Security Halt!
Welcome to Security Halt! Podcast, the show dedicated to Veterans, Active Duty Service Members, and First Responders. Hosted by retired Green Beret Deny Caballero, this podcast dives deep into the stories of resilience, triumph, and the unique challenges faced by those who serve.
Through powerful interviews and candid discussions, Security Halt! Podcast highlights vital resources, celebrates success stories, and offers actionable tools to navigate mental health, career transitions, and personal growth.
Join us as we stand shoulder-to-shoulder, proving that even after the mission changes, the call to serve and thrive never ends.
Security Halt!
Rowing Across the Pacific: Courser Racing’s Epic Challenge
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Rowing across the Pacific Ocean isn’t just about endurance—it’s a battle of the mind, body, and spirit. In this powerful episode of Security Halt!, we sit down with the team from Courser Racing to uncover what it really takes to survive and thrive in one of the world’s most grueling challenges: ocean rowing.
From the brutal reality of day five—when exhaustion, unpredictable seas, and mental strain collide—to the unbreakable bonds forged between veterans, this conversation dives deep into teamwork, resilience, and personal growth. We explore how pushing beyond physical limits can transform lives, strengthen mental health, and inspire purpose long after the oars are put away.
Discover the mission behind Courser Racing, their vision for supporting veterans through adventure, and why community and camaraderie are essential to overcoming life’s biggest waves—both on the water and off.
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Speaker 2:Fuck it, we'll do it live. That's the greatest way to start this endeavor.
Speaker 1:We'll do it live. That was my favorite mission. My favorite thing was the ad hoc in the moment mission. Yeah, remember, I remember. I forget this guy's last name. I remember his first name, donald. I got a positive card. Then I got a, a major minus card because the dude had a moment of like uh, uh, uh, I don't know what to do and I'm like you're fucking not in charge, I'm in charge, let's fucking go. Yeah, and our caddy were like that was fucking awesome.
Speaker 2:I love what you just did, but chris was cadre out there at the schoolhouse so he knows.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love seeing captains get like fired by an E4 pre-team x-ray.
Speaker 2:The same dude Me more than most. I'll bet you, I enjoy that more than you do.
Speaker 1:I channeled Bill O'Reilly in that moment and it was like my one moment of glory. And Sir Robin Sage. I was like my one moment of glory. At Robin Sage I was like, fuck yeah, we'll figure it out in route.
Speaker 2:I still have guys from my SEER team that reach out Like we never served on an ODA together. But they'll reach out and we'll still joke about how, like 80% of what we did, I was like fuck it, dude, let's just send it. Like we can either take time to try to figure this out or just do it live and see what happens, like we're not going to die, you know.
Speaker 1:And, oddly enough, that actually works in real life too.
Speaker 2:It does, it's a good skill.
Speaker 1:Gentlemen, welcome to Security Out Podcast. With me today are the intrepid men of Courser Racing. You guys are longtime followers. You remember them from Season 2, when the product was not refined and, let's be honest, it was a slightly bit of a shit show. But now I have grown and today we're going to dive into the journey. Gentlemen, please introduce yourself. Who wants to kick it?
Speaker 3:off. Yeah, I'll go. Yeah. Chris Farrington, former fifth grade guy, Glad to be back on the podcast and it's looked like it's grown. And I mean even your setup looks way more badass than I think the first time we did it was like kind of like what my setup is right now, just anywhere I could do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for those that are just recently tuning in, it used to be a setup like bang bus. It was just horrible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just the worst a little rapey.
Speaker 1:it gave out really bad vibes. It's decent now, all right, jt Mullin.
Speaker 2:Go ahead.
Speaker 4:Go ahead. Jt Mullin, retired out of SOTD, was a civil affairs guy and glad to be on the podcast man.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, welcome JT.
Speaker 5:I'm Jerry Hartman, new to the Courser crew. I'm just an old school ranger. Yeah, that likes rowing yo, pete, welcome back.
Speaker 2:We're stoked to have jerry on the team. Yeah, I'm pete glazer. I'm one of the co-founders, of course racing and, like any good operator, all these guys are being very humble. They just completed a trans-oceanic row across the Pacific Ocean from Monterey, california, to Hanalei Bay, hawaii, and they finished that race just a couple of weeks ago. So, just as much as you, denny, I'm really excited to sit down and hear about their actual experiences, what it did for them, because, like any good ODA, as soon as they got back, we're already training for the next mission. So I'm excited to hear the impact it had on their personal lives, because I've only gotten breadcrumbs yeah, let's, let's kick it off with there.
Speaker 1:Man, I want to let you guys know um, it's the journey, the mission. It has stuck with me. I've been following it since we had that first podcast together and being able to watch it and see the tidbits. But the impact of seeing you guys at the finish line at the ceremony afterwards I hadn't even met any of you in person, but I connected with you in those moments Like seeing you guys tear up, celebrate, making that finish, making it across all the way and having your moment of victory and seeing you guys on that stage it was a representation of what all of us hope to succeed in life after service. Like I don't take it lightly. It was an amazing moment to see like, holy shit, they finally did it, the boys finally did it. And I want to dive into that journey. How did it start? How was it kicking off and finally being in the water, rowing across the fucking ocean, man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, you start in Monterey and the way they set it up is very get your boat in a parking lot and then your four days of inspections packing all this stuff. And I think the reason well, you know the reason why they do it is so that they make sure that you're prepared to go. But I think a small bit of it is is you're roasting on a hot parking lot. All of your like food is like melting, like the gummies are now one gummy, the chocolate is like, you know, just a melted mush, and you're just, you're ready to put your boat in the water and just leave. And I think that's a part of like their whole thing is like, yeah, we'll put them in this hot parking lot and we'll do, we'll inspect all their stuff and let these guys roast. So by the time we launch them, they're like they're more than happy to get away from Monterey.
Speaker 1:Bro, it sounds a lot like GI inspection before deployment. Yeah, big time yeah.
Speaker 3:Big time. It's like I just want to get this over with Me and Jerry JT. We had these discussions of like, dude, it's day two, and I'm sick of this Like let's get in the water and you finally get your boat in the water and then you still have two days I think two to three days after that where you're adjusting your trim and you're testing systems before you go, systems before you go, and it's just like they they built it to where it was like each step got you closer to you know, actually heading out, um, which was, which was super awesome yeah, the the morning we headed out like I'm getting an adrenaline rush, thinking I haven't thought about it.
Speaker 5:It was like scary. None of us wanted to admit that. We were scared, shitless yeah they had camera crews that wanted to talk to us. We're all like too emotional to talk. It was. It was like a going on deployment. It was like, oh shit, here it goes.
Speaker 1:It was a great feeling man and I have to imagine like it's. It's scary. You finally get on the water, jt. What was it like for you watching the? You know land start to become smaller and smaller and smaller. Now you're just out in the open fucking ocean.
Speaker 4:I don't remember anything like. I remember rowing out, but I know there were people all over but you're so emotional you don't want to look up in the crowds because you just want to get out. And then it took. I mean, it seemed like it took several days for us before the land was gone, but it really by day two. It was you, you know you're out there. And then you know day one was like, oh shit, man, this is going to be easy. Day two was an eye-opener, like we're getting ready to be into something that we probably don't know what we're going to get into. And then day five was a day of hell and that's all I'm going to leave at. Day five is a day that I marked how we all did on our calendar that there's probably the top five things that we've ever done is probably the hardest thing we've ever done.
Speaker 1:You know we've got to dive into that.
Speaker 3:We've got to dive into that.
Speaker 1:What was day five An?
Speaker 3:absolute shit show, Just a nightmare of a day. So you know, I count the day starting at, you know.
Speaker 5:Let me just say first that day five was not hard at all.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, yeah, the guy who was sick.
Speaker 5:The easiest day I've ever had in my life was day five.
Speaker 3:So you know the 1 am shift comes around. Oh yeah, I get out on the water. It's pitch black, denny, can't see anything there's, you know, the cloud cover is just it's complete. We had the nav light on early on just because we were like we don't want to get hit by a boat that eventually started going away after a while. So the nav light you can't see, but maybe I would say 15 meters around the boat and I come out on shift and it is wild outside. You know there are 30 to 40 foot swells.
Speaker 3:We're getting hit on the side of the boat so it's not like we can even ride you know the waves and push us along to Hawaii. We're going, like you know, sideways and then up and over and looking straight down, and before I could even really capture what was going on, I'm getting in my position. I'm like, oh, this is not going to be good, jerry's like dude, I don't feel good and I'm like just take it easy, brother, I got this and get on when you can. And I start rowing and it is like wet concrete. I can barely get a stroke in.
Speaker 3:I'm putting all my strength into this to just kind of try to push us forward a little bit and I leaned back and I'm like jerry brother, you gotta go get someone else. I need help, like just rest this one off, like hit the next shift, whatever. And uh, so jt inherently, you know got picked for that. So he just got off a two-hour shift from this nightmare and then is now back into the nightmare for another two hours and, uh, you know, one size, we got in the groove and we started rowing and kind of really got the feel what was going on around us. It was like moment after moment of just like holding on or leaning the best we could so this boat wouldn't flip and you couldn't see it coming. It was just happening to you.
Speaker 4:And then you know that went throughout the night and then the morning came and then you started actually being able to see these 35 and 40 foot swells that are coming at you. Now. Imagine we've done probably close to nine hours of rowing in this damn concrete and it's still not letting up. And you're hitting all this and it was like a 24 hour period of you just like I want to go in and I want to lay in the cabin and please, dear God, when I wake up, let this nightmare be over. But it wasn't. It just kept continuing. For like 24 hours. We'd done a total of like 34 nautical miles and it felt like we'd done a total of like two nautical miles and day six a little bit better, and it was just every day.
Speaker 4:You're just like shit. When are we going to get out of this shit storm? And then day eight is finally. You know, broke free, but they were a lot of moments on that boat. I don't want to hear another moment about this. Shit's going to change in the next eight hours. I don't want to hear anything, man. I just want to row and get out of this misery seven were no different than five.
Speaker 3:It was just five was when it started and all of us were like and by day, six and seven, we're just so used to it. It's like, well, whatever flings me on the boat, at least I get like a break. Even when you went into the cabin it wasn't like I'm safe now. Uh, there was like multiple times where you know I would get lifted in my sleep halfway on the phone, just smack right into the pads.
Speaker 5:It was like little IEDs basically hitting you.
Speaker 3:What was that?
Speaker 4:Yeah, loud as all heck, just slamming into the side of the boat and you go flying, and on top of that, it's like everything started breaking on this boat at like day five, so it was like Apollo 13,.
Speaker 3:Man that's what we rode. We called it Apollo 13.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was just, it was a shit show, but we got across and we, you know, MacGyvered through it.
Speaker 1:You know we're not fast forwarding this JT. We're not fast forwarding this, yeah yeah, yeah. So stuff starts to break. How are you managed? And it's easy, it's easy to manage the chaos on a deployment, on a team. 18. Bravo, get that gun up, charlie, start making a destruction plan. Fucking 18, echo, get these radios. Get going like but you're not in a convoy, you're not in a vehicle, you're not driving across afghanistan, you're stuck there's no good in boat.
Speaker 3:There's no in the boat. You can't yeah, but at the same time.
Speaker 4:I mean, you know, it was kind of like a deployment hey, who can fix this down thing? You know, I mean, hey, jt, grab this jerry. I need you to look at this. Chris, stay on the oars for a few minutes while I'm, you know, holding this up. And I mean, you've got a box that's probably. I mean, everything that you mess with in that, in that ocean, is a chance of you dropping it or going overboard, and you don't have like a million spare parts. So here we were, my head underneath this, you know, gurney, trying to look at, figure out what where I need to change to make this thing work, because I'd already tried to hand pump, and what did I do? Like 40 minutes and got one liter of water and I realized that that was not going to be sustainable. So it was time to start MacGyver and shit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we got on the sat phones, made some phone calls to some people that were like pretty savvy on things. But you know, luckily, jt, he knows a lot about, you know, frigging, wiring and all this other stuff, so he's like I'll get in there and do it. It's just going to take me a bit.
Speaker 4:And then Jerry being like the secondhand forum and you know, all the while the boat is just wildly rocking yeah dude, like you're trying to take something off and hoping you're not gonna the, you know, a screw's not gonna go flying out of the boat or you're going flying out of the boat with the water maker. It was, but we, we got it fixed. You know, I just took, you had two hot wires one went to the fan, one went to the water maker. I took one off and just put it on and it was just like, hey, we can do 20 minutes an hour off. Let's just hope this lasts for however long we're going to be here. But it did, it lasted to the end. Not sure if I'd ever want to row it again without getting it fixed, but yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a. You know, typically you can run those things in the morning for as long as you want to fill up you know, uh, all of the jugs that you have for your drinking water for the day, but we had to run it, you know, for 20 minutes, then shut it off for 30 minutes, then run it for another 20 minutes and oh, by the way, our batteries are only sitting at like 30%, so we can't just keep doing this. So you know, they say you're supposed to be drinking 10, you know liters of water a day. And, jerry, what was it like? What do we average Like maybe two or something like that a day between all five of us?
Speaker 4:Because they were one, because they were. One morning the skipper came out and said JT, you're in charge here. You will give them one liter of water and that's your leader for until we can make water. And I mean, that was like for nine hours. So you're like. You're like, thank God it was not hot, because if it 13, man, that's what it was.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we got the true adventure experience. You know like I feel blessed that the boat that Courser owns is a two-year-old boat. It's, you know, it's the top of the lines. You know systems in there and everything. But you know, when we do the Atlantic here in two and a half years it's going to be, or two years now it's going to feel like I'm spoiled. You know what I mean. Yeah, yeah, it'll be like going from, you know, the regular army, where I've got this like M4 that's been used since you know freaking, since Desert Storm, to like showing up to an ODA and they're like which barrel would you like to use? Which optic would you like to use?
Speaker 1:You know they're like which barrel would you like to use? What's optic would you like to use? You know like it's gonna feel like that all over again. Oh man, yeah, yeah. But there's something to having these, these difficult experiences, to give you perspective, and I think that's part of the mission to show you that, like you can overcome anything if you're willing to dive in and tap into you all the skills you have. You have a background of doing without and being successful in a hell of a lot worse situations.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, just do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Blake likes to say the hardest thing you do in your life doesn't have to be or the coolest, or the gnarliest thing you do in your life, doesn't have to be what you did in your twenties in the army, and that's one of our. One of our things that we try to provide to veterans here is that is that whole like, hey, your, your adventure isn't done yet if you don't want it to be, yeah, absolutely jerry.
Speaker 1:What. What were you actually like suffering from, were you? Which is just being out at sea?
Speaker 5:that got you or no. So something happened before we left, like a few days, and my face swelled up really big and I think I had broken a tooth but went to to a doctor, went to a dentist. They gave me all kinds of actually. I got antibiotics and it was basically like my decision whether I went or not the morning of. I was kind of hoping someone would be like you can't go because I'm going to be, I'm too stubborn.
Speaker 3:I'm not going to self-select.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I think it was just the antibiotics not drinking enough, being in the heat, I don't know. But I got to the point when I got on shift that night. I couldn't feel my arms. I felt like I was going to pass out. That lasted every time I tried to get on the oars for, I think, 24 hours. It's turned into 72 hours, but it was only 24 hours.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for the rest of that trip.
Speaker 5:Denny yeah, every time I would get on the oars I felt like I was going to pass out.
Speaker 4:That's the way I felt on day five.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I had to be the little. I mean, I still feel guilty about letting them down, but you know, I cooked when I could. I tried to make sure they were dry, but man, I just felt like a shit bag. But it is what it is.
Speaker 3:Not any good teammate would do, like if you can't do the thing that you know, like really helps out, and start doing all that little shit that no one wants to do, absolutely.
Speaker 1:That's. That was great. And at what point of the journey did you guys feel like, fuck dude, now we got it, now we're, we're in flow state. We just got to keep fucking doing, duplicating what we're doing. Like when did you feel like you found your rhythm in work life and balancing, getting everybody on their shifts?
Speaker 3:yeah, I, I would say probably so well. So it kind of bounced like week two the wind started kind of going in our favor and we're getting out of, you know, the northern winds pushing you towards mexico essentially. But we started getting close to out of that and the winds start kind of going from, you know, north to south to start start to kind of push more west. And uh, day eight it was like I think we did one shift where you know it was like rowing in concrete and we kind of like assess that the wind was kind of blowing more west than anything else, south, you know, southwest than anything else. So I changed the, uh, the, I changed the heading on the auto tiller, and then it was like night and freaking day. And then after that was like okay, boys, we're riding with the currents and winds at this point. So it was like that was the first, like now we're doing it. You know we're past this this week, one bullshit and now we're actually going towards Hawaii.
Speaker 3:But then you know, like every week there'd be something else. Like you know, the last week in particular, like I got so wrapped up in how much mileage we were doing, because every time we got off shift. Guys wanted to know how far they went or whatever. So I had the map on the chart, plotter tiny, and I just focused on how much mileage we were doing and then reporting that to everyone after every shift and and and totally didn't realize that we got caught in a South current that was just pushing us towards the big Island and we're like we got to correct this. So then we had about what was it guys? Like eight to 10 hours of just like trying to row like North by Northwest to get out of that. And then, looking at you know, wendy and some other apps, I could see the current was kind of doing like an s and if you weren't paying attention to it it would take you about 20 to 50 nautical miles away from the, the northern tip of uh kawaii, just send you to australia way off yeah, so every
Speaker 3:every week there was like you know, it felt like we were gliding for a little while and then something would come up where it's like dude, what is going on today like this, sucks. The first time the clouds broke and the sun was just beating down on us, we did, we were averaging, were averaging around mid 60 nautical miles a day. We would get 70s. One day we got 82. But the first day that the sun really came out and started frying us, we did like 55. And it was absolutely miserable and it was like I really hope tomorrow isn't like this and it was. You just got used to it.
Speaker 4:But let's just be honest. I will take it back to day eight. This is chris. Right, we were all just miserable. It was just, it's like you could just not get out of this concrete. Chris opens up the door and he's like listen, we can either sit here and bitch and whine about this shit or get on the fucking oars and start rowing. And that, when he done that, it's like the next eight hours was rough, but then all of a sudden it just changed. So so let's just be real, he came out being a typical asshole, which we needed, because we were all at that point of like dude, I'm done, my arms hurt, my back hurts, my knees hurt. I just wish this boat would flip over and, just, you know, send us somewhere else so we wouldn't have to row. But after that, you know it was, you know every day was something different. I mean, it wasn't like we were rowing concrete, it was just like either the winds would change or something else would break on the boat, or you know it was.
Speaker 4:But after day eight, I think we got our rhythm and we're like OK, hey, we need to dig into this if we're going to get across this ocean. We all agreed, you know, 33 to 35 days. When we took off before we ever took off, we're like, hey, this would be a good time for all of us. We did want to, we did want to set a record, but I think most of us was just like, hey, we want to come in in a respectable time. I was shooting for 33. We all agreed at least come in before 35 days. And I think you know, at the end of the day, I think we achieved that and that was our goal and I think you know yeah at the end of the day, we've done what we set out to do.
Speaker 4:Absolutely, man.
Speaker 1:I want to take a moment and allow each one of you to reflect on what this journey meant to you, and we talk about awe.
Speaker 1:And I try to champion this idea A lot of us. You know I didn't grow up in an environment where I was able to go travel the world as a young kid outside of the military, so a lot of the amazing experiences I have, yeah, they're locked in in Iraq and Afghanistan, yeah, that awe that calls you, that recall of like when you saw greatness oftentimes is still locked in to our combat experience, to an environment where we lost some friends, where we saw some horrible shit, combat experience, to an environment where we lost some friends, where we saw some horrible shit. When you're able to do something like this, it gives you a new, powerful, anchoring memory of awe and greatness and that's something all of our veterans and service members need to look forward to. If you can reflect on this journey, what are some moments of awe and what did this journey allow you to feel?
Speaker 3:Yeah, Jerry, you send it and then I'll go well, real quick.
Speaker 5:Uh, day eight, according to jt, was day of joy. Joy, I have a we. We wrote down what all the days meant. I just found the list. Man, that's a tough question.
Speaker 5:I I definitely learned a lot about myself, things I didn't like, things I didn't realize about myself. I actually asked people that I care about to write me letters, and the ongoing theme was that you are stronger than you think. And then I started realizing that my self-esteem is shot, my confidence is shot, and I asked Chris about that a few days ago and he's like, oh yeah, you have the lowest self-esteem I shot, my confidence is shot. And I asked Chris about that a few days ago and he's like, oh yeah, like you have like the lowest self-esteem I've ever seen. You're always like self-doubting yourself and I would never admit that before this row. So now I'm working on that.
Speaker 5:But as far as, like, my biggest impression on the row would be rowing at night and I think, from like day 10 to maybe like the last week, every stroke you would take, the water would light up with bioluminescence and it was just so beautiful that, mixed with the stars, like that's something I'm never going to forget. That was my piece out there. I guess you'd say that's fucking awesome man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think for me and me and Jerry discussed this while rowing I don't think it was the hardest thing I've ever done at all. I think what I saw value in with this row was is I had the time to sit and confront all my demons, and then I had a crew that all had demons too. I mean that boat, you know it was, it was five shit shows in a boat like trying to, you know, heal themselves, you know. So it was like I'm not alone in this, and once the the first person broke out to open up about something you know, then it was just like uh, you know, let's all, let's all talk this out while we're on our shifts, because I mean, at the end of the day, you're not going anywhere, you're doing the same shit over and over again and you're seeing the same people for the next month, month and a half, two months, however long it takes you to row. So you really have time to talk about some of the things you're concerned about with yourself and then realize other people are going through that too and then try to figure out how that needs to change. Like you don't, you don't need to keep being that way, and that's where I think this kind of activity for vets is is uh, I think that's the value.
Speaker 3:It's not so much. Yeah, I mean inherently, you did a really hard thing and it's not a lot of people do this. More people have gone to space than road across the mid Pacific. That's cool and all, and that's like something. You know some bragging rights. We all need to have bragging rights where these type of dudes you know we need to be like oh yeah, cool man, I rode the ocean, so I don't, you know whatever, go away, but uh, but that just comes with the territory.
Speaker 3:The real value is, you know you're you're confronting a lot of shit with your friends who are also confronting a lot of shit, and then you end up doing it together and then it culminates in this like beautiful location that you end up in and people are cheering you on, and so then, like all that shit really smacks you in the face once you you get sight of the island, um, and you know you're about to like go hug your family and stuff, and all you've been thinking about is how could I be a better husband, how can I be a better father?
Speaker 3:How can I be a better person, like I'm doing this thing to help other people Like how and how can I fix myself to be a good example for the next guy who's really suffering and get him involved into something that maybe he wouldn't have gotten involved with? You know, therapy, yoga, whatever it may be, and I don't know. That's kind of. For me, that's probably the highlight of the whole experience is, you know, understanding a lot of things about myself and then how I want to help others.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, self-reflection is a powerful thing that we don't get in this busy world.
Speaker 1:We have so many distractions that keep us plugged in, like our family, our job, the demands of taking care of other people, do-outs it makes it really difficult to look in the mirror and say, hey, I need to fix this, I need to work on this, and our own issues with getting help and seeking out support can keep us from doing that.
Speaker 1:But if you're stuck out in the middle of the ocean, five other dudes and you're just rowing just like on an ODA in a car or in an MRAP driving down a desert, at some point windshield therapy kicks in and you start talking. And that's a remarkable part of this journey. Yeah, it's a sexy, awesome, cool thing, but really and truly you're just giving men a chance to sit down with each other, with warriors, and talk and think through some problems. The greatest therapist out there will always tell you like dude, I can't lead a horse to water and make it drink, I can't make you change your habits or give up the things that are killing you. Like, I can guide you, I can help you realize your answer, but ultimately you make the decision, you make the choice and I think that's a big part of this journey, man, exactly what you just shared.
Speaker 3:Well, it's like, you know, on the side of like, should I continue? You know my health and getting better. It's like if you decide to go away from that after this journey, I just don't think it's it is possible. But I think it's it's too easy to look back and go hang on Like I just spent a month doing one of the shittiest things on the planet, like what shit that I just went through on the boat, you know, self-reflection, everything else just to hop back into the same dumb shit. Yeah, yeah, jt, what?
Speaker 4:about you, man, all right, so, uh, for me. So there, uh. So Paul Laurie, who is like probably best known, one of the greatest rowers that I know of, who helped us as we were starting our row, you know, across the Pacific it was kind of weird, you know, he just said, hey, make this your journey. And cause I'd looked at other things, like going to you know I began stuff like that to just kind of get some of the demons that I know that that bothered me, but he just told me he said, hey, no matter what, just make this your journey and at the end of the day, just promise me when you get off the boat that you know you will still be in contact with the five that you went across with. You know, because he's like, because if you don't do that, it's not really a journey. It was just you rowing an ocean and being an asshole about it is how I looked at it.
Speaker 4:So, but they were times, trust me, you know I would go in and I was like, oh my God, dude, why did I promise about this? There are things that I want to say. On day one, we watched, you know, a team that showed up and it was kind of a shit show. And then a day five, they didn't row with us. Skipper came out and said, hey, I don't want to row with this, with this crew, and I was like, holy crap you know this is before getting out on the water.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Before us getting out on the water. And you know, when I seen that candid discussions on the boat, if we don't like something, don't take it into the cabin, let's discuss it then. That way, you know, there we leave rowing in a good, positive way and we come back on, we're in a good, positive way. So I mean that's kind of how I've kind of self-reflected on myself, because I knew that, you know, anger was one of the things that drove me crazy you know just all the stuff that I've done throughout my military career and I was like I just want to be a better person when I get off of this. So and that's what I reflected on I was like, okay, how can I change today? How can I be a better person? Yeah, I was still an asshole and I'll probably always be an asshole till the day I'm dead and gone. But that's I did try to like okay, hey, I want to be a better husband. These are the things that I screwed up, you know, and I want to try to fix those when I get back home, which I have. I mean, you know, I've seen a big change in my life and so that's what I took out of this journey and and, believe it or not, best 35 days. I mean, even though it was hard definitely not the hardest thing I've ever done and when they asked me, hey, would I do it again? I'd definitely do it again.
Speaker 4:Day five sucked, but the rest of that was just, I mean, I just took it as okay. I'm on a 180 day deployment and it's going to suck and I'm going to see the same shit day in and day out, but at the end of this thing, I'm getting off this boat. My wife's going to be there, no-transcript and now that we're off, you know the boat. I'm still in contact with all the guys, I mean, even though you know the two others. That's not part of a course of racing and I just feel like it's a brotherhood, sisterhood, whatever you want to call it. Is this something that's a bond that you will never forget about? It's a great experience. I wouldn't. You know. My goal is to get as many veterans on these boats as we can Let, even if it's just a three day, five day, or they go across the Atlantic Pacific Gulf of Mexico, whatever they want to do. I just want it to be a journey that, when they get off, their life has changed Hell yeah, Absolutely, man.
Speaker 1:I want to pivot now to where Corsair is going to next. I mean, this was a huge like finally did it. We got the team on the water. Nobody died. They made it there safe. What's next? What's the next great adventure?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll like intro to that, chris, and then hand it over to you. But I just want to say that I had a baby almost exactly the day that they finished the race, so I was sidelined, right.
Speaker 2:But watching my teammates do this and watching like the live stream of them finishing, you know I was like's like a. There was a sense of pride for me. I mean it's like obviously I'm like serious fomo. But coming out of the race, our whole team dynamic has shifted. We've got jerry and we're stoked to have them. But watching jt and chris go from day zero to hey, what's ocean rowing to where they are today, the momentum has picked up a ton and we've got a lot of really exciting stuff on the horizon and with that you know very proud to be a part of this team and join the experts now on an ocean crossing. But I'll hand it over to Chris on what we're actually doing tactically.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So the next thing for Courser is the Gulf. We're going to cross it Right now. I'm reaching out to the powers that be to see what's a legit crossing and then, from everything that I've researched and people I've reached out to, no one's done it. So right then, and there we're going to get a world record. So it's something to be pretty excited about. It'll be the core team members and it's our big push to raise awareness of what we're doing and what our goals are and what we're trying to do. And then you know, shortly after that we're probably going to pick up our first veterans that we've never met before and get them out on the water, which is going to be super awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. What's the selection process going to be for that? Yeah?
Speaker 3:So for ones it's it's pretty low commitment because you know, one of us who's got the experience will be steering the ship essentially. So you can show up and just start rowing and you know, ideally, like we're gonna well, not ideally, we're gonna have, you know, chase boats and things like that. So if guys like get into it and they're like I can't, like I'm throwing up, I'm not going to deal with this, like you know, we can remove it from the situation. It's like very, very low pressure, low threat kind of activity and it's not going to be like, yeah, we're going 50 miles out to the Gulf Stream and we're just going to see where it takes us. It's going to be, you know, kind of localized ocean rowing, just like a good day, you know good weekend.
Speaker 3:And then as we get you know people that want to go further and further, or we get you know a team that wants to do the Pacific or the Atlantic or the Indian Ocean or whatever. That will probably be well, not probably. It's going to be a higher vetting process and we're going to be holding guys to certain standards, because the last thing we want is to send guys out that aren't prepared or, we know, aren't probably going to make it just from the experience that we've had. Yeah, like, if someone applies to it and to do it, then it's. It's a conversation. We, you know, we have expectations you have to meet and if you can't meet those it's. It's kind of like a three-stripe deal. Hey man, sorry, like you need to do these things and maybe we can move you to the next one or whatever. Yeah, yeah, it's.
Speaker 4:It's gonna be a pretty intense selection process for the bigger ones, but the smaller ones it's like denny, I don't know, you come onto the boat, let's go do this, and I'm gonna grow up on an island somewhere in the afternoon and then we're gonna row 10 miles back to the, the dock, and you don't have to do shit other than get on the oars because you have, because you do see a lot of uh, you know teams and you, you hear about it and you see it that you row somebody across the ocean or somebody didn't feel like rowing for two or three days, and the last thing you want is we get guys and we spend that money and get them out and then they either quit or they leave that boat, hating everyone on the boat. And I'm a true believer that we do need to have some kind of vetting process. Hey, we'll go out on the boat, and you know, I'm a true believer that we do need to have some kind of vetting process. Hey, you know, we'll go out on the boat with them. Are they rowing? Are they rowing the right way? Is you know? Are they a team dynamic or is it a team of failure?
Speaker 4:And we can see it, you know, and and and we're going to have to have those hard conversations with those guys and I mean it's not going to be easy as a you know, as a board member, saying, hey, man, I just don't think you're going to fit the bill for this team and maybe you, maybe you find another guy and you can row it next year, but the team that you're at is not going to get our boat across the water and the last thing we want is some bad publicity, you know, of our boat going across and guys are just putting horrible things on social media and just hating one another, because that's going to come back on us as an organization.
Speaker 4:So, yeah, we're going to have to have those hard conversations, but I think we're ready for it and we know, you know, I think the three of us know what we're looking for and looking at because we've done it and we understand the guys that we've seen to the left and right of us and the girls, uh, and you know it's it's definitely going to be an eye opener and you know something that we're just going to have to be mentally prepared for when that time comes. But I'm really looking forward to you know what, chris and Jerry they're putting a program together for us to start rowing again and for all five of us to come out. Because the greatest part was, when we landed, getting to see Blake and his wife, you know there to meet us, and I was hoping, you know Pete, but Pete's wife was having a kid. But just seeing that team member there when we got done was just amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:It's like.
Speaker 2:I said Go ahead, pete, go ahead. Well, I was going to add, I was just going to add to kind of what we have coming down the pipe and and Chris alluded to it by getting veterans out on the boat. But we're looking to partner with some of these veteran nonprofits to pay for vets to go do excursions. So think of an organization like Soft Excursions. I don't think we've talked to you yet, but the idea would be hey, I've got a handful of guys that are interested in this, we'll give you money to bring them out and we've got a couple of those partnerships in the works.
Speaker 2:But what I'm most excited for is we're signed up for the Atlantic race in 2027, spain to Antigua, and at the end of that race AT, chris and Jerry will have crossed the Pacific, cross the Gulf, and until someone else does it, we'll have been the only ones to cross the Gulf and then they'll have crossed the Atlantic. And so our long-term vision there is that Corsa Racing is a legitimate global leader in this sport of ocean rowing. Our core team will have done all the big ones the Indian Ocean, and there's other challenges that we'll look to do beyond that. But by the end of 2027, we feel that once we accomplish that race we'll be recognized as a global, like a leading organization in the sport of ocean rowing globally. But in the U? S we're like the only standing program for this sport. So as it grows and more people get interested, we'll be kind of at the vanguard of that and honestly I think that's what sponsors down the road will be interested in is like we'll not just be doing something great for veterans, not just be doing something cool, but we'll also be at the front end of this sport.
Speaker 2:Like what does it mean to be a professional ocean rower? Like we could help define those terms with the community based off the vast experience we'll have by the end of 2027. And once that's complete, the focus is going to shift almost fully on providing this to others and from a safety perspective, you're not going to have more qualified and capable safeties and experts and coaches than you'll find in JT, chris and Gary being soft NCOs that are now like global leaders in ocean rowing. And we look to be running our own training courses, teaching people about the sport, participating in the governing bodies such as World Toughest Row or the rowing society, and and kind of look at ourselves and and get the world to look at us as like hey, those guys in north america, that us team, they're very legit and if you want to get into ocean rowing, they're the people to call yeah, you, son of a bitch.
Speaker 1:It sounds like you used a mission planning guidance and, uh, put together the perfect fucking plan.
Speaker 2:Damn it, I knew you did dude I knew it in my skull. I can't do this whole conversation. All I can think about is, like you know, I don't want to chime in, I was on the sideline, but all I can think about is, like dude, this sounds like an oda. That's exactly what we were going for. Yeah, you got these killer ncos. That just makes shit happen and the officer brains like hey guys, I want to do the next big thing for the mission and make sure we have our sitrep photos for the media page. Sure.
Speaker 5:Everybody put on their courses.
Speaker 3:Shirt for the like but you know it matters.
Speaker 1:It fucking matters, and that's the thing that that we need to understand is that you literally went and got an amazing education on how to plan, on how to plan big, amazing things. You can take all that. You can take the bullets out of the equation to killing people out of the equation.
Speaker 5:And you can still execute.
Speaker 1:You can still make an amazing thing that's of service to the greater veteran and and service member community. You're helping in creating something so freaking, huge and the way you just outlining it's like, dude, this is a no-brainer, like this is something to force.
Speaker 1:foundation be a great heck, yeah, I need because you're doing stuff that is appealing to our soft brothers. It's something that when you see something like this come across your desk, you're like holy shit, like I might be lost. I might not know what I want to do for my next chapter, but this looks incredibly fun and dangerous and amazing, and if Green Berets are doing it, I want to be a part of it. But we also need to know, like what do you guys need to continue growing and making this thing even bigger? Like how can we help champion this cause? What do you need in order to get that big financial backer that's going to be able to say you know what I'm going to dump all this money? You guys make this thing grow.
Speaker 2:We definitely need money. Yeah, that's the, that's the. The non-political way to say it's like we need money to sustain our operations. The non-political way to say it's like we need money to sustain our operations. The big thing for us is what we're offering, and this has been what we've offered since day one is, we will bear the brunt of all of those startup expenses. A new ocean rowing boat is 150 000 with no equipment. 200 000 maybe 250 000 is what you would need to go from nothing to be able to row an ocean.
Speaker 2:We own that personally and from what we've fundraised, and with that we can then cut that expense down by way more than half and we can sustain these operations and fundraise internally to get veterans out there. So that's one thing. We're looking for donors, whether it's friends and family, corporate sponsorships, small businesses. Whether it's friends and family, corporate sponsorships, small businesses. We believe that we're an exceptional sponsorship partner and that we'll message for your company, recruit for your company, we'll work for you, man, if you support our mission and our cause. And so that's certainly one avenue, and if not the largest, is landing those big sponsors that are interested in supporting a veteran cause, interested in being a part of something new in the United States and North America interested in that adventure type of nonprofit. I mean I think that covers a wide swath of potential investors and donors.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I'll say this and I mean and we've all agreed on this I mean it's not just about you know course of racing, it's about the other nonprofits out there. Because when we get these guys or whoever on these boats with us, I mean we're not just looking at this individual, we're going to be like, okay, he has severe TBI or he has severe PTSD or he's going through some kind of struggles. There are other nonprofits out there that you know that we want to be able to say, hey, let's send this guy to here, you know, and truly get him the help that he needs. And yeah, we got him, you know where he needs to be somewhat stable in his life and maybe all it is is just ocean rowing. But if it's not, we want to make sure that we have enough money and enough other you know nonprofits that we can send that person to truly fix him. You know we may not 100% fix him, but if we get him to 50%, where he's functional back in society, I think that's a win for Corsa racing.
Speaker 4:And that's how I'm kind of envisioning this whole thing in the next five years. I mean that's my five-year plan that I would love to see Corsa racing get to that. We're literally taking a person who's at his wits end and at the end of the day he's back being a functional person in society and getting his life straight, whether that's with his family or just himself. You know, because I think we've all been. I mean, I know I've been that down that road and I'm, you know, I'm glad that Corsair Racing was here and I got in, and I'm glad that I got to row an ocean with, you know, rangewell Rose, and now we're back running our organization and getting it the way we want it to be. And you know, that's how I feel about it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's something that the past two years we've really been building a network so that we do have those touch points.
Speaker 3:And for anyone that's listening to this or interested, at one point you can apply for one of our programs that we'll be running and you won't just do the program and leave.
Speaker 3:We're building a community on Discord. There's going to be constant touch points where now you're in the Courser family and whether you rode a weekend with us or you rode the Atlantic Ocean, there's always going to be a touch point and you're a part of a family. That is now, if you've had a loss of community which we all typically do when we retire or ETS or whatever now you got one. It's your community, it's your people that you left and now you're back in it and there's a wealth of knowledge there. And if we don't have the right answer, somebody on that Discord is going to be able to say brother, I did this through this va process or whatever. And I think that's another real exciting thing that we're building that um, that that that kind of gives us a a pretty good leg up on on some organizations that just see you, treat you and then send you off.
Speaker 2:You know yeah, absolutely we also. You know, just going back to the support, like you know how valuable just following us on Instagram you know the Instagram follows spreads awareness A lot of companies. That's what they want to see is a wide following before they sponsor you with their product or monetarily. So give us a follow. Our Instagram handle is at courserracing C-O-U-R-S-E-Rracing, and then we also like, we're running a sale on some of our swag.
Speaker 2:Right now we've got a sick artist that puts some good stuff together, um, and you can find that through our instagram channels. Like our website, wwwcourseforracingcomorg. There's a donate link there. You can go in there and donate or you can run to our store. There we've got some more expensive items. But keep in mind that's what you're purchasing is donating to the cause. But, yeah, purchasing swag, following us on Instagram, tell your friends, tell your family and, for the listeners, if you know a small business or a defense business or somebody interested in donating to a veteran cause, that's what we're looking for and we spend a lot of time reaching out to companies and connecting with our networks and things like that. So even if it was just like hey, I want to connect you guys to my buddy who's at this company like. We want all of that, and you can contact us through our website as well. You there's a contact page there. That's pretty easy to get a hold of us oh yeah, I'll be doing my part.
Speaker 1:I got a few people to connect you guys with because I want to see the ship blow up and, um, yeah, I think that I'll pimp you for an episode while we're on the gulf yeah, I'll be standing there on the ocean and do this again in six months if you're up to it.
Speaker 3:But I mean, dan would be fantastic, but we'll have the starlink amazing horizon's just gonna be doing this while we're, we're talking to you to be even better dude anything you guys are involved in.
Speaker 1:I am in a hundred percent, full stop, like whatever pete and the boys are doing. Count me the fuck in. I believe in this mission. I believe in this cause, just like I said all the way back to that dog ship product that was pushing out an episode season two, to this refined and a little bit better product that I have now. I believe in you guys, I believe in your mission and I believe that the first thing we can do for ourselves in order to fight back and know what we're dealing with mentally is take care of our bodies. Be willing to push yourself to do something physically each and every day.
Speaker 1:Greater cause than putting something on the calendar and templating a great fucking mission, which we did for our entire career, six months out. You know you're going to go here. You have a training plan. Start doing that for yourself. I'll make it easier. You want to take on this challenge? You want to join and row across the fucking ocean? I will give you a free row machine. All you got to do is join our whoop team code right here and you'll be in the running to win an awesome concept to roar.
Speaker 1:The competition starts right now. All you have to do is join the team. At the end of august, I'm going to choose somebody in our whoop team and they're going to get a free rower concept to free of charge. Why? Because I like you guys. I want to see you get out there and crush life and do great things. And I want you to wake up every morning, even if it's row for two minutes, three minutes and eventually get to a couple hours, say so. You can say to yourself, like maybe I can do this, and then you can contact Pete and you can say I want to be involved, I want to row across fucking ocean and be a beast like Jerry, like JT and Chris. I want to do this and I want you to wake up and be inspired, because your greatness doesn't end when you fucking check out a group and you no longer wear the green beret. You can continue to be badass Guys.
Speaker 1:I can't thank you enough for being here today, but, more importantly, I cannot thank you enough or show enough gratitude for what you accomplished. Being able to watch you guys succeed in that video is fucking remarkable and is going to continue to provide inspiration for our brothers and sisters out there. So please continue going. I'll make you a promise I won't stop if you don't stop. So I will continue making this low tier podcast and putting out reels and memes all day, every day, if you guys continue serving our community. So if you're in the mission, I'm in the mission again.
Speaker 2:I appreciate you, Danny. We love what you're doing as well. And I could say the same thing right back at you. You're doing great for our community as well, and we're all following it and we appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, absolutely man. Please, guys, if you're listening, do me a favor. Pause. Go to the episode description. Click on those links. Donate, join the whoop team, be in the running to win your very own row machine. Uh, I certainly appreciate you guys tuning in. And guys, thank you again for being here. Absolute pleasure, and I can't wait to have you all back on. We'll see you all next time, right on. We'll see you next time, denny yeah, securepodcast is proudly sponsored by titan's arms. Head to the episode description and check out titan's arms today.
