August 13, 2025 • 50 mins
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Rowing across the Pacific Ocean isn’t just about endurance—it’s a battle of the mind, body, and spirit. In this powerful episode of Security Halt!, we sit down with the team from Courser Racing to uncover what it really takes to survive and thrive in one of the world’s most grueling challenges: ocean rowing.
From the brutal reality of day five—when exhaustion, unpredictable seas, and mental strain collide—to the unbreakable bonds forged between veterans, this conversation dives deep into teamwork, resilience, and personal growth. We explore how pushing beyond physical limits can transform lives, strengthen mental health, and inspire purpose long after the oars are put away.
Discover the mission behind Courser Racing, their vision for supporting veterans through adventure, and why community and camaraderie are essential to overcoming life’s biggest waves—both on the water and off.
🎧 Listen now on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts. Don’t forget to follow, like, share, and subscribe to help us continue these life-changing conversations for our veteran community.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Securepodcast is proudly sponsored by Titan's
Arms.
Head on over to the episodedescription and check out
Titan's Arms today.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Fuck it, we'll do it live.
That's the greatest way tostart this endeavor.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
We'll do it live.
That was my favorite mission.
My favorite thing was the adhoc in the moment mission.
Yeah, remember, I remember.
I forget this guy's last name.
I remember his first name,donald.
I got a positive card.
Then I got a, a major minuscard because the dude had a
moment of like uh, uh, uh, Idon't know what to do and I'm
(00:33):
like you're fucking not incharge, I'm in charge, let's
fucking go.
Yeah, and our caddy were likethat was fucking awesome.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I love what you just did, but chris was cadre out
there at the schoolhouse so heknows.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yeah, I love seeing captains get like fired by an E4
pre-team x-ray.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
The same dude Me more than most.
I'll bet you, I enjoy that morethan you do.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
I channeled Bill O'Reilly in that moment and it
was like my one moment of glory.
And Sir Robin Sage.
I was like my one moment ofglory.
At Robin Sage I was like, fuckyeah, we'll figure it out in
route.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I still have guys from my SEER team that reach out
Like we never served on an ODAtogether.
But they'll reach out and we'llstill joke about how, like 80%
of what we did, I was like fuckit, dude, let's just send it.
Like we can either take time totry to figure this out or just
do it live and see what happens,like we're not going to die,
you know.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
And, oddly enough, that actually works in real life
too.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
It does, it's a good skill.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Gentlemen, welcome to Security Out Podcast.
With me today are the intrepidmen of Courser Racing.
You guys are longtime followers.
You remember them from Season 2, when the product was not
refined and, let's be honest, itwas a slightly bit of a shit
show.
But now I have grown and todaywe're going to dive into the
journey.
Gentlemen, please introduceyourself.
(01:52):
Who wants to kick it?
Speaker 3 (01:53):
off.
Yeah, I'll go.
Yeah.
Chris Farrington, former fifthgrade guy, Glad to be back on
the podcast and it's looked likeit's grown.
And I mean even your setuplooks way more badass than I
think the first time we did itwas like kind of like what my
setup is right now, justanywhere I could do it.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, for those that are just recently tuning in, it
used to be a setup like bang bus.
It was just horrible.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, just the worst a little rapey.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
it gave out really bad vibes.
It's decent now, all right, jtMullin.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Go ahead.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Go ahead.
Jt Mullin, retired out of SOTD,was a civil affairs guy and
glad to be on the podcast man.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Oh yeah, welcome JT.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
I'm Jerry Hartman, new to the Courser crew.
I'm just an old school ranger.
Yeah, that likes rowing yo,pete, welcome back.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
We're stoked to have jerry on the team.
Yeah, I'm pete glazer.
I'm one of the co-founders, ofcourse racing and, like any good
operator, all these guys arebeing very humble.
They just completed atrans-oceanic row across the
Pacific Ocean from Monterey,california, to Hanalei Bay,
hawaii, and they finished thatrace just a couple of weeks ago.
So, just as much as you, denny,I'm really excited to sit down
and hear about their actualexperiences, what it did for
(03:15):
them, because, like any good ODA, as soon as they got back,
we're already training for thenext mission.
So I'm excited to hear theimpact it had on their personal
lives, because I've only gottenbreadcrumbs yeah, let's, let's
kick it off with there.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Man, I want to let you guys know um, it's the
journey, the mission.
It has stuck with me.
I've been following it since wehad that first podcast together
and being able to watch it andsee the tidbits.
But the impact of seeing youguys at the finish line at the
ceremony afterwards I hadn'teven met any of you in person,
(03:53):
but I connected with you inthose moments Like seeing you
guys tear up, celebrate, makingthat finish, making it across
all the way and having yourmoment of victory and seeing you
guys on that stage it was arepresentation of what all of us
hope to succeed in life afterservice.
Like I don't take it lightly.
It was an amazing moment to seelike, holy shit, they finally
(04:13):
did it, the boys finally did it.
And I want to dive into thatjourney.
How did it start?
How was it kicking off andfinally being in the water,
rowing across the fucking ocean,man.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Yeah, you know, you start in Monterey and the way
they set it up is very get yourboat in a parking lot and then
your four days of inspectionspacking all this stuff.
And I think the reason well,you know the reason why they do
it is so that they make surethat you're prepared to go.
But I think a small bit of itis is you're roasting on a hot
(04:49):
parking lot.
All of your like food is likemelting, like the gummies are
now one gummy, the chocolate islike, you know, just a melted
mush, and you're just, you'reready to put your boat in the
water and just leave.
And I think that's a part oflike their whole thing is like,
yeah, we'll put them in this hotparking lot and we'll do, we'll
inspect all their stuff and letthese guys roast.
(05:10):
So by the time we launch them,they're like they're more than
happy to get away from Monterey.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Bro, it sounds a lot like GI inspection before
deployment.
Yeah, big time yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Big time.
It's like I just want to getthis over with Me and Jerry JT.
We had these discussions oflike, dude, it's day two, and
I'm sick of this Like let's getin the water and you finally get
your boat in the water and thenyou still have two days I think
two to three days after thatwhere you're adjusting your trim
and you're testing systemsbefore you go, systems before
(05:45):
you go, and it's just like theythey built it to where it was
like each step got you closer toyou know, actually heading out,
um, which was, which was superawesome yeah, the the morning we
headed out like I'm getting anadrenaline rush, thinking I
haven't thought about it.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
It was like scary.
None of us wanted to admit that.
We were scared, shitless yeahthey had camera crews that
wanted to talk to us.
We're all like too emotional totalk.
It was.
It was like a going ondeployment.
It was like, oh shit, here itgoes.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
It was a great feeling man and I have to
imagine like it's.
It's scary.
You finally get on the water,jt.
What was it like for youwatching the?
You know land start to becomesmaller and smaller and smaller.
Now you're just out in the openfucking ocean.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
I don't remember anything like.
I remember rowing out, but Iknow there were people all over
but you're so emotional youdon't want to look up in the
crowds because you just want toget out.
And then it took.
I mean, it seemed like it tookseveral days for us before the
land was gone, but it really byday two.
It was you, you know you're outthere.
And then you know day one waslike, oh shit, man, this is
(06:49):
going to be easy.
Day two was an eye-opener, likewe're getting ready to be into
something that we probably don'tknow what we're going to get
into.
And then day five was a day ofhell and that's all I'm going to
leave at.
Day five is a day that I markedhow we all did on our calendar
that there's probably the topfive things that we've ever done
is probably the hardest thingwe've ever done.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
You know we've got to dive into that.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
We've got to dive into that.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
What was day five An?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
absolute shit show, Just a nightmare of a day.
So you know, I count the daystarting at, you know.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
Let me just say first that day five was not hard at
all.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the guy who was sick.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
The easiest day I've ever had in my life was day five
.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
So you know the 1 am shift comes around.
Oh yeah, I get out on the water.
It's pitch black, denny, can'tsee anything there's, you know,
the cloud cover is just it'scomplete.
We had the nav light on earlyon just because we were like we
don't want to get hit by a boatthat eventually started going
away after a while.
So the nav light you can't see,but maybe I would say 15 meters
(07:54):
around the boat and I come outon shift and it is wild outside.
You know there are 30 to 40foot swells.
We're getting hit on the side ofthe boat so it's not like we
can even ride you know the wavesand push us along to Hawaii.
We're going, like you know,sideways and then up and over
(08:14):
and looking straight down, andbefore I could even really
capture what was going on, I'mgetting in my position.
I'm like, oh, this is not goingto be good, jerry's like dude,
I don't feel good and I'm likejust take it easy, brother, I
got this and get on when you can.
And I start rowing and it islike wet concrete.
I can barely get a stroke in.
(08:37):
I'm putting all my strength intothis to just kind of try to
push us forward a little bit andI leaned back and I'm like
jerry brother, you gotta go getsomeone else.
I need help, like just restthis one off, like hit the next
shift, whatever.
And uh, so jt inherently, youknow got picked for that.
So he just got off a two-hourshift from this nightmare and
(09:00):
then is now back into thenightmare for another two hours
and, uh, you know, one size, wegot in the groove and we started
rowing and kind of really gotthe feel what was going on
around us.
It was like moment after momentof just like holding on or
leaning the best we could sothis boat wouldn't flip and you
couldn't see it coming.
It was just happening to you.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
And then you know that went throughout the night
and then the morning came andthen you started actually being
able to see these 35 and 40 footswells that are coming at you.
Now.
Imagine we've done probablyclose to nine hours of rowing in
this damn concrete and it'sstill not letting up.
And you're hitting all this andit was like a 24 hour period of
(09:41):
you just like I want to go inand I want to lay in the cabin
and please, dear God, when Iwake up, let this nightmare be
over.
But it wasn't.
It just kept continuing.
For like 24 hours.
We'd done a total of like 34nautical miles and it felt like
we'd done a total of like twonautical miles and day six a
little bit better, and it wasjust every day.
(10:03):
You're just like shit.
When are we going to get out ofthis shit storm?
And then day eight is finally.
You know, broke free, but theywere a lot of moments on that
boat.
I don't want to hear anothermoment about this.
Shit's going to change in thenext eight hours.
I don't want to hear anything,man.
I just want to row and get outof this misery seven were no
(10:27):
different than five.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
It was just five was when it started and all of us
were like and by day, six andseven, we're just so used to it.
It's like, well, whateverflings me on the boat, at least
I get like a break.
Even when you went into thecabin it wasn't like I'm safe
now.
Uh, there was like multipletimes where you know I would get
lifted in my sleep halfway onthe phone, just smack right into
the pads.
Speaker 5 (10:46):
It was like little IEDs basically hitting you.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
What was that?
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Yeah, loud as all heck, just slamming into the
side of the boat and you goflying, and on top of that, it's
like everything startedbreaking on this boat at like
day five, so it was like Apollo13,.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Man that's what we rode.
We called it Apollo 13.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Yeah, it was just, it was a shit show, but we got
across and we, you know,MacGyvered through it.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
You know we're not fast forwarding this JT.
We're not fast forwarding this,yeah yeah, yeah.
So stuff starts to break.
How are you managed?
And it's easy, it's easy tomanage the chaos on a deployment
, on a team.
18.
Bravo, get that gun up, charlie, start making a destruction
plan.
Fucking 18, echo, get theseradios.
Get going like but you're notin a convoy, you're not in a
(11:38):
vehicle, you're not drivingacross afghanistan, you're stuck
there's no good in boat.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
There's no in the boat.
You can't yeah, but at the sametime.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
I mean, you know, it was kind of like a deployment
hey, who can fix this down thing?
You know, I mean, hey, jt, grabthis jerry.
I need you to look at this.
Chris, stay on the oars for afew minutes while I'm, you know,
holding this up.
And I mean, you've got a boxthat's probably.
I mean, everything that youmess with in that, in that ocean
, is a chance of you dropping itor going overboard, and you
(12:10):
don't have like a million spareparts.
So here we were, my headunderneath this, you know,
gurney, trying to look at,figure out what where I need to
change to make this thing work,because I'd already tried to
hand pump, and what did I do?
Like 40 minutes and got oneliter of water and I realized
that that was not going to besustainable.
So it was time to startMacGyver and shit.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Yeah, we got on the sat phones, made some phone
calls to some people that werelike pretty savvy on things.
But you know, luckily, jt, heknows a lot about, you know,
frigging, wiring and all thisother stuff, so he's like I'll
get in there and do it.
It's just going to take me abit.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
And then Jerry being like the secondhand forum and
you know, all the while the boatis just wildly rocking yeah
dude, like you're trying to takesomething off and hoping you're
not gonna the, you know, ascrew's not gonna go flying out
of the boat or you're goingflying out of the boat with the
water maker.
It was, but we, we got it fixed.
You know, I just took, you hadtwo hot wires one went to the
(13:08):
fan, one went to the water maker.
I took one off and just put iton and it was just like, hey, we
can do 20 minutes an hour off.
Let's just hope this lasts forhowever long we're going to be
here.
But it did, it lasted to theend.
Not sure if I'd ever want torow it again without getting it
fixed, but yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Yeah, it's a.
You know, typically you can runthose things in the morning for
as long as you want to fill upyou know, uh, all of the jugs
that you have for your drinkingwater for the day, but we had to
run it, you know, for 20minutes, then shut it off for 30
minutes, then run it foranother 20 minutes and oh, by
the way, our batteries are onlysitting at like 30%, so we can't
(13:44):
just keep doing this.
So you know, they say you'resupposed to be drinking 10, you
know liters of water a day.
And, jerry, what was it like?
What do we average Like maybetwo or something like that a day
between all five of us?
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Because they were one , because they were.
One morning the skipper cameout and said JT, you're in
charge here.
You will give them one liter ofwater and that's your leader
for until we can make water.
And I mean, that was like fornine hours.
So you're like.
You're like, thank God it wasnot hot, because if it 13, man,
(14:19):
that's what it was.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Yeah, we got the true adventure experience.
You know like I feel blessedthat the boat that Courser owns
is a two-year-old boat.
It's, you know, it's the top ofthe lines.
You know systems in there andeverything.
But you know, when we do theAtlantic here in two and a half
(14:41):
years it's going to be, or twoyears now it's going to feel
like I'm spoiled.
You know what I mean.
Yeah, yeah, it'll be like goingfrom, you know, the regular
army, where I've got this likeM4 that's been used since you
know freaking, since DesertStorm, to like showing up to an
ODA and they're like whichbarrel would you like to use?
Which optic would you like touse?
Speaker 1 (15:04):
You know they're like which barrel would you like to
use?
What's optic would you like touse?
You know like it's gonna feellike that all over again.
Oh man, yeah, yeah.
But there's something to havingthese, these difficult
experiences, to give youperspective, and I think that's
part of the mission to show youthat, like you can overcome
anything if you're willing todive in and tap into you all the
skills you have.
You have a background of doingwithout and being successful in
a hell of a lot worse situations.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, just do it.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Blake likes to say the hardest thing you do in your
life doesn't have to be or thecoolest, or the gnarliest thing
you do in your life, doesn'thave to be what you did in your
twenties in the army, and that'sone of our.
One of our things that we tryto provide to veterans here is
that is that whole like, hey,your, your adventure isn't done
yet if you don't want it to be,yeah, absolutely jerry.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
What.
What were you actually likesuffering from, were you?
Which is just being out at sea?
Speaker 5 (15:49):
that got you or no.
So something happened before weleft, like a few days, and my
face swelled up really big and Ithink I had broken a tooth but
went to to a doctor, went to adentist.
They gave me all kinds ofactually.
I got antibiotics and it wasbasically like my decision
whether I went or not themorning of.
I was kind of hoping someonewould be like you can't go
because I'm going to be, I'm toostubborn.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
I'm not going to self-select.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Yeah, I think it was just the antibiotics not
drinking enough, being in theheat, I don't know.
But I got to the point when Igot on shift that night.
I couldn't feel my arms.
I felt like I was going to passout.
That lasted every time I triedto get on the oars for, I think,
24 hours.
It's turned into 72 hours, butit was only 24 hours.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Yeah, for the rest of that trip.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
Denny yeah, every time I would get on the oars I
felt like I was going to passout.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
That's the way I felt on day five.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
Yeah, I had to be the little.
I mean, I still feel guiltyabout letting them down, but you
know, I cooked when I could.
I tried to make sure they weredry, but man, I just felt like a
shit bag.
But it is what it is.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Not any good teammate would do, like if you can't do
the thing that you know, likereally helps out, and start
doing all that little shit thatno one wants to do, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
That's.
That was great.
And at what point of thejourney did you guys feel like,
fuck dude, now we got it, nowwe're, we're in flow state.
We just got to keep fuckingdoing, duplicating what we're
doing.
Like when did you feel like youfound your rhythm in work life
and balancing, getting everybodyon their shifts?
Speaker 3 (17:23):
yeah, I, I would say probably so well.
So it kind of bounced like weektwo the wind started kind of
going in our favor and we'regetting out of, you know, the
northern winds pushing youtowards mexico essentially.
But we started getting close toout of that and the winds start
kind of going from, you know,north to south to start start to
kind of push more west.
And uh, day eight it was like Ithink we did one shift where
(17:48):
you know it was like rowing inconcrete and we kind of like
assess that the wind was kind ofblowing more west than anything
else, south, you know,southwest than anything else.
So I changed the, uh, the, Ichanged the heading on the auto
tiller, and then it was likenight and freaking day.
And then after that was likeokay, boys, we're riding with
the currents and winds at thispoint.
(18:08):
So it was like that was thefirst, like now we're doing it.
You know we're past this thisweek, one bullshit and now we're
actually going towards Hawaii.
But then you know, like everyweek there'd be something else.
Like you know, the last week inparticular, like I got so
wrapped up in how much mileagewe were doing, because every
(18:30):
time we got off shift.
Guys wanted to know how farthey went or whatever.
So I had the map on the chart,plotter tiny, and I just focused
on how much mileage we weredoing and then reporting that to
everyone after every shift andand and totally didn't realize
that we got caught in a Southcurrent that was just pushing us
towards the big Island andwe're like we got to correct
(18:52):
this.
So then we had about what wasit guys?
Like eight to 10 hours of justlike trying to row like North by
Northwest to get out of that.
And then, looking at you know,wendy and some other apps, I
could see the current was kindof doing like an s and if you
weren't paying attention to itit would take you about 20 to 50
(19:12):
nautical miles away from the,the northern tip of uh kawaii,
just send you to australia wayoff yeah, so every
every week there was like youknow, it felt like we were
gliding for a little while andthen something would come up
where it's like dude, what isgoing on today like this, sucks.
The first time the clouds brokeand the sun was just beating
(19:35):
down on us, we did, we wereaveraging, were averaging around
mid 60 nautical miles a day.
We would get 70s.
One day we got 82.
But the first day that the sunreally came out and started
frying us, we did like 55.
And it was absolutely miserableand it was like I really hope
tomorrow isn't like this and itwas.
You just got used to it.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
But let's just be honest.
I will take it back to dayeight.
This is chris.
Right, we were all justmiserable.
It was just, it's like youcould just not get out of this
concrete.
Chris opens up the door andhe's like listen, we can either
sit here and bitch and whineabout this shit or get on the
fucking oars and start rowing.
And that, when he done that,it's like the next eight hours
was rough, but then all of asudden it just changed.
(20:16):
So so let's just be real, hecame out being a typical asshole
, which we needed, because wewere all at that point of like
dude, I'm done, my arms hurt, myback hurts, my knees hurt.
I just wish this boat wouldflip over and, just, you know,
send us somewhere else so wewouldn't have to row.
But after that, you know it was, you know every day was
(20:37):
something different.
I mean, it wasn't like we wererowing concrete, it was just
like either the winds wouldchange or something else would
break on the boat, or you knowit was.
But after day eight, I think wegot our rhythm and we're like OK
, hey, we need to dig into thisif we're going to get across
this ocean.
We all agreed, you know, 33 to35 days.
When we took off before we evertook off, we're like, hey, this
(20:59):
would be a good time for all ofus.
We did want to, we did want toset a record, but I think most
of us was just like, hey, wewant to come in in a respectable
time.
I was shooting for 33.
We all agreed at least come inbefore 35 days.
And I think you know, at theend of the day, I think we
achieved that and that was ourgoal and I think you know yeah
(21:19):
at the end of the day, we'vedone what we set out to do.
Absolutely, man.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
I want to take a moment and allow each one of you
to reflect on what this journeymeant to you, and we talk about
awe.
And I try to champion this ideaA lot of us.
You know I didn't grow up in anenvironment where I was able to
go travel the world as a youngkid outside of the military, so
a lot of the amazing experiencesI have, yeah, they're locked in
(21:45):
in Iraq and Afghanistan, yeah,that awe that calls you, that
recall of like when you sawgreatness oftentimes is still
locked in to our combatexperience, to an environment
where we lost some friends,where we saw some horrible shit,
combat experience, to anenvironment where we lost some
friends, where we saw somehorrible shit.
When you're able to dosomething like this, it gives
(22:08):
you a new, powerful, anchoringmemory of awe and greatness and
that's something all of ourveterans and service members
need to look forward to.
If you can reflect on thisjourney, what are some moments
of awe and what did this journeyallow you to feel?
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Yeah, Jerry, you send it and then I'll go well, real
quick.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
Uh, day eight, according to jt, was day of joy.
Joy, I have a we.
We wrote down what all the daysmeant.
I just found the list.
Man, that's a tough question.
I I definitely learned a lotabout myself, things I didn't
like, things I didn't realizeabout myself.
(22:45):
I actually asked people that Icare about to write me letters,
and the ongoing theme was thatyou are stronger than you think.
And then I started realizingthat my self-esteem is shot, my
confidence is shot, and I askedChris about that a few days ago
and he's like, oh yeah, you havethe lowest self-esteem I shot,
my confidence is shot.
And I asked Chris about that afew days ago and he's like, oh
yeah, like you have like thelowest self-esteem I've ever
seen.
You're always likeself-doubting yourself and I
(23:07):
would never admit that beforethis row.
So now I'm working on that.
But as far as, like, my biggestimpression on the row would be
rowing at night and I think,from like day 10 to maybe like
the last week, every stroke youwould take, the water would
light up with bioluminescenceand it was just so beautiful
that, mixed with the stars, likethat's something I'm never
(23:27):
going to forget.
That was my piece out there.
I guess you'd say that'sfucking awesome man.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Yeah, I think for me and me and Jerry discussed this
while rowing I don't think itwas the hardest thing I've ever
done at all.
I think what I saw value inwith this row was is I had the
time to sit and confront all mydemons, and then I had a crew
that all had demons too.
(23:56):
I mean that boat, you know itwas, it was five shit shows in a
boat like trying to, you know,heal themselves, you know.
So it was like I'm not alone inthis, and once the the first
person broke out to open upabout something you know, then
it was just like uh, you know,let's all, let's all talk this
out while we're on our shifts,because I mean, at the end of
(24:17):
the day, you're not goinganywhere, you're doing the same
shit over and over again andyou're seeing the same people
for the next month, month and ahalf, two months, however long
it takes you to row.
So you really have time to talkabout some of the things you're
concerned about with yourselfand then realize other people
are going through that too andthen try to figure out how that
(24:38):
needs to change.
Like you don't, you don't needto keep being that way, and
that's where I think this kindof activity for vets is is uh, I
think that's the value.
It's not so much.
Yeah, I mean inherently, youdid a really hard thing and it's
not a lot of people do this.
More people have gone to spacethan road across the mid Pacific
.
That's cool and all, and that'slike something.
(24:58):
You know some bragging rights.
We all need to have braggingrights where these type of dudes
you know we need to be like ohyeah, cool man, I rode the ocean
, so I don't, you know whatever,go away, but uh, but that just
comes with the territory.
The real value is, you knowyou're you're confronting a lot
of shit with your friends whoare also confronting a lot of
shit, and then you end up doingit together and then it
(25:20):
culminates in this likebeautiful location that you end
up in and people are cheeringyou on, and so then, like all
that shit really smacks you inthe face once you you get sight
of the island, um, and you knowyou're about to like go hug your
family and stuff, and allyou've been thinking about is
how could I be a better husband,how can I be a better father?
How can I be a better person,like I'm doing this thing to
(25:43):
help other people Like how andhow can I fix myself to be a
good example for the next guywho's really suffering and get
him involved into something thatmaybe he wouldn't have gotten
involved with?
You know, therapy, yoga,whatever it may be, and I don't
know.
That's kind of.
For me, that's probably thehighlight of the whole
experience is, you know,understanding a lot of things
(26:05):
about myself and then how I wantto help others.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah, man, self-reflection is a powerful
thing that we don't get in thisbusy world.
We have so many distractionsthat keep us plugged in, like
our family, our job, the demandsof taking care of other people,
do-outs it makes it reallydifficult to look in the mirror
and say, hey, I need to fix this, I need to work on this, and
our own issues with getting helpand seeking out support can
(26:33):
keep us from doing that.
But if you're stuck out in themiddle of the ocean, five other
dudes and you're just rowingjust like on an ODA in a car or
in an MRAP driving down a desert, at some point windshield
therapy kicks in and you starttalking.
And that's a remarkable part ofthis journey.
Yeah, it's a sexy, awesome,cool thing, but really and truly
(26:54):
you're just giving men a chanceto sit down with each other,
with warriors, and talk andthink through some problems.
The greatest therapist outthere will always tell you like
dude, I can't lead a horse towater and make it drink, I can't
make you change your habits orgive up the things that are
killing you.
Like, I can guide you, I canhelp you realize your answer,
(27:17):
but ultimately you make thedecision, you make the choice
and I think that's a big part ofthis journey, man, exactly what
you just shared.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Well, it's like, you know, on the side of like,
should I continue?
You know my health and gettingbetter.
It's like if you decide to goaway from that after this
journey, I just don't think it'sit is possible.
But I think it's it's too easyto look back and go hang on Like
I just spent a month doing oneof the shittiest things on the
(27:48):
planet, like what shit that Ijust went through on the boat,
you know, self-reflection,everything else just to hop back
into the same dumb shit.
Yeah, yeah, jt, what?
Speaker 4 (27:59):
about you, man, all right, so, uh, for me.
So there, uh.
So Paul Laurie, who is likeprobably best known, one of the
greatest rowers that I know of,who helped us as we were
starting our row, you know,across the Pacific it was kind
of weird, you know, he just said, hey, make this your journey.
And cause I'd looked at otherthings, like going to you know I
(28:22):
began stuff like that to justkind of get some of the demons
that I know that that botheredme, but he just told me he said,
hey, no matter what, just makethis your journey and at the end
of the day, just promise mewhen you get off the boat that
you know you will still be incontact with the five that you
went across with.
You know, because he's like,because if you don't do that,
it's not really a journey.
It was just you rowing an oceanand being an asshole about it
(28:46):
is how I looked at it.
So, but they were times, trustme, you know I would go in and I
was like, oh my God, dude, whydid I promise about this?
There are things that I want tosay.
On day one, we watched, youknow, a team that showed up and
it was kind of a shit show.
And then a day five, theydidn't row with us.
Skipper came out and said, hey,I don't want to row with this,
(29:07):
with this crew, and I was like,holy crap you know this is
before getting out on the water.
Yeah, Before us getting out onthe water.
And you know, when I seen thatcandid discussions on the boat,
if we don't like something,don't take it into the cabin,
(29:28):
let's discuss it then.
That way, you know, there weleave rowing in a good, positive
way and we come back on, we'rein a good, positive way.
So I mean that's kind of howI've kind of self-reflected on
myself, because I knew that, youknow, anger was one of the
things that drove me crazy youknow just all the stuff that
I've done throughout my militarycareer and I was like I just
want to be a better person whenI get off of this.
So and that's what I reflectedon I was like, okay, how can I
(29:48):
change today?
How can I be a better person?
Yeah, I was still an assholeand I'll probably always be an
asshole till the day I'm deadand gone.
But that's I did try to likeokay, hey, I want to be a better
husband.
These are the things that Iscrewed up, you know, and I want
to try to fix those when I getback home, which I have.
I mean, you know, I've seen abig change in my life and so
that's what I took out of thisjourney and and, believe it or
(30:10):
not, best 35 days.
I mean, even though it was harddefinitely not the hardest
thing I've ever done and whenthey asked me, hey, would I do
it again?
I'd definitely do it again.
Day five sucked, but the rest ofthat was just, I mean, I just
took it as okay.
I'm on a 180 day deployment andit's going to suck and I'm
going to see the same shit dayin and day out, but at the end
(30:31):
of this thing, I'm getting offthis boat.
My wife's going to be there,no-transcript and now that we're
off, you know the boat.
I'm still in contact with allthe guys, I mean, even though
you know the two others.
(30:51):
That's not part of a course ofracing and I just feel like it's
a brotherhood, sisterhood,whatever you want to call it.
Is this something that's a bondthat you will never forget
about?
It's a great experience.
I wouldn't.
You know.
My goal is to get as manyveterans on these boats as we
can Let, even if it's just athree day, five day, or they go
across the Atlantic Pacific Gulfof Mexico, whatever they want
(31:14):
to do.
I just want it to be a journeythat, when they get off, their
life has changed Hell yeah,Absolutely, man.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
I want to pivot now to where Corsair is going to
next.
I mean, this was a huge likefinally did it.
We got the team on the water.
Nobody died.
They made it there safe.
What's next?
What's the next great adventure?
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Yeah, I'll like intro to that, chris, and then hand
it over to you.
But I just want to say that Ihad a baby almost exactly the
day that they finished the race,so I was sidelined, right.
But watching my teammates dothis and watching like the live
stream of them finishing, youknow I was like's like a.
(32:01):
There was a sense of pride forme.
I mean it's like obviously I'mlike serious fomo.
But coming out of the race, ourwhole team dynamic has shifted.
We've got jerry and we'restoked to have them.
But watching jt and chris gofrom day zero to hey, what's
ocean rowing to where they aretoday, the momentum has picked
(32:23):
up a ton and we've got a lot ofreally exciting stuff on the
horizon and with that you knowvery proud to be a part of this
team and join the experts now onan ocean crossing.
But I'll hand it over to Chrison what we're actually doing
tactically.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
Yeah.
So the next thing for Courseris the Gulf.
We're going to cross it Rightnow.
I'm reaching out to the powersthat be to see what's a legit
crossing and then, fromeverything that I've researched
and people I've reached out to,no one's done it.
So right then, and there we'regoing to get a world record.
(32:59):
So it's something to be prettyexcited about.
It'll be the core team membersand it's our big push to raise
awareness of what we're doingand what our goals are and what
we're trying to do.
And then you know, shortlyafter that we're probably going
to pick up our first veteransthat we've never met before and
get them out on the water, whichis going to be super awesome.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Yeah, yeah.
What's the selection processgoing to be for that?
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (33:26):
So for ones it's it's pretty low commitment because
you know, one of us who's gotthe experience will be steering
the ship essentially.
So you can show up and juststart rowing and you know,
ideally, like we're gonna well,not ideally, we're gonna have,
you know, chase boats and thingslike that.
So if guys like get into it andthey're like I can't, like I'm
(33:47):
throwing up, I'm not going todeal with this, like you know,
we can remove it from thesituation.
It's like very, very lowpressure, low threat kind of
activity and it's not going tobe like, yeah, we're going 50
miles out to the Gulf Stream andwe're just going to see where
it takes us.
It's going to be, you know,kind of localized ocean rowing,
just like a good day, you knowgood weekend.
(34:08):
And then as we get you knowpeople that want to go further
and further, or we get you knowa team that wants to do the
Pacific or the Atlantic or theIndian Ocean or whatever.
That will probably be well, notprobably.
It's going to be a highervetting process and we're going
to be holding guys to certainstandards, because the last
(34:28):
thing we want is to send guysout that aren't prepared or, we
know, aren't probably going tomake it just from the experience
that we've had.
Yeah, like, if someone appliesto it and to do it, then it's.
It's a conversation.
We, you know, we haveexpectations you have to meet
and if you can't meet those it's.
It's kind of like athree-stripe deal.
(34:49):
Hey man, sorry, like you needto do these things and maybe we
can move you to the next one orwhatever.
Yeah, yeah, it's.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
It's gonna be a pretty intense selection process
for the bigger ones, but thesmaller ones it's like denny, I
don't know, you come onto theboat, let's go do this, and I'm
gonna grow up on an islandsomewhere in the afternoon and
then we're gonna row 10 milesback to the, the dock, and you
don't have to do shit other thanget on the oars because you
have, because you do see a lotof uh, you know teams and you,
(35:20):
you hear about it and you see itthat you row somebody across
the ocean or somebody didn'tfeel like rowing for two or
three days, and the last thingyou want is we get guys and we
spend that money and get themout and then they either quit or
they leave that boat, hatingeveryone on the boat.
And I'm a true believer that wedo need to have some kind of
vetting process.
Hey, we'll go out on the boat,and you know, I'm a true
(35:40):
believer that we do need to havesome kind of vetting process.
Hey, you know, we'll go out onthe boat with them.
Are they rowing?
Are they rowing the right way?
Is you know?
Are they a team dynamic or isit a team of failure?
And we can see it, you know, andand and we're going to have to
have those hard conversationswith those guys and I mean it's
not going to be easy as a youknow, as a board member, saying,
hey, man, I just don't thinkyou're going to fit the bill for
(36:01):
this team and maybe you, maybeyou find another guy and you can
row it next year, but the teamthat you're at is not going to
get our boat across the waterand the last thing we want is
some bad publicity, you know, ofour boat going across and guys
are just putting horrible thingson social media and just hating
one another, because that'sgoing to come back on us as an
organization.
So, yeah, we're going to have tohave those hard conversations,
(36:23):
but I think we're ready for itand we know, you know, I think
the three of us know what we'relooking for and looking at
because we've done it and weunderstand the guys that we've
seen to the left and right of usand the girls, uh, and you know
it's it's definitely going tobe an eye opener and you know
something that we're just goingto have to be mentally prepared
(36:45):
for when that time comes.
But I'm really looking forwardto you know what, chris and
Jerry they're putting a programtogether for us to start rowing
again and for all five of us tocome out.
Because the greatest part was,when we landed, getting to see
Blake and his wife, you knowthere to meet us, and I was
hoping, you know Pete, butPete's wife was having a kid.
But just seeing that teammember there when we got done
(37:06):
was just amazing.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
It's like.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
I said Go ahead, pete , go ahead.
Well, I was going to add, I wasjust going to add to kind of
what we have coming down thepipe and and Chris alluded to it
by getting veterans out on theboat.
But we're looking to partnerwith some of these veteran
nonprofits to pay for vets to godo excursions.
So think of an organizationlike Soft Excursions.
I don't think we've talked toyou yet, but the idea would be
hey, I've got a handful of guysthat are interested in this,
(37:32):
we'll give you money to bringthem out and we've got a couple
of those partnerships in theworks.
But what I'm most excited for iswe're signed up for the
Atlantic race in 2027, spain toAntigua, and at the end of that
race AT, chris and Jerry willhave crossed the Pacific, cross
the Gulf, and until someone elsedoes it, we'll have been the
only ones to cross the Gulf andthen they'll have crossed the
(37:53):
Atlantic.
And so our long-term visionthere is that Corsa Racing is a
legitimate global leader in thissport of ocean rowing.
Our core team will have doneall the big ones the Indian
Ocean, and there's otherchallenges that we'll look to do
beyond that.
But by the end of 2027, we feelthat once we accomplish that
(38:13):
race we'll be recognized as aglobal, like a leading
organization in the sport ofocean rowing globally.
But in the U?
S we're like the only standingprogram for this sport.
So as it grows and more peopleget interested, we'll be kind of
at the vanguard of that andhonestly I think that's what
sponsors down the road will beinterested in is like we'll not
just be doing something greatfor veterans, not just be doing
(38:35):
something cool, but we'll alsobe at the front end of this
sport.
Like what does it mean to be aprofessional ocean rower?
Like we could help define thoseterms with the community based
off the vast experience we'llhave by the end of 2027.
And once that's complete, thefocus is going to shift almost
fully on providing this toothers and from a safety
(38:55):
perspective, you're not going tohave more qualified and capable
safeties and experts andcoaches than you'll find in JT,
chris and Gary being soft NCOsthat are now like global leaders
in ocean rowing.
And we look to be running ourown training courses, teaching
people about the sport,participating in the governing
bodies such as World ToughestRow or the rowing society, and
(39:19):
and kind of look at ourselvesand and get the world to look at
us as like hey, those guys innorth america, that us team,
they're very legit and if youwant to get into ocean rowing,
they're the people to call yeah,you, son of a bitch.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
It sounds like you used a mission planning guidance
and, uh, put together theperfect fucking plan.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
Damn it, I knew you did dude I knew it in my skull.
I can't do this wholeconversation.
All I can think about is, likeyou know, I don't want to chime
in, I was on the sideline, butall I can think about is, like
dude, this sounds like an oda.
That's exactly what we weregoing for.
Yeah, you got these killer ncos.
That just makes shit happen andthe officer brains like hey
(39:57):
guys, I want to do the next bigthing for the mission and make
sure we have our sitrep photosfor the media page.
Sure.
Speaker 5 (40:03):
Everybody put on their courses.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
Shirt for the like but you know it matters.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
It fucking matters, and that's the thing that that
we need to understand is thatyou literally went and got an
amazing education on how to plan, on how to plan big, amazing
things.
You can take all that.
You can take the bullets out ofthe equation to killing people
out of the equation.
Speaker 5 (40:26):
And you can still execute.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
You can still make an amazing thing that's of service
to the greater veteran and andservice member community.
You're helping in creatingsomething so freaking, huge and
the way you just outlining it'slike, dude, this is a no-brainer
, like this is something toforce.
foundation be a great heck, yeah, I need because you're doing
(40:51):
stuff that is appealing to oursoft brothers.
It's something that when yousee something like this come
across your desk, you're likeholy shit, like I might be lost.
I might not know what I want todo for my next chapter, but
this looks incredibly fun anddangerous and amazing, and if
Green Berets are doing it, Iwant to be a part of it.
But we also need to know, likewhat do you guys need to
(41:15):
continue growing and making thisthing even bigger?
Like how can we help championthis cause?
What do you need in order toget that big financial backer
that's going to be able to sayyou know what I'm going to dump
all this money?
You guys make this thing grow.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
We definitely need money.
Yeah, that's the, that's the.
The non-political way to sayit's like we need money to
sustain our operations.
The non-political way to sayit's like we need money to
sustain our operations.
The big thing for us is whatwe're offering, and this has
been what we've offered sinceday one is, we will bear the
brunt of all of those startupexpenses.
A new ocean rowing boat is 150000 with no equipment.
(41:52):
200 000 maybe 250 000 is whatyou would need to go from
nothing to be able to row anocean.
We own that personally and fromwhat we've fundraised, and with
that we can then cut thatexpense down by way more than
half and we can sustain theseoperations and fundraise
internally to get veterans outthere.
(42:13):
So that's one thing.
We're looking for donors,whether it's friends and family,
corporate sponsorships, smallbusinesses.
Whether it's friends and family, corporate sponsorships, small
businesses.
We believe that we're anexceptional sponsorship partner
and that we'll message for yourcompany, recruit for your
company, we'll work for you, man, if you support our mission and
our cause.
And so that's certainly oneavenue, and if not the largest,
(42:33):
is landing those big sponsorsthat are interested in
supporting a veteran cause,interested in being a part of
something new in the UnitedStates and North America
interested in that adventuretype of nonprofit.
I mean I think that covers awide swath of potential
investors and donors.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
Yeah, and I'll say this and I mean and we've all
agreed on this I mean it's notjust about you know course of
racing, it's about the othernonprofits out there.
Because when we get these guysor whoever on these boats with
us, I mean we're not justlooking at this individual,
we're going to be like, okay, hehas severe TBI or he has severe
PTSD or he's going through somekind of struggles.
There are other nonprofits outthere that you know that we want
(43:12):
to be able to say, hey, let'ssend this guy to here, you know,
and truly get him the help thathe needs.
And yeah, we got him, you knowwhere he needs to be somewhat
stable in his life and maybe allit is is just ocean rowing.
But if it's not, we want tomake sure that we have enough
money and enough other you knownonprofits that we can send that
person to truly fix him.
(43:33):
You know we may not 100% fixhim, but if we get him to 50%,
where he's functional back insociety, I think that's a win
for Corsa racing.
And that's how I'm kind ofenvisioning this whole thing in
the next five years.
I mean that's my five-year planthat I would love to see Corsa
racing get to that.
We're literally taking a personwho's at his wits end and at
(43:54):
the end of the day he's backbeing a functional person in
society and getting his lifestraight, whether that's with
his family or just himself.
You know, because I think we'veall been.
I mean, I know I've been thatdown that road and I'm, you know
, I'm glad that Corsair Racingwas here and I got in, and I'm
glad that I got to row an oceanwith, you know, rangewell Rose,
and now we're back running ourorganization and getting it the
(44:16):
way we want it to be.
And you know, that's how I feelabout it.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
Yeah, that's something that the past two
years we've really been buildinga network so that we do have
those touch points.
And for anyone that's listeningto this or interested, at one
point you can apply for one ofour programs that we'll be
running and you won't just dothe program and leave.
We're building a community onDiscord.
(44:41):
There's going to be constanttouch points where now you're in
the Courser family and whetheryou rode a weekend with us or
you rode the Atlantic Ocean,there's always going to be a
touch point and you're a part ofa family.
That is now, if you've had aloss of community which we all
typically do when we retire orETS or whatever now you got one.
(45:03):
It's your community, it's yourpeople that you left and now
you're back in it and there's awealth of knowledge there.
And if we don't have the rightanswer, somebody on that Discord
is going to be able to saybrother, I did this through this
va process or whatever.
And I think that's another realexciting thing that we're
(45:24):
building that um, that that thatkind of gives us a a pretty
good leg up on on someorganizations that just see you,
treat you and then send you off.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
You know yeah, absolutely we also.
You know, just going back tothe support, like you know how
valuable just following us onInstagram you know the Instagram
follows spreads awareness A lotof companies.
That's what they want to see isa wide following before they
sponsor you with their productor monetarily.
So give us a follow.
Our Instagram handle is atcourserracing
(45:57):
C-O-U-R-S-E-Rracing, and then wealso like, we're running a sale
on some of our swag.
Right now we've got a sickartist that puts some good stuff
together, um, and you can findthat through our instagram
channels.
Like our website,wwwcourseforracingcomorg.
There's a donate link there.
You can go in there and donateor you can run to our store.
There we've got some moreexpensive items.
But keep in mind that's whatyou're purchasing is donating to
(46:20):
the cause.
But, yeah, purchasing swag,following us on Instagram, tell
your friends, tell your familyand, for the listeners, if you
know a small business or adefense business or somebody
interested in donating to aveteran cause, that's what we're
looking for and we spend a lotof time reaching out to
companies and connecting withour networks and things like
that.
So even if it was just like hey, I want to connect you guys to
(46:41):
my buddy who's at this companylike.
We want all of that, and youcan contact us through our
website as well.
You there's a contact pagethere.
That's pretty easy to get ahold of us oh yeah, I'll be
doing my part.
Speaker 1 (46:51):
I got a few people to connect you guys with because I
want to see the ship blow upand, um, yeah, I think that I'll
pimp you for an episode whilewe're on the gulf yeah, I'll be
standing there on the ocean anddo this again in six months if
you're up to it.
Speaker 3 (47:05):
But I mean, dan would be fantastic, but we'll have
the starlink amazing horizon'sjust gonna be doing this while
we're, we're talking to you tobe even better dude anything you
guys are involved in.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
I am in a hundred percent, full stop, like
whatever pete and the boys aredoing.
Count me the fuck in.
I believe in this mission.
I believe in this cause, justlike I said all the way back to
that dog ship product that waspushing out an episode season
two, to this refined and alittle bit better product that I
have now.
I believe in you guys, Ibelieve in your mission and I
(47:39):
believe that the first thing wecan do for ourselves in order to
fight back and know what we'redealing with mentally is take
care of our bodies.
Be willing to push yourself todo something physically each and
every day.
Greater cause than puttingsomething on the calendar and
templating a great fuckingmission, which we did for our
entire career, six months out.
(47:59):
You know you're going to gohere.
You have a training plan.
Start doing that for yourself.
I'll make it easier.
You want to take on thischallenge?
You want to join and row acrossthe fucking ocean?
I will give you a free rowmachine.
All you got to do is join ourwhoop team code right here and
you'll be in the running to winan awesome concept to roar.
(48:21):
The competition starts right now.
All you have to do is join theteam.
At the end of august, I'm goingto choose somebody in our whoop
team and they're going to get afree rower concept to free of
charge.
Why?
Because I like you guys.
I want to see you get out thereand crush life and do great
things.
And I want you to wake up everymorning, even if it's row for
two minutes, three minutes andeventually get to a couple hours
(48:41):
, say so.
You can say to yourself, likemaybe I can do this, and then
you can contact Pete and you cansay I want to be involved, I
want to row across fucking oceanand be a beast like Jerry, like
JT and Chris.
I want to do this and I wantyou to wake up and be inspired,
because your greatness doesn'tend when you fucking check out a
group and you no longer wearthe green beret.
(49:02):
You can continue to be badassGuys.
I can't thank you enough forbeing here today, but, more
importantly, I cannot thank youenough or show enough gratitude
for what you accomplished.
Being able to watch you guyssucceed in that video is fucking
remarkable and is going tocontinue to provide inspiration
for our brothers and sisters outthere.
So please continue going.
(49:22):
I'll make you a promise I won'tstop if you don't stop.
So I will continue making thislow tier podcast and putting out
reels and memes all day, everyday, if you guys continue
serving our community.
So if you're in the mission,I'm in the mission again.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
I appreciate you, Danny.
We love what you're doing aswell.
And I could say the same thingright back at you.
You're doing great for ourcommunity as well, and we're all
following it and we appreciatethat.
Speaker 1 (49:44):
Oh yeah, absolutely man.
Please, guys, if you'relistening, do me a favor.
Pause.
Go to the episode description.
Click on those links.
Donate, join the whoop team, bein the running to win your very
own row machine.
Uh, I certainly appreciate youguys tuning in.
And guys, thank you again forbeing here.
Absolute pleasure, and I can'twait to have you all back on.
We'll see you all next time,right on.
(50:04):
We'll see you next time, dennyyeah, securepodcast is proudly
sponsored by titan's arms.
Head to the episode descriptionand check out titan's arms
today.
Securepodcast is proudly sponsored by Titan's
Arms.
Head on over to the episodedescription and check out
Titan's Arms today.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Fuck it, we'll do it live.
That's the greatest way tostart this endeavor.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
We'll do it live.
That was my favorite mission.
My favorite thing was the adhoc in the moment mission.
Yeah, remember, I remember.
I forget this guy's last name.
I remember his first name,donald.
I got a positive card.
Then I got a, a major minuscard because the dude had a
moment of like uh, uh, uh, Idon't know what to do and I'm
(00:33):
like you're fucking not incharge, I'm in charge, let's
fucking go.
Yeah, and our caddy were likethat was fucking awesome.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I love what you just did, but chris was cadre out
there at the schoolhouse so heknows.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yeah, I love seeing captains get like fired by an E4
pre-team x-ray.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
The same dude Me more than most.
I'll bet you, I enjoy that morethan you do.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
I channeled Bill O'Reilly in that moment and it
was like my one moment of glory.
And Sir Robin Sage.
I was like my one moment ofglory.
At Robin Sage I was like, fuckyeah, we'll figure it out in
route.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I still have guys from my SEER team that reach out
Like we never served on an ODAtogether.
But they'll reach out and we'llstill joke about how, like 80%
of what we did, I was like fuckit, dude, let's just send it.
Like we can either take time totry to figure this out or just
do it live and see what happens,like we're not going to die,
you know.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
And, oddly enough, that actually works in real life
too.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
It does, it's a good skill.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Gentlemen, welcome to Security Out Podcast.
With me today are the intrepidmen of Courser Racing.
You guys are longtime followers.
You remember them from Season 2, when the product was not
refined and, let's be honest, itwas a slightly bit of a shit
show.
But now I have grown and todaywe're going to dive into the
journey.
Gentlemen, please introduceyourself.
(01:52):
Who wants to kick it?
Speaker 3 (01:53):
off.
Yeah, I'll go.
Yeah.
Chris Farrington, former fifthgrade guy, Glad to be back on
the podcast and it's looked likeit's grown.
And I mean even your setuplooks way more badass than I
think the first time we did itwas like kind of like what my
setup is right now, justanywhere I could do it.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, for those that are just recently tuning in, it
used to be a setup like bang bus.
It was just horrible.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, just the worst a little rapey.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
it gave out really bad vibes.
It's decent now, all right, jtMullin.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Go ahead.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Go ahead.
Jt Mullin, retired out of SOTD,was a civil affairs guy and
glad to be on the podcast man.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Oh yeah, welcome JT.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
I'm Jerry Hartman, new to the Courser crew.
I'm just an old school ranger.
Yeah, that likes rowing yo,pete, welcome back.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
We're stoked to have jerry on the team.
Yeah, I'm pete glazer.
I'm one of the co-founders, ofcourse racing and, like any good
operator, all these guys arebeing very humble.
They just completed atrans-oceanic row across the
Pacific Ocean from Monterey,california, to Hanalei Bay,
hawaii, and they finished thatrace just a couple of weeks ago.
So, just as much as you, denny,I'm really excited to sit down
and hear about their actualexperiences, what it did for
(03:15):
them, because, like any good ODA, as soon as they got back,
we're already training for thenext mission.
So I'm excited to hear theimpact it had on their personal
lives, because I've only gottenbreadcrumbs yeah, let's, let's
kick it off with there.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Man, I want to let you guys know um, it's the
journey, the mission.
It has stuck with me.
I've been following it since wehad that first podcast together
and being able to watch it andsee the tidbits.
But the impact of seeing youguys at the finish line at the
ceremony afterwards I hadn'teven met any of you in person,
(03:53):
but I connected with you inthose moments Like seeing you
guys tear up, celebrate, makingthat finish, making it across
all the way and having yourmoment of victory and seeing you
guys on that stage it was arepresentation of what all of us
hope to succeed in life afterservice.
Like I don't take it lightly.
It was an amazing moment to seelike, holy shit, they finally
(04:13):
did it, the boys finally did it.
And I want to dive into thatjourney.
How did it start?
How was it kicking off andfinally being in the water,
rowing across the fucking ocean,man.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Yeah, you know, you start in Monterey and the way
they set it up is very get yourboat in a parking lot and then
your four days of inspectionspacking all this stuff.
And I think the reason well,you know the reason why they do
it is so that they make surethat you're prepared to go.
But I think a small bit of itis is you're roasting on a hot
(04:49):
parking lot.
All of your like food is likemelting, like the gummies are
now one gummy, the chocolate islike, you know, just a melted
mush, and you're just, you'reready to put your boat in the
water and just leave.
And I think that's a part oflike their whole thing is like,
yeah, we'll put them in this hotparking lot and we'll do, we'll
inspect all their stuff and letthese guys roast.
(05:10):
So by the time we launch them,they're like they're more than
happy to get away from Monterey.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Bro, it sounds a lot like GI inspection before
deployment.
Yeah, big time yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Big time.
It's like I just want to getthis over with Me and Jerry JT.
We had these discussions oflike, dude, it's day two, and
I'm sick of this Like let's getin the water and you finally get
your boat in the water and thenyou still have two days I think
two to three days after thatwhere you're adjusting your trim
and you're testing systemsbefore you go, systems before
(05:45):
you go, and it's just like theythey built it to where it was
like each step got you closer toyou know, actually heading out,
um, which was, which was superawesome yeah, the the morning we
headed out like I'm getting anadrenaline rush, thinking I
haven't thought about it.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
It was like scary.
None of us wanted to admit that.
We were scared, shitless yeahthey had camera crews that
wanted to talk to us.
We're all like too emotional totalk.
It was.
It was like a going ondeployment.
It was like, oh shit, here itgoes.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
It was a great feeling man and I have to
imagine like it's.
It's scary.
You finally get on the water,jt.
What was it like for youwatching the?
You know land start to becomesmaller and smaller and smaller.
Now you're just out in the openfucking ocean.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
I don't remember anything like.
I remember rowing out, but Iknow there were people all over
but you're so emotional youdon't want to look up in the
crowds because you just want toget out.
And then it took.
I mean, it seemed like it tookseveral days for us before the
land was gone, but it really byday two.
It was you, you know you're outthere.
And then you know day one waslike, oh shit, man, this is
(06:49):
going to be easy.
Day two was an eye-opener, likewe're getting ready to be into
something that we probably don'tknow what we're going to get
into.
And then day five was a day ofhell and that's all I'm going to
leave at.
Day five is a day that I markedhow we all did on our calendar
that there's probably the topfive things that we've ever done
is probably the hardest thingwe've ever done.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
You know we've got to dive into that.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
We've got to dive into that.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
What was day five An?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
absolute shit show, Just a nightmare of a day.
So you know, I count the daystarting at, you know.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
Let me just say first that day five was not hard at
all.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the guy who was sick.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
The easiest day I've ever had in my life was day five
.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
So you know the 1 am shift comes around.
Oh yeah, I get out on the water.
It's pitch black, denny, can'tsee anything there's, you know,
the cloud cover is just it'scomplete.
We had the nav light on earlyon just because we were like we
don't want to get hit by a boatthat eventually started going
away after a while.
So the nav light you can't see,but maybe I would say 15 meters
(07:54):
around the boat and I come outon shift and it is wild outside.
You know there are 30 to 40foot swells.
We're getting hit on the side ofthe boat so it's not like we
can even ride you know the wavesand push us along to Hawaii.
We're going, like you know,sideways and then up and over
(08:14):
and looking straight down, andbefore I could even really
capture what was going on, I'mgetting in my position.
I'm like, oh, this is not goingto be good, jerry's like dude,
I don't feel good and I'm likejust take it easy, brother, I
got this and get on when you can.
And I start rowing and it islike wet concrete.
I can barely get a stroke in.
(08:37):
I'm putting all my strength intothis to just kind of try to
push us forward a little bit andI leaned back and I'm like
jerry brother, you gotta go getsomeone else.
I need help, like just restthis one off, like hit the next
shift, whatever.
And uh, so jt inherently, youknow got picked for that.
So he just got off a two-hourshift from this nightmare and
(09:00):
then is now back into thenightmare for another two hours
and, uh, you know, one size, wegot in the groove and we started
rowing and kind of really gotthe feel what was going on
around us.
It was like moment after momentof just like holding on or
leaning the best we could sothis boat wouldn't flip and you
couldn't see it coming.
It was just happening to you.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
And then you know that went throughout the night
and then the morning came andthen you started actually being
able to see these 35 and 40 footswells that are coming at you.
Now.
Imagine we've done probablyclose to nine hours of rowing in
this damn concrete and it'sstill not letting up.
And you're hitting all this andit was like a 24 hour period of
(09:41):
you just like I want to go inand I want to lay in the cabin
and please, dear God, when Iwake up, let this nightmare be
over.
But it wasn't.
It just kept continuing.
For like 24 hours.
We'd done a total of like 34nautical miles and it felt like
we'd done a total of like twonautical miles and day six a
little bit better, and it wasjust every day.
(10:03):
You're just like shit.
When are we going to get out ofthis shit storm?
And then day eight is finally.
You know, broke free, but theywere a lot of moments on that
boat.
I don't want to hear anothermoment about this.
Shit's going to change in thenext eight hours.
I don't want to hear anything,man.
I just want to row and get outof this misery seven were no
(10:27):
different than five.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
It was just five was when it started and all of us
were like and by day, six andseven, we're just so used to it.
It's like, well, whateverflings me on the boat, at least
I get like a break.
Even when you went into thecabin it wasn't like I'm safe
now.
Uh, there was like multipletimes where you know I would get
lifted in my sleep halfway onthe phone, just smack right into
the pads.
Speaker 5 (10:46):
It was like little IEDs basically hitting you.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
What was that?
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Yeah, loud as all heck, just slamming into the
side of the boat and you goflying, and on top of that, it's
like everything startedbreaking on this boat at like
day five, so it was like Apollo13,.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Man that's what we rode.
We called it Apollo 13.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Yeah, it was just, it was a shit show, but we got
across and we, you know,MacGyvered through it.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
You know we're not fast forwarding this JT.
We're not fast forwarding this,yeah yeah, yeah.
So stuff starts to break.
How are you managed?
And it's easy, it's easy tomanage the chaos on a deployment
, on a team.
18.
Bravo, get that gun up, charlie, start making a destruction
plan.
Fucking 18, echo, get theseradios.
Get going like but you're notin a convoy, you're not in a
(11:38):
vehicle, you're not drivingacross afghanistan, you're stuck
there's no good in boat.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
There's no in the boat.
You can't yeah, but at the sametime.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
I mean, you know, it was kind of like a deployment
hey, who can fix this down thing?
You know, I mean, hey, jt, grabthis jerry.
I need you to look at this.
Chris, stay on the oars for afew minutes while I'm, you know,
holding this up.
And I mean, you've got a boxthat's probably.
I mean, everything that youmess with in that, in that ocean
, is a chance of you dropping itor going overboard, and you
(12:10):
don't have like a million spareparts.
So here we were, my headunderneath this, you know,
gurney, trying to look at,figure out what where I need to
change to make this thing work,because I'd already tried to
hand pump, and what did I do?
Like 40 minutes and got oneliter of water and I realized
that that was not going to besustainable.
So it was time to startMacGyver and shit.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Yeah, we got on the sat phones, made some phone
calls to some people that werelike pretty savvy on things.
But you know, luckily, jt, heknows a lot about, you know,
frigging, wiring and all thisother stuff, so he's like I'll
get in there and do it.
It's just going to take me abit.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
And then Jerry being like the secondhand forum and
you know, all the while the boatis just wildly rocking yeah
dude, like you're trying to takesomething off and hoping you're
not gonna the, you know, ascrew's not gonna go flying out
of the boat or you're goingflying out of the boat with the
water maker.
It was, but we, we got it fixed.
You know, I just took, you hadtwo hot wires one went to the
(13:08):
fan, one went to the water maker.
I took one off and just put iton and it was just like, hey, we
can do 20 minutes an hour off.
Let's just hope this lasts forhowever long we're going to be
here.
But it did, it lasted to theend.
Not sure if I'd ever want torow it again without getting it
fixed, but yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Yeah, it's a.
You know, typically you can runthose things in the morning for
as long as you want to fill upyou know, uh, all of the jugs
that you have for your drinkingwater for the day, but we had to
run it, you know, for 20minutes, then shut it off for 30
minutes, then run it foranother 20 minutes and oh, by
the way, our batteries are onlysitting at like 30%, so we can't
(13:44):
just keep doing this.
So you know, they say you'resupposed to be drinking 10, you
know liters of water a day.
And, jerry, what was it like?
What do we average Like maybetwo or something like that a day
between all five of us?
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Because they were one , because they were.
One morning the skipper cameout and said JT, you're in
charge here.
You will give them one liter ofwater and that's your leader
for until we can make water.
And I mean, that was like fornine hours.
So you're like.
You're like, thank God it wasnot hot, because if it 13, man,
(14:19):
that's what it was.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Yeah, we got the true adventure experience.
You know like I feel blessedthat the boat that Courser owns
is a two-year-old boat.
It's, you know, it's the top ofthe lines.
You know systems in there andeverything.
But you know, when we do theAtlantic here in two and a half
(14:41):
years it's going to be, or twoyears now it's going to feel
like I'm spoiled.
You know what I mean.
Yeah, yeah, it'll be like goingfrom, you know, the regular
army, where I've got this likeM4 that's been used since you
know freaking, since DesertStorm, to like showing up to an
ODA and they're like whichbarrel would you like to use?
Which optic would you like touse?
Speaker 1 (15:04):
You know they're like which barrel would you like to
use?
What's optic would you like touse?
You know like it's gonna feellike that all over again.
Oh man, yeah, yeah.
But there's something to havingthese, these difficult
experiences, to give youperspective, and I think that's
part of the mission to show youthat, like you can overcome
anything if you're willing todive in and tap into you all the
skills you have.
You have a background of doingwithout and being successful in
a hell of a lot worse situations.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, just do it.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Blake likes to say the hardest thing you do in your
life doesn't have to be or thecoolest, or the gnarliest thing
you do in your life, doesn'thave to be what you did in your
twenties in the army, and that'sone of our.
One of our things that we tryto provide to veterans here is
that is that whole like, hey,your, your adventure isn't done
yet if you don't want it to be,yeah, absolutely jerry.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
What.
What were you actually likesuffering from, were you?
Which is just being out at sea?
Speaker 5 (15:49):
that got you or no.
So something happened before weleft, like a few days, and my
face swelled up really big and Ithink I had broken a tooth but
went to to a doctor, went to adentist.
They gave me all kinds ofactually.
I got antibiotics and it wasbasically like my decision
whether I went or not themorning of.
I was kind of hoping someonewould be like you can't go
because I'm going to be, I'm toostubborn.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
I'm not going to self-select.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Yeah, I think it was just the antibiotics not
drinking enough, being in theheat, I don't know.
But I got to the point when Igot on shift that night.
I couldn't feel my arms.
I felt like I was going to passout.
That lasted every time I triedto get on the oars for, I think,
24 hours.
It's turned into 72 hours, butit was only 24 hours.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Yeah, for the rest of that trip.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
Denny yeah, every time I would get on the oars I
felt like I was going to passout.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
That's the way I felt on day five.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
Yeah, I had to be the little.
I mean, I still feel guiltyabout letting them down, but you
know, I cooked when I could.
I tried to make sure they weredry, but man, I just felt like a
shit bag.
But it is what it is.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Not any good teammate would do, like if you can't do
the thing that you know, likereally helps out, and start
doing all that little shit thatno one wants to do, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
That's.
That was great.
And at what point of thejourney did you guys feel like,
fuck dude, now we got it, nowwe're, we're in flow state.
We just got to keep fuckingdoing, duplicating what we're
doing.
Like when did you feel like youfound your rhythm in work life
and balancing, getting everybodyon their shifts?
Speaker 3 (17:23):
yeah, I, I would say probably so well.
So it kind of bounced like weektwo the wind started kind of
going in our favor and we'regetting out of, you know, the
northern winds pushing youtowards mexico essentially.
But we started getting close toout of that and the winds start
kind of going from, you know,north to south to start start to
kind of push more west.
And uh, day eight it was like Ithink we did one shift where
(17:48):
you know it was like rowing inconcrete and we kind of like
assess that the wind was kind ofblowing more west than anything
else, south, you know,southwest than anything else.
So I changed the, uh, the, Ichanged the heading on the auto
tiller, and then it was likenight and freaking day.
And then after that was likeokay, boys, we're riding with
the currents and winds at thispoint.
(18:08):
So it was like that was thefirst, like now we're doing it.
You know we're past this thisweek, one bullshit and now we're
actually going towards Hawaii.
But then you know, like everyweek there'd be something else.
Like you know, the last week inparticular, like I got so
wrapped up in how much mileagewe were doing, because every
(18:30):
time we got off shift.
Guys wanted to know how farthey went or whatever.
So I had the map on the chart,plotter tiny, and I just focused
on how much mileage we weredoing and then reporting that to
everyone after every shift andand and totally didn't realize
that we got caught in a Southcurrent that was just pushing us
towards the big Island andwe're like we got to correct
(18:52):
this.
So then we had about what wasit guys?
Like eight to 10 hours of justlike trying to row like North by
Northwest to get out of that.
And then, looking at you know,wendy and some other apps, I
could see the current was kindof doing like an s and if you
weren't paying attention to itit would take you about 20 to 50
(19:12):
nautical miles away from the,the northern tip of uh kawaii,
just send you to australia wayoff yeah, so every
every week there was like youknow, it felt like we were
gliding for a little while andthen something would come up
where it's like dude, what isgoing on today like this, sucks.
The first time the clouds brokeand the sun was just beating
(19:35):
down on us, we did, we wereaveraging, were averaging around
mid 60 nautical miles a day.
We would get 70s.
One day we got 82.
But the first day that the sunreally came out and started
frying us, we did like 55.
And it was absolutely miserableand it was like I really hope
tomorrow isn't like this and itwas.
You just got used to it.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
But let's just be honest.
I will take it back to dayeight.
This is chris.
Right, we were all justmiserable.
It was just, it's like youcould just not get out of this
concrete.
Chris opens up the door andhe's like listen, we can either
sit here and bitch and whineabout this shit or get on the
fucking oars and start rowing.
And that, when he done that,it's like the next eight hours
was rough, but then all of asudden it just changed.
(20:16):
So so let's just be real, hecame out being a typical asshole
, which we needed, because wewere all at that point of like
dude, I'm done, my arms hurt, myback hurts, my knees hurt.
I just wish this boat wouldflip over and, just, you know,
send us somewhere else so wewouldn't have to row.
But after that, you know it was, you know every day was
(20:37):
something different.
I mean, it wasn't like we wererowing concrete, it was just
like either the winds wouldchange or something else would
break on the boat, or you knowit was.
But after day eight, I think wegot our rhythm and we're like OK
, hey, we need to dig into thisif we're going to get across
this ocean.
We all agreed, you know, 33 to35 days.
When we took off before we evertook off, we're like, hey, this
(20:59):
would be a good time for all ofus.
We did want to, we did want toset a record, but I think most
of us was just like, hey, wewant to come in in a respectable
time.
I was shooting for 33.
We all agreed at least come inbefore 35 days.
And I think you know, at theend of the day, I think we
achieved that and that was ourgoal and I think you know yeah
(21:19):
at the end of the day, we'vedone what we set out to do.
Absolutely, man.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
I want to take a moment and allow each one of you
to reflect on what this journeymeant to you, and we talk about
awe.
And I try to champion this ideaA lot of us.
You know I didn't grow up in anenvironment where I was able to
go travel the world as a youngkid outside of the military, so
a lot of the amazing experiencesI have, yeah, they're locked in
(21:45):
in Iraq and Afghanistan, yeah,that awe that calls you, that
recall of like when you sawgreatness oftentimes is still
locked in to our combatexperience, to an environment
where we lost some friends,where we saw some horrible shit,
combat experience, to anenvironment where we lost some
friends, where we saw somehorrible shit.
When you're able to dosomething like this, it gives
(22:08):
you a new, powerful, anchoringmemory of awe and greatness and
that's something all of ourveterans and service members
need to look forward to.
If you can reflect on thisjourney, what are some moments
of awe and what did this journeyallow you to feel?
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Yeah, Jerry, you send it and then I'll go well, real
quick.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
Uh, day eight, according to jt, was day of joy.
Joy, I have a we.
We wrote down what all the daysmeant.
I just found the list.
Man, that's a tough question.
I I definitely learned a lotabout myself, things I didn't
like, things I didn't realizeabout myself.
(22:45):
I actually asked people that Icare about to write me letters,
and the ongoing theme was thatyou are stronger than you think.
And then I started realizingthat my self-esteem is shot, my
confidence is shot, and I askedChris about that a few days ago
and he's like, oh yeah, you havethe lowest self-esteem I shot,
my confidence is shot.
And I asked Chris about that afew days ago and he's like, oh
yeah, like you have like thelowest self-esteem I've ever
seen.
You're always likeself-doubting yourself and I
(23:07):
would never admit that beforethis row.
So now I'm working on that.
But as far as, like, my biggestimpression on the row would be
rowing at night and I think,from like day 10 to maybe like
the last week, every stroke youwould take, the water would
light up with bioluminescenceand it was just so beautiful
that, mixed with the stars, likethat's something I'm never
(23:27):
going to forget.
That was my piece out there.
I guess you'd say that'sfucking awesome man.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Yeah, I think for me and me and Jerry discussed this
while rowing I don't think itwas the hardest thing I've ever
done at all.
I think what I saw value inwith this row was is I had the
time to sit and confront all mydemons, and then I had a crew
that all had demons too.
(23:56):
I mean that boat, you know itwas, it was five shit shows in a
boat like trying to, you know,heal themselves, you know.
So it was like I'm not alone inthis, and once the the first
person broke out to open upabout something you know, then
it was just like uh, you know,let's all, let's all talk this
out while we're on our shifts,because I mean, at the end of
(24:17):
the day, you're not goinganywhere, you're doing the same
shit over and over again andyou're seeing the same people
for the next month, month and ahalf, two months, however long
it takes you to row.
So you really have time to talkabout some of the things you're
concerned about with yourselfand then realize other people
are going through that too andthen try to figure out how that
(24:38):
needs to change.
Like you don't, you don't needto keep being that way, and
that's where I think this kindof activity for vets is is uh, I
think that's the value.
It's not so much.
Yeah, I mean inherently, youdid a really hard thing and it's
not a lot of people do this.
More people have gone to spacethan road across the mid Pacific
.
That's cool and all, and that'slike something.
(24:58):
You know some bragging rights.
We all need to have braggingrights where these type of dudes
you know we need to be like ohyeah, cool man, I rode the ocean
, so I don't, you know whatever,go away, but uh, but that just
comes with the territory.
The real value is, you knowyou're you're confronting a lot
of shit with your friends whoare also confronting a lot of
shit, and then you end up doingit together and then it
(25:20):
culminates in this likebeautiful location that you end
up in and people are cheeringyou on, and so then, like all
that shit really smacks you inthe face once you you get sight
of the island, um, and you knowyou're about to like go hug your
family and stuff, and allyou've been thinking about is
how could I be a better husband,how can I be a better father?
How can I be a better person,like I'm doing this thing to
(25:43):
help other people Like how andhow can I fix myself to be a
good example for the next guywho's really suffering and get
him involved into something thatmaybe he wouldn't have gotten
involved with?
You know, therapy, yoga,whatever it may be, and I don't
know.
That's kind of.
For me, that's probably thehighlight of the whole
experience is, you know,understanding a lot of things
(26:05):
about myself and then how I wantto help others.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah, man, self-reflection is a powerful
thing that we don't get in thisbusy world.
We have so many distractionsthat keep us plugged in, like
our family, our job, the demandsof taking care of other people,
do-outs it makes it reallydifficult to look in the mirror
and say, hey, I need to fix this, I need to work on this, and
our own issues with getting helpand seeking out support can
(26:33):
keep us from doing that.
But if you're stuck out in themiddle of the ocean, five other
dudes and you're just rowingjust like on an ODA in a car or
in an MRAP driving down a desert, at some point windshield
therapy kicks in and you starttalking.
And that's a remarkable part ofthis journey.
Yeah, it's a sexy, awesome,cool thing, but really and truly
(26:54):
you're just giving men a chanceto sit down with each other,
with warriors, and talk andthink through some problems.
The greatest therapist outthere will always tell you like
dude, I can't lead a horse towater and make it drink, I can't
make you change your habits orgive up the things that are
killing you.
Like, I can guide you, I canhelp you realize your answer,
(27:17):
but ultimately you make thedecision, you make the choice
and I think that's a big part ofthis journey, man, exactly what
you just shared.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Well, it's like, you know, on the side of like,
should I continue?
You know my health and gettingbetter.
It's like if you decide to goaway from that after this
journey, I just don't think it'sit is possible.
But I think it's it's too easyto look back and go hang on Like
I just spent a month doing oneof the shittiest things on the
(27:48):
planet, like what shit that Ijust went through on the boat,
you know, self-reflection,everything else just to hop back
into the same dumb shit.
Yeah, yeah, jt, what?
Speaker 4 (27:59):
about you, man, all right, so, uh, for me.
So there, uh.
So Paul Laurie, who is likeprobably best known, one of the
greatest rowers that I know of,who helped us as we were
starting our row, you know,across the Pacific it was kind
of weird, you know, he just said, hey, make this your journey.
And cause I'd looked at otherthings, like going to you know I
(28:22):
began stuff like that to justkind of get some of the demons
that I know that that botheredme, but he just told me he said,
hey, no matter what, just makethis your journey and at the end
of the day, just promise mewhen you get off the boat that
you know you will still be incontact with the five that you
went across with.
You know, because he's like,because if you don't do that,
it's not really a journey.
It was just you rowing an oceanand being an asshole about it
(28:46):
is how I looked at it.
So, but they were times, trustme, you know I would go in and I
was like, oh my God, dude, whydid I promise about this?
There are things that I want tosay.
On day one, we watched, youknow, a team that showed up and
it was kind of a shit show.
And then a day five, theydidn't row with us.
Skipper came out and said, hey,I don't want to row with this,
(29:07):
with this crew, and I was like,holy crap you know this is
before getting out on the water.
Yeah, Before us getting out onthe water.
And you know, when I seen thatcandid discussions on the boat,
if we don't like something,don't take it into the cabin,
(29:28):
let's discuss it then.
That way, you know, there weleave rowing in a good, positive
way and we come back on, we'rein a good, positive way.
So I mean that's kind of howI've kind of self-reflected on
myself, because I knew that, youknow, anger was one of the
things that drove me crazy youknow just all the stuff that
I've done throughout my militarycareer and I was like I just
want to be a better person whenI get off of this.
So and that's what I reflectedon I was like, okay, how can I
(29:48):
change today?
How can I be a better person?
Yeah, I was still an assholeand I'll probably always be an
asshole till the day I'm deadand gone.
But that's I did try to likeokay, hey, I want to be a better
husband.
These are the things that Iscrewed up, you know, and I want
to try to fix those when I getback home, which I have.
I mean, you know, I've seen abig change in my life and so
that's what I took out of thisjourney and and, believe it or
(30:10):
not, best 35 days.
I mean, even though it was harddefinitely not the hardest
thing I've ever done and whenthey asked me, hey, would I do
it again?
I'd definitely do it again.
Day five sucked, but the rest ofthat was just, I mean, I just
took it as okay.
I'm on a 180 day deployment andit's going to suck and I'm
going to see the same shit dayin and day out, but at the end
(30:31):
of this thing, I'm getting offthis boat.
My wife's going to be there,no-transcript and now that we're
off, you know the boat.
I'm still in contact with allthe guys, I mean, even though
you know the two others.
(30:51):
That's not part of a course ofracing and I just feel like it's
a brotherhood, sisterhood,whatever you want to call it.
Is this something that's a bondthat you will never forget
about?
It's a great experience.
I wouldn't.
You know.
My goal is to get as manyveterans on these boats as we
can Let, even if it's just athree day, five day, or they go
across the Atlantic Pacific Gulfof Mexico, whatever they want
(31:14):
to do.
I just want it to be a journeythat, when they get off, their
life has changed Hell yeah,Absolutely, man.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
I want to pivot now to where Corsair is going to
next.
I mean, this was a huge likefinally did it.
We got the team on the water.
Nobody died.
They made it there safe.
What's next?
What's the next great adventure?
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Yeah, I'll like intro to that, chris, and then hand
it over to you.
But I just want to say that Ihad a baby almost exactly the
day that they finished the race,so I was sidelined, right.
But watching my teammates dothis and watching like the live
stream of them finishing, youknow I was like's like a.
(32:01):
There was a sense of pride forme.
I mean it's like obviously I'mlike serious fomo.
But coming out of the race, ourwhole team dynamic has shifted.
We've got jerry and we'restoked to have them.
But watching jt and chris gofrom day zero to hey, what's
ocean rowing to where they aretoday, the momentum has picked
(32:23):
up a ton and we've got a lot ofreally exciting stuff on the
horizon and with that you knowvery proud to be a part of this
team and join the experts now onan ocean crossing.
But I'll hand it over to Chrison what we're actually doing
tactically.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
Yeah.
So the next thing for Courseris the Gulf.
We're going to cross it Rightnow.
I'm reaching out to the powersthat be to see what's a legit
crossing and then, fromeverything that I've researched
and people I've reached out to,no one's done it.
So right then, and there we'regoing to get a world record.
(32:59):
So it's something to be prettyexcited about.
It'll be the core team membersand it's our big push to raise
awareness of what we're doingand what our goals are and what
we're trying to do.
And then you know, shortlyafter that we're probably going
to pick up our first veteransthat we've never met before and
get them out on the water, whichis going to be super awesome.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Yeah, yeah.
What's the selection processgoing to be for that?
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (33:26):
So for ones it's it's pretty low commitment because
you know, one of us who's gotthe experience will be steering
the ship essentially.
So you can show up and juststart rowing and you know,
ideally, like we're gonna well,not ideally, we're gonna have,
you know, chase boats and thingslike that.
So if guys like get into it andthey're like I can't, like I'm
(33:47):
throwing up, I'm not going todeal with this, like you know,
we can remove it from thesituation.
It's like very, very lowpressure, low threat kind of
activity and it's not going tobe like, yeah, we're going 50
miles out to the Gulf Stream andwe're just going to see where
it takes us.
It's going to be, you know,kind of localized ocean rowing,
just like a good day, you knowgood weekend.
(34:08):
And then as we get you knowpeople that want to go further
and further, or we get you knowa team that wants to do the
Pacific or the Atlantic or theIndian Ocean or whatever.
That will probably be well, notprobably.
It's going to be a highervetting process and we're going
to be holding guys to certainstandards, because the last
(34:28):
thing we want is to send guysout that aren't prepared or, we
know, aren't probably going tomake it just from the experience
that we've had.
Yeah, like, if someone appliesto it and to do it, then it's.
It's a conversation.
We, you know, we haveexpectations you have to meet
and if you can't meet those it's.
It's kind of like athree-stripe deal.
(34:49):
Hey man, sorry, like you needto do these things and maybe we
can move you to the next one orwhatever.
Yeah, yeah, it's.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
It's gonna be a pretty intense selection process
for the bigger ones, but thesmaller ones it's like denny, I
don't know, you come onto theboat, let's go do this, and I'm
gonna grow up on an islandsomewhere in the afternoon and
then we're gonna row 10 milesback to the, the dock, and you
don't have to do shit other thanget on the oars because you
have, because you do see a lotof uh, you know teams and you,
(35:20):
you hear about it and you see itthat you row somebody across
the ocean or somebody didn'tfeel like rowing for two or
three days, and the last thingyou want is we get guys and we
spend that money and get themout and then they either quit or
they leave that boat, hatingeveryone on the boat.
And I'm a true believer that wedo need to have some kind of
vetting process.
Hey, we'll go out on the boat,and you know, I'm a true
(35:40):
believer that we do need to havesome kind of vetting process.
Hey, you know, we'll go out onthe boat with them.
Are they rowing?
Are they rowing the right way?
Is you know?
Are they a team dynamic or isit a team of failure?
And we can see it, you know, andand and we're going to have to
have those hard conversationswith those guys and I mean it's
not going to be easy as a youknow, as a board member, saying,
hey, man, I just don't thinkyou're going to fit the bill for
(36:01):
this team and maybe you, maybeyou find another guy and you can
row it next year, but the teamthat you're at is not going to
get our boat across the waterand the last thing we want is
some bad publicity, you know, ofour boat going across and guys
are just putting horrible thingson social media and just hating
one another, because that'sgoing to come back on us as an
organization.
So, yeah, we're going to have tohave those hard conversations,
(36:23):
but I think we're ready for itand we know, you know, I think
the three of us know what we'relooking for and looking at
because we've done it and weunderstand the guys that we've
seen to the left and right of usand the girls, uh, and you know
it's it's definitely going tobe an eye opener and you know
something that we're just goingto have to be mentally prepared
(36:45):
for when that time comes.
But I'm really looking forwardto you know what, chris and
Jerry they're putting a programtogether for us to start rowing
again and for all five of us tocome out.
Because the greatest part was,when we landed, getting to see
Blake and his wife, you knowthere to meet us, and I was
hoping, you know Pete, butPete's wife was having a kid.
But just seeing that teammember there when we got done
(37:06):
was just amazing.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
It's like.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
I said Go ahead, pete , go ahead.
Well, I was going to add, I wasjust going to add to kind of
what we have coming down thepipe and and Chris alluded to it
by getting veterans out on theboat.
But we're looking to partnerwith some of these veteran
nonprofits to pay for vets to godo excursions.
So think of an organizationlike Soft Excursions.
I don't think we've talked toyou yet, but the idea would be
hey, I've got a handful of guysthat are interested in this,
(37:32):
we'll give you money to bringthem out and we've got a couple
of those partnerships in theworks.
But what I'm most excited for iswe're signed up for the
Atlantic race in 2027, spain toAntigua, and at the end of that
race AT, chris and Jerry willhave crossed the Pacific, cross
the Gulf, and until someone elsedoes it, we'll have been the
only ones to cross the Gulf andthen they'll have crossed the
(37:53):
Atlantic.
And so our long-term visionthere is that Corsa Racing is a
legitimate global leader in thissport of ocean rowing.
Our core team will have doneall the big ones the Indian
Ocean, and there's otherchallenges that we'll look to do
beyond that.
But by the end of 2027, we feelthat once we accomplish that
(38:13):
race we'll be recognized as aglobal, like a leading
organization in the sport ofocean rowing globally.
But in the U?
S we're like the only standingprogram for this sport.
So as it grows and more peopleget interested, we'll be kind of
at the vanguard of that andhonestly I think that's what
sponsors down the road will beinterested in is like we'll not
just be doing something greatfor veterans, not just be doing
(38:35):
something cool, but we'll alsobe at the front end of this
sport.
Like what does it mean to be aprofessional ocean rower?
Like we could help define thoseterms with the community based
off the vast experience we'llhave by the end of 2027.
And once that's complete, thefocus is going to shift almost
fully on providing this toothers and from a safety
(38:55):
perspective, you're not going tohave more qualified and capable
safeties and experts andcoaches than you'll find in JT,
chris and Gary being soft NCOsthat are now like global leaders
in ocean rowing.
And we look to be running ourown training courses, teaching
people about the sport,participating in the governing
bodies such as World ToughestRow or the rowing society, and
(39:19):
and kind of look at ourselvesand and get the world to look at
us as like hey, those guys innorth america, that us team,
they're very legit and if youwant to get into ocean rowing,
they're the people to call yeah,you, son of a bitch.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
It sounds like you used a mission planning guidance
and, uh, put together theperfect fucking plan.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
Damn it, I knew you did dude I knew it in my skull.
I can't do this wholeconversation.
All I can think about is, likeyou know, I don't want to chime
in, I was on the sideline, butall I can think about is, like
dude, this sounds like an oda.
That's exactly what we weregoing for.
Yeah, you got these killer ncos.
That just makes shit happen andthe officer brains like hey
(39:57):
guys, I want to do the next bigthing for the mission and make
sure we have our sitrep photosfor the media page.
Sure.
Speaker 5 (40:03):
Everybody put on their courses.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
Shirt for the like but you know it matters.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
It fucking matters, and that's the thing that that
we need to understand is thatyou literally went and got an
amazing education on how to plan, on how to plan big, amazing
things.
You can take all that.
You can take the bullets out ofthe equation to killing people
out of the equation.
Speaker 5 (40:26):
And you can still execute.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
You can still make an amazing thing that's of service
to the greater veteran and andservice member community.
You're helping in creatingsomething so freaking, huge and
the way you just outlining it'slike, dude, this is a no-brainer
, like this is something toforce.
foundation be a great heck, yeah, I need because you're doing
(40:51):
stuff that is appealing to oursoft brothers.
It's something that when yousee something like this come
across your desk, you're likeholy shit, like I might be lost.
I might not know what I want todo for my next chapter, but
this looks incredibly fun anddangerous and amazing, and if
Green Berets are doing it, Iwant to be a part of it.
But we also need to know, likewhat do you guys need to
(41:15):
continue growing and making thisthing even bigger?
Like how can we help championthis cause?
What do you need in order toget that big financial backer
that's going to be able to sayyou know what I'm going to dump
all this money?
You guys make this thing grow.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
We definitely need money.
Yeah, that's the, that's the.
The non-political way to sayit's like we need money to
sustain our operations.
The non-political way to sayit's like we need money to
sustain our operations.
The big thing for us is whatwe're offering, and this has
been what we've offered sinceday one is, we will bear the
brunt of all of those startupexpenses.
A new ocean rowing boat is 150000 with no equipment.
(41:52):
200 000 maybe 250 000 is whatyou would need to go from
nothing to be able to row anocean.
We own that personally and fromwhat we've fundraised, and with
that we can then cut thatexpense down by way more than
half and we can sustain theseoperations and fundraise
internally to get veterans outthere.
(42:13):
So that's one thing.
We're looking for donors,whether it's friends and family,
corporate sponsorships, smallbusinesses.
Whether it's friends and family, corporate sponsorships, small
businesses.
We believe that we're anexceptional sponsorship partner
and that we'll message for yourcompany, recruit for your
company, we'll work for you, man, if you support our mission and
our cause.
And so that's certainly oneavenue, and if not the largest,
(42:33):
is landing those big sponsorsthat are interested in
supporting a veteran cause,interested in being a part of
something new in the UnitedStates and North America
interested in that adventuretype of nonprofit.
I mean I think that covers awide swath of potential
investors and donors.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
Yeah, and I'll say this and I mean and we've all
agreed on this I mean it's notjust about you know course of
racing, it's about the othernonprofits out there.
Because when we get these guysor whoever on these boats with
us, I mean we're not justlooking at this individual,
we're going to be like, okay, hehas severe TBI or he has severe
PTSD or he's going through somekind of struggles.
There are other nonprofits outthere that you know that we want
(43:12):
to be able to say, hey, let'ssend this guy to here, you know,
and truly get him the help thathe needs.
And yeah, we got him, you knowwhere he needs to be somewhat
stable in his life and maybe allit is is just ocean rowing.
But if it's not, we want tomake sure that we have enough
money and enough other you knownonprofits that we can send that
person to truly fix him.
(43:33):
You know we may not 100% fixhim, but if we get him to 50%,
where he's functional back insociety, I think that's a win
for Corsa racing.
And that's how I'm kind ofenvisioning this whole thing in
the next five years.
I mean that's my five-year planthat I would love to see Corsa
racing get to that.
We're literally taking a personwho's at his wits end and at
(43:54):
the end of the day he's backbeing a functional person in
society and getting his lifestraight, whether that's with
his family or just himself.
You know, because I think we'veall been.
I mean, I know I've been thatdown that road and I'm, you know
, I'm glad that Corsair Racingwas here and I got in, and I'm
glad that I got to row an oceanwith, you know, rangewell Rose,
and now we're back running ourorganization and getting it the
(44:16):
way we want it to be.
And you know, that's how I feelabout it.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
Yeah, that's something that the past two
years we've really been buildinga network so that we do have
those touch points.
And for anyone that's listeningto this or interested, at one
point you can apply for one ofour programs that we'll be
running and you won't just dothe program and leave.
We're building a community onDiscord.
(44:41):
There's going to be constanttouch points where now you're in
the Courser family and whetheryou rode a weekend with us or
you rode the Atlantic Ocean,there's always going to be a
touch point and you're a part ofa family.
That is now, if you've had aloss of community which we all
typically do when we retire orETS or whatever now you got one.
(45:03):
It's your community, it's yourpeople that you left and now
you're back in it and there's awealth of knowledge there.
And if we don't have the rightanswer, somebody on that Discord
is going to be able to saybrother, I did this through this
va process or whatever.
And I think that's another realexciting thing that we're
(45:24):
building that um, that that thatkind of gives us a a pretty
good leg up on on someorganizations that just see you,
treat you and then send you off.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
You know yeah, absolutely we also.
You know, just going back tothe support, like you know how
valuable just following us onInstagram you know the Instagram
follows spreads awareness A lotof companies.
That's what they want to see isa wide following before they
sponsor you with their productor monetarily.
So give us a follow.
Our Instagram handle is atcourserracing
(45:57):
C-O-U-R-S-E-Rracing, and then wealso like, we're running a sale
on some of our swag.
Right now we've got a sickartist that puts some good stuff
together, um, and you can findthat through our instagram
channels.
Like our website,wwwcourseforracingcomorg.
There's a donate link there.
You can go in there and donateor you can run to our store.
There we've got some moreexpensive items.
But keep in mind that's whatyou're purchasing is donating to
(46:20):
the cause.
But, yeah, purchasing swag,following us on Instagram, tell
your friends, tell your familyand, for the listeners, if you
know a small business or adefense business or somebody
interested in donating to aveteran cause, that's what we're
looking for and we spend a lotof time reaching out to
companies and connecting withour networks and things like
that.
So even if it was just like hey, I want to connect you guys to
(46:41):
my buddy who's at this companylike.
We want all of that, and youcan contact us through our
website as well.
You there's a contact pagethere.
That's pretty easy to get ahold of us oh yeah, I'll be
doing my part.
Speaker 1 (46:51):
I got a few people to connect you guys with because I
want to see the ship blow upand, um, yeah, I think that I'll
pimp you for an episode whilewe're on the gulf yeah, I'll be
standing there on the ocean anddo this again in six months if
you're up to it.
Speaker 3 (47:05):
But I mean, dan would be fantastic, but we'll have
the starlink amazing horizon'sjust gonna be doing this while
we're, we're talking to you tobe even better dude anything you
guys are involved in.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
I am in a hundred percent, full stop, like
whatever pete and the boys aredoing.
Count me the fuck in.
I believe in this mission.
I believe in this cause, justlike I said all the way back to
that dog ship product that waspushing out an episode season
two, to this refined and alittle bit better product that I
have now.
I believe in you guys, Ibelieve in your mission and I
(47:39):
believe that the first thing wecan do for ourselves in order to
fight back and know what we'redealing with mentally is take
care of our bodies.
Be willing to push yourself todo something physically each and
every day.
Greater cause than puttingsomething on the calendar and
templating a great fuckingmission, which we did for our
entire career, six months out.
(47:59):
You know you're going to gohere.
You have a training plan.
Start doing that for yourself.
I'll make it easier.
You want to take on thischallenge?
You want to join and row acrossthe fucking ocean?
I will give you a free rowmachine.
All you got to do is join ourwhoop team code right here and
you'll be in the running to winan awesome concept to roar.
(48:21):
The competition starts right now.
All you have to do is join theteam.
At the end of august, I'm goingto choose somebody in our whoop
team and they're going to get afree rower concept to free of
charge.
Why?
Because I like you guys.
I want to see you get out thereand crush life and do great
things.
And I want you to wake up everymorning, even if it's row for
two minutes, three minutes andeventually get to a couple hours
(48:41):
, say so.
You can say to yourself, likemaybe I can do this, and then
you can contact Pete and you cansay I want to be involved, I
want to row across fucking oceanand be a beast like Jerry, like
JT and Chris.
I want to do this and I wantyou to wake up and be inspired,
because your greatness doesn'tend when you fucking check out a
group and you no longer wearthe green beret.
(49:02):
You can continue to be badassGuys.
I can't thank you enough forbeing here today, but, more
importantly, I cannot thank youenough or show enough gratitude
for what you accomplished.
Being able to watch you guyssucceed in that video is fucking
remarkable and is going tocontinue to provide inspiration
for our brothers and sisters outthere.
So please continue going.
(49:22):
I'll make you a promise I won'tstop if you don't stop.
So I will continue making thislow tier podcast and putting out
reels and memes all day, everyday, if you guys continue
serving our community.
So if you're in the mission,I'm in the mission again.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
I appreciate you, Danny.
We love what you're doing aswell.
And I could say the same thingright back at you.
You're doing great for ourcommunity as well, and we're all
following it and we appreciatethat.
Speaker 1 (49:44):
Oh yeah, absolutely man.
Please, guys, if you'relistening, do me a favor.
Pause.
Go to the episode description.
Click on those links.
Donate, join the whoop team, bein the running to win your very
own row machine.
Uh, I certainly appreciate youguys tuning in.
And guys, thank you again forbeing here.
Absolute pleasure, and I can'twait to have you all back on.
We'll see you all next time,right on.
(50:04):
We'll see you next time, dennyyeah, securepodcast is proudly
sponsored by titan's arms.
Head to the episode descriptionand check out titan's arms
today.
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