Ep5- BEN CHALLENGER

WARNING! PARENTAL ADVISORY (EPISODE IS TV-MA) Ben Challenger is a Veteran attack player on Portland Ology, and one of the most traveled players of his generation!  He is no stranger to moving from place to place for around a decade to chase paintball, and what makes his story unique is that he moved internationally to come to the US just for better opportunity in the sport!  We discuss his journey to citizenship, growing up all around another country,  and his pro career. Then we get into his favorite stories from the Asia hopping experience of a lifetime (including some explicit stories)! Ben gives great insight on being open to foreign cultures, as well as taking leaps of faith and putting yourself out there in distant lands! I've loved adventuring with him and following his life story. So please put your seat all the way forward (even though the 3 inches isn't noticeable) and get ready for this awesome trip! 

Transcript

BEN CHALLENGER (00:00.118)
I'd start with that.

BEN CHALLENGER (00:04.867)
Is it rolling?

joe (00:07.047)
I don't know. Yes. Yes it is. Yeah. Welcome to the Paintball Passport podcast. Realizing now that that's a mouthful. So maybe I won't say podcast after that. But yeah, welcome to the show. Happy to be on. I've been looking forward to getting some of your stories just because I know a lot of them and we've had a bunch together and you are a good traveler. So I know this is going to be great.

BEN CHALLENGER (00:10.108)
Okay.

joe (00:37.695)
Bear with me because we are learning as we go here. So I've only done one episode beyond this And things are upgrading as I go, you know, I picture only five or six episodes from now It's gonna look like a different show. But for now, you know, I don't really have a good camera yet. So we're a little grainy I Have a poorly put together Jersey hanging on a small wall background It's okay

BEN CHALLENGER (00:41.622)
Yeah, absolutely.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:01.922)
It looks good, it looks good, dude. Come on, it looks good.

joe (01:05.948)
Have you made?

BEN CHALLENGER (01:06.134)
You're repping the set. You got the pro DNA, you got the infamous, it's dope.

joe (01:10.171)
Benny, a few days ago with Tim, I was just doing it in front of this like that spare bedroom. I have it's just a blank white wall. So it's just me like a glowing white wall. It probably looks awful. I hope people don't judge the show on that first YouTube episode. But uh.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:28.07)
Wow, it's okay. I think people are mostly listening to it. I would really think that they're trying to just look at our faces for an hour or two.

joe (01:35.035)
Yeah, yeah, that's what I hope for. I really only listen to podcasts on Spotify. I listen to PTG every time in the car. So hopefully this is just an in your car podcast.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:41.151)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:45.046)
Yeah, dude. Great podcast.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:52.263)
Yeah, right. Not a lot of interesting visuals going on here, but yeah, dude, we gotta get you like a dope mic and stuff too. I see all those podcasters, they got the like big thing. Oh, okay.

joe (01:55.613)
No.

joe (02:00.423)
Alright.

joe (02:04.023)
I have a sweet mic. If I even scoot this table, it will sound to you like an earthquake is happening. Because I have this like awesome, I don't even know what it's called, but it's huge. It looks like something that like a DJ would have in a recording studio. So it's pretty sweet. But yeah, you can bring the cats up if you want. Cats are gonna be a part of the show.

BEN CHALLENGER (02:10.302)
Oh really?

BEN CHALLENGER (02:19.936)
Oh, hell yeah.

I'm just petting my cats over here, sorry. Oh yeah. This one. This is Nemesis. Yeah, he's very cute.

joe (02:32.679)
God, I love that cat. Yeah, beautiful. Like a tiger or something. But yeah, so, you know, I've told you for a little bit I was gonna do this show and it's gonna be pretty much, you know, international stories, but as I go, I keep like wanting to add little things just from like going to sleep at night. I'm like, that would be cool, little like part to have in the show.

BEN CHALLENGER (02:39.618)
Yeah, but he's just hanging.

joe (03:01.519)
or like a nice addition. And, you know, something I realized afterwards was paintball takes us a lot of places. Like I remember I was on this like little YouTube short, you probably remember it. It was called Where Paintball Takes Us. And it was like the shockwave Canada, Jersey to Thailand. And that was kind of like a, it was a big inspiration for the show. Like there's all these cool stories and people don't really get those ones. But like the other thing I realized is

BEN CHALLENGER (03:20.112)
Oh yeah, yeah.

joe (03:31.203)
Paintball takes us interesting places in our lives. Like, you know, we have a lot of these podcasts that get your background as far as like who you were as a player. You know, play the games great at that. And then like Carl, you know, the playing on podcasts, he does a good job at that. And then we have like, you know, Go Sports I'd say is more like sports center. But I feel like what we don't have is like a long...

BEN CHALLENGER (03:36.046)
Absolutely.

joe (04:02.435)
I guess a long form podcast to capture like they just those guys wouldn't have enough time to get like all of this stuff plus the paintball. So like

BEN CHALLENGER (04:09.066)
Yeah, I think what you're doing is cool because they're very much occupied about the game, all the strategy and stuff like that that's going on. But really what I feel like Paintball Passport is going to do is show people the lifestyle of pro paintball players or of a paintball player in general, right? Because shit, you fake it until you make it, really.

joe (04:26.349)
Exactly.

joe (04:33.623)
You said it perfectly. And I think what I realized is like on top of just like the international traveling, um, the first part of the lifestyle is like a lot of people, I guess, wouldn't quite realize how much we've had to do or like literally move just to chase like a team that then maybe leads to a protein. And you've been a great example of that. So like, I wanted to start off by asking you like, you know, this isn't really passport where it's taking you in the world, but like, where are you living right now?

BEN CHALLENGER (04:50.331)
Absolutely.

BEN CHALLENGER (05:04.35)
So right now I live in Portland, Oregon. And over the last several years, I've been living in a few different spots in the States. I recently just got my green card after moving up here, which is like a big win, big win for me at least. And yeah, I mean, paintball is a big reason that I'm even down here or even came to America in the first place.

joe (05:27.651)
Yeah, I was going to say before this you were in Dallas, Texas and why did you move to Dallas, Texas for anybody who isn't clear on this?

BEN CHALLENGER (05:35.758)
Yeah, so we're kind of going backwards like from like where I'm at right now to back then. So the reason I moved to Dallas was because of a contract I got with Diesel after coming second to them in the series where they won the Pro Spot. I was playing on DMG at the time. At the time that I was playing against them, I was living in Sacramento.

joe (05:39.802)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (05:59.35)
And so now we can go back to that step. And so I moved to Sacramento originally to play for their pro team DMG. Cause like Joe, like yourself obviously, and Josh Hallberg were playing for it, Thomas Kim, Tim Brusselback, Marvin Gerber, Shane Howe, Andrew Wyatt, like a bunch of good people in my life, good friends. And...

joe (06:16.935)
Shane Howe, yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (06:25.671)
So I was like, oh hell yeah, I wanna go play for that team. And that was an opportunity for me. But I kinda had to leave everything behind.

my life to do that. So then we go back another chapter, which is when I was in living in Toronto, so, or like the greater Toronto area. I say Toronto because it's like the major city and I feel like people know, but like I was in like a few different like kind of like sub-cities around it. Like one was Guelph, Ontario, that's where I went to university. And then there was also like O'Fill, which was like the suburbs where I like grew up as a kid.

BEN CHALLENGER (07:06.241)
Yeah, I started playing paintball in the GTA at a field called Cameron's Feedway. And then when things got more intense, then I started playing at a field called Flag Raiders and then a few other fields around that area. But Flag Raiders was definitely the most pronounced one.

joe (07:24.359)
Gotcha.

BEN CHALLENGER (07:24.606)
So yeah, anyways, I had my whole life there. I lived there for like 15 years, from the time I was seven to like 22. But at like somewhere in 22, I had already gone pro once with the outlaws, but I was commuting like 10 hours one way to like Fort Wayne. And Fort Wayne, Indiana is just like the middle of nowhere. It's like, it's...

Yeah, I don't really have a lot of great things to say about the place. The people were actually pretty nice. Like there was actually, like the people were pretty solid so I can't really hate on that at all. It showed me a lot of hospitality. They're very warm and great. Four-Way and Indiana does not have a lot going on.

joe (07:53.104)
Why I feel you

joe (08:01.529)
Yep.

joe (08:06.703)
No, no, most in, I have a aunt in Indiana and then one in Iowa, even more like desolate cornering. There's not a lot there, but it's a slower pace of life and people are very like friendly and that Midwest hospitality. Real quick, can you turn your camera like more to your, I think it'd be your right. Yep, there you, other way, the way you first went. Yep, little more.

BEN CHALLENGER (08:21.43)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (08:27.574)
This way or this way? This way? Cool. More light, is that better? My background's not great. Oh, okay, sorry. I can see my whole face at all times, so. Okay, cool. My bad.

joe (08:34.047)
No, you just kept, you kept cutting off like half your face. And I'm like, well, I don't want people to be like, Joe, why? Yeah, right there, you're centered. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they'd be like, why did you do your bro dirty like that and just let half his face be split for, yeah. You know what it is? You lean right in your chair because now you're back in that same spot. So.

BEN CHALLENGER (08:52.926)
it's his good side. yeah. no, okay, so...

BEN CHALLENGER (09:02.508)
Really?

joe (09:02.903)
Scoot your chair to the left. Like scoot your chair, your left, your left.

BEN CHALLENGER (09:05.322)
My left or your left? So I'm good here? Okay. So if this is like this, I'm fine.

joe (09:10.287)
There you go. There you go. Okay. It is it just yeah, you were perfect for me the way you moon you'd be like that. Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (09:17.166)
Okay, cool. I'll just stay over here. Sorry. Okay, so, yeah, anyways. So, I was trying to do, I was trying to create a pro team out of Ontario with my friends after I played for the Outlaws. And it didn't go as planned. And I realized the only way that I was gonna like, like make it again is like I had to move. There. And so

I just tail-married it, I just did it. I just came home and I was like, all right. I went to California first, right? I felt out Sacramento, I didn't just move to another country blindly. I went for like two weeks. I think I'm like 21, 22 zone, I think so.

joe (09:58.353)
How old are you at this time?

joe (10:04.147)
That's why I think when you got there, you were 21. I want to say, cause I remember us going and getting your first like, yeah, and we were hitting the bar because it was like, you could go now in the US.

BEN CHALLENGER (10:08.126)
Yeah, I still had like blonde hair and shit, so like, yeah. Yeah, I could drink in America, that's right. Yeah, but I remember coming home after a trip to Sacramento and like feeling it out and being like, okay, this is what I wanna do. And I remember...

Like I kind of had this like defining moment where like I stayed up all night, like I couldn't sleep. I remember like showing up to the field after like not being able to sleep and like trying all sorts of stuff. And, and I just like, the first person I talked to they were just like, well, I think you already like know what you have to do. Right? Cause I was explaining to them like why I wasn't sleeping, what was like stressing me out. And they were like, well dude, like, yeah, like you know, like the only way you're going to do this is you like kind of got to pull the trigger and like try.

So I was like, fuck. So coming back from that trip, I was like, all right, got home, switched all my schooling online, went to my guidance counselor and was like, I got to, I'm not doing this in person anymore. All my courses have to be online. Got stuff going on. They're like, duh, okay. And it just like made it happen. And then I remember selling my car and buying a minivan so that I could bring my stuff with me. God, the minivan was so sweet. And then

joe (11:21.684)
Yep, it was dope.

BEN CHALLENGER (11:25.89)
Then school's online, canceled gym membership. Oh, I had to like opt out of my lease. I had to find somebody to like take that over. But yeah, I did it within like two, three weeks. And then I remember I had to drive like across.

joe (11:34.064)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (11:43.102)
I guess the country. And I was like, holy shit. And you had already done it a few times in a few different ways. And I remember you were like coming back for some reason. And I remember I was like, well dude, I'll pay for your trip to Buffalo if you meet me in Buffalo and we go across. And you agreed, so yeah. It was money well spent because you drove the majority of that trip. That's for sure, dude. No doubt.

joe (12:09.498)
The lion's share.

BEN CHALLENGER (12:11.506)
Yeah, but okay, one thing, Joe is truly a professional multitasker, but when you have your entire life in the car and he's driving with his knee on his phone for hours at a time, it's a stressful environment.

joe (12:26.707)
Yeah, that's true. I guess for people who wouldn't know I've done that drive that was my sixth time with you across from east to west and there's that middle stretch between I want to say it's like Chicago and The next big areas like Reno or something like that where it's just flat it's just completely flat Nothing really, you know cornfields if anything or it's all level and it's just flat you can see everything so I get a little bored and

BEN CHALLENGER (12:44.766)
Yeah.

joe (12:56.655)
hop on Netflix or whatever on my phone because I can drive with my knee. And this is not safe, but yeah, I mean, you remember, we can only talk for a while.

BEN CHALLENGER (13:02.637)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (13:07.286)
Dude, yeah, there's nothing going on. Like, even if you drove off the road, it was so flat that it's just like, well, we're okay.

joe (13:14.291)
You're back on the road, yeah. So, but yeah, you know, the road trip itself was sweet, but what is more interesting to me, cause I mean, I've done it. So I know what like, I understand the thinking by it, but I've had a lot of my friends ask like, well, yeah, I'm thinking about like moving to California or like I try to get my brother, a couple of my hometown friends like come out here, come live in Oregon. It's beautiful. There's not six feet of snow all winter.

And they're just like, I don't know, like, how do you do it? Like it's, how do you just like uproot your life like that? You know, there's a part of it that seems scary. And do you feel like that nervousness that they feel? You felt that in that anxiety, like it didn't help you sleep.

BEN CHALLENGER (13:52.448)
Oh, for sure.

BEN CHALLENGER (13:59.63)
Oh yeah, like and I think that that's like totally reasonable right because you're like well I'm gonna like uproot my wife and like you know then you got that thing in the back of your head It's like well, what if it doesn't work out right like and it's like right, but it's like I don't know in a similar sense It's like if you burn the ships like you have to figure it out You know like you don't really have a choice. You're just like but

joe (14:03.406)
Yeah.

joe (14:09.159)
What if?

joe (14:16.515)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (14:22.954)
I get why it can be scary and I think a lot of people choose like a familiar misery over like an unfamiliar like happiness. You know? So I think that that's like a big reason that people are just like stuck.

joe (14:37.395)
True. Yeah, a lot of people really don't grow much in their life because growth is new and unfamiliar and they can stay in the comfort zone and they already know it's cushy, they've mastered it, whatever. And sure, they'll always be fine and comfortable there, but they'll never really know like the what if, like what their life would be as a Texan or a Californian or whatever. And I always, you know, I admire any of those that are willing to jump.

And after you do, you also find that it's really not that scary. Like after your first time, like normally if you try and you're a positive person and, you know, like just kind and social and you're willing to like work and try for it, people and the universe, in my opinion, kind of like meet you halfway and they help you find the way, you know?

BEN CHALLENGER (15:11.474)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (15:28.581)
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. It meets you halfway, for sure.

joe (15:34.639)
Yeah, like you, in the time, even let's say when you're close and you're selling your car to get the van to come out, do you have a job lined up before you now move across the country for PayPal? It's laughable, right? Like it's all insanity. Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (15:49.6)
No. I didn't.

BEN CHALLENGER (15:55.73)
It is, it's so fucking crazy to say that out loud. But I mean, like at the same time, like when I was, I remember when I was 18, I had, I like tried to do like the whole like semi pro to pro thing with LA collision.

And I moved to California for four months between my semesters of college. And I couldn't drive at the time. I was like 18, but I didn't have my license yet. And I couch-surfed and just bummed it around the entire four months. It was wild. I also learned that you cannot take an Uber onto Camp Pendleton. That was a... I remember getting stopped at the gates and I'm like, I swear, I'm just trying to play paintball. And they're like, why the fuck are you coming here

joe (16:21.049)
Yeah.

joe (16:27.323)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (16:40.732)
and I was like, I can't drive. Right, and I remember having to get them to call down to get like Brandon Cornell, who was just grinding all the time at Camp E. This is when he was still on like the Ironman to come up and like escort me down into the base. And then like eventually I got like to know some of the sergeants there and got like a letter and shit. So I didn't get any more trouble. They helped me get in and out, so it was cool.

joe (16:50.084)
Yep.

joe (17:03.356)
Yeah.

That's sweet. A fun lesson for anybody who doesn't know that. I've been on some...

BEN CHALLENGER (17:09.738)
Yeah, you can't, don't take an Uber onto a military base. It doesn't look good.

joe (17:13.259)
Yeah, they do not like that. There's a lot of lessons we've learned at that gate.

BEN CHALLENGER (17:15.999)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (17:19.53)
For sure. But that's what I mean. Like, I think early on I realized like if I was gonna go after the things I wanted, I needed to kind of take these leaps, even when they did seem scary. And like, you know, it's kind of like part of the adventure too, right? Because I figured out like lots of odd jobs when I got out to like California and stuff. And you know, it's fine. Yeah.

joe (17:32.188)
For sure.

joe (17:40.727)
Yeah, true. Yeah, I mean, I remember that Florida time. I knew you already then from CXBL. And that time, it's like four months of like, kind of almost like a travel abroad program. You know, like when people go to like learn a certain language in high school for a few months during a semester, they kind of still know they're coming back. And so it's not quite

the same. It's an adventure, but like when you now go, okay, I'm a Canadian and I am about to come down to Buffalo and drive to California and that's it. I am now going to try to become a Californian or at least a United States citizen. Like the safety net is no longer there. There's not like, yeah, if you fail, you could just like be like, you know, Hey parents, can I, uh, can I please get you to buy a flight home? I just need to like bail on this. You could, but like

BEN CHALLENGER (18:12.179)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (18:19.671)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (18:29.879)
Yeah.

joe (18:32.551)
the burn the ships mindset is the right one because you're like, I won't do that. I will, this is gonna be my life. And you did it for, you did it for PayPal. You did it with no job. Did you at least have a place lined up for when you got there?

BEN CHALLENGER (18:36.403)
Dude, it's intense. Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (18:43.914)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (18:47.97)
So, luckily I had a lot of friends in California, right? And so, although it wasn't like, I initially had just planned to kind of figure it out bit by bit, and being kind of naive at the time, I was like, well, I'll just get down there and then I'll just figure something out and rent something. Like that was what I was thinking when I was 18. And then I realized like...

not being an American, like I was having a really hard time like renting anything. So like quickly I was like, kind of like, I just couch surfed at friends' places and like I was really blessed that they would like let me stay for sometimes like a week to two weeks at a time. I had some friends who even let me stay for like multiple months, right? So there was like, there's probably like a month to two months of like,

joe (19:16.533)
Yeah.

joe (19:33.233)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (19:40.214)
like a week or two at different places, right? Or like even sometimes like nights. And then there was like a month or two that we're like solid through just staying with people, which I was really lucky about. Definitely had some really, really great people look after me during that time.

joe (19:56.183)
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I'm going through all these stories because I know them, but I have to like, I have to remind myself that other people don't. But...

BEN CHALLENGER (20:06.538)
Yeah, of course. And anything, any gaps I can fill in there.

joe (20:10.223)
You're doing great. What was great about your story is like, you kind of followed a similar outline to what me and my buddy Brandon Nickerson, one of the pro refs did where, you know, it was like move across, no job, trust that some friends are gonna let us couch serve for a bit and then find a place. And the really hard thing in California, in a lot of places, but California especially, is like you want an apartment and they're like, okay, first month's rent, last month's rent, security deposit.

BEN CHALLENGER (20:19.562)
Yeah.

joe (20:39.363)
and show that you make three times the monthly amount for income, you're like, I'm just moving here. Like, what am I, a banker? Like, this is, how do you expect anybody to just come here and be like, hey, I just want a job, you know, at like the taco shop or whatever. And where would they live? Like, they literally need to have family or friends or like five of them have to group up in a house. And that's really what a lot of California is. Like, I know a lot of people who do live too many people in a household because of this like.

BEN CHALLENGER (20:43.402)
Yeah, so there's just like no way that I was doing that.

joe (21:07.407)
It's outrageously tough to get into a house, but yeah, you also got to end up in the DMG house and

BEN CHALLENGER (21:14.13)
Yeah, so that was the next move. So now let's fast forward back to like, I guess, cause we were talking about being 18 and doing it. Now we're like 22, actually moving to California with like my whole life. And yeah, like just staying in a house with like, God.

how we had like five or six people and like a dog and like four of us had to share like one bathroom. It was just grimy. Like I would like, so there's this, there's a bunch of scenes in Fight Club where they're like living in like a really dilapidated like house and it's like leaking and.

joe (21:54.96)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (21:55.854)
briny and just like certain shit just doesn't work or like if you plug things in it would turn off and like the dmg house was like that it was just one story you know like it was it was like a tea diary

joe (22:06.832)
Yeah.

joe (22:10.499)
It was like a bad trap house or I don't know like.

BEN CHALLENGER (22:14.114)
Dude, I remember it so vividly because like one of the first nights I moved in like, you know I'm talking to like a few of the guys on the team who lived there and like and you We're in the we're in the living room. We're like smoking a joint or something and you're like there's three things we do here Smoke weed we fuck bitches and we play paintball And I was like I'm fucking in like let's go, you know, I'm like this is why I fucking moved here

joe (22:34.499)
Yeah!

joe (22:40.119)
I mean, uh, explicit content warning. Um, and that was also what, like six or seven years ago was a different time in our lives. I mean, yeah, we were about it like that.

BEN CHALLENGER (22:44.612)
Yeah.

Oh yeah, it was several years ago. You know, we're... Yeah, for sure. I mean, I was in college, so, you know. Absolutely.

joe (22:56.247)
Yeah, we kept it gangster. And the house it yeah, it's funny you bring up the Fight Club because and reasonably enough because every guy in there was just a single guy playing paintball. You know, it reminded me a lot of like the stories that Maddie or Rich Telford or those guys you say where it's like, hey, the excessive house the dynasty house the whatever like the tram house you were just like a bunch of bummy dudes like trying to make it work working whatever part-time jobs you could, you know, like helping your friends at their companies whatever it was.

and saving every penny to play paintball. So like, there are not, you know, there are not paintings on the walls. There's no new couch. There is no vacuum for the carpet. There is nobody who cares about vacuuming the carpet. There's just a kitchen where, hey, at least keep like the sink empty so we can wash our one dish each. And I find that to be like a funny transition too, because you know, me and you have both lived in like very, very nice.

BEN CHALLENGER (23:36.327)
Yeah.

Cheers.

BEN CHALLENGER (23:47.168)
Yeah.

joe (23:55.299)
situations, you know, like I've seen your place in Canada, beautiful. Like your family home situation is remarkable. And I lived at one point lived on Clearwater beach when I played for Tampa Bay damage, but like paintball takes us on this journey of like, almost like ups and downs in your life of like good and bad times where all of a sudden, like, did you ever see because of paintball getting brought to like this weird kind of like dirty.

BEN CHALLENGER (23:56.427)
Yeah, for sure.

BEN CHALLENGER (24:03.126)
Yeah, they're doing well.

BEN CHALLENGER (24:07.788)
Yeah.

joe (24:23.279)
like slummy situation and just being fucking cool with it.

BEN CHALLENGER (24:26.371)
Like...

Yeah, and like I remember it's so funny because it has like dude, it's like, you know, mountains and valleys, right? And like, I remember that and it's so funny because I remember being so fucking stoked on it. Like, like getting to live with a whole bunch of my friends who understood my lifestyle, regardless of the house being like dirty, whatever, fuck that. It was like getting to live with so many of my friends who had like the same like lifestyle and like wanted the same things and were like, like just, I just felt really understood by the group of people that I was around.

joe (24:56.827)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (24:57.208)
And that was really sweet, you know, like probably more so than any time in my life, you know, really like a dope sense of community and like just people like understanding my situation and like being there for me like a lot of really good relationships and friends in that house. And I mean one of the best parts about Sacramento like regardless of never playing for DMG like the

joe (25:08.146)
Yeah.

joe (25:14.96)
Yeah.

joe (25:25.747)
True, true.

BEN CHALLENGER (25:26.928)
Huge win, like regardless of any kind of like pro paintball status it was like, yeah, like I'm at the level of my life there. So it's like, awesome.

joe (25:34.391)
Yeah. And you wouldn't have maybe ever had the chance, obviously you wouldn't have met her specifically, but you wouldn't have met someone that synced up so well with you in maybe that really nice, clean, ritzy situation of nice Northern whatever, Vancouver and all those beautiful parts of Canada. Just because like, and I don't know, call it hippie or whatever, but to me so much of our environment isn't actually like...

BEN CHALLENGER (25:54.102)
Yeah.

joe (26:03.399)
the bells and whistles of it. It's not like the pretty material stuff. It's more the vibration of the people that you're around. And you were synced up because 90% of the people around you were just about that life. We didn't care so much about the stuff. It was like, hey, let's go out in the backyard and snap shoot a little extra at the pole.

BEN CHALLENGER (26:17.527)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (26:23.106)
Yeah, I remember that shit with our pool that had no water in it ever. The hot tub had shit growing out of it, like so drivey.

joe (26:27.167)
Yeah, yeah.

joe (26:33.851)
Disgusting, but you were excited to be there, and I was too. Like, I never, it's, looking back, it's funny to think about it, but like, I enjoyed and felt better and more at home than I have in like, any of the really nice places I've been when it's just been like by myself, and I didn't have like a good community around me. And I think that's a...

BEN CHALLENGER (26:37.043)
Of course. Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (26:54.503)
Yeah, so dude, just thinking about some of the details of the house, one of the funniest things, and I can't believe I haven't thought about it recently or told anyone about this, but do you remember the drawer water? So the house was like...

joe (27:07.036)
Oh, oh yeah, the drawer water.

BEN CHALLENGER (27:13.05)
old, like, you know, like 60s, maybe 70s, right? And in the kitchen, there was no like spot for like, like filtered water. And I remember like coming in being like, so what do you guys like, you know, like do about water? Do you have any like filters? Can I drink from the tap? And I remember my roommate like stepping aside from the sink, pulling out the first drawer that was like next to the sink, and then sticking his hand into it and grabbing a full on like, like the whole top and like faucet, but he pulled it out of the sink.

joe (27:38.723)
Our water filter, I guess.

BEN CHALLENGER (27:42.864)
and there was just a hose that went down and it was the most ghetto shit because it should have just been posted out of the sink, right, like the faucet and you turned it on and off. But he pulled it out of the drawer and then put it like in his water bottle and then like turned it on. And I was like, oh. Yeah.

joe (27:49.638)
Yeah.

joe (27:57.891)
Yeah, it never got drilled all the way through the counter. And so it was, it was ran from like the bottom part of the sink, like the plumbing, but the only place it could come through was like the back of this drawer, like the back top slit and then laid into the drawer and occasionally somebody would like not turn it all the way off. It'd be like a drip at a time, but then you'd open that drawer and it would just be a drawer full of water. It'd be the water drawer.

BEN CHALLENGER (28:21.63)
Yeah. Yeah, I did. But lots of good memories in that house. I remember one of the sickest things, because we were so close to Capitol Edge. Yeah, it was like a stop. We had one light. And I remember one day I was watching matches on Go Sports in my room. And I was like, bro, it's Friday, but like.

joe (28:32.473)
One mile.

BEN CHALLENGER (28:48.818)
Impact and Russian Legion are practicing like around the corner from me. I'm like, I just turned off Go Sports and like got in my car. And I remember driving it up to the to like the net. And I'm like, I'm the only person there. I just get out of my car and just like climb on my hood, like up onto like this, the roof of the van. And I just like sitting there just watching like, you know, Dave, like pretty much dictate like how impact was going to play on the way out against the Russians who are up there.

joe (28:54.394)
Hahaha

BEN CHALLENGER (29:14.306)
I can't remember why they were up there. I know they were practicing, but like, I can't remember if it was like a Vegas event that they were getting ready for or like, I think it must have been right in the beginning of season. And I remember just going up there and just watching. Yeah, no, it was Vegas because we got to practice RL as well. I remember getting to like jump in with the pro squad and be like, you're like fifth or sixth guy. Yeah.

joe (29:20.731)
Yeah, for a Vegas event and that was the nearest field. Yeah.

joe (29:34.535)
They stayed. They stayed on Monday and you were our fifth guy. We only had five and Impact didn't wanna stay and Russians were like, hey, ask DMG if they wanna play 20 points. And me, you and three other guys got together and played their, they only ever do 20 points a day or like 21 or something, but yeah, we got together and grinded it out and that was sweet. That was a good day.

BEN CHALLENGER (29:55.714)
That was sick.

Yeah, dude, I remember on that layout too, dude, Coril was just feasting in the center. He pretty much figured out, if he killed this certain guy, like if he had the shot on, that nobody could stop the next move that he could do, and he would just go to pretty much like...

R30 in the center and shoot like three or four people and he just so you just do it Point after point just so consistently and just like it sucks cuz you're like, okay, like you run out to a spot Or you're watching the plane. You're just like, oh he shot that guy. Oh Okay, he's coming our side. All right, everyone's dead. It was it was like dude

joe (30:33.195)
Yep.

joe (30:38.331)
those guys have remarkable precision on their running gun. And yeah, I think they taught us a lot too, because when they would do that, now we would have to remake our game plan around them. We're like, well, we have to watch this one slot or dive this guy. So now instead of just committing your, executing your own play, you're like playing into them. And now they're outside guys are getting wide and all that. So I think we all learned a lot at like how much the Russians were dictating what we like.

BEN CHALLENGER (30:50.465)
Yeah.

joe (31:06.247)
they're forcing you to play their way. Man, we can talk forever about strategy, but yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (31:13.61)
Yeah, I know we're trying to dictate away from that, get away from that. But yeah, no, it was impressive and it was just cool to like be able to like drive around the corner and actually watch them just practice and grind. But, you know, like getting back to like the whole paintball passport thing, it's really taken me all over the world. And it's just it's just following something I love. And, you know, like I live in another country now because of it.

joe (31:24.668)
Yeah.

joe (31:39.459)
Yeah, that was, you know, really what I wanted to get out of this is like, I know your story, but you started in Canada, and basically at a whim and with a trust in people and yourself, and a willingness to just believe that you can make it work out. You went from Canada to California, to Texas, to now Oregon, and you've been doing this for paintball. So it's literally where

BEN CHALLENGER (32:04.802)
Yeah.

joe (32:09.043)
to different states that I don't think you would ever saw living in Oregon, right? Like, yeah. And would you ever pictured yourself being like, yeah, I think I'll live in Portland one day. Like, was that around your list?

BEN CHALLENGER (32:11.502)
Yeah. Different countries, dog. Like, you know, like really.

BEN CHALLENGER (32:24.783)
Never thought I would live in Texas. Loved it. Never thought I would live there.

joe (32:26.467)
Yeah, tell you what, I'm the same in where a lot of these places, like Portland was never on my place of like list, my list of like places to live, you know, like, I would love to live in like San Diego someday, or back in certain parts of Florida or whatever, but I was never like, one of those years I'm going to live in Portland, but paintball does that where you're like, oh, well, that seems to be like where...

BEN CHALLENGER (32:44.043)
Absolutely, yeah.

Yeah.

joe (32:52.263)
this river is going and like, if I'm gonna stay in the flow and like not fight it or like make my life harder, I'm just gonna keep going down that same path because it's like the, you know, path of least resistance. And I like resistance for some stuff. It makes you tougher and grittier, but for your life, if there's a team that wants to give you a sweet opportunity and they go, yeah, and one of our guys let you couch surf here and you can, until you figure it out, it's like, all right, fuck it, I'm gonna go do it. And then we do it.

BEN CHALLENGER (33:20.182)
Yeah, seriously dude. So, man, but yeah, lots of adventures because of it. So I think it was interesting just thinking about like the whole like burn the ships thing because like.

When I moved in 2018 initially, what I was doing to maintain my Canadian citizenship is I would spend up to six months a year in America and then I would come back and I would just rinse and repeat, or I would spend a month or two in America, go home for a month or two kind of thing. I was just back and forth.

And then in 2020, COVID hit and it was like crazy. I remember like, or like the end of 2019, 2020, it was like March, I guess. I remember they were gonna close the border and I was like, ooh, shit. Like I have to go home.

So at the time I'm already all the way down in Texas, like on the, with the diesel thing. And I was like, oh shit, like, I don't know what's gonna happen. So like I travel home. And at the time I was injured anyways, I like blew my knee out in Vegas 2020. And so I'm like, well, fuck, like first off, gotta get home cause healthcare. Like to, you know, like, I don't know if I want to be stuck in the States when all the borders close. Like I don't really know what's gonna happen.

worldwide pandemic, so it's just like, right? It's supposed to just be like a two week thing or whatever, right? That's what they first say. So I travel home and I end up being there for like a few months and half the time, I was dating my wife and we were like on and off and like, it was just complex. And I got to this point where like eventually they started to let you travel, but only for like...

joe (34:50.556)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (35:14.986)
like super serious relationships or other things like that. And I remember I was like, okay, well first off, I'm gonna get my girlfriend back. And like, because we like split for a little bit and I was fucking miserable. And I was like, I don't want that. So I'm like, if I can get a second chance, I'm gonna go back and fix all this. So I end up.

being able to fly down there because you could fly, you could fly if you have like a partner internationally. So I tell the border that my fiance's down there. And they're like, okay, well, where's your return ticket? And I was like, well, I was gonna spend like a month there and kind of figure that out. And they're like, we're not gonna let you go unless you buy a return ticket. So I just like, like I'm in the customs office. They're like interviewing me and I'm like.

do it right here, just pull up my phone, start punching it in, book the whole thing, show them. They're like, great, you can go. I'm like, sweet, get to my gate, cancel that fucking ticket. Yeah. Yeah, and I'm like, we're gonna figure this out. And that was like, that was truly like, I'm burning the ships, because I'm like.

joe (36:13.051)
Book on Southwest, cancel, redeem. Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (36:24.07)
I don't know how long I'm going to stay here, but I'm going to make this work. And I'm going to navigate through the climate that is. And it worked out. The timing of everything was good. The second time moving to Texas worked really well.

joe (36:42.287)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (36:42.526)
Yeah, and then I just stayed from 2020 all the way to current day and just, you know, got married in like 2021.

BEN CHALLENGER (36:53.763)
Yeah.

joe (36:53.895)
An amazing journey overall. I'm happy I got to see you through my call, but yeah, like for you to just like be one of the few that jumped in from like the hardest possible situation where it's like, you didn't go from a state to a state, you went from a country here, and then you ended up like through all that, paintball has brought you to Oregon and you have a wife now. I got to see you go from, you know, the young kid that would get through this and you have a career job.

BEN CHALLENGER (36:56.543)
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

BEN CHALLENGER (37:17.706)
Yeah. Dude, I have a job now because I just follow paintball. So that's cool. Yeah.

joe (37:23.651)
Yeah, and that's cool too. Like Paintball is a very cool network. It's definitely a who you know thing and I don't think you probably would have seen yourself working in this industry or like doing that either. So now I get to see you all the time and we work in a, yeah, it's awesome.

BEN CHALLENGER (37:37.834)
It's sweet though. Yeah, it's sick. But yeah, no, it's cool. Cause I mean, like obviously, you know, stepping away from infamous was like, it was tough because like, it's all my boys. Like playing with fucking Tim and you and Thomas and like Cali, all those dudes. It's like fucking, the team is a riot, you know, just so much fun to be around, right? The Joan rat, like Jonah and his dad, like just.

joe (37:58.757)
Yep.

BEN CHALLENGER (38:03.262)
amazing people. But like just stepping, stepping away from pro paintball to kind of like get my shit together. You know, get my green card, moving to a new cut or new state and then just like an actual, an actual job. It was something that I needed to do, you know, and it's sick because like, I get to see you all the fucking time at work. And then you know, Thomas is, you know, working at Lumi now too. So that's fucking sick. You get to see him all the time. It works out and then and then two of my teammates are like my bosses. So it's fucking dope.

joe (38:18.45)
Yep.

joe (38:29.837)
What?

BEN CHALLENGER (38:33.196)
Thanks.

joe (38:34.363)
And what a cool parallel, you know, like so much of life, you know, we all lived kind of a similar path to like a lot of the people in the generation or two above us in paintball. And, you know, you and Thomas just kind of had to do the same thing where literally around the same time, Thomas stepped away from infamous. He didn't step out of pro paintball. He found a situation that's like working with him, but he stepped away to get his life. Like I wouldn't say on track, Thomas was already doing great, but he was just doing it through paintball.

You know, that's a dude who like for 20 something years, he can't turn it off. Like when he goes home, like when we leave work, we get to like turn off the work brain and like just relax or think about paintball, but whether Thomas at a paintball tournament at the field, uh, working on whatever on his guns, on his designs, on his jerseys, on his social media platforms, on his clinics, he is constantly like flicked on, you know, he's always on call.

BEN CHALLENGER (39:04.714)
Yeah. Do it. Absolutely.

joe (39:31.335)
for his job because that was his job. And it's cool to see how it happens sometimes on different timelines and everybody gets there at the right time for them. It's not like anyone's late or early, but you and Tom, as both went, I'm gonna get that outside of paintball thing taken care of. That way I don't burn myself out for the paintball part that I fucking love.

BEN CHALLENGER (39:32.524)
Absolutely.

BEN CHALLENGER (39:45.39)
Yeah.

Thanks for watching!

BEN CHALLENGER (39:52.462)
Yeah. Yeah, well he saw what I did and he was like, it's a good idea. No, I'm just playing. Obviously you come to your own things at your own time and such. And I'm excited for Thomas because I think that him kind of getting a little bit of space now, Thomas is gonna be great at whatever he puts his mind to. So like, you know.

joe (40:01.347)
He did. He did.

joe (40:17.997)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (40:19.73)
I believe that he's gonna be top notch at Lumi, because just the energy that he carries with the things that he does. But also, I think that it's gonna make him better at paintball too, which is kind of crazy. So pretty much with his mind being going all the time, it's like, I don't know, it's like you're just running nonstop all the time.

joe (40:26.407)
For sure. Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (40:43.842)
But now it's kind of like, and it's like you could run at a certain speed all the time like that. But imagine how fast you could run if you took breaks. Right, if you had pauses from that thing. So like, I think, I don't know, running is just a weird metaphor for it. But like, I think he'll be better because he'll have that space for himself and it might really elevate his game. Also with the fact that the guy's got, he's in his early 40s, right?

joe (40:53.423)
Yes.

joe (40:57.901)
I completely agree.

joe (41:06.948)
Yeah.

joe (41:10.451)
I agree.

joe (41:13.743)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (41:15.935)
Yeah, so like it's also gonna just be like a little maybe a little better on his body, right? Like just has a job where he doesn't have to do as much manual labor. You know what I feel?

joe (41:25.599)
much better. I totally agree. And I yeah what you said about the first part, you know I remember we have a World Cup practice and give me a second let me come back to this. Do you have a fan on in your room?

BEN CHALLENGER (41:41.162)
I can't turn it off. It's just like an air thing. It's just going. It's been on the entire time.

joe (41:45.351)
There's something that I can hear in my, yeah, I can hear in my headphone.

Hmm or just turn it lower. Maybe I don't know. It's it's like you're I know my uh, my microphone's fine

BEN CHALLENGER (41:51.978)
I can try and go somewhere more quiet.

BEN CHALLENGER (42:02.606)
I'll see what I can do.

joe (42:13.647)
Sorry guys, I guess I should fill out this air time. Although I could always edit this out. But you know what? Fuck it. I think we're gonna keep it raw.

BEN CHALLENGER (42:21.462)
Oh, I think I got it. How's the sound now?

joe (42:26.86)
Oh my god, much better.

BEN CHALLENGER (42:28.818)
Yeah, is that better? Okay, cool. Figured it out.

joe (42:30.635)
Yes, now it's like, yeah, because what I'm realizing is this is mostly going to be on Spotify and

BEN CHALLENGER (42:36.394)
Fuck, I hope it doesn't, I hope that the whole thing doesn't sound like shit.

joe (42:39.759)
This was a good conversation, but it does kind of have like, it's not like it's static. You can hear you clearly, but there's just this background noise and I don't know, maybe there's a way that I can edit out the background noise. I think there's apps in this stuff. Do you need me to use them?

BEN CHALLENGER (42:52.21)
Yeah, I'm sure with the app or whatever, you can just kind of like, there's gotta be some.

joe (42:57.239)
Yeah, but you know, the homie Marcelo was just telling me like an hour ago before the show. Yeah, if there's one thing you should invest on, it's like a good mic and pay the little extra for like the AI sound canceling thing because people are not going to want to really hear through your whole podcast, even if it's great if there's something that's like bugging them in it. So yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (43:21.97)
Oh yeah, for sure, that totally makes sense. All right, well that's some fucking good tips. Pro podcaster himself.

joe (43:26.639)
Yeah, exactly. But what I was going to say is there was a moment at World Cup practice where Thomas, he made a mistake. He didn't check something off and went and got killed when he didn't have to go forward. We were already winning the match and the point. So he didn't have to really move. And afterwards, he kind of had an explosion moment. Not real bad, but it was like a b-----.

A lot of frustration and in my head, like I'm always like kind of observing people. I was like, I don't think that's just frustration about this one moment, you know, a mistake or like us picking on the moment because we're all picking on each other. I think it's the frustration on like. His head is racing a million miles a second about all the paintball, about his kids team, about things he has to do for his branding at the, the comp at the, at the event.

BEN CHALLENGER (44:03.778)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (44:12.278)
Thank you.

joe (44:18.063)
about the PMW event back home the following weekend that he's still like setting up. And now he will be able to just turn that off and relax. And I think he will play way better paintball, like more relaxed, calm and like present paintball. So I do look forward to seeing it.

BEN CHALLENGER (44:30.499)
out.

BEN CHALLENGER (44:37.59)
Yeah, for sure, man. Like, I'm excited to see that too, but it's sick. Yeah, you know, and I get to work with him like every day. So that's cool too.

joe (44:45.083)
Yeah, so uh, that's a I think I might invite him on as one of my next guests maybe my next one but uh, I know He has some good travel stories. He was telling me one of the field a few weeks ago that i'll have him tell About one of his like this is 20 years ago back in the heyday of like americans starting to do it so yeah, i'll have him on some of these soon, but

BEN CHALLENGER (44:51.354)
Oh, absolutely, man. That guy's been all over the place for paintball.

BEN CHALLENGER (44:58.101)
I bet.

BEN CHALLENGER (45:06.293)
Yes.

joe (45:08.451)
Yeah, I guess without further ado, you know, we've got to catch up on like where paintball has taken you in your personal life and Let's uh, god, I don't want to say let's dive back in I don't want to I don't want to take tyler marcellus like there's all these things I have to think about now because i'm not going to like just steal lines or whatever I guess let's get into like the meat of like your actual best travel stories

BEN CHALLENGER (45:28.03)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's get back on track though.

joe (45:38.056)
I, so first of all, where's the best place? Who all has ever taken here?

BEN CHALLENGER (45:42.054)
Alright, so like here, like it's hard for me to just be like, oh, that's my best travel story. But if you give me like a topic, I could probably tell you a story.

joe (45:54.291)
Um, you know what? So there's an event that i've played myself a few times And a lot of this podcast was like man i've written blogs about these but like people don't fucking read blogs And I just i'd like people to know how cool some of these places are Some of the events are and some of these like bucket list leagues so that maybe they go. Holy shit That's what it's like there and they want to go and that's like another like kind of you know motivation for this podcast is like

BEN CHALLENGER (46:19.302)
Oh man. I'm glad that you brought that up because like the bucket list leagues are, like for me, in my opinion, I like, I'm gonna say Asia for sure. Like in Thailand and Malaysia, so much fun, such cool venues, great weather. People are amazing. It's cheap. Sit.

joe (46:29.307)
Hands down, hands down.

joe (46:34.159)
So.

joe (46:37.367)
Yes. Everything is, it's picture perfect. So like, let's say Malaysia. Benny, tell me about, is it WCA or W...

BEN CHALLENGER (46:46.295)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (46:51.146)
P-WPC?

joe (46:53.615)
It's one of those world paintball championships or.

BEN CHALLENGER (46:56.798)
Or I thought it was WPC, it was like World Paintball Championships and then there was... Pals? Fuck, I don't know, I haven't been over there in like... uh, four or five years.

joe (47:04.219)
Pals was one of them too, but I think that was way back.

joe (47:10.591)
I know, it's been a few for me too. Well, I-

BEN CHALLENGER (47:12.522)
I want to go back to that. If I can, I'll go back next season. Like, it is incredible.

joe (47:17.383)
We will go back as soon as we're able to again. I don't even think those really big leagues are happening yet. I know the homie Harrison just went and played.

BEN CHALLENGER (47:25.342)
I think they did like a World Cup or something. I saw like Mark Johnson and GJ over there, but it was Thailand.

joe (47:30.683)
They, yeah, they went to Thailand. There's a league there. I want to say it's called T-PAC and it's basically just a big Thailand league. As far as I recall, those are all Thai teams, maybe one or two from the close by places, but it's not really the same as like those pals or like WCA's. But yeah, I mean, there's the one that's like the ultimate bucket list. And I feel like you got to experience that in a very cool way. So.

BEN CHALLENGER (47:59.55)
Yeah, so I'll break that event down. So the event was held in an old abandoned airport hangar and quickly the people who had been or had played it before were telling me that the venue was the Thunderdome. And I was like, why are you saying that? Like, I mean, that sounds sweet, but like, why are you saying that? And they're like, well, just listen. And because of the size of the indoor.

joe (48:00.103)
Bring me back to...

joe (48:21.165)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (48:27.074)
the way that the guns would sound because they would like echo inside, which it was so hard to communicate with each other. And it was really fucking slippery. I remember that too, like the turf being like super, super slick. But that was sick, dude. We got to play against some pretty wild teams. So we were playing, me and Joe were playing on a team called KTM Expo. And this was a team that had like a couple guys from like Russian Legion slash Heat.

joe (48:36.028)
Yeah.

Yep.

BEN CHALLENGER (48:55.782)
Harrison Fry, Joe, me, and then like a ragtag group of other local players. And man, this was wild because we ended up playing against Russian Legion and like the Expendables and Expendables had like a couple like dynasty dudes. I swear they had like Yosh and Ryan or something. Yeah, and RL ended up taking it home. We got third and then I think

joe (49:16.31)
They did, they did. Blake.

joe (49:23.363)
No, didn't we get stuck in it?

BEN CHALLENGER (49:26.602)
No, we won the event the week before in Thailand, but then we got third with KTM.

joe (49:32.971)
Oh, you know what? Because we had to play Russians in semis, and we lost in overtime. And then they went and they waxed Breakout Spa, who we, well, Breakout Spa was there too, we were playing with. And.

BEN CHALLENGER (49:37.878)
Yeah. Yep.

BEN CHALLENGER (49:44.778)
Yeah, was it Breakout Spa? It was Breakout Spa. Breakout Spa, dude, cause I remember Claudio being so drunk at the after party wearing the fucking Borat onesie, awful. It's awful.

joe (49:56.089)
Yeah.

Claudio was he could party hard but so there was that and it was expendable

BEN CHALLENGER (50:02.378)
Dude, he is an awesome dude. I love Claudio. It's just, I don't wanna see any man in the Borgat 1Z ever. Like.

joe (50:10.423)
No. No, it's something that I pushed me back from the memory.

BEN CHALLENGER (50:15.494)
Yeah, but anyway, so some fun stuff about that event. Man, we were pretty much getting showed around by the person who ran our team. And she was showing us a lot of really cool scenery. Malaysia is kind of like an island, so just really beautiful. I remember us going to this super cool waterfall that was on a mountain. We hiked all up through here, and then there was this sick like,

bridge that overlooked everything. It was really quite something. But then the event itself was also really good. They had a players party afterwards. It was on the beach. I remember the water had bioluminescence in it. So it was like algae that when movement happened, like glowed in the water. So you could walk through the water and your feet around it, like your footprint would light up. It was pretty cool.

joe (51:00.592)
Yeah.

joe (51:13.015)
Yep, that was sweet. Nighttime was particularly gorgeous in Langkawi, because if you were on the beach, a million stars. Sunset was always very dramatic. And then as soon as sunset was completely gone, it looked like the first 10 to 20 feet of water washing up in small waves towards the shore was just like some Avatar glowy shit from the algae. So that was...

BEN CHALLENGER (51:38.024)
So, Joe, on this trip, do you remember when you got Bringo?

joe (51:44.057)
Um, please remind me.

BEN CHALLENGER (51:46.315)
It had to do with Russian Legion and some mopeds

joe (51:50.539)
Oh, oh yeah, I got Gringo. Yes, that was brutal. Okay, so you got Gringo too then. So this was going to be something that I...

BEN CHALLENGER (52:00.658)
in Thailand, but I was at home. I remember you getting back, or I wasn't at home, I was at the hotel, but I remember you finally coming back from the night out and telling me about what had happened. Yeah.

joe (52:12.136)
That's right. You left early from the players party and we all stayed and smoked hookah on the beach. So, okay. I guess I can just fill in parts of story because we both had this adventure together. First of all, when Ben says you got gringoed, this is gonna be probably a question I'm gonna ask guests from now on because when you travel international, like especially, you know, Mexico is where we got it, South America, Central America, a gringo is like,

an American tourist, you know what I mean? Like gringo means like white person, but for to them, or from like the way they say it to us, like, if you're just being that person that's going to all the tourist traps or like whatever, like you take the guided tour for like timeshares in Cancun, because there's like a free lunch buffet, that's like a gringo move. It's like, oh, you, oh, gringo move. So if you get gringoed, it's like you,

you got tricked or you got scammed or you did the stupid thing. You're like, God, I've been a traveler for years. How did that happen?

BEN CHALLENGER (53:12.363)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (53:15.882)
Yeah, it's getting taken advantage of as a tourist.

joe (53:19.351)
Yes, yes. I actually, I have a brutal, gringo story from recently in Mexico, but yeah, so I'll tell this one real quick.

BEN CHALLENGER (53:20.942)
I'm going to go to bed.

BEN CHALLENGER (53:25.878)
But save that for another time though. Tell us what happened in Malaysia.

joe (53:31.015)
Alright, here it goes. I'll try to condense it, but it is fucking hysterical. So, we are at the beach bar after the players' party. It's just me and Harrison and four of the Russian Legion dudes. And we're like having drinks, smoking hookah, you know, celebrating their win and like all of us having a great, you know, two weeks here in paradise. Eventually, the bar closes and it's time to leave.

and you know the Russians have like a flight the next morning and uh our flight isn't for a few days but like they have to leave so it's like all right guys we gotta go so we walk out to the main street me and Harrison have moped they don't we're like oh you don't have moped you they're like no we didn't rent moped we're like oh you missed out because that's kind of the most fun part of this vacation is mopeding around this island it's like the it's the tradition there

BEN CHALLENGER (54:25.123)
Oh my god. You guys are the fucking mopeds out there, dude.

joe (54:29.611)
Yeah, you uh, you have some fun. You do get in accidents and shit. It's scary, but it's part of it, you know What?

BEN CHALLENGER (54:36.866)
Joe traumatized me with the mopeds. I will not drive a fucking moped in Asia, hell no. But anyways, go on about the story. So you're, it's late. It's late, you've got, you're heading home from the bar, it's you, Harrison, like a few of the Russian Legion dudes. Go on.

joe (54:42.555)
That is for sure. We'll get to your trial authority because that is one of the first ones I ask you.

Yes.

joe (54:56.119)
Yep, so they have no mopeds. I'm like, oh, how'd you guys get here? Oh rental van the coach brought at home Whatever. I'm like, all right. Well, let's get you a taxi We look up and down this main street the bar's on there is like there's one car on the street because it's like 3 30 a.m We walked down to it. It is a taxi And I think they saw us and like we had go live with us like pretty tall dude You know like me and harrison are kind of we're all taller than most of these like local malaysian people and this guy looked up at the six of us and he's just like

and just pull away. We're like, god damn it. We're like, how far are you? And they're like, oh, we're at your same hotel. And we're like, whew, that's a bit of a hike. Like it's not that far of a ride, but it's like a four or five mile, like it's from one side of the island across the other side of the island, basically, to drive. And we're like, okay, we know where our hotel is. So me and Harrison look at each other, and we're like, well, we could give you rides. It's gonna be sketchy, but we could try to give you rides on our mopeds, so sure.

BEN CHALLENGER (55:41.132)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (55:54.166)
Yeah, so you're stacking like, it's like three people to moped.

joe (55:58.487)
Yeah, so we hop on our mopeds. Harrison has two of the guys. I have a Maloy and CoLab, I think. And on your moped, you always have your helmet, which you must wear, because if you get pulled over without a helmet, you are like fucked in Malaysia. Even though the locals don't ride with helmets and they ride like seven deep with like kids and dogs on their mopeds, you as a tourist have to have a...

BEN CHALLENGER (56:09.11)
Hehehe

joe (56:26.763)
or you can end up in jail. I know because I've ended up in Malaysian jail for the helmet thing. So another story for a different time, but that was my first one in like 2015. But anyways, so we get on and we each have an extra helmet. So I give mine to one guy and the other guy and I'm like, don't worry, I'm gonna drive slow and we're all in like board shorts, sandals, t-shirts, whatever. I've already crashed the moped this trip. So I'm like driving really slow because

I have three of us on a moped now and like the tires are bottoming out and I pull away and I'm just like putting along like, cool, we're just gonna go like 15, 20 miles an hour the whole way back. We go down this main street, take a left and then it's our hotel is the other end of this long like country road through the middle of the island. So it's only one turn and our hotel is gonna eventually be at the end. So we're driving down this road and Harrison is like way up in front of me, couple of hundred yards in front of me.

and a police bike flies by me and goes and like I see its lights go up and I'm like oh fuck it's gonna get Harrison and then a car comes up behind me like out of nowhere I gotta know where these cars came from but it comes up puts the lights on and I'm like all right so I like pull over and take the uh you know key out the three of us are just standing there and these two like you know Malaysian cops get out and uh

Then it starts, like the, basically the whole one hour of drama begins where these guys are like, oh, I have the keys out and I'm ready to hand them the keys to, and I'm like, what's the problem, officer? We didn't do anything. This is 40, I'm doing 20, getting my friends home safely. I'm not drunk, I had like a beer or two that whole time because I knew I was gonna moped, so.

Yeah, I'm like, what's the problem? And he's like, do you know, follow the rules? I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, two person per moped. You have counts as three. I'm like, oh, this is new to me. This is the first time this happened. I'm like, officer, that can't be right. I see people ride all.

BEN CHALLENGER (58:33.526)
I know, especially when you're seeing the locals ride around with their whole fucking family on a moped.

joe (58:37.619)
Whole families. People in a basket in the front, people on the handles facing them, like crazy shit. Sometimes one of them's like holding their baby and you're like, I don't know, whatever. So now I have a third person and I'm like, that can't be right, I've seen others, but he's just ignoring this defense. He's just like, no, three people, the rule is two. I'm like, oh my God. And I'm like, officer, okay, so I'm trying to explain my eye to this and he's like, and points at one of them, he's like, no helmet.

BEN CHALLENGER (58:43.763)
It's ridiculous.

See ya.

joe (59:07.203)
I'm like, oh my God, I already know the helmet rule. And I'm like, I'm so sorry, I only had one extra helmet. This is why we're going slow. We have to get back and I didn't wanna leave the moped. I'm like trying to explain things. He's just like, no, you do not follow the rules. You're a rule breaker. Eventually I'm just like officer. I'm playing for the Malaysian team, which I was. KTM was, you know, FASM. I'm like, we're.

BEN CHALLENGER (59:32.97)
Yeah, they're a Malaysian team.

joe (59:35.023)
We're here from another country playing for your home team. Like, please don't give us issues. Just tell me what I gotta do. I will leave this bike behind. That is not an option. There's no like, okay, just leave the moped and walk.

BEN CHALLENGER (59:47.563)
What were the Russian dudes doing when this was happening?

joe (59:50.599)
Good question. The Russian dudes are like not being helpful, basically. They're just like, at first they're nervous. Like when we were gonna pull over, I was like, all right guys, just don't say anything. Like, let me handle this, smile and be polite and respectful. We pull over and like, they kept talking and like, you know, pointing things out. And I'd be like stomping on their foot, like, cause they were like.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:00:16.386)
Yeah, because the Russian dudes know that they're getting fucked and they don't want to get fucked. They're like, what the hell? Like, yeah.

joe (01:00:19.911)
They do, they know it, they can see it. But also I don't want them to end up in jail when their flight's in six hours. And even though they're not being mean or disrespectful at all, like they have a voice that can come off a little harsh, right? Like just a Russian accent. So.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:00:28.447)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:00:34.298)
Yeah, it's the tone of the Russian accent. Yeah.

joe (01:00:38.007)
I'm just like, let me, the friendly American guy, like handle this and eventually one of them is like, I'll get to that part. So at this point, I'm like, okay, we can't just leave the bike and walk, like we'll do whatever you say, officer. They're clearly like basically threatening jail. And they're like, nope, you guys will have to come with us. I'm like, officer, please, don't take us with you. And they're like, okay, how about this? And he points to the woman without a helmet and he's like, he will come with us, you two can go.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:00:41.806)
I'm sorry.

joe (01:01:07.991)
I'm like, I cannot just leave one of these Russian guys. These are like my homies now. And this is probably happening over at the Harrison. I'm not just gonna leave. I was like, officer, please, I cannot just let you, we have a flight. He has to leave the Russian, you know, like this would not go well. Like their team would be upset, blah, blah. And he's like, you can get him at the station. I'm like, what would we do at the station? Like.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:01:14.593)
Yeah.

joe (01:01:36.799)
Where is this gonna go? And they're like, well, you know, maybe jail time, maybe fines. And I'm like, God, it's been an hour of going in circles at this point. And I'm like, damn it, they're just shaking me down. This is where this is going. I'm like, okay, so what can we do about this? And he's like, I don't know. I guess we would have, at this point, there's now four cops around us, like smoking cigarettes, kind of laughing about it. They're like, well, I guess we can like, you know, we could solve this somehow.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:01:49.345)
Yeah.

joe (01:02:03.687)
And I'm like, well, what would the fine be if we go to the station anyways, just to pay the fine? What is the fine? And they're like, uh, I don't know. What, what do you have on you? I'm like, what do you guys have on you? They go in their wallets. They each have like, they have like 40 ring it ring. It is the currency there because, and I'm like, this is all you guys have. And they're like, yeah, we were paying for hook all night. So they have like 40 ring it combined, right? In my wallet, I have like.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:02:22.116)
Ringette, yeah, that was a currency.

joe (01:02:32.763)
I don't know, 100 ring it or something like that. And I'm looking at the cops, they're looking at me and they're like, and I'm like, oh my God, okay. Thank God I have this for this reason. I have like 400 extra ring it in my sock for like that you just don't want to call it. I'm just in my sock, I pull out 400 more ring it. So at this point we still only have like 540 ring it. I'm like, this is everything I have, everything I have. 540 ring it is probably like, I don't know, 25.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:02:56.012)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:03:00.33)
Here, I can just do some quick math. Here, one second. Siri. Hey Siri, how much is 554 ringa in USD?

joe (01:03:03.186)
Yeah.

joe (01:03:10.483)
This will be interesting.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:03:10.826)
Gotta turn your point mode off first. Hey Siri, how much is 550 Ringgit in USD?

joe (01:03:15.315)
I want to say it was 1 to 20. Was it 1 to 10 or 1 to 20?

BEN CHALLENGER (01:03:26.762)
Yeah, I'll look it up. Siri's not being helpful. But yeah, in the future, we should just have, you should have Google open so that you can just like quickly Google random shit that comes up.

joe (01:03:36.295)
That's a good idea. Or I need like a Jamie type thing. Yeah, I probably can't afford that person. This webcast is not gonna be a money thing, but I wanna say Ring It, it was like one to 10 or one to 20. Either way, it wasn't a lot of money. 108 bucks, that's now, but yeah, and this was probably quite a bit less back.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:03:40.787)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:03:54.93)
Oh, it's like $108. Like $109 US dollars for 500 ringgit.

So like a hundred ring at is like 20 bucks. Roughly.

joe (01:04:05.347)
Yeah, so, so a hundred bucks, right? Divided by four of them. They're all looking at each other and they're like, I'm like, please guys, please, please. We will, whatever. We will leave the moped too. And they take the money and they're looking at it and they're looking at each other and like, okay, go. Right, that's it. And they're like, yep, go ahead. And we're like, oh, thank you so much. After I say this, Golev goes, what about 300?

I'm like, shut the fuck up, dude. He tried to barter. The deal was already done. I have no money, we can go. He's like, but you can barter for everything in Malaysia. Like sometimes you're in a restaurant and you don't like the bill on the paper and you can be like 20 ringgit instead of 30 and they're like, yeah, whatever. But he tries to barter in this like, this is a high risk situation. I'm like, yo, shut up. Thank you, officer. Sorry about that.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:04:37.879)
I know. Don't let it stop it. Ha ha ha.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:05:00.878)
I'm going to go to bed.

joe (01:05:02.655)
And I'm like, we will leave. And they're like, okay, go. And I'm like, about to walk away. And they're like, no, take him up and go. And I'm like, no, we do not want to get in trouble again. We'll walk. And they're like, it's okay. Go. And I'm like, what if we pass another cop? Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:05:16.766)
Yeah, that's how you knew you just got shook down too, for sure. You're like, wait, so like none of this was about the laws. All of this was just about getting us.

joe (01:05:25.327)
Yes, it was totally about like, let's just see what they got. I mean, like whatever, you know, like corruption is a real thing in every country. I mean, I've experienced it here in the US, but they're like, I've had more problems in other countries. I've actually only ever had problems with police. I've never had like gang problems or cartel or anything weird. But I've been shaken down quite a few times, even when I'm not looking like a target wearing board shorts. So they shake us down.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:05:33.928)
Yeah.

joe (01:05:51.995)
We're like, we don't want to pass by other cops and get pulled over again. Now we have no more money to do this again. And they're like, it's okay. Get on your moped, go right to a hotel. Go. We're like, okay. Hopefully they radio ahead or whatever. We moped back and the guys immediately go and pack their stuff. And then they fly back home. And we came and saw you. We're like, holy fucking shit, dude. That was scary. I thought we were all going to sit in Malaysian jail for about an hour.

And here we are.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:06:24.007)
I remember laughing about that dude. I mean it's still a funny story like fuck five years later. It's good. Yeah, dude

joe (01:06:30.231)
Yeah. So, uh, yeah. Did, did you get gringoed at all when you were in Malaysia?

BEN CHALLENGER (01:06:39.57)
Not Malaysia, but Thailand actually. So me and my friend Luke, we had just played a tournament in Australia and we were going to go play the WPC. This is like the second year I'm over in Asia. And so we're like, I can't remember, I think it might have been after the event or before the, regardless. We're walking around like late at night and we're out and about. And

And in Thailand, there's things called ping pong shows. I don't know if people are familiar with this, but. Yeah, but like I've never seen a ping pong show, but I get kind of like, Lord, like we get like, you know, kind of semi confronted slash waved in by the bouncer and he's like, yo, like ping pong show, it's only a thousand baht, which is like, I don't know, this is like 20 or 30 bucks, like back then.

joe (01:07:16.783)
Parental discretion advised. This is a fully open show.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:07:39.81)
I'll look it up again. Anyways, me and my friend look at each other and we're like, yo, we'll split that? Hell yeah, like this will be crazy. So we get in there and it's kinda like a strip club, like you know, there's like go-go dancers and stuff like that. And then we get handed paddles. And I was like, well, that's kinda weird. Like, why do I have a paddle? Anyways, this chick gets on stage and now this is where parental discretion would be advised.

but she just starts loading herself full of ping pong balls. Right? Like just pat, I was thinking like, it would be like a one at a time thing, but no, it was like she was loading a magazine, dude. She was just like, I swear, she put like six in there. And she like leans back and is like, kind of like sitting on the table and she just does a Kegel and shoots a ping pong ball out of herself at us.

and people are like in like around the bar and we have our ping pong like paddles and you're just like swat, whacking it away. But anyways, we're like, you know, it has some novelty but like after a few of them, you're just like, okay. And then my friend gets hit in the arm and you can tell like this thing just got shot out of this chick's pussy and hit him. And he's just like freaked out by the whole thing. He's like, all right, I'm gonna go scrub myself down in the bathroom, like let's get the check. So I...

I'm like, okay, that's enough. So I get up and I'm like, I go to like get the check and this chick hands me a calculator and it says 6,000 instead of 1,000, which I was told. And I'm like, oh fuck, we're like, this is happening. And I'm like, I don't even have that like on me. Like I have like maybe two, right? And I'm thinking I'm gonna spend like 500. I'm gonna spend 2,000 right here. And so I'm just like, duh. So I just like give her the...

and I just get out of there. And Luke has to deal with the same thing. I shoot him a text, I'm like, I'm outside, they're shaking us down, get the fuck out. And so he comes out, just awkwardly gets by the bouncer, and then I'm out the building around the corner, and I see Luke come out and he's running, and I'm like, Luke, I'm over here, and he cuts over and I'm like, you good? And we're like, check, they're not chasing us or any shit, and then we're like, okay, cool. And then we just continued with our night, we were fine. But yeah, it was quite something. That was probably the most definite time.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:10:06.926)
kind of cog.

joe (01:10:09.467)
Jeez, that is a...

BEN CHALLENGER (01:10:10.978)
Yeah, but shitty situations are good stories, right? Hahaha.

joe (01:10:13.455)
Yeah, yeah, no, I totally agree. I've had kind of a similar one, not to me personally, but the very first time I was in Thailand at a Bangkok event, 2011, was Shockwave Canada. I remember we went to that, you know, Red Light District Street in Pattaya, and some of the guys went down to Alleyway for, they followed the foldout sign that said Ping Pong Show, and they were all like, whoa, whatever it is, experience it once and go see it.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:10:33.855)
Yeah.

joe (01:10:43.367)
they went to the Ping Pong show and the story they told was, they went, it was like off the main strip on like this little alley. They went to like a steel door. The guy was like, yeah, the show's in here. Like took some of their money. They went in and they're in like a room with like a velvet like curtain all the way around it. And there's like a girl in there. And they're like, okay, like what's this about to be? And as soon as they're in, the girl shuts behind him, the girl like waves to them.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:11:07.359)
Yeah.

joe (01:11:10.511)
and then like steps out backwards through the curtains and there's a door behind it. And then two Thailand MPs, military police came in, you know, they have like AR-15s and just like, all right guys, and basically shook those guys down. And we're just like, hey, just give us everything you have on you or you're not leaving this room. No one knows where you are. So it was just an easy way for corrupt military police to like take the remaining money.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:11:33.058)
Oh, fuck.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:11:39.694)
just get you and they know you have money because you're there for the girl and the girl's probably getting in on it too.

joe (01:11:41.037)
That's it.

joe (01:11:45.171)
Yep, she's just there to lure you in. So I mean, these things are reality. And if you are not aware, if you're not like thinking about situations that you could fall into, like you could definitely get gringoed and sometimes it's just like a little easy scam. Other times it's like a scary situation, like, you know, you're thinking you're going to get jail time or you're thinking you're whatever, like people threaten you and like you're like, I'm in a different country. I have really like not a lot of rights here.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:12:05.73)
Yeah.

joe (01:12:13.523)
Nobody knows them in certain areas. So there are like some scary things that I've had to like Learn and like write down in my mental repertoire about like, okay, you're going here. Don't do these things And you know, it's not it's not all

BEN CHALLENGER (01:12:19.278)
Absolutely.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:12:26.498)
So like, what kind of advice would you give to somebody who's like gonna travel with the fact that we both told stories of like, being conned internationally? Like, what would you say to them? Like, with the knowledge that you have now.

joe (01:12:39.735)
Yeah, man, there's like there's so many things it'd be hard to just give you like one or two easy ones but like uh a simple starter is

If you're just beginning to do it, go with friends, like be with a group and even try to be with a local that you know there. Cause like I travel alone pretty often, especially in the last like seven years. I like traveling alone, but like because I got good at this, but like your first time out there, you should probably go with like a group of people or like know a local. Cause just by being a local, other local, like the sketchy people that are there, cause everywhere is sketchy people. Here in the US there's a lot of sketchy people, right?

BEN CHALLENGER (01:12:54.486)
Yeah.

joe (01:13:19.447)
Other people will see that person like, oh, that's not an easy con. I can't gringo that person because the person they're with who understands all the language around is going to be like, uh, this is a scam. Avoid this. So that's like the easiest one for people who want to start or go play these international leagues. And the fortunate thing is since paintball brings us these places, normally you're there to play with some, the team of that country. Exactly. So like your first time there should normally be very smooth.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:13:42.69)
Blake with the local, yeah.

joe (01:13:48.803)
unless you choose to stay days extra before or after, because you're with the locals, they're gonna make sure they treat you right, they're gonna take care of you, they're gonna keep you safe. I've always found that to be really nice. My first time really anywhere was always with the local team, and they would keep me safe, and they would leave me with a bunch of tips for like, hey, you're gonna stay this extra week, avoid this pothole basically.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:14:01.236)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:14:05.422)
for sure.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:14:15.934)
Yeah, for sure. I think that that's good advice. I would maybe say like, keep a cool head, right? Like stay calm and then also like do what you can, right? Like so like you might not always have the amount of money you need or this or that but like do what you can, be calm. Like usually it works out. That's my advice.

joe (01:14:38.325)
True. And, and I mean, don't be a target is one, like that didn't seem to matter for me on the moped thing, but like those tourists that dress, yeah, wearing like chains and gold and like a Rolex, when it's like.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:14:43.789)
Yeah.

Dress humbly.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:14:52.27)
It's like a big target, it's just a giant target really. You know?

joe (01:14:55.055)
Everybody goes, there's the rich gringo. We could definitely either scam that guy or worse, maybe they rob you, you know, maybe it's not that. Yeah, maybe it's a.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:15:00.402)
Or you just rob him. Yeah, definitely no jewelry when I'm out traveling internationally. Not even like a simple chain, just nothing. I don't even really wear like brand name stuff, just like super generic and like try and kinda stay below the radar, be respectful. And then, you know, it's usually fine. Like a lot of times, like the experiences I have with locals out there is great, you know, so.

joe (01:15:06.129)
Yeah.

joe (01:15:15.303)
Same.

joe (01:15:24.059)
For sure. Yeah, I would never want to scare people away. Like a lot of this is to like tell people like the best part of it, but.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:15:28.402)
No, of course not. More than anything, it's like, it's like, it's laughable. It's like a funny part of the show in my mind. Like, like being like, oh, like, you know, like, what was the time where like, you know, like you got scammed? Yeah, it's like, it's kind of funny when you think about it. Like you, you live to tell the tale, right? So.

joe (01:15:32.56)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

joe (01:15:41.283)
Are you up stand? Yeah. Exactly. And 99% of the people and the situations you come across are gonna be remarkably positive. Like, you know, I normally have way more fun in those places and those events than I do.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:15:54.999)
Oh yeah.

joe (01:15:59.611)
back home to be honest and I've also been robbed like at gun point here in the US several times that's never happened to me overseas it's always been like just like you know getting hustled or something like that so danger is I guess it's all over and just be smart and keep yourself out of like dumb situations but yeah that is a good one though.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:16:21.746)
Yeah, for sure.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:16:27.286)
So who are you gonna try and get on the show next?

joe (01:16:27.537)
All right.

joe (01:16:30.955)
Um, probably, I don't know, Nate Trader, Thomas, or one of those guys. I've already been talking to a few guys. Um, but you know, I, I haven't really got into the meat of like what I wanted to ask about your travels and yeah, no, we jumped right to like the gringo story and that's good because I, I need to remember to ask people like, so.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:16:49.574)
Oh, then go ahead, sorry. Ha ha ha.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:16:56.243)
Sorry, we talked about Asia and it was like, oh, there's a gringo story from Asia though.

joe (01:17:00.991)
Yes, but like, okay, so your travels in Asia, like back to Malaysia, because a lot of people don't know what that's like. So tell me about Langkawi, you know, like paint the picture for me vividly what this.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:17:07.627)
Yeah.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:17:16.458)
Man, so like, you know, just a really beautiful island. You know, it was like, I thought it was very clean. Also like pretty modern as well. You know, you have your like classic like touristy streets, but then you have like just crazy like beach sceneries with like bays and mountains and all of it's just like blended and like the weather is just incredible. It's like super hot. Like.

like 90s, 100, you know, like pretty decent amount of humidity as well. Yeah, I remember sweating so much out there, but just tropical really, like that's how I would like describe it. I mean, like you could type in like Len Cowie on your phone and Google some images and you'll kind of see what I'm saying. I remember they have this like really gnarly statue of an eagle. It was...

It was huge, it was like 50 feet. And like, yeah, we all went and like saw that and it had like a cool, I kind of like marked it around it and that was pretty cool. I swear we took a, oh, did we take a ferry over there? I'm trying to remember how we got, cause I think, didn't we?

joe (01:18:24.147)
That's such a classic.

joe (01:18:31.947)
No, we... I think we took the ferry to Monkey Island or something like that. But I thought I thought we just mopeded over to that side.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:18:38.854)
Oh, yeah, I remember a song that very true. I'm just trying to remember how we got there.

joe (01:18:44.987)
That Eagle Statue, it's very famous, not only for them, but for paintballers, because, so, back, the Langkawi event has been happening for a long time. Even the first time I was there, wasn't the first year there, and there was that group of guys who was always traveling. Shout out to the man himself, Mr. Paintball, Tim Montresser, rest in peace.

He loved that place. That was his jam. And you know, like another guy who would be part of that with him would be like his good friend Ryan Morehead. I'd love to have him on the show for a lot of those stories, but like Damien Ryan, Greg Sewers, Greenspan's been there. Like just any of those dudes that you see who travel a lot, Marcelo,

BEN CHALLENGER (01:19:12.62)
Yeah.

joe (01:19:36.943)
Maybe Blake, maybe Ronnie. There's like this group I'd say like 12 to 15 guys. Ooh, did I lose ya?

BEN CHALLENGER (01:19:45.418)
No, I'm still here.

joe (01:19:47.681)
Oh, your camera checked out.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:19:51.734)
Yeah, one sec, I'll be right back. I can hear you and everything. I'll just be right back.

joe (01:19:53.847)
Okay.

Gotcha. Yeah, I probably should ask if you need a bathroom break or anything, but yeah, those guys, they love to meet at that eagle statue. It was like a cool moped trip over there. And the moped gang even became the war eagles. And like, while you were whipping around the island, if you passed by other whatever, like paintball teams from other countries, like you'd always see the Australian dudes there. As you blow by them, you'd be like beeping on your horn and screaming like,

BEN CHALLENGER (01:20:00.959)
Yeah.

joe (01:20:25.763)
War Eagles! So yeah, it was a cool thing that kind of like brought into when I came in my first year there and yeah just a remark at you.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:20:34.251)
That's it.

joe (01:20:38.467)
Um, but yeah, so beyond that, um, what were you saying aside from the eagle? I, I cut you off there.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:20:48.982)
No, it was just a tropical place, man. And you know, if anybody was curious about Langkawi, they should look it up, it was sweet. Yeah.

joe (01:20:57.799)
So was this your first time ever going to Asia?

BEN CHALLENGER (01:21:05.374)
Yeah, so the first Asia trip I think was like 2018. And we went to Thailand and then we went to Malaysia. And didn't we go to Indonesia? Or was that the second trip? That was the second trip. The second trip wasn't, I thought, I thought.

joe (01:21:10.867)
282.

joe (01:21:22.428)
No, that was the first trip. No, first trip. I didn't do the second trip with you. Remember? The second time you did the whole thing with Breakout, the first time we did Thailand with Breakout, Malaysia with KTM, Fazz's team, and then we went from there to Indonesia to hang out with Palti and that group of people. But you know,

BEN CHALLENGER (01:21:31.458)
You're right.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:21:47.614)
Yeah, yeah, sick. And they gave us like that crazy ass tour through, like it was just, it was so wild. They, man, they could have killed us, holy shit. They like took us and we went on like a, God, it must have been like a 12 hour road trip through Indonesia to this like crazy like spot with like a lake, but like from the edges of the lake up were like mountains and it was just, it was just wild. We ate like a really good meal there.

They were saying something about like, it was like a spot where like the meteor hit the earth or something that like wiped out the dinosaurs or some shit like that. That's what they were saying the crater of the lake was. But it was just really cool and scenic and beautiful. I remember monkeys being like along the sides of the road. And like, I think we fed one an orange. It was pretty cool.

joe (01:22:23.748)
It was a, it was a crater like.

joe (01:22:42.651)
We did. Yeah, real quick, your camera's still off.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:22:46.966)
Really? I turned it back on. Let me turn it off and on. How about now?

joe (01:22:49.712)
Nope.

joe (01:22:53.263)
Uh oh.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:22:56.714)
I'm back, I can't even see myself.

joe (01:22:59.015)
That's weird, I can't see you and I think I'm on the recording side. So.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:23:06.134)
I've pressed on and off with it like a couple of times. But as long as you can hear me, that's what it's all about.

joe (01:23:08.631)
Actual recording is higher quality. That's true. This one could just be a you know, I guess I could put a Disclaimer that this is more for Spotify But yeah, anyways, that was a Lake Tova which was a crater lake and it had that cool little Yep, and inside of it was like in the dead center of that lake was like a little tiny like one kilometer island With like some you know, German hostels and stuff like that

BEN CHALLENGER (01:23:25.515)
Lake Tobo, that's right.

joe (01:23:39.383)
And the outside of the lake was just like tiny Villages that were well, I'll let you describe it. Do you remember the first little village we stopped at?

BEN CHALLENGER (01:23:51.438)
Dude, I remember us stopping somewhere in the mountains when it was storming and eating at this little cafe.

joe (01:24:00.143)
Yep. Having some tea and let them have a scoop.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:24:02.294)
like really interesting though, cause it was like, it was sheltered, but it was like out outside. It wasn't really like inside, but like you were kind of inside. I don't know. It was like a unique, a whole unique vibe.

joe (01:24:15.791)
Yeah, like lean-to situations as like a small restaurant.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:24:21.73)
Mm-hmm.

joe (01:24:22.819)
Yeah, and do you remember down like on the edge of the lake too before we went out to the island?

BEN CHALLENGER (01:24:35.114)
Yeah, I remember that one spot and I remember like, I remember eating the fish that they had caught out of the water in front of us and they cooked it up for us. I thought that was pretty unique. Man, yeah, the hospitality was really great. They were very hospitable and just looked after us really well.

The next year I ended up going back to Indonesia because I liked it so much, but I just went to Bali instead. It was great.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:25:26.807)
What?

BEN CHALLENGER (01:25:30.87)
you had a run time.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:27:20.782)
Thanks for watching!

BEN CHALLENGER (01:27:31.97)
Do.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:28:12.214)
Hey Joe. Yeah.

me out and said, my sick Maya.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:28:23.966)
Well, yeah, and I mean, you got a lot of content to probably sift through. And I don't know if you just upload the whole thing raw or like, you go back in and clean it up or what.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:28:41.95)
So I think at this point I would just like record another video and then stitch them together. I kind of learned how to do that in iMovies. But I don't want it to like cut out on me again. So I'm going to have to figure out this camera situation. Or do the summer rev. Maybe better internet or something like that. Where do you have better internet than home?

BEN CHALLENGER (01:29:08.258)
That is upsetting to me because we have brand new internet here that is supposed to be really fast. I can see it's working fast. So it might just be that I'm on this old computer.

BEN CHALLENGER (01:29:21.41)
I am not able to plug my mic and all my shit into my computer because it's a fucking Mac.