Unpacked In Santa Cruz
Mike Howard talking ....
Unpacked In Santa Cruz
Episode 39: Lucas Salles-Cunha, Quicksilver Santa Cruz Director, and Owner of The Rise Collective
Lucas Salles-Cuñha, a multifaceted leader in the fitness and swimming community, joins us to share his extraordinary journey across the United States, leading him to the serene shores of Santa Cruz. With roots in Southern California, a sojourn in Florida, and a return to the West Coast, Lucas narrates his transformation from a corporate insurance professional to a local community influencer. As the president of Quicksilver Swimming and Rise Collective, he brings a wealth of experience and passion for community building through fitness, focusing on the pivotal role of technique over sheer volume in swim training and beyond.
Our conversation with Lucas uncovers the intricacies of integrating into new communities and the unique dynamics of local surfing scenes in Carlsbad and Santa Cruz. He offers a candid look at the challenges faced in establishing connections in surfing circles, sharing personal experiences as an Encinitas lifeguard and the lessons learned from rigorous training alongside Navy SEALs. Through these stories, Lucas highlights the balance required to respect local customs while fostering lasting relationships, illustrating the broader themes of personal growth, community engagement, and the pursuit of athletic excellence.
In the latter part of our episode, we delve into the essence of competition and personal growth in sports, alongside the balancing act required in youth coaching. From empowering women and promoting inclusivity in swimming to emphasizing the importance of community support, Lucas paints a compelling picture of how sports can transcend competition and foster a sense of belonging. His insights into fostering resilience in new environments and nurturing talents in underrepresented communities promise to inspire listeners with a passion for creating inclusive and supportive athletic spaces.
Welcome to the Unpacked and Naked podcast. I'm your host, michael Howard. This podcast is brought to you by Santa Cruz Vibes Magazine. We are part of the media library, with the magazine also brought to you by pointside beachak. They're our host for this lovely little spot that we're at, lucas cuña. Did I get it right?
Speaker 2:that's pretty good. It's lucas solace cuña. You left out half my last name unbelievable.
Speaker 1:We had this long discussion about how in the hell I ended up in Santa Cruz and couldn't speak Spanish.
Speaker 2:How do I have two bilingual parents who can't speak anything but English?
Speaker 1:I don't know, with a dash in the middle of that last name.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, my father's Brazilian and my mother is Midwestern German, german, polish descent, so interesting background. Both kind of a couple of.
Speaker 1:Polacks then I guess. So yeah, I married, I married in Lucas, you're here. You got suckered in a year later.
Speaker 2:I didn't know. I was supposed to do it a year ago.
Speaker 1:Well, we talked about it. We were at Pete's, I think yeah Was that a year ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dang Time moves. Yeah, happy to be here. I'm excited, yeah, and thank you for this opportunity.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm glad you're here, Lucas. I want our listeners just to get to know you a little bit. Just tell us about yourself. Are you married, got kids? What do you do? All that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a lot thrown at me. I'm going to start with my family. I've married for 22 years. I have three kids. All of them are 18 and over, so 18, 19, and 22. They've all attended elementary school here in Santa Cruz County and two out of three of them ended up graduating from local school. Well, one still has to graduate from SoCal High this year, so I'm two for three in graduation. That's the thing people, um. But now my son did end up graduating from a different school, um, and then he's at Cabrillo right now. So, anyways, that's my family background and, um, we, as far as what I do, I'm the president of quick sober swimming in Santa Cruz County and I'm the president of rise collective, which is a new fitness club that we just opened up in Capitola.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. So what do you guys do at Rise?
Speaker 2:At Rise. We're trying to build an active community and people that hang out together instead of just go to a gym to work out, which is part of it. But we really want to host events, bring the community together and then elevate the fitness level of the community. So that's kind of the purpose there, and doing it more as a collective community instead of individuals.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you know, we know each other from aquatics. You know you. If I remember the timeline right, your club affiliation here kind of began when my youngest, who was 24, was just entering high school. I think that sounds about right. Yeah, so that's gosh. How long ago was that? That's 10 years ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that timeline is pretty accurate. I was just thinking about that on the way over here, and Quicksilver has been in Santa Cruz County for nine and a half years. Okay so we started in 20, uh, the fall of 2015.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, that that's. Uh, you know that's just a lucky guess only cause they have kids and know their birthdays and all that kind of stuff. But I remember the. If I remember right, there's a different warmup that you brought to swimming at the time, if I remember right.
Speaker 2:It could be. It just could be different than what people are used to. Yeah, so my philosophy is always technique focused, do Um? So my philosophy is always technique focused. It's like, okay, we can train as hard as we want, if our technique is trash, then it we're just getting exercise. So let's put the two together. We're going to focus on improving our technique and then we're going to add the intensity on top of that. So that's, that's really been my philosophy. It's always how can we improve the technical side, and then the training can always come. But I'm very big on technique.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's interesting. I mean, I thought I want to dive in so fast to something as technical as that, as it pertains to swimming. But you know, as everybody knows, I've been doing jujitsu now for seven years, but that has been my primary focus is how do you position, what's the technique? You know, don't go fast, go slow, do the thing, Don't try to. You know, add to it in some way and just take your time. You know, and I didn't realize that, you know, of course I got a kid who's going. We're swimming less meters. That's all they were excited about.
Speaker 2:You know, there's no more 5,000 meter days, you know, that's true, I took a lot of crap for, hey, we're doing less yardage. I'm like, okay, we'll do more yardage when you can do it, well, yeah, and then we'll add that in. So that was my philosophy and I never really broke from it, although I'm aware of the yardage we're doing and at that time I was coming off teaching 10 year olds, so that for me there was a learning and a transition period to going from younger kids working with older kids. So that might've played into it too. I could have been too easy on the kids, but I think it worked out.
Speaker 1:I don't think you were. I mean it's you know, for those of you who, who um are listening aren't familiar with a high level of athletics in any way, bad repetitions are bad repetitions, you're just learning it wrong way. Bad repetitions are bad repetitions, you're just learning it wrong. So you have to undo that. Also, if you're doing the thing longer wrong, and so I think it's an adaptable quality to life. You know that you learn when you learn and learning the methods. You know it's funny, because we haven't had this conversation before, even though we're friends that there's a similarity in process. You know of better to learn it right slower than to learn it wrong faster.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I a hundred percent agree with that. What take me through jujitsu if you rush it or you try to skip ahead, or you try to go too fast?
Speaker 1:skip ahead or you try to go too fast. Well, so there's this prospect that lives in jujitsu and that is that, you know, technique always wins over power, like period, you know, and you'll see videos of really tiny guys just beating the crap out of big guys, you know, and they'll take a couple of punches coming in, but all of a sudden they're crawling up their back and got them choked out. So in jujitsu it has a self-regulating thing. You know that the higher the belt, the higher the person, the more you try to come at them with what you think is strength, the more you're going to lose Because you're just feeding into whatever the technique provides. And the technique comes from proper positioning. And I've been there for seven years now. I'm a pretty good athlete. It's taken me seven years to get to the right positions, to get to the technique.
Speaker 1:And you know, granted, I'm old, you know, at 55, that's a whole different prospect than being 35, or someone who's 18, who shows up, who's a wrestler. You know, wrestlers know more about position than you know another practitioner of another martial art. Um, you know, I came in at a deficit myself because I was taekwondo guy, kickboxing guy. So you know, stand-up world's a whole different deal than when it gets to the ground. And once it gets to the ground it positions everything. But in that arena of jiu-jitsu as it's really coming live, everybody knows somebody who does jiu-jitsu. Now it was a very small sport. It was a very small sport. The practicality of jiu-jitsu once a fight, or just if you're in a tournament. Once it gets to the ground, once you're trying to implement the things you think you know, if you don't have technique, if you don't have the positioning right, you're going to get beat. It doesn't matter, especially in your own weight class, because proper position is always going to outweigh. You're going to have more options, you know. So I can be getting beat up. That's how I learned. Is I just allowed myself to get beat up for about five years by every size and scale of human. Just come at me, just come, do it. I'm going to learn what it's like to lose and work from there. So it's a little bit backwards, I'm a little bit dyslexic, so that's how it works Like. Let's get to the bottom the various ways the bottom looks like and let's work our way from the bottom. So I discovered what my bottom was and it was horrible.
Speaker 1:A lot of injuries, a lot of things, no-transcript work with a group of people in a team atmosphere. You know, swimming doesn't appear to be like a real team sport. It's very individual in a lot of ways, but there is a thing you know, called technique that has to adapt in some way to every body. You know that is where the individuality of sports like jiu-jitsu, like swimming, like tennis, where it's just one-on-one technique, becomes everything. So in your case we're talking about swimming and again, you know my, my alert as a parent. It went from hard grind numbers to let's do it right and that that that wasn't what I got from the kids, cause they were like less yards.
Speaker 2:This guy's easy, um and I. I don't think they'd have that same attitude today, but, um, I a hundred percent agree with let's do it right, Um, and let's start them right at a young age. So if I kind of break down what we do in the process, we have in place we opened up a lesson program so we could get them at a younger age and teach them as quickly as possible the technique that we want to see on our team. And then we move them up to a. It's not a, it's a non-competitive team, but it's kind of a bridge group. That is, it's in between lessons and the competitive swim team.
Speaker 2:We call that stroke development and that's where we start. We add in a little bit of a training aspect. So we're teaching them in lessons what the technique we want to see, obviously some basic survival skills too, and then you don't want them to drown in the pool. No, no, that you're hosting. It'd be a bad, bad luck and we are all for for public safety and for safety for kids, um, so then we put them on this bridge program, which is a hybrid between lessons and the swim team, and it's way more affordable. It's a better value for your dollar. So getting your kid to that program as quickly as possible is not only good for them but it's good for your pocketbook too. And we're aware that you know lessons are expensive.
Speaker 2:So then they get through that group, they learn freestyle, they learn backstroke, they're introduced to some of the other strokes, like breaststroke and butterfly, and then from there they progress on to the competitive team and we have stages. Stage by stage Each one gets a little bit better. So from that bridge group then we go to the competitive team and and again we've got bronze silver, gold, pre-national, national, and each one of those is the next step up, and each one of those levels you learn more sophisticated technique. And then it's up to them. It's like what do I, what do I want to do with this? What are my goals? Uh, how far do I want to take it? And if they want to, if they're like, hey, I want to go to the Olympics, it's our job to try to get them to that goal or as close as possible to that goal.
Speaker 1:Interesting, interesting. Well, I, you know I will, as we get deeper into this podcast, we'll, we'll, you know we'll, we'll, we'll feign in to, to um more of what drives you, your motivations, all that kind of thing, but what actually drew you to Santa Cruz? Cause I know you're not from here, but you've lived here for a while now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been almost 15 years. Um, I got to kind of backtrack a little bit on on what brought me to Santa Cruz. First off, I went to elementary school in Southern California. Then parents separated, moved me to Florida and I started surfing in Florida. So house was two blocks from the beach. Started surfing out there but always knew I wanted to come back to California. So applied to San Diego State. Didn't get in, had to go to Florida State for a year and then eventually made my way out to San Diego State, graduated from San Diego State with a degree in business and marketing and then lived in Carlsbad for 10 years after graduation.
Speaker 2:And I never wanted to leave Carlsbad, yeah who would yeah, it's not a bad.
Speaker 1:everybody I know that goes to San Diego doesn't come back.
Speaker 2:And and we, we were happy down there. But, um, there's just, I made some decisions. I was working in corporate insurance and decided to quit a corporate job, which was very good, and then start my own business. And I'm like 28 at the time and it just was not a good business decision. So eventually like, okay, I need, I have three kids, a wife, I need some extra money. And my brother who started a team or he's coaching a team in San Jose, he was like hey, do you want to come coach with me? And I start thinking about it, like I don't want to leave, but I might have to. I need, I need some, need some extra money. And when I talked to my wife, like, okay, we're going to try this, I'm going to fly up and coach and see if it works, see if I like it, and we're not going to move up there right away. So I was flying up for months on just booking Southwest flights, living in San Diego and coaching in San Jose.
Speaker 2:And then I'd come surf Santa Cruz once in a while and eventually got to a point where it's like, okay, let's move up now, when you're living in carl's bed. You spent some time on the beach in florida. San jose is one of the.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna trash san jose, right now just say I didn't want to live there. We all do from here.
Speaker 2:So then it's like okay, santa cru, southern California and Florida background, going like I never dreamed of moving to Santa Cruz with the cold water. I always thought it was a cool place. You see the videos growing up like, oh, santa Cruz seems like a cool place, but it doesn't mean I wanted to live there.
Speaker 1:Um, so that journey kind of prompt me to Okay, so classic moment right there for all you listeners. The one time I don't check with Brian and Kevin about about the facility, we had someone show up for event Santa Cruz, which is awesome. You were here for this, lucas. You've had an event here at point side beach shack and pretty cool.
Speaker 2:I would recommend it to anyone. Um, one appreciate Brian and Kevin. Those guys are good guys. That just down to earth. Um, but yeah, we've had two swim team events here at the point side beach shack and we had a live band at one. I to this day I still get people asking if we're going to host another event here. That's great, because they had so much fun and perfect event spot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, it wasn't my intent to have a big advertisement segment here, but just so you know, pointside Beach Shack, you know, if you're trying to host an event of I think it's about probably about 75 people or less, you know, in this space it's, it's just absolutely beautiful and nice spot and I think we sold it Anyway. So, lucas, I think we were talking about you moving to Santa Cruz.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was at in the journey debating to go to San Jose or move to Santa Cruz.
Speaker 1:Yes, thank you for remembering I was just listening and, of course, as a as a uh uh interviewer, I'm I'm leading to the next question some way, so here we go. You were there, yeah for sure.
Speaker 2:And uh, I, I, I did not have the kindest things to say about San Jose, but it was just more expensive rent. I wanted to live by the coast and so we started looking around in Santa Cruz. Obviously, being a surfer Santa Cruz, that continued to draw me towards Santa Cruz too. However, I knew nothing about Santa Cruz when we moved up here. I'm just starting to look around the city. I'm thinking I want to be in Santa Cruz. I'm pretty sure I started looking in some of the worst areas of Santa Cruz. Not that they were bad, they're just like. Might've been a higher crime rate in the areas I started looking.
Speaker 1:I was like it's Santa Cruz, I don't know what. The rent was cheaper.
Speaker 2:The rent was cheaper and it said Santa Cruz, and then it was like little cities like aptos. What is this? What does this? What city is this? What does this mean? Um, and we actually ended up getting a little tree house, uh, in aptos, in rio del mar, and that's, that was our first house. Um, and then I eventually ended up moving a little bit further south in the county. What's a tree house? We're literally so we're. We were by when we our first rental home here, um, we were down by rio del mar, in a small redwood grove and we're just surrounded by redwoods and we're walking distance to the beach. It was, I don't know, probably a mile to three quarters of a mile from the beach, but this house is surrounded by redwoods. It it was pretty cool, cause there are a couple of tree houses here too.
Speaker 1:It was not a true tree house, it wasn't one with the one in the middle and them accommodating on the roof and all that kind of stuff. I think there's a couple up in Aptos. There's certainly a bunch up in, you know, Bonnie Dune and all those areas.
Speaker 1:No, this is down down by the Creek area in rio del mar, gotcha great. So you move here, you know, and not san jose. Why don't I get from your words what you see about san jose? That's vastly different than than not just rent right there. There's a, there's a temperature to the valley that's very different than Santa Cruz. And we're talking what 15 years ago? Yeah, this is about 2000,. 2010.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, I mean, I don't know how deep, I don't know if I can go too deep, cause I don't know if I truly knew San Jose that well at the time, even though I was working over the hill so I was living in Santa Cruz and I drive over the hill to go coach in San Jose and I think it was more of just beach versus an area that doesn't have a beach. And whenever you're living near the beach, there's a certain culture that goes with it, and most of the time it's a water-based culture that goes with it. Um, and most of the time it's a water based culture that somehow influences that beach area and I think that's just like hey, that's what I grew up with, that's what I want to be around, versus in San Jose, it you're not going to have that beach culture, that water culture. Um, it's going to be more about I to tell you the truth, truth, I don't know.
Speaker 2:There's so many different little pockets and I don't know if I could have personally related to any of those pockets on a longterm basis. There's I'm, I know, a ton of great people from San Jose and working teaching kids in San Jose. Um, I also swam with some masters, swimmers, that were phenomenal people. So this, this has nothing to do with people. There's numerous, there's phenomenal people over there. Um, this is more just about a living culture that I personally would be like okay, where, when are we surfing? Where's the uh? When are we surfing? When are we doing our athletic endeavor? Whether we're swimming, what are we doing in the afternoon? My personal values align more with Santa Cruz than they would with San Jose.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and for our listeners too, san Jose has probably changed the most dramatically the last 15 years and you know, if I'm remembering right, san jose was really the last place to develop according to what the valley was doing. You know, palo alto was kind of the first catch. You know, santa clara, all those regions in there were the spot where most of the companies that the people who are listening would know arrived there. But you know, san Jose has always struggled with this blue-collar reality that, for the most part, a lot of industry was packed in San Jose, a lot of shipping, a lot of, you know, yeah, a lot of everything was just there. And South San Jose especially, you know, has an element that's very different than the rest of the valley.
Speaker 1:Know, san Jose, south San Jose, and and the growing pains it's gone through, cause I remember, I don't know it was like 2015 when it tipped, you know, and all of a sudden, you know places that, uh, you would never think to move to, all of a sudden, you know, went from being worth 250,000 bucks to a million bucks, you know, for a condo and that, that, that pain, you know, being from somewhere you know, and and you were just excited that your condo that you bought for 75,000 grew to a value of 250,000. Now, all of a sudden, in five years, it was worth a million bucks. You know the rest of the country is beginning to experience this kind of pain where real estate values, you know, really really harmed the people that live there. You know, I mean it sounds great on paper but you sell something where you're going to move to. You know the reality of that thing and you know you sell a piece of property in the Valley just like you sell it here. Chances of you getting back in unless you're going to double down, you know, wherever you're at, are between zero and nil. You know, like the people from the Bay area who are working class, when they sell their place they leave here and in the people that are attracted to living here, the reason why they came here was because of those people. You know it's this weird conflict that you know I'm certainly watching, cause you know the old families that are still around.
Speaker 1:You know as it's transitioned, you know they might be from great means now kind of stuff has also grown at the same time, cause all the people who want to live the country bunk in life and move out of San Jose. The prices are the same down there, so it's not as though you can just go. Okay, I'm going to move here and have things better for you. You know it might be a little less dense, but you have the same traffic problem. You have all the stuff that that inhabits. You know what we're calling the greater barrier now. You know which. You know santa cruz has always kind of had traffic. But, um, let's, let's go back a little bit to moving from florida to san diego, carlsbad. When you moved to Carlsbad was there a pretty high local surfing contingent still. Was that changing?
Speaker 2:No, that's a good question. Being a little bit of a nomad, it was a little difficult for me to assimilate quickly, because normally you've got your local crew right. My local crew that I grew up with is in Florida, yeah and um. So going to Carlsbad, I didn't have that local crew, even though I lived there for a decade. But I wasn't Encinitas lifeguard for two years, so that kind of introduced me to a lot of people in the area.
Speaker 2:My junior and senior year of college 21 and 22, I guarded at Encinitas and so got to know some of the people that surfed around there, and so D street could always feel like I could go there surf whenever I wanted. I mean, I was a lifeguard there. So, and then going to Carlsbad, there's not too many localized spots. And then going to Carlsbad, there's not too many localized spots. Warm waters would be really the only one that would be what you would call localized, and I never felt like I was essentially like, hey, get out of here. But at the same time I'm also not the guy at the top of the pecking order that's taking any wave he wants.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're not small either, so it's not like, yeah, I'm like six, three and a half.
Speaker 2:Right now. I need to shed some pounds. I think I'm two, 35. So, um, no and yes. And I never want to go into a lineup where I'm feeling like too passive, cause that's just not who I am. I don't want to roll over and be like, yeah, you guys take everything and treat me like crap. Yeah, but at the same time I don't want to be rude and paddle to the top of the lineup and say, nah, hey, I'm taking over FU and this is mine now and start an altercation. So I kind of try to walk in between that and be respectful, but also not roll over.
Speaker 1:So you were an Encinitas Lifeguard. Were you working for state or for the city?
Speaker 2:City of Encinitas. So we go through. They do all the lifeguard. At the time they did all the lifeguard training for an entire San Diego County in like a boot camp, a two-week camp, and it was crazy there were Navy SEALs in this camp and um, really fun, fun times. And then you get to pick who you get ranked and then you get to pick where you're going to go after that and I think I ended up fourth or fifth in the rankings because I'm obviously a pretty good swimmer with your stud with a swimming background, although my my running I got tor torched by the Navy SEAL on the run. I beat him on the swim and then we had a mile run and he waited until the last 100 yards and then just blew by me like I was standing still.
Speaker 1:I've seen that one Tryouts I think Aiden did that Sat there and hedged on the swim and drafted the whole time and then, once it came to the run, I was like later.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he knew what he was doing and I was just there's nothing I could do about it, just drafted you the whole swim and then torched me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that camp was a good time and knowing I had a chance to pick San Diego, which would be a bigger organization, or Encinitas, which they had a captain at the time that was a good surfer and I respected him and essentially that's why I went to Encinitas, because a smaller group, more surfers that are going to know each other and you're just going to be connected better. So that's why I chose Encinitas it was fun, it was a good time. So that's why I chose Encinitas and it was fun, it was a good time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great. Um, why don't you tell us a little bit more about lifeguarding? And? And? Um, as you know, all three of my sons have been lifeguards. You know, my, my, my bookends. My youngest, you know, runs Capitola. He's the captain down there. You know my oldest works for the state and he's getting a little bit more involved with with operations on that side and section training and all that kind of thing. Um, you know, being a lifeguard is a very unique space. You know, I think everybody thinks baywatch just a bunch of pretty pretty people, you know, looking at each other and, and you know, rest doing these minor rescues. What was lifeguarding like for you at encinitas? Because I know, you know, like there's a train that passes by. You know, lifeguarding is a very unique space and we're paying these kids, you know, right now I think, 18, 20 bucks an hour, not just to rescue people but to also see things that your average citizen doesn't realize happens at the beach.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. That's a good question on kind of the value of guarding and shout out to Brennan for doing such a good job running Capitola. I think from a value standpoint of guarding, you can look at it two ways how does it help you individually and how's it help the public as a whole? I think the value of the public is you want to go to a place you feel comfortable and and trusted and know someone's there that's going to protect you and kind of watch you your back, when you don't know what you're doing.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go wander into a riptide and so let's say I'm come from two hours away and I don't, I know nothing about the beach and me or my child goes and wanders into a riptide and starts getting sucked out and our swimming skills are low. You want that person that's going to be able to see that um, essentially see it before it happens and then either prevent it immediately or get in there, get their hands dirty and then pull them out when they need to, and that's what lifeguards do. Essentially, you have to project what is going to happen before it happens and then the moment you see like okay, this is getting a little. You kind of watch and like this could go badly, but I'm going to watch and not ruin their fun right now. And then it was like, okay, it's go time, I got to go get them because they're hitting that point where we don't want to risk it too much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's it. You know, because I have a house that is full of these kind of conversations about the nature of what you just said, like I don't want to ruin their fun but, and you know, up against this idea that somehow lifeguards don't do things, they're just pretty people watching other pretty people. That conflict is amazing to listen to when you get to the core of the stories, down in the big markets. Caleb was at Torrey Pines. He's got a suicide down there once or twice a weekend where there's a body that washes up on the shore. They have immigration issues. You know you have.
Speaker 1:You have those those boats that come in that just land somewhere. Like there's a lot to what goes into that job that people would never imagine, that you have a 16 year old that's thrown into like the realities of what it means to be in california at this time. You know all the various peoples that that show up to the beach that just want to enjoy their time and as a lifeguard, you're there to regulate that in some strange way without interfering with it yeah it's.
Speaker 1:It's, you know I, I, it certainly opened my eyes. You know I'm more aware of lifeguards on the hawaii sense. You know where they're hyper-regulated. The first time I went to Surf Pipeline, the lifeguard got out of the tower I was 15. And he looks at me and goes I'm not coming to get you, I'm not risking my life for you. So you better know that, you know that you can handle this place. And he wasn't telling me no, he was just telling me I'm not doing it. You know it's, it was a big day and you know I, I'm not going to risk my life necessarily for you if you're being a fool yeah, those guys are next level.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah no, that that's crazy, crazy world, but. But you know, because the waves can be small in Southern California as they are in Florida. Right, you came from what is arguably the smallest wave-sized surfing community in the world. Spare a couple places in Africa or whatever else, right, but the rips are everything there. It's really, really, really dangerous in a lot of ways to go to a beach in.
Speaker 2:Florida, and the level of swimmer too. There's just a lot of people in this country that don't know how to swim. So you go, you see an inviting ocean. The waves might not be that big that day, but there still could be currents, and if you're not comfortable with it and you freak out, you just put yourself in a dangerous position and if no one's there to help you through that, you might not come back. I mean, here we've got bigger surf, but I think it was about a year ago. There's a family in Moss Landing, I don't know the details.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember the story.
Speaker 2:But I think two out of three drowned. I, no, sorry, two out of three drowned. I think only one made it back to the beach and it's just a parent trying to save their children, and they probably I'm this is reckless speculation, but they probably didn't realize the situation they were getting themselves into. Yeah, um, and that's what lifeguards come in and do, and they kind of offer guidance or they offer that support to help when, when people don't realize the severity of the situations they're putting themselves in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, and we just recently had a moment, you know, that Monday, you know, before Christmas, where arguably the biggest wave ever ridden was ridden by aloe and the one fatality was on the beach from a log, because of surges, you know, and unfortunately, the people that went to rescue that person because the log had smashed them, you know it did not go well because because he had been crushed, you know. And and so the ocean is an odd piece of of the earth. You has its various ways of coming at us and these lifeguards are supposed to know all those things and many of them are very young. Shout out to all lifeguards everywhere. I think there's 120,000 of them across the country, where I think there's 120,000 of them across the country. And thank you to all of you who are watching us do stupid things and keeping an eye on us as we're trying to frolic around the beach and pools and everywhere else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely Shout out to the lifeguards across the country and the world. One more thing on lifeguarding one it can be boring and I think that's what people see. It's mostly boring.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It, nothing's happening. You've got eight hours in uh in Southern California. You've got eight hours in one of the sheds here, around around here too, and you're just like you have to be on it. You can't miss something and that's the hardest part. It's like watching grass grow, but you, when that critical situation happens, you have to be on it.
Speaker 2:Um and but that to me from a personal standpoint. That taught me a lot of things that I used in my personal life. Um, there was a situation with my son when he was three years old. He was playing with um these connectors that had metal, steel, metal magnet balls and then they connected with other other pieces of equipment and he put one in his mouth and he was choking. And I look over at him and I could tell by the look of his face he's not breathing and I'm like, oh crap. So I start doing the Heimlich on him and nothing, it's not coming out. I'm like he's not breathing, he can't get any air, and he's still like he's still alive, he's still alert. But I've clock just starts taking in my head.
Speaker 2:And then triggered from a story that my old lifeguard captain told me and it wasn't by the book. He said they pulled this guy out of a lake, two guys grabbed one of his legs, put him upside down and all the water rushed out of him and they used gravity to get the water out of his lungs or body. And then they saved the guy's life, came back too. So I remembered that story and being told that story and I'm like, okay, I'm doing, even though my child's three, I'm doing back loads on him, I'm big enough I can, so I flip them over, put them on my forearm, start doing back blows, use gravity to get that metal ball out. It comes flying out. Wow, if I didn't have my lifeguarding experience, I don't know one if I have the calm under pressure to handle that and I don't have the experience to handle that situation.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So that's one. We've had situations surfing in Costa Rica where a guy got caught in a rip, had no chance of getting back. We helped him back to to the shore. So those little things just in life. You're then prepared to help other people because of that lifeguarding experience yeah, you know, again it's.
Speaker 1:It's a very missed perception. You know when, when, uh, I think it's my trip in 2000 when I went to the north shore and and stayed with a friend of mine, trevor's uncle doug, who lived a couple houses, houses back on Sunset Point, and you know Doug was. He was this guy that was staring at a barbecue that wasn't put together yet. You know he had had it for a month and he was just like, ah, it's too much. You know, just that classic kind of Hawaiian walking in flip-flops thing. And now you look at that human, you think oh, he's just kind of a low level guy who doesn't want to do much. But we had gotten in this conversation with a cigar and a margarita. You know I forget what he called the place, the shed, you know, in the back, where all the ding repair was done and all that. And I'm like you know he's telling his lifeguard stories. I'm like you know he's telling his lifeguard stories. I'm like you know you're making this sound thankless. And he's like Michael, I've been a lifeguard for 30 years. I've never gotten a thank you note ever, you know, and he was one of the premier pipeline guys, worked YMA a little bit he goes. You're their best friend when you're rescuing them. The minute you get to the beach you're their enemy. And I didn't believe it.
Speaker 1:No joke, the next year I had rescued somebody that had gone at the harbor, you know, at the north end of the Jacks we thought this was a photographer coming out to shoot Ended up, you know, got everybody on the Jacks like pointing out that this lady's getting swept out to sea. I picked her up about a half mile out because I had been out the lot longest. So all the boys were like yeah, you know, it's your turn, howie, you know you got to take this one. End up rescuing this lady, get her on my board, you know, swim her in, like we were out there. You know it took the 40 minutes or so to swim her in. It was a long swim. And I got her to the beach and got her on the beach and, sure enough, man, she took that leash off and was gone, gone.
Speaker 1:It was Christmas Day. I thought I was going to be on the front page of the Sentinel. I was like, nope, see, I'm like, oh, this is what that's like. See you later. You were underwater when I found you and you know it's, it's an oddly thankless job and and as much as it gets glamorized and all that, it just is not that glamorous a position because you're mostly of things and anyways, you know enough about lifeguarding. So what keeps you here in Santa Cruz?
Speaker 2:Keeps me here in Santa Cruz the beauty, the people, the drive to try to make Santa Cruz a little bit better in any way that I can, and hopefully the community respects that. But yeah, there's multiple things that keep me here in Santa Cruz. I think, if I focus on just the natural beauty, the surf you have some of the best surf in the continental united states here in santa cruz. So within a 30 mile radius you have amazing beach breaks, point breaks. So that's one one thing that I really appreciate, especially this time of year um, my favorite time of year by far because the surf's firing right now. So that keeps me here. And just the two o'clock. Buddy, I'm not gonna say where I'm going today, it's 1046.
Speaker 2:But the raw natural beauty. On my drive over here I got to see the entire North Bay coming over a hill. You've got redwoods near the coast. It's just one of the most beautiful places to live. And then from this beautiful place you can go on strike missions to Tahoe, to Yosemite. Um and I like getting outside, so to me this is geographically one of the most beautiful and best places to live um in California and in the world. Like I'm sure you can point out, many beautiful places across the world, but in the United States I love this area.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a very strange combo here. You said the community and I'm from here, so I don't know how to think about it. Another way. I am finding what's so unique about this place is that we're all generally drawn here for the same thing. You know, it is that natural beauty, but there's something about the people here that's really weird, but it's really good. You know how about we discuss a little bit about the contrast, of how weird it felt to move here?
Speaker 2:Oh, you put me on the spot.
Speaker 1:Well, no, no, I mean because it is weird. I mean, you know, if you're listening to Rush Limbaugh, back in the day, this was the bastion of liberal idiocracy and yet, you know, as I've expressed before, I have ultra conservative friends, I have ultra liberal friends and somehow we all get along in a room together. You know, all the division aside that we see in America, somehow this collects people in a way that I don't know another region does.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's a really good question and I'll answer it as honestly as as I can, without getting in too much trouble you don't have to, you don't have to go deep in the paint on any, any spectrum of politics or policy or anything like that, but just it's weird here, but it's weird in a cool way.
Speaker 2:It's hard to describe. I agree with you on that. I agree with you, and I'm not a political person so I'm going to stay out of that. But coming here from Carlsbad, it was definitely a transition and that is down. Down there you're going to get more people that'll come up to you and be like hey, how are you doing? Or you say hi, they say hi back. Um, santa cruz. I like the fact. I think it's a little bit more real um, yeah, because, because they're.
Speaker 1:I think people are way, quote-unquote nicer, yes, seemingly nicer, yes, seemingly except but it's more surface level. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So so you're going to get nicer people in other areas. But what I've really grown to love about Santa Cruz is when you get to know people. Here there's a lot of good people and you get them to know on a deep, get to know them on a deeper level instead of just saying like, hey, what's up, how are you and we're? We're pleasant, everyone's. In other places People might be a little bit more pleasant, but you're not truly friends. At that point it's like around here it's like okay, let's prove to me that you're either going to do good for the community or you're we're going to get along. It takes a little bit longer, but once you have those relationships built it was they didn't just happen instantaneously. It took a good five years before we kind of became entrenched in the community meeting. Yeah, so like when do you start getting waves?
Speaker 1:at sewer peak, like like the again, you know, I, I, you know, I'll be bringing in my oldest son, who has a psychological theory about this and hopefully get his PhD on it. But we'll see what he does. But this thing we call localism, right, which seems like selfishness that doesn't actually quantify or qualify really all that's going on. That's going on, but I think it leads into this thing like there's this, this wall of like you're not from here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is a mixed bag, you know. It's not just them ostracizing people that aren't from here. It's seems to me to be like this weird decision to decide to be from here and to be part of the thing that is Santa Cruz.
Speaker 2:That's a good distinction. Is the decision to decide you're going to be from? How do you phrase that?
Speaker 1:Well, look, I know how it was out in the water. I know how I grew up. Like you knew who wasn't from here. You just did. You know it was how people walked, what kind of wetsuits they wore, what surfboards they were Like. There's hard distinguishing things. But then you have the guys that buy the right wetsuit, buy the right surfboard, think they can blend. It's like you actually don't blend.
Speaker 2:You need to make a decision to live here before you actually fit in here. I love that statement, the decision to be from Santa Cruz. I think you're right on that and I think once I kind of flipped mentally and stopped walking like in my Southern California and my Northern California, once I was like no, I live in Santa Cruz, this is the town I care about, I live in Northern California or in Central California. But I think mentally once I flipped to that side then kind of the things fell into place where, hey, I'm not getting heckled at sewer peak anymore.
Speaker 1:That's a nice way to put it. Yeah, at sewers, I mean it's pretty strange out there, cause you'll have some little guy just lighten up the biggest dude, you know could kick the crap out of the dude, but like you you watch, you know, like a guy your size go Whoa, wait a minute. Like like what am I in the middle of? Like this little guy represents something bigger than they are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've had some altercations like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Um, and I'm smart enough to know like, do I really like, especially being a coach? Like do I want to start a physical altercation? Uh, I can give a specific example. On my birthday this was years ago I went out at stockton avenue first mistake, the last spot the last spot. I should have gone holding it down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but nobody was out and I was like you know what? I'm going up and flea paddles out and I'm surfing. How long ago was this? This was like 13 years ago, yeah, and roughly give or take a couple years. No offense to you Flea, yeah, no, we're all good.
Speaker 2:Surfed with him for 45 minutes, caught some waves, didn't say a word to me, but I didn't expect him to, yeah, and then see some guys on the cliff. I'm like okay. And then he paddles up to me and let's just say they weren't the most kind words. But my response to him was hey, I really respect what you've done at Mavericks. And the moment I showed respect to him he settled down and it was more like it wasn't as territorial than we had a conversation, yeah and um. And then he's like, hey, catch a couple more waves and then, like these guys are coming out, essentially like he politely looks like you gotta go.
Speaker 1:He told you about the rotation. They're just as like, it's same thing at the slot. You know, I lived on the West side for five years and like, look, I'm actually one of the boys. So what was weird is the low liars which, you know, generally surf early morning was the crew that I was hanging out with and I just kind of laid low, you know, cause I knew them from growing up here, but I was not part of that crew. I was part of the crew you're referring to.
Speaker 1:You know where, when you show up, you show up and it's just you guys and you're just taking over a spot. But it was so weird to be like, no, you got 30 to 40 minutes. That's your rotation. You better go, you know, because you don't know what next crew is coming and what the rules are, with that set of five or six guys that are deciding whatever they're deciding and there's a lot of attitudes and behavior that that I don't necessarily believe are amenable to a hopeful future. But you know just this thing that that you know that's. It's not that way on the east side here. It's not that way at moss or, you know, at the beaches or anything like that.
Speaker 2:It's very unique to the west side, but stockton is like where you cut your teeth yeah, well, well, protects the spot and I I also made the mistake of telling him I was from florida I should have at least said carlsbad instead.
Speaker 2:Um, so that didn't go well. But ultimately, I think why I told that story is a little guy that, like, physically, I am not afraid of, but I also understand the ramifications Like, hey, this is one of the most famous people in Santa Cruz. If I do anything, it will come back to me tenfold and it will not go well. Um, so I'm going to be respectful, I'm going to show my respect, but I'm also not going to just be like, hey, do whatever you want to me. Um, uh, I'm just like you can trample all over me. Um, so and that was the hardest part for me is finding that balance. Um, before, I was at least tolerated in the lineup.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean there's a weird push and pull that happens in this county that I don't care whether you mountain bike, whether you're showing up at the climbing gym on Seabright, I don't care where you are, we're one of the most hyper competitive counties, period. Whatever sport you're doing running, cycling you go down the list of stuff you could be going on a hike and there's a competitive crew of guys that are like sitting there timing themselves and I don't know what that is. I know I've been a part of it my whole life. I know I'm letting go of it and realizing that it's not normal, like not healthy for me in a good way, you know, but it is what it is and that's a lot of the edge that I think you feel here is like everybody's competing and nobody knows they are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like the town doesn't know itself and I can't tell you how many people moved here is like, oh, I'm so not like that. And then they're like walking way faster and you want to walk together. You're like, hey, can you slow down a little bit? Oh, no, no, you need to catch up. Yeah, hey, can you slow down a little bit?
Speaker 2:Oh no, no, you need to catch up. I thought we were going on a walk. I agree with that statement to a certain extent. However, if I flip over to athletics, I think we should be more competitive.
Speaker 1:I agree, and let's save that, because I think that there's a stream that this conversation is going to, and I'll reserve that for my last question, which is what drives you? I mean, what is the thing that you really get up in the morning? And, yes, of course, your family, your loved ones, your friends, all that thing is true, but there's an internal clock for you that makes you want to get up in the morning. And what is that real driver for you? Like, is it a spiritual thing? Is it a? Is it a physical thing? Like, like, you know, what is it that? What's the space where you are driven to make an impact, not just in this community, but as a person, not just in this community, but as a person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know if spiritual drives me to do what I want to do on a daily basis. I will say I feel like I've been put in certain circumstances on purpose, whether that from a spiritual standpoint, like I was guided into certain things. I think I ended up in Santa Cruz, um, by being guided, cause I never wanted to I never as a young, um, adolescent I was like I'm going to move to Santa Cruz and that's where I'm going to settle, um, so I ended up here. I'm very thankful I'm here, um, but I think I was kind of guided up here and hopefully I can do my part to help.
Speaker 2:As far as what drives me, when I was in insurance, I had a great job and I remember telling my wife I'm not happy and this is like the best job I could have. I was making good money. Wasn't the hardest job, surrounded by good people? And I wasn't the hardest job, um, surrounded by good people, and I wasn't happy and, um, I think I feel like I needed. I had something inside of me that I needed to serve other people, to be happy, and that's um. I think that's why I've found coaching so satisfying is because I feel like I can make, uh, hopefully, a positive impact for someone else. And, um, so that's essentially what drives me is, how can I get someone else to be their personal best? And then to do that, I try to mirror that behavior and make sure I'm also kind of performing at a relatively high level too. So that combination is of help others be their best and then also don't just say it, try to kind of walk the walk too.
Speaker 1:So in this space let's talk about competition a little bit, because I I it's something that's near and dear to me. You know I've been going through a pretty radical process the last couple years about that very behavior. A year ago is when I realized I was out at laniakea in in hawaii on this place I know waves were coming up and I realized that I never really really liked surfing big waves, I never got that dopamine thing, but yet I've dedicated myself to that process in some way the way that I have to impress other people in the nature of competition but not the spirit of competition I realized I was a competitive asshole. I just wanted to be better than the guy next to me and that's the only reason why I did it. So that's my own self-realization moment at 55, you know, realizing I'd never really been on vacation anywhere.
Speaker 1:And you know I parked all my surf equipment under the house and just didn't touch it the rest of the trip and played cards and watched ladies shop. It was the first time I had done that and just been somewhere just to be there, not to take from the resource, I guess would be the best way to put it. And I really got to experience the Ohana side, the real family hawaii, and saw people that I hadn't seen not that I hadn't been with family before, it just just was a different vantage point because of me but the necessity of competition you know I still do jujitsu and my listeners have heard more and more about like well, it's the first place I didn't have to be competitive while I'm competing yeah you know, and that that's.
Speaker 1:It's a strange little juggernaut there to go like. You know, what is that? Well, actually, it's just to save space for all of us in some strange way, as we're trying to kill each other. You know cause we can tap. You know, like, okay, that's as far as you can go. You know I'm going to die after this. You know, I don't have to turn into someone. I'm not. Yeah is the point, I don't, I don't have to fight through everything. And so that was my realization, that I'm so used to fighting, you know, to win or whatever, or to look a particular way. But competition, as you know, not just in its nature but in its like, why to approach being competitive? Because you said something about five minutes ago like, hey, I think competition is important. What do you mean by that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like you're making the argument for the downside of competition.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm making the argument. I want to be clear that I grew up in a competitive atmosphere and I didn't know how to do anything but compete with people.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's different than self-improvement, which I think is what you're referring to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm essentially referring to doing everything possible to be your best, and competition is part of that. It's a little bit of a bigger picture Like competition is just a piece of that. And to get to be an athlete of a certain level and I've coached up to the Olympic trial level, so that's the highest I've had two athletes 2021 qualify for the Olympic trials and so that's the highest bar as a coach that I've ever had athletes reach. But to get them there, you have to kind of holistically look at everything they're doing. What. What's the nutrition side? What are they doing on land to get stronger? What's that dry land piece? What's their strength training program? What's their mobility, what's their flexibility? So you've got nutrition, strength, mobility, flexibility. Then what are we doing in the water? What are their strengths as an athlete? How are we supporting those? What are their weaknesses? How are we shoring those up?
Speaker 2:It's a very holistic view that as a coach you have to look at every little piece and then kind of problem solve and be like, okay, how are we going to elevate you to? We're going to increase, uh, get better at your weaknesses and then we're going to maximize their strengths and we're going to put you in the best position to succeed during your competitions. So it's not just about like, hey, I want to beat someone. It's that day to day process of how am I going to get better today, in this moment, so I can hit my end goal at the at the end of the season. And it's really that day to day grind that if you do well, you reach your goals at the end of the process. And I think that's what I like about coaching and quote unquote. Competition is we're competing today to be our best, so down the line we're going to beat everybody, or at least at worst case scenario and it's a very good scenario is hit our best.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah, that's dynamic actually and you know I've never coached at your level. I don't want to pretend like we're talking about the same level of input that's required by you to invest in a child to get to their best potential. You know I was part of this interesting transition in little league, just due to time. You know it's a generational thing. You know where league sports turned into club sports, turned into this weird amalgam of really what you face now. Right, you know this is just how it is. You know the club guys generally have the best guys. The cliques that can happen in a town this size happen very fast.
Speaker 1:You're either a club guy or a rec person and I feel something's gotten lost in athletics which is that ability just to be with people and compete with them alongside of them, all those kinds of things that generate a good community. Because you know, some of my best friends out surfing are guys I played baseball with and that's honestly what we have in common. Still is that you know, when I run into some of these guys that you would fear at the Harbor, you know cause they are the guys. Or you know what did we talk about playing little league together? You know that those, those we look back not on the surf sessions but on. You know, being 11 years old and playing on the Giants, you know there's something that athletics and team sports does that other things don't do. And my point in bringing that up is like for me, I began to start formulating for the individual you know, children you know of hey, let's, let's talk about the goals you have for this year, let me talk to you about what the team needs this year and let's see where these things align. You know I'll help you with your goals If you help me with my goals. And, and you know again, it's little league.
Speaker 1:You know I I had a staff of five, um, uh, five other coaches, two of which were like 20 and 21,. You know they were there for the athletic side. And then I had the other three dads who were there for the, for the dad support Cause I was a tough coach. You know that. That's how it read to anybody else outside of it. You know, and I was known as this kind of asshole coach. But the people who knew me love me. The people who play for me love me, the people who play for me love me, the parents who were around that, even though what you observed on the field looked really, really tough from the outside, on the inside it was very gentle and very loving and in this space and the vernacular has changed, but I think the temperature hasn't that I, you know, I wanted my kids to experience excellence in the best way they could, even though it's league sports, you know, and my kids to experience excellence in the best way they could, even though it's league sports.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, and I don't know if you share that affinity. You know that I don't know what it's like to be an intellectual giant, you know. I haven't competed, you know, to get into MIT or something like that. So that's not my space, you know. But this idea that we can, you know, through friction, produce something better in each of us by competing with each other and I mean that and not against each other yeah, you know that this, this idea that competition, there's a really healthy thing to aspire to who's with me, not who's against me, because who's against against me will come. The enemies come, you know, does that kind of?
Speaker 2:I love everything you just said and you're right, there's enough people to compete against. Where you'll find a nemesis or an enemy, but when it comes to your teammates or locally, really should be like, hey, let's help each other get better. And I love what you said about your team, on how. What are your individual goals? What are the team goals? Are they in alignment? And when you do align individual and team goals, things are going to go well, and it sounds like you did also. Five coaches for Little League.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no, no, no, it was the thing. Yeah, you know people resented it, but it's like, hey, you're going to get a lot more people's input than mine, cause I'm look, I know who I am, I'm the scary guy. I'm the scary guy that they're trying to please, you know, and you's what I'm holding for them. You know, is that next spot they can go to? Because in baseball the metrics are really easy. It's like you know what 20% of kids go from Little League to Pony. You know the drop-off is so large in baseball that the probability of a kid who throws you know what's the equivalent of 90 in Little League of him actually making it even to college is almost zero. You know, like, and yet they could be the best player that the region's ever seen. So you know I had simple metrics to work off of, because baseball's so big yeah, you know it's so big and like, nobody cares. Dude, you know, unless you've got the connections, you're not making it. So I don't want to hear it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, from a coaching standpoint, it sounds like you really ran that team well. I also like what you said about you're the tough guy, but I think you represent Santa Cruz really well. Tough guy, but I think you represent Santa Cruz really well and kind of bring in this conversation a little bit full circle, is that's part of. Another reason I like Santa Cruz is you've got a lot of tough guys like yourself. Sometimes they can be assholes, but there's a level. The ones that you truly respect are the ones that also care too. So so you got these tough guys, but there's a lot of caring involved. Also, I could care about my friends, care about the community, et cetera, and I think that's what makes Santa Cruz a cool spot and I think, um, I think what you just described about yourself kind of embodies that and I respect it.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, thanks for that. You know, it reminds me of a story that this was literally the last year until this last year that I coached for the first time again, you know, I, I had just lit up a kid, just lit him up and the league had just employed that you weren't allowed to touch the kids at all. And you know, I went for a walk with the kid afterwards, had my arm around his shoulder and and was telling him I loved him and like there were just some behaviors that I've been working on with them and but to not read into the moment too much, you know, but that you know this is the. What his behavior was inciting, was this reaction. You know, like he, this is the reaction you're going to get in the world. You know, and I remember his mom sending me an email like you're not allowed to touch my kid, and she saw me light him up before that, like everybody knows, you know, when the dugout went loud, you know, and again, my, my parents love that about me and I'm like, look, you can turn me in, but let's get to brass tacks. You know, like, do you think I want to screw your kid? Because that's what you're telling me. You're thinking, you know when I'm trying to love him where he's at, you know I don't want to do that. I love him where he's at. You know I don't want to do that Like that is not the intent by me, you know, adding a modicum of physical affection towards the situation. That was hard, it was abrasive and your kid's very abrasive man properly, how will he ever know the difference? So you can turn me in and I'm going to lose my position. Great, go ahead, but understand.
Speaker 1:What you're trying to vacate in this world is some point of reference to what's right and what's wrong about life, and that was really one of the reasons why I stepped down. It's like they're imposing all of these rules on behavior and I get it, man, you know, like we should not just be making kids feel uncomfortable, but the realities are the realities, that life is uncomfortable. And you know, when we get ourselves in situations that are precarious, we need the people around us to help us get out of that precarious position. And there is love is demonstrated a bunch of different ways. We need the people around us to help us get out of that precarious position and love is demonstrated a bunch of different ways.
Speaker 1:And when you start removing the love aspect with the rules, you're removing the nature of being human and what humans need. And so you know it made it easy for me to just kind of step back and let it flesh out a little bit so I can come back now and and not have to have that because they're they're getting that affection more from their parents. But I think you're getting my point in there that that it was. It was hard to see it apex into this. Here's a set of rules. Don't do it any other way. If you do, you're out, yeah, cause it removes the heart of the whole nature of it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of rules with with you sports, but I think in this situation that you described, my mind goes to look at the reverse. Like what if you don't put your arm around that kid and he just thinks he did a bad job? No, you, you said it, you set expectations, you laid down the law, you made a, and then you come back in and you go like, hey, I still care about you. Yeah, and it sounds like that's what you were trying to do and that is good teaching, that's good coaching, because of some bad apples out there. In youth sports there are a ton of rules, and swimming it's insane, yeah no.
Speaker 2:The pool deck is precarious. Yeah, sometimes I swimming it's insane. Yeah, no, it's, the pool deck is precarious. Yeah, like I'm. Sometimes I'm afraid to give athletes hugs. I'm like, hey, I've been your coach for like nine years now you're in college. Am I allowed to give you a hug now? Yeah, yeah, um, it it gets a little. It gets a little weird from how many rules we have. They are there to um protect the athletes and I think, as coaches, we just need to find ways to show we care within the rules. But I think that's hugely important. Showing your athletes that you care about them is vital to performance. It's vital to just being human.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, okay, well, as we wrap this up, I do want to close a little bit on on what you actually are doing. You know what you know. Tell us a little bit about Quicksilver, and and uh, and your, your gym.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, I'm. I'm doing a lot. I'm looking to get stuff off my plate. Um so, quicksilver, santa Quicksilver, swimming in Santa Cruz County. We've got multiple sites. We've got one in Scotts Valley, simpkins, socal and Watsonville and one of my passion projects. It goes along with my education. I went back to school. I'm a doctoral candidate at the university of North Carolina, greensboro. It's all online, obviously, I do not live there. You're an online doctor, online doctor. So, um it, enhancing swimming and really fostering swimming in underrepresented communities, that's one thing that I'm actively trying to increase in our community. So that's a that's my passion project. And, having a father that's Brazilian and some Latino background, I want to foster swimming in local communities where I feel like I can help. So that goes along with, obviously, the competitive side, where we're trying to get kids faster. We just got back from Junior Nationals where we had a 15 16 relay set. A national record means they're the fastest relay to ever swim in american history for that age group.
Speaker 1:Wow, so that that group is coming up.
Speaker 2:They're flying yeah, so fun to be a part of that. They're in person when your relay sets that record. It's just like gets those competitive juices flowing. Um, so that's kind of my duality is help people that don't know how to swim, swim and then take them all the way up to be like elite. So that that's what I like to do on the swimming side.
Speaker 2:Um, on the rise collective side, that that fitness side. It is a club. I don't like to call it a gym, but created that with athletes and the community in mind. Um, and they have a pool. So I wanted that first one lesson program, but we've had exponential results by getting in the gym. I cannot sugarcoat that anymore. When we started lifting weights, our times got faster, so we're already seeing immediate results there. And then, from a community perspective, we want the community to come and have a meeting spot. We needed a home as a swim team and Rise Collective is our home now. But we also want the community to have a home where they can feel comfortable. You go work out, but you can also hang out, so come over to Rise Collective. We've got some events coming up. I know Vita Collective is doing an event at Rise on the 25th. So if you've women, if you have not been to one of those events, I strongly recommend it. I should say young ladies, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Future women. No's, I mean it's event, I would say. The average average age is, uh, probably 35 to 40, okay, so yeah, so, um, I think that's a great event for women. And then, um, yeah, just tying it, trying to tie all that together between my studies, the team, and rise collective and improve the community, but ultimately we're trying to increase overall community health and then increase swimming in populations that normally wouldn't have the opportunity. That's fantastic.
Speaker 1:Lucas, as we close out, I just want to um. No, I'm emotional. I want to know why I'm emotional. Thanks for coming here. Yeah, thanks for being who you are. You know it's been a joy to get to know you the last two years and you know the way that you've embraced the community that didn't necessarily embrace you first. I'm glad you stuck it out. Anyways, appreciate you all. Have a good rest of your day. Thank you, yeah, appreciate it.