00:00:00
okay Runners only with dime Harley Runners only with dom Harvey and Rich Farrell the madness
00:00:07
that's why they call me sometimes how did the nickname come about the nickname oh that goes way back to where
00:00:14
I actually started training for strong man I had a training partner and uh it was just me and him and my garage
00:00:21
training and I don't know if you watched WWF with Macho Man and Hulk Hogan and oh
00:00:27
back in the Glory Days Million Dollar Man bigger Powers came together um Macho Man was the madness and that's
00:00:34
just the way I trained when I was a a little bit smaller and so that's how that's how the name came apart just
00:00:39
because I just keep smashing big weights for a little follow me and now now that's me were you were you a little
00:00:47
fellow you're sitting in front you're the biggest dude we've ever met cheer
00:00:50
yeah yeah it's tight fit yeah no you like no one would ever refer to you as a little
00:00:56
fella now there's nothing small about you nah I don't know I haven't seen your
00:01:00
dinner tours man lots of people have but um nah so my my lifting weights Journey
00:01:12
has been going for about 10 years yeah um back in the day I was a little bit faster and smaller I tender 79 kgs so
00:01:22
big contrast from now but now I'm clocking in currently about 120 usually about 125 when I'm competing
00:01:29
trying to keep that weight going up a little bit more yeah right so where are you ranked in terms of New Zealand's
00:01:36
strongest uh people uh I'm Different in the top ten uh last year in this competition here I ended up collapsing
00:01:45
at the comp so right really get very far in that one and you just hit this competition here you pointed to your
00:01:51
tissue what does it say New Zealand strongest man you collapsed yeah um what happened I went into the comp I
00:01:58
had the flu for the week before and uh I was like none I'll be right I'll be
00:02:04
right for the day uh I got to Friday night as I said oh [ __ ] okay one one last good sleep and I woke
00:02:12
up was like oh I'm not feeling good so I grabbed my pillow on my duvet I just
00:02:17
went to the conf and hit a sleep in between each event and we've got about halfway through the
00:02:23
comp and came up to the deadlift I don't know if you've seen it online but I just
00:02:29
went down to pick up the weight and this week good night and just passed out and then ended up in hospital
00:02:37
um yeah just everything went sideways there so I had to pull out of the compost a two-day comp that was just day
00:02:42
one uh so I ended up coming last which is 10th place and that opens for that one so hypothetically speaking
00:02:51
if I was in that competition I would have beaten you I think you would have had a good chance all I had to do is
00:02:56
Lift Away to not pass out you would have had to complete a few other events before that one before I passed out but
00:03:02
yes I mean if you guys got a chance all you got to do is turn up on the day hey so what what was it did they get to the
00:03:08
bottom of it oh it was just the accumulation of uh things all come together the flu I popped all the night
00:03:13
and days and the Red Bulls to try power through and then over exerted myself dehydration and just the body gave out
00:03:20
so yeah but um that was October uh and then I hit the world's strongest man which was another three or four four
00:03:31
weeks later so I had to do a quick recovery for that one and just basically rested up for four weeks before I headed
00:03:39
over there and everything seemed to hold up okay then so it was good right where
00:03:44
were they uh that was over on Daytona Beach right in Florida did you not have a doctor saying okay we'd advise you not
00:03:50
to go to this um no obviously I had to go to hospital and I got all hooked up on the hat
00:03:57
Monitor and they gave me they're all clear all right yeah yes I got the official all clear because the misses
00:04:03
wouldn't let me lift off their headers said no so what do you remember about
00:04:07
that New Zealand event where you pass out um you've got any really recollection or
00:04:11
is it just from what you've seen video recorded sort of I sort of remember it I am I
00:04:17
went to go lufton it was sea and that just slowly got darker and darker to a pinhole and then everyone
00:04:26
was touching me and lifting me up I was like oh what happened here I it was only 300 kgs
00:04:32
I was trying left that's not a big list wow so it happens sort of slowly like it
00:04:35
wasn't just like bang you blacked out no I just slowly sort of felt it coming and
00:04:41
um I was like I better get this lift up real quick um and I thought I got lift up but I'd
00:04:47
actually just passed out so yeah oh my God how frightening yeah uh it was a little bit more frightening for my
00:04:54
fiance than for me it's just part of what happens sometimes when you're lifting weights you do sort of pass out
00:05:00
so yeah nothing to be worried about so these strong man games what do you do what happens there is that like just
00:05:05
conventional weights or is it like you see on um oh what am I think like CNN or something where you're lifting Boulders
00:05:11
and flipping over tractor tires and things yeah if you think of anything that's not in the gym and probably more
00:05:17
onto you um scrap yard sort of stuff lifting big stones pulling Big Mac tracks um lifting just awkward stuff and
00:05:28
running and carrying with carrying it it's um pretty much anything that's
00:05:32
awkward to lift is what we're doing strong man yeah just make it a little bit harder white where uh there has been
00:05:39
in the World's Strongest Man Has it actually they um I'll Chuck it on the
00:05:42
frame and they carry some fridges along and stuff like that it goes back in the days they're a little bit fresher these
00:05:47
days right like back in the 80s when it was first starting they did look fridges
00:05:51
and stuff so how often do you move house you'd be a handy guy to have around when
00:05:54
you're moving house uh I have one rule I have one rule I don't lift unless it's in the gym
00:06:02
I have gone around and helped lift a few uh like pianos and stuff but that's just
00:06:07
a one-off yeah yeah so what what does an average day look like you must be you must be just eating non-stop
00:06:14
um I do I do put away a bit of food necessity um yeah just out of habit now like I said
00:06:22
I've I've been trying to get big for about 10 years yeah um and it was hard at the start when you
00:06:28
just tender 79 kgs and you're trying to get bigger so you just got to push that
00:06:32
food in um but after 10 years it's it's a little bit easier um probably put away somewhere between 5
00:06:41
000 calories 6000 calories a day um eating every two hours oh my God there's just that it's not
00:06:49
like dinner plates right right slightly small stuff yeah but it's a it's a job
00:06:54
always got to eat um I miss this is as good at just making sure I get the food in there on the
00:07:00
weekends yeah she's like you haven't eaten for a while get there didn't you
00:07:03
you got to get big and stronger she's a feeder right she's a feeder one of them
00:07:06
yeah you've got to be big strong Daddy I was like yeah yeah a big strong Daddy what
00:07:13
is this some sort of weird King thing so was there um so you've been doing this
00:07:18
10 year 10 years now did you say yes lifting weights yeah how old are you now I'm 44. right so you're 30 34 when you
00:07:26
started was there was there a catalyst for starting like I'm thinking I saw a
00:07:30
documentary with um Mike Tyson and he started boxing because um you know he was he was a small boy and he had that
00:07:37
lisp and he was self-conscious and he he loved pigeon racing and there was like a
00:07:42
bully that um in the up killing one of his pigeons in front of him and he thought he didn't want that to happen
00:07:47
again so he started training to become a boxer so he could stick out for himself
00:07:51
was there any sort of like psychological reason like that do you think that you started like this the subsection with
00:07:57
being big yeah uh well it didn't I didn't start off with the opposition of being big
00:08:03
um yeah because you're quite quite old when you started I guess on the big school of things yeah yeah
00:08:08
um like you hear about that strong man strength that sort of starts at about 30 to 40. so I'm right in the right spot to
00:08:15
get big and strong but um uh like a lot of people that lift weights or go to the gyms you see them
00:08:21
and they're quite dedicated to the same weights there's usually some sort of story behind that so
00:08:29
usually it's a mental health issue that's pushed someone into that and they
00:08:33
start lifting weights to have control of something in their life and lifting weights and eating food is
00:08:38
quite a good way to gain control of your life so my one started I back probably like my early 30s I had a
00:08:48
not the best marriage sort of that came to an end and just destroyed me and I sort of lost myself and I got
00:08:56
deeply depressed uh Stefan suffered from anxiety depression went to a deep dark place there and um that
00:09:09
um yeah I got to a point where I wanted to take my life and I tried to I tried to and um
00:09:21
fortunately that didn't work yeah so I had to I basically started from Rock Bottom had
00:09:30
you had you um before that marriage break had you been um like how'd your mental health been
00:09:36
before that mostly okay or no I had actually been dealing with mental health from about the age of 25 right with
00:09:45
depression and anxiety which had obviously been before that but it came right to life I'm about 25 when I
00:09:53
stopped and faced it and so through the whole marriage I also had to battle that
00:09:57
and battle not the best marriage right um yeah so once I'd got a divorce and out there around
00:10:07
it just went right to the bottom and like I said I I try to do a drug overdose um
00:10:16
which didn't work and when when I did that um I obviously passed out and I I woke up like that and I was just like
00:10:30
shit's got to change like I've gotta I've got to make a change from now and I
00:10:35
started right from that moment but I didn't feel like it's like you had a
00:10:39
second chance yeah like um every every man has two lives and the Second Life starts when you realize you only have
00:10:47
one and that was that moment for me um as uh has that I've been stuffing around
00:10:54
with this first one I was like I have to make the most of my life so put the hammer down and uh
00:11:02
just started lifting weights and eating right and I was like I said I was only like 79 kgs yeah so it took quite a
00:11:09
while um about three years to 79 what are you now uh I'm clocking in a 120 at the
00:11:16
moment so that's like so 41 kilos heavier now than what you were then there's a lot of blocks of cheese yeah
00:11:22
yeah I like to measure on sex of potatoes yeah for four sex wow so yeah I spent I spent about three
00:11:33
years in what I've sort of caught my recovery stage from that drug overdose um
00:11:40
and just building going to the gym day and day out um nothing else mattered I suppose it
00:11:46
gave you something to hyper fixate on yeah because my life had fallen apart right like I
00:11:53
previously I had a house and a marriage friends and over that time of being depressed in their marriage all that
00:12:00
sort of disappeared I lost everything I was back to I was back to square one so I had to literally Build It Up
00:12:07
how did you lose everything uh just some missing marriage and then um that spiral depression drinking and then
00:12:16
the drugs for the drug overdose yeah um it just lost it all lost my mind so I lost it
00:12:23
all and couldn't hold on to anything or did you like get started getting hooked
00:12:28
on like drugs to try and like numb the pain or Escape escape the misery that was your life at the time yeah yeah
00:12:34
because I was drinking as well like um one stage I was drinking one and a half liters to two liters of spirits a night
00:12:43
[ __ ] off really am I Peak and um on a day off how are you not like how did that not kill you I don't know on my day
00:12:52
off so it'd be like half a literally oh my God I don't know I sometimes I think I'm
00:13:01
just a horse I can take some punishment that's why I like training I like just
00:13:04
to give it to myself so how's your organs now have you been blood tested are you are they okay I get I get the
00:13:10
blood tests done um every few years and everything seems to be checked out okay yeah right wow
00:13:16
yeah so it's like built up a good resistance I think so we might find out when I'm like 70 or 80 and it might be a
00:13:22
little bit different oh if you made it to 70 already you'll be doing it right
00:13:25
yeah well life's amazing now so I think I will make it for 70 or 80. yeah but
00:13:30
yeah so like um you know I just built up for three years of rehab just starting small lifting little weights
00:13:37
and just slightly getting bigger and bigger and then I just decided maybe it'll be cool
00:13:42
to be like 90 kg so I like it's real hard to get up to 90 kgs and say oh this is pretty cool I've seen
00:13:48
some results and then hung there for a little bit another sort of year I was like I'd be pretty cool to
00:13:54
be a hundred so built up to that obviously getting a little bit bigger and stronger and that's about where I
00:14:00
Charmed into strong man so it was three years of training um and I've been doing strongman for
00:14:07
about seven years now um so it's been 10 years since I um try to take my life there uh so seven
00:14:16
years of strongman and I hung around in the there's a few divisions like under
00:14:23
80s under 90s under 105 and then open division so I was hanging around the under 105 sort of lieutenant
00:14:31
then I just like if I'm gonna do this so you might as well go back I might as
00:14:36
well get to the top and so I just started to put on the weight to try to compete with the best yeah
00:14:43
what's what's your relationship look like with alcohol and drugs now is there
00:14:46
any relationship or are they a thing of the past no I think I think you've got under control now you
00:14:52
managed to have a like a healthy relationship yeah like I said it beer at lunchtime today yeah like it's it's no
00:14:58
problem it's the it's when that mental health isn't under control that those
00:15:03
things become advice right so you're taking them for the wrong reasons yeah yeah yeah but now like I said my life's
00:15:09
amazing now so all those things are under control I just put those in compartments and
00:15:15
that dealt with so um I spent a lot of effort a lot of time and effort on my mental health to get
00:15:23
that strong yeah um how did you how did you do that what did that Journey look like
00:15:29
um I was originally I started off with a um a counselor yeah um moved on to a psychologist
00:15:39
and at my Peak I think my worst time I ended up with a psychiatrist for about I was about three years or something
00:15:50
like that so working quite hard on that which was all self-funded unfortunately yeah that's how much was each session
00:15:57
200 300 300 plus it's the [ __ ] thing isn't it because it's like there's a lot
00:16:03
of people that could do really really well out of therapy but just can't afford it or don't have the means to
00:16:08
yeah I was fortunate enough to yeah have a pretty good job that I was just holding on to when I was in a bad time
00:16:15
that I could afford to do that um it was a lot of money for me but I could afford to go to these sessions and
00:16:23
pay for them myself because I tried to go through um some government funding or something
00:16:27
like that and I just I didn't know isn't it it wasn't there it was just easier to
00:16:31
pay for it myself and I thought that was the most important thing for myself was
00:16:36
to make sure I sort out that mental health um so yeah thousands of dollars later
00:16:43
than years of therapy I I did it I came out the other side and every penny was worth it I was
00:16:52
awesome glad you did so I don't know him and how much detail you want to go back
00:16:57
to this because it's the darkest moment of your life but the um the suicide attempt what what was the drug what
00:17:03
drugs were you taking um yeah so like I just I don't mind going back there it's like
00:17:12
that's good to good to share it with people I actually haven't shared this
00:17:16
with anyone except for my really close Circle which is maybe five or six people so
00:17:24
um it's going to come out now um but I was just in a real dark place I was living down in Christchurch by
00:17:32
myself and there's a street down there where you can get anything oh Manchester no
00:17:39
um maybe I can't quite remember it's just in a real bad space and I just
00:17:55
walked down the street one time I was just like hey I just wanna I just want to get some relief um what should have
00:18:01
you got and then take him into this dodgy house and ended up being some pretty serious
00:18:09
Strokes um and just in the state that I was in I just wanted the Pain to End so I ended
00:18:16
up being heroin and is that your first time taking that yeah yeah I I never done that sort of
00:18:24
[ __ ] before yeah how do you inject or smoke um right yeah yeah so I was there and I was just like
00:18:33
oh in fact let's let's just do it and um but it was only a short time it
00:18:38
was maybe a couple of months but it was deep all the time and then it was just anything that could get hold of any
00:18:46
opiates or anything that came along and if you ask right questions you can pick that stuff up pretty easily off the
00:18:53
streets and so it was a pretty hard fast dark couple of months yeah yeah every every time it was just
00:19:04
just wanted to paint in and you hope that it's time when you go to sleep don't wake up you don't wake up
00:19:11
yeah um so we just kept on building up and up and up until that last time which was
00:19:20
the massive dose a sort of knocked me um like I remember I remember it like it was
00:19:32
like it was yesterday I think about it every day for the last 10 years that that doesn't go away
00:19:38
in a good way it's positive now but um I remember I remember it was a sunny a
00:19:47
sunny day and it took it and just collapsed and when I woke up it was like the middle of the night so
00:19:56
it was like six or eight hours had passed and um yeah I was had this massive dream while I was unconscious
00:20:10
um that sort of took me through my whole life Journey from a young age to a to where I was now and never think of
00:20:18
between perhapsulate your life flashing passion I was like you hear about it people that nearly die life flashes in
00:20:26
front of their eyes yeah I I was I had that sort of moment where I ran through the whole life
00:20:36
and asking questions myself of what was happening and stuff and what was it doing like what are you
00:20:44
doing with your life what the hell are you doing like you can't go you've got [ __ ] to do you
00:20:51
got people to you got people that love you um but um these little kids that are my friends
00:20:59
they're just absolutely love me and I was gonna be selfish and just leave this Earth
00:21:09
so with that thought like that this I don't know how long this dream was of a split
00:21:15
second whatever um I was just like I can't I can't leave these little kids they look at they look
00:21:20
up to me who are the little kids um they just look I'm a real good girlfriend and
00:21:29
um a mate and it's their kids I've been friends with them for about half my life 25 years or something like
00:21:37
that it's just third kids right so why did they why did this is the funny thing so you um you
00:21:43
you were loathing yourself at that point yeah what what have they seen you that you couldn't see in yourself
00:21:50
um they they always just saw I just wish for this yeah yeah because um even through all my my [ __ ]
00:22:04
um it's been a good person inside [Music] um and like when I was when I was down there by myself like
00:22:17
like crying because it's depressed and stuff like that I would um I'd rang them up and be like I need help
00:22:24
I need some help and like these little kids would come on be like I love you I love you I love you
00:22:32
Uncle Rich I can't wait to see you yeah and that they would they'll like give you enough
00:22:38
energy to to go for another week or something I then that would fade again and I saw
00:22:45
that cycle just keep on going so that's just the short version of um why those
00:22:52
people were like so instrumental and yeah making that change and when I was dreaming in and when I woke up I was
00:22:58
there foreign so yeah like he he I was like his hero like big big strong guy even though I wasn't not as
00:23:13
big as I am now yeah because this is before you wait in general yeah yeah yeah yeah
00:23:18
um so that's that that was the drive to get out of the hole um one of them um was just
00:23:28
show this little boy that I could if I could be the man that he wanted me to be yeah yeah be a person be the
00:23:37
person that he that he that he thought you were that he saw in you yeah he just didn't seen yourself yeah I didn't see
00:23:42
myself yeah because there was a lot of times I I just stand in front of the mirror and I
00:23:47
wouldn't even know I couldn't even recognize this person like it literally looked like a
00:23:52
different person that I was talking to in the mirror how do you mean what do you mean
00:23:57
like I just didn't recognize him like I was a different person I got have conversations and I just thought I
00:24:06
don't know who you are um so that's that's the sort of battles that I was having at that time yeah
00:24:11
that's it was a strange concept I think about that quite a lot um yeah is there any way you can
00:24:18
elaborate on that like do you mean you like you've gone so far away from who
00:24:22
who you knew you were at your core or who you thought you should be at your core I think I think that's what it was
00:24:28
yeah like um I was this sad skinny drug fact person quantum just my life was over like well not yet but it was um it
00:24:47
was down the toilet and I was just looking to myself what's happened to you wow
00:24:52
you used to be all these things like it used to be Sports person don't cry and loving life
00:24:58
and lots of friends and now you're just sitting in this bedroom for months on
00:25:03
end not talking to anyone locked away from the world [Music] um so yeah it was just a different person
00:25:09
like I was quite out of experience yeah it wasn't even like there's no drugs there was just depression I was
00:25:18
just looking at I just didn't know who I was completely lost my way yeah it's funny
00:25:22
hey because you you get depressed and then um you do things there um I suppose numb the pain but they make you more
00:25:29
depressed take you further away from your potential yeah so it's just it's
00:25:33
how the like the spiral begins that's a that's a good word um take away from your potential yeah
00:25:40
because I've always had a lot of potential but not applied it so that was that's a that's a good point there yeah
00:25:48
so so um you shoot up that um massive load of heroin and an attempt to take your own
00:25:54
life when that goes in your arm um are you thinking thank God this is going to be it or are you like oh [ __ ]
00:26:01
what have I done no can you remember do you think anything at the time or were you just
00:26:05
like nah it was just like it works like that okay it goes straight to the system and
00:26:11
just you basically okay like a split second sort of thing yeah you collapse basically straight away yeah I was doing
00:26:18
it standing up and I woke up on the kitchen floor um but yeah nah um at the time
00:26:25
going in as it's like and this is going to be a good one um no regrets just go for it but obviously after when
00:26:38
I got out the other side as I say okay yeah it's quite funny actually I suppose you
00:26:45
could you could be either either two ways I suppose if you were like truly uh suicidal you'd wake up and think
00:26:53
oh still here yeah um but for you waking up and going all right I gotta take I've
00:26:59
got to take drastic action this is no [ __ ] good I suppose it means that you didn't actually want to no except no and
00:27:05
I think I think about that every day like um it's been 10 years I got this tattoo
00:27:11
just relax on your right wrist yeah for 10 years just after the going to the strongman games
00:27:19
um just to Mark the anniversary and I think about it every day about how lucky I am that I I get a second chance
00:27:28
and how how good life actually is like when when you're when you take time to appreciate every
00:27:37
little thing like just walking outside I see the trees I appreciate those every day every day I'm grateful for just
00:27:44
being alive for waking up that once upon a time I didn't want to wake up and now I'm grateful every
00:27:52
morning to wake up near everything everything is good eh yeah everything goes good well it's the thing if you um
00:27:59
practice gratitude and start to look for those uh little moments like you mentioned before the trees which is like
00:28:05
a lot of people can get through the day you're looking at your phone or you're
00:28:08
walking around and wrapped up in your own [ __ ] and you may not even notice things like the the trees but if you
00:28:13
start to practice gratitude and then you you find you start to notice even more little things a little sip a coffee and
00:28:19
you'll be like this is a good coffee ah yes just being presentating yeah great
00:28:24
for it like don't take anything for granted because like every day is not guaranteed like tomorrow could be your
00:28:30
last day yeah um so just make the most of it yeah so um we'll wind the clock uh right back so
00:28:39
um what were you like at school um in school yeah yeah I'll say I was pretty good looking
00:28:49
pretty pretty good with ladies were you a bad kid a good kid nah um just a note like normal average standard
00:29:00
uh I didn't really apply myself yeah um I did have enough Brands to pass exams
00:29:05
without studying but I didn't apply myself I was just a little bit loose and
00:29:09
free there I ended up dropping out of high school actually and um uh yeah everyone say I was pretty I was
00:29:18
pretty good cat yeah they all love me I've got some I've got some amazing
00:29:22
friendships to this day from high school so I think that says a lot about who you are that
00:29:28
is um you can bring those through 20 25 years yeah 100 100 yeah you never trust anyone that only has new friends I yeah
00:29:37
new friends all the time um Can Flopper throw up a few Flags yeah yeah but everyone has their own story so
00:29:44
yeah yeah you can't judge anyone um some people go through a lot like um yeah
00:29:48
like at me at one stage I I'd lost a lot of my friends when I was dealing with my [ __ ]
00:29:55
um you I suppose you just sort of like even if it's not consciously yeah you
00:29:59
just said push them away a bit yeah um you go and hide um because you don't want to see you
00:30:04
um you don't want to deal with that stuff and you don't want to lie um you know because when you're dealing
00:30:11
with depression yeah you become a great actor um like you like wearing a mask um you've got to put on the front um
00:30:22
everyone thinks yeah yeah life's going good that's okay and then you get back home you'll say
00:30:28
that was tiring and get tired of doing that so that's what you start hiding yourself away
00:30:34
um so you just set people ask how you and you're like Yeah I'm um yeah yeah but you mentioned you
00:30:43
mentioned before with uh when you're talking about your friends that have got
00:30:45
the kids that really look up to you like you'd say to them I need help yeah yeah
00:30:49
does that just come towards the tail end of your depression that you become good
00:30:52
at asking for help so I pretty lucky I this girl um she's been a girlfriend since as a teenager so that's
00:31:04
25 30 years and we've always gone out for coffees and caught up over the years and just talked and stuff like
00:31:13
that so quite lucky to have someone close like that that I could just talk to so that's that's why I
00:31:20
could reach out yeah um but I also I try to reach out a few other times actually
00:31:26
to some friends and families and um because I suffered like domestic abuse in my marriage and stuff like that
00:31:34
like physical abuse and stuff like that I tried to tell some people about that I
00:31:39
sort of laughed it off and like okay just get back in there that like you don't
00:31:44
need to worry about the stuff and um so I done that a couple of times did they really laugh it off just because
00:31:50
it's like oh come on you can yeah whatever you can just like grab a rest or whatever although so this is your
00:31:56
previous relationship your partner now like she's a commonwealth games boxer if
00:31:59
you told anyone that you're a victim of domestic violence there I think they'd
00:32:03
take that seriously she would she would [ __ ] you up I reckon oh she she dropped
00:32:07
some bombs but uh when you get the meter that's why I love her she's an absolute
00:32:13
angel in real life and then changes to this absolute beast in the ring which is amazing which is amazing yeah controlled
00:32:22
aggression yeah that's what you need yeah um like because I only deal with calm people relax people good people now
00:32:28
I don't have time for any of this bravado pretending and stuff yeah pick up on the Good Vibes and those are the
00:32:36
sort of people that I have in my life now yeah like my fiance yeah so the reason I asked what you like at
00:32:42
school just I'm doubling back to that is because um in the mid 90s uh when you're
00:32:47
17 you lose your um older brother on a car accident yeah so he was he was quite quite a bit older did he feel like an
00:32:54
older brother or did he feel like an uncle he was like you were 17 he was 27. yeah yeah so Gage gave it their age
00:33:00
group uh my I've got three brothers they're all 10 years plus um excellent
00:33:09
or mum just didn't have a good one so she just had one last try and she got this the miracle child Miracle child
00:33:18
yeah yeah um yeah he was 10 years old of me so I was in the closest one to me so I was
00:33:26
quite close to him and he died in a car crash when I was 17 I didn't really dropped out of school there and um we
00:33:34
lost him in that car crash and that had from that point on with that paid quite a big effect on me I think yeah you
00:33:41
think there was if you had to pinpoint like a tuning I know if you see you've
00:33:44
done a lot of work do you you think you can pinpoint that as the moment I think tracking back yeah after
00:33:52
going through all my therapy and stuff is that's probably one of the catalysts
00:33:57
of my depression and yeah I didn't really notice it from that age in my early 20s because
00:34:05
I was just running away partying and having a good time and not really dealing with life
00:34:12
I try to do you think there was like standard standard early 20 staff or do you think
00:34:16
you'd like your brother's um like you know death was a like a catalyst in that yeah I thought I was
00:34:22
going to die the same way as my brother why did you think then um I don't know why I thought that I just I
00:34:32
think it was the relationship that I had with my brother that I loved them so much right that
00:34:37
um I spent a lot more time with him than my other brothers and he was he's basically an identical twin
00:34:45
but 10 years older than me yeah um so I just had that closeness and I I don't know where I got that thought from
00:34:53
but it's something that stayed with me all through my 20s until till like about 27 years old I decided
00:35:04
to go visit my brother's grave and because I've never been to his grave before why hadn't so 10 years have
00:35:11
passed why haven't you been too hard just didn't really want to be a little bit raw
00:35:22
um I always carried them here I believe and a little bit of spirituality we you carry the people close to you in here
00:35:29
and once the past so I always knew it was close to me and my thoughts and stuff but I decided to I
00:35:35
should go have a visit and ended up being about the 10-year anniversary which was
00:35:42
when I was like 27 28 I can't remember yeah so this is when you you thought you
00:35:46
were going to die at the same age like there was a moment there where you thought okay [ __ ] this this I'm not
00:35:52
going to die at this age yeah I was sitting there having a chat with them on the on the grave site there
00:35:56
and I looked up and I was like yeah I thought I thought I was going to be dead by this time maybe
00:36:04
maybe there is a little bit more to life maybe maybe I've got a little bit more
00:36:08
than me um so I had to sort of change my team by life a little bit then um redirect myself and stop doing the
00:36:19
party and living fast and hard and try and knuckle down a little bit um so yeah that was
00:36:26
probably I started and I was going through my therapy and stuff at that time as well
00:36:31
so all that well yeah what was the Catalyst to get you started on that I was at the relationship breakup I was
00:36:39
probably getting married in a funny way um it was probably a bad thing at the time but probably ended up being the
00:36:50
best thing for me right yes I was just trying to deal with the whole life and deal with the wrong choosing the wrong
00:36:57
person to marry right yeah but do you so you look back on that relationship because I said I think you bring you
00:37:05
bring people that I don't know not maybe not you what you deserve but you break
00:37:10
you're attract a certain person into your life at a certain time like your fiance at the momentary uh you you both
00:37:16
seem beautifully happy and she's sitting in the room with us and she's supporting
00:37:19
you so you obviously had to be in the the right frame of mind yourself to attract someone as amazing as her into
00:37:25
your life so do you look back on the on the toxic relationship and recognize any
00:37:30
part that you know you played in bringing that person into your life 100 yeah 100 I I yeah you're nailed it there
00:37:37
I say you attract what you are at that time and at that time in my life I I wasn't
00:37:43
in a good space um so I didn't attract the the best things into my life made a few bad
00:37:49
decisions there um and so I didn't get what I deserved but I got what I put out to the world yeah
00:37:58
yeah yeah yeah um like you said now now life is good and I've got an amazing fiance
00:38:05
because life is good and I'm putting out the good and getting the good bet yeah
00:38:10
yeah it's beautiful and she could [ __ ] you up she won't but she could just know
00:38:14
that okay if you ever cheat on her or anything yeah you mess with her she's a goddess yeah okay so um so so
00:38:25
um you reach Rock Bottom in Christchurch with that um suicide attempt how long after that does the strong man Journey
00:38:31
begin I yeah it's like pretty instant or nah nah it's not not instant at all I did
00:38:40
so I I was down there living in an apartment by myself yeah and I basically just locked myself in my
00:38:47
apartment for um three four months because I couldn't trust myself to go outside what do you
00:38:54
mean uh just Temptations and and that so I how are you getting by like what were you doing for money
00:39:03
um I I love a savings right yeah yeah which luckily I don't squander at that
00:39:09
time yeah um so I I managed to just bring food in I literally um would part of my rehab would be I'd watch an
00:39:22
hour of something scientific on YouTube and then I'd do about an hour of religion just like all sorts of
00:39:29
religions just to learn the spirituality side of things and then um about an hour of some sort of
00:39:37
self-help stuff and then I'd always finish it off with some sort of stand-up
00:39:41
comedy or where did you get that idea from uh just sitting by myself yeah right just a
00:39:51
plan you came up with I just need to just start thinking properly yeah um need to get on top of it
00:39:58
first thing was like I have to do some self-help I was like I need to be able to laugh again because I wasn't laughing
00:40:03
so those are quite important to me and then I was like uh there's always something that you can
00:40:08
find in all the different religions so just started studying all those as well and yeah you ended up you're a
00:40:14
Scientologist now I believe so you end up settling on Scientology yeah number number two behind Toms
00:40:23
I'm definitely a little bit more spiritual now yeah oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah not quite a hippie or
00:40:29
anything like that but um I'm definitely believe in like that what you put out is
00:40:35
what you get back yeah oh absolutely yeah yeah um so I did that for did that for quite
00:40:41
a few months um and there was down in Christchurch by myself and then and then I ran out many
00:40:50
um so had to happen sooner or later or later so I ended up back at my mom's place up in Hamilton
00:40:58
um I moved in there for a couple of weeks I was like Mom I just need to sort myself out this is I hadn't told her at
00:41:05
the stage in like until I got back up to Hamilton I was like oh this this is what's happened
00:41:12
um I just need a little bit of help she's like what do you know I was like I
00:41:16
just need a couple of weeks to get here because I was in a slightly better place so I was like I'll get a
00:41:22
job um so I ended up managed to find a job which I was pretty lucky at quite quickly
00:41:30
um and then mum was like wait get out you said you only gonna be here for two weeks it's like three weeks
00:41:38
now I was like three weeks oh man really I was like um I haven't even got your
00:41:43
age yet are you being honest about the timeline wow she really wanted you out I think she's pretty funny
00:41:50
she wouldn't kicked me out but yeah she gave me she gave me a couple extra weeks
00:41:53
though she gave me four weeks here and then um managed to get a job and find an apartment and so
00:42:04
um I literally had nothing I had a suitcase and my snowboard and the car that I drove so that's all like all I
00:42:13
had so I had to build my life up again um one brick at a time so I started off with
00:42:20
the things that are most important for recovery and your mental health which was number one was sleep so my first
00:42:28
paycheck I bought the best bed that I could afford with that one paycheck um and then the next thing was I bought
00:42:37
some knife and forks and some pots and pans and like really nice ones and just started cooking all my food and started
00:42:42
eating [ __ ] and takeaways and stuff like that so I did all that meal prep and then the third thing was just to get
00:42:49
back in the gym yeah um and that's where it started um right from there just going and having
00:42:56
control of doing each rep each set day after day after day that's all I did for
00:43:06
um three years when I lived in Hamilton um just Jim Jim was everything I slowly started to reconnect with a few friends
00:43:15
and starting to get some sort of life back together um obviously um I was a little bit jaded from what
00:43:25
I'd been through so friendship's a little bit hard to work on there but we got there reconnect
00:43:31
with a few old people got a few new people in there so that was real good and then
00:43:37
um like I said I was back in Hamilton that's not where I wanted to be um I wanted to be over the mount living
00:43:45
at the beach lifting weights find a hot girlfriend or something no by the way just um not that there's
00:43:51
anything wrong with Hamilton shout out to our Hamilton listeners [Laughter] if you want to live anywhere you want to
00:44:02
live at the beach right yeah yeah like something about it it's good for the soul I'm from I'm from Palmas North
00:44:08
which is landlocked like Hamilton okay um there is something about being close to the beach eh yeah yeah I'm not sure
00:44:15
if I get palmy or Hamilton oh no Hamilton's a lot better than Patrick yeah yeah yeah but um I got I got over
00:44:21
to Hamilton oh I'm not sorry I got over to papamoa I moved over there and that's
00:44:26
where that's where I had a massive growth like I've done that hard three years in
00:44:32
Hamilton yeah and then just being at the beach just catapulted now exponential growth
00:44:37
exponential what do you think that was um it was just the ability to reconnect with the ocean and the sand and
00:44:46
slowing down life like I I bought the calm to my life I've been able to sit on the beach
00:44:54
wash away the days and the ocean just really relax really relax no big cities nothing like that it's just nice and
00:45:03
quiet gave me time to lift baits relax and start to meet some good people yeah a lot of people are going to be
00:45:13
listening to this going okay well that sounds very nice relaxing on the beach lifting weights rinse repeat how do you
00:45:19
how do you afford that how are you funding that well I would say I'm still I still work
00:45:24
um yeah I got a day job as a project engineer okay okay so you're just prioritizing these things then yeah
00:45:30
you've got the normal day-to-day commitments like everyone else yeah well I've got a beautiful work-life balance
00:45:35
yeah and our employees I work for trimax day they um prioritize work-life balance as
00:45:44
well they don't want people wearing themselves out so it's it's a real good
00:45:47
mix they allow me to take time off and train for strongman and travel um so I couldn't really ask for anything
00:45:55
more there I could always do it for some more money to help Chase these strong man James and stuff like that um slowly
00:46:01
working on that if you look at something we're all working on mate yeah like
00:46:05
every Sports person in New Zealand uh there's not enough money to go around yeah
00:46:10
Sports people and podcasters never enough money to go around so were you um are you on any sort of meets now or were
00:46:17
you ever on Mets for the mental health I was I can't remember what they were yeah
00:46:21
um but yeah popping a handful of pills every day right yeah yeah like I said I can't remember where
00:46:30
they were but they were quite quite strong ones yeah so I think there's like
00:46:34
there's a lot of people like that have um like a true chemical imbalance in their in their their brain and they need
00:46:40
they need medication to balance it out and they might be on medication for the rest of their life but then there's a
00:46:45
lot of people who uh actually probably almost everyone I think that at some point in your life something's going to
00:46:49
rock you and you're going to have like circumstantial uh mental health issues
00:46:54
maybe it's a shitty relationship or a job loss or something like no one no one
00:46:59
gets out of life scot-free um and for for those people like you and for me you don't necessarily need
00:47:05
medication I think you you can get your way out of it with a like just a good mentally health plan like build that
00:47:11
resilience get some good structure um it's amazing that you had that thing about like an hour of religion a day and
00:47:17
an hour of comedy and an hour of self-help yeah that was a good plan yeah it was I had lots of time so
00:47:24
um it's a little bit harder to get four hours of my day to sit down and watch
00:47:27
YouTube now yeah but um yeah if I had I had a conversation with my psychiatrist I just like I
00:47:34
I think I want to stop the pills I think I think I've got this I should say okay yeah okay we can we can try
00:47:42
that so we stopped um so I told her what I wanted to do and it seemed to work and
00:47:50
um 10 years no medication now um I'm perfectly heavy yeah amazing oh good for you and not that not that I'm
00:47:59
ashaming anyone that's on that's on medication like my brother in Perth he
00:48:02
uh he's on antidepressants and he was like I'm feeling really good I'm going to get
00:48:07
off them as soon as he got off them he was like oh no that's why I was feeling
00:48:10
good yeah yeah yeah so for some people it's an uh necessity but um if you can
00:48:16
get by without them I think it's a it's an admirable thing uh yeah um yeah sometimes it's chemical
00:48:21
imbalance and yeah you've got to do a lot of work though if you're in that sort of state of mind
00:48:27
um you can't just be like I'm going to be happy you've got to actually practice
00:48:31
something and learn how to handle your emotions and yeah yeah I agree and it's um I think
00:48:38
it's definitely different for everyone you've got to work out what's right for
00:48:40
you and yeah what's right for you may not be right for the next person yeah so
00:48:44
so the strongman thing why why like why that out of all the things in the world you could do it seems like you're good
00:48:49
at a maybe you've got an addictive personality or maybe you're good at like
00:48:52
like sure setting your mind on something and fixating on it and doing it but out
00:48:57
of all the things to do one the [ __ ] that um I have got a laser focus mind when I
00:49:03
pick what I want to do I've done that all my life when I decided I want to do something I'd do it
00:49:09
this one I sort of just stumbled across it actually what do you mean on a TV thing or at the gym more uh
00:49:16
close close eyes obviously lifting weights I've been lifting weights religiously for three years so I'd build
00:49:23
a pretty good foundation and then I was just scrolling on Facebook and I saw this comp of an otara when I was living
00:49:32
papamoa I was like oh yeah go do some deadlifts I love deadlifts this log which wasn't strong I think I
00:49:38
don't even know what that is yeah how can it be and I just jumped in my car show up to otara
00:49:46
um so you're reasonably big big then you've been lifting weights for a while no no
00:49:50
that was maybe 90 kgs right 90 kgs and um that's when up there I found this like Little
00:49:59
Gym that was tucked away in this sketchiest place with all these mechanics and stuff I was driving down
00:50:05
the driver I was like what the hell is this place that's the last song cover
00:50:09
movie or something and then I found it and I just sort of pop my head in the window and there's an
00:50:17
absolute massive Salmon's smashing the biggest weights I was just like holy [ __ ] and then they
00:50:25
saw me I was like hey I just hit list some weights and I was like come on in here little white
00:50:35
boy they're probably like oh we thought it was the ubereats guy yeah yeah I'd
00:50:39
probably look like one back then now I eat all the ubereats but um yeah so they took me in and um lifted some weights
00:50:45
and did that comp and I I did okay and in my first comp and um detected the addictive personality I was
00:50:54
just like I love this what do you mean you did okay um I won surprises I don't want in my
00:50:59
division but I won some prizes right right I did okay on my my list compared to everyone else I was like oh yeah
00:51:04
I've got something here and um so I just started buying all the equipment down in
00:51:09
papamoa and I keep in touch with the crew at the otara strength pit and um it's been seven years of a family
00:51:17
friendship there and lifting weights and I just got bigger bigger and um like I said just build I got addicted
00:51:26
from it I just try to do every comp I could and that first year but I actually actually suffer from anxiety
00:51:34
um so for me to compete in front of everyone used to be quite nerve-wracking and I decided I was like this is what I
00:51:44
want to do um so if I'm gonna do it I better get good at it so for the first
00:51:50
year I competed in every strong man powerlifting comp that I could find like I was doing a couple of months as I said
00:52:01
I just got to get out in front of people and Trust try to get used to it and now
00:52:04
now I love that [ __ ] I've just got this Alter Ego the madness and when it's time
00:52:09
to listen to switch on I just go out and lift weights and yeah that's so it is
00:52:14
it's like the wrestlers we talked about right at the beginning yeah like an alter ego uh definitely it helps me
00:52:21
immensely um yeah yeah because you sort of when you're going through that mental health
00:52:28
stuff with all that that depression and stuff like that and just trying to lift some weight so you
00:52:35
have to try to switch that off yeah and concentrate on lifting weights which is a good Escape for a little bit as long
00:52:42
as you're only escaping to do that and then you're dealing with your [ __ ] later
00:52:46
on yeah um so that was that was sort of me I was just like Escape that stuff become the madness lift some weights and
00:52:54
um I just continued it through the last seven years and it works a treat for me amazing and what's the goal like how far
00:53:01
can you take this thing um I would love to win New Zealand's strongest man um in the opens uh this one trying to
00:53:09
get bigger um hopefully I'm going to get up to 130 kgs this year um that's quite small by the way
00:53:17
um like when I went to Worlds I was the smallest person over there at 125 kgs and the next smallest person was like
00:53:25
140 150 kgs and then it goes up from there so is it all muscle or how much of this fat oh there's a little bit of
00:53:32
fluff right a little bit of fluff yeah I was going to say because the strongest man competitions it's like these big
00:53:36
dudes everyone's got an engine right yeah oh you got to have an engine for some events but it just depends on what
00:53:43
you're doing yeah but um you try not to get too too fluffy yeah there's got to
00:53:48
be a lot of muscle underneath here it can't just be fluff um so yeah uh the goal is to be the
00:53:54
strongest man in New Zealand um like I said I'm in the top 10 at the moment I'll just keep on pushing that
00:54:01
um I'm 44 so I'm also in the Masters so um I compete internationally at that
00:54:08
level New Zealand my I passed out at the last comp but uh yeah I'll I'll won that this year
00:54:17
uh write that down we'll get back to that one um I went over to Oz earlier this year
00:54:22
and won the as International Masters comp over there um so yeah that's that's where I'm
00:54:29
heading clean all the Masters and try to dominate the opens amazing is there an age where you sort of reach your peak in
00:54:36
the sport uh that's what that 34 is is when you're peeking that old man's strength right um
00:54:42
what do you mean what does old man's strength mean you know like this guy's guy's a strong one
00:54:48
though right at 48 bracket is right on the money right there's some top guys
00:54:54
that are still like 52 still yeah yeah yeah so as long as you look after the body a you're gonna
00:55:02
you can keep going and um my body's holding up pretty well yeah um yeah if you're keep moving it'll keep working
00:55:10
for you can you give us an idea in terms of like a like a squat or a bench or a dead lift
00:55:21
bench I don't really do much bench but last time was a 175 kgs right um squat 250 deadlift 345.
00:55:31
pull 1510 tracks and lift 200 kg Stones you know stuff like that yeah good good for landscaping lifting
00:55:40
those big Stones yeah well I suppose you've got a career after this yeah it could be a Furniture remover a landscape
00:55:46
Gardener I do do it but Landscaping at home that's quite good just like pick up
00:55:50
the whole tree instead of cutting it down just carry the whole tree out of the air yeah get a job I I break down
00:55:56
Services where you're just pushing cars or something I don't know yes I got that
00:56:00
so do you win any money what's the prize at these events was it just for the
00:56:04
pre-stage in the prizes for the glory yeah yeah now when you um when you get to like New Zealand strongest man and
00:56:10
obviously over in the states a few thousand might be yeah okay not enough to cover the experience it
00:56:16
doesn't doesn't even cover right a few months food yeah yeah yeah so always got
00:56:22
to try and work on that obviously if you do a few more comps you might click a few more money but you gotta win yeah
00:56:28
you don't get money for coming last yeah yeah so it must be a crazy hit how did
00:56:33
you and your your fiancee re mate so you're you're in this uh you're in this
00:56:37
bizarre sport strong man um she's a boxer as I said competed at the Commonwealth Games almost made it to
00:56:44
the Olympics how did you guys get together ah well when you're when you're single you know
00:56:51
you gotta you gotta do a little bit of hunting on the Tinder you do go through a few uh a few Baddies
00:56:59
and if you're lucky enough you might just come across a queen and I I caught
00:57:03
a queen um and it was magic that was three and a half years ago what was that like who
00:57:09
how does that work do you have to match on each other or do you just gotta match
00:57:13
on each other right right okay so were you um I made the first move I've got
00:57:17
some friends that used to like um um play the numbers game so that that'd swipe swipe right swipe right's the good
00:57:22
swipe I can't remember it's been so long The Good the good one yeah we'll say
00:57:35
right okay right I had friends that would just like swipe on everyone without even looking at them and let's
00:57:40
let's say like it once you've got enough matches then you can you know just date
00:57:45
on mess and find someone were you like that or were you more Discerning no I don't need swapped swiped two times
00:57:51
and then I went on a date with someone else first and that didn't work out luckily and
00:57:56
then my second match was uh Ari oh I'm coming it was true for the second time that I
00:58:06
was on time yeah yeah yeah so I did go off it for a little while because I had some terrible stories so yeah yeah I was
00:58:11
just like I'm off dating but when I got back on that that was sort of true yeah
00:58:15
so so you met you're talking for a while before you meet um you send her a dick
00:58:19
pic um yeah no I think I sent her a lifting video or something yeah and then we just uh we just met
00:58:29
down at the mount hot pools you know the ones yeah yeah right at the foot of the
00:58:33
Mountain of course yeah and um she wanted to do it because she just wanted to check me out make sure that I
00:58:39
was legit looked like my photos so I had to get me on my Speedos so we're down
00:58:43
there and we just met down at the pools and had a chat and the rest is history yeah amazing amazing match it must be uh
00:58:52
must help each other both being uh competitive people I if someone selling them because if someone's having a flat
00:58:57
day the other person lifts them up vice versa yeah yeah that's really been magic
00:59:01
both for Ari and myself um because I've had previous girlfriends where I was trying to commit to a strong
00:59:09
man and taking a lot of time and then coaching some people doing strongman so a lot of my time went into that and
00:59:15
there was a big strain on the relationship um but they're made in Harry who's someone
00:59:22
that's dedicated she trades more than I do she she walks in the door at about 8
00:59:27
30 9 o'clock every night during the week um and so it was just really good to
00:59:32
have someone that's focused on the same goals and it's just like whatever it
00:59:36
takes you've got to go do it you go do it I'll be here yeah so I just make life
00:59:41
so much easier awesome and some people go in the same direction yeah and actually Eric come over here come over
00:59:48
here real quick so just taking a little break I come back from com games and needed a bit of
01:00:01
a rest and Recovery I got a back injury so I've just had cortisone injection
01:00:05
about seven days ago um but be back into it soon come back faster and fitter and stronger hopefully
01:00:12
nice how did the um how did you go the commonwealth games um it was amazing um I first round was up against the
01:00:19
Olympic um bronze medalist so very tough opponent from India so she ended up coming up better off but um yeah it was
01:00:28
incredible amazing first experience yeah oh good stuff and you you what's your
01:00:33
next aspiration is that uh Olympics um unfortunately at this stage I I not unfortunately that I turned 40 this year
01:00:40
but um as an amateur boxer that your Once you turn 40 you can't box um so I had four profits So the plan is
01:00:50
to turn pro again yeah go from there amazing oh good luck good luck thanks very much and when are
01:00:56
you guys getting married uh 2025 yeah 23. oh you're good don't rush into it no
01:01:02
no but you've got a date um March yeah no amazing hey well um you seem like a great couple you seem really good
01:01:13
for each other I think so um and it's been great to meet you today the madness yeah it's been great to meet
01:01:19
you too um one of New Zealand's strongest men um physically but I think also
01:01:24
emotionally and mentally maybe as well I like to think that's one of my strengths
01:01:27
is my mental strengths I hope to help a lot of other people with that as well especially lifting and friends and
01:01:34
family and stuff like that as well yeah yeah Rich Pharrell thanks brother all right thank you
01:01:39
[Music] thank you