Nelly's Magic Moments Podcast
Dave “Nelly” Nelson is a globally published veteran surf and skate photographer with countless magazine covers and spreads to his name. After spending years as a senior photographer at TransWorld Surf Magazine, Dave now shoots freelance for domestic and international publications.
Major action sports brands such as Vans, O’Neill, Fox, and Reef commonly contract Dave to shoot on location for trips locally and abroad.
As one of the best action water photographers in the world, he is usually in the right place at the right time to produce “the goods”. Dave’s relationships and mutual respect with some of the most elite athletes in the world give him access to the best action at the best spots.
Dave’s dedication to the sports of surfing and skateboarding is matched by his values as a person. A true family man, Dave cares about is daughter and wife as much as he cares for his community of Santa Cruz. A consummate role model for young athletes coming out of his hometown, Dave has helped pave the way for some of the best young talent in Nor Cal.
Nelly's Magic Moments Podcast
Episode 5: Shawn Dollar
Imagine catching a massive wave that lands you in the Guinness Book of World Records. That's the life of Shawn Dollar, who shares his incredible journey from a young surfer to a big wave legend. With accolades like the XXL Awards, Shawn recounts the heart-pounding moments of riding giants at Mavericks and the remote Cortes Bank, detailing the thrill and anxiety charging monster waves. But this isn't just a tale of adrenaline; Shawn opens up about the internal tug-of-war between his passion for surfing and the responsibilities that come with it.
We navigate the highs and lows of big wave surfing, from achieving world records to the challenges of returning to everyday life. Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay set the stage for this vibrant surfing culture, where legends inspire newcomers and a new generation of surfers like Luca Padua and John Mel prepare to make their mark. Shawn paints a vivid picture of the addictive nature of the sport and the difficult decision to step back after life-altering experiences. The episode takes a poignant turn as Shawn candidly shares his journey of healing from traumatic brain injuries, emphasizing the need for awareness and support for similar challenges.
Amidst the rush of the waves, Shawn introduces us to the world of mindfulness and art as tools for healing and personal peace. He discusses innovative approaches to brain recovery in extreme sports and his mission to change the narrative around mental health. Shawn hopes to inspire change and awareness through his website and an upcoming film project, underscoring the importance of finding balance in a technology-saturated world. This compelling episode blends adrenaline, community, healing, and artistic exploration, offering listeners a window into the life of a big-wave surfer with a profound story of resilience and passion.
this is nelly's magic moments podcast what's up? Nelly's deepest companion and friend, brian nelly, what do we got going?
Speaker 1:what's up, upton jr?
Speaker 2:I love that one that's gonna be next time what we got going is, uh, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I've been thinking about how to introduce my friend, sean Dollar, and every once in a while the surf industry and the surf world gets blessed with someone who is missing the chip the fear chip I call it, and you know, I watched Sean grow up, since he was a young grommet, and I didn't know that he was missing that chip. But as I was traveling the world for vans and shooting, I kind of went missing for like a year and all of a sudden Sean was charging 60-foot waves and I was like are we talking about the same Sean Dollar that I was like shooting at, the same sean dollar that I was like shooting at the murph bar, like last year? And uh, anyway, um, it's definitely my pleasure to introduce mr sean dollar thanks for having me, guys nice to meet you, sean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right on, nelly. This good podcast name is going to change to the missing Chip, because it seems to be a common denominator of everybody you bring on yeah. There is something in this sport and this culture where man, you're out there doing something that it's .00002% of people even think about doing.
Speaker 1:That's the truth about doing. It's the truth. Oh, I know, as I came back and I was like I had I had found out that sean had won was it the xxl awards or was it the guinness book of world records?
Speaker 3:because he won both it was, yeah, the xxl awards which announced the guinness, my first guinness world record at mavericks at 55 footer, during intermission and, um, yeah, it was pretty rad. That was definitely where the surf world started. Knew my name, it was paying attention. Yeah, like the guys at mavericks on a regular basis, I was up there for two years where I knew who I was.
Speaker 3:But yeah you know it's hard to get the media's attention, you know, when you aren't one of the big names. And after that it was. It was game on, it was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:So how did that Cortez Bank mission come about?
Speaker 3:That came about by Peter Mel giving me a ring. Peter Mel and I were pretty close just for Mavericks and surfing and I have a ton of experience on a jet ski with rescue operations and stuff like that and he needed one more jet ski and he needed one more operator on that trip and called me up and really asked me, like can I go, can I bring my ski and can I operate, like keep the guys safe? And I and of course he's like I'm not going to tell you you can't surf, you can surf, you know. But it was like that was, my mission was to make sure that, like I was part of the career that kept the boat safe and so I didn't really want to go. To be honest, um, yeah talk about an anxiety attack.
Speaker 1:I'm getting one just thinking about yeah, dude it freaked me out.
Speaker 3:I was checking the dunes at moss and I get the call from pete and I pick up and I'm about to paddle out and it's firing. And I told him like I, I don't know, I let me think about this Cause. I just I don't feel good about it. You know like a lot of unknowns there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a, it's terrifying Like that, that is no joke. And uh, just like I just didn't know if I was ready for it and I don't like answering a you know if I'm not if I don't know if I'm ready to go, like I don't want to just like commit, to like the boats going, everyone's going, like it was like so much pressure. So, anyway, I took a little time to get back to him, probably a couple hours, and he was pretty bummed. But I called him and I had to call my wife too. I had to call Jen and talk to her about it and just be like it wasn't fair for me to just go without checking in with her and call the boxes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and she, she uh gave me permission. She's like you should do it, you know. Um, and and I felt pretty good about it Kind of spent some time on the thought called called Pete just in time before he was about to like bail on me and had a couple other names that he was talking to too, and so I was in and I kind of knew that I was going from that stance of just being like an operator, like I didn't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, an operator that's bringing all of his boards.
Speaker 3:I brought yeah, I brought, I brought my board, but I was like I'm not going to serve unless I really want to, and maybe I'll catch a wave and I'm going to just make sure everyone's safe.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And the craziest thing is I had a board from Stu Kenson ordered like six months ago and it was for Jaws, it was a 10-6, like 30 pounds, like beast, and so I didn't have a board for Cortez and I called down there and they're like, oh, funny enough, we just sent it up with leon, it's going to be there tonight, wow. So I literally got my board and then threw it in the truck and drove to southern california and the first way I've ever caught on it was that wave at cortez wow, so I never got to test it, and that's way over the year.
Speaker 3:That's one we're talking about, right, yeah, yeah that was the second world record I set and that one was 61 feet and I was terrified.
Speaker 2:Weird thing Go ahead.
Speaker 1:For our listeners, explain the Cortez Bank. It's a spot 100 miles out to sea from Newport or Southern California, correct? I've never been out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it kind of triangulates off of Newport or San Diego 100 miles out in both directions it's San Clemente Island is the main and visible island off of the coast. On a really clear day off of San Diego you can see San Clemente Island way off in the distance and you have to pass that island and then go another 25, 30 miles past that to a reef. It's basically the last of those channel islands that never made the surface.
Speaker 3:The peak of it is, on any tide, about nine six to nine feet from the surface. So you got this giant mountain underwater that's picking up North Pacific swell and just it really probably has the biggest waves in the world, but just nobody really. You know you can fly out there and look at really probably has the biggest waves in the world, but just nobody really. You know you can fly out there and look at it, but the perspective on an airplane and everything else is all wacky with nobody around.
Speaker 2:So how it gets huge yeah, that's a trip because it's always with waves. A lot of times it's frame of reference. You know you're standing and you have a. You have a spot to kind of gauge what 30 40 is, but in the middle of the ocean you might be riding a monster.
Speaker 3:And shooting down on it. Yeah, what's crazy is they? Actually there was a plane when I rode my wave gosh off the top of my head. I'm not gonna remember the photographer's name, but he was in a plane and shot my wave early and it's such an insane photo of me dropping in on it the whole playing field, and he happened to catch that one moment, cause that's the only shot. He got so lucky Cause that was a shot that I was on my way home Like two days after I knew I wrote a big wave but you didn't really have perspective and surf line put that photo up and I was tripping like on how big it was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wow yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's from the air, so it's like not even showing the true size.
Speaker 2:No, and that's my only question is like it's such a there's an emotion and a feel and you're in it and the difference was four feet between the first and the second. Is that right? About 57 to 61, six feet six feet. Sorry, second one, or do you?
Speaker 3:have any perception of what you're riding? Did you feel like this is a monster? Yeah, okay, that cortez wave um was so much bigger than anything I'd ever seen or surfed and I knew it was easily a world record like I knew it. But I didn't. I didn't go around talking about it. It wasn't like a tell-all that. I just kept my mouth quiet on the boat.
Speaker 2:I was just like I was like I knew I said a world record as opposed to the time First time. Were you just surviving it a little bit? No?
Speaker 3:first time was honestly like. That was Twiggy Road, the hugest wave. Dorian pulled in, like that day in surfing at Mavericks, that big day of the comp it must have been 2010, if my memory is correct on that so much crazy stuff happened. It was like overload. It was absolute overload. From the minute the sun came up to, like you know, dorian pulled in a huge one. Rusty Long pulled into a closeout Like Twiggy was getting barreled during his heats, like people were packing and riding the biggest waves we've ever seen. And so I caught. I knew I caught a bigger one than them, but I still just didn't like I was just a kid, like I you know what I?
Speaker 3:mean like I was always pretty humble and I was like I knew I wrote a really big way. I probably wrote a bigger way than them, but I wasn't like how my perspective was just blown that day. It was hard to put put things really where it was and then I saw a photo of it. I think think Tyler Fox showed me a photo of it that night and I was like scared. That is stupid.
Speaker 2:You know what it reminds me of. It reminds me we always talk comparables and analogies here and sometimes surfing clearly the event that it is. It's easy to compare to other professional sports and a lot of times you hear these guys that win multiple championships. They really deeply appreciate the second, third, fourth ones. Um, because the first one goes by so quick, like they're in the moment and it happened, there's so much dopamine, but they they realized in that second one they savored a little bit more, um, in the moment and after yeah, I can definitely agree with that the first one was was surreal and cool and like, like my whole like to, for like talking about, like manifestation, like believing in something like all I wanted to do was set a world record.
Speaker 3:That was all I wanted to do. Like when I was a kid I'd read the Guinness Book of World Records in the library at school. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. It would be so rad to be in it and I don't know, for some reason I was obsessed with catching the biggest wave in the world and I meditate on it.
Speaker 3:I get in saunas like I I did so much mental work on it and when it happened I was like that was so sick, like it couldn't, it couldn't believe it, like and I'm in the book I'm in the yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, what was the irony was the guinness Book of World Records would not put me in the book because they said Garrett McNamara surfed a 70-foot wave and I'm like he towed into that wave, I paddled, bill Sharp got involved, but then by then it was a year later and then it was. Dorian set a new record at.
Speaker 3:Jaws. So then Guinness Book of World Records was over it. So I was like, oh my God, I officially set it but the Guinness Book of World Records wouldn't. So anyway, whatever, it wasn't like, I still did it, but it was kind of funny and it felt like so big that it would be kind of like going to the moon doing something like yeah, there's no doubt about it, it's out of your body and and then to do it again at cortez just blew my mind like it just I.
Speaker 3:I kind of did so much of the mental work with just the first one yeah the second one just happened because of it, like, even though I wasn't really focused on it, I already hit my goal. It was like I did all that mental preparation, meditation and it just rolled itself into one more and that one was for me like way bigger of a deal, like way more important. The mental feeling of riding that wave was. Nothing in my life will ever, ever feel the same.
Speaker 2:Like I have a little followup, if you don't mind. It's like cause I always get. You probably might not have listened to the podcast, but I think about more like the kind of like the life perspective, and for me it's like I'm amazed one that you had this goal, you had in mind to achieve this goal, and then sometimes when you achieve a goal, you reach that place, two things happen. It's either the goal is what you hit, the next goal is bigger than that, or the other one could be literally depression. It could be a little bit. I've got it all Like the after part, when it all quiets down a little bit Like you did it and it was that moment. What was your life then? What was your life like?
Speaker 3:Because you would achieve something you dreamed about all the way from a kid. What was your headspace? Well, it was definitely different with the first one than the second one. The first one, it was okay. I was now invited to the Mavericks contest. I was Got invited to the Eddie. Got invited to the Eddie, I was there. You know what I mean. I was acknowledged among the elite big wave surfers, which was that was my dream too.
Speaker 3:You know I mean there's multiple dreams, yeah, this and yeah it was an honor and it was so cool and it was like, oh my god, I'm living out my the life I dreamt of, dreamt of and it and you gotta understand, like I'm working as a sales rep, I was never a pro surfer. You know reef sandals that I'm working as a sales rep I was never a pro surfer. You know reef sandals that I'm working for was like this is weird. You're a sales rep for us, you're not a team rider. When are you going to stop riding big waves?
Speaker 3:Like some people in the building were telling me that and I'm like this is that's a really weird conversation to have with me. I'm doing both, I don't need to choose. Like there's no, there's no choice now. Like I'm doing both and that upset some people, um, cause you know, I got to get my numbers and you know, and I was like this is so weird. Like you guys are blowing up Dorian and everybody else, but like you're stoked, I'm doing it.
Speaker 3:But anyway, it was just. There was just a that lasted for a short minute, but there was some tension in the building at times, but for the most part I was pretty supportive, but I wasn't supported like a Healy and those type of guys you know that are like paid to surf, they're on the covers, they're like I'm in this, weird in between, like most people are supposed to, you know, go have a surfing career and then become a rep and then live in the industry that way and I'm like, as a rep, going essentially pro and I did all backwards and industry didn't know what to do with me, which was fine, I was making a living, you know what I mean. So, basically, second world record happened two years later, which was crazy. It happened really quickly.
Speaker 3:Xxl was like blowing up, you knowl was like blowing up, you know. It was like peak of all the big wave surfing and paddling. Everybody was interested in what we were all doing, much more than they are now. And and then I rode that wave at cortez and what tripped me out was it kind of like blew my mind mentally so hard that I really had a hard time after that, meaning like I true, what's next?
Speaker 1:What's next?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it really I kind of knew there there really wasn't a next after that, like like I couldn't, even if I wrote a bigger wave I don't think I it and if I did I was in life or death so deep at that point that like I showed up to Mavericks like the week after Cortez and Mavs was like 40 foot and on the bull and you know medium high tide, just thick as hell and just scary. And I remember pulling up to it, like going it looks like sewer peak to me, like I don't have any fear and like to not have any fear in that is like not a safe place to be. I remember being like well, you know what's going to happen next, like because the threshold is like moved so high and the and the satisfaction that I had from that wave was so big that I kind of like was like flatlined after that. No, I mean, I guess that's that's a big that I kind of like was like flatlined after that.
Speaker 2:No, that I mean, I guess that's, that's a great. That's kind of what I was getting at is, because it's it's not obvious you don't do things like that and then everything's freaking roses and easy it's it sometimes like success or a dream coming true comes with complications. A little bit, it can be a little bit complicated yeah, there's a dark side.
Speaker 3:I mean, yeah, you like you surf big waves and you have all that adrenaline. The downside of all that adrenaline is radical, like wow. It's pretty depressing after I mean, I managed it all right. I wasn't ever like turning to drugs and right alcohol and some of the other stuff that a lot of people do, but it's still like really hard to function in the normal world after surfing waves like that because it's never that the comedown is like insane. It was insane, yeah, so it anyway.
Speaker 1:There was kind of a lot to deal with there, but I dealt with it pretty well and but it was, it was a weird spot, it was definitely a weird spot it's pretty amazing thinking about it, like Santa Cruz, and half moon Bay is the epicenter, one of the epicenters of big wave riding, for sure. Not only that, but we have Sean Dollar, we have Peter Mel, daryl Flea, verosko, barney Barron, jay Moriarty the list goes on Nick Lamb, anthony Tashnik, like all these legendary Skin Dog, skin Dog Big wave riders, and then you add on the half moon Bay guys, and I don't think there's ever been another place that's produced so many psycho big wave riders. And it's just anyway. I guess where that leads me is that I'm proud of you for what you did and what you achieved, cause that's humongous and um, and you know, it makes us proud to be from here. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:No doubt. I mean, and I wonder, staying on that topic a little bit, I wonder if there's a part of the area we live in that that is a unique way to ladder up to a big wave like that. Like you know, we have certain spots, that kind of present, certain challenges, and that just might not be that way everywhere. You know, like we're talking about Cortez, where you have to, you have to get out. You know that's not. You don't go after high school and kind of go out and pound some of the biggest waves in the world, santa Cruz, you can hit six, seventh, 10 minutes, I just and it presents itself and, as we all grew up around here, you sort of have your elementary school kind of waves, you have your junior high, you have your high school, you have your college.
Speaker 1:It feels like it's a training ground here, uniquely, definitely the training ground, and that's what I was kind of getting at. It's like you know. I mean, flea won the Mavericks contest three times, peter Mell got the biggest barrel Anyone's ever gotten out of Maverick. Sean Dollar won the XX Awards and the Guinness Book of World Records. Jay Moriarty, like basically you know, made his name out there and has a huge Hollywood movie about him. You know what I mean. And yeah, I guess I wanted to ask you about Jay Did you get to surf with Jay much? You know what.
Speaker 3:I mean, yeah, I did. I grew up on 34th Avenue and he lived when I was growing up on 36. So it was just two streets over. I was always around Shiloh and all the longboarders, yeah, and I looked up to him so much. It's funny. I longboarded probably until I was like 14, and I was pretty good at longboarding, liked doing it, really enjoyed it. My dad longboarded, his friends longboarded, you know, and it was like not cool to longboard the point and it was funny. It was actually Jeremy Scribner. Like we were going to Manresa to go surf and I'm going, I got my longboard in the car and he's like you're not surfing, that, here's a shortboard in the car and he's like you're not surfing, that, here's a shortboard and like it's time, like he's like was so like he liked the longboard, he appreciated that a longboard he was like, but he was like dude, you're done, like it's time, you know like what?
Speaker 1:are you gonna do yeah? All these scribbies would say something like yeah, and it was like oh, and it was like kind of gnarly like.
Speaker 3:So I wrote a shortboard and it was super hard and I liked it and I was, like you know, but sometimes your peers have to push you out of your comfort zone. But my point with that story was I looked up to Jay a lot. He ripped on a longboard in his rail carving and everything else he was doing Like still to this day I remember him backdooring a wave at Sewer Peak, the first time I've ever seen anybody really get barreled out there. It must have been a south swell, because like he backdoored corner pocket. Who is this jay on the long, yeah, and completely disappeared. And I had, I swear I don't know, just being a grom or whatever. I've never seen anybody do that and I couldn't believe what I saw. Um, because you know I watched sewer peak all the time. Then all of a sudden, what?
Speaker 3:like he just backdoored that thing on a longboard, like and he's a wizard yeah, so I mean he was always so cool to me and then so that was like part of the thing. You know as a grommet growing up in santa cruz. You see flea drive by, you talk to peter mill, you know I you're around all these legends of the sport, so you're it's not like there's this barrier, that I can't do it. You're like, well, you feel like you can because it's up the road and these guys are in your neighborhood talking to you and like you see their life and you're like, okay, um, yeah, I don't know, they're not like.
Speaker 2:They're not like these sports athletes that are, you know, in a stadium that you'll never get in touch or see, but you're onto something I think it's really interesting Cause I I always kind of type back in, cause you guys are professional athletes is there is a comparison there and it's like down on the streets of South central, it's down on the streets of Brooklyn where dudes play as an eighth grade or ninth grad that eventually makes it into college or the NBA, and they have that feeling of like I played with that dude. I played with that dude not two or three years ago, and seeing them in that kind of thing, it's the same thing around here. It's like you just saw them and you see their skill set and you're like why not me?
Speaker 1:I agree. Yeah, man, it was very influential, this whole town, and same with Half Moon Bay. I was going to ask you who do you think I know? Luca Padua and John Mal? Who are the next Zoe Chait? Who's the next Mavericks crew? You know what I mean? I know that, those three that I just mentioned, for sure are.
Speaker 3:They're so heavy, like Luca, for sure. Aloe absolutely oh yeah, he's high up on that list just really really wants it 100. It reminds me of like me, like work super hard.
Speaker 1:Um it's gonna make it happen hard and super hard, just focus, you know.
Speaker 3:And um, and he's young, aloe is just, hello is young, and east, yeah, he's not. And him and luca are a team and they're savage. Yeah, those two are just beasts, like they're very, they're like dude, they're jack, they're ripped, they're just studs, you know, like they're oppressive men, um, and then, yeah, honestly, but you know, what's hard for me is like I mean, I can go down lists, like from jackie crop to miles from half moon bay or sorry, um, bodega bay comes to mind, there's just zealand zealand's charging.
Speaker 3:Um, he's dipping his toes in, but he's such a good surfer that he could do damage out there. It's just you just know it's coming actually yeah, if that if that filter comes off, oh boy, you know, um, do you even have like jack snyder? That's like charging out there? You know, I, I the list is thick, but you know I'm not out on there on my ski anymore and everything I get through like social media, you know, and we're really off the coconut wireless.
Speaker 3:I'm out of I'm kind of out of touch so I I can't really just sit there and just be like this is who's on the bowl. You know, this is who's doing it. And it's kind of funny because for me it's been after my accident. I've really had to like disconnect myself from like that life and going there and it's like I want to be there, so bad that it's like I know. I mean we all have addictions and obviously big waves. What a fricking, gnarly addiction. For me it was like I based my life around it and it's hard to not do it anymore.
Speaker 1:I know the adrenaline is is a for real and addiction, you know. Yeah. So I wanted to touch base a little bit on one of my favorite things, one of my favorite stories, dollar stories. I got millions of them. But when keala broke her leg, sean and kai came by and brought her like a little care package and visit her. She was in bed with a cast crying, and it's little things like that that, like, I don't forget, I'll never forget. Yeah, she will never forget it. You know what I mean and like where that leads is. One of my favorite things about Dollar is that he takes care of the Groms all over Santa Cruz and sponsors them, gets them sponsored, and I know you surf a lot with Kai. Right now Kai's been ripping.
Speaker 1:How special is that Like to be able to surf with your son and and watch him just progress Like hit the jackpot. Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 3:I got a lot of great kids in this town and it's fun. It's fun being a part of their lives, you know? Yeah.
Speaker 2:Is your chip missing? As relates to him? Like this, your chips individual right, and you don't have a chip Like we're talking using that frame of reference, but as do you. Do you notice if that you can like, use that chip?
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank God it's in it. He doesn't have what I he. He is a more tactful and cautious, which I'm grateful. Yeah, I bet Honestly, I was not having that, not having a, not having the like a break, and all gas was gnarly. I mean, I feel like a cat on my 10th life. You know, like I just literally shouldn't be here. I done tons of counseling on that. I feel like a ghost.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Like I'm, I shouldn't be alive. The amount of I've crossed to the other side, I've done like all this crazy shit and I'm somehow still here and you know I've learned a lot from that and it's hard. You don't really want like that side, like I don't really want my children to necessarily experience all that. It's pretty intense and, um, to be honest, like you can have, I have so much fun to surf in regular waves and head highways with kai and and it's a blast. And like you don't need mavericks, so if, if he doesn't want to go out there, I'm stoked to be honest, like I, I don't think I can handle it like knowing like it's like the ptsd of mouths is is intense for us, and I I mean think about like pete with john, like dude, no thanks.
Speaker 3:Like I don't want to sit on his. You know what I mean. Like I don't know, I'm okay I'm totally okay.
Speaker 2:That's the whole point of the question is it's just a trip, because I think we always make that argument when we have kids. You know, you look at the fundamentals of what make you what you are and you're like all of that shit made me who I am today. But then, for some reason, you have a kid. You're like I don't want you to have to go through that shit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know I just want him to go through his own stuff. Enough shit to go. He doesn't need to go through my shit or he doesn't need to be me. You know, like I want him to have like when we were a kid, like when he was a baby, because we'd take him to all the mavericks contests and his like whole thing was every waves, like 40 foot, like being a baby and seeing that was just it was a lot for him. And so when he was like two years old could barely talk.
Speaker 3:Every time you'd see pleasure point. It'd be one foot you. You'd be like big wave, big wave, no, big wave. Like you never wanted to go on the ocean because the waves were always big. You're always dragging them to just psychotic big waves, you know. And then when he was four and a half I nearly died and broke my neck and he just had to go through those horrible years as a young man. That was really impressionable age, you know. It was like developing brain was went through watching my brain splattered on a rock and yeah, let's get into that.
Speaker 1:Let's get into your injury a little bit. Um, you know, a number of years ago you took a tumble at an unknown I mean a spot we're not gonna name, but uh, it was massive, biggest, daygest day ever maybe.
Speaker 3:No, it wasn't. That day was big, but it wasn't the biggest day ever. It was just big. You know, it was solid.
Speaker 1:Somebody showed me something you can get into trouble there pretty easily. Anyway, didn't you dive headfirst and there was a boulder underwater?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was getting pinned into rocks. I was, you know it's. You're surfing against cliffs and boulders and and I was just in a bad spot on a big board and you couldn't duck dive and you know it's pretty normal to stand up on your board and kind of jump off to get under a big chunk of whitewater and from what I could tell, everything was like clear around me.
Speaker 3:There wasn't any boils or anything indicating like it was like I was out in front of rocks yeah but it wasn't in the rocks and when I dove, my hand split over a pinnacle that was sticking up underwater and I couldn't stop it with my hands and I just went head first and do it and then just started scorpion into this rock underwater and how big was the wave?
Speaker 3:it was a big one, yeah, 20, 30 feet well, it was just the white water was hitting me. The white water had to have been like 10 or 15 feet, just. But the thing is I was trying to hold my ground because, you know, 20, 30 feet behind me was a garden of massive rocks, the sides of houses and cars and a cliff. So it was, like you know, losing 10 to 20 feet the next. If I, if I would have just let that white water hit me, I would have been right, just careened in a bunch of rocks. So you're trying to just like hold your ground, and anyway it was adrenaline kick in or did you know how bad you were hurt?
Speaker 2:I mean, you can't self-diagnose. I understand that I knew I was. Yeah, I knew how bad it was.
Speaker 3:It was something yeah, I heard it shatter um, and then I was it's hard to tell when you're underwater, but I'm pretty sure I was knocked unconscious for a while and I was fighting consciousness and because, like the lights were going on and off and and then I couldn't tell if I was paralyzed at that point, you know, because you're getting so thrashed and and then I couldn't tell if I was paralyzed at that point. You know cause you're getting so thrashed, and and then I came up and I was like my neck didn't feel right, felt like I was broken neck and it's barely like just so dizzy and dazed and I, you know, and I'm in a really bad spot and it was like I was getting just pounded by waves after waves, cause you're not.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's the thing you're talking about. You're in a gnarly spot. Something horrible happened in your. You're still in that spot.
Speaker 1:You're in the worst spot.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm saying. Is like yourself.
Speaker 1:No, I'm saying that not only was it in the worst spot out in the water, but it was also in the worst spot in the middle of nowhere, where you can't get out of there easy were you with anybody?
Speaker 3:I was with a friend and there was some like two or three other surfers, but it's pretty remote yeah, they didn't know I was hurt, yeah they didn't know I was in trouble. So it after like taking a couple more waves, like just getting beat into the rocks. It was like I was getting recycled in the rocks, I wasn't getting washed and so and the sets wouldn't stop, so I had to just finally like get on my board and paddle.
Speaker 2:And just swim for your life. Basically, paddle for your life.
Speaker 3:You know, every wave would hit me, it would knock me off my board or I'd have to dive under, and the pain of just getting on top of my board again and paddling with that broken neck was terrible and I was just like expecting to be, you know, just like paralyzed at any point, you know, because you're not supposed to move. And what I was doing was just trying to survive, was not what you're not the triage situation. And so I eventually got out of there and paddled to a beach to the south and laid on the beach for a while and like just couldn't believe I was still moving.
Speaker 1:So did people eventually help you? I mean, I know that they helped you up the cliff for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was on a beach kind of on my own for a while. I walked over to to some guys that were on the beach and I then started getting some help, and but at that point, you all fucked up and bloody.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was bleeding all over the place, yeah yeah, and I kind of made a pact to myself at that point. I'm like I got this far and it's this bad. I'm not going to tell anybody how bad it is Because, you know, I think it's like 1,500 or 2,000 vertical feet down. It's like way down this cliff and uh, this place is pretty important to me and I didn't want to have rescue operation come, get me and be in the news or have a helicopter come and all this other stuff. I want them just to get the fuck out. Excuse my language. I want to get the F out of there. To knowing how gnarly and remote it was. It would have taken hours. There's no cell phone reception.
Speaker 3:And I was just like at that point I'm like what I just did in the water to get to the beach. I was like you guys are going to just somebody take, I'll leave my board, cut me out of my suit, you know, let's just get up the hill, let's get out of here. And so you know, everybody's kind of like, yeah, no, you're messed up and I think you're fine, you know. And so I had help from them and I'm really grateful I had one, one of the local guys gave me his cane, like he has a walking stick kind of cane doesn't need a cane, but he has a walking stick, cause it's pretty gnarly. And he gave that to me and he walked in front of me and every step he took I just watched his feet and took that next step and then I had my friend walking behind me and I'd lose my balance all the time and he'd push me forward to keep me from falling down the cliff dark thoughts.
Speaker 2:At that point you just kind of focused, you thinking, you think focus.
Speaker 3:It was literally you're just step by step. At that point the dark thoughts were like, you know, at any point you're like is my, you know, spinal cord.
Speaker 2:Am I going to stop walking? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:But you know, and I had, I was covered in blood, I had flies all over me, it was just it was. I was like this sucks, this really really sucks. My whole fear at that place was, like don't sprain an ankle. You know, like you chapped, you chapped if you sprayed your ankle there. Dude, like this is, I just hit the jackpot on like not what to do and yeah and anyway. We got to the car and I was grateful for that, and we drove straight to santa cruz, passed up every hospital, because I knew that I was probably going to be in the er for a long time and I didn't want my family to have to drive them. You know, a couple hours.
Speaker 2:So you remember hearing about this now. You remember hearing about this. Oh yeah, I mean just that, that. What's that perspective?
Speaker 1:Where were you? Just, it's as scary as it gets, also as it gets. Also, like he said, he didn't really let it out as much as so. I knew that he was injured. I saw him in his neck brace, but I didn't know how bad it was until later. A lot came down with that concussion. There was a while when, when the smiley sean doll like there's the smiley sean dollar, like happy kid that I've always known since he was a tiny girl, he wasn't there anymore. He was grumpy and angry sean dollar, which I've never seen before and that wasn't because the accident, that's because something was undiagnosed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was undiagnosed massive TBI.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And, um, I knew I had it, but I everyone was ignoring it and not believing me, like I was advocating for myself and I was getting no help. It was pretty terrible. Um, yeah, by like week, week I think, month three or four, like my collar came off and when you have a collar on, you know everyone's like whoa, you, okay, man, like well, you know, stay clear. Like let's like everyone's like white gloving you. And then my collar came off and my concussion was getting. The traumatic brain injury was getting worse month by month. Like the inflammation was building up.
Speaker 3:We didn't know that, but I was becoming more and more unstable. You know, if you've seen that movie Concussion yeah, I have Will Smith, I was. I could have been a character in it. Like I was out of my mind, like absolutely mentally unstable, doing things I should not be doing. I spent most of my days either with a migraine in a dark room and if I didn't have a migraine, I was out and about or trying to catch up on some work and take me forever to write an email or be around my family. Basically, I'm like had the most horrible thoughts all the time and I'd be trying not to act on them.
Speaker 2:Trippy.
Speaker 3:It was terrible.
Speaker 2:It's that whole CTE conversation, right yeah.
Speaker 3:The thing about CTE which is tough is your CTE diagnosis only comes from an autopsy.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:So I had pre-CTE, but we didn't know it. Everybody was telling me, including my wife and my neurosurgeon, to just chill out.
Speaker 2:Suck it up.
Speaker 3:Chill out, stay off your phone, relax, sean, you're being dramatic. How?
Speaker 2:many people do you think because of your personality. No, it's funny because I don't know you, but I'm getting to know you now. I wonder how many people almost kind of thought at some point you were throwing a little pity party because you couldn't be in the water and that had happened in a way without connecting the dot right.
Speaker 3:Is there just not a lot of sympathy for you at that point? There was no sympathy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's hard. There's especially for brain.
Speaker 3:you know, for brain injuries people can respect breaking bones and breaking your neck, but brain injuries there's no respect and that's like what was the hardest and most scary thing. I mean it's just being alone in your messed up mind. You know the mental health side of a brain injury and it was terrible. I would saw myself living on the street. I saw myself like I was not going to be married anymore, Like my life was unraveling.
Speaker 1:No doubt. Well, they're just learning about it.
Speaker 2:Now, you know, I mean they're it's, it's the thing about us and it's a, you know, it's a little side note, nelly knows a little bit, but my wife went through something similar not at all the accident, but similar neurologically and the problem was it was 18 month kind of nightmare, 12 months of it completely, for all intents purposes, undiagnosed, and you are alone, you're alone with your spouse, you're alone with everybody because, yeah, if the doctors aren't, you know, basically don't have the answer for you, um, or they can't basically say this is diagnosable and this is what it is vertical, whatever they, whatever they want to say, you are all alone in your, in, in your, your undiagnosed universe. And the thing about that is it reminded me, as she was crystal clear, what was wrong with her, but she couldn't get anybody here and she couldn't get anybody to kind of like that.
Speaker 3:What's the second?
Speaker 2:better now. She went to Stanford and got a diagnosis and it was a. It was a left turn like about I don't know, four months ago. So she, she's back, you know, for all intents purposes, with all the right work, but I'm very sympathetic to that part of it, that that so can we I guess I don't want to jump on anything you're talking about Can we? Can we so clearly? There was a diagnosis. You went somewhere. It was, there was a shift.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was very, very lucky that you know I'm working. I'm checking my emails every day, you know, trying to like I'm the it's terrible, yeah, trying to hold the business together that I built. And you know, pay for the mortgage. And jen, you know, are we at our? Kaylee was six months old. Yeah, newborn baby. It was absolutely gnarly. I was living and sleeping on a lazy boy most of the time.
Speaker 2:Um was this 10 years ago, so I'm trying to get a frame of reference we're looking.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was about 10 years ago. Nine years, all right, okay, sorry, yep, it's all starts blurring no, no understandable right in that zone um, yeah, it's so.
Speaker 3:This woman, barbara bridges of, hit me up on linkedin and somehow I attention to the email and she's like hey, I'm a big fan, I live in Half Moon Bay, I love you. Mavericks guys, I bet you have a really bad concussion. You should talk to my friend, dr Amen, at the Amen clinics. And I was like I couldn't believe it, because my wife she's pretty smart I mean really really smart with health and everything and she would always tell me she knew what was going, she knew something was wrong, but she didn't know, she didn't really understand it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But she would always show me these Dr Amen videos on YouTube which were you can heal your brain. She's like you can heal your brain. I know you're going to get better, sean, you're going to get better, sean, you're going to get better. So I like, would I was like the only hope I had was okay, I'm going to find some way to heal my brain. So here we go. We got this woman saying I'm going to connect you with Dr Amen, and she did. And Dr Amen was we've become, you know, friends since then. I mean, he's such a kind man. He invited me to his clinic in Walnut walnut creek he's got a couple of them in the us and basically he was very curious to see what a big wave server's brain scan um three-dimensionally, because he was scanning all the nfl players. So he was part of, like the concussion movie and the doctor that diagnosed with kurt warner.
Speaker 2:All those guys right?
Speaker 3:yeah, so he like in in regards to, like the medical world that I can't ever pronounce the doctor's name that diagnosed cte. His whole work was on autopsy. It was on, okay, the players, that players that have died. Dr amon's work has all been on players that are alive, so scanning, and together they've figured out like ct. So anyway, he's like the pioneer of um, you know, diagnosing this stuff, but it but 10 years ago it's still pretty early but he had the biggest library of nfl scans so he was scanning tons of nfl players and helping them and making tons of progress, but he'd never seen a big wave surfer. So anyway, you got to remember, like this is new year's day, we go into the office. My wife is on the edge, can't stand me Like we're not doing good. She's not sympathetic to what's going on with me.
Speaker 2:Everybody's telling me to chill out. How long after the exits from my frame.
Speaker 3:I accident was in September and we're going in like December, so full year yeah.
Speaker 1:Once the neck collar comes off, you should be all good, right? You look great, I look great yeah.
Speaker 3:It was always. You're such a dick, you know, and it was like, yeah, I and I. You know what the hardest part is? I knew I was and I didn't care. Right, there was that whole like emotional side of where you check yourself, where you like are like this is a bad idea. I should probably not do it. You know your brain's constantly doing that. I didn't have. I like literally didn't have that anymore, so I would do anyway the things I would say to people things I would say to my family.
Speaker 2:I would just like it broke my heart, but I didn't care. Like I didn't, there wasn't a care anymore.
Speaker 3:Like you were outside your body watching a movie, like yeah, and I'm like, oh, my god, I'm doing it here it goes like and um, it was really hard, so we walked in and um, yeah, so anyway, the results. This is kind of getting to be a long story, but the results were they scanned me and, um, dr Amen couldn't be there, so his um, the guy that ran that clinic is Dr Amina, so not to get the two confused, but Dr Amina sat down with me and my wife and, it's like, went over the results and he basically said you know and he was really talking to Jen he's like you know, your husband looks like he played high school football, college football, professional football. He looks just as bad as any of the NFL players we have walking in here. He's like your husband is really damaged.
Speaker 2:So literally they're seeing like the black spots, yeah.
Speaker 3:All the holes in my brain, the black spots, all the you know, all the functional parts of your brain that you need to blood flow and operate to for your neurons to be talking were dead. And it was really hard to like have that diagnosis. But it was also like the most relieving thing ever, because it was like my wife had compassion for me, like I had compassion for myself. I I knew that this was going on, but nobody would believe me. And and then it became like, okay, like I have a diagnosis, now it's time to move on and figure out how do we heal it. But it gave me a. It wasn't me being crazy anymore, it was just like you're dysfunctional, you're not going to ever function unless you do something about this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, you started doing some cryotherapy, some um, I did hyperbaric.
Speaker 3:Actually that was back chambers. Hyperbaric is, yeah, pressurized chamber, you get in, and it was invented for divers that you know were experiencing the bends and they found that concussions and other things were one of the benefits of, or getting healed. So anyway, I did about 120 rounds of hyperbaric at Baria Hyperbarics this really great clinic in Los Gatos, and Lisa's amazing that runs it. She comped them all for me and really wanted to see me get better. It was incredible. I mean, to heal a brain can be really expensive and my insurance nobody's insurance covers any of the stuff I did and that's what's hard with this conversation is. But also we, we, like dr amen and everybody, was always in the idea that at that point, um, hyperbaric is kind of all. You need diet, diet and hyperbaric, which makes sense, you know like. But the thing is that was the problem is, you know, my diet was incredible. Already I was a talk to your athlete, you know what I mean. Like most people are like okay, you had a head injury, clean up your diet, stop stopping potato chips.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what I?
Speaker 3:mean you're not going to mcdonald's anymore, you're going to eat organic. And I was like, right, so anyway, hyperbaric help. But it got me like halfway and started moving the needle. But we then just, you know, after like a year of it and I got. I got re-scanned by Dr Amen. The interesting thing was, after all that hyperbaric, maybe I had improvements in, like my mental health and feeling better, but the physical improvements from the three-dimensional scan of my brain were not better, it was actually worse. So then we had to like, okay, what's the next thing and what's the next thing. And so, anyway, I don't know if we want it's such a long story. I have a website, everyone, if you're wanting to go down that great story.
Speaker 1:It's a great, it's also a great time to jump into your yeah documentary because it's it goes hand in hand with with your injury. I know you're working with Toby Tierman, some other people, correct?
Speaker 3:Yeah, toby Tierman at LensFire has been awesome about wanting to make this film because it hasn't been something I really wanted to do. Honestly, I'm not the type of guy that wants to go make a movie about themselves after seeing it.
Speaker 1:I'm glad that you did, because, yeah, the trailer is like phenomenal.
Speaker 3:But what I found was through this journey that I've been on, is that I've learned so much like, and I've had so many amazing doctors walk into my life that were willing to take a risk with me and I was willing to take a risk with, and we've learned so much about how to repair a brain and there's I'll tell you this, there's not one way to do it, there's a whole bunch of different ways you can do it, but you can do it and I just I created a website. It's Sean dollarcom S H a, w, n, d, o L, l a rcom, and it has my whole story with all the doctors I've been to, what the results were and the amount of people that visit that site and then experience change and healing from it because that information isn't out there and then reach out to me and thank me. It's like pretty incredible. It's become like my life purpose and like for me to just sit on all this information that I have and not share it would I be doing the world a disservice?
Speaker 3:you know, and so this whole time I'm kind of going through this I, toby, has just been so adamant like we got to put a film together about this. We got to, and so I finally like gave in and we're doing it. And we're four years into this film and we're going to finish it this winter and it's basically covers like all the nitty gritty of what we did with my doctors, um what my story was, and then we follow Albie layer and, um Kyle, any too, which has been awesome, cause Kai just had a big concussion and at pipe this last winter and what about Dorian Is he, dorian, wants to sit down and do an interview too, and but this is the coolest thing is like this isn't just my story of healing.
Speaker 3:We're seeing these top tier athletes like healing really quickly, like once they do this stuff. And like Kai Lenny is a really great example. He has a hyperbaric chamber, His mom's a doctor, he was able to get on a bunch of other programs like IVs and stuff, and he healed within a few months versus you know me, it took, you know, eight to nine years and and so I guess my point is is like we just want to like shine the light on that Number one like people are getting hurt doing these extreme sports, like stacking on ramps and BMX and and it's it's really intense on the brain and but the story isn't a bad story. The story is like look, if you're doing this stuff and you get hurt, these are options and this is how you can heal and this is how we get out of this like mental health crisis and you know we're. I hope it inspires a lot of people and changes the conversation.
Speaker 2:I think it's amazing, dude, because I think what happens is when you're in that sort of space, you tend to basically have your your career window, when you beat the shit out of yourself and then you basically have your sort of you retire that career and you sit on it, and then that's the story we all know. And then in your thirties, forties, fifties, things start occurring. Things start occurring and what you're saying is, let's say, you get a concussion when you're 22 on the playing field or in the water. You can start working on it right now, and I think that's the big difference. That's the big difference Even in NFL protocols and stuff. Now everything's changed.
Speaker 3:You know, as far as yeah, we're finding that most of the NFL pros have a hyperbaric chamber, like it's. They don't talk about it, but when I talk to them they're like, oh, I got one, they all have them. So it's like, yeah, if you're going to surf Mavs and you're really serious about it, you should have a hyperbaric chamber or you should have access to one and you should be basically working on reversing the damage that you're doing while you're playing. And that's kind of my message. My message isn't there's an answer.
Speaker 1:There's an answer, there's a solution. Yeah, it's not like, don't do it man, don't hurt your brain.
Speaker 3:It's like it's more like, if you're going to go, hurt your brain, do the protocol so that later in life you're not going to deal with Alzheimer's, you're not going to have mental health issues. I mean, your brain is the most important functioning organ in your body.
Speaker 2:Is there any?
Speaker 3:everyday benefits to that chamber. If you just for normal uh, yeah, for normal health, like yeah, it's going to regenerate stem cells in your body, you're going to have probably 60 to 70 percent in like healing time is increased. For example, if you break a bone and you do hyperbaric, instead of waiting six weeks for that bone to heal, it usually heals in about two weeks interesting like Like it's phenomenal and there's no it's.
Speaker 3:The only side effects is just probably doing it too much where you have an oxygen saturation in your blood, but that's really manageable. So all this stuff like stem cells, hyperbaric peptides, these things are all the most incredible healing tools that all work really well for brain. But you know you have to go to a doctor or a naturopath. That is, you know, doing the stuff and you know that's broken the norm of Western medicine. But the effects are incredible. That's an amazing story.
Speaker 2:Wow, that was riveted, very cool, did um no what did you have a follow-up now.
Speaker 3:Where are we at? Well, can I say one thing?
Speaker 2:before we get off the movie.
Speaker 3:It's your show we are. This is commercial break. We are looking for help to fund this thing and we really need to get it over the line. We're looking for some people that want to be part of it that can help us finish this film with a little bit of cash. We've been self funding it to this point and there's a whole bunch of options there. But anyway, if anybody's interested and wants to get a part of it and wants to help us actually get involved, they can. You can either give us the money or you can just you can give us some money, be a part of it. We're open to any and all scenarios. It's gonna be insane.
Speaker 2:I watched, you know just hit you up at dollarcom yeah, on instagram and we'll connect you.
Speaker 3:but, um, we are looking for you, know, we, just we. It's gotten to that point where this thing is big and we just need a little bit more cash to get it over the line, and then we are ready to roll and it's going to resonate too.
Speaker 2:It's still an ongoing conversation. It's sometimes you have an idea and it's living in the vacuum of your idea, but this is. It's a global conversation right now.
Speaker 1:That was super cool. Sean came over last winter to Oahu and stayed with me and he was on his way to go film the Kai Lenny part over in Maui. Yeah, he got to stay with me and then we went surfing together and we actually scored a fun day off the wall so fun Shot some photos and then he went over and met with Kai and then I got to watch the footage when I watched the um the reel, and man, what a beautiful piece that little sizzle is.
Speaker 3:It's like what five, six minutes long. Yeah, I mean, those guys film this thing all on cinematic red cameras. It's like it's ready for the. It will be ready for the big screen when it's done. It's like the Mavericks footage is insane, like anyway, they've. They've done it the whole way through and it the conversation is right for, like what's going on out there where people are talking about hyperbaric, you know like people are talking about stem cells. Like why is stem cells illegal in the U S? You know, like why is it kind of an outlaw if you do it? And it's crazy, these things are like we have a chance to change the health of this country and do it the right way and more in an organic, natural way. Like it's super exciting and so, like I'm kind of like we spent four years filming to be at like this pivotal moment where the conversation's changing nationally. You know, and I think we're right there in a good spot. I 100% agree.
Speaker 1:It's not if it's when you know what I mean. Yes, after seeing it, I was just like oh, this is like it's going to be such a beautiful piece and so informative to you know multiple people and people that have brain injuries that don't have this information, that have never learned this stuff. You know it's all brand new. It's this is all happening. What in the last?
Speaker 3:decade, yeah, in the last 10 years how long have humans been around? It's like really, yeah long time, nelly oh man, I mean, you just think about. You think about all those like vets that came back from like world war two, that just like didn't talk. You know, they're shell shocked. Shell shock was just a concussion, a massive TBI that's. Those guys were just, their brains were dysfunctional and it wasn't.
Speaker 3:We just see it all the time Like the one thing that it like if I could give like two kind of points to those we talk about deep into concussions and stuff is like a concussion is a tbi, a tbi is a concussion. Like a lot of people separate those two is like, oh, I got a concussion but it's not a tbi. It's like they're the same thing I can and a small concussion serious well, yeah, but by definition it's, it's a brain injury.
Speaker 3:I mean yeah, yeah people are always really sensitive about like I got an accident.
Speaker 3:I got in a whiplash, but I think I got a concussion, but I don't feel right, it's like you got a concussion. So I wish people would just like allow themselves to like be hurt, cause you know, it's like when you sprain your wrist or sprain your ankle you're not going to still go run a bunch of laps, right, you're going to protocols to heal and yeah. And then the other thing that I'm noticing too is like from talking to vets, talking to people that are going through mental health stuff. So what was interesting to me was, you know, I was very healthy, very you know, running a business, had a great family, had all that stuff, and then the concussion created such a mental health problem for myself that I was a completely different person.
Speaker 3:So a lot of times when we're dealing with like Santa Cruz, we see how much like mental health problems there are. Those are brain injury and it doesn't have to be brain injury, in my definition, doesn't have to be like you got hit in the head or you had an accident. Brain injury can be from too much drugs, too much alcohol. They're finding you can get concussions, like if you watch the movie quiet explosions, which you mentioned. That's another documentary I'm on. They're finding they're related to like a really traumatic experience in someone's life. So anyway, anyway, the brain is just really sensitive.
Speaker 2:But the rad thing is what I'm listening now. I'm learning a lot today and that's why I think we're. This is not. This is fascinating to me is that that there's two different, there are a few different paths to what we call, you know, a TBI, but the, the kind of the, the recipe, whether it be diet, whether it be hyperbaric chamber, these are basically catchalls that you can basically put like it fits. You know the, the, the. It's amazing to me Cause I've never in my life heard that that you know a to B connection between. It always has to be on a field or the waves or something like that, but it can just be it doesn't have to be.
Speaker 3:You know like you see it walking around this town or we do that it's.
Speaker 3:you know there's so many different ways of doing it, but the crazy thing is it's like the brain is one of the most moldable, healable organs in our body. Like if you screw up your liver, you're kind of in a tough spot, you know, but if you screw up your brain, your brain will regenerate faster than anything else. As far as I'm not a doctor I'm even going over but from what I've been told and the way I understand it, your brain can regenerate faster and better than any other organ, and if you give it the tools to do it. So we just have to yeah, we have to give ourselves the tools and create that momentum in our body to heal and, um, you know what these protocols also do.
Speaker 2:My dad died from a stroke like three years ago, but it kind of comes down to some of those things that you think about when that's in your family. And here's the thing is there's these other sort of benefits of this protocol is less strokes. Clearly, if people are handling this, you're getting into all these things that put less pressure on your brain and your system. You know the the kind of catalyst might be a TBI, but you might be saving yourself a stroke when you're 65, just by a hundred percent. Crazy, God dang, Nelly.
Speaker 1:So what do you think about? What do you think about the damage that cell phones are doing to kids' brains?
Speaker 3:Oh, I think it's scary. I mean, trust me, though, I have a cell phone, my son's 13. He has a cell phone. We try to limit it, I try to keep it. If you notice, it's not in my pocket, it's on the table, away from me.
Speaker 2:I just take it away from my junk.
Speaker 3:I just you know, I guess it's one of how do you? I haven't even gone down that rabbit hole in full details, but how do you? I haven't even gone down that rabbit hole in full details. But I wonder, we're not seeing tumors on people's brain, but you hear about how bad they are, so I don't know. It's kind of been one of those things Like are we going to all find out later? Like that we absolutely blew it.
Speaker 2:And there's also. There's also something that changed after, like the nineties was was the nineties was literally these crazy Bluetooth stuck in your ear and people literally glued to it. I would say 80, 90% of the people in conversations. We have the conversations away from your head. You know what I? Mean so most conversations are down on the ground.
Speaker 1:I'm not talking about that kind of knowledge. What are you talking about? I'm talking about the psychological oh, that's even better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's better. I thought you were talking like chemtrails and shit. No, I, I thought you were talking like chemtrails and shit.
Speaker 1:I'm talking more of the studies that they do on kids' brains.
Speaker 3:They're terrible.
Speaker 1:Because they're on Snapchat all day. They're distracting.
Speaker 3:So part of what I think is super important is for people to have that space in their life where they're able to be bored, they're able to think for themselves. They're able to. You know, even when you pick up a book, it's better, but you're being distracted, so that's the, that's the dream.
Speaker 1:But that's super, not reality. No, it isn't.
Speaker 3:It's hard, there's zero people I see doing that. I agree, and I'm what I trust me. I yeah. I am most of the time failing at it myself and this comes from me, who I have a cell phone also.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. Yeah, but I grew up without cell phones, that's the. Thing.
Speaker 3:We can limit our usage in any way you can. Like. When you get home, like I charge my phone, like in the living room away from my bed, and I have to go physically get it. And we're trying to make better rules in the house where the cell phones are off and they're over here. But man, I mean, they're so addicting. You pick it up and you look at it and the next thing you know you're on Instagram and five minutes later you're down some rabbit holes and you're like wait, what was I doing? I think I was just going to go text somebody, but they're so radical.
Speaker 1:So radical.
Speaker 3:We have to be I mean, everything in moderation, if you can. I mean that's just the truth of it.
Speaker 2:I want you to listen to this because you made me think of something I listen to every day and I can't figure it out. But check this out.
Speaker 4:But you know, if you talk all the time, you'll never hear what anybody else has to say and therefore all you'll have to talk about is your own conversation. The same is true for people who think all the time. That means, when I use the word think, talking to yourself, sub-vocal conversation, the constant chit-chat of symbols and images and talk and words inside your skull.
Speaker 2:Now, if you do that all the time, you'll find that you have nothing to think about except thinking. It goes on from there, but that is exactly what you're saying it's inspiring and that leads to like maybe it's that you're talking about that deepest form of meditation sort of like, where you literally separate from all stimulus, kind of break.
Speaker 3:Sure, I think. I think I mean honestly, I don't even know if I've ever achieved that.
Speaker 2:I haven't. It's pretty hard. I just read an editorial about it in the last magazine.
Speaker 3:I suck at it. I try. Yeah, I think it's more just like I read that. I like that. Yeah, I think it's more just getting in touch with yourself and like allowing yourself five minutes to 10 minutes, like to just listen to your thoughts and maybe feel into, like what's your gut feeling Like, instead of what's my head telling me to do, like most people don't know the difference, and that's super important.
Speaker 2:And are you thinking from everything you've gone through?
Speaker 3:that's probably some healthy brain habits, right, like you know as far as Super healthy, yeah, and I think it's just essential to living too. You know, I mean, in some sense, all this technology is incredible, but we do also want to go back to our primal and our ancestors had a lot of great things going on, so you can't just go all in on everything, all technology.
Speaker 2:Like your world record, my Guinness Book of World Records for meditation 17 seconds right now which I immediately realized, and I think I wrote about it is it can't be the record because I must have counted 17 seconds.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's in a rabbit hole of all of it, but that was good. Can we talk a little bit? I want to make sure I talk because this is one I was interested in doing a little bit of homework about just art, your art.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And just like I guess the the broad question would be um, you know, without killing too much time is um is as an artist, were you what's changed since the accident, or are you similar, or did that change your perspective on art or or life? Change your perspective on art post accident or is it pretty much just what you've been?
Speaker 3:um, what changed my perspective on art was, honestly, like my business and the and the kids you know like just not having the time like I used to do, like more fine art painting, and I went to cal paulie into graphic design and I've been drawing since I've been little and I love it but I just don't pick it up that much but it's really important to me. So lately I've been drawing since I've been little and I love it but I just don't pick it up that much but it's really important to me. So lately I've been kind of doing this medium of painting on like glass, but in reverse.
Speaker 2:I saw that.
Speaker 3:Of this landscape and for me it's like really good, it's really therapeutic.
Speaker 3:For myself personally, it's like it doesn't take me multiple days to create, I can do it quicker, which I don't have a studio space at the time and I can kind of quickly set up a studio and and paint and then enjoy the process, like the creative process of of creating art is is awesome yeah, I agree feels really good, you know, turn on some music and just disconnect from everything and like, let the find, that flow, state and and then create and then and then explore, like this medium, and then, honestly, what I've been creating has been for me it's like it's a really simple landscape, but it's kind of the same one over and over. But when, when I sit in my living room and I look at it, I just dream I, like you know, your art reminded me of those little um it's.
Speaker 2:It's like I don't. I'm not a fucking curator of art but it kind of feels abstract to me as far as, like, there's a lot of interpretation in it. It's like a subtle color. It's a fine line with like sort of like. Maybe it's a sunset, maybe it's a sunrise, maybe maybe it's it's anything. You're kind of looking at it, going back forth, going like, um, it is relaxing, for sure, the, the palettes and stuff are relaxing, but I think it's. It's pretty rad, but it's, thank you that's what I've been trying to create.
Speaker 3:I've I feel like when you walk into a room and I love all kinds of different types of art but a lot of times you walk into people's houses and they have really loud art on the wall and you're like that's really intense, you know, or like that's distracting me. You know what I mean? Where I've wanted to lately, I've been wanting to create art that creates peace in the home and peace in your mind. That you would look at and it's almost Zen like interpreted a hundred different ways.
Speaker 3:you know, like what mood are you in and I find myself just mind surfing these little simple waves or these landscapes and I don't know it's been fun and it's. You know it's gosh, I mean, I feel I love it.
Speaker 2:I just I just got done with the interview with Maya Negra and she's. It's a very similar, totally different art what she does but she's incredible.
Speaker 2:But it but it, but the words you just came out. As far as her headspace, her interpretation of the planet kind of comes out through her art, in her palates and how she does it. She has a softness, I think was the word she used to it. But, um, I think it's like I think I told her in the interview good art is like sometimes you go to a restaurant you can, you know, you can taste like the emotions of the chef, you know some of the food you're like like this dude is down and I kind of get it. So, yeah, that was kind of uh.
Speaker 2:The only other circle around question nelly and I usually ask which is I think is gonna be a good one here is do you have, um, uh, something you do on a daily basis or maybe a weekly basis? We always kind of use this word um. I think we got to change a little bit to to be great, and maybe that's maybe we leave it at that, because great is a broad, could be a great parent, could be a great surfer. But do you have any daily practices, like the TED Talk kind of thing, where you can say I'll pass this along to somebody else because it might be something that somebody else might want to try.
Speaker 3:Yeah, geez, there's a lot that I do throughout my day, but I would say the most important thing that anybody could do if you're going to start every day, everybody should start their day in the first, like you know, 10 minutes.
Speaker 3:Give yourself that 10 minutes when you wake up to just be peaceful with yourself, to try not to go to your phone, try to just be alone in your thoughts, maybe go make your coffee.
Speaker 3:I have a red light panel that I sit in front of and I've gotten and this is just being honest, I've gotten really bad habits sometimes lately, where I'm not doing this every day, but I have been actually really working on making it more of a practice, because when I go back to, like when I was setting world records, when I was doing this other stuff, I was really disciplined in this area and it's super easy to just give yourself that peace in the morning.
Speaker 3:And it's somebody, it's like there's a Zen saying like the first pebble dropped in the water creates all those ripples. So it's like what pebble do you want to drop to start your day with? Do you want to start it on your phone, on Instagram, or do you want to start it in your own thoughts. And it's incredible because when you start it with your own thoughts, those ripples that you create throughout the day are so much better and your day goes better and you start seeing like it manifests in the coincidences and and the and all this stuff that's going on you, you were in control of your day in a certain way, I fucking love that.
Speaker 2:I think that's great.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's good stuff.
Speaker 2:All these guys' ideas are better than mine. I can't remember what my first statement. Nellie and I started this podcast two years ago and we came up with it. I can't remember what my daily practice is but it's not that cool Nellie.
Speaker 3:I didn't invent this stuff.
Speaker 2:I just know. But I do think the ones, the thing I kind of get is like I think it becomes kind of transitional and and I don't mean I mean this with all due respect meaningless. Like a world record surfing a wave has the same standing as recovering from a TBI and the fundamentals Like I heard a lot in what you said that the fundamentals of getting a Guinness book world record wave for a short period of time, um, those building blocks, how you got to that are the same as how you recovered the discipline and the kind of like the competitiveness and shit like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've said it a few times, but I'm glad you brought that up, because two world records was an incredible feat. Yeah, the amount of work that I put in, how hard it was, the courage it took to do that was insane. But the courage it took and the work that it took and the amount of fear that I had through the TBIs and through that recovery was so much gnarlier. That's exactly it.
Speaker 2:I did say all due respect.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you did, and it's true, you know. And so my you know my compassion and heart goes out and that's why we're making this film is like there's people out there absolutely struggling, they don't even understand, like I would way rather go surf Cortez than go through what I did again, you know, like it was the pinnacle, like if you think cortez is gnarly, try living my life and my body in my mind after that at that last final big hurrah accident, like it was horrible, it was terrible.
Speaker 3:And you know there's people struggling with that all over the place exactly so, you know, to find a way out of it, like people are finding their way out, and that's what's super exciting and cool, and um, just want to kind of give people that hope, because hope is everything you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I totally agree, I'm so glad that you healed and so glad that you did all that research and are sharing it, and you know it could have gone either way. You know, imagine life if you wouldn't have healed the way that you have cause. You're such a positive influence in this town and you know, although I'm impressed with your world records and your XXL awards and the waves that I've seen you personally surf at Mavericks and all that stuff, I'm way more impressed with all the stuff that you do for the Groms in this town. That's the stuff that really matters in this town that's the stuff that really matters.
Speaker 1:You know, like I said, like I said in a, in a, to give of yourself means you're giving your time and you're changing people for the better. Exactly, well, thank you, you know? And um, yeah, I don't know, I was just uh, I noticed it. I know a lot of people in the town notice it. There's a lot of grounds in this town who really respect you and look up to you and you give them your time and you help them get sponsored and you help them get waves and you coach them in the water, and on and on and on and so, like that's not the norm, I'm sorry it's not there's. Surfing is very selfish sport.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm not perfect. It's not. Surfing's a very selfish sport. Well, I'm not perfect. There's plenty of days out there.
Speaker 1:I'm sure that you're not. Nobody's perfect. There's plenty of mistakes I make.
Speaker 3:So I'm apologizing to people all the time too, but I try my best to walk the best line I can, so thank you.
Speaker 1:Well, there was a reason that Sewer Peak wasn't allowed to be surfed by most people back in the day. You know, I mean I paddle, I tried to paddle over there when I was a girl, it was good luck, yeah, I mean, yeah, zero chance that you're getting a wave more like you're getting screamed at.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean and uh, and also the thing kind of. It's an amazing little. You're in a unique position now, being that interconnected with the groms too. Um, it doesn't have to be the the bullhorn message, but it's the subtle message. If you ever get hurt, you can tell them that at an early age. Like you're going to get hurt doing this, you're going to get. You know it's inevitable. You're going to bang your head, and here are the things you should look for when you bang your head, as nobody told you that when you were 12.
Speaker 3:I wish I knew, I wish, I knew, I wish I knew when I was surfing Mavericks, I would probably still be doing it.
Speaker 2:There's 100%, and I think that's one of the most amazing parts of this whole story is it all settles down. You've got your kids, you've got your family, you've got your brain working back towards whole. But you can also kind of put the bug in these kids' ears that you don't be a tough guy. It's part of the sport. You're going to get hurt. But here's the thing. Just like if you twist an ankle, you put a brace on, if you hurt your brain, here's what you do. I think it's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1:Is there a link to watch?
Speaker 3:the trailer. I think we should probably do that. We've been keeping it private, but I'll talk with the guys.
Speaker 1:You should put up a trailer and do a Patreon or something like that it's like uh private on video right now but we'll bust it on the next podcast, if uh, okay, if they say yeah but it's like I said, if somebody's interested and really wants to get involved, we'll share the trailer.
Speaker 3:You know we've been sharing it, um, on a regular basis. We just don't want to put it out there I think it's.
Speaker 2:I think you gotta get the word out because I think it's a different ask. It's. It's um, uh, not to downplay, but it's not. It's. It's a different ask. It's not to downplay, but it's not just a surf movie. This is a message movie with, you know, it sounds like it's got a little bit of the sobering kind of hope in it. You know, I mean the reality of what happened.
Speaker 1:It just so happens to have four of the gnarliest big wave riders of all time that have had brain injuries, and it's got footage of them and going nuts that jaws and Mavericks and everywhere.
Speaker 2:And that's the thing with the surf movies Now. Now it's starting to catch up with it. Now you're getting like you said. Even when you're talking like this old history, you're talking about the time when there's a lot of ultra 4k and drones and and, and the surf footage in the surf movies now is is beyond belief.
Speaker 3:Beyond belief. It's insane. And uh, we're going to go out with Kai this winter and film off his boat at Jaws. We want to get some of that, and I mean that's going to be insane too.
Speaker 1:So we it's the stuff we have? Are you taking Kai out to Jaws? Uh, your son, are you kidding?
Speaker 3:Yeah, uh, your son. Yeah, I'm gonna push him into one. Oh my god, no, it's just uh.
Speaker 2:Anyway, the trailer's sick and so we'll um we'll kind of start rolling out. Now you got anything else?
Speaker 1:no, just celebrate.
Speaker 2:Man, I'm really stoked to have you on here thanks for having me shawn dollarcom for everything as far as contact or on Insta yeah, seandollar on Insta and then SeanDollarcom.
Speaker 3:if you want to read about the concussion and my contact information, and then we'll put all those links in the show notes.
Speaker 2:In the transcript. We'll put the links to all this stuff in the bottom. This was awesome meeting you, nell Dogg yes.
