Four Blokes, Two Mics & a Surf Park - The Waves Of Wellness Debrief

In this chaotic, hilarious, and unexpectedly meaningful episode, Burso is joined by Fitzy, Juzzy, and Dave “Johnno” at Melbourne’s URBNSURF to reflect on their eight-week journey through the Waves of Wellness surf program—a mental health initiative blending group therapy and man-made waves.

The episode opens with mic mishaps, Ricky Bobby impressions, and awkward lollipop-style handling of audio gear—before settling into a rich and relatable conversation about why the surfboard might be the new couch for veterans and first responders.

They discuss what it was like stepping into a wetsuit for the first time in years—especially ones that feel more like sieves than insulation—and how man-made barrels (even if only 4 seconds long) created space for real emotional release. Amongst the banter, one surprising revelation stood out: the real healing didn’t happen in the chat circles—it happened during party waves and post-surf coffees.

The team jokes about flaps, velcro shoes, and microphones that feel like Cossack hats, but also get deep:

• Why are younger veterans so hard to reach?
• Why is it easier to open up during a wipeout than in a psychologist’s office?
• Has the loss of the “after-shift beer” killed off one of the best support tools we had?

Anecdotes You’ll Love:

• Dave Johnno DJ... pees in his wetsuit (accidentally?), only to discover it was a drysuit.
• Fitzy openly admits if he’s not having fun surfing, “no one’s getting up”—sabotage is the name of the game.
• Dave finally talks… and ends up being the most poetic, describing mic windscreens as “Russian hats for mice in Stalingrad.”
• They debate shrimp breeds and the philosophical merit of Neocaridina.
• Multiple running jokes around “adages,” eventually becoming a game of Adage Bingo.

Despite the laughs, there’s real substance here. They talk about how this kind of surf-based therapy helps where traditional models don’t—no pressure to perform, no clinical coldness, just mateship, motion, and momentum.

They reflect on the disconnect between veterans and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA), pointing out the flawed communication systems and outdated platforms like DVA TV. Even with good programs like this one, they say, “How do you help people if you can’t even contact them?”

The episode closes with a discussion on sustainability—can the crew keep surfing after the program ends? Would they pay to come back? Can this model work nationally? They’re not sure, but one thing's clear: connection, even over shrimp jokes and cold water, can be life-changing.

Matty Morris of https://www.zerolimitspodcast.com/ helps us out with a banger of a tune. If you want to hear about some real intense moments from Veterans and First Responders. Check out Zero Limits Podcast. 

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Transcript

Introduction to Urban Surf

Burso 0:04

It does go something like that. I don't know how close we're going to have to hold it Today. We've Juzzy and and Jono. Jono and Jono. How are you? Young boys, good afternoon. You're going to make this so weird, aren't you? Justin? Hold it up. There you go. What are you? What?

Juzzy 0:27

is wrong with you. I was there on adage. I was there on adage.

Burso 0:32

He looks like Ricky Bobby. You're not even on camera. Why are you acting so weird? This is how.

Juzzy 0:37

I normally am. You need to put the microphone in your mouth.

Burso 0:41

He's like he's not a lollipop he's got his hands moving like he's Ricky Bobby. He doesn't know what to do with his hands. I'm like mate, it's a microphone, talk into it. Good to go, it's really not that hard what's wrong with you at the moment? You've been talking shit all day and then you're just like but we're not even on camera. That doesn't even make sense ah well, sense.

Juzzy 1:00

Ah well, so you don't understand if you're a redboard surfer, mate.

Burso 1:04

Oh, okay, yeah good. No, a bit of trash, that's all right. I see where you're going with that Yep Treats and knows. Anyway, what have we got? Today? We're at Urban Surf, tullamarine, near the airport.

Fitzy 1:18

Got to say it is quite cold today in the water.

Burso 1:22

It was pretty brutal. My hands were killing me, my head was burning. You had a good wetsuit though today.

Fitzy 1:28

No, I didn't get a good wetsuit today. I got a, I don't know. I think they it was like a strainer, for you know you could have used it as a sieve. It was horrible.

Burso 1:39

It's been good so far. We've worked out that wetsuits have got flaps on the back. I don't know if it's new technology we never had that when I was a kid, but that's good. I don't know if it's some weird stuff, but the water stops getting in. We had booties. I had booties. That's the first for me. Oh, you'd run booties, wouldn't you? Yeah, and Justin, feel free to just do something that makes you less weird. What is he? What is he? He's freaking me out.

Juzzy 2:04

I just realised Bursa. I just realised that your track suit camouflages you with the waves.

Burso 2:08

It does and it's matching and I've got like old man shoes they're.

Dave Johnno 2:12

Velcro. Where are they from?

Burso 2:14

by the way they're shoes.

Juzzy 2:14

They're definitely K-Mart's Well.

Burso 2:16

I don't know, I've actually got them those shoes, man, they look marvelous. They didn't fit him, Literally the only reason. Otherwise they would have been his prized possession for a bit.

Dave Johnno 2:30

He's got a great big Velcro. You're talking about flaps now. You've got flaps on your mind, clearly, because the shoes are the most remarkable. Comb over, if you like. On the shoe you've got a more conventional uh, I suppose you say high fade of the shoe world on your foot right now. It completely encompasses the entire upper arch of your foot, which would hopefully provide you with appropriate support, and, uh, they're very white and clean at the bottom, so I don't know that they've had a lot of battle.

Burso 3:10

Where have you been for this whole podcast? You've literally described things better.

Fitzy 3:13

You've literally come in with a massive value adage.

Juzzy 3:16

I think it's the old adage. It's the old adage if the shoe fits.

Dave Johnno 3:21

That was a great, remarkable single entendre. I think you'd almost say You've done very well, Fitzy.

Burso 3:28

I was wondering where the adage was going with that. I was wondering where he was going to jump in with it. Anyway, we're here doing surfing. We're three and a half minutes in.

Fitzy 3:36

The last eight weeks we've been coming here on a Monday and surfing at Urban Surf Fake waves, fake, waves, fake waves. Are they fake waves? They're man-made waves, that's probably better.

Burso 3:52

Do you want to say something about shrimp? To make you less weird, Justin Nah.

Juzzy 3:55

It's cold in the water today.

Dave Johnno 4:01

I don't know how a shrimp would go in that water.

Juzzy 4:06

The shrimp wouldn't survive in the water. The thing with shrimp they couldn't be in 21 degrees Celsius water and yeah, they just wouldn't. They wouldn't survive and we nearly didn't survive in these conditions today, Catching the waves, Penultimate session out there what?

Juzzy 4:20

were we doing Party waves, party waves.

Juzzy 4:23

And it was just bedlam. It was just crashing into each other. Fitzy took me out about three times verso, probably about the same. You know, come out of the water with an arm injury. Couldn't feel my fingers. Where'd that come from?

Burso 4:38

what's going on with these two blokes?

Fitzy 4:39

so what's what's been happening for the last eight weeks? Why? Why are we only to go into detail? But what's the whole purpose? Were you a surfer before you the last eight weeks? Why are we? I don't need to go into detail, but what's the whole purpose? Were you a surfer before you came here eight weeks ago, or anybody?

Dave Johnno 4:51

I was not. This is so painful. I was not a surfer, Sorry, I coughed into the mic. I think that's a faux pas in the podcasting world and I don't want to come along here.

Fitzy 5:03

There we go.

Dave Johnno 5:09

There, we've all had a go at it. Yeah, my editor will take that out. Thanks for including me in that, and it makes me feel more whole. Um, but the? Uh? No, I have not. I've I've surfed once, um, I've I've dabbled in boogie boarding, um, but nothing, nothing, quite as uh emotionally. Uh well, what would you say? It really was. Like they say in the old adage the water is a man's best friend and also his foe. Is that a new adage or old adage?

Dave Johnno 5:37

I think it's a very very recent adage.

Dave Johnno 5:39

In fact, it was coined by a bloke who looks a lot like me, yeah, quite recently.

Burso 5:46

John O did that.

Dave Johnno 5:48

Yeah, that's right. No, no, no. In all seriousness, it was a very good session today. It was very chilly. I don't know that my wetsuit was made out of the same holy cheese kind of wetsuit of Fitzy's, because mine seemed to retain the water well, especially the urine.

Fitzy 6:07

That was particularly. Didn't they give you a briefing like do not pee in the wetsuits, oh no, I had a dry suit. Oh, so you peed in a dry suit initially?

Burso 6:16

Isn't that the idea? No, initially it was a dry suit, now it's a wetsuit and inside out now. Well, anyway, yeah, but inside out now.

Dave Johnno 6:20

Well, anyway, yeah, but I pity the fool that has to put it on next. But it's like the adage says if the suit fits, piss in it. Like the adage says. That's all I have to say about that. Yeah, nice, trying it.

Juzzy 6:37

That was good. So for a bit more context, we're out here doing Waves of Wellness, oh good.

Burso 6:43

We're out here doing Waves of Wellness. Oh good, we're out here doing Waves of Wellness. It's a program.

Juzzy 6:46

Seven minutes in.

Juzzy 6:49

Eight-week program pairing up mental health, group sessions and learning to surf. How have you found it Wet?

Burso 7:01

I thought he was going to give us a shit joke about Google Maps. I knew neither was going to go with a shit joke about Google Maps. That's what I thought. I knew neither was going to be a good option.

Juzzy 7:09

No, it's been really good. I've really enjoyed it. It's a good little ready reckoner for you know, mental health stuff. You think you're across it but you know you get skill fade and then it's been a good opportunity to sort of refresh and then marry it up with learning to surf and yeah, the two go well together, do you think?

Juzzy 7:34

you'll continue surfing.

Juzzy 7:37

Yeah, for sure I've really enjoyed it. I found the craziness of life sort of slows down and goes away when you're just focusing on trying to catch a wave and get yourself in the right spot to catch a wave, whether it's at the wave pool here it's a bit easier or out in the ocean, it's the same thing, and you're just. You know it's like a lot of hobbies. I guess you can kind of pause all your life's problems and just focus immediately on what you're doing. And no, it's been really good.

Fitzy 8:08

For people that haven't been here. How would you describe this?

Burso 8:12

Sorry about that. I'm working out these new microphones so you may have heard a lot of wind noise in the background and that sort of stuff there. If that was annoying compared to what it's going to be in the future, because I've adjusted some of the levels, if you can, let me know if you prefer background noise or if you don't want it anymore. Also, apologies, because obviously this is an absolute rock show of a thing and trying to put four people together with two microphones. But um, yeah, it's been fun so far.

Fitzy 8:40

We're back on again so do I need to ask that question again? First, I decided to go off and have a savvy and turned it off. What's that Savvy imposter? 15%, 17% off. What is it? I don't know it.

Burso 8:55

We're sponsored, we have an affiliate code, imposter, and it gives you 17% off. And Fitzy absolutely brutalizes it every time. He makes up different words, probably why we never make any income what is it imposter? Imposter savvy the brand is savvy. Imposter is a people people probably think that we like plan these ads, which sounds terrible, so you remember them.

Dave Johnno 9:19

But actually can I ask them what? What is savvy? What? What do they produce as a virgin member of this podcast, clothing line.

Burso 9:30

No, it's a beverage.

Fitzy 9:33

It's an energy beverage without any of the nasties Righto.

Burso 9:37

There's like nootropics and stuff.

Dave Johnno 9:40

Where can I buy it?

Burso 9:41

You can do it. Grab one from my house next time. Usually, if you're on the podcast, we just give you Savvy's. And then people are like oh, these are actually quite nice, but there's like bars and there's calm water and a bunch of other shit as well.

Fitzy 9:52

You can order them and put imposter in as the code and get 17% off. That's what I was thinking.

Fitzy 9:57

There he is, there he is.

Juzzy 9:58

Yeah right.

Fitzy 10:00

Silly not to Good adage. That was a good adage.

Dave Johnno 10:04

Comment from the super coach.

Juzzy 10:08

To answer Fitzy's question. What was Fitzy's question? Fitzy's question was how would you describe this venue? Oh yeah, it's a mechanical wave pool. It's quite nice. Obviously, it's in the middle of industrial Melbourne, near the airport. Well, that's the funny thing about it.

Fitzy 10:26

It is in an industrial area, so for someone that was thinking of coming here, would you recommend this for kids? Would you recommend it only if you're a hardcore surfer. Is there anything else here?

Juzzy 10:39

Yeah, there's a playground.

Burso 10:42

You're about to go time out, aren't you? Look at him? He's like a spin. There's a playground. You're about to go time out, aren't you? Look at him? He's like a spin.

Juzzy 10:45

There's a playground with a swing, but no, they've set it up, you know, to sort of mimic a nice sort of little tropical getaway. You know they've got a sandy area, they've got nice grass areas, deck chairs. There's a restaurant here, but yeah, the focus is definitely on surfing in the man-made pool.

Burso 11:03

They've even got seagulls. Dave's like wow, we have seagulls anyway, mate, seagulls are everywhere, those are the best. No, but see, you've got.

Dave Johnno 11:09

Tullamore Airport. Just I assume over there, and I would have thought if the birds are taking off, they'd have to be over there about a quarter.

Dave Johnno 11:15

I mean, yeah, we're one bird strike away himself in the middle of urban surf, and that would really make the whole thing. I mean, it's no hudson river, but you know it's a. It's a body of water, it's an isthmus, not too far from from where we're sitting, and in fact you might even be able to hear the waves in the background. Perhaps it might be a 747 engine. Who knows these crazy days? Who knows?

Fitzy 11:39

it's quite an impressive. It is quite an impressive place. So when you walk in though, isn't it? It is, it really is.

Dave Johnno 11:44

I've never set foot in this venue before and it strikes me as how incredible it is in that it's enclosed in such a way that you are safe, you're away from the elements, aside from the cold water itself, and you can just really have the ability to just have a good think while you're out on the waves, despite the coldness of it, and really take in the atmosphere of everyone around you in a positive and friendly environment.

Burso 12:15

I'm going to send a link from this to Nick. That runs with Wow and he'll be like Dave spoke more when you put a microphone in front of him than for eight weeks beforehand. He's going to be livid.

Fitzy 12:29

I'll tell you, none of you guys have been to a wake park before.

Burso 12:33

I've been wakeboarding in Penrith Cable.

Juzzy 12:36

Park or whatever it is. Yeah, the Cable Park, so it's like that.

Burso 12:39

but for surfing. So there's in Geelong I mean this is a while away, but there's that massive big quarry. They're going to turn that into a lake. I'm going to try and get a cable park over there. It'd be sick, oh awesome. Yeah, we'll see how that goes, but anyway, that's unrelated in the future.

Juzzy 12:53

Very good value addage.

Burso 12:56

Do you actually think that's a value addage, or just, oh, the Germans.

Juzzy 13:00

Oh well, we're well equipped. What does that actual siren mean? Do we need to leave?

Burso 13:05

I bet you, the noise cancelling has probably turned that off. It was a siren.

Fitzy 13:09

End of the session. Boys. End of the session. What?

Burso 13:11

does it actually mean though?

Fitzy 13:12

You've got to pay again.

Burso 13:17

Oh, it means you've got two more cents left to waves.

Juzzy 13:18

Very good, very good.

Burso 13:20

Oh, that's what that?

Juzzy 13:21

is. Did you actually not know that?

Dave Johnno 13:22

I'm not very bright. I mean, if you've listened to what I've said so far, that's probably evident. But oh no, I wasn't aware that it meant you had two left. I thought it was just a usual warning for me of shit behaviour. Get out of wherever you are. The jacks are coming.

Juzzy 13:44

We did get in a bit of trouble today. Every week it's been no, you can't be here, you have to move. Today was a bit of a funny one, where I spent the first half of the session. You guys need to move over.

Burso 13:54

You're in the way, yeah they did, but then they just, they just gave up, they gave up and they just went. You know what? There's only four of them out the back, they seem to be okay, and and they just went. You know what? There's only four of them out the back, they seem to be okay, and then we just went with party waves, party, waves Party waves yeah, I read party waves.

Juzzy 14:08

I don't know. You see what I'm jumping on board.

Burso 14:10

That's exactly what it was. One job, Justin. Yeah, what's that?

Fitzy 14:16

You did well when you said something. Thanks, mate.

Burso 14:26

I'm trying my best.

Fitzy 14:27

Yeah, maybe Dave needs to hold the microphone he didn't need to jam in his beard. How's it feel, Dave?

Dave Johnno 14:31

Yeah, well, it's like I'm holding a miniature Cossack. I mean this, and now Dave's not holding it in front of you. This microphone, the top of the microphone, the buffer, if you like, looks like a Cossack thing, like a hat.

Fitzy 14:46

For the listeners. You're obviously not aware we've got these mini little handheld microphones, but then Bursa's got these little Russian hats that are very soft to touch.

Burso 14:58

Are you making this an ASMR podcast?

Fitzy 15:00

Yeah, they feel like a soft pet rabbit. That's been well cared for. They call him a dead cat in the business. Yeah, they feel like a soft pet rabbit. That's been well cared for.

Burso 15:07

They call them a dead cat in the business, Matt, or a windsock for people at home. I don't know why we're talking about them, no no, I like it.

Surf as Therapy for Mental Health

Dave Johnno 15:16

If you're a mouse working for the Russians back in Stalingrad. You'd be well and truly nice and toasty, warm back in those little you know sort of the campsites there. It would be well and truly nice and toasty, warm back in those little you know sort of the campsites there.

Juzzy 15:28

It would be lovely. All right, there is a little bit of. There is some evaluated, some Russian talk. Where's all this come from? Well, I mean, I didn't invent the thing. Are we going to go there?

Dave Johnno 15:38

I'm just holding it, but I mean it's, yeah, it's obviously very important. It's a cold day and even the microphones need warmth. So think about the microphones, fitzy, I mean you're sitting back there, you're warm, you've got your beanie on, you've got your warm jacket. Can we please talk about that?

Juzzy 15:56

No, it's not on at the moment. No.

Burso 16:04

Well, if the day's like we're here at a multi-million dollar facility where people make man-made waves that have barrels and different settings and all that sort of stuff.

Juzzy 16:12

He's impressed with the microphone, isn't he?

Burso 16:14

Well, justin's like sorry, can we just stop and pay attention to the 13-cent thing that's attached to the top of the microphone? And you ask Dave about the mic and Dave's like TGI's a brand, you can do this. I was like wow.

Dave Johnno 16:27

Well, let's not get caught up in the minutiae of it. It is what it is, and I think we're all impressed by it, and sorry about that. I think, justin, you're pretty impressed as well.

Fitzy 16:36

Yeah, I'd have to agree there. One thing Fitzy was alluding to earlier about some of the troubles that can happen in group therapy sessions, which is essentially what this Waves of Wellness program has been so obviously, having a lot of people participating from emergency services they're pretty familiar with the concept of mental health, you know, and being proactive, doing mental health, first aid and the like, and part of that, you know, involves having your own one-on-one therapy sessions with mental health professionals, and usually in these sessions it sounds pretty selfish but you make it all about you and people get get into the habit of just talking about themselves. But then the flip side, when you come and do these group sessions, you then have to share it around with everyone else and there's been a couple of people Berso is one of them who just love to talk and go off on tangents. But yeah, berso was good value. There was another participant who would just come right out of left field and really blow your mind with some of the things that they were saying.

Burso 17:55

It's all about perspective, mate, yeah.

Fitzy 17:57

Yeah.

Dave Johnno 17:59

I'm sitting right here, mate. You're going to start talking about Chris's flaps again.

Juzzy 18:03

I mean, we've been doing this every Monday. Are you going to try and set this as a thing, so Mondays from now and maybe continuing forward the program's gone? Are you going to try and think maybe next Monday you might go to Tookie?

Fitzy 18:18

No, also, the thing that you don't have to worry about at the wave pool is what the conditions are like, or sharks, that's a lot of people's fears. Well, yeah, no sharks here, but in the ocean there are sharks, but there are also different surf conditions. So you've got to here, but in the ocean there are sharks, but they're also different surf conditions. So you gotta, you gotta figure out. Um, you know what the swell's doing, how big it is, uh, where the wind's blowing from all that sort of stuff was doing here yeah and it's on repeat, yeah so you're probably not gonna commit to going surfing on the same day every week.

Fitzy 18:50

You're going to really read the conditions and make your life fit around the conditions to go surfing, I'd say.

Burso 18:56

What did they say? The lessons were. A lesson in a surf is like $140 for each one. So what we were doing was like would have been $140 because we've got the. Harry and Shay were doing the instructor stuff with us, but also I think the gang went afterwards. Last time it was $40. So $40 for an hour session. That's probably on you whether you want to work out if that's worth it to you or not, but you will catch waves and you do know what the waves are beforehand and generally people seem to be riding the waves on their own. I think it appears to be what do you reckon? They have like 10 max and then there's 10 waves in a set. So you, what do you reckon? They have like 10 max and then there's 10 waves in a set. So you'd probably yeah, you get one or two waves each.

Juzzy 19:34

Today I heard the guys talking we weren't. They weren't putting as many waves through the pool today like they were in previous weeks because there wasn't so many people here, so they were only doing smaller sets oh, would it make them.

Burso 19:46

Yeah, it'd be easier to get out because the sets are going down. Just jump straight in that rip like a bunch of bad boys, like we are.

Dave Johnno 19:51

That had nothing to do with the potential for poor behaviour by the participants on, they cut it back. Was it Fitzy, or was that just happenstance that they decided?

Juzzy 20:00

to no, apparently it was just because there wasn't as many people in there today and I don't think even on the days that we've had, you know, more people here. Earlier on April, when we started it was warmer weather, it still wasn't crazy. There wasn't, you know, heaps of people here. So there's plenty of space and they have sessions every what like every hour, so you can always book in whatever you want.

Fitzy 20:23

Just make sure you don't go when Fitzy goes, because a direct quote if I can't get up, I'm not letting you get up.

Juzzy 20:30

True, true, I do like to sabotage If I'm not having fun. None of you are.

Burso 20:36

Yeah, there's different ways. What is it? There's the beginner, there's cruiser, there's barrel, but that's very loosely termed barrel. I think it goes for about four seconds at best. I don't know what the other ones are. I don't think we've seen the barrel setting. I think they did it right at the start because they said they go through the different waves when they do the intro, not the intro, the warm-up. At the start they do a bunch of different waves.

Fitzy 21:01

All the sessions are on the website.

Burso 21:04

Do you know what the website is? You're going to go with a little….

Fitzy 21:06

Urban Surf. Just Google it, and, and it's not spelt urban, it's spelt U-R-B-N.

Burso 21:16

Because it's gangster like that. One thing I was going to bring up was obviously this was like a grant from DVA. Everyone hates DVA, so enjoy it because you got something out of DVA. So DVA actually gave a grant to Waves of Wellness and Invictus to do this. That's how it happened. I was talking to Dave Jono DJ.

Juzzy 21:35

I was talking to DJ about it, he'd be all over the place. Yeah, whatever, who are you? I don't know.

Burso 21:39

He's undercover Mate. He'd have a shave and I'd have no idea who the bloke was.

Dave Johnno 21:42

I knew, you told him what I looked like.

Burso 21:43

Yeah, and then what was I talking about? Then you were talking about the grant. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, so the grant was on there. But it's interesting between the cops and veterans. It's like DVA have so many different programs and stuff and there's just nothing for coppers. It's like it's such a. It's crazy, like Tim was saying before, he'd been on the list for about a year to try and get on for a first responder one, to try and get on for a first responder one, to try and get a class for that, and he just couldn't because it was obviously flat out, everybody wants to try and do something. And then, yeah, but then he jumped on because he was a veteran one and he's like, yep, sweet, he just jumped the queue and got on board. But yeah, it's funny how much actual funding and programs and stuff are out there for people. If you actually wanted to do it and you look into it, there's heaps of stuff out there. But you know everyone just gives.

Juzzy 22:35

So this program was Waves of Wellness. For anyone that's listening, that is a veteran type, that in Waves of Wellness and see if there's something in your local area, because it's not just at Urban Surf in Melbourne, they do them all over the country, isn't that right? Chris?

Burso 22:48

Yeah, so there was one. They did another one with, like the commandos. I'm in Sydney. They had like a commando-only one. I think they were doing that with the Commando Trust. But these are pilot sessions, so ideally they're going to start rolling them out around the rest of the country and I don't know if they're going to do this one again same time next year or if we're going to do another one at the end of the year. I wonder if it's space-related as well, like whether it's, you know, like over summer it'll be pretty flat out.

Fitzy 23:15

Can't surf in space, Berso.

Burso 23:18

Thanks. Thanks, justin, appreciate it. We'll go past the aquarium on the way home. Mate, I know you're getting touchy, but yeah. So like I just wonder if there's that whole thing as well where you know like they need to make money. So if over summer they might not be able to do it, but geez, it was brutal in the cold today.

Juzzy 23:37

Most of the time it's been pretty good. Today was probably the worst one and I think today, paired up with the shite wetsuit that I had today, didn't help it. Yeah, I don't know. There's an old adage Good way to get you out of the house, and it is an old adage of.

Dave Johnno 23:52

Paul Workman always blames his tools or her tools or their tools. Well, my tool wasn't doing much today. Evidently, you shrunk away from this conversation real quick. But just to allude to what you're saying, Chris, I would agree 100% with what is going on. I'm just having a laugh. I found out I was going to have a chat seriously for a second.

Juzzy 24:17

Serious. Go for it now, Blow away. We do like to interrupt a serious spot.

Dave Johnno 24:22

Oh look, I won't punctuate it for too long with seriousness, but what you were alluding to before, joss, was that if you are sort of seeing somebody a professional, a counsellor or a psychologist or whomever and it's always a one-on-one and it's very much egocentric or focused on the individual versus having to get yourself out of bed, drive to this wonderful destination and then listen to other people as well who, until you actually get here and start talking with others and hearing some stories, you kind of are used to just talking in isolation. So to have a broader spectrum and appreciation for oh, I'm not the only one that sort of might be feeling like this about that or whatever the situation may be, it's really good to be able to communicate on that level and to listen to other people where it's non-judgmental 100% and you know one of the best things has been perspective.

Fitzy 25:34

You know like you can really take.

Burso 25:35

Ignore Jazzy whilst he goes on a rant about talking about some other people in the crew Inappropriate, Just forwarding Whatever. Oh, a daddage and we're back. That's actually not bad a daddage and we're back.

Juzzy 25:54

That's actually not bad a daddage.

Burso 25:56

Yeah.

Juzzy 25:57

Plenty of daddages in there.

Burso 25:58

I think actually doing it as a crew too, like to have driving in and out, or while we didn't grab you, I don't know, I feel bad.

Dave Johnno 26:08

Yeah, I live in the same town as two of these other hosts.

Juzzy 26:11

I only just found this out.

Dave Johnno 26:14

I feel like the fact is it's not being picked for the football team right now, literally.

Juzzy 26:18

We live in the same suburb.

Dave Johnno 26:20

Probably the same estate. You don't even know my house man.

Burso 26:26

We're literally all going to drive.

Juzzy 26:27

You knew, I didn't know, I had no idea. Patey wouldn't have got a ride in.

Dave Johnno 26:37

My road rage might have given you the shits a little bit.

Fitzy 26:40

We've all got the road rage. We've all got road rage.

Burso 26:43

Fitzy commentates on everybody's driving on the way in and me going on a rant. Ignore that part Moving on to where we're not upsetting people's feelings again and Because I didn't know what slow TV was.

Dave Johnno 26:56

When I was a teenager, there was a show called Cheese TV. Do you remember Cheese TV? Oh yeah, Cheese TV.

Fitzy 27:01

Cheese TV was the bee's knees. Cheese TV Best cartoons ever.

Dave Johnno 27:06

They had X-Men, Batman Adventures.

Burso 27:10

I'm going to talk shit again, but back to sort of what we were roughly talking about earlier. I was just thinking because you know how we lost you used to be able to go out. You'd go out after a shift and you'd debrief and you'd have a beverage or two and you'd just unwind about your shift and that's all been fucking booted. Now they were like nah, we don't want any of this, we don't want any of this, we don't encourage drinking. I'm like maybe he said knock off, do seven shots of tequila and then start a bar fight over bundy. We're literally just saying debrief, chill out, talk about your shift before you go home, and then everything's all good to go so I've had that in um fireys as well.

Fitzy 27:46

Um, pretty much I caught right at the tail end of when they'd have knock-off beers. Knock-off beers, you know, they call them burn beers. If you had a big job. If you had a big job, you'd, all you know, at the end of your second day shift, have a, says the drunk over here, just pick up in the corner.

Fitzy 28:04

You know, have a couple of beers and yeah, debriefing it, it was awesome and then they phased that out pretty quick and, you know, clamped right down on having no alcohol at the station whatsoever and yeah, it's a shame, um, it's a, it's a good way to um, build that camaraderie and um and and it was a mental health check-in.

Burso 28:22

But I wonder if we could do um like, change it. Obviously they're not going to start encouraging you to get on the pierce anymore, but if there's some other thing you can do where they do like they do Like keeping shrimp here we go yeah, yeah, yeah, it's very cathartic, I mean potentially.

Burso 28:41

No, like as in you can be a god Fried shrimp, like sports and stuff afterwards, like if you, you know we can have surfing after or doing whatever else, is Like actually doing something else. Because if you're going to go and spend three hours at the pub and then instead they could be like, hey, why don't you guys go for a walk afterwards or go for a run or do whatever it's like. Why is that not a social norm anymore where, like, you could go and have beers and have a yum, but you wouldn't just go down to the park and go for a stroll after your shift and do whatever. Like it's almost like if you went down, you know, like if you were to tell your partner or whatever. Oh, I'm just having a debrief. We've had a pretty tough shift. We're just going to have a beverage and then we'll come home, that would be accepted. But if you're like we're going to go for a walk and talk as opposed to whatever, Do you think it might be generational?

Dave Johnno 29:34

Could be. I ask that question with my own answer in mind. I think it might be, having been in the police force for over 25 years. That was the way it was done back in the day. If you inverted quotation marks and you know what that really does, work until it doesn't and until someone might start to fray a bit around the edges, and then that can be problematic for not just the group but the person. I always used to find that you'd go there can be problematic for not just the group but the person.

Burso 30:11

Yeah, but I always used to find that you'd go there and if, like, somebody just had, like you know, you just had one and then you were fine. But then you look at oh, little Timmy's in the corner, he's just necked seven beers. He's obviously not well, but you'd know that because you could see like that's weird, he hasn't said anything, he's just like just drowning in beers. That way you'd have a heads up.

Juzzy 30:33

I think, sorry, like you were saying, like it is slightly generational, like you're saying, there's that generational where probably like our age and older, always had those beers and things after work, or Friday boozer drinks, like definitely for Army we always had Friday boozer, all that sort of stuff, and you know you didn't stay every week, but most weeks you'd stay for a couple of beers. Sometimes you'd stay for quite a lot longer, but that was a sort of thing. Nowadays I think they've got away from that. Things have gone a little bit more PC where they don't want to. Any time they talk about alcohol it's bad and then it's also there's none of those social gatherings that are happening, only small ones.

Juzzy 31:15

But now you've got the young ones that are coming through that have grown up with mobile phones and things and so they don't want to hang around with people that they're working with anyway. They don't really want to be with them. They'd rather go back to their phone life straight after anyway. So you don't really I don't know, you don't really I don't know. You don't have that social side of things probably like you used to. I don't think that it's even close to how it used to be work-wise no, it's not, but that's the thing we haven't.

Burso 31:37

We haven't replaced anything with a. You know, you look at now like people are. They're only staying in the job for a year, two years, and they're all leaving on work cover. They're all burnt out and you're like well, because you're not, nobody's dealing with anything anymore. You've got more access to psych services, you've got more access to everything else, but half the time you go and speak to a psych and you'll say something to them and you actually tell them about something that you've been to. They start looking at you scared. It's almost like you're like oh, I'm doing them a disservice by passing this on. I might just keep this PC, because they're obviously not coping with this very well and you shouldn't have to do that either.

Reaching Veterans and Support Programs

Dave Johnno 32:13

And I think that's where the after-work debriefs really were beneficial to many, because if you're able to manage that and it was an opportunity amongst people that you trusted, people that were probably at the incident or for the week, and it's not just a sad, let's get not necessarily just sad. Let's see how many bottoms of glasses we're able to find.

Dave Johnno 32:41

Sometimes you did, though Sometimes you did them cool For sure, and that can be good, and you're with people, like I say, that were most likely at an incident, and sometimes even you know having a couple of drinks might sort of free you up a little bit to be more conversant, whereas you wouldn't if you were stone cold sober. You know the truth. Serum is, the old adage goes. But yeah, so I think it's about the management of that.

Burso 33:11

You can play adage bingo soon.

Fitzy 33:13

One of the best things that was said to me about dealing with critical incident stress and, you know, post-incident trauma, was that there's no right way, there's no wrong way. Basically it's just a timeframe. So if it's, you know, a couple of days, you're still ruminating on it and it's hitting you at random hours that don't seem right, like in the middle of sleep or, you know, in the shower or in mid-conversation to your partner. That's okay, it doesn't matter. But if that lingers and it's like the two-week mark and you're still having that, then that's when you're not really processing it and like, I guess, like old school, you know, having beers and talking about it with your mates, you know that's, I guess, an area of comfort for your typical sort of male way to deal with things. But really I think the key things just get good sleep, keep fit active, you know. Do your workouts, don't just fucking mallow out and sit on the couch and become a recluse. You know why are you looking at me when you're?

Burso 34:17

saying that John, I was over here ticking off all the things.

Dave Johnno 34:23

All the boxes ticked right there, my friend. I'm very good at thinking it and telling other people about it, but I'm not very good at doing it myself when the spotlight's on me.

Fitzy 34:35

Yeah, and telling other people about it, but I'm not very good at doing it myself and when the spotlight's on me, well, yeah, and you know like 100, like I, I went through a bit of a tough time the last couple of years. Um, just really just cumulative um stresses, a bit of work, a bit of um personal life etc. And um, like I fucking really embraced mental health and really got into it and was, you know, just fucking lapping up as much as I could.

Juzzy 34:51

There's like some swearing.

Fitzy 34:53

Can we edit that Is?

Juzzy 34:53

there a pause button.

Fitzy 34:55

No. Oh shit, Fuck sorry.

Burso 34:58

I don't know that we've had a C-bomb, but feel free to not try and leave that. Just to prove a point.

Fitzy 35:05

Well, I can't drop the C-bomb. There's no sea. We're at a wave full no ocean.

Juzzy 35:11

You're right, you're just having an epiphany.

Fitzy 35:14

The day just climaxed. Yeah, that's what it looks like who, John?

Burso 35:20

eh, my thing is we used to have like that's the old way of doing it you go and sink beers, you have a chat, you do whatever. But I don't know that there is a replacement now. You know like everyone's disappearing. They're on their phone, they're doing whatever else it is. It's like what are we doing about it?

Juzzy 35:34

it's like literally, you could all get together and have a mozza, but that's not cool mozzas are great maybe, uh, maybe more party waves.

Burso 35:43

Well, that's the thing, though, like I mean how it's funny. Like we came in here and we go to do the you know, you do the chats and do whatever, and like half the time here we're just like no, I'm not doing it because I'll lose my licence or I'll do whatever. I can't fly because you'll say I'm sad or whatever. So we were very reluctant to it. But then it was funny where you'd see the boys out surfing and you're like I haven't seen the lads any other time having fun, and you're like you look at all these surfing and they're doing whatever. Like it's great for them, but it's just trying to get somebody to start something in the first place seems to be the drama.

Dave Johnno 36:13

I'd agree with that. I think, starting at a start point I'm going to rephrase that to actually just kick something off and just make it your own, even if it's a local thing, if you're at a fire station, at a police station, whatever, make it your own kind of thing. Like, for example, if you were to say okay, we're going to start a tradition at the end of every night shift those in the PSA or those who are at the police station, if you want, always make it optional. If you want, we're going to have barbecue, like we used to do by the Yarra, and this time we'll play pickleball, or this time we'll play bocce, and if you don't want to play, you don't have to play. If you don't want to eat a sausage, you don't have to eat a sausage, whatever it might be. But just have that option there of somewhere to go to debrief and you know, if you want a BYO, so be it, if you don't, fine too. But I think the most important thing is it's optional and that it's valuable to the crew.

Juzzy 37:12

It's optional and if you don't come then we won't speak to you again. Yeah, we'll never talk to you again and we'll talk about you.

Fitzy 37:18

It's like that old adage if you're not here, you're going to get talked about Good adage, and it doesn't have to be work either, right, like you know, you guys are saying very much.

Burso 37:28

No, you're just getting anyone.

Fitzy 37:30

Yeah. But you know, if it's your family, your kids, you know cool, get out, go for a walk with your dog, even if you're just by yourself. You know like, just go out and do something, something that you can control and influence. You know like a skill, mastery or something, just something that makes the white noise of life die down and you're just purely focused on what you're doing and then have small wins, Like we saw it with one of the guys who I may or may not be looking at. You know, on one of the weeks. May or may not have sounded pretty pretty, you know I don't know if may or may not have sounded pretty pretty, you know I don't know if he's targeting the EU.

Burso 38:06

I just pretty wanted it to be me, so I put it on you.

Fitzy 38:09

He may have sounded pretty, you know glum, pretty grim, and then it went and there's a value added. Yeah. And then when he got out, when he got out in the water and you know it was having small wins on the surfboard, like you couldn't wipe the smile off his face. I was like, ah see, good, one dickhead, you can be happy.

Burso 38:29

Yeah, sucked in, you can be happy. We're doing volleyball on Wednesday nights as well and, like those lads do chocs on Tuesdays, and then obviously they do their camps on the weekends and stuff or whatever it is. They do a little bit of a whack overnighters or whatever you chocks do. But it's funny because they're socialising on Wednesday now where they do the volleyball, and now they do park runs on Saturday, like Saturday, and some of the other boys have done park runs on Saturday, and then we had, obviously on the weekend we did the, the boys did the marathon, so they've started doing stuff that way. It was just funny trying to find something to get the lads to start and then consistently do it.

Juzzy 39:04

Um, but we when, when I was in the there's a couple more fellas, by the way, for um for your surf coast entry team oh yeah, dave's jono's dj is good for I can see three members right now piss off.

Burso 39:19

You're not talking about this more what I'm supporting I'm a supporter, I'm not doing it.

Juzzy 39:24

You've got to beat Dave, oh yeah.

Burso 39:28

If Dave's in, I've got to beat Dave's time. Dave will get me. Dave's going to crush you, not this Dave. There's another Dave. What is it? It's a run. It's a surf. Ask questions later. It's a surf Ultra marathon. Yeah, it's a surf Ultramarathon yeah but, we can do teams.

Juzzy 39:45

I'm telling you you want like a team thing where you guys will all feel awesome about yourself. Just get there and do it.

Burso 39:51

That ain't it. It's true 25K Gage.

Juzzy 39:54

I guarantee you like at the end of the day you'll be pretty damn stoked with yourself.

Burso 39:59

Hey Dave, we all quit. No, actually, dave and I won't quit, because if Dave does it in 25K, I'll have to do it. You can't think quietly on the podcast, fitz. It doesn't work, it just doubles down. Fair call.

Dave Johnno 40:15

Man, I don't even drive 25K to Walker's Donuts to get my strawberry and cream.

Juzzy 40:20

I don't know how I'd go with an ultramarathon, you can eat all the donuts in Walker's.

Dave Johnno 40:24

I already do.

Burso 40:25

Look at me, get around the beaties. What do you reckon, lads, if there's another ways of wellness, is it worthwhile getting involved? Is the surfing a thing? Is this venue a thing, would you?

Fitzy 40:44

pay $40 to come on your own To watch the runners yeah, No,40.

Burso 40:46

To come on your own To Waves of Wellness? Yeah. Or just to come and surf at this venue for one and then. Secondly, would you take part in Waves of Wellness?

Fitzy 40:52

again. Yeah, it's more.

Burso 40:53

For an actual session. Yeah, I think it's like $80, $90.

Juzzy 40:58

The good thing about it, though, is, if you come here as a surfer, you're guaranteed waves and you don't have too many people because you've got to book your session times. It's not like you just rock up in the morning and everyone just rocks up at the same time and you all go in. It's sort of session time, so you can you know you're never going to have too many people here. So, yeah, it's an awesome venue. I'm really impressed with this place. It's cool.

Burso 41:19

How do you reckon we would have got more, because there was obviously four spots that were still empty? How would we have got more people involved?

Dave Johnno 41:25

do you reckon Exposure I wasn't aware of it until we bumped into each other, chris, and you mentioned it, and I think if more people hear about how positive it's been for the participants and the more people talk about how good it is and believe that and it really was, then I think the more people talk about how good it is and believe that and it really was, then I think the more people would actively be involved and I'd like to be able to recommend it and I would recommend it to anyone who's in the emergency services slash military sphere.

Burso 41:58

Absolutely. How would you find veterans? Because that's my biggest drama is like how do you get into contact with them?

Juzzy 42:06

It's hard isn't it Because we're all veterans. We've all got veteran mates, but none of us talk to each other. We catch up with each other a lot. We're old mates. Every 10 years you might run across them, nothing changes, but you don't reach out to them ever and tell them about this stuff.

Dave Johnno 42:25

Perhaps it might be a situation where you could you could just even even, depending on whether you're still in contact with the people from your old work group, if, if you're in the emergency services state level, or even just old buddies from from the army, air force, navy, and and you, just out of the blue, it's not a bad idea anyway to just call up old mates and go hey, how you doing, I haven't seen you for a while. What are you up to Gauge what their thoughts on the program might be? Or, even better, you know this might be good for you, or do you know somebody else who might benefit from it? So I'm sure we've all got just maybe even one friend that you know. If each of us were able to do that, then we'd have another course ready to go tomorrow.

Burso 43:03

So the drama I have is, you know, like, if you speak to RSLs, they're generally a demographic. Not many RSLs that are generally like have a bunch of younger people involved. It's good when you've got the different ESOs, like veteran gaming is good because they've got a younger sort of crowd, because it's very online, but then they also don't leave their mum's basement, so it's like it's hard to get them out to do physical activity. And then you've got, you know, word of mouth is fine, facebook, though I don't know anyone that uses Facebook, but we have groups because it's the only place you can put an activity on. You know, like you can use Pineapple Express and stuff like that, but then DVR aren't going to use that because they're not really well supported on that sort of thing. So it's you know, like you can get to veterans while using funny meme pages. That'd be the thing. So I wonder if, like, pineapple Express would do like a paid ad for us or something like that. That might be the only sort of thing. But that's where the demographic is Like.

Burso 43:55

I went on Matty Morris' and that was sort of the biggest influx I had of people hitting me up about Invictus, was talking to him on there about different stuff, but like outside of that, it's just so. Dva, for example, they, due to privacy, can't give you our details. But the funny thing about that as well. So in the Geelong-Belarine, for example, there's about according to the census, there was about 6,200 and there's only 2,800 registered with DVA. So DVA can't even speak to veterans because you're not registered. And when they are registered they won't give you the contact details so you can't email them about stuff. So it's, you know, everybody's so privacy protected. And then everyone's Instagram is like a Charlie Foxtrot or whatever their name is, with a little, you know, anime picture. So it's just interesting to try and work out how to speak to veterans Other than word of mouth. I haven't found anything.

Juzzy 44:50

Yeah, I've been out for 20 years and only found out about DVA last year. Didn't even know what they were.

Burso 44:56

So there's another thing with DVA TV. It's on YouTube. You've never heard of it, have you?

Dave Johnno 45:01

No.

Burso 45:02

Yeah, Nobody has. But that's on YouTube. You've never heard of it, have you? No, Nobody has. But that's another thing I wouldn't mind speaking to DVA about maybe not having like 80-year-old people on there, and a lot of it's not about fun. It's like my knee was here DVA helped me with this or my hips were sore. I went and spoke to DVA. They did this or whatever. Like none of it's really upbeat and the algorithm's not really.

Dave Johnno 45:24

What about? I think something that might assist with DVA as well is quashing myths and rumours or just like a Q&A type thing, and I can't throw my hand up and say I know, because this is the first time I've heard about it when you've just raised it now. But I mean, my only experience with DVA from having been a reservist is applying for a white card and was told no, you can't get one. I was like, how does that work? You need to have served one day full time with the Australian Army. I'm like, well, hang on a minute. What do you call my basic training Recruit rifleman course at Puck Aponial in 96. What about the two weeks I so little things like that. Maybe a brief explanation from that type of thing might encourage people to actually look at the station.

Burso 46:14

Well, the biggest, a bigger thing is national service. There's like these dudes that are like nashos that aren't included and stuff or they're under some different rule or whatever. It's's crazy that, like, these guys have actually done service, like overseas, like Rwanda and stuff like that, and they're just not included. So it's. I mean, they've got three different legislations at the moment that apparently they're trying to bring together, but the government's never made anything. That's looked after you better.

Fitzy 46:42

I reckon all the stuff I've accessed is I've just found out through facebook ads, which is uh kind of surprising. But you know, there's a program, veteran mindfulness um, there's other, there's this other one, um to do with keeping active and getting access to an exercise physiologist um for weekly sessions, and yeah, they just popped up as facebook ads but I guess guess it's hard because they don't really all talk or promote each other. Like going through DVA permanent impairment, they don't recommend any of these wellness programs. You kind of have to stumble across them on your own and commit to them. So they're obviously competing for funding, so they're not going to prop up each other. But yeah, it'd be good if there was like a at least a website that dva can promote. I have have their different programs you can access there maybe I tried speaking to um dva about.

Burso 47:38

But they don't want to be seen as the people who look, who control everything, but they're there to assist.

Burso 47:43

They don't want to be seen as like controlling stuff.

Burso 47:45

But I was trying to make it like an e-referral system in the police where you jump on, you put your details in and then you're like I'm looking for, and then there's a drop-down box and it's like financial advice, or I'm trying to start a business, or I'm trying to do transition, or I'm trying to do study, or I need employment, or I'm having trouble with housing or whatever, and you'd click the drop down boxes.

Burso 48:07

That way you only fill out your details once and then the different things you want access to, you click on them all and then just sends an automatic email and then those people contact you about it, which is what we do in the police with the e-referrals. It's like, oh, my kid's got a drug problem, or I need house or I need whatever, and we literally put their details in, click what they're after and then those support agencies ring them. But so I mean I don't know if somebody can get together and do that. But again, it's one of those things where if I'm saying it's somebody, nobody's going to do it. So, whether you know, invictus isn't going to do it, but that's because that's not their no and can I just add too, I'm coming from a position of ignorance.

Dave Johnno 48:48

I don't know enough about DVA to really be making fair comment on the DVA process. I'm just giving an example of where I'm just your average knucklehead that did some time with the Army Reserves got out. So this isn't me dissing them out fully, it's just about. Well, if I can't even get that one simple question answered, then why would I bother with all the other processes involved? And to demystify and to just sort of explain things a little clearer, I think would be a good starting point as to the promotion of it, that's another difficult thing because everyone uses different social media.

Burso 49:24

Well, how are they going to tell you? That's what I mean? You'd have to actively go and learn it yourself.

Dave Johnno 49:28

Oh yeah, Because then coming to find you is not really, and nor would I expect someone to come chasing me for the answers. That's up to me as the individual to go looking for it. I don't expect that it should be any other way.

Dave Johnno 49:45

A lot of people don't think that way though. Well, that's it. It's like why didn't DVA find me at my house? That they didn't know that I was at? Yeah, exactly, why didn't they? Well, because they don't know, because you don't tell them, and I think that might be a reluctance on people to ask for help firstly, which is understandable, but my attitude is you can't expect whatever. It might be assistance with housing or assistance with your own mental health. It's not just some shining light will come onto you and people will suddenly realise that that's what you require. You kind of need to be a bit proactive and not just expect and sit back and hope that someone's going to come with some panacea to fix everything. Do a bit of proactivity yourself.

Burso 50:25

Not a bad adage, thank you. Another thing that I've found is I assumed that the Army told DVA that I'd got out. I was just like, well, I've gone out to Army automatically. Army would have told DVA, but they don't. There's a privacy thing where the Army doesn't. Once you're out, the Army's like no, we never tell anybody about anything. You know they hide your med docs, they do all sorts of stuff and then afterwards you've got to apply to get all those sorts of things.

Discussing DVA and Veteran Resources

Burso 50:52

But that was an assumption I had that DVA knew about me. I didn't know that it literally wasn't until I worked for Indictus and then I was talking to Karen at DVA and then I was like she's like where's your Y card? I'm like what do you mean? I don't have a Y card. And she's like well, are you registered with DVA? She's like, if you don't have a Y card, you won't be. I'm like, yeah, the Army would have told you about it. She's like no, so I was literally one of the people she was telling me about down here, but DVA wouldn't have known.

Fitzy 51:21

They're a lot better these days when you're transitioning out of Army or Defence.

Burso 51:27

Well, they do it at Kapooka now. Yeah, once you're in there doing DVA stuff, yeah.

Fitzy 51:30

There's a transition support cell that basically anyone who wants to get out or transfer a circuit has to go through and they get a complete download of all the info and programs and everything that they should be tapping into. Good.

Juzzy 51:47

That's a good value. I got none of that. You and you obviously are the same. I left, didn't realise what I was leaving, didn't realise all the. They didn't do that. So it's good to hear that they've actually changed some of that stuff.

Burso 52:01

They would have changed so much stuff from when we were in and the boys before us would have been the same. But then that's your other issue with the RSL is the boys from Vietnam and stuff obviously got treated really badly and they're now still. They're like a time capsule. Not all of them, obviously. Some of them have changed, but there's a real time capsule.

Burso 52:24

Mentality of everyone still hates us and the RSL is the only safe place they have and they've made a little empire and that's where people have the dramas with different RSLs. They've got like new versus old, like Lara's great, you've got a younger crew in there, but they still love having the old boys around. But they're also very much trying to get a new crew in. But he's one of only four RSLs that are growing in the state and you're like, well, there's so many RSLs and they're all going backwards, so they need to do a large overhaul on there and then work out the ones that are doing. Well, what are you doing? What are you doing differently? How do we help you do that elsewhere? But yeah, what are we feeling about Operation Soul Surf?

Fitzy 53:06

Eight weeks in the real water. Is it only eight weeks? I actually made that up. I don't even know how many weeks it is.

Burso 53:10

But it's a thing. Operation Soul Surf, though they do it. Dva gave them grants as well to do one there but they're a lot more first responder focused. Yeah, but I think they've also opened it up to anybody else that's got any sort of PTSD or whatever, like people from car crashes or rape victims.

Burso 53:25

I think there was one in Mornington. That was a day where they did immersion, then they did surfing, then they had a sauna that was on the beach like one of those little cedar circle things where they hung out there and then just had food afterwards. But that was just the day one. But they run actual courses. But I'll find out when the actual courses are for you. Yeah, we'll be on it for sure, are you just going?

Fitzy 53:47

to start surfing though.

Burso 53:48

Yes, as he nods into the microphone.

Fitzy 53:55

Yeah, surfing's sick brah.

Burso 53:58

Throw shakas everywhere. All right, lads, you got anything else for us? I've got to go and do landscaping.

Fitzy 54:03

Got to go and do my landscaping.

Dave Johnno 54:05

Shrimp and beardness.

Fitzy 54:06

Yeah, got to do my shrimp, got to look after the shrimp. Bit of bubblegum shrimp company If there's nothing else to take away from listening to this podcast it's get into shrimp.

Burso 54:15

Get into shrimp. He's killing me.

Fitzy 54:17

What sort of shrimp Do you want to say something? There's Cardona and Neo Cardona. Neo Cardona is the beginner friendly.

Burso 54:27

I'm just saying that, inge, keep going, keep talking about your shrimp. Man Fitz, you're just going to talk to myself over here.

Fitzy 54:31

Did you press stop about two minutes ago? I literally didn't. All right For the listeners, any more added shrimp. And I'll be sure to get the Impostor podcast to link you to the inaugural shrimp podcast.

Burso 54:46

Can you please say something, sir. I'm just trying to stop joking.

Fitzy 54:51

It'll be shrimp-lifying.

Juzzy 54:53

Code Impostor 17% off savvy oh well, good from you.

Fitzy 54:58

And if you want to buy any blue neocardina shrimp off me, I'll sell them to you at a discounted rate, 17% off.

Dave Johnno 55:05

Might I send this to Nortman's car park. That's it.

Burso 55:11

That's your sign-off. No, you want a better one, or you got another adage.

Dave Johnno 55:16

No, I'm adaged out, although if you have episode names, I think adage might be Right, I'm out, see you.

Juzzy 55:22

Right episode names.

Burso 55:23

I think adage might be right over here, right over here, see ya right, I noticed that we talked about prices a fair bit but we didn't actually go through them at all, because I just made numbers up. I'm just looking up here, just a quick one. You've got multi-packs here. You've got three by group beginner surf lessons. That's $2.79. Group cruiser intermediate lessons are three. So three of them is going to cost you $3.79.

Burso 55:49

If you start doing your intermediate surf sessions, that's $10 for $8.99. So that's $89 each. Not a cheap game. This Ten advanced surf sessions, that's $9.39. Yeah, and it just gets more expensive from that.

Burso 56:05

But I mean, you can do a yearly and it looks like it's four grand. Four grand, which is pretty crazy. But, um, yeah, it is pretty cool if you go and do it once. Um, they also have um, three ducks, I think it's called. But that's a restaurant there which is pretty cool and you can just go there and watch as well. So if you just know somebody who can surf or wants to do a lesson, that's pretty cool and you can just go there and watch as well. So if you just know somebody who can surf or wants to do a lesson, that's a pretty cool place to hang out. It's a good place to start. They've got all the wetsuits, booties, they've got, obviously, lessons and all the sessions are filmed too, so if you go on there you can go and check that out afterwards. Anyway, have a good one gang, and catch you next time.