be true. Nevertheless, this appears to be the reason for the Ultraman breakup. At some point between August 4th at UMC and the beginning of September, some negotiations were happening between Cheryl as Ohana Loa and Jen McVeigh. However, again there is some dispute about what happened next. According to Jen, she was negotiating in good faith to sell her race materials and information to Ohana Loa after her licenses were revoked. But this fell through. It's my understanding that Ohana Loa stated that they would buy the race and then failed to offer her a reasonable price. Ohana Loa remains the owner of the trademark and nothing else related to that race, as no compensation was ever offered or given to Jen. It was at that point on September 11th that Jen did indeed contact the athletes registered for Ultraman Florida to tell them that the race was no longer going ahead and that she would offer full refunds to them. Ohana Loa then posted on Facebook. Unfortunately, rather than issue the refunds as agreed, the race director, without Ohana Loa's knowledge or consent, sent an email to all registered athletes incorrectly telling them that the legacy of Ultraman Florida and Ultraman Arizona has come to an end. For athlete refunds from the original race director, this is the sole responsibility of Jen McVeigh. She can still be emailed at ultramanflorida at gmail.com as she did not turn that over to us. Please let us know when you receive your refunds. Again, Jen is the owner of the Ultraman Florida properties outside of the trademark, and without compensation, had no reason to turn over any race properties or Gmail or anything else. Her understanding was that the races were indeed at an end because they had misled her and did not go through with the buyout. In her mind, how and what would they do to put on that race without her materials? Now I know that some of the athletes have been caught in the middle of this and are confused by what has happened, which is why I'm doing this video. Hopefully, to add a little bit of context, if not clarity. Unfortunately, during this time, Jen has also had to deal with the passing of her father. So I know that she's working on all of this in the most timely manner possible. On September 17th, Ohana Loa then posted that Ultraman Florida was not canceled, but under new ownership. Cheryl went on in her brief statement to me to say that Ultraman Arizona is canceled for 2026, and the board of Ohana Loa will discuss the future of that event in the coming months. Currently, we are focused on the inaugural Ultraman Mexico event and preparations for the Ultraman World Championships and 2026 Ultraman Florida. So, where does this leave all involved? Jen is clearly out, as is her entire team. She is processing full refunds to the athletes registered with her. And she has already created a new ultra format race, which she will come back onto the podcast and talk about when her life has settled down. She has shared some of the plan with me, and it sounds very interesting. It's something she's been working on for a number of years, and now has the reason to go ahead with it. As far as the Ultraman brand goes, well, the Ultraman World Championship now has three qualifying races. The Ultraman Canada race, which has had nine or less participants for the last few years. The new first year Ultraman Mexico race. Good luck to Van Sanchez, who has put on great races under his old brand for 10 years. And we actually recently did a preview of his race, so you can check that out in the podcast library. And the third race will be the newly rescheduled Ultraman Florida that has just started to take applications and is happening in a few months under the control of Cheryl Cobb. Now, personally, I feel very terrible for Jen as I know how much of her energy she has put into the Ultraman brand. I wish her all the best in the future, and I look forward to her coming back onto the podcast. I hope that all the athletes involved in Ultraman Florida for 2026 under Jen are able to resolve their issues. I understand that some people are out accommodation deposits and perhaps even some flight costs. And I'm unsure as to how many of them will want to sign up for the event under its new management, given all that has taken place. How and why this all went down depends on which of the stories you believe and how you fill in the gray areas that the parties are not publicly discussing at this point. I will continue to promote the races and the racers that want to be a part of this podcast. And just before I let you go today, can I just say if you've watched this video all the way to the end, please hit that subscribe button and maybe check out some of the other content while you're here on YouTube. Till next time, I'm Larry Ryan.

MJ: 18:56

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