November 29, 2023 • 53 mins
Meet Andrew Robles, a firefighter, paramedic, family man, and owner of Bridgetown Leather Company. Andrew takes us on a fascinating journey through his early days in paramedic school, where, like me, he had initial reservations about becoming a paramedic. We revisit our time serving our communities, battling fires, and the emotionally exhausting trauma we faced head-on every day. Listen in as Andrew discusses his past role as a Fire Suppression Aid for the LA County Fire Department and his grueling training at Rio Hondo's wildland fire academy.
We journey into the heart of firefighting, discussing the unique challenges the job presents, from the physically exhausting days to the emotional toll it takes on our personal lives. Andrew and I share our stories, reflecting on the importance of career satisfaction, the struggle for work-life balance, and the necessity for emotional resilience in this line of work. The conversation takes a lighter turn as we explore the stress-busting activities we love and enjoy.
Andrew's life outside the fire station is as fascinating as his life within. His knack for creating firefighter shields from scratch has evolved into a thriving business, with orders streaming in from fire departments nationwide. We get a glimpse of his meticulous hand-stitching, painting, and the process that goes into producing each distinctive leather shield. Andrew's narratives, both on and off the field, offer engaging, raw, and insightful tales that are sure to keep you on the edge of your seat.
Together, we delve into the tradition and pride associated with the fire service shield, from its significance to the craftsmanship that goes into making it. This conversation isn't just about Andrew's successful shield-making business or our shared experiences as firefighters - it's about finding satisfaction in what you do, pursuing your passions, and the importance of keeping your family at the heart of it all. Don't miss this riveting discussion that takes you behind the scenes of a firefighter's life, on and off duty.
Thanks for taking the time to listen in. Please leave us 5 stars on Spotify & Apple Podcasts with a review. THANK YOU!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Andrew Robles.
Welcome to the podcast man.
Thank you for having me.
Yeah, it's been a while tryingto get you on here.
Actually, you and one of your,one of our friends I'll say it's
Gabe.
We'll see if it at that game.
We're going to get you on here.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Gabe, don't worry, gabe, and me also.
Yes, there's three of us, threemusketeers.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Oh heck, yeah.
Yeah, we're going to get youguys on.
It'll be really good, but we'regetting towards the end of the
year.
Thanks for driving in, man, Iknow you live pretty far.
It's a beautiful evening out,so thank you so much for being
here.
My pleasure, thank you forhaving me.
But, dude, we go back a littlebit.
We go way back.
Yeah, I think we first met inparamedic school, right At
(00:47):
Saddleback.
That was like what, 2010?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah.
Yeah, I was right after I gothired with OCFA in 08.
I did my year of probation thenkind of like a year on the
floor after probation then wentto med school.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Can I just tell you that I did not enjoy any part of
it.
I did not want to go.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
For me, it was horrible, it was horrible.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
There's some people know, at least here in SoCal you
can get hired as a firefighteror firefighter medic.
Right, andrew and I both gothired as just firefighter EMTs.
We weren't paramedics.
So after a while you've been onpast probation, you can at
least.
I think you probably had a test.
I don't know if OCFA does that,but where I came from, I was
(01:32):
just told hey, you're going toparamedic school and I was like
what?
Geez, dude okay.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
It was terrible, I hated it.
It was a good learningexperience for me because, as an
explorer, you know.
You see that I was an explorerfor LA County.
Wow yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Where.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
In Azusa.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yeah, I was in.
I was in Bill Gardens, postthree.
Oh dang, yeah, let's go.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I didn't know you did LA County explorers.
Yeah, I was an explorer andwe'd have our meetings and you
know the the engine would leave,the squad would leave, and you
know I'd go on ride-alongs andsince then I was like 16, I'm
like I want no part of paramedicand like it does not look fun.
I always envied the engineer.
So I knew, like I know, I don'twant to be a medic.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Let's go.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Best spot dude 100%.
So I always saw the engineerand I was like that's where I
want to be, that's what I wantto do, and did hand crew thing.
Worked for LA County and theirhand crew for a handful of years
.
That's FSA.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
FSA.
You're an FSA, Andrew.
How did I not?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
know this, I've known you for years, you're such a
quiet, humble dude.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
What year were you in the FSA exit?
So people know let's do this.
What does FSA stand for?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Fire suppression aid.
So it's basically a hand crewfirefighter Hired by LA County
Fire Department.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Is that, and it is, I guess, the best way.
For some people may know ForestService has hot shots.
That's kind of like LA Countyfires version right.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Right, yeah, so we're basically a hot shot without
the hot shot qualifications.
So we have ground crews, wehave air crews.
So there's four different camps, paid inmate camps, throughout
the county and some of them havesome of them are ground crews,
some of them are are Halitakcrews and there's helicopter
station.
(03:21):
At those camps the bowels gooff.
If it's for a medical aid, thehelicopter will take off by
itself.
Go handle the.
Whatever the medical aid is.
Okay.
If it's a brush fire, we'll allload up on the on the
helicopter and fly to the fireland.
Okay, we're typically there atthe same time or before the fire
engines, so we'll, we're justby ourselves.
No water?
No, nothing.
Yeah, come up with a game plan,yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
We'll yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
We'll.
We'll circle the the fire a fewtimes, get a game plan.
Look at the road.
Okay, what, what can we tieinto with the smart, you know,
with the terrain, all that stuff?
Yeah, see where we can fire offthat that whole thing?
Yeah, what year was that?
So I was at Rio Hondo takingclasses in.
I graduated in 2000, 2001, 2000.
(04:06):
Yeah, well, 2001 got hired as.
So I went through Rio Hondo'swildland training.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Oh dude you're a good company.
Yeah, class five.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Class.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
You're like one.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
One or zero?
See, it wasn't even like athing.
Right right, right it was.
It was like hey, which one ofyou guys want to do this
wildland thing?
And we're like I guess I'll doit.
There was no applicationprocess.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
no, nothing, I will say that that um wildland fire
Academy was by far, I think, thetoughest I've ever been through
.
Yeah, it was very, verydifficult.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
I think it's gotten tougher since I went through.
Oh really, yeah, cause we werejust trying to figure it out,
right?
Speaker 1 (04:47):
right right.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
We were hiking and taking tasks and whatever, and I
don't know any different ohdude every day it was.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
It was either you know some arduous 10 mile run,
yeah, or it's just this circuitof push-ups, set-ups, pull-ups
and sprints with you knowfour-inch hoes and then tower
runs yeah, Do it for like fourhours.
It was great.
This was like.
This went from like Januarytill June, Right, I'll tell you
(05:13):
this, though, you come out inshape, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
You come out of freaking style.
Definitely a butt kicker.
Um, probably the most tired,maybe not the most tired I've
ever been.
But the thing with that is itwas new.
I had never been put under thatstress where, like you're
hiking, your legs are tired,using muscles I've never used
before, um, and so it was a newexperience.
So I got, went through RioHondo's um wildland training,
(05:38):
okay.
Then got hired with their,their type two hand crew through
the college.
Right, that's road runners,that's road runners, yeah, um,
and then basically backed upDalton.
When they would go out on acall on a fire, we'd go back up
their station, um, or we'd getyou know type two work
assignments, um, around aroundthe state.
But so did that for a year andthen, um, then got hired with LA
(06:01):
County in 2002.
Okay, so I actually turned 20in their in their Academy, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
That Academy's um.
That was tough.
That's no joke.
That was tough.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
They dropped a lot of candidates out there, yeah, and
it was in Santa Clarita, um, atcamp nine, um, so elevation, it
was tired, thin air, all thatstuff, um, and I lived in La
Puente, and so our training wasup there in Santa Clarita, so I
just stayed there all week.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
What, how, what's the drive time, like how long is
that?
La Puente to Santa Clarita?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
With no traffic.
It's like an hour and 10 orsomething like that.
It's not too bad, but I'm notgoing to do that every day, five
days a week.
Staying there before trafficstarts is not a big deal, but
coming home is like two and ahalf hours.
Yeah, passing through Pasadena,all that.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
After just being, you know, ran and hiking on your
10s and 18s all day.
Yeah, oh, that's rough dude.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, I would have stayed too, I would have stayed,
yeah, so I stayed there andthen after that Academy, I
actually got stationed in SantaClarita at camp nine, so I kind
of never left and then, uh, Ijust continued staying there.
I would just come home on mydays off.
Um, I actually consideredgetting mail there, because guys
who, who live far, they werestaying there with me and they
would get their mail.
I'm like God, it's not a badidea.
I'm smart.
(07:13):
I'm basically here most of thetime, yeah, so, um, yeah, then
it was at camp nine for two anda half years.
Dude, you're on the helicopterright.
How rad was that.
It was amazing, it was so cool.
It was so cool.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
I I'll just say allegedly I may have taken a
ride on one of those helicoptersa few years back.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Oh really.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Um, some class had to help teach.
I'll just leave it at that.
I was up there, um, and they I,you know took a ride, and that
was the most incredible.
When he was like going over theridges and back down, Do you
just felt like you're floatingfor a second?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
It was wild.
Yeah, they would do that, Um.
So I guess they're hiringrequirements.
You need to have a certainamount of flight hours and in
order to get those hours, a lotof times you need to have you
need to come from military.
So a lot of the guys were, um,like Vietnam vets, those kind of
thing.
That's what they racked up allthese hours.
(08:09):
So these guys were crazy.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Well, they got some skill.
Yeah, they got some real skill.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah, they got skill and uh, it's cool to watch it
when they're performing thoseskills, when you're in it, like
it's a whole other story.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I was just saying how crazy is that?
Um, a Vietnam vet who's beenthrough like this shit, right,
and he's flying, you know, ourlittle punk butts around and
we're all stressed out Like wehaven't seen anything compared
to what that guy's probably beenthrough, right?
Yeah, you know it's and he'sflying you in.
It's like I'm not going to sayit works.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
I'm just going to put them told, it is what it is,
man.
Yeah, that's wild, it's.
It's a good experience for sure.
Yeah, you know being 20, 21, 22, you know, doing that kind of
stuff, my buddies are stillworking at Tillies, you know,
like right, right, Right.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
And it's a job that's given you experience for what
your future goals are.
You know you're learning a lotof first teamwork, your work
ethic, working hard.
I would say that for me, in mycareer started in the Forest
Service.
That taught me a lot about hardwork.
That taught me a lot about umbeing gritty in my work, working
as a team member, but alsoworking with all types of people
(09:20):
.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
As Forest Service gets a hot like, you get all
range of people and you got tobe able to work with them.
So there's a lot from that timein my life that I'm very
thankful for.
At the time I was like dude,this sucks, I'm getting like.
I think I was like a GS threeor four, which was like seven 54
an hour.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
It was a terrible pain.
How do you remember that?
I don't, because it was soshocking.
I don't even know what to getpaid right now.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yeah, Well, because I remember, um, I just remember
everyone's like oh you know thepay, this, that.
But I thought, look man, I needthe experience and as either
that or join the military, Ican't afford to pay for school.
So I got to figure somethingout and I did that and I
remember, looking at the pay, Iwas like yo, this is radically
low.
Like I'm getting paid $7.54 anhour to pound dirt and risk my
(10:05):
life.
Like this is crazy, but it endedup being such a fun time.
Yeah, you know, it is what itis.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yeah, huge learning experience.
You learn how to work hard,no-transcript work around
different people when you gettired.
Some people have differentthresholds when they're tired
and like shorter fuses orwhatever, and we just learned
how to navigate that Differentbackgrounds and stuff.
So it kind of prepares youreally well for the station.
Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Absolutely, Absolutely.
I remember being on probationfrom the department I came from
and you know kind of just belike oh, this guy screwed up and
he forgot to put the cheese outduring lunch.
And it's like dude.
Last year I was eating a brownbag out of the dirt and you're
going to bitch about cheeseright now, Like come on, man,
you guys got to make.
You got air conditioning andinternet.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, sometimes I hear guys complain.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
You know the municipal side.
I'm like it ain't that bad.
Yeah, it ain't that bad boys.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yeah, in comparison I got to the floor with our
department now and it was theworkload was way less.
Yeah, so, coming from the handcrew, it's busy work all day
long.
It's working out, hiking,running, cutting line, project
work, you know, peeling off thewax off the floors, reapplying
(11:23):
every week, that kind of thing,you know.
And then I get to probation andI do an eighth of that and
they're like, oh my god, you'relike the hardest working rookie,
you're a rock star.
I'm like, all right, just pullsome weeds out of a planner.
But yeah, no big deal, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Oh yeah, I remember in the, you know, forest Service
they would have a bunch ofmaterials delivered because we'd
make and build everything andit was, you know it was to make
cement or whatever and there'sbig pile of rocks I got.
They're like yeah, why don'tyou rake that pile of rocks to
the other side of you know thedriveway?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Took a few hours to do that, moved everything.
Got back down at lunch theysaid cool, good job, why don't
you rake it back?
I was like what Are youfreaking serious right now?
Yeah, that's that busy work.
Yes, dude, I'm not down withthat.
I think that's so stupid.
That's a waste of time.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Our work was.
It wasn't like that.
It was actually good work.
It was hard work, but it wasgood work.
We'd go jackhammer out concrete, you know porny slabs, built
retaining walls, that kind ofstuff.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
So it was good A lot of good skill I'm sure that you
use in your everyday life.
Now, yeah, because I didn'tlearn any of that stuff growing
up.
Yeah, me neither.
Then they're having all thematerial delivered, like, yeah,
we're going to pour our owncement and we're going to, you
know, do the own footing forthis, and it's like, well, what
you know?
So it's pretty cool.
I learned a lot from there,which sounds like you did for
yourself as well.
(12:51):
So from how many years again,you say you do so.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
I did that for six and a half years.
So from oh, six years, oh two,to 2008, when I got hired with
Orange County.
So I gave myself five years.
I said if I, if I don't gethired in five years, I'm going
to go look for something else.
I'm going to something elsethat packed my resume.
I'm going to be an EMT.
I'm going to go do this, thisor that, but the problem is they
paid just enough.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
They paid just enough .
No, I know, I know exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
You're a union member , you have insurance, you have
all this stuff and I'm like I'mreally going to, I'm really
going to stop contributing to myretirement to go be an EMT
somewhere or whatever.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
But isn't that?
It's funny you say that, butisn't that?
Think about jobs outside ofwhat we do, our profession as
firefighters.
We're government workers.
Okay, so we all know thatgovernment workers not federally
, but at least you know, cityand statewide typically get paid
.
Okay, you're not going to berich, but you won't be poor.
You know what I'm saying.
(13:50):
You'll be comfortable.
Like, like you get dude, youget just enough where it's like
they don't want you to leave.
You're like ah man, I don't know, because of retirement and this
and overtime, but I think aboutthat.
In the private sector sector,how many people probably get
comfortable, right, because it'slike, well, this is good money,
you know it's paying the bills.
I got, okay, health insurance,but are they really happy?
(14:11):
I think about that sometimes,even for myself.
You know, I'm like ah man,because I'm working on my
master's degree now I do have alot of other stuff on the side
that do and, but there's a lotof me I'm like, ah, but the fire
department pays, you know.
So it pays me enough, right,you know it's not, it's not
amazing pay, but it's good pay,right?
You know it's funny, you bringthat up.
I think about that.
(14:31):
A lot of people, where peopleget stuck and comfortable, where
they don't want to take a riskand go after the things they
want to do or start the businessthey want to start because
they're in a job they may like alittle bit, but well, it pays
enough.
And I got health insurance,yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Yeah, I, I seen that on uh during my time in training
, where I would drive home everyevening and I'd see the same
people stuck in traffic everyevening.
I'm like, oh, I have a two yearstent, but you got 30, like you
know, 30 plus probably you'regoing to be on this 91 freeway
for 17 years.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
I thought this same thing when I was in training
that I would be done.
You know, we're on the four 10schedule and driving home it's
like dude.
These people got to do this forthree freaking years.
I got two years and I'm talkingabout to lose my mind.
Yeah, no wonder the divorcerate so high yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Man, that's crazy.
Yeah, I don't know how.
I had a really like when Ipulled up to my driveway.
I had to like, take a second,okay, I'm home, just relax,
debrief for a second, you know,turn all that stress off, what I
have going on at home, all thisstuff, leave my, leave my work
phone in the car and then justcome home and be present, you
know, and just kind of leave it.
You have to.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Yeah, man, that's.
That's something I've beenworking on, I would say, earlier
on in my career.
I only have 16, 17 years ontotal, but I wasn't good at
shutting that off and I think Igot caught up in the whole fire
department thing where it's likegive back, pick up as much
overtime as you can.
You know fire department, firedepartment, fire department and.
(16:09):
But there was a lot of times,you know, in my younger years I
didn't realize how much of thejob was affecting me internally.
That's how the sample was goingcrazy.
But to see what we see on ashift basis, whether it's, you
know, the craziness of the fire,the violence of people hurting
(16:30):
each other or someone stuck in acar we got to cut them out or
calling somebody dead, doing CPRon somebody delivering babies,
seeing people with limbs missing, cuts, wounds, it's crazy,
right.
And then it's like go home, bea go home, be a father, husband,
son, uncle, and it's just likewait what.
I just worked two wild shifts,you know, and I had.
(16:54):
I really had to take a stepback and kind of do the same
thing where.
Now for me, when I come homefrom shift, I always tell myself
put a smile on your face likeyou're home, whatever happened
at work.
You leave that work and comehome, be present with family,
and because the reality is, youknow, this is a great job, we're
fortunate to have it, but atthe end of the day, they're not
(17:15):
going to be there when we die.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Right.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Like once we're retired say we retire early
medically or we retire after 30,and they're going to say, hey,
great job.
Oh yeah, here's your cake andice cream and bye.
They're going to give you aretirement badge and they're
going to fill your seat withsomeone younger and cheaper.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
And then they become oh, what's his name?
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Right, that guy, what's?
Speaker 2 (17:31):
his name.
That used to work here.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Yeah, I think about that all the time.
Dude, right, the emails we getabout the retired firefighters
passing away and this is not tobe like mean or cold hearted,
but I'm like, okay, I don't knowwhere they are, right, I mean,
I never I hate to say this but Inever read them.
I delete it right away.
I'm like whatever, and that'snot that you know what I'm
saying, but it's like I don'tknow them.
I have no tie to them Besidesthe fact that we worked for the
(17:54):
same fire department and I seethat a lot in our fellow
firefighters.
They get wrapped up in thiswhole like I'm a fireman and I
want to say nobody cares.
You realize the average systemdoesn't give a crap about your
badge, your uniform or yourlatest equipment that you have
on or whatever it is.
And so I've learned for myselfthe importance of being present
(18:18):
at home and picking up less overtime and making sure I don't
bring work home and making sureI'm open emotionally, not shut
down like we're at work, causethat's right.
It's true, we have to go fromcall to call to call and we,
over time, learned to just shutit off.
You just go to the call, run itand do your thing.
Someone died.
Hey, it sucks, man.
Sorry, load up guys, we want toget lunch.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
It's wild dude.
Yeah, I think I'm along thosesame same lines, but probably
what's what I'm looking for?
More advanced or like.
So I Like compartmentalizeeverything.
Yeah, so I have my work.
Like, whatever happens, happensat work, yeah, put it in my box
(19:05):
, then I go home, then I don'topen it, you know what I mean.
And so, like, when that's witheverything like Personal, family
stuff or whatever, likeeverything every, every time
I've been hurt or Stressed orwhatever, it goes in this box
and I and I completely keep itaway from my home.
Yeah, yeah, so it's good tokeep it, you know, keep work at
(19:30):
work, at home, at home.
But at the same time, you guysgot to make sure that you're
Sharing a little bit and gettingsome of that stuff off your
chest.
Yeah, you know, that'ssomething I struggle with,
because I like I come home and Idon't tell my wife anything how
was work, that was good, right,you keep it general.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Yeah, I know, I feel you.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
I got, we got up once got twice.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Whatever you know, it's helped me those.
Typically when I get home IWill if I don't have my boards
with me at work.
Usually I should take my RV towork most of the time because my
surfboards and skydiving rigorin there.
But I usually will come homeand it's go for a run or go surf
.
That's kind of like my time tolike diffuse a little bit.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
And once I put in that kind of like to get my
heart rate up, work hard Ialways feel better after run and
I always feel amazing aftersurfing.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
That's just kind of like my thing, where it feels
like it makes me come back tobeing equal.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Mm-hmm, I'm like, okay, I'm good.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Yeah, you know, I got .
I worked out that stress alittle bit and I'm fine.
No, I don't know what that isfor other people.
I've just noticed for myselflike that first hour home for me
is kind of crucial.
Yeah where it's like all right,you need to get some movement
in and get get some that stressout from work.
Mm-hmm and then I'm just feelway more relaxed, I feel more
present, I don't feel as anxious.
(20:44):
That's something I've learnedthrough.
You know, I use that Counselingteam, international
international, that we have atwork, so I found a therapist to
them and that's what theyactually suggested.
Like hey, you, I noticed whenyou talk about after you
exercise or surf or do somethingyou like in the morning.
You always feel better.
Maybe that's the best thing todo when you get off.
Mm-hmm you know, I'll just makeyou better, yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
I don't know, it's probably I should do.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yeah, you got.
How many kids you got a lot ofkids do I got?
Speaker 2 (21:13):
I got a probably a small amount for being Hispanic
Mom and I'm an underachiever.
I have three.
Okay, yeah, I have pretty good.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Nowadays it's expensive and we're in soco.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Yeah, dude, being you know single income, you know my
wife stays home and she shehandles everything at home and
I'm super thankful for that.
But it you really have to livewithin, within your means, for
sure, you know, because youstill want to give your kids
like options and and you knowexperiences and stuff.
(21:58):
So, like my kids, they're intomusic.
You know my, my daughter, allmy kids at one point have have
had piano lessons.
My son has piano lessons rightnow.
My middle daughter, she, shedoes saxophone right now and
yeah, and yeah, which one?
Speaker 1 (22:17):
which sax you know?
Okay, Cuz real quick.
Here is.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Sam too was the yeah.
Maybe that's it, I don't know.
It's like the basic one, I knowit's, I know it's gold, it's so
funny cuz I can't picture herplaying saxophone.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Just look on my grave .
Of all things, why not likeviolin, dude, that's boring.
Okay, no, it's not boring, Itake that back, yeah no, she's
really good, she has that ear sookay.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
So my oldest she started when she was five and so
or six, I'm sorry.
And then my second daughter,she started hearing piano in the
house because they're two yearsapart, okay, when she was four
years old.
So she's heard music prettymuch a whole life.
And so now she, when shestarted playing piano, she
started doing the Suzuki method,which is kind of like my ear,
(23:04):
yeah, I think.
And so she just picks up reallyquick.
So she picks up like she gotlike a little record, like a
plastic recorder from fromschool and she was messing with
it and she was just jamming allthese little songs.
Just she like just messes withit, and then she can kind of
hear the different sounds andshe can make out a whole song,
you know that's so good that,yeah, that you're doing that
(23:26):
with your kids.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
You got started early because it's so good for their
cognitive yeah, ability fortheir future.
You know, because music, that'show I was raised.
I was raised you music andsinging the car, my mom oldies
and piano in the house, takepiano lessons and Dude that.
For me that's like.
I've always loved music.
It's kind of been one of thosethings where it's always gonna
(23:48):
be a part of my life and it's sounique because there's so many
people who aren't musicians,right, and so they look at you
like whoa, whatever.
But I've found so muchconnection through music with
other people.
A guy at work named Wes Miller.
I help him with his stuff whenhe goes on tours and then just
playing at church when I was akid with my mom and other people
.
It's just pretty.
It's so rad to do that.
Now they say it's supposed tomake you good at math, allegedly
(24:11):
, and I suck it.
So I don't know where they gotthat one from.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
My kids do really well in math, not because of me
they got that from my wife, forsure.
They got it from mom dude butthey seem to get it with math
and stuff.
So I don't know if it has to dowith music or just they just
got my wife's jeans, but they dowell in school.
I don't know.
I never did well in school.
I was a terrible student.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Terrible student.
That's why I find it sointeresting.
I'm going after a master'sdegree right now, because I hate
school.
I hate school, dude, but Iunderstand the importance of it
now.
I just I get it.
It is what it is, dude.
You have a business that weneed to talk about, and this
business is pretty much makingleather products.
Right, leather, helmet, shield.
(25:00):
Is that?
The only thing you make isleather?
Speaker 2 (25:01):
helmet shield.
That's what it's evolved to.
So initially it started offmaking whatever people wanted
and I would just figure it outand I would get practice and get
good.
And for one of our firefightercadres, back in 2016 or so, they
(25:22):
asked me for some shields fortheir cadre, and so I made them
and I kind of posted onInstagram.
And then a guy from RiversideCounty hit me up like, hey, can
you make me a shield?
And so I made him a shield, andhe's a pretty influential guy
over there and, before you knowit, his whole crew and then his
battalion, and then, like,everyone's ordering shields and
so, yeah, so it's got to thepoint now where, like, that's
(25:44):
all I have time for.
Yeah, so someone people hit meup for you know, a knife, sheath
or a bow or suspenders, and I'mlike, do I?
I just can't, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
I would imagine, because most people have the
Phoenix Fire Helmet right, theones that we have.
So it's gotta be just kind oflike a cut and paste, besides
changing who they work for,maybe, if they have the
numbering on the front or youknow the rank or whatever it's
gonna be.
Some have their last names, Idon't know, but yeah, it just
becomes more efficient so ifyou're working on one thing you
(26:14):
can be.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
You can make it as efficient as possible.
So, but if you go from a shieldand then someone orders
suspenders, you're like, okay,let me put all my shield stuff
away and get out my suspendersstuff, and then you know.
So you can kind of make italmost like a little assembly
line, right, you know, kind of.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Dude, I still have your.
You made me like a key ringthing for my belt for work.
I still got that one.
Really.
Yeah, I still got it.
I've actually I'm gonna be realwith you, I've lost it a few
times and then it's just poniedover to my station and I'm like,
oh, it showed up, like cool.
So I'll say like I still havethe key one you made Awesome,
dude, thank you, that's thanksto your stuff.
But you've made me a shield.
(26:51):
I've known, dude, you've gotshields in Orange County, LA
County, City, Riverside.
Oh, what's the farthest you got?
You have to have East.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Coast, yeah, tennessee Really.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
So anyway, I had this couple of skis that I almost
used and I loved it.
I easily shot it down the wholetime there was shooting catches
.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
I shot it off of a mountain there and then they got
ready to shoot it down.
So, and then I shot it downagain is, if they want like the
(27:34):
number cut out in the middle,because then you got to stitch
around the number, or if theywant like a passport, then it's
all just additional work, but sothat's stitching.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Is that hand stitching?
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Everything's hand stitched, hand sewn, hand Woo
and everything.
So, yeah, so the way it's yeah,dude, that's tedious, yeah,
it's super tedious and it takesforever.
It takes about five and a halfhours to make one shield, you
know.
And then putting in time.
So every time I put a post out,so I hardly ever post, because
every time I do a post I getlike three or four or five
(28:06):
orders.
So I'm like we really have tolook at our books and be like,
okay, where are we at, you know,with our progress and you know,
can we post?
Because every time we do it,you know, we get a handful of
orders.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
still, which is a great problem to have, by the
way.
Like that makes me very happyfor you actually, cause I'm sure
there's some people who wishlike they could put something up
, and people come after them, sothat means you're doing
something right, right, right.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
It just takes a long time and I just got tired of the
cheap shields.
You know you go to a fire andthey just curl over and, like
the department, issue ones.
They're not even leather,they're like pleather or
whatever.
They're like dude.
Yeah, I get all my leather fromthis place in Irvine that he's
(28:50):
a distributor from his company.
His last name is Sipisi andSipisi means tannery, so he's
from Turkey.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
And so his family owns a tannery in Turkey and
he's just like the USdistributor.
So, yeah, I took our shield,our department issue shield to
him.
He's looking at it and he juststarts laughing.
He's like I don't even knowwhat this is.
Like this is.
I can't even tell you what thisis.
Wow, you know, so like it.
So everything we use is topgrain, high quality European
(29:23):
leather, hand stitched, like allthat stuff, so hand painted.
It's super tedious.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Is this a family ordeal too?
Does your family help you outwith things behind the scenes?
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yeah, so my wife, she does most of it actually, so,
yeah, so I was doing the shieldsand talking about like work,
life, work, family balance.
You know, I would go to work,work my two shifts, three shifts
, whatever I'm working, comehome, then work on shields, and
(29:56):
so I'd be in the kitchen, I'dhave a handful of oars at the
complete over my two days offand my kids would be watching TV
and they'd be like Dad, can wego to the park or can we do this
?
Can we that?
I'm like no, I can't, I have to.
At the Finissey Shields and Ijust felt I felt bad, you know.
So I'm like you know what thisis.
My kids are only small ones.
You know, I'm not gonna that'sa good point I'm not gonna do
this, you know, I'm gonna justkind of stop making shields and
(30:19):
enjoy my kids.
And, yeah, so I kind of stoppedand and then, well, I guess we
didn't finish our conversationabout med school, so just to cut
back real quick, no, you'rekidding, it leads to this, I
promise.
Yeah, I wasn't successful in medschool and so you know, start,
(30:42):
start, continue doing leatherwork after med school.
While I was doing these shields, I decided to go back to med
school.
And so I told my wife, I go,hey, I'm gonna send her a post
saying that, hey, I'm not doingshields anymore, I'm going to
med school, whatever.
And she's like, well, I'll justdo them, you know.
And I'm like she's helped me ineach of the processes but has
(31:04):
never made a whole shieldherself, okay.
And so I'm like, well, yeah, ifyou want to go for it, you know
.
So she basically picked up theball and just kept going with it
.
That's so cool, yeah.
So now she does.
What a good woman.
She's amazing, that's right.
She is amazing, so, and she'sso much better than me.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
So much better, dude, you're melting my heart right
now, dude.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
She is funny, she doesn't let me sew anymore.
You know, like she like alsosomething.
Like she'll go like she'll beworking on a shield and then
she'll go do something and I'mlike, oh, I'm going to just help
her out, you know, and just sewthe perimeter of this fire,
this helmet shield, and thenshe'll come back and she'll be
like she'll be inspecting it,like these stitches aren't, like
(31:49):
, you know, all in line orwhatever, and I'll just do it,
and.
But she has very good attentionto detail, you know.
So she wants everything to beperfect and even like the font,
like oh, she's like, I don'tknow, maybe a little bit crooked
, what do you think?
I'm like this is straighterthan straight.
She's like no, but I don't likethis little speck, you know,
(32:11):
and I'm like, just trust me,it's fine, you know, but she has
that attention to detail, soshe's more organized, she does
better work, and you know, bro,she loves you straight up.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
That is love and action right there.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
That is so rad but it's cool that it's also kind of
like it's a family ordeal.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
She's helping you out .
It's only made you better.
You know that's pretty cool man.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
What's coolest about it is that our kids see it and
so they ask us to help withshields.
But if I'm not even good enough, my kids are definitely not
good enough, you know.
But they're like littleentrepreneurs themselves, you
know.
They make like little rainbowloom bracelets and my one
daughter's like super crafty,and they'll make a bunch of
(32:55):
product of something bracelets,necklaces, earrings, whatever
and they'll go with friendsaround the neighborhood and sell
at the door and make money andthen, you know, have a piece of
party with their friends andstuff.
So it's cool.
So they're seeing that andthey're kind of taking
initiative and doing stuff.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
You're setting a good example.
They're seeing mom and dad work, you know which is good, you
know.
They don't seem like they'relazy kids from everything I've
seen, you've told me and yourkids being involved in music.
I'm always like man, you'redoing it right, you're raising
them right, my friend.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Yeah, I never did any of that stuff growing up.
It's just, I guess if there'sanything to say about myself is
that I'm a good listener and soI take what guys at the station
tell me, so I listen to theiradvice and I take it to heart
and stuff.
And I never played instrumentsgrowing up.
I someone said hey, man, youshould probably put your kids in
(33:46):
music because it's good fortheir brain.
I'm like okay, like yeah, andthen that's pretty much it, yeah
, so, yeah, so super proud ofthem and that's cool, but what
year did you start doing theshow?
Speaker 1 (33:59):
You said it was 2010, .
Right, or 11 when we got updone at Meg School.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Yeah, so the way I got started is I got off
probation in 2009, and I wantedto make.
I wanted to buy a customScabbard, so I had an axe, I
wanted a Scabbard, and so I waslooking around and I want my
name on it, and so I was lookingaround and it's super expensive
.
If you want anything custom,it's just, oh yeah especially
(34:26):
now with inflation dude.
Yeah, but back then I mean, Iwas a bottom step firefighter,
you know, like not making a lotof money.
So I'm like there's no way Ican afford this, you know, and
I'm the kind of person that ifsomeone's doing it it means it
can be done.
Oh, absolutely, absolutely,yeah, I mean.
And so it just takes a littlebit of education and, you know,
(34:49):
just figuring out how thingswork and whatever.
So I'm like, well, I can make aScabbard.
If someone can do it, I can doit.
And so then I just Googled youknow how to make?
Or I Googled like LeatherSupply Company, you know, and it
took me to a place called TandyLeather.
There's one in Bowling Park,there's one in Costa Mesa also.
But I went to the one in BowlingPark and I just talked to the
(35:09):
sales rep over there and justpicked his brain and all this
stuff and he set me up with thisbox.
It's like a beginner box and ithas, like your basic tools, some
little projects like a key fob,a checkbook cover and a couple
other things, and I was at 64sat the time and I would go up
there to the loft at night, youknow, after dishes are done, all
(35:31):
that stuff and everyone's kindof winding down.
I'd go up there and I'd justtinker and I'd just instantly
fell in love with it.
And guys around the stationwould be like like hey, like
what are you doing up there, youknow?
And they'd come up and they'dsee that I'm working on leather
and they're like, oh man, canyou make me this or can you make
me that?
And I'm like, oh sure you know,like, oh, give it a shot,
(35:52):
whatever.
And it's funny because eversince then I've never not been
back ordered.
Wow, yeah, I've never not hadan order list and just other
than Instagram I don't reallyadvertise.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Yeah, I mean, it speaks for itself it's funny how
sometimes I try to tell peopleI can't even explain how things
just hit.
And even with this podcast,right, because we don't
advertise.
I mean, we just have what?
A YouTube, instagram andFacebook, and I pretty much
predominantly post everything onInstagram and just you know,
let it go into the ether.
(36:26):
Right, we have our host siteand it just it's taking on life
of its own.
I couldn't even tell you whypeople are downloading around
the world.
I'm just like, okay, like thisis something that we record and
do out of my home and it is whatit is.
But, dude, if you havesomething good going it, just
people will gravitate towards it.
Man yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
It seems like that's happened for you.
So my thing is I just try andmake the best shields out there.
Yeah, I'm trying to make itvery best.
You know, like that's kind ofsomething that's been instilled
in me as a young kid my grandpa,you know, before he even knew I
wanted to be a fireman he goes,he goes.
Whatever you want to do, justbe the best at it.
If you want to be a, he's likeI don't care what you do, he
goes.
If you're a garbage man, be thebest garbage man you can be.
(37:09):
You know all this stuff, so Ireally took that to heart and so
with the shields, I'm like okay, like I'm tired of the ones
that just look like crud.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Yeah, it feels, terrible.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Yeah, it's horrible.
Like I'm gonna make a shieldand it's not gonna fold over,
it's not gonna crumble, it's notgonna do any of these things.
And yeah, and it's just beentrial and error, I make a shield
and I just, you know, ask forfeedback and you know, how does
it work?
And you know, and guys wouldsend me in-service pictures and
I would be inspecting it and I'mlike, hey, man, it's like it's
(37:39):
kind of the top is kind ofcurling a little bit.
Like you know, am I seeing thisright?
Like, oh yeah, like I had tomake it do that because I wanted
it to curl and it wouldn't curland I had to like literally
bend it over to curl.
I'm like, okay, you know so,but like my heart stops a little
bit.
I'm like dude, like am I makingsomething that is failing?
Yeah, so, yeah, it's been trialand error.
(38:00):
I think we have a pretty goodproduct right now.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Now you're because you've made me one, got my
engineer's shield over, but howmany layers of leather do you do
?
Cause it does seem very.
It's sturdy and thick, but it'snot.
It's the best way.
It's not a bad thick, like it'snot overdone, it's like it's
perfect.
So is there like a stack methodyou have?
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Yeah so it's three layers and combined they're
about just over a quarter inchthick.
So if like any thicker thanthat, it just looks weird Too
much, it just looks like toomuch of the front of your helmet
.
Okay, so it's a front piece,the middle piece which has the
(38:41):
wording on it, and then the backpiece, and then they're all
glued and stitched together.
Okay, yeah, and the stitchingthat we use is like real thick,
like one millimeter inch thickstitching, so it's kind of
predominant.
It gives it like that look, thecertain look that I've kind of
as I guess, has become mine.
Yeah, and so like the font, thestitching, all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
So and you also put a .
I believe you put a stamp ofAmerican flag on there.
I love that, bro, my man dude,america, baby, that's how I know
it's your shield.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
I was like, oh yeah, I don't know that shield.
I've only had one person askedto not have it, Okay, and I kind
of like almost didn't want tomake it Right, like, hey, bro,
like this is our country, bro,yeah, the shields come with
American flag and you feel likeit.
Then I guess, no, you have.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
You've made a name for yourself and I've seen your
shields around, even doingtraining with different
departments.
Excuse me, but how many shieldswould you estimate you've made
since you've started?
Oh man, you're thinking over200?
Oh yeah, well, over 200.
Okay, let's go.
What do you think?
Over 600.
?
Speaker 2 (39:51):
So, so when I'm making the shield, I put that
center medallion in the middle.
So I punch out a hole.
The shields completed, sewn,all that stuff.
The last thing is to put themedallion.
So I punch out a hole to putthe medallion in and that, since
it's glued together, that punchout has all three layers.
(40:11):
It's a punch out of all threelayers.
That make sense.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And so they're glued togetherand I put that thing in the jar.
Oh, you saved them.
Yeah, so I have a mason jar.
Oh, okay, right on, I have amason jar and it's like three
quarters of the way filled up,and I started doing that
probably three years ago, okay,something like that, and before
(40:34):
then I mean I wasn't evenkeeping track, I don't know.
Well, I'm probably at a couplethousand, a couple thousand
shields, and I mean, when theytake five hours to make, yeah, I
mean it's a big deal.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
But that's also a lot of your product in, you know,
being used in our profession,which I think is pretty cool,
right?
Yeah, the shield is somethingvery important, has a
Long-standing history andculture in the fire service.
There's a lot of traditionbehind it Right now have the
helmets changed, since you know,the fire service was founded,
the fire brigade and you knowBoston, new York, yeah, you know
(41:08):
, I mean most of them still kindof have that traditional you
know helmet.
But now we have the newer style, which we still have the
shields, we still have our badge.
There's a lot of meetings, alot of pride behind it.
You see, some departments letpersonnel kind of Personalize
theirs a little bit, even putlike logos of.
You know, if they're Irish, putthe.
You know what is it?
(41:29):
The Shamrock.
Thank you, what's up.
What's up?
Thanks for help me on theshamrock on there, or some I've
seen like Some helmets have liketheir favorite football team on
there, like their logo and allthat stuff.
So it has a lot of meaning toit.
I think it's special, so toknow that you've made thousands.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
They're across the country.
Is it possibly international?
Not yet, no, yeah, okay,hopefully one day one day, yeah,
probably.
Mexico with the Mexican, but toknow that you have that many
shields out and it's in ourprofession.
It's something that means somuch to people and has, you know
, rich heritage and tradition ispretty amazing actually.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Yeah, cool.
A new tradition that's kind ofstarted is is it's been going on
with other departments likeRiverside County, but with our
department, when a probationaryfirefighter Finches, finches his
or her probation, they getissued at their helmet shield.
And so what crews are doing isthat they're ordering a helmet
(42:24):
shield from me and they'representing it to their rookie.
That's cool, you know, as alike a ride of passage, like hey
, welcome to the family, andstuff so well, and it comes from
their crew, which has even moremeaning right instead.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Of just, you know, I'm not the talk trash and our
chiefs, you guys are lazy, butit was kidding.
But you know it'll mean morethan just the BC that comes by
and the BC has a lot to do.
He's got a whole battalion.
It's not very personal, right?
You don't have that connectionwhereas it's your crew who's
trained you, right.
They've taught you to become awell-rounded firefighter,
someone who works hard, not justin the station but on duty,
(42:54):
fires, rescues, whatever it'sgonna be.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
So for it to come From them and it's handmade and
it's coming in, that's somethingsturdy they're gonna have until
they, you know, promote orwhatever and keep, that's huge
man and it's the forethought,you know, like the department
will send, send you a shield inthe mail, yeah, and say, hey,
this is for so-and-so and or theBC will have it, you know, just
still in the wrapper to give tothe right, you know, to the, to
(43:18):
the rookie.
But the forethought ofContacting me, you know, month
out or whatever, and say hey,want to get this shield for my,
for a rookie, is that's themeaning behind it.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
That's pretty cool you know, yeah, that's really
cool.
Hopefully more departmentsadopt that and do it, because
you know it means something topass probation.
There's a lot of work that goesbehind sure there's a lot of
stress, especially with ourpersonnel who come from
different departments to workout another one, you know, and
now they have families and amorgers of where there's a long
stress boy, lot of stress.
(43:48):
So it's cool that, like yousaid, they have the forethought.
There's meaning behind it.
Yeah, something to him.
So is this something you thinkyou could probably do full-time?
Speaker 2 (43:56):
I would have to it would have to be somehow make it
more efficient.
Got you, because right now it's.
It's like handmade, yeah, butit's, I see what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
There's only so many hours in the day, right?
Speaker 2 (44:10):
You know, mean well, you gotta think about right,
think about the shield thatwe're talking about.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
that just generic, like they give people when they
they get hired right, it's cheap, mm-hmm, it's done.
It's probably done by a machineStamped right.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
But think about the hand-to-hand.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
But think about the handmade, the way you do it.
It takes longer, but thecraftsmanship that comes from
that and how much sturdier it isand how much honestly they look
way more beautiful.
Yeah it sounds weird to say,right, a hose, a shield is
beautiful, but yeah, they lookreally.
You're kind of like dang dude,that looks really good, thanks.
So I get what you're saying andit's like, yeah, maybe you
(44:45):
could get machines one day, butI feel like it's gonna take away
from your brand and what you'vemade right home style, made by
hand, almost old-school style,work that has its own art and
craftsmanship, right, you know?
Speaker 2 (44:58):
yeah every shield is, you know, touched by our hands
and right, and, you know, moldedand fit on perfectly.
And you know, you know, there'snothing, really nothing,
machine about it, it's, it's wedo laser in the the font I Used
to hand paint it in and it wasjust Not as clean and crisp as I
(45:23):
wanted it to be.
So we laser it in and then wepaint that, hand paint that
laser ring.
Oh, so that's just to kind ofget it Perfect.
You know, and I even I'vegotten complaints that hey, they
look, they look too perfectlike, like I want to have some
blemishes, because yeah yeah,I'm playing it's too good.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Yeah, they're like you can't make firemen.
I.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
Yeah, they look at it like.
They look like it's made by amachine.
Yeah, I want something thatlooks like it it's not perfect,
like it's made by hand.
I'm like well, was, I canassure you was made by hand.
Like sorry, I'm perfecting mycrap, guys.
Yeah, yeah, my goodness, yeah,I can't make firemen happy.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
No, no, no, you know you're also a part of a
Organization that you startedwith Gabe mm-hmm, which I don't
want to go too crazy into it.
I just want to hit on realquick before we end, because
what you guys are doing ispretty phenomenal.
You're giving back to thecommunity.
You're helping those who wantto become firefighters, at least
from what I can tell.
Yeah, so once you talk aboutit's called the Orange County
(46:26):
Bumperos.
Right, you got the hat on, yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
Orange County.
Bumperos started, and Reallystart in 2020, but the idea
started back in 2017.
Okay, 2016.
I mean Gabe and I were both atworking in Buena Park at the
time.
We go into these houses and wehave similar upbringing, and we
go on these calls and we seethese kids and their eyes are
(46:51):
like this big, you know,watching the fire engine go by
and watching us up with our gearand everything, and, and then
we get to these houses and andwe see the family situation and
we're like man, these kids haveno chance, like you can tell
they.
They look up to us and andthey'd probably want to be a
firefighter, yeah, but they haveno guidance, they have no
Nothing.
So we're talking like man.
(47:12):
How can?
What can we do to make to helpthese kids out?
You know, and it's orange kindof on barrels, but it's not for
Hispanic, that's that's there'sother Bombayer associations out
there, yeah, differentdepartments and they have
different goals or missions,more centered to the Hispanic
culture, hispanic people.
Ours is is just, if you needhelp, we're here to help you.
(47:35):
So if it doesn't matter whatrace, gender, anything, we want
to help if you need it.
So, yeah, just, it's expensiveto become a part, become a
fireman, you know, I meancollege, firetech classes,
academy, emt school, paramedicschool, all that stuff.
And we have explorers, cadets,who you know, our cadets love,
(47:59):
love the job, want to befirefighters the age out right,
and they don't have the money totake the next step.
You know they don't have money.
Go to EMT school, college, fireAcademy, then I'm just, you
know, working for their uncleand the kind of dream is the
dream is lost there.
So our, our mission is to kindof build that bridge, that gap,
(48:20):
help them out.
Yeah, we have a like amentorship program as well.
We'll help mentor.
Yeah, we just Raising money tohelp low-income kids go to
college, fire academies and getEMT's and how many have you
Sponsored so far?
Speaker 1 (48:35):
this say as a whole, as far as EMT and paying for
classes or college fire.
How many?
Speaker 2 (48:41):
So we've been.
We've been a non.
We're full-fledged nonprofit.
So we've been a nonprofit forabout a year and four months and
we've we're in the process ofpicking some candidates right
now, so that the checks of thechecks are to the schools
already.
So so I'm counting them, eventhough we haven't picked them
yet.
We're at 19.
Speaker 1 (49:04):
Wow, excellent that's a lot for that.
Short of made it amount of time.
We work hard.
Wow, we work hard.
That's excellent man, that'syou.
Yeah, that's really huge I am.
So I kind of set up this bridgeprogram with the cadet program
at our current department mm-hmmwhere, as long as they have the
(49:25):
prerequisites done and andthey're a cadet with you know
where we're at I they will getfirst pick.
They'll have a slot in the firecategory where I teach at.
No way, yeah, set that up likethree years ago.
Really Got one yet why, I don'tknow.
I have no clue.
I would did all this work to doit.
No one's done anything about it.
Where we're at, dude, I'm justlike so in your talk right now,
(49:47):
I'm like I might need to switchthis to OCD about barrels.
So we're going to have aconversation.
I'll get you, we could switchthat over and we could keep
those slots open for the peopleyou pick and who know, because
that's huge.
I think it will impact a lotmore lives and create more
opportunity, which is hugeBecause that's the biggest
hurdle right Getting a fireacademy.
(50:08):
So I have those slots saved,but they're saved.
Speaker 2 (50:11):
They haven't picked one person in three years, dude.
Well, we have a websiteorangecannibalbarrelsorg giving
Tuesdays coming up.
Hey, let's go, baby.
If anyone wants some taxwrite-offs for the end of the
year coming up, look at that,visit our website.
But yeah, it's very fulfilling,very fulfilling.
Speaker 1 (50:33):
Yeah, I would say I'm very, I'm just proud of you and
Gabe dude, and Lee.
And Lee and very impressed withwhat you guys have done, because
it shows you don't need to besome chief or captain or
whatever you think or rank,because I could care less about
your rank.
I just care about who you areas a person.
Are you a good person, are youdoing what you need to do?
And you guys all of you workhard, but you also give back.
(50:55):
You have your own families, soit should be celebrated and
should be respected.
So thanks.
Well done, man.
Keep that stuff up, dude.
I think it's huge.
Let's have that conversationand see if we can maybe add you
to that bridge program and seewhat we can do.
And also I think you guysshould be a part of First
Responders Night of Hope comingMarch 8, 2024.
(51:17):
You're truly a concert worshipmessage.
Speaker 2 (51:20):
Let's go, baby.
Speaker 1 (51:21):
Heck yeah, you got quite a few sponsors, but I
think we should put your name onthere.
Ok, you're giving back to thecommunity.
I think that's pretty cool.
Heck yeah, we'll talk about it.
First Responders Night of Hope,march 8.
Let's go, but anyways, andrew,thank you so much for coming on
a podcast man and just hangingout.
I told you this was going to beeasier.
Speaker 2 (51:39):
Yeah, I was super nervous.
Yeah, I know you were.
You know what I was thinking onthe drive over here.
You know how you go to aninterview where there's for
firefighter, engineer, whatever,and you're super nervous and
you get it's like five minutesbefore the interview and you're
like, ok, just push it down.
You got to power through thisand go, you know, shout yourself
(52:02):
.
That's kind of how I had thatsame feeling coming in here.
You know I was nervous.
I was talking to my wife thewhole way up here.
Oh, dude, you're a good man, andyeah, so it's definitely a lot
less nerve-wracking than Ithought it was going to be Heck.
Speaker 1 (52:18):
Yeah, dude, I'm going to keep getting a couple
pictures of you right now.
You did great dog.
Why don't you look towards Samtoo real quick?
Yeah, anyways, dude, right onman.
Seriously, you did a great job.
You have nothing to worry about.
Hopefully, you can tell Gabehow easy this is.
Yeah, I tried to everybody,because we've had a few people
come on that were really nervous, and it's just a conversation.
(52:39):
I get it.
We got cameras, there's lights,microphones.
Just be yourself.
Speaker 2 (52:43):
Actually that's what sells people is when you just be
you.
That's it.
Yeah, I actually forgot thecameras were on.
A few times I looked over, I'mlike oh, but hey, dude, we do a.
Speaker 1 (52:52):
Let's go on three.
Are you ready?
Yep?
One, two, three, let's go.
Bye everybody.
Thank you so much for listeningin.
If you liked what you justlistened to, please do us a five
star review on Apple Podcastsand on Spotify.
Please follow us on YouTube, onInstagram and on Facebook.
(53:13):
And a big shout out to StephenClark, our sound editor.
He's a huge part of this teamthat is unseen.
It's eight, nine barbers.
Our first sponsor.
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It's two locations Orange,california, and Long Beach,
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Book your appointment onlineeight ninebarberscom.
Bye everybody.
Andrew Robles.
Welcome to the podcast man.
Thank you for having me.
Yeah, it's been a while tryingto get you on here.
Actually, you and one of your,one of our friends I'll say it's
Gabe.
We'll see if it at that game.
We're going to get you on here.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Gabe, don't worry, gabe, and me also.
Yes, there's three of us, threemusketeers.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Oh heck, yeah.
Yeah, we're going to get youguys on.
It'll be really good, but we'regetting towards the end of the
year.
Thanks for driving in, man, Iknow you live pretty far.
It's a beautiful evening out,so thank you so much for being
here.
My pleasure, thank you forhaving me.
But, dude, we go back a littlebit.
We go way back.
Yeah, I think we first met inparamedic school, right At
(00:47):
Saddleback.
That was like what, 2010?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah.
Yeah, I was right after I gothired with OCFA in 08.
I did my year of probation thenkind of like a year on the
floor after probation then wentto med school.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Can I just tell you that I did not enjoy any part of
it.
I did not want to go.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
For me, it was horrible, it was horrible.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
There's some people know, at least here in SoCal you
can get hired as a firefighteror firefighter medic.
Right, andrew and I both gothired as just firefighter EMTs.
We weren't paramedics.
So after a while you've been onpast probation, you can at
least.
I think you probably had a test.
I don't know if OCFA does that,but where I came from, I was
(01:32):
just told hey, you're going toparamedic school and I was like
what?
Geez, dude okay.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
It was terrible, I hated it.
It was a good learningexperience for me because, as an
explorer, you know.
You see that I was an explorerfor LA County.
Wow yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Where.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
In Azusa.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yeah, I was in.
I was in Bill Gardens, postthree.
Oh dang, yeah, let's go.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I didn't know you did LA County explorers.
Yeah, I was an explorer andwe'd have our meetings and you
know the the engine would leave,the squad would leave, and you
know I'd go on ride-alongs andsince then I was like 16, I'm
like I want no part of paramedicand like it does not look fun.
I always envied the engineer.
So I knew, like I know, I don'twant to be a medic.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Let's go.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Best spot dude 100%.
So I always saw the engineerand I was like that's where I
want to be, that's what I wantto do, and did hand crew thing.
Worked for LA County and theirhand crew for a handful of years
.
That's FSA.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
FSA.
You're an FSA, Andrew.
How did I not?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
know this, I've known you for years, you're such a
quiet, humble dude.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
What year were you in the FSA exit?
So people know let's do this.
What does FSA stand for?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Fire suppression aid.
So it's basically a hand crewfirefighter Hired by LA County
Fire Department.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Is that, and it is, I guess, the best way.
For some people may know ForestService has hot shots.
That's kind of like LA Countyfires version right.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Right, yeah, so we're basically a hot shot without
the hot shot qualifications.
So we have ground crews, wehave air crews.
So there's four different camps, paid inmate camps, throughout
the county and some of them havesome of them are ground crews,
some of them are are Halitakcrews and there's helicopter
station.
(03:21):
At those camps the bowels gooff.
If it's for a medical aid, thehelicopter will take off by
itself.
Go handle the.
Whatever the medical aid is.
Okay.
If it's a brush fire, we'll allload up on the on the
helicopter and fly to the fireland.
Okay, we're typically there atthe same time or before the fire
engines, so we'll, we're justby ourselves.
No water?
No, nothing.
Yeah, come up with a game plan,yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
We'll yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
We'll.
We'll circle the the fire a fewtimes, get a game plan.
Look at the road.
Okay, what, what can we tieinto with the smart, you know,
with the terrain, all that stuff?
Yeah, see where we can fire offthat that whole thing?
Yeah, what year was that?
So I was at Rio Hondo takingclasses in.
I graduated in 2000, 2001, 2000.
(04:06):
Yeah, well, 2001 got hired as.
So I went through Rio Hondo'swildland training.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Oh dude you're a good company.
Yeah, class five.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Class.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
You're like one.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
One or zero?
See, it wasn't even like athing.
Right right, right it was.
It was like hey, which one ofyou guys want to do this
wildland thing?
And we're like I guess I'll doit.
There was no applicationprocess.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
no, nothing, I will say that that um wildland fire
Academy was by far, I think, thetoughest I've ever been through
.
Yeah, it was very, verydifficult.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
I think it's gotten tougher since I went through.
Oh really, yeah, cause we werejust trying to figure it out,
right?
Speaker 1 (04:47):
right right.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
We were hiking and taking tasks and whatever, and I
don't know any different ohdude every day it was.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
It was either you know some arduous 10 mile run,
yeah, or it's just this circuitof push-ups, set-ups, pull-ups
and sprints with you knowfour-inch hoes and then tower
runs yeah, Do it for like fourhours.
It was great.
This was like.
This went from like Januarytill June, Right, I'll tell you
(05:13):
this, though, you come out inshape, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
You come out of freaking style.
Definitely a butt kicker.
Um, probably the most tired,maybe not the most tired I've
ever been.
But the thing with that is itwas new.
I had never been put under thatstress where, like you're
hiking, your legs are tired,using muscles I've never used
before, um, and so it was a newexperience.
So I got, went through RioHondo's um wildland training,
(05:38):
okay.
Then got hired with their,their type two hand crew through
the college.
Right, that's road runners,that's road runners, yeah, um,
and then basically backed upDalton.
When they would go out on acall on a fire, we'd go back up
their station, um, or we'd getyou know type two work
assignments, um, around aroundthe state.
But so did that for a year andthen, um, then got hired with LA
(06:01):
County in 2002.
Okay, so I actually turned 20in their in their Academy, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
That Academy's um.
That was tough.
That's no joke.
That was tough.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
They dropped a lot of candidates out there, yeah, and
it was in Santa Clarita, um, atcamp nine, um, so elevation, it
was tired, thin air, all thatstuff, um, and I lived in La
Puente, and so our training wasup there in Santa Clarita, so I
just stayed there all week.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
What, how, what's the drive time, like how long is
that?
La Puente to Santa Clarita?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
With no traffic.
It's like an hour and 10 orsomething like that.
It's not too bad, but I'm notgoing to do that every day, five
days a week.
Staying there before trafficstarts is not a big deal, but
coming home is like two and ahalf hours.
Yeah, passing through Pasadena,all that.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
After just being, you know, ran and hiking on your
10s and 18s all day.
Yeah, oh, that's rough dude.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, I would have stayed too, I would have stayed,
yeah, so I stayed there andthen after that Academy, I
actually got stationed in SantaClarita at camp nine, so I kind
of never left and then, uh, Ijust continued staying there.
I would just come home on mydays off.
Um, I actually consideredgetting mail there, because guys
who, who live far, they werestaying there with me and they
would get their mail.
I'm like God, it's not a badidea.
I'm smart.
(07:13):
I'm basically here most of thetime, yeah, so, um, yeah, then
it was at camp nine for two anda half years.
Dude, you're on the helicopterright.
How rad was that.
It was amazing, it was so cool.
It was so cool.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
I I'll just say allegedly I may have taken a
ride on one of those helicoptersa few years back.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Oh really.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Um, some class had to help teach.
I'll just leave it at that.
I was up there, um, and they I,you know took a ride, and that
was the most incredible.
When he was like going over theridges and back down, Do you
just felt like you're floatingfor a second?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
It was wild.
Yeah, they would do that, Um.
So I guess they're hiringrequirements.
You need to have a certainamount of flight hours and in
order to get those hours, a lotof times you need to have you
need to come from military.
So a lot of the guys were, um,like Vietnam vets, those kind of
thing.
That's what they racked up allthese hours.
(08:09):
So these guys were crazy.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Well, they got some skill.
Yeah, they got some real skill.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah, they got skill and uh, it's cool to watch it
when they're performing thoseskills, when you're in it, like
it's a whole other story.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I was just saying how crazy is that?
Um, a Vietnam vet who's beenthrough like this shit, right,
and he's flying, you know, ourlittle punk butts around and
we're all stressed out Like wehaven't seen anything compared
to what that guy's probably beenthrough, right?
Yeah, you know it's and he'sflying you in.
It's like I'm not going to sayit works.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
I'm just going to put them told, it is what it is,
man.
Yeah, that's wild, it's.
It's a good experience for sure.
Yeah, you know being 20, 21, 22, you know, doing that kind of
stuff, my buddies are stillworking at Tillies, you know,
like right, right, Right.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
And it's a job that's given you experience for what
your future goals are.
You know you're learning a lotof first teamwork, your work
ethic, working hard.
I would say that for me, in mycareer started in the Forest
Service.
That taught me a lot about hardwork.
That taught me a lot about umbeing gritty in my work, working
as a team member, but alsoworking with all types of people
(09:20):
.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
As Forest Service gets a hot like, you get all
range of people and you got tobe able to work with them.
So there's a lot from that timein my life that I'm very
thankful for.
At the time I was like dude,this sucks, I'm getting like.
I think I was like a GS threeor four, which was like seven 54
an hour.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
It was a terrible pain.
How do you remember that?
I don't, because it was soshocking.
I don't even know what to getpaid right now.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yeah, Well, because I remember, um, I just remember
everyone's like oh you know thepay, this, that.
But I thought, look man, I needthe experience and as either
that or join the military, Ican't afford to pay for school.
So I got to figure somethingout and I did that and I
remember, looking at the pay, Iwas like yo, this is radically
low.
Like I'm getting paid $7.54 anhour to pound dirt and risk my
(10:05):
life.
Like this is crazy, but it endedup being such a fun time.
Yeah, you know, it is what itis.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yeah, huge learning experience.
You learn how to work hard,no-transcript work around
different people when you gettired.
Some people have differentthresholds when they're tired
and like shorter fuses orwhatever, and we just learned
how to navigate that Differentbackgrounds and stuff.
So it kind of prepares youreally well for the station.
Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Absolutely, Absolutely.
I remember being on probationfrom the department I came from
and you know kind of just belike oh, this guy screwed up and
he forgot to put the cheese outduring lunch.
And it's like dude.
Last year I was eating a brownbag out of the dirt and you're
going to bitch about cheeseright now, Like come on, man,
you guys got to make.
You got air conditioning andinternet.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, sometimes I hear guys complain.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
You know the municipal side.
I'm like it ain't that bad.
Yeah, it ain't that bad boys.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yeah, in comparison I got to the floor with our
department now and it was theworkload was way less.
Yeah, so, coming from the handcrew, it's busy work all day
long.
It's working out, hiking,running, cutting line, project
work, you know, peeling off thewax off the floors, reapplying
(11:23):
every week, that kind of thing,you know.
And then I get to probation andI do an eighth of that and
they're like, oh my god, you'relike the hardest working rookie,
you're a rock star.
I'm like, all right, just pullsome weeds out of a planner.
But yeah, no big deal, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Oh yeah, I remember in the, you know, forest Service
they would have a bunch ofmaterials delivered because we'd
make and build everything andit was, you know it was to make
cement or whatever and there'sbig pile of rocks I got.
They're like yeah, why don'tyou rake that pile of rocks to
the other side of you know thedriveway?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Took a few hours to do that, moved everything.
Got back down at lunch theysaid cool, good job, why don't
you rake it back?
I was like what Are youfreaking serious right now?
Yeah, that's that busy work.
Yes, dude, I'm not down withthat.
I think that's so stupid.
That's a waste of time.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Our work was.
It wasn't like that.
It was actually good work.
It was hard work, but it wasgood work.
We'd go jackhammer out concrete, you know porny slabs, built
retaining walls, that kind ofstuff.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
So it was good A lot of good skill I'm sure that you
use in your everyday life.
Now, yeah, because I didn'tlearn any of that stuff growing
up.
Yeah, me neither.
Then they're having all thematerial delivered, like, yeah,
we're going to pour our owncement and we're going to, you
know, do the own footing forthis, and it's like, well, what
you know?
So it's pretty cool.
I learned a lot from there,which sounds like you did for
yourself as well.
(12:51):
So from how many years again,you say you do so.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
I did that for six and a half years.
So from oh, six years, oh two,to 2008, when I got hired with
Orange County.
So I gave myself five years.
I said if I, if I don't gethired in five years, I'm going
to go look for something else.
I'm going to something elsethat packed my resume.
I'm going to be an EMT.
I'm going to go do this, thisor that, but the problem is they
paid just enough.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
They paid just enough .
No, I know, I know exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
You're a union member , you have insurance, you have
all this stuff and I'm like I'mreally going to, I'm really
going to stop contributing to myretirement to go be an EMT
somewhere or whatever.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
But isn't that?
It's funny you say that, butisn't that?
Think about jobs outside ofwhat we do, our profession as
firefighters.
We're government workers.
Okay, so we all know thatgovernment workers not federally
, but at least you know, cityand statewide typically get paid
.
Okay, you're not going to berich, but you won't be poor.
You know what I'm saying.
(13:50):
You'll be comfortable.
Like, like you get dude, youget just enough where it's like
they don't want you to leave.
You're like ah man, I don't know, because of retirement and this
and overtime, but I think aboutthat.
In the private sector sector,how many people probably get
comfortable, right, because it'slike, well, this is good money,
you know it's paying the bills.
I got, okay, health insurance,but are they really happy?
(14:11):
I think about that sometimes,even for myself.
You know, I'm like ah man,because I'm working on my
master's degree now I do have alot of other stuff on the side
that do and, but there's a lotof me I'm like, ah, but the fire
department pays, you know.
So it pays me enough, right,you know it's not, it's not
amazing pay, but it's good pay,right?
You know it's funny, you bringthat up.
I think about that.
(14:31):
A lot of people, where peopleget stuck and comfortable, where
they don't want to take a riskand go after the things they
want to do or start the businessthey want to start because
they're in a job they may like alittle bit, but well, it pays
enough.
And I got health insurance,yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Yeah, I, I seen that on uh during my time in training
, where I would drive home everyevening and I'd see the same
people stuck in traffic everyevening.
I'm like, oh, I have a two yearstent, but you got 30, like you
know, 30 plus probably you'regoing to be on this 91 freeway
for 17 years.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
I thought this same thing when I was in training
that I would be done.
You know, we're on the four 10schedule and driving home it's
like dude.
These people got to do this forthree freaking years.
I got two years and I'm talkingabout to lose my mind.
Yeah, no wonder the divorcerate so high yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Man, that's crazy.
Yeah, I don't know how.
I had a really like when Ipulled up to my driveway.
I had to like, take a second,okay, I'm home, just relax,
debrief for a second, you know,turn all that stress off, what I
have going on at home, all thisstuff, leave my, leave my work
phone in the car and then justcome home and be present, you
know, and just kind of leave it.
You have to.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Yeah, man, that's.
That's something I've beenworking on, I would say, earlier
on in my career.
I only have 16, 17 years ontotal, but I wasn't good at
shutting that off and I think Igot caught up in the whole fire
department thing where it's likegive back, pick up as much
overtime as you can.
You know fire department, firedepartment, fire department and.
(16:09):
But there was a lot of times,you know, in my younger years I
didn't realize how much of thejob was affecting me internally.
That's how the sample was goingcrazy.
But to see what we see on ashift basis, whether it's, you
know, the craziness of the fire,the violence of people hurting
(16:30):
each other or someone stuck in acar we got to cut them out or
calling somebody dead, doing CPRon somebody delivering babies,
seeing people with limbs missing, cuts, wounds, it's crazy,
right.
And then it's like go home, bea go home, be a father, husband,
son, uncle, and it's just likewait what.
I just worked two wild shifts,you know, and I had.
(16:54):
I really had to take a stepback and kind of do the same
thing where.
Now for me, when I come homefrom shift, I always tell myself
put a smile on your face likeyou're home, whatever happened
at work.
You leave that work and comehome, be present with family,
and because the reality is, youknow, this is a great job, we're
fortunate to have it, but atthe end of the day, they're not
(17:15):
going to be there when we die.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Right.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Like once we're retired say we retire early
medically or we retire after 30,and they're going to say, hey,
great job.
Oh yeah, here's your cake andice cream and bye.
They're going to give you aretirement badge and they're
going to fill your seat withsomeone younger and cheaper.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
And then they become oh, what's his name?
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Right, that guy, what's?
Speaker 2 (17:31):
his name.
That used to work here.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Yeah, I think about that all the time.
Dude, right, the emails we getabout the retired firefighters
passing away and this is not tobe like mean or cold hearted,
but I'm like, okay, I don't knowwhere they are, right, I mean,
I never I hate to say this but Inever read them.
I delete it right away.
I'm like whatever, and that'snot that you know what I'm
saying, but it's like I don'tknow them.
I have no tie to them Besidesthe fact that we worked for the
(17:54):
same fire department and I seethat a lot in our fellow
firefighters.
They get wrapped up in thiswhole like I'm a fireman and I
want to say nobody cares.
You realize the average systemdoesn't give a crap about your
badge, your uniform or yourlatest equipment that you have
on or whatever it is.
And so I've learned for myselfthe importance of being present
(18:18):
at home and picking up less overtime and making sure I don't
bring work home and making sureI'm open emotionally, not shut
down like we're at work, causethat's right.
It's true, we have to go fromcall to call to call and we,
over time, learned to just shutit off.
You just go to the call, run itand do your thing.
Someone died.
Hey, it sucks, man.
Sorry, load up guys, we want toget lunch.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
It's wild dude.
Yeah, I think I'm along thosesame same lines, but probably
what's what I'm looking for?
More advanced or like.
So I Like compartmentalizeeverything.
Yeah, so I have my work.
Like, whatever happens, happensat work, yeah, put it in my box
(19:05):
, then I go home, then I don'topen it, you know what I mean.
And so, like, when that's witheverything like Personal, family
stuff or whatever, likeeverything every, every time
I've been hurt or Stressed orwhatever, it goes in this box
and I and I completely keep itaway from my home.
Yeah, yeah, so it's good tokeep it, you know, keep work at
(19:30):
work, at home, at home.
But at the same time, you guysgot to make sure that you're
Sharing a little bit and gettingsome of that stuff off your
chest.
Yeah, you know, that'ssomething I struggle with,
because I like I come home and Idon't tell my wife anything how
was work, that was good, right,you keep it general.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Yeah, I know, I feel you.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
I got, we got up once got twice.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Whatever you know, it's helped me those.
Typically when I get home IWill if I don't have my boards
with me at work.
Usually I should take my RV towork most of the time because my
surfboards and skydiving rigorin there.
But I usually will come homeand it's go for a run or go surf
.
That's kind of like my time tolike diffuse a little bit.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
And once I put in that kind of like to get my
heart rate up, work hard Ialways feel better after run and
I always feel amazing aftersurfing.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
That's just kind of like my thing, where it feels
like it makes me come back tobeing equal.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Mm-hmm, I'm like, okay, I'm good.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Yeah, you know, I got .
I worked out that stress alittle bit and I'm fine.
No, I don't know what that isfor other people.
I've just noticed for myselflike that first hour home for me
is kind of crucial.
Yeah where it's like all right,you need to get some movement
in and get get some that stressout from work.
Mm-hmm and then I'm just feelway more relaxed, I feel more
present, I don't feel as anxious.
(20:44):
That's something I've learnedthrough.
You know, I use that Counselingteam, international
international, that we have atwork, so I found a therapist to
them and that's what theyactually suggested.
Like hey, you, I noticed whenyou talk about after you
exercise or surf or do somethingyou like in the morning.
You always feel better.
Maybe that's the best thing todo when you get off.
Mm-hmm you know, I'll just makeyou better, yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
I don't know, it's probably I should do.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yeah, you got.
How many kids you got a lot ofkids do I got?
Speaker 2 (21:13):
I got a probably a small amount for being Hispanic
Mom and I'm an underachiever.
I have three.
Okay, yeah, I have pretty good.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Nowadays it's expensive and we're in soco.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Yeah, dude, being you know single income, you know my
wife stays home and she shehandles everything at home and
I'm super thankful for that.
But it you really have to livewithin, within your means, for
sure, you know, because youstill want to give your kids
like options and and you knowexperiences and stuff.
(21:58):
So, like my kids, they're intomusic.
You know my, my daughter, allmy kids at one point have have
had piano lessons.
My son has piano lessons rightnow.
My middle daughter, she, shedoes saxophone right now and
yeah, and yeah, which one?
Speaker 1 (22:17):
which sax you know?
Okay, Cuz real quick.
Here is.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Sam too was the yeah.
Maybe that's it, I don't know.
It's like the basic one, I knowit's, I know it's gold, it's so
funny cuz I can't picture herplaying saxophone.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Just look on my grave .
Of all things, why not likeviolin, dude, that's boring.
Okay, no, it's not boring, Itake that back, yeah no, she's
really good, she has that ear sookay.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
So my oldest she started when she was five and so
or six, I'm sorry.
And then my second daughter,she started hearing piano in the
house because they're two yearsapart, okay, when she was four
years old.
So she's heard music prettymuch a whole life.
And so now she, when shestarted playing piano, she
started doing the Suzuki method,which is kind of like my ear,
(23:04):
yeah, I think.
And so she just picks up reallyquick.
So she picks up like she gotlike a little record, like a
plastic recorder from fromschool and she was messing with
it and she was just jamming allthese little songs.
Just she like just messes withit, and then she can kind of
hear the different sounds andshe can make out a whole song,
you know that's so good that,yeah, that you're doing that
(23:26):
with your kids.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
You got started early because it's so good for their
cognitive yeah, ability fortheir future.
You know, because music, that'show I was raised.
I was raised you music andsinging the car, my mom oldies
and piano in the house, takepiano lessons and Dude that.
For me that's like.
I've always loved music.
It's kind of been one of thosethings where it's always gonna
(23:48):
be a part of my life and it's sounique because there's so many
people who aren't musicians,right, and so they look at you
like whoa, whatever.
But I've found so muchconnection through music with
other people.
A guy at work named Wes Miller.
I help him with his stuff whenhe goes on tours and then just
playing at church when I was akid with my mom and other people
.
It's just pretty.
It's so rad to do that.
Now they say it's supposed tomake you good at math, allegedly
(24:11):
, and I suck it.
So I don't know where they gotthat one from.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
My kids do really well in math, not because of me
they got that from my wife, forsure.
They got it from mom dude butthey seem to get it with math
and stuff.
So I don't know if it has to dowith music or just they just
got my wife's jeans, but they dowell in school.
I don't know.
I never did well in school.
I was a terrible student.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Terrible student.
That's why I find it sointeresting.
I'm going after a master'sdegree right now, because I hate
school.
I hate school, dude, but Iunderstand the importance of it
now.
I just I get it.
It is what it is, dude.
You have a business that weneed to talk about, and this
business is pretty much makingleather products.
Right, leather, helmet, shield.
(25:00):
Is that?
The only thing you make isleather?
Speaker 2 (25:01):
helmet shield.
That's what it's evolved to.
So initially it started offmaking whatever people wanted
and I would just figure it outand I would get practice and get
good.
And for one of our firefightercadres, back in 2016 or so, they
(25:22):
asked me for some shields fortheir cadre, and so I made them
and I kind of posted onInstagram.
And then a guy from RiversideCounty hit me up like, hey, can
you make me a shield?
And so I made him a shield, andhe's a pretty influential guy
over there and, before you knowit, his whole crew and then his
battalion, and then, like,everyone's ordering shields and
so, yeah, so it's got to thepoint now where, like, that's
(25:44):
all I have time for.
Yeah, so someone people hit meup for you know, a knife, sheath
or a bow or suspenders, and I'mlike, do I?
I just can't, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
I would imagine, because most people have the
Phoenix Fire Helmet right, theones that we have.
So it's gotta be just kind oflike a cut and paste, besides
changing who they work for,maybe, if they have the
numbering on the front or youknow the rank or whatever it's
gonna be.
Some have their last names, Idon't know, but yeah, it just
becomes more efficient so ifyou're working on one thing you
(26:14):
can be.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
You can make it as efficient as possible.
So, but if you go from a shieldand then someone orders
suspenders, you're like, okay,let me put all my shield stuff
away and get out my suspendersstuff, and then you know.
So you can kind of make italmost like a little assembly
line, right, you know, kind of.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Dude, I still have your.
You made me like a key ringthing for my belt for work.
I still got that one.
Really.
Yeah, I still got it.
I've actually I'm gonna be realwith you, I've lost it a few
times and then it's just poniedover to my station and I'm like,
oh, it showed up, like cool.
So I'll say like I still havethe key one you made Awesome,
dude, thank you, that's thanksto your stuff.
But you've made me a shield.
(26:51):
I've known, dude, you've gotshields in Orange County, LA
County, City, Riverside.
Oh, what's the farthest you got?
You have to have East.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Coast, yeah, tennessee Really.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
So anyway, I had this couple of skis that I almost
used and I loved it.
I easily shot it down the wholetime there was shooting catches
.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
I shot it off of a mountain there and then they got
ready to shoot it down.
So, and then I shot it downagain is, if they want like the
(27:34):
number cut out in the middle,because then you got to stitch
around the number, or if theywant like a passport, then it's
all just additional work, but sothat's stitching.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Is that hand stitching?
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Everything's hand stitched, hand sewn, hand Woo
and everything.
So, yeah, so the way it's yeah,dude, that's tedious, yeah,
it's super tedious and it takesforever.
It takes about five and a halfhours to make one shield, you
know.
And then putting in time.
So every time I put a post out,so I hardly ever post, because
every time I do a post I getlike three or four or five
(28:06):
orders.
So I'm like we really have tolook at our books and be like,
okay, where are we at, you know,with our progress and you know,
can we post?
Because every time we do it,you know, we get a handful of
orders.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
still, which is a great problem to have, by the
way.
Like that makes me very happyfor you actually, cause I'm sure
there's some people who wishlike they could put something up
, and people come after them, sothat means you're doing
something right, right, right.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
It just takes a long time and I just got tired of the
cheap shields.
You know you go to a fire andthey just curl over and, like
the department, issue ones.
They're not even leather,they're like pleather or
whatever.
They're like dude.
Yeah, I get all my leather fromthis place in Irvine that he's
(28:50):
a distributor from his company.
His last name is Sipisi andSipisi means tannery, so he's
from Turkey.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
And so his family owns a tannery in Turkey and
he's just like the USdistributor.
So, yeah, I took our shield,our department issue shield to
him.
He's looking at it and he juststarts laughing.
He's like I don't even knowwhat this is.
Like this is.
I can't even tell you what thisis.
Wow, you know, so like it.
So everything we use is topgrain, high quality European
(29:23):
leather, hand stitched, like allthat stuff, so hand painted.
It's super tedious.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Is this a family ordeal too?
Does your family help you outwith things behind the scenes?
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yeah, so my wife, she does most of it actually, so,
yeah, so I was doing the shieldsand talking about like work,
life, work, family balance.
You know, I would go to work,work my two shifts, three shifts
, whatever I'm working, comehome, then work on shields, and
(29:56):
so I'd be in the kitchen, I'dhave a handful of oars at the
complete over my two days offand my kids would be watching TV
and they'd be like Dad, can wego to the park or can we do this
?
Can we that?
I'm like no, I can't, I have to.
At the Finissey Shields and Ijust felt I felt bad, you know.
So I'm like you know what thisis.
My kids are only small ones.
You know, I'm not gonna that'sa good point I'm not gonna do
this, you know, I'm gonna justkind of stop making shields and
(30:19):
enjoy my kids.
And, yeah, so I kind of stoppedand and then, well, I guess we
didn't finish our conversationabout med school, so just to cut
back real quick, no, you'rekidding, it leads to this, I
promise.
Yeah, I wasn't successful in medschool and so you know, start,
(30:42):
start, continue doing leatherwork after med school.
While I was doing these shields, I decided to go back to med
school.
And so I told my wife, I go,hey, I'm gonna send her a post
saying that, hey, I'm not doingshields anymore, I'm going to
med school, whatever.
And she's like, well, I'll justdo them, you know.
And I'm like she's helped me ineach of the processes but has
(31:04):
never made a whole shieldherself, okay.
And so I'm like, well, yeah, ifyou want to go for it, you know
.
So she basically picked up theball and just kept going with it
.
That's so cool, yeah.
So now she does.
What a good woman.
She's amazing, that's right.
She is amazing, so, and she'sso much better than me.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
So much better, dude, you're melting my heart right
now, dude.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
She is funny, she doesn't let me sew anymore.
You know, like she like alsosomething.
Like she'll go like she'll beworking on a shield and then
she'll go do something and I'mlike, oh, I'm going to just help
her out, you know, and just sewthe perimeter of this fire,
this helmet shield, and thenshe'll come back and she'll be
like she'll be inspecting it,like these stitches aren't, like
(31:49):
, you know, all in line orwhatever, and I'll just do it,
and.
But she has very good attentionto detail, you know.
So she wants everything to beperfect and even like the font,
like oh, she's like, I don'tknow, maybe a little bit crooked
, what do you think?
I'm like this is straighterthan straight.
She's like no, but I don't likethis little speck, you know,
(32:11):
and I'm like, just trust me,it's fine, you know, but she has
that attention to detail, soshe's more organized, she does
better work, and you know, bro,she loves you straight up.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
That is love and action right there.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
That is so rad but it's cool that it's also kind of
like it's a family ordeal.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
She's helping you out .
It's only made you better.
You know that's pretty cool man.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
What's coolest about it is that our kids see it and
so they ask us to help withshields.
But if I'm not even good enough, my kids are definitely not
good enough, you know.
But they're like littleentrepreneurs themselves, you
know.
They make like little rainbowloom bracelets and my one
daughter's like super crafty,and they'll make a bunch of
(32:55):
product of something bracelets,necklaces, earrings, whatever
and they'll go with friendsaround the neighborhood and sell
at the door and make money andthen, you know, have a piece of
party with their friends andstuff.
So it's cool.
So they're seeing that andthey're kind of taking
initiative and doing stuff.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
You're setting a good example.
They're seeing mom and dad work, you know which is good, you
know.
They don't seem like they'relazy kids from everything I've
seen, you've told me and yourkids being involved in music.
I'm always like man, you'redoing it right, you're raising
them right, my friend.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Yeah, I never did any of that stuff growing up.
It's just, I guess if there'sanything to say about myself is
that I'm a good listener and soI take what guys at the station
tell me, so I listen to theiradvice and I take it to heart
and stuff.
And I never played instrumentsgrowing up.
I someone said hey, man, youshould probably put your kids in
(33:46):
music because it's good fortheir brain.
I'm like okay, like yeah, andthen that's pretty much it, yeah
, so, yeah, so super proud ofthem and that's cool, but what
year did you start doing theshow?
Speaker 1 (33:59):
You said it was 2010, .
Right, or 11 when we got updone at Meg School.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Yeah, so the way I got started is I got off
probation in 2009, and I wantedto make.
I wanted to buy a customScabbard, so I had an axe, I
wanted a Scabbard, and so I waslooking around and I want my
name on it, and so I was lookingaround and it's super expensive
.
If you want anything custom,it's just, oh yeah especially
(34:26):
now with inflation dude.
Yeah, but back then I mean, Iwas a bottom step firefighter,
you know, like not making a lotof money.
So I'm like there's no way Ican afford this, you know, and
I'm the kind of person that ifsomeone's doing it it means it
can be done.
Oh, absolutely, absolutely,yeah, I mean.
And so it just takes a littlebit of education and, you know,
(34:49):
just figuring out how thingswork and whatever.
So I'm like, well, I can make aScabbard.
If someone can do it, I can doit.
And so then I just Googled youknow how to make?
Or I Googled like LeatherSupply Company, you know, and it
took me to a place called TandyLeather.
There's one in Bowling Park,there's one in Costa Mesa also.
But I went to the one in BowlingPark and I just talked to the
(35:09):
sales rep over there and justpicked his brain and all this
stuff and he set me up with thisbox.
It's like a beginner box and ithas, like your basic tools, some
little projects like a key fob,a checkbook cover and a couple
other things, and I was at 64sat the time and I would go up
there to the loft at night, youknow, after dishes are done, all
(35:31):
that stuff and everyone's kindof winding down.
I'd go up there and I'd justtinker and I'd just instantly
fell in love with it.
And guys around the stationwould be like like hey, like
what are you doing up there, youknow?
And they'd come up and they'dsee that I'm working on leather
and they're like, oh man, canyou make me this or can you make
me that?
And I'm like, oh sure you know,like, oh, give it a shot,
(35:52):
whatever.
And it's funny because eversince then I've never not been
back ordered.
Wow, yeah, I've never not hadan order list and just other
than Instagram I don't reallyadvertise.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Yeah, I mean, it speaks for itself it's funny how
sometimes I try to tell peopleI can't even explain how things
just hit.
And even with this podcast,right, because we don't
advertise.
I mean, we just have what?
A YouTube, instagram andFacebook, and I pretty much
predominantly post everything onInstagram and just you know,
let it go into the ether.
(36:26):
Right, we have our host siteand it just it's taking on life
of its own.
I couldn't even tell you whypeople are downloading around
the world.
I'm just like, okay, like thisis something that we record and
do out of my home and it is whatit is.
But, dude, if you havesomething good going it, just
people will gravitate towards it.
Man yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
It seems like that's happened for you.
So my thing is I just try andmake the best shields out there.
Yeah, I'm trying to make itvery best.
You know, like that's kind ofsomething that's been instilled
in me as a young kid my grandpa,you know, before he even knew I
wanted to be a fireman he goes,he goes.
Whatever you want to do, justbe the best at it.
If you want to be a, he's likeI don't care what you do, he
goes.
If you're a garbage man, be thebest garbage man you can be.
(37:09):
You know all this stuff, so Ireally took that to heart and so
with the shields, I'm like okay, like I'm tired of the ones
that just look like crud.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Yeah, it feels, terrible.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Yeah, it's horrible.
Like I'm gonna make a shieldand it's not gonna fold over,
it's not gonna crumble, it's notgonna do any of these things.
And yeah, and it's just beentrial and error, I make a shield
and I just, you know, ask forfeedback and you know, how does
it work?
And you know, and guys wouldsend me in-service pictures and
I would be inspecting it and I'mlike, hey, man, it's like it's
(37:39):
kind of the top is kind ofcurling a little bit.
Like you know, am I seeing thisright?
Like, oh yeah, like I had tomake it do that because I wanted
it to curl and it wouldn't curland I had to like literally
bend it over to curl.
I'm like, okay, you know so,but like my heart stops a little
bit.
I'm like dude, like am I makingsomething that is failing?
Yeah, so, yeah, it's been trialand error.
(38:00):
I think we have a pretty goodproduct right now.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Now you're because you've made me one, got my
engineer's shield over, but howmany layers of leather do you do
?
Cause it does seem very.
It's sturdy and thick, but it'snot.
It's the best way.
It's not a bad thick, like it'snot overdone, it's like it's
perfect.
So is there like a stack methodyou have?
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Yeah so it's three layers and combined they're
about just over a quarter inchthick.
So if like any thicker thanthat, it just looks weird Too
much, it just looks like toomuch of the front of your helmet
.
Okay, so it's a front piece,the middle piece which has the
(38:41):
wording on it, and then the backpiece, and then they're all
glued and stitched together.
Okay, yeah, and the stitchingthat we use is like real thick,
like one millimeter inch thickstitching, so it's kind of
predominant.
It gives it like that look, thecertain look that I've kind of
as I guess, has become mine.
Yeah, and so like the font, thestitching, all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
So and you also put a .
I believe you put a stamp ofAmerican flag on there.
I love that, bro, my man dude,america, baby, that's how I know
it's your shield.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
I was like, oh yeah, I don't know that shield.
I've only had one person askedto not have it, Okay, and I kind
of like almost didn't want tomake it Right, like, hey, bro,
like this is our country, bro,yeah, the shields come with
American flag and you feel likeit.
Then I guess, no, you have.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
You've made a name for yourself and I've seen your
shields around, even doingtraining with different
departments.
Excuse me, but how many shieldswould you estimate you've made
since you've started?
Oh man, you're thinking over200?
Oh yeah, well, over 200.
Okay, let's go.
What do you think?
Over 600.
?
Speaker 2 (39:51):
So, so when I'm making the shield, I put that
center medallion in the middle.
So I punch out a hole.
The shields completed, sewn,all that stuff.
The last thing is to put themedallion.
So I punch out a hole to putthe medallion in and that, since
it's glued together, that punchout has all three layers.
(40:11):
It's a punch out of all threelayers.
That make sense.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And so they're glued togetherand I put that thing in the jar.
Oh, you saved them.
Yeah, so I have a mason jar.
Oh, okay, right on, I have amason jar and it's like three
quarters of the way filled up,and I started doing that
probably three years ago, okay,something like that, and before
(40:34):
then I mean I wasn't evenkeeping track, I don't know.
Well, I'm probably at a couplethousand, a couple thousand
shields, and I mean, when theytake five hours to make, yeah, I
mean it's a big deal.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
But that's also a lot of your product in, you know,
being used in our profession,which I think is pretty cool,
right?
Yeah, the shield is somethingvery important, has a
Long-standing history andculture in the fire service.
There's a lot of traditionbehind it Right now have the
helmets changed, since you know,the fire service was founded,
the fire brigade and you knowBoston, new York, yeah, you know
(41:08):
, I mean most of them still kindof have that traditional you
know helmet.
But now we have the newer style, which we still have the
shields, we still have our badge.
There's a lot of meetings, alot of pride behind it.
You see, some departments letpersonnel kind of Personalize
theirs a little bit, even putlike logos of.
You know, if they're Irish, putthe.
You know what is it?
(41:29):
The Shamrock.
Thank you, what's up.
What's up?
Thanks for help me on theshamrock on there, or some I've
seen like Some helmets have liketheir favorite football team on
there, like their logo and allthat stuff.
So it has a lot of meaning toit.
I think it's special, so toknow that you've made thousands.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
They're across the country.
Is it possibly international?
Not yet, no, yeah, okay,hopefully one day one day, yeah,
probably.
Mexico with the Mexican, but toknow that you have that many
shields out and it's in ourprofession.
It's something that means somuch to people and has, you know
, rich heritage and tradition ispretty amazing actually.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Yeah, cool.
A new tradition that's kind ofstarted is is it's been going on
with other departments likeRiverside County, but with our
department, when a probationaryfirefighter Finches, finches his
or her probation, they getissued at their helmet shield.
And so what crews are doing isthat they're ordering a helmet
(42:24):
shield from me and they'representing it to their rookie.
That's cool, you know, as alike a ride of passage, like hey
, welcome to the family, andstuff so well, and it comes from
their crew, which has even moremeaning right instead.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Of just, you know, I'm not the talk trash and our
chiefs, you guys are lazy, butit was kidding.
But you know it'll mean morethan just the BC that comes by
and the BC has a lot to do.
He's got a whole battalion.
It's not very personal, right?
You don't have that connectionwhereas it's your crew who's
trained you, right.
They've taught you to become awell-rounded firefighter,
someone who works hard, not justin the station but on duty,
(42:54):
fires, rescues, whatever it'sgonna be.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
So for it to come From them and it's handmade and
it's coming in, that's somethingsturdy they're gonna have until
they, you know, promote orwhatever and keep, that's huge
man and it's the forethought,you know, like the department
will send, send you a shield inthe mail, yeah, and say, hey,
this is for so-and-so and or theBC will have it, you know, just
still in the wrapper to give tothe right, you know, to the, to
(43:18):
the rookie.
But the forethought ofContacting me, you know, month
out or whatever, and say hey,want to get this shield for my,
for a rookie, is that's themeaning behind it.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
That's pretty cool you know, yeah, that's really
cool.
Hopefully more departmentsadopt that and do it, because
you know it means something topass probation.
There's a lot of work that goesbehind sure there's a lot of
stress, especially with ourpersonnel who come from
different departments to workout another one, you know, and
now they have families and amorgers of where there's a long
stress boy, lot of stress.
(43:48):
So it's cool that, like yousaid, they have the forethought.
There's meaning behind it.
Yeah, something to him.
So is this something you thinkyou could probably do full-time?
Speaker 2 (43:56):
I would have to it would have to be somehow make it
more efficient.
Got you, because right now it's.
It's like handmade, yeah, butit's, I see what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
There's only so many hours in the day, right?
Speaker 2 (44:10):
You know, mean well, you gotta think about right,
think about the shield thatwe're talking about.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
that just generic, like they give people when they
they get hired right, it's cheap, mm-hmm, it's done.
It's probably done by a machineStamped right.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
But think about the hand-to-hand.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
But think about the handmade, the way you do it.
It takes longer, but thecraftsmanship that comes from
that and how much sturdier it isand how much honestly they look
way more beautiful.
Yeah it sounds weird to say,right, a hose, a shield is
beautiful, but yeah, they lookreally.
You're kind of like dang dude,that looks really good, thanks.
So I get what you're saying andit's like, yeah, maybe you
(44:45):
could get machines one day, butI feel like it's gonna take away
from your brand and what you'vemade right home style, made by
hand, almost old-school style,work that has its own art and
craftsmanship, right, you know?
Speaker 2 (44:58):
yeah every shield is, you know, touched by our hands
and right, and, you know, moldedand fit on perfectly.
And you know, you know, there'snothing, really nothing,
machine about it, it's, it's wedo laser in the the font I Used
to hand paint it in and it wasjust Not as clean and crisp as I
(45:23):
wanted it to be.
So we laser it in and then wepaint that, hand paint that
laser ring.
Oh, so that's just to kind ofget it Perfect.
You know, and I even I'vegotten complaints that hey, they
look, they look too perfectlike, like I want to have some
blemishes, because yeah yeah,I'm playing it's too good.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Yeah, they're like you can't make firemen.
I.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
Yeah, they look at it like.
They look like it's made by amachine.
Yeah, I want something thatlooks like it it's not perfect,
like it's made by hand.
I'm like well, was, I canassure you was made by hand.
Like sorry, I'm perfecting mycrap, guys.
Yeah, yeah, my goodness, yeah,I can't make firemen happy.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
No, no, no, you know you're also a part of a
Organization that you startedwith Gabe mm-hmm, which I don't
want to go too crazy into it.
I just want to hit on realquick before we end, because
what you guys are doing ispretty phenomenal.
You're giving back to thecommunity.
You're helping those who wantto become firefighters, at least
from what I can tell.
Yeah, so once you talk aboutit's called the Orange County
(46:26):
Bumperos.
Right, you got the hat on, yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
Orange County.
Bumperos started, and Reallystart in 2020, but the idea
started back in 2017.
Okay, 2016.
I mean Gabe and I were both atworking in Buena Park at the
time.
We go into these houses and wehave similar upbringing, and we
go on these calls and we seethese kids and their eyes are
(46:51):
like this big, you know,watching the fire engine go by
and watching us up with our gearand everything, and, and then
we get to these houses and andwe see the family situation and
we're like man, these kids haveno chance, like you can tell
they.
They look up to us and andthey'd probably want to be a
firefighter, yeah, but they haveno guidance, they have no
Nothing.
So we're talking like man.
(47:12):
How can?
What can we do to make to helpthese kids out?
You know, and it's orange kindof on barrels, but it's not for
Hispanic, that's that's there'sother Bombayer associations out
there, yeah, differentdepartments and they have
different goals or missions,more centered to the Hispanic
culture, hispanic people.
Ours is is just, if you needhelp, we're here to help you.
(47:35):
So if it doesn't matter whatrace, gender, anything, we want
to help if you need it.
So, yeah, just, it's expensiveto become a part, become a
fireman, you know, I meancollege, firetech classes,
academy, emt school, paramedicschool, all that stuff.
And we have explorers, cadets,who you know, our cadets love,
(47:59):
love the job, want to befirefighters the age out right,
and they don't have the money totake the next step.
You know they don't have money.
Go to EMT school, college, fireAcademy, then I'm just, you
know, working for their uncleand the kind of dream is the
dream is lost there.
So our, our mission is to kindof build that bridge, that gap,
(48:20):
help them out.
Yeah, we have a like amentorship program as well.
We'll help mentor.
Yeah, we just Raising money tohelp low-income kids go to
college, fire academies and getEMT's and how many have you
Sponsored so far?
Speaker 1 (48:35):
this say as a whole, as far as EMT and paying for
classes or college fire.
How many?
Speaker 2 (48:41):
So we've been.
We've been a non.
We're full-fledged nonprofit.
So we've been a nonprofit forabout a year and four months and
we've we're in the process ofpicking some candidates right
now, so that the checks of thechecks are to the schools
already.
So so I'm counting them, eventhough we haven't picked them
yet.
We're at 19.
Speaker 1 (49:04):
Wow, excellent that's a lot for that.
Short of made it amount of time.
We work hard.
Wow, we work hard.
That's excellent man, that'syou.
Yeah, that's really huge I am.
So I kind of set up this bridgeprogram with the cadet program
at our current department mm-hmmwhere, as long as they have the
(49:25):
prerequisites done and andthey're a cadet with you know
where we're at I they will getfirst pick.
They'll have a slot in the firecategory where I teach at.
No way, yeah, set that up likethree years ago.
Really Got one yet why, I don'tknow.
I have no clue.
I would did all this work to doit.
No one's done anything about it.
Where we're at, dude, I'm justlike so in your talk right now,
(49:47):
I'm like I might need to switchthis to OCD about barrels.
So we're going to have aconversation.
I'll get you, we could switchthat over and we could keep
those slots open for the peopleyou pick and who know, because
that's huge.
I think it will impact a lotmore lives and create more
opportunity, which is hugeBecause that's the biggest
hurdle right Getting a fireacademy.
(50:08):
So I have those slots saved,but they're saved.
Speaker 2 (50:11):
They haven't picked one person in three years, dude.
Well, we have a websiteorangecannibalbarrelsorg giving
Tuesdays coming up.
Hey, let's go, baby.
If anyone wants some taxwrite-offs for the end of the
year coming up, look at that,visit our website.
But yeah, it's very fulfilling,very fulfilling.
Speaker 1 (50:33):
Yeah, I would say I'm very, I'm just proud of you and
Gabe dude, and Lee.
And Lee and very impressed withwhat you guys have done, because
it shows you don't need to besome chief or captain or
whatever you think or rank,because I could care less about
your rank.
I just care about who you areas a person.
Are you a good person, are youdoing what you need to do?
And you guys all of you workhard, but you also give back.
(50:55):
You have your own families, soit should be celebrated and
should be respected.
So thanks.
Well done, man.
Keep that stuff up, dude.
I think it's huge.
Let's have that conversationand see if we can maybe add you
to that bridge program and seewhat we can do.
And also I think you guysshould be a part of First
Responders Night of Hope comingMarch 8, 2024.
(51:17):
You're truly a concert worshipmessage.
Speaker 2 (51:20):
Let's go, baby.
Speaker 1 (51:21):
Heck yeah, you got quite a few sponsors, but I
think we should put your name onthere.
Ok, you're giving back to thecommunity.
I think that's pretty cool.
Heck yeah, we'll talk about it.
First Responders Night of Hope,march 8.
Let's go, but anyways, andrew,thank you so much for coming on
a podcast man and just hangingout.
I told you this was going to beeasier.
Speaker 2 (51:39):
Yeah, I was super nervous.
Yeah, I know you were.
You know what I was thinking onthe drive over here.
You know how you go to aninterview where there's for
firefighter, engineer, whatever,and you're super nervous and
you get it's like five minutesbefore the interview and you're
like, ok, just push it down.
You got to power through thisand go, you know, shout yourself
(52:02):
.
That's kind of how I had thatsame feeling coming in here.
You know I was nervous.
I was talking to my wife thewhole way up here.
Oh, dude, you're a good man, andyeah, so it's definitely a lot
less nerve-wracking than Ithought it was going to be Heck.
Speaker 1 (52:18):
Yeah, dude, I'm going to keep getting a couple
pictures of you right now.
You did great dog.
Why don't you look towards Samtoo real quick?
Yeah, anyways, dude, right onman.
Seriously, you did a great job.
You have nothing to worry about.
Hopefully, you can tell Gabehow easy this is.
Yeah, I tried to everybody,because we've had a few people
come on that were really nervous, and it's just a conversation.
(52:39):
I get it.
We got cameras, there's lights,microphones.
Just be yourself.
Speaker 2 (52:43):
Actually that's what sells people is when you just be
you.
That's it.
Yeah, I actually forgot thecameras were on.
A few times I looked over, I'mlike oh, but hey, dude, we do a.
Speaker 1 (52:52):
Let's go on three.
Are you ready?
Yep?
One, two, three, let's go.
Bye everybody.
Thank you so much for listeningin.
If you liked what you justlistened to, please do us a five
star review on Apple Podcastsand on Spotify.
Please follow us on YouTube, onInstagram and on Facebook.
(53:13):
And a big shout out to StephenClark, our sound editor.
He's a huge part of this teamthat is unseen.
It's eight, nine barbers.
Our first sponsor.
Look good, feel good, be great.
It's two locations Orange,california, and Long Beach,
california.
Book your appointment onlineeight ninebarberscom.
Bye everybody.
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