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[Music] [Music] [Music] well here we are I'm sitting in the lounge with Brad smailer the man the
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myth the legend you good to be here hey great to be here and finally meet you I've been uh
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friends with you on Instagram for a few years now we follow each other um your journey I mean I'm not the not
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the person I won't be the last to tell you this it's um nothing short of
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inspirational thank you yeah that uh that word does get thrown my way a lot and uh for a
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while there I almost like didn't have an issue with it but it's like when you
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hear the same thing over and over and over again it's like you know you kind
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of it almost Waters it down but like at the end of the day to be to have something like that like a
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word thrown like that in my direction all the time it's just you know it's one
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of the one of the better compliments you could probably get yeah a lot of people
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are probably wondering like why is this guy's a great guess but what's he doing
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on a podcast about you know called Runners only but the funny thing is um there's this thing called Red Bull Wings
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for life it's a run they have in May each year um do you want to explain how that works
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it's like it's midnight in New Zealand but it's um at the same time all over
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the world right yeah so it's wings for life is the spinal cord injury Foundation which was started by uh an
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old I think the father of an old Motocross rider who was um I think friends with uh the head of Red Bull
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um and so they came together and they started amongst for life and so the wings for life world run as you said
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starts at the same moment in time all around the world and um so I've been getting involved in that
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and it's it's been really cool the first year so two years ago uh me and my buddy Jesse and a couple of
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other friends again as you said it's 11 o'clock at night on a Sunday night in
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New Zealand like New Zealand's probably one of the worst places in the world to
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do it but Hawaii I think Hawaii is it like two or three in the morning um but yeah so it's it's hard to get people
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into it but so the the first year that I did it um we went out just from here and went
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up uh ran around Lake pupuke and back and um and my friend Jesse was pushing me in my manual wheelchair but it was
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absolutely bucketing down with rain and it was like fizzle's like oh man like
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are we really gonna have to go out and get sucked but I just gotten this new raincoat like that's designed for
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wheelchair users and Chuck that on and went out and it was just a blast we had so much fun
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um and I just loved being out in the elements because I'm somewhat like I have to be protected from that yeah at
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times like with a wheelchair that could crap out if it got too wet and this is the difficulty of changing
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clothes and things like that afterwards but so then yeah the next year again Rebel got a bit more involved here in
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New Zealand um because I think they tried to do one the year before I did it down at Hampton
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Downs but try getting people to Hampton down at 11 o'clock on a Sunday night no
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thanks exactly so um so they they joined forces with a run Club um and yeah we started from I think we
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had over a hundred people maybe 150 people started from under the Harbor Bridge yeah
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um we stayed in there West Haven and we ran down and around and uh uh I did about 16ks that night uh
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there was two different people pushing me one did I think 12 and the other one took me for the other four uh one of my
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friends did his first half marathon that night just because he was that pumped and motivated and you know they see
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right in front of them like someone like me and there's um uh this girl Peta
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there and others a few others in wheelchairs and we really love to get more people in wheelchairs along whether
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they're being pushed or whether they're pushing themselves um but yeah I think by having us there
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the people who are running it they see right in front of them the cause and why they're doing it and I think it's so
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powerful so motivating for people to run further than they've ever run before
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because there's this that motivation right there in front of them so it was amazing and uh yeah looking forward to
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this year again and hoping we can get more and more people down there yeah I love it I'll see you there right oh 100
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it would be an absolute honor to push it was this we were talking about the other
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day as well are you when a message asking you about the coming on the podcast you're like yeah we should do a
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marathon together well you said hey I've got something I've got a crazy idea or
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something to ask you and I knew you're into your running so I was like oh he's
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going to want to push me for a marathon but that wasn't it no no but I totally
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roped you into it I'll gladly do it yeah let's do it can we get a lighter chair
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that chair looks really really heavy right yeah that one over there oh yeah that's the one yeah I've got some speed
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wheels on it and we're good to go yeah mate odd bikinis have been absolutely on
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it that's awesome now um here's here's what I think I think um for anybody to go from being able-bodied
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to being a tetraplegic would be um particularly hard like a massive adjustment but for someone that um
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is you know fully using their body to the maximum of its ability like you did with your wakeboarding
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um that's got to make it like even tougher like a next level yeah my physical ability was to me it
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was my identity um you know I was Brad smile of the wakeboarder you know or like even things like modeling
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even other you know little side hustles that I did like it was all based around my physical ability so it felt like I'd
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lost myself it's actually been a crazy ride like uh this kind of life coach Guru a woman
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who's been helping me through this whole journey she told me early on she's like
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you're not going to believe me but later on you're going to look back and you're
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going to be grateful for this whole situation I was like there is no way absolutely not but now like I am like I
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am more confident in who I am in myself now than I was before my accident after my accident date a few years of
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you know trying to get everything back trying to get the movement back everything and then I kind of hit a low
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and because you weren't making the progress that you expected exactly yeah basically I wanted to get my arms
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working out and they still don't work so um I'd hit like an all-time low
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and I kind of learned you know breakdowns lead to breakthroughs and I kind of realized that okay am I you know
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even if I were to able to get my arms moving but it took 20 years is 20 years of full-time seven days a
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week rehab worth it for that like um or am I better off focusing on having a better life for you know and
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enjoying the life that I've got rather than trying to get the life that I used
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to have back um and so basically what that meant it basically meant coming from a position
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of gratitude um and looking at okay rather than trying to get back what I don't have
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it's been grateful and appreciating what I do have or rather than getting frustrated about all the things that I
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can't do anymore it's like okay what can I do and that's really where there was
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this Turning Point um where I started going you know out on little high Commissions in my wheelchair
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friends pushing me around Trails on the white ax and stuff and then um and then I was like okay what are
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like if of anything I could still do that would give me as much enjoyment as anyone else
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what are what are some of those things and the two things I came to I was skydiving and scuba diving I was like
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the thrill the enjoyment would be the exact same um and I went and spoke to a dive doctor
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and he said no absolutely not I cannot give you clearance to scuba dive yeah it was kind of a long shot probably but for
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him he was like I can't give you clearance but typical me I just tuned into that one thing
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breathing Compressed Gas underwater is what is you know adding the risk so I'm
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like okay so if I hold my breath I hold my breath that's eliminating that risk
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right and he's like adding a few others but it's technically getting rid of that medical risk
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so then I started practicing holding my breath and within three or four attempts I beat my
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previous record of three and a half minutes from before my accident and then over time I started building up that
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breath hold and I got to like my record now is 5 minutes and 45 seconds that's insane so so when you were when
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you were doing that um you pardoned all my ignorance here but like what do you feel like if I hold
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my breath my lungs will start to burn do you feel the burn yeah I feel it as well
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I think holding my breath brought me progression again which was something that was missing in my life after
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wakeboarding um it allowed me to push myself we've got this amazing Dynamic with my friends
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I've just trust between us because the other one's bringing me back up they're
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trusting me to know my limits and give the signal when I need to oh you you were a big deal on
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whiteboarding but I never heard of you as a whiteboard or the first I heard of you was um I started seeing things on
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social media better give a little page which ended up being like quarter of a million bucks then there was a photo
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that went viral of you and your girlfriend at the time and she was curled up on your beard with you and
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then I read an article about you shortly after the accident where you talked about um
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um some ancient Hawaiian principles so it feels like you've always had this um
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this sort of sense of calm there was there was definitely a little bit of that beforehand
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um those who know wisdoms were given to me by my auntie um and I yeah we printed them out and
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stuck them to the ceiling above my hospital bed because I was on bed rest a lot of the time
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um then because I end up with a pressure saw go back to New Zealand after three or
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three and a half months in the states through icus and spinal units ended up having to be on bed rest for two months
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once I got home and so I had that stuck a bump above my my bed and I mean the you know there's some that are that are
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reasonably simple you know the world is what you think it is yeah so it's about
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your mindset if you focus on everything you know every negative thing in the world and you then you're going to think
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the world's a pretty negative Place whereas if you focus on you know all the
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positive things and that kind of ties in with energy flows where attention goes um which is another one and there's you
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know there's seven of them so yeah it's there's been a lot that I've learned and I just feel like I'm
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so much stronger mentally and also I think going back to Susie telling me I'd be grateful for this like
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I would have never been able to positively affect this many people's lives yeah
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absolutely can we go back to um July 2014 we can yeah okay so um so you're this um
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Kick-Ass wakeboarder you've done uh is it a 1080 which is three 360s which is
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nuts yes I did that when I was in 2008 right and then right before the injury I'd landed the world's first double
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double tantrum to Blind there you go what what the [ __ ] does that even mean so a tantrum is basically just a
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straight back flip right it's just the way you know there's a back roll which
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is kind of like a side to side uh rolling flip whereas a tantrum is kind of a straight back flip
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um so I did a double ND tantrum so Indie grab it's a backhand between the legs on
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the front toe side edge of the board and then to blind as we do a backside 180 um and the blind meaning you can't
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actually see where you're going when you land you're looking backwards so you've
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got your hand behind your back holding the rope and you're riding backwards and
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and this was on a mega ramp too which was a new part of wakeboarding you know usually you crash into the lake or in
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Into The Ocean or the lake um so now as you go up a ramp then you're flying for a bit and then you're
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down on another round yeah so similar to Freestyle Motocross and those sorts of sort of setups and so yeah just come off
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big events in Germany where I landed the world's first double tension blind we all knew it was going to win trick of
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the year like even one of my guys I'd idolized my entire life like the legend
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of wakeboarding Parks Bonifay was like dude that's the craziest trick I've ever
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seen like to have that guy telling me that was just like it was everything um I'd just come off filming for Travis
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Pastrana's um action figures film I did a double flip over top of them and um and then yeah a week later
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it all went to [ __ ] again everything slowed down I had enough time to think I was like okay I
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want to do a break fall because I'm about to go face first into the ramp a little joke I says I don't want to ruin
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my modeling career you know my pretty face um and then uh yeah and so I was like oh
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tuck and roll tuck my head and shoulders under roll out of it um but just the the
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speed in which I was coming in I didn't have enough time and I got my head under
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but not my shoulders and basically forced my head down into my chest and exploded my C4 vertebrae and locked me
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unconscious instantly and I was left floating face down in the water and we were you um were you knocked out cold
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then or we yeah I was out so they kind of pulled me or flipped me over I was blue in the face Eyes Wide Open not
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responding not responsive at all one of my friends thought I was dead um and they managed to pull me up onto the
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paddle board I get my sort of upper body up on it and they were kind of ready to
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try and do CPR running there then and there and again look Joker says I must have known deep down that one of my
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buddies was about to put his mouth to mine because I woke up and started breathing on my own they're great jokes
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mother did they take a while or before you could see the funny side or uh that kind of came about in my public speaking
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because I was talking about it so much and and you know it's a very heavy moment so I like to kind of bring it
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back up a little bit um you know in my talks I I always know it's a successful
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talk if I've gotten gasped cheers um laughs and tears yeah make them laugh make him cry yeah and um
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yeah and they had me on a neck brace on a backboard and everything call the helicopter and my first
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response was don't you call that [ __ ] helicopter it's going to be so expensive
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because I had no insurance no money like I was just I just come off my travel insurance and was just looking into what
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insurance I could get over there because I just got a five-year visa to be there
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it's expensive over there if you get sick in the states and you're not insured so that's a grim situation last
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thing I remember was in the MRI and the I don't know if you've had an MRI before
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but yeah you know they put the headphones on you and everything and like okay yeah we're about to get
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started it's going to take a little while you're going to need to stay still
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that's all I can [ __ ] do um and then yeah there's about a week blank after that
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um I was apparently conscious I had a nine hour surgery to piece of my neck back together they used a cadaver
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vertebrae so a dead person's vertebrae that donated and put into my neck and
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two rods a plate and 14 screws to hold it all together and um I was put on a ventilator
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my family flew in I don't remember any of this um and then the first thing I remember
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was actually a hallucination I had and yeah and then the next morning it was when I remember like waking up I
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actually I didn't know I was in the hospital the funny thing is I was my hospital
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room was directly across from the um the nurses uh what do you call it I like station or when your office yeah
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and so they got the coffee machine and stuff like that there and um so I'm looking out through the you know I wake
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up and I look across and I'm like first thing smell of fresh coffee and I like and this the light coming
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into the room like just these things grab me and and the next thing I see these like a couple of girls and scrubs
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and you know and I'm like I don't remember anything did I get wasted last night and end up
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home with some check who's her and her mates are all nurses and they're just
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getting ready for work and and then she walks in and I'm like ready to sit up
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and say hello can't move can't speak it all just drops like hit me like a ton of bricks and um
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I mean even then yeah like right now like I feel it like it takes me back to that moment and just how heavy it was
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um and then you know my mum was that she'd already flown in but she wasn't
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there right at that moment um she came in a few an hour or so later and next thing I'm like Mom I got kidnapped
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you know like I'm mouthing it because I couldn't speak because of the ventilator
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um and she's like talking to the nurse oh he thinks he got kidnapped and I'm
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like yeah so mad at her because I fully thought it happened and then um and then yeah and then
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everything from then on was just no like yeah the heaviest what five weeks of my
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life there in the ICU almost died in front of my mum like that was another heavy moment
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um and yeah and then I got shipped off to Atlanta to the spinal unit where I spent
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another three months and then I was able to get home so it was um this is real Grim but in those
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early days when the um reality of it sort of set in within moments where you wish you died in the water or you 100
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yeah there were moments where I was laying there on the hospital bed and if I had a
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gun up could have put to my head and put the trigger I would have but or I might
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have and this is this is the fact thing about it even if you decided to take your own
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life you couldn't exactly and the crazy thing as well is if I had the ability to pull that
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trigger I wouldn't need to I wouldn't want to um yeah so here I am locked in the
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situation that I couldn't get out of and it was it was partially that partially
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no other way out like a refusal to give up but no other way out and also the community rallying behind
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me my friends and family being there um the you know fundraisers started happening all the
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messages coming in all of that sort of stuff just kind of like made me decide all right screw it
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I'm gonna I'm gonna fight this like um I needed that I needed that fight I
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needed that goal I needed something to work towards and the rehab and stuff and for a while that's that's definitely
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what I needed it was what was keeping me going and then I got to the point where
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uh that was just you know three years down the track and the movement wasn't coming back and and
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I followed you on Instagram you you worked bloody hard you you're working like a second to none I mean if if
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anyone could could um get their Mobility back by by willpower and um and just through trying it it would be you
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so I mean this stuff being worked on but who knows how long it'll take and I
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suppose you I mean you need hope don't you but you can't um hold your breath I guess exactly
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um I mean finally funny terminology Yeah well yeah you can yeah five minutes 45.
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um but yeah no that's the thing like I'm definitely uh confident that there will be a cure
00:20:03
of some sort people think cure and you kind of think of it in the same way where people think vaccine they think oh
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it means I can't get covered or whatever the vaccine is for that's not how a
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vaccine Works same with the cure for a spinal cord injury it's uh you know it's not like they do whatever
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they're going to do and then all of a sudden I'm out of the chair and running
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around again it's not going to happen um it's you know even like a 20 recovery
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is classed as a cure even you know obviously a cure might come out but it might be an acute cure that needs to be
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done straight after the injury that doesn't help me um it may help if there's a procedure
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that needs doing that then we'll use that to protect any further damage from
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happening um but yeah it's it's interesting some I'm hopeful I'm uh positive that there
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will be something but I'm not living my life hanging on a threat that's what's
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going to bring me my happiness and my joy in life back are you mostly happy more happy days than sad days yeah from
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day one after the accident every day was miserable and after the first year it was like maybe one or two days a week
00:21:14
when miserable and then I got to the point where it's there'll be occasionally like things
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will affect me even things like jealousy yeah I've got such a good understanding
00:21:24
of it now that the instinctual reaction hits and it's almost like I've got this
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notification on my head that goes ping you know what this is all about you know this is an ugly emotion uh what other
00:21:35
people have has nothing to do with what you have all these sorts of things all these reminders just go straight through
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and I'm like okay I'm not jealous anymore I'm not affected by that anymore
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and that only came through years of work that every time that would come up rather than pushing it aside I would sit
00:21:52
with it um and there's this analogy that I use and I've kind of stolen a well-known
00:21:58
analogy and I've added to it the one where you talk about all your stresses and
00:22:05
troubles and worries in life if you imagine them as a glass of water that you know you hold it for a minute it's
00:22:10
fine hold on to it for an hour or so you get a sore arm hold on to it all day you
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probably won't be able to lift your arm and it'll feel almost paralyzed and
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that's the same way that you know if we hold on to these things for too long
00:22:24
they affect us on that really um you know on that sort of a level like our stresses and worries can almost
00:22:31
become um paralyzing and stopping us from doing things in our life and I um I got to the point where
00:22:44
so you know we we take that analogy and it's like okay well that one usually finishes with like oh
00:22:51
well if you if you put those you know it's basically the longer you hold it the the more it affects you yeah so okay
00:22:59
will you either put it down somewhere or you let it go if you let it go it smashes on the
00:23:05
ground leaves a mess to clean up later if you put it down you still haven't addressed them they just you've just put
00:23:10
them to the side the analogy I use now is okay you've got a glass of water how can you benefit from a glass of
00:23:17
water you [ __ ] drink it right you know you absorb it your body benefits from it so
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if you take those same stresses and worries and everything that hits you emotions and if you sit with them and
00:23:30
you drink them and you let your body process them um then over time you learn to work
00:23:38
through those better you understand them better and you can benefit from that glass of water the weight of that glass
00:23:45
of water which is seen as a bad thing now it's a positive yeah so if we take
00:23:51
everything else in that same way and in our Mental Health and again it does take some struggles
00:23:59
I had someone I was working with on it you know like a counselor type person or a therapist
00:24:06
um which was Susie um and yeah so that's the thing a don't be afraid to get help B don't push things
00:24:16
aside we've got to learn to work through them um because that's how we end up uh
00:24:21
better off because of it can we can we talk about the day-to-day life of um being Brad yeah well I mean even then
00:24:28
you know we just have to pause for a second because I've had some pain issues
00:24:31
that I've been dealing with for months now I'm just lower abdomen painants
00:24:36
people will be like hey aren't you paralyzed and you can't feel anything
00:24:39
below the level of injuring it's like well again this is another thing that's
00:24:43
different for everyone some people feel nothing below the level of injury I feel
00:24:47
nothing on the outside like skin sensation touch there's a little bit there like
00:24:53
um temperature I can feel it slightly um but on the inside I feel everything and and I've got constant nerve pain so
00:25:00
chronic pain it's basically like a version of pins and needles which feels like a freezing cold burning sensation
00:25:06
constantly 24 7. so you got all the bad and none of the good exactly but at the same time it's the way you look at it
00:25:13
like would I rather my spinal cord injuries that bad that I feel nothing at all or
00:25:18
maybe feeling a little bit of pain is maybe a good thing it's maybe there are
00:25:22
signals getting through so yeah then you can do something about it yeah but anyway so I've been dealing with these
00:25:27
these gut pains and they're sort of undiagnosed we've looked into everything
00:25:30
we could and um so we've still got some more research to do there but um you're just dealing with pain
00:25:38
um one thing I've learned through having to deal with pain and especially when it gets really intense
00:25:46
you know there'll be time to allow get like a severe bladder infection and gives me what's called the rigors which
00:25:52
is like this uncontrollable Shivers because my muscles above my level of injury which is sort of like if you draw
00:25:58
a line across my chest just above nipple line and that's sort of where my feeling
00:26:03
stops um and movements as well so all of a sudden the only things that are moving on my
00:26:10
shoulders and upper traps and my jaw and I'm just shivering and it doesn't stop until I get to hospital
00:26:15
and get the right pain relief and when that starts it's one thing I've realized and it's sort of another
00:26:22
analogy that I like to use is um I find myself getting really short-tempered um you know I have no tolerance I'm like
00:26:30
just [ __ ] get me there now like if they're fluffing around I'm just like I
00:26:34
lose it and I'm getting better at dealing with that but in those painful situations
00:26:39
like patience tolerance all that goes out the window yeah well I think that's
00:26:44
the same with most people though right yeah yeah but then the analogy I like to use or the comparison is like
00:26:51
you know mental pain can be just as as bad as as physical pain and someone who may be
00:27:00
you know going through some [ __ ] that we don't realize that's on the inside but
00:27:05
like there may be Snappy they may be intolerant there may be this or that and if you don't know what's going on you
00:27:11
just may think they're a dick yeah if you actually knew what's going on in
00:27:15
their life like that that inner pain that that mental pain can really affect people just as as
00:27:23
heavily in terms of the way they act and the way they respond and stuff and they
00:27:28
might bite back on something but it's you know even after like lockdown everyone's just dealing with everyone's
00:27:34
stressed everyone's over it and like you know even interactions on Facebook or
00:27:39
people are like biting back at each other and it's like it all just gets out
00:27:43
of hand because people are struggling that's what it comes down to yeah to really understand that means we can be
00:27:49
more tolerant with those sorts of people and what what they're going through so
00:27:52
again that goes back to that you know um putting yourself in someone's shoes
00:27:58
um things so yeah it's just again I try to learn from all these experiences that I go through as
00:28:05
negative as there may be there can be a positive that comes out of it and I think that's something that
00:28:11
the more people learn that and the more that they understand that oh you'd probably have read this one
00:28:19
before but the uh the old Chinese proverb maybe what's that one so there's this farmer and he goes out
00:28:27
and he's tending the fields and is uh his horse runs away so that evening you
00:28:32
know as neighbors and community and stuff that come around they're like oh that's so terrible
00:28:36
Farmers like maybe next day out in the field and the horse runs back and he's got seven wild horses
00:28:45
with it and like that evening everyone comes in oh my God this is so amazing what great Fortune maybe I was like
00:28:51
maybe and then the next day you know the farmer and his son are out in the field
00:28:55
and they're trying to break the horses and the sun gets bucked off the horse
00:28:58
breaks his leg oh that's so terrible what what Misfortune maybe maybe yeah next you know next day or a week later
00:29:06
or whatever War breaks out and they come around drafting people for the war and the sun
00:29:11
obviously can't go to war because he's broken his leg and it was such great
00:29:16
Fortune again maybe and you could keep going with it maybe the sun would have gone to war and been a war hero maybe he
00:29:22
would have gone and died you know like the point is things happen and we put a certain amount of belief or certain
00:29:31
amount of we put like a meaning to it that hasn't happened yet so something may happen and
00:29:39
we just think it's immediately bad but in the long run it may turn out to be
00:29:44
the best thing unless it hasn't yes absolutely um so I think that's another thing to
00:29:49
to not project too far into the future um to remain present to yeah it's another anything we're
00:29:57
projecting into the future any beliefs that we think oh this will mean that it's [ __ ] until it happens
00:30:04
um so I think that's a really good thing for people to take on is to understand
00:30:08
that um yeah we just we never know what things might lead to I mean you're excuse me your burden's
00:30:16
been um bigger than what most of us will ever have to go through I mean everyone
00:30:20
goes through [ __ ] though at some point you know some sort of degree are there any um like books that you you swear by
00:30:27
highly recommend the one that really got me um after the accident I I didn't read
00:30:34
many books before my accident I wasn't really into that um but the one that really stuck with me
00:30:41
was way of the Peaceful Warrior um and there's some amazing quotes in that one that I really love is around uh
00:30:50
you know the idea around like a person who is Rich you know in terms of wealth um it's a quote that I use a lot and so
00:31:01
leading into it you know the guy asks is Socrates I think they call them he calls
00:31:07
them and um he's you know something about you know what is a wealthy man um and he's basically says you know a rich
00:31:18
man is someone who can afford to buy all of his desires pay for all of his desires
00:31:24
and there are two ways to go about that you can earn steal big borrow inherit enough money to pay for all of your
00:31:34
desires or you can cultivate a lifestyle of few desires a simple life um which means you don't need the money
00:31:44
or to pay for it both ways you're a rich man right because you can afford everything that you desire so suggesting
00:31:51
your mindset so you actually want less exactly it's like what what do you have
00:31:55
control of in that situation like sure you can go out and earn money and stuff but you've got more control of what you
00:32:02
know what your desires are and what your beliefs are around what makes someone successful and what doesn't and so the
00:32:09
quote that I love to use is um is what comes after that and it's basically I'm trying to think you know
00:32:15
I'm just drawing a mind blank uh the secret to happiness you see is not found in seeking more but in developing
00:32:23
the capacity to enjoy less and at first I was like how does enjoying less mean you know having more kind of thing
00:32:33
uh and it's not about you know enjoying lessons about the our capacity you could still have just as
00:32:42
much as you have in terms of material positions but if you've basically adjusted Your Capacity to
00:32:49
enjoy then yeah you can you can enjoy a moment with some friends playing cards as opposed to like
00:32:57
thinking that you need to be out partying and clubbing drinking and paying for this and buying that you know
00:33:03
it's it's just adjusting our belief on what enjoyment is absolutely wealth is
00:33:09
yeah things like that so um that's a book I recommend another one uh Tuesdays with Mari it was quite good
00:33:16
um basically it's a and he's got all these life lessons I thought that was really good I read
00:33:25
Andre agassi's open that was a really good one for helping me learn to write
00:33:30
my book um and then I've also read Scott's issue those are nine books I've read since my
00:33:35
accident yes that's a random one Scott's history was great because I needed to learn how to
00:33:40
write about sex drugs and partying in a tasteful way right is there a bit of that I oh of course man right my book is
00:33:47
raw it's everything that's amazing was this was this is this pre-accident or
00:33:51
post accident both amazing yeah you still get on it now with your mates yeah yeah everything
00:33:56
um yeah and just everything around um yeah around just trying to like write because I want my story to be
00:34:05
as authentic as possible I want people to think I was this angel that didn't do
00:34:10
this or that like didn't have any negative things you know I mean there are things in my life that I did
00:34:15
that a lot of people would you know would view as as negatives or bad things that I would have done but it was just
00:34:21
what I needed to do in this situation you know even yeah just there's a lot in
00:34:28
there um I'll let you guys read it I won't go into it it's gonna be one hell of a book
00:34:32
and I'll tell you what no one could begrudge you that like uh you know take take some taking some drugs away okay
00:34:39
you know to make you feel temporarily happy yeah you deserve it yeah I mean honestly since my accident I have done
00:34:47
much haven't done much in the way of drugs um not to the extent I did before Max
00:34:52
and even before mics and like I wasn't out there but he's shooting up heroin or
00:34:56
anything um you know I was pretty pretty balanced with it I think and um but on that
00:35:05
um just thinking the book in general I know this will come out way before the book does if anyone has any title ideas
00:35:11
that'd be great send them my way I'm still struggling to come up with a title
00:35:16
I've got a few ideas what are you working on at the moment uh just playing her like you know around
00:35:21
the ideas of you know crossing over with wakeboarding but just life in general like something like
00:35:27
you know like a hell of a ride or what a ride and you know along for the ride like and but then there's other ones
00:35:33
like you know even the word awake you know obviously wakeboarding but then also like the way because and what was left
00:35:38
behind us right after the accident you know the Wake that came from that um and yeah there's there's a few other
00:35:46
ideas we're playing with um you know there's some amazing titles of books that that I really love like a
00:35:52
book I'm reading at the moment Man's Search for meaning oh that is um yeah
00:35:56
that'll be my top pick Victor Frankel incredible so I've just started that and
00:36:01
um there's another one I saw it was about um the Isle of Man racing uh was a good
00:36:07
dead men don't don't tell no Tales or something like that see there's some cool titles I'm drawing
00:36:13
inspiration from but I haven't hit that one that just hit the nail yeah you'll
00:36:17
know it when it comes yeah yeah that's going to be one hell of a book mate that's gonna be really good it's been
00:36:22
it's been years years and years of work um and I honestly the way I like I like to sort of liken
00:36:30
it to is you know before my accident I you know for the two years before the accident I was
00:36:35
managing uh Lake erotics which is my board sponsor who's our team's private
00:36:40
training facility and um I was doing a lot of the building a lot of the Hands-On stuff my dad was a
00:36:47
builder so I learned a lot of that as I was growing up and we're out building
00:36:51
all these ramps and rails and we built the mega ramp that I broke my neck on and you know all these things and
00:36:57
always after building this you know on a building project and you stand back afterwards you've got some really you
00:37:04
know something tangible to be proud of yeah but I think this book is going to be the biggest thing I've built the
00:37:11
thing that I can be the most proud of and gives me that same feeling of you know physically Hands-On building that I
00:37:19
had before the accident so yeah it's really cool I'm I'm proud of it already it hasn't come out yet I know
00:37:26
um I'd imagine I have a really good response I'm a little bit like like have
00:37:31
I gone to Roar in terms of revealing too much about myself but at the end of the
00:37:36
day it's it's what's real and I think that will allow people to connect on a
00:37:40
deeper level and go hey this guy's truly human and someone who I can actually
00:37:44
relate to um on certain levels so and you you wrote you've written every single word
00:37:50
yourself you haven't been like dictating to an editor or anything you've done it
00:37:53
with the some like stylus pen that's built into your into your chair yeah so
00:37:57
it's a basically a stylus a long stylist that I hold on my mouth and I have my
00:38:01
phone mounted in front of me and type away I use an iPad for a while there but the key the keyboard's bigger
00:38:08
on iPad so it's a bigger movement for me with my head and neck um so I've mainly done it on my phone
00:38:14
and into that um so we so writing it in first person present tense so people are
00:38:21
in my shoes while uh reading it but not being an author myself like I don't know
00:38:26
how to craft a book from start to finish properly I just of course you know it's
00:38:31
your story well no no in terms of like I know how to write and I turns out I'm
00:38:35
actually pretty decent at writing in terms of being descriptive and you know using different metaphors and similes
00:38:42
and um but in terms of actually crafting the book from start to finish you know making sure all the the overarching
00:38:51
themes are intertwined and at the right places and what actually is really relevant and needs to be in there and
00:38:57
what doesn't and so when I finish writing I basically got to close to half a million Words which is the longest
00:39:05
manuscript my publisher had ever received it's bigger than bigger than the history of New Zealand it's it's
00:39:11
insane um but you know I there was just so much that I wanted to get down and I wanted
00:39:16
to give my editor the full story so she could Whittle it down and condense it a bit
00:39:22
into what was really relevant and there's been a bit of push back and forth you know some stories I think that
00:39:28
I was really excited about and really wanted in there but she's like oh they
00:39:32
don't really add to what the whole point of the story is and we're trying to get
00:39:35
rid of words and um so we're trying to get to under 200 000 words and um and yeah it's been an interesting
00:39:43
process uh you're about we're about halfway through the the main Edis at the
00:39:48
moment and there's a lot to do after that I mean you know yourself the process of writing
00:39:53
a book and editing and everything and yeah I think I'm lazier than you because
00:39:57
um when I and my books were done with the same Publishers but when I got the contract it was like 70 to 90 000 words
00:40:04
um so I'd uh type a paragraph then check the word count and as soon as it got to
00:40:08
70 000 I was like popping champagne you're on a half a million and you're
00:40:11
doing it with that with that stylus in your mouth they um they they sent me the same contract yeah like 80 to 100 000
00:40:18
words or something like that and I was like once I blew past 100 000 words okay so that was what you wanted but what can
00:40:26
we push out to you know and um and it's worth mentioning like with your your Advance which is a patterns
00:40:32
anyway you're not getting any extra money for the extra words you're right
00:40:34
no no exactly um so it was yeah it was more about just you know getting the full story out
00:40:42
um I suppose I could have done it in a shorter way but just the way of it being in first person present tent makes it
00:40:49
really hard to like summarize yeah like a whole month you can summarize and like even you know
00:40:57
a few paragraphs whereas if you're in the moment and you're like walking
00:41:01
through those days and weeks and stuff it does take uh take a lot longer to write it out and that's you know you
00:41:07
mentioned like that I didn't dictate it and people ask why I didn't do that and
00:41:11
it's it is quite hard to like having my brain working in first person present
00:41:17
tense and uh the speed at which my brain works versus how my mouth Works in dictating
00:41:23
you know vocally uh they weren't matching up and also when I dictate you know it makes
00:41:31
mistakes and it takes almost just as much time to go back and fix them all as if I'd written it myself and the one
00:41:37
thing though which is just the absolute godsend when uh when Apple when iPhones went to
00:41:45
um added the old swipe to text rather than just tapping oh rather yeah right right
00:41:50
so you can just like swap across yeah like tapping and using my mouth I was basically like a woodpecker pecking at
00:41:57
this phone trying to tap the buttons whereas then like it at least doubled my word count like I think I'm at like a 65
00:42:04
words a minute um that's insane that's that's that's that's not the speed at which I wrote my
00:42:11
book because I was having to think a lot sure that was me writing the quick brown
00:42:14
fox jumps over the lazy dog over and over and over again um just seeing how fast you could go
00:42:19
exactly and so yeah by swipe to text it just meant like I'm just moving my head
00:42:23
side to side rather than picking up the phone so it's amazing technology how
00:42:28
long did it take you to get used to the the stylus and the mouth thing yeah when
00:42:31
you first gave it to me I was like get this [ __ ] thing away from me it must have been so frustrating never ever
00:42:36
gonna use that not and uh and then so throughout the time in the spinal unit in the states uh was when I started to
00:42:43
work on it and um and yeah it's I get a sore after a while like holding on to that thing throughout
00:42:50
the day especially when I was writing the whole book um but yeah it didn't take that long once I
00:42:57
actually decided okay I'm gonna do this because that's the option yeah and I
00:43:01
wanted that Independence and to be honest me and Siri didn't get along very well my voice like vocally trying to
00:43:07
text with Siri oh my God like it just it got to the point where we just yeah we didn't get along so I needed that
00:43:15
independence of having my phone in front of me and and that is most of my Independence yeah through technology
00:43:20
absolutely um you know I've got caregivers looking after me and doing everything for me and
00:43:26
that in itself is a you know a big test and tolerance and different programming the way I'm wired versus the way they're
00:43:32
wired and what they think Health something should be done and how I think it should be done often very different I
00:43:38
can imagine I mean you you stripe as being like um you're fiercely independent and also uh I mean you don't
00:43:44
get to do the stuff that you did on a wakeboard without you being a perfectionist in an A type so you
00:43:49
obviously like having things done a certain way that's got to be it's going
00:43:52
to be one of the hard things I'd imagine totally um but you know it's been
00:43:55
amazing finding things that I can do and you know I've accepted the fact that I need help with
00:44:01
most things but yeah even leading back into looping back around into the um the freediving side of things that I've
00:44:09
been doing sorry excuse me um yeah and like obviously I mentioned earlier it's this really cool thing me
00:44:17
and my friends have and um I just it became something that like okay this is what I can do this is what
00:44:25
I can really focus on and there's this amazing full circle thing which happens
00:44:33
um and I include this in the book as well but after the accident you know as you
00:44:38
mentioned earlier um and you you even said it yourself like I was in the situation where even if I wanted to kill
00:44:43
myself I couldn't yeah so in my head even though like by this point I was well beyond
00:44:50
um any thoughts of actually wanting to do it yeah because even in the moment I think right up after I woke up and
00:44:57
realized what had happened I don't think I would have actually wanted to know I don't think that's part
00:45:02
of me um but there was always this thought in the back of my head because I couldn't it's
00:45:11
like okay if I could or if I wanted to how and my thought was okay I would drive my
00:45:17
wheelchair off the end of a wharf or into a swim deep swimming pool and that'd be my way to go
00:45:23
crazy thing now is like through the freediving the bottom of that swimming pool is where I found passion for life
00:45:28
right right so the most out there full circle moment but I was sitting there at the bottom of the Olympic pools in
00:45:35
Newmarket four and a half meters down for like I think the first couple times I did it I think I got close to five got
00:45:41
up around five minutes and I'd never experienced well not since being able to wakeboard like that was my
00:45:49
that was my Escape that was my meditation that was my like um what do you call it when you're
00:45:56
when you're in the zone oh there's a there's a flow State yeah being fully in
00:46:01
the moment that was it for me that was that was uh everything and since the accident I hadn't had that at
00:46:08
all hadn't been able to find that but at the bottom of that pool was where everything just disappeared all that all
00:46:15
the thoughts of past and present and future and fears and beliefs and all that [ __ ] I'm just I was sitting
00:46:23
there in the moment and it was just it was unbelievable to have that and to be able to share that with my friends
00:46:29
and I know my mum and I think that time my mum and dad were sitting poolside obviously stressing out you know my mum
00:46:37
right like yeah when it gets the five five your son's been underwater for five
00:46:41
minutes yeah that can't be easy yeah and so um but you know to come up after that
00:46:46
time in the bottle of the bottom of the pole me and my friends all hurting hollering like just smile beaming across
00:46:53
my face like and that's where my mom realized like as well because obviously she would have
00:46:59
her fears around that but for her she's like [ __ ] okay my son's found something that actually truly
00:47:07
makes him happy again um and that was really bad because mum's a little hesitant you know his mum's eye
00:47:14
you know they're protective and stuff but um yeah she knows that obviously the
00:47:20
way I'm programmed the way I like to live life like I need you like this so um and at the end of the day like I know
00:47:28
there are risks and but like I had a friend who you know I could drown free diving I
00:47:36
could be out somewhere and get eaten by a shark at the end of the day but before
00:47:40
you learn about control like if I'm down there in a shark decides to eat me I I
00:47:44
can't do anything about it yeah so why would I freak out why would I do anything
00:47:51
because yeah that's completely out of my control um but yeah even if I could you know I
00:47:59
could drown anything like that but just as easily I could die from an infection uh a guy who was a tandem skydive
00:48:10
instructor in the states he had his injury about the same time as me and we ended up in the same spinal
00:48:15
unit similar age uh same level injury and yeah we got along really well and it didn't from the states
00:48:25
and um we lost touch a little bit over the years and then um I Heard news that he had died from an
00:48:31
infection and that was right around the time when I was starting to get into this and I
00:48:35
was like that right there like solidifies exactly why I'm doing this um because yeah that that's the reality
00:48:45
like and I've I've what's the word I've accepted my own mortality I've
00:48:53
I know that my injury means I have a shorter life expectancy than most it doesn't but how much what's it reduced
00:48:59
by uh they didn't really put any numbers on it but just say because you're unable
00:49:04
to like exercise or get movement or respiratory stuff mainly okay right um I can't cough well I can
00:49:11
like it's a pretty pitiful because I don't know even if you would head covered I wouldn't get it from here I'm
00:49:16
like a meter and a half away from me um but like yeah so I don't have the ab
00:49:21
strength to squeeze the diaphragm and push the air out and so if I get a chest infection like that's quite dangerous
00:49:26
obviously covert especially the earlier versions um I guess apparently not so yeah uh effective on the lungs but yeah
00:49:35
so that's all the stuff I've come to terms with in the place and everything so I I
00:49:41
actually this is kind of what it comes down to for me is I don't fear death I fear not
00:49:48
living and that you know those are two very different things it's like a line
00:49:54
there's a Pink Floyd song called wish you were here and talks about um exchanging a walk-on part in the war for
00:49:59
a lead role in a cage so that's the same thing I love that song I used to play
00:50:02
that on the guitar that's uh yeah that's like besides wakeboarding in fact I would put that above wakeboarding
00:50:08
if I could have the guitar back like that would be just yeah so much but um yeah it's just one of those things like
00:50:16
we we learn from experiences and everything we go through and that's there are a lot of things a lot of very
00:50:22
confronting things that I had to work through and that being one of them you know my own mortality and so
00:50:28
it's like why would I not go out and just have this epic time with my friends
00:50:33
just because there's a risk of dying when there's a risk of dying every day
00:50:37
or you know it's just part of my life so it seems like you've got a good crew as
00:50:42
well um there's um I don't know when when [ __ ] hits the fan in someone's life I feel like there's
00:50:47
two sorts of people people that sort of like lean in or people that sort of lean
00:50:50
out most of your friends that they seem to have like leaned in totally yeah and it whittled out the ones that truly went
00:50:55
yeah yeah and um you know but honestly there weren't that many of them mainly
00:51:00
those were just girls that were interested in me before and not afterwards it's like cool all right they
00:51:06
were my friends but they were only friends because they wanted me maybe or I don't know like actually can we talk
00:51:13
about that for that for a second and if um if you don't want to answer anything
00:51:16
that's cool but um so when it comes to to girls now and and sexual stuff like
00:51:21
do you have like erogenous zones anywhere or like parts parts of the body that yeah I mean how does that work so
00:51:27
obviously you know I don't have normal feeling or you know don't have much feeling at all below the level of
00:51:33
injury um so any physical contact around my neck shoulders ears a little bit but mainly like you
00:51:41
know a good head scratch or something like yeah good something like that or even like literally like a Q-tip in the
00:51:46
air like just getting it just the right amount getting an itch out of my oh man like that is
00:51:53
just so satisfying but um in terms of sex and stuff like that's a big question that I think a lot of
00:51:58
people want to know but not everyone's you know um gonna ask but you know I'm I'm fully open about it
00:52:05
all um you know with my level of injury uh I can still have sex um I can't not like mental or
00:52:17
um visual stimulus doesn't doesn't do anything um it's only through physical touch that
00:52:25
I can actually get it up and actually um have sex for a while there I had to take
00:52:29
the old blue pill to kind of just keep it going but um but no didn't you know
00:52:34
that pretty much phased that out I didn't need that anymore and the one thing
00:52:39
though is that basically I can start but I can't finish right um yet okay one of those things it's
00:52:44
like oh well the same as uh rehab I just need to practice problem is like problem is I can't
00:52:50
practice alone so you know and it's uh it's been a bit of a dry spell like this
00:52:55
but no to be honest it's um no it's cool and there there is the slightest amount
00:53:00
of feelings still down there so like if you know if I am having sex you know as I said before I've got nerve pains below
00:53:06
my liver injury basically everything I feel below the level of injury is a negative sort of pain or negative
00:53:12
feeling um whereas this that's it's maybe like two percent of what it used to feel like
00:53:17
before but it's something a tiny little tingle but it's the only uh positive pleasurable feeling that I
00:53:24
get below the level of injury so um you know it's just just something that uh
00:53:30
I'm learning as well and with each different partner uh each different girlfriend that you know it's all
00:53:37
different like um and it's so much needs to be done around communication because yeah I've
00:53:43
been living with this injury for seven and a half years someone new comes into it it's all new to them and even though
00:53:49
I you know it's all I'm used to it all like I've got a realize that it's all so new and it's so
00:53:57
different that you know the best thing is just being open and communicating about it all and
00:54:02
um so yeah I've um yeah I mean you know as I said like it's I had a good life before the injury and
00:54:11
that's other things still having a good one afterwards by the time things that
00:54:15
sort of like for a while there it's like the the Life I Lived before my Andrew
00:54:19
like I'm so glad that I've been able to live like you know I traveled for 10
00:54:24
years of back-to-back Summers like I think I had 21 Summers back to back and partying you know obviously I was single
00:54:34
a lot um you know I had a great time and even wakeboarding and everything but after my
00:54:40
accident that became you know it was a blessing to have had it was awesome you didn't you didn't squander those years
00:54:46
so you got the memories exactly but then it was like looking back on that it's
00:54:49
like now that's what I'm comparing life yeah to you know what I was talking about before
00:54:53
like if someone was a counter behind a desk and had the same injury it wouldn't
00:54:57
be as yeah that is hard so it was in a way it was almost like a blessing and a curse that I had that
00:55:03
um for a while there and I've gotten past that and yeah and so I mean although it's you know certainly not
00:55:09
what it used to be um I'm not interested in what it used to be how things were I don't wanna
00:55:15
have a one-night stand because it's awkward like it takes 20 minutes for me for my caregiver to put me into bed it's
00:55:21
not really the most like erotic kind of turn on like tearing each other's clothes off type of moment
00:55:30
um so it's very different and you know and there are some girls who may be um
00:55:36
not that confident or they may not you know and because I'm paralyzed I can't move so you can
00:55:43
picture it like I'm laying on the bed and she's got to be on top basically
00:55:47
if a girl's not confident and not able to do that like then it's you know it's
00:55:51
it's a lot to take on well usual sexual experience or anything like that is two
00:55:59
people both you know touching feeling you know whatever or like so making it just a one-person side like I have to
00:56:08
before if I wanted to pull someone in and kiss them now I have to do that with my words
00:56:13
and that was so awkward for a while there but now you know I'm just I know that that's how it is and that's it's
00:56:20
only through my words that I'm able to instill confidence in them to be able to
00:56:26
do what they need to do or want to do um so yeah I've I've just been having to
00:56:32
kind of work on that and and be more verbal and communicate better and um yeah but no as I said earlier as well
00:56:39
like I've gotten to a point of confidence now where I'm just you know I'll happily go up and chat with anyone
00:56:45
or someone out for coffee you know more than knowing that it I could get turned down but it's like if I
00:56:53
don't shoot my shot then I'm not gonna get where I want to be absolutely and uh
00:56:58
yeah confidence confidence takes you a long way yeah whether you're able-bodied
00:57:02
or not for sure and that and it's there's a lot of learning as I mentioned you know
00:57:07
there's a lot of things that I can't do you know we're not just talking in the
00:57:10
bedroom now but like just in general everyday life um and a little one like what's what's
00:57:15
brings to mind that we would necessarily think of go out for a run yeah you know
00:57:20
go on a go on a mission to the beach like sure I can but it takes a lot more work yeah I mean I've got a planning a
00:57:26
chair with tank tracks on it so I can go on a beach but there's a lot that goes
00:57:30
on and plus the Heat sucks I can't my body doesn't sweat from getting hot like
00:57:37
you may have noticed I'm sweating now that's from the gut pains that I'm
00:57:40
getting that's my body telling me hey something's wrong yeah it's it's
00:57:43
responsive forces my blood pressure up which makes me sweat but yeah if I'm out in the sun I don't
00:57:49
sweat and so I just get hotter and hotter and hotter I just cook um so I actually have to use like a
00:57:54
spray bottle to kind of Spritz you know like Mist water onto my body and that kind of Acts in the same way as
00:58:00
sweat does but yeah there's things like that I mean even little things though like
00:58:05
you know say I got a girlfriend and she arrives at my house I can't get up and
00:58:08
go give her a hug it's on her to come over and hug me you know I'm sure I can
00:58:13
drive my chair over but she's got to be the one to initiate unless I'm verbally
00:58:19
you know I verbally initiate it but just a little things like that like not being able to like hold someone's hand
00:58:24
like you know and these are things in a relationship that you don't think of
00:58:28
yeah and and at the time they probably don't even feel like something that would be that would affect someone but
00:58:35
I think over time you know that it might just feel like something's missing and
00:58:40
that it could just be something like that just that slight lack of physical contact and
00:58:45
that's where you come down to Like Love Languages okay if I met someone whose
00:58:48
love language is physical touch we may have an issue yeah you know gotcha so so yeah there's there's um there's a lot to
00:58:56
learn and that's the thing I've just been open to learning about it and and I
00:59:00
know you know it's been a dry spell but I know that the right person will come
00:59:03
along when they need to and I feel like you're probably into a deeper connection
00:59:06
now anyway 100 and that's why I was going getting to earlier was um yeah I'm
00:59:11
not interested in those sort of uh someone who I just am into because they're hot yeah like that doesn't
00:59:18
interest me now like I'm so much more interested in that deeper connection and
00:59:22
and just other qualities that um just seem more important another thing that just comes with maturity and age for
00:59:30
everyone or most people anyway and um for me it just because I was hit with this situation all at once it just
00:59:37
forced me to learn these things that people I think try to learn over their lives especially even the mental stuff
00:59:43
that I've been talking about a lot of people try to learn these but because I
00:59:46
don't have a nine-to-five job because I was able to sit had the time to put into it it meant
00:59:53
that um yeah I've been able to kind of grow a lot faster than I think yeah most people
00:59:59
do yeah it got some massive stuff you've been throwing you can just the way you
01:00:05
speak and the lessons you've got you can definitely tell you've done the work and
01:00:08
some yeah thank you on that note yeah anyone's interested Central talent I uh I do do public
01:00:15
speaking great job Shameless self-promotion yeah um but no I I actually that's one of the things I've
01:00:21
gotten into lately that I really really enjoy again it's it's about taking what
01:00:25
I've learned being able to give it back help others um and it gives me a similar feeling to
01:00:31
like entering a wakeboard contest beforehand like Adrenaline Rush got the nerves either prepared properly all this
01:00:37
and that you get into it Flow State like oh cool the words are just coming like the hour flies by and then afterwards
01:00:45
you've got this feeling of accomplishment and everything in paycheck as well hopefully which which
01:00:50
doesn't always come with the weight putting one but if I did well obviously it did but yeah it's um
01:00:56
it's been really cool and I've been learning a lot over it and I'm really
01:01:00
grateful for you know agent Sean and bringing me in and getting a mic set and uh you know and for every
01:01:07
company School anyone who's brought me along and hired me to come and speak it's uh it's it's it's an honor and
01:01:15
um yeah looking forward to doing more yeah hey um good luck with everything good luck with the book thank you it's
01:01:21
going to be amazing when that comes out and um good luck with the Skydive I reckon if anyone can can get up in a
01:01:26
plane and give themselves tossed out that'll be it'll be a fun one I've got a
01:01:29
friend of mine's a tandem Scott I've instructor over in Aussie so I actually
01:01:33
tried to go into 2019 I went over there to to do it but uh the weather didn't
01:01:37
play ball yeah and I also didn't get clearance from the spinal unit that was
01:01:43
a tough one but uh managed to get that all through and so um so yeah that'll be
01:01:48
something we've got on the cards yeah so the so the doctor that said you can't
01:01:52
dive um he didn't say anything about the skydive no this is another doctor uh and they
01:01:59
were kind of hesitant but right I I basically said look you're the only reasons you're saying no
01:02:09
kind of don't really have anything to do with my spinal cord injury because we've
01:02:14
covered everything we'd addressed every issue we'd covered everything that my my
01:02:19
lack of ability would you know what would come into play with skydiving and so we covered everything off so
01:02:25
literally the only reason they're saying no is because of their beliefs around oh
01:02:30
you're a bit fragile it's like well [ __ ] like if I break my leg on a landing it's
01:02:37
probably someone with an able body would have broken their leg on their Landing too it's just it's part of the
01:02:43
it's part of what the risk there's that risk for everyone so yeah it should be fun yeah brilliant God
01:02:49
I petty you're a doctor geez um patient tough patient no you're the greatest man it's um it's so good and
01:02:58
you're you're living a more fulfilling and Rich life than most people that are
01:03:02
fully able-bodied I reckon yeah and I hope that that's what you know with the
01:03:06
book and there's a uh plans for hopefully a documentary as well and you know I want that's the whole reason for
01:03:13
the two of them is to to try to motivate people to kind of push beyond the barriers and limitations
01:03:18
that they put on themselves and that Society may have put on them and you know realize that
01:03:25
that we're in control of those barriers and we can there are ways around them
01:03:29
there are you know we kind of just got to put ourselves out there and sometimes it's just that first step that just gets
01:03:35
us on a roll whether it's confidence whether it's knowing that we can do
01:03:39
something knowing that how that it's easier than we thought it was going to be
01:03:44
um yeah so hopefully people take that away and even from this this chat right now sir you're having me on absolute
01:03:51
pleasure thanks for sharing my pleasure cheers on