00:00:08 Speaker 1: The Hunting Collective is presented by Element. I guess I grew up on an older role. Hey, everybody, welcome to episode one thirty seven of The Hunting Collective. Phil's having some troubles right now, give a little pep talk. It's not a big deal. Try to upload a podcast for The Mediator show hosted by Stephen Ranella. Yes, there are some issues. I mean, if you listen to this podcast, chances are you've probably listened to or actively listened to the Meter podcast. Probably not, okay. Uh So we switched to a new way that we run ads on all of our shows. If you listen, you've probably noticed you probably used something called dynamic advertisement insertion way behind the scenes. But like, but, I mean, this is the issue here. So rather so, this means that ads are automatically added by a service that has nothing to do with us. So that way, if you even if you listen to an old episode, you'll hear new ads. It's I mean, it's good. It's all about relevance. Yeah, I mean it's good for the listener, it's good for the company. Um. One thing it's not good for is my sanity. Uh. It's relatively new tech and So this is the second time in the last month or so that Steve's show has gone out. It's just been there. It's just been like something horribly wrong with it. I just want to say, for the record, Uh, it's it's not my fault. It's not your, not Producer Crean's fault. So I just want to say, if I don't respond to your Instagram messages that I'm being fluttered with, it's not because I don't see them. I do. All the Instagram messages are from you think, But I just want to know if you think you're the first one to let me know you're you're gravely mistaken. This one correct if I'm wrong. This one had Donald Trump Jr. As I guess that is true. Very controversial. Uh, the talk itself was not that controversial. But are you saying we're being taken down? I think we're now pro guns elots was before we were anti gun' Um. Well, I'm glad you're here, Phil, and I'm glad we're gonna get you through this. Man. We got I got some surprises for you. I mean, some things that I hope that will make you feel a little bit better about everything. You should be worried and that I gave you a little preview of what we're about to do it a little bit later, and you were very skeptical. And that's the best. That's when I know I'm on the right track, when you're like, this is a bad idea, Move on, forward, move forward. Well I'll tell you what we got. Uh. I'm proud of you, listeners, proud of you guys. The emails that came in not only told me how great Phil and I are, but they also you also tried your best in Namos cocktail. I feel like I have the winner fill but I'm gonna let you We'll let you pick it. Okay, okay, thank you. Um just just update. Last week we announced our brand new title sponsor, Element L, M and T, and we decided we would make a beverage. We when I say we, more like I did you know. I made fun of you and kind of you know for turning this product just immediately adding alcohol to it. But then I went to their Instagram page. They advertise boom that you can make cocktails with it. I want to formally apologize, thank you, thank you. Having I've been waiting for you to realize they are in your ways. But but now that you have, I'm very thankful and that that makes my day. Um so Element again, we're going to continue to welcome you. We'll just welcome you every week from now on. Welcome to you for the next six to twelve months, contractually obligated to welcome and we're not. We're not. But I actually I loved the beverage. I made one this weekend. Cool you didn't, Oh I I just drank Element on its own one several times one last evening and all right, well, we got so many emails. That's why I'm proud of you guys, not only trying to name our cocktail. And again, this cocktail is gonna come up a lot. So it's gotta be a good name. It's gotta be we have. We have to be able to make it into some sort of acronym or some sort of catchy thing that we do. It's a big it's a lot of pressure here. This is the kind of a behind the scenes opening segment of how this this genius podcast gets put together, right Phil, that's right, Okay, First email Jake Colin and we're gonna do some hot tips for mask wearing here. Jake Colin says, you mentioned how strange it was to buy liquor with a mask on. I went to my local guns shop to order a new weather be rifle when I was required to wear a mask. It felt so odd and win against every written law. And he says, ps, I love the show. Keep busting fills balls until he goes on his dot hum. Absolutely, and that's coming up soon. We're gonna continue to motivated, Phil. We're not gonna bust his balls. He's having a rough day the Trump eat. What was your What was your nickname for Donald Trump Jr? I don't remember. I remember Trumpells or Trump Trumpy June Trump Trumpy jeans? Is that? I said, Phil, what do you? What are you doing today? And there in the office, he said, we're getting ready for Trumpey June's. It's like what you're getting ready for whom trumpet jeans. Anyway, you got any hot tips for wearing masks. I've been wearing It's it's required now here in state of Montanas. I've been wearing my mask pretty much everywhere. But with Phil, of you you have any hot tips for wearing your mask? I noticed you were wearing a surgical mask outside. Oh, I have several. Um, I guess my only hot tip is put it over you your fucking noses. I saw I saw an article it was like local area man shocks to learn that nose is connected to line or something like that. Um. Well, yeah, it seems to me that buying a firearm while covering your face. It's one of those Yeah, one of those moments in time where do you feel like, well twenty two on me, you're a strange bitch. Bryant. He actually put his the pronounce station of his name, which many of you and the emails are starting to do, and I appreciate it because you're learning that I have no chance to get it unless you spell it out. He said, Brian. I would have said Lemon, but he said, pronounced like lumen, So now I know Brian Luhman is his name, he said. As soon as I heard you were looking for a cocktail name for your latest concoction, this popped into my head. It's either going to be the best or worst name that gets submitted. Razma Tasmanian Devil. I feel this encompasses the element flavor packet, the white class, like many of you have had explained yourself like you needed to say, like, I feel like this encompasses I get it, ras Pa Tasmanian devil. That's terrible, Bryant, that's that's that's an awful name. Like I I like it. I like that one, all right, he says, I feel it encompasses the element flavor packet, the white claw, and the fact that it's got an alcoholic kick, which it does. Boy, it does one the worst aar. I really enjoyed the last couple of podcasts. I'm definitely one of the few hunters in my area that appreciates predators on the landscape. And my wife is a non hunter with a seven months old at home. So I took some good mental notes from the Ryan and Hillary Lamper's podcast on trying to balance being outdoors but also being present as a husband, father. So you're really making a difference fill out there in the world. Thank you, Brian. Your names will not be selected as a winner, but thanks for listening and appreciating all that we do. Uh and uh okay, the next we have, well we have to talk about air call a little bit because last time I want to play a voicemail from airic Call. Every episode, and Phil was like, no, it's a drug that you need to stop doing. He can't be in every episode, Phil, So what, like, what do you want to say? I don't listen. I don't want to have Eric call. I don't want to overdose on air call. It needs to be a everyone ever in a while. Quarterly keep it special? Do you feel like quarterly? No, it's fine, we need to some behind the scenes. Quarterly is a good is a good number? All right? Yeah? Being thank your name, the drink, the th re charge, You're welcome. Awful, that's a bad name. Awful name. He came back, thank you, thank you though being there here th HC. Salt to go, salt to goat, You're welcome. At the end, there's like a little what is he doing watching his grandkids watching nickelodeone? Is he David Busters? It sounds like right into uh, your next well, the next time we're gonna play a voicemail. We just need to know where you were when you record that. Eric. It sounds like you were in the David Busters. Um so, now we have a disgruntled listener, Mark Lopez. He's upset. He said, I was thinking about an appropriate name for your cocktail, how about hobo tears? You understand what Element drop sponsorships and your destitute. You had to go and mix the wonder salt with booze? You probably you probably should have gobbled some on the mountain goat hike and pass it out to the tours with the stickers your bone heads. Now I'll be forced to solely listen to Rannella interrupt his guests on the Mediator podcast. You also gave him the opportunity to finally snag Phil first COVID. Now this shame on you. I'm confused about what he's upset about. I don't think he knows. He was very upset, very use sorry, he's he's upset that we we have the audacity to put booze into the wonderful as salt. Well, you know I was on I was on that train to until until Element encourages it. What do you have to say to Mark uh an apology exactly? YEA be be as big as a man as I was. Uh John stealthew He said, he's a fellow outdoorsman and conservationist. He had a couple of good ones. The engineer filament. M hmm, okay, think about it. Philammon just reminds me like a light bulb. He is supposed to be like element, and phil filament is its own thing. That's kind of fun, he said. While this is sort of clever, I think naming a drink after Phil, who has never hunted and only recently crap in the woods, is just not a good idea. Enough enough said, moving on now, this one is the one that I sent you and I wanted permission to bring this up. Fill again. This is kind of like a behind the scenes segment here the Salty Gilbert in honor of the saltiest guest you've ever had on the podcast. Not to mention that this guy could have used a drink, and lord knows I wanted to start drinking after listening to him. Also, if you drink ten of them at your favorite watering hole, you should get a free hunting collective hat because Barry never even got goddamn hat man that this is the winner? Is this? This is the winner? It works on a couple of different levels. It's it's it's clever. I liked his descript it's the winner. I'm gonna read you because I know that was the winner. I'm gonna read you all the other ones, and if you could put like some sort of like really nice elevator music underneath this as I read the other collected names for the now, the Salty Gilbert is what we'll be drinking every weekend at home. Dr Phils, saltyes, fuck Go juice, the not so not so sharp Covid cocktail, the Elemental O'Brien elemental fucked up, the Electric Razzle, salted Raspberry musk, the Raspberry tsunami only when white Claw has been shaken, the salty Talon, Daddy's hunting Juice, Phils Elemental fizz, Ben O'Brien's dirty recharge, the Benny Bees element, the Basic Mitch Elemental discharge, Rowdy Recovery, Salty hateraid THHD intoxicator, the salted berry claw, the sixth element, Mint, fifth element, third element, second element, first element, and finally the wolf claw of course after rob Wolf. Thank you, everybody. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, There was actually all six of the elements were emailed in as nate suggestions, so we really appreciate you for that. Before we get anything else, we should mention that coming up is David Wise. David Wise Olympic gold medal skier UM, ten time X Games medalist, A good dude. He was on the podcast way early on when we were a Total Archery Challenge. He was on with Sam Sohel and Yanni Patelas. But he's back and we're talking about a lot of things. We're talking about, you know, the way that he approaches bow hunting, but more importantly Um he made a post on Instagram not too long ago about about being depressed, about depression, about struggling with depression during COVID what the outdoors can do for someone in that state of mind. Man, I thought, just based on the guy that I know that he is and what's going on in a lot of people's lives right now, that would be interesting to hear his perspective on that, particularly how he's using hunting and the outdoors to kind of slough off some of the bad thoughts. And so he's coming up not too long from now. But before we have that, Phil, we gotta work sharp not so sharp moment. Play the jingle, work sharp not so sharp moment, so you don't have me. Okay, this one's a good one, Phil Um and has everything everything. It's from Jane Park It just just reminded me of the Stephen from S and I. This this club has everything. Last fall, Jane says, I was at white Tail hunting in Alberta. I only had a week of hunting left because I had just learned I was going to be deployed to Australia with a bunch of other Canadian fire personnel to help with the brush fires. So the pressure was on. Because of my cheapness, I usually just use the same first aid kid for work, play and hunting, but that means I have to swap it from my work pack to any other pack. Over coffee one crisp morning at hunting camp, my hobby and a buddy of ours and I were chatting about first aid kids, injuries and the like. I mentioned I had forgotten mine in my work pack. They rased me about being so cheap I wouldn't just buy another first aid kit, but I defended my frugal nature. Phil as you say that you're frugal or no, no, you just let it fly, probably to a fault. Oh my gosh. We'll talk about that in future episodes. We each headed to our spot in the woods, and before long I had rattled in a little three point the western count Knowing I had only one more day left hunt, I sighted in and shot him from thirty three again this person's from Canada metric system. Stoked, I tagged him and started the process of gutting him. When my knife slipped and the zip slice at the top of my index finger pretty deep not so sharp. With my finger bleeding a lot, and having only started gutting my deer, I was in a conundrum. Ask for help and admit my lack of first aid kit was biting me in the ass, or deal with it. What do you do there, Phil, I'm gonna I'm gonna admit my fault six definitely fix the old finger. Looking in my pack, I didn't have much, but being a well prepared lady, the one thing I did have was feminine hygiene products and some rope. So I washed my cut with snow, tied one of those around my finger, and then tied a rope tightly around it to stem the bleeding. Without any bandages or tape, I couldn't adequately protect the wound from potential nassis inside my dear, so I went on to gut my dear one handed, with my other hand held in the air with a Phenomon hygiene products. She says, f HP tied to my finger. It's hardcore. She never says what kind of f HP, because I'm trying to picture pad that would make the most sense, to make the most sense. It's very uncomfortable, uncomfortable. I'm hoping it was a pad. My buddy, my hobby, heard the shot, got in touch with me and asked if I needed help. My buddy was closer, so he came and helped drag the deer out of the bush. Back at camp. I endured some pretty good ribbing and I asked steepishly for some help first aid supplies. Out of my buddy's kit, I grabbed an alcohol swab and some starry strips, which, by the way, are awesome, and that's true, I have those of my first aid kit. Wiping my finger with a swab was super painful, but I figured it was because it was pretty deep cut. As I started putting the stairy strips on, it took four it's a big cut. I noticed my fingers were sticking together. Okay, okay. It was then that I realized I had rub the ship out of my cut with a glue swab. Uh This is my favorite segment of every every week People are the Best. Thankfully my other hand didn't get stuck to my wound, but damn those stary strips held good. In the end, my cut was healed so good you couldn't even see this car, probably because it was glued from the inside out and stary stripped. I also bought another first aid kid, specifically for my hunting pack. The end play the jingle Phil sharp not so sharp moment, Sharp so you don't have all right, Jane, for your Season two episode four not so sharp moment, you were going to receive a work sharp field sharpener. Make that knife extra sharp, Make that knife extra sharp next time. That doesn't seem to be an issue here, Phil commentary, R Can I just how difficult would it be to gut got something with one hand and the other one in the air? That sound I mean, from Hunter's perspective, that sounds pretty Here's what I probably would have done. I would have taken a shirt, some kind of ad like my range jacket, wrapped it around my hand to make like a sort of club. Because you still need to like you need to hold a leg down. You don't need sure, you don't necessarily need to get both hands up into the cavity body cavity, but you need to be able to hold a leg down, or you need to be able to there's a lot of things you need to do that other hand can help with rather than holding up in the air. But you can gut with one hand. I think we should they should try. That should be the th HC. We're gonna do THHC Olympics next summer and that'll be the one handed gut blindfolded one hand. Well, Jane, you're gonna get that Field Sharpener. Of course, courtesy of work Sharp, we get a work Sharp's YouTube channel. You're gonna see all kinds of great content, learn about how to actually sharpen your knife and do it right, because that's important. So thanks to work Sharp. Now, before we get to David Wise, we got a new segment film. What yep, it's a brand new segment. It's gonna be a monthly segment unless it's kind of a chicken or the egg thing here, and I don't know if that's the right analogy to just go with me on it. We're gonna put this segment out into the ether and hope that it gets a sponsor, So it's kind of a segment looking for a sponsor rather than the other way around. Man, how many sponsors can one podcast have? I feel as though, you know, this is again behind the scenes of the way I think about it, Worksharp is not even really a sponsor. Okay, they're just like a dude in the corner of the party, work in the keg, like they're they're providing a benefit, they're providing these stories. So you agree, you seem I mean, I think it's kind of disparaging to Worksharp, who's graciously donating their resources to yeah, support this show. Why is that why? I don't know. I love the dude in the cornered work in the keg because then when I go over there, I don't know. I go over to the corner, I'm like, well, did somebody recently pump this? Should I pump it? What's the pressure? Like? Am I even get all? But then John work Sharp's over there pumping it. He's like, hey, I got the cup in hand. Yeah, he's pretty much ready. So I think that's a good thing. Thanks to work Sharp for sponsor in this part of the show as well. Alright, so we're we got a segment here looking for a sponsor. And if this segment gets sponsored, um, I may just sail off into the sunset. Have you prepared a opening uh opening sound for this? No, not at all. Are you gonna figure it out right now? Okay, this is called a Now we're reading, and this is Phil. I haven't told you this. This is to help you get inspired. Okay, okay, help you get inspired to go hunting, because I felt like we've tried everything to get your number up. We've tried. You're in the beginning. If if listeners don't know the story. In the beginning, Phil I, oh, hey man, one to ten, How excited are you to go hunting? And Phil said two? And eventually, over time, Eric Hall is part of the committee to try to get Phil's excitement level up for this upcoming hunt. And now you're at a four four and a half four and a half. And so I felt the only way to really do it was to get desperate and enlist some of my great friends in the celebrity community. Oh okay, this is news to me. So this be the first time you're seeing this video, Phil, ah and now reading this is David Hasselhoff reading Edward Abbey Mill. My name is David hassel Did you possibly know who I am? But this quote comes from Ed Abbey Be a part time crusader, a half hearted fanatic. Save the other half of your lives for pleasure and adventure. It's not enough to fight for the lad It's more important to enjoy it, enjoy being yourself. Remember the theme of Night Riders. One man can make a difference to fill the engineer. You are that man. This comes from Ben and davidof and now are reading Phil. What are you feeling about? How do you feel? David Hassloff. David Hassof Wow, yeah, um feel motivated. That numbers is getting up. They gotta be up there night. You got a night Rider quote out of this I just wanted and the listenards can see this. But David Hasselhoff has just like a wall that's covered in like gold record record. I've watched this video from David. I'm gonna post this on my social of course, David is looking really good. Oh yeah, I don't know how old he is. We should look that up. But he's looking exceptional, sounding exceptional. He's got a wall full of platinum and gold records. A dolphins statue, a pencil sharpener, and what looks like some C. E. D s and then a globe snow globe. Yeah. Okay, well, um, that was incredibly inspirational. I'm up to a five. You have to have five? Up to a five. Okay, we're gonna be a regular segment. Uh. Next up is it is another celebrity you're really gonna like? Okay, I'm not gonna tell you who it is. I want to first of all, where did you meet David Hasshoff? That's impressed me and day in Germany back in oh Yeah, you were part of the disco texts early eighties. Yeah, well thanks Ben, I really appreciate that. Does he say Bill? He says Bill? Bill, My name is David Bill, the Engineer. I'm sure that you possibly know who I am. But this quote comes from Now you get to know about you can read Edward Abbey and learn about his um, his writings and also his teachings. Um, we're gonna continue to liver and now reading for you guys, and it will be celebrities reading inspirational quotes to fill from some of our favorite writers on hunting at concert vation. It's gonna be great, It's gonna be great. Thank you to David Hasselhoff. I know you're a regular listener of the show. Then he was was he like a famous singer in He has a long music career that I don't think ever got off the ground in America that that high. But yeah, he was a huge hit, huge star in Germany. So we're gonna take you into the interview now a little bit of David Hasselhoff's true survivor. Oh look at this, Look at David has Huh yeah, this is get you up to five now, David Wise, Sorry, David Wise, what's up? Dude? Hey brother, thanks for having me on. Hell yeah, thanks for coming on. This is officially your second time on, although the first time there was a bunch of other idiots in the room. Who's Sam So Holy Yanni pittell Us there our favorite people. We love you guys. Um, what's going on over there? Man? You're back in Reno? What's up? Yeah? I'm just living the COVID life, man, Just uncertain about where I'm gonna go when I'm gonna go there, but um, certainly doing my best to enjoy the time at home while I can and hanging out with the fam and Uh, he was telling you just got back from hunting, which my response to that is, thank god somebody's out there hunting that can tell me a hunting story, because I'm craving current updated activity in the woods. Yes, I just got back from chasing California blacktail for the first time, and UH definitely learned a lot, I can tell you that much. Uh learned how hot it really is in northern California in July. Learned how crunchy that makes the grass when you're trying to spot in stock, and um also learned that you can't make deer be there when they're not there, So you know, I got to learn lots of lessons. I actually did fling one arrow uh and and hit a stick, which I think everybody pretends that they hit a stick when they shoot out of deer and miss, but um, I really, I really did. I promised scouts on her hit a branch on the way in and that was the end of that opportunity, and that was kind of my last opportunity of the hunt. But man, I feel like a spot stock blacktails anywhere in California's it's a tough run. Man. That's a that's a tough thing to be doing. Yeah, I think. I think the guys who do it well and are really successful just do a great job of patterning deer and setting up blinds or tree stands or whatever. And um, you know, I didn't have that much intel and didn't know what the pattern was. So I was like, all right, I'm gonna go out there and do this. Do the public land or not public land, private land, but um sparse sparse deer population struggle and see if I can get one. Um. And it didn't work out, but it definitely taught me a lot and I feel like it really sharpened my skills for kind of the upcoming you know, a Adam mule deer season right into Utah mule deer. So um yeah. And I my my philosophy on hunting is that, um, at least my experience in the past shows that you can only be successful once the suffer meter is completely full. So you get out there every day, you spend every every mile you put in on your feet and don't get something. The suffer meter is just getting a little bit fuller, and once it hits the top, that's when you know some deer is gonna make a mistake and stand there and let you shoot it. So that's why my philosophy anyways. Yeah, it's all lean to something that's always say it's like this is leading to something no matter what happens. And I would say that's spotting and stalking deer like that with your bow is one of those things that does require repetition. Like that. You know, there's a lot of things in hunting like just run into it. But the practice of stalking up on a deer, no matter what it is, elk, whatever, that just takes repetition and we you know, would go down to Lunai or whatever good in Hawaiian stalk access dere When you come back from that, you feel like you have you're hunting, have switched on deer, you get ten stalks a day, You feel like you're you have practiced that a thing that you have to practice to get good at. Yeah, it's that like innate awareness of what the animal, what the animals doing, thinking and feeling while simultaneously operating yourself. You know, you're like, all right, I have to be cool, calm, quiet, smooth, all of the above while still being aware what the deer is doing. Because I might be doing my job perfectly and the deer just decides to walk right at me or just decides to walk away, or you know, maybe I kind of like one of my stocks this past weekend was blown up by a coyote, Like I can't control that. I just have to kind of roll with the punches. So yeah, it definitely. It definitely sharpens those that sixth sense of you know the animal you're hunting and and what it's feeling like, and um, yeah, I look forward to doing some more of it. Yeah, and your persistence too, Right, because you spend three hours stalk in a single deer, you get to the very end and you draw at the wrong time, or you draw and you raise up at the wrong time, or he he jumps a string or whatever happens you just spent two hours to that aren't wasted hours, but they can in that moment, they feel like they're wasted hours. Like oh absolutely, yeah, you're especially when you get that close to You're like, well, I am here in range and that animal is unaware of my presence, which means my chances of success are great right now. I think everybody goes into people who have spotted stock to your hunted quite a bit kind of go into any stock like, well, there's a pretty high chance of failure on this, but once you get that close and you're that close us to you know, putting your hands on the horns, um, you naturally go into this like mentality where like, well, this is about to happen, and I'm very excited about it, and then and then it falls apart and you're and it's just it's a crushing blow. So it's it's really good. It's mental training in some ways of just realizing, man, it is not over until the fat Lady sings, and we have to you have to stay as tied to the moment as it possibly can and be able to just like you said, when the when the stock falls apart, then you say, you pick yourself up and you say, well what sucks, and move on to the next one. And then you've gotta you have to carry that optimism into the next stock, because if you ever start a stock and you're already admitting failure, it's most likely not gonna work out. You just have to go on each one as if it's going to work out, and and hope that it does well. And then I'm sure you would agree with this, But our mutual friend, Remy Warren, he shows every time I would get in a situation where I'm with him and I'm hunting, he shows like the le level that you can be at when that makes it look easy. You know, there is no quote unquote you know professional hunters like in your in your day job. But when you see somebody like him who knows what he's doing, who's practiced at this, who does this essentially for a living, do what you're like, man, there is a difference between where I am and where I could be, even though it's hard to nail down sometimes absolutely, and I think you're you're common about repetition on that is perfect because um, Remy just has more reps. First of all, I think he started with a greater degree of talent than any of us to begin with. But then he is like a rare case of a human who took a great level of talent at with something like he was naturally innate at understanding animals and their patterns and vegetation. You know, he's just very scientifically minded, uh person. And then he combined the hard work and the resilience and the persistence to that and what you know. I mean, I like my job. He's been a friend for a very long time, and my jaw hits the floor every time I hang out with him and he's in the woods. I'm just like, how do you know so much? How are you? How is this? How is something that I find so difficult so easy for you? And a lot of it A lot of the thing that I'm most impressed with this is the level of alertness that he's at it all times, because I think we all naturally kind of zone out, or you know, you're out there in the woods for a long period of time, you you kind of forget that you're supposed to be. Like if you're hunting as switched on d er, for example, you need to be switched on at all times. And I so off and go hiking over just blundering over ridges and stuff, and there's a freaking deer right there, and I'm like, well, that's dumb. I definitely should have been more alert hiking over this into this blind spot. And that's where that's where Remy really doesn't mess up. He's constantly looking through his glass. Uh. I always like get to a perch and then glass things really well but Remy wills like he'll glass every thirty feet. Sometimes he's glassing while walking. That's how good he is at it. It's crazy. Yeah, that's a T shirt glassing while walking around me warrant. Yeah, I'm with you, man. It's like when you when you approach these things like, well, I can get better at this, but I don't know what the level is. You know, unlike in your and your professional career, like there's they hand out medals, they hand out first place, second place, third place. You kind of know when you're better than everybody else in the hunting. You know, there's so much distortion by social media and TV and what we show and don't show it. Um, when you're around somebody like like, oh, there it is. That's that's the innate talent meets dedication. This dude is the Michael Jordan of hunting. And I'm seeing it and it shows me what level I can be at if I try, if I really run hard at this, or at least close to Remy. Yeah, exactly. No, that's that's a great point. And um, I think that that's that's true of a lot of things where uh many times the people who think they're the best or claim to be the best. You know, everybody everybody likes to claim there the goat, uh, but most often the real goatst person that isn't talking about themselves. And I think Remy certainly fits into that category where he's so aware of his skills that he doesn't feel the need to overly talk about it. And that's one of the things I've always liked about hanging out with this him is I'm like you under promise and overdeliver rather than the other way around. I think a lot of hunting personalities these days have a tendency to overpromise and under deliver. Yeah, it's hard. That changes the way you hunt too, when you when you see yourself as an expert or you you've kind of put this out there in the community that you know what you're doing. I'm sure you get alone in the woods and you feel the pressure of man, I better come through or I'm not or I'm not gonna be who I say I am. And in Remy's case, that's that's uh, completely legitimate. He you know every time, Um, he just I asked him, I just text him, asked him if he had any stories about you. He said nothing, I can think of, he's just awesome. Um, well that's that's a hell of compliment. Not that I think I just generally good ship. M Well, we won't heat any more praise on remy heat. If he listens to this, he'll he'll feel good hopefully. UM. I wanted there's the lat stuff I want to talk about with you, man, But but I think to get to where I want to get to, um, we gotta start with some of the triumph and some of the things you've done in the skiing world. Um, you know, freestyle skier, two time Olympic gold medalists, five four time X Games gold medalists. Like you can go on and on, but how would you describe kind of how you got into skiing and and where you are now? Like the briefly describe the whole damn thing. Yeah, man, it kind of started for me at a at a young age, UM, wanting to do what I liked to do for a job. And Um, as long as I can remember, I wanted to do something where I got to be outside all the time, like I was. I was an athlete from birth. Um, love writing, bikes, love playing baseball and football, and um, ironically I think when I was ten, eleven, twelve, I actually wanted to be a professional baseball player more than I wanted to be a professional skier. But um, as I hit high school and I was kind of a late bloomer, so all of my friends got their man strength, and I went from being you know, through through a little league and stuff like that. I went through from being a pretty you know, top of the class or or at least mid to high in the class baseball player to like the mid to logo because I just haven't hadn't gotten my man strength yet. So I was smaller. I think when I was a freshman in high school, Um, I was just over five one and maybe a hundred pounds hundred five pounds, which is ironic now being six one and you know, around people are like, people look at me now, and they're like, man, you're not the right build for a skier. And I was like, man, I've been told my whole life that I'm not the right build for what I want to do. Because when I was trying to play linebacker as a as a five ft one pound freshman, uh, people told me often you're not the right bilt for that. Uh. But um, I wanted to be a professional athlete, and so in high school I kind of realized, Hey, it doesn't matter what size I am to be a good skier, I just have to have a good uh awareness of my own body and how to throw it around in the air. And so that's kind of when I started really phasing towards skiing UM. And then once I graduated high school, you know, you kind of come to the life conundrum. There there's no collegiate sports. There's no collegiate competition, at least there wasn't at that time in my sports, so there was It wasn't like I had a college career ahead of me. UM. I was already kind of competing at a high level. I was going to national events, US nationals, UM and things like that, but there was no college for it. So I kind of came to this realization like, all right, I either need to make it as a professional or you know, I gotta figure out what else I'm gonna do with my life. So I told my old man, I was like, look, I'm the government says I'm a man. Now that means that I'm either going to make it as a professional skier or I'm not going to and then I'll move on and do something else. So that kind of means that you can't support me anymore. Even though my dad was totally willing to continue to support my dreams, I was like, look, I'm gonna try to make it, make it on my own and see what I can do. And so um. That first year of trying to be a professional skier was a real struggle, but I think I was like five dollars in the black by the end of the year. I was like, yeah, man, I traveled around and I'm made money skiing. So um, it's been quite the ride since then. And I always thought that my ski career was going to take off overnight. Um, you know you, when you read that long list of accomplishments, to me, it's almost otherworldly like it it's like the stage of disbelief. I'm like, no, like that list of things that doesn't that didn't happen to me, because man, all I've ever done a struggle. Um. I thought that I would, you know, start competing and all of a sudden, beyond the podium, this this place, that place in the other place. But it was a really slow phase in where i'd like squeak out a podium or two a year, age eighteen, and then aged nineteen, I won one event and didn't win anything else and just barely making it. Um. And then actually after my daughter was born, so I had kids really young. My my little girl was born, was twenty one, and um, it was what people thought was gonna be the end of my career, or you know, sort of the wrapping up of my young professional skiing career was the best thing for me because, um, while I didn't recognize it or necessarily put words to it, at that point, I was militant. I was so caught up in this desire to be the best year that I could possibly be that I would actually often overpressure myself. So, um, having a little girl and realizing that there's more to life than this game I was playing on a pair of skis was really just mentally. It was a mental breakthrough for me, because I went into these competitions saying, well, I mean, the most important things that I do, truly, the most important things that I do have nothing to do with this thing on skis. Yeah, I'm fortunately, I'm blessed. I'm lucky to be able to go out there and do what I like to do and make money at it. But beyond being a good husband and father, I really don't have anything that I have to do. So I went out there and just enjoyed the ride. That season, that's when I won my first EX Games. Um, and that kind of started the hot streak that carried me into the first Olympics and everything. You know, from that first win on, everything has just been kind of this like wild ride where I've surprised even myself. Um. If you had told fifteen year old me, like, hey, you're gonna have a kid before you ever win the X Games, I would have told you you're crazy. Um. And if you would had listed off the list you just read earlier, I would have I would have been mind blown. I mean, being able to make the first U S Olympic team at all in my sport, to me was a lifelong accomplishment. I was like, if I never accomplished anything else, I'm stoked to have been part of this team. So to have won the first two Olympic gold medals in that sport, man, it just blows my mind. Yeah. I mean you so you what happened? You know? You you go, you win three consecutive X Games gold medals. Yeah, and then you when your last one in Aspen, Colorado, and then you had to sochi for winner Olympics and so like you said, you're you're the first gold medalist in men's free ski half pipe, which is which if if you haven't seen it out there, it's about as bad assid thing you can do with skis one that I've ever seen. Can you can you describe what it's like to be on that stage doing what you were doing, the precise nature of what you have to do to win, and like just the feeling of being on that stage. Yeah, I mean speaking of the nature that that you of of how you can win a thing like that. Um, at least for me, and this this is maybe a hot tip for people who are trying to be competitive in what they do, or maybe it's not. Everybody's different, but um, I kind of got to the point where I wasn't really thinking about what might happen after the fact, or what happened last run. Um I got competitively to this state of like absolute presence where I was only focusing on one run at a time, one trick at a time. And so, like they told us at the Olympics, Hey, you know, you guys need to have a podium bag packed so that if you're on the podium then we can basically just kidnap you and take you right into the media stuff that you've got going on, uh, that everybody has. And I didn't even pack that bag because I was like, I'm not gonna worry about that. I'm gonna go I'm gonna go enjoy these three runs through the half pipe and see how it works out. So it was like this almost surprised feeling that when the competition was over and I got to be the guy standing on the top step, I was like surprised. I was like, wow, I focused on the three runs and landed at one room and it was good and this is great. Um. And so that's kind of been my whenever I'm at like my peak of competitiveness where I really know that I'm competing well and that things are likely to go well. That's kind of the state of mind that I'm in as I'm like, man, one trick at a time, one run at a time, and just enjoy the ride. Um. Yeah, it's wild. I like that, man enjoy the ride. But yeah, you you do. You think that's what is that the peak of your careers at this point? I know that's hard to nail down. What do you do think? And in terms of achievement, that gold medal, after that string of X Games medals was was where do you think things were the best? Oh? Man, it's an interesting way to ask that. I think, Um, certainly, that was my best hot streak and I don't know that I will ever Well, I'm almost certain that I'll never be able to match that because winning the X Games three times in a row, I was only the second guy ever to do that, and um, obviously my desire is to do that every time. I'd love to win the X Games every year, but um, you know, life happens and circumstances happen, and it's really challenging to do that. So having a hot streak before the Olympics and capping it all off with an Olympic gold medal, I don't know if I'll ever be able to match that. But in terms of athletic accomplishments, um, my, my absolute greatest moment in my life was landing my third run and Sochi and my second Olympic Games, because um, I went from the high point, you know, I we just talked about the hot streak that I was on and winning a bunch of stuff, and pretty much right after the Olympics, I went through a major struggle session where I was just um, suddenly injured. I had a lot of things going on in my personal life and family life and just things were It was almost like it seemed like I had gone from the top of the world to the bottom of the world, you know, top of the peak to the pits of despair. And um kind of had a three year struggle. And I think that if you had asked people, you know, two years out from the Olympics, if I was even going to make the team, they would have told you no. Um, they were just like no, Dave's really ever since the socio Olympics has really fallen off and faded out, and we actually are looking for the young guys to to do it, to do their thing and put on a show. Um. But I because I survived that struggle, Because I got through that struggle, it actually gave me sort of almost a new quiver of arrows to to take into the competitive season. Uh. And because of the mayhem I had been through when my skis came off on my first two out of three runs. My my event, it's the best of three formats, so any run on any given day can win. If you landed the first run, great, If you landed the last run, great. The judges just judge you on that one run. And on two out of my three chances through the half pipe in the finals, my skis came off of their own accord, like we call it a pre release, like my binding should not have come off, and they did. And I don't think that the person that I was in and soche could have mentally handled that kind of adversity and still landed a run on my third run, But because I had, because I felt like I had survived so much before that, I was like, look, this is just this is just the way this is working out today, and I still have one more chance. And I was able to land that third run and surprised even myself because I think on that day I was kind of wondering what next is gonna happen, Like my skis are coming off, Like is somebody gonna throw something at me from the crowd, or like what what What's the next piece of adversity I can face today? Because it's just been a string of adversity these last couple of years. Uh And so when I did land that run and then the judges did judge it well and then I did win the gold medal, I was I was just as surprised as anybody else. A lot of my friends are people that know me, uh from a distance, have been like, man, I don't know how you knew you were gonna win, and then you just did. But I could tell when you started that third run that you were just gonna win. And the reality is I could not have been less convinced that I was about to win the Olympics when I dropped into that run. But I was in this whimsical state of like, well, I've put everything I have into getting to this moment, and I have one more chance. I'm gonna go let it ride, and probably it's not gonna work out, but I'm going to enjoy the ride anyways. And uh So, yeah that in terms of athletic accomplishments, it will be hard to match winning my second Olympic gold medal in my third run, after having overcome the adversity of having my skis fall off of their own accord. It's like NBC scripted it. Yeah, I was gonna was gonna say that because I was This is after we had met. I think it's after you were on the podcast the first time, and the whole hunting industry was kind of rooting you on. I remember I was talking to the guys at hush In and We're like, oh, Dave's going, oh he's win. These weren't first line like oh look, and when you hit that, I I remember thinking like, you couldn't have scripted that. There's no way you could have scripted that. You're you have a binding malfunction twice in a row. And then forgive me if I'm wrong on this, but it was that was the best run of your career or the best scored run of your career. Ye, it certainly was for me personally, the best round of my career. Uh only it only could have been matched by if I had landed my first run, because my first round on that day was going as well as I could have hoped and then my ski fell off. So yeah, it was definitely the best round of my career for sure. Well, I mean, you know, I think it happens to a lot of athletes, but not all in the way that it's happened to you. You know, the ups and downs of your career, and you're you know that that marries up to your personal life and kind of all this stuff. And you've been open throughout all this kind of the struggles and the high points. And and I know it's like this because I know a couple other people that have have done Olympic Games. It's it's not like a normal sport where you show up every season and people track you. I know, you have the X Games, but in terms of the Olympics, it's only every four years, and so you kind of fall off the map, right is that? Is that the right way to say it? And then you come back four years later there's all this work that nobody sees. Yeah. Yeah, I mean we're super fortunate in my sport, even though it's it's what you could consider a niche sport. Um. We still do have the X Games, which means we do have some prime TV, primetime TV coverage every year, you know, X Games, due Tour, the Grand Prix series. We have things where people can see us and watch us. UM, but we definitely don't have a following. It's not like we have a league like Major League Baseball or hockey or anything like that, where the league is paying you or the team that you're contracted with is paying you to show up and do your job. All of our money that we make as professional skiers, this pretty much comes down to either contest winnings or UM dollars from sponsors. And so we're fortunate that we have those mainstream TV events every year because it means that sponsors still uh support us even in the non Olympic years. But the reality is, the attention we get and our ability to make money in the Olympic years is like increased by ten, by a power of ten, Like it's just insane. How different is so? Yeah, you do, you go through these highs and lows, you go through this, um, everybody cares. Everybody's watching too the non Olympic years. It's like, well, does is anybody even watching? Is there any point? Um? And I think it's good to those things are good actually in some ways because it's a good reminder for us that, like I've always said that I would do it anyways even if I wasn't getting paid to do it, Like I love I just love skiing that much. But so it's a good reminder like, hey, we're out here competing. I'm out here trying to find my own limits. I'm not doing this because I stand a chance of making money at it or because I stand a chance of winning medals at it. I'm out here doing it because it's what I like to do, what I enjoy doing. So, um, yeah, we it definitely is the attention factor is really it's and it's like that in all Olympic sports. Um, I have some I have some athletes that I'm doing some mental strength training with U in Olympic sports as well, and one of them, the rower. One of them was a mobile skier, And um, it is interesting trying to weather that wave. And because it has a tendency when when the highest attention point of your career is only every four years, it makes being like mentally tough and and like it just makes it that much harder because there's so much more pressure. Whereas you know, I envy baseball players who get to show up for the championship every single year. They have a chance at making it to the World Series every single year. Um, that's that's not the case for us. When you when you talk about the mental side of this, because we'll get into you know, I think we can spend a lot of this into the hunting. I know you can because we've talked to I think we've talked about this before. But when you think about the mental side of competing, and I know you can need to divorce this from skiing or you know, keep it in that world. What's what's the approach you take and talking to people, teaching them, but your mindset and and what's led to your success. Yeah, And I'm part of the reason that I do that at all is because um I certainly fell into the category as a young competitor of somebody who was getting in their own way where UM I could land ten runs out of ten and practice and crash twice in the competition because I was just mentally not strong and so being having been on both side of that. So some people are just naturally good competitors. They just step out and they're like, people are watching, I'm gonna send it, and they do and it goes well and good for those folks. But that's not how the story went for me. And so um I'm constantly looking for athletes, especially young athletes, who are like I was, and to me that it's it's sort of my responsibility, or maybe it's just something that I enjoy, Like I love being I love being able to give back and say, hey, I know that you have the skills to be able to achieve what you want to achieve. You're just getting in your own way. And these are the things that I did to get out of my own way. This is how I changed my mentality so that I could so that I could more consistently, you know, do some of my best skiing when the competition was going on, and um, being able to watch young athletes sort of make that mental um, that mental leap that I made when I was twenty one is it's super fun. It's the most rewarding thing for me besides competing myself health. Um. But yeah, you have to approach every competition. Uh, at least from for me, it works that I am very honest with myself and some other people's mentality might be different. But um, a lot of people will go into a competition like, oh this I'm feeling I'm feeling so great today, this is the best day ever. Everything is good, Everything's fine. I would be totally fine. I'm gonna land these runs and I'm gonna win this, I'm gonna win that. And it's it's almost a sort of it's almost a way of lying to yourself and that that can work, uh in a shirt on a short term basis, but in the long run, like you, your subconscious knows when you're lying to yourself. So, um, I've just embraced this uh philosophy of just being really honest with myself, being like, you know what, like some days I feel great and I can just own it. I can just be like I feel great, I feel unbeatable today. But the other days that don't feel great, and I'm like, man, and I feel like I could use about twelve more cups of coffee right now to get myself excited about this and just being honest and saying, but I still have a chance to go do what I love to do. So I'm going to take who I am in this moment and try to try to do my best today. And you know, having realistic expectations of yourself and um, for me, one thing that's really important is setting goals that aren't outside my control. So you know, take one of the big events that I compete in, like the X Games. But if I go into the X Games and I say, people are constantly asking me, what's your goal for the year. If I go into the X Games and I say, my goal is to win it, again, I haven't had a I've had a deb in a while. I want to win the X Games. And I go out there and I land my best run ever and somebody beats me or the judges don't like it, and I get silver. I haven't achieved my goal, which is tragic because I just did the best run of my life and all I'm set up for is disappointment. So I go into these competition with um concrete inside my control, expectations like these are the tricks that I want to do here. This is what I feel like is realistic for me to be able to do, and that's what I would like to do. So that's my goal. And then when I land it, I can just let the rest be up to the you know, be up to the judges, and be up to God and his plan for my life and all that. It's all good, um, And it's just a way of sort of simplifying your grind. And so that's Those are the kinds of tips that I'm that I'm constantly trying to um empower younger athletes with It's like, hey, there are things that you can that you can't control, and when they hit you have to embrace them. It's okay to be honest about it. It's okay to say I'm feeling stressed out, I'm feeling nervous right now. This is the biggest competition of my life. But now that I have acknowledge that and I'm aware of it, how can I continue to move forward and stay as calm and collect as I possibly can? Is that we already talked about this a little bit, But man, I when you're talking I feel like it's not as elevated as training for something like the Olympics. But when you're talking about archery the skill itself, you know, and then what you're applying it to. There's a lot of what you said that that really applies to try and to kill a thing with a bow class quarters fan that I don't want to. I don't want to overly connect something that's not there. But I mean, it just seems to me like there's parallels. Now you're preaching to the choir man, there's there's a reason that um. Hunting has become one of my biggest passions. Uh. And it has a lot to do with the fact that I'm doing it with a bow. UM. I grew up hunting with my old man and I've always loved it, um, but the level the love went to a whole another level once I started trying to do it with a bow, because there's something so focused and so um intense about trying to, like you said, get inside I bow range and kill something with a bow. That is like one of the greatest achievements you can have and one of the most difficult things to do that you can have that you can do um, but it makes the triumph so worth it. And and you know, people are constantly saying the cliche that it's not about the end result, it's about the journey. But I really feel like that's true about archery because because I wanted to get so good at shooting a bow that I could have a much higher chance of um killing something with it, I learned how to meditate Like archery to me, is is a form of meditation because you have to calm your heart right down. Um. You have to be alert and aware, but you also have to be not over alert and over aware. If you're stressing about your your level bubble while you're shooting, or if you're trying to punch the trigger when you're in the dot, all those things are going to contribute to shooting poorly. So you have to be somewhat aware a level of awareness of all those things, but also you have to find this flow state where you are just kind of letting it happen as well. You're almost as if you're watching it from a distance. You're like, you get your you get your repetition or your technique or your mantra down well enough that once you've done it a thousand times, you can actually do it without thinking too much about it. And that's where you see guys like Rammy Warren or Tim Burnett or you know, Brian Barney, all those guys who are really good at just knocking things down consistently one year after another, one hunt after another. It's because they're so good at shooting that they can actually just hunt, they can actually just stock, and the shooting becomes like it's just part of it. It's just an extension of the whole journey for them. And that's the state that's the state of bow hunting skill that I aspire to be at. Yeah, I'm with you, man, and I've seen, I've seen and I've had fits and starts with that in my life where I've been on when I hunted. When you know, when I have kids, I guess you will know you can really get to get some time in the woods. You go through these fits and starts where you feel like, Man, I'm in the zone, like I'm if my if I can get my file through right, that arrow is going to go exactly where I want. And I'm only worried about my my right elbow following through and going to the proper point. I'm not worried about where the front side is. I'm not worried about my front grip. I'm not worried about the peep, I'm not worried about the pins. I am literally just making sure that one thing happens in my process and then boom, that air is going to go where it goes. And that's one of the best feelings in hunting. And there's a philosophy that I've been studying and reading about recently that you know, hunting is has a game like quality to it. We don't like to admit that. We we try to talk around it sometimes, but it does. It has a gamelike quality that that brings us enjoyment. It just just so happens. At the end we're killing something to bring home the meat. But but before that, we're playing a game like this is a game and it's attractive in that way. Yeah, and I I know what you mean when you say we kind of try to dance around that, because the last thing that I want to do as a hunter or as a promoter of hunting is talk about how oh yeah, it's just so much fun. I'm just trying out there trying to kill something. But you're right, until that moment when you realize something beautiful has died, it is such a game. And I can't tell you how many failed stocks I've had where I feel like the deer or elk or uh you know, wild hog is just laughing at me on the way out, like nice, try, buddy, let's see, I'll see you next time. And it's so true. You're you're you are playing this game like it's like a game of chess. It's like he puts his chips on the table, he betted right there, the wind is at his back and his eyes are at the front. How am I going to get inside fifty yards of that location and still be able to see his vitals? Yeah? And and people will say too that well, that that deer is not playing the same game year playing. He's not playing, he's not playing with you, but he's playing to live like he's Yeah, he's trying sacking his own instincts to evade any predatory behavior. Whether it's you or a mountain, I didn't care. He's just trying to make himself safe via the conditioning that he's been in. So I mean it's like you kind of are playing the same game, but at least he's in it, and and he's setting it up. He's the best he can, especially a mature deer or elk or whatever, setting up the best as best he can to make sure you don't succeed. Yeah, exactly. And I think your point is good to the the deer. The deer isn't standing. The deer is standing to lose a whole lot more than we are, you know, like we're not out there fighting for survival. We're out there hoping to provide better quality meat for our families. But the reality is, at the end of the day, we could eat vegetables only if we had to, or we could go to the supermarket and buy meat. But we have this strong desire to provide, to provide the best meat possible. And so that's why we're playing the game. That's what we stand to win. In my opinion, that's what hunting is about, is about providing good quality meat for my fan friends and my family. Uh and his what he stands to lose is a lot greater than that, obviously. You know, like I said, they're struggling for survival and everything that they do. Their entire state of existence is don't get killed, don't get killed, don't get killed, don't get killed by that coyote, don't get killed by that bear, don't get killed by that two legged thing with arms, and I think he's carrying a bow or something like that. Just don't get killed. So, yeah, they stand to lose a whole lot more than we do it. So we really aren't playing the same game. But it is a game. Yeah, And to the point where I've read I've been delving into lately reading studies that they've done about you know, what really makes what's the why for hunters really and what like not even in a poll, but like what are hunting stories, what's articulated by the community. And if you look at the why, achievement almost always comes to the forefront. It's about achievement. Now, you can twist this word achievement to say like I just want to, you know, get my rocks off and get it, get a dead animal from my ego, or you can talk about what you're what we're discussing here. Achievement means playing the game, understanding everything that's going into it. The achievement is winning the game. Just the term winning is a is a it's a mist in everywhere, in every way. So it's very complicated to explain, but you can't. We just gotta be honest about that part. Yeah. Yeah, And the reality to a good point that you just made is that if if it was if I was a dent about because I really do like to talk a lot about the fact that I'm out there hunting because I want to provide good meat for my family and to that's to me, that's the best message that we can have for non hunters. It's like, hey, look, I'm looking for a sustainable way to provide good quality game protein for my family. But the reality is, if if that was my only goal, then I wouldn't do it with the boat, because by putting a bow in my hand instead of a rifle, I have only decreased my odds of success. So the the achievement that I want is I want to provide good quality meat for my family while doing it one of the harder ways to do it. I'm not out there with a spear or out there with a stick stick bow, but I am at least challenging myself to be able to pull it off with a bow. And I feel like that makes the game a little bit more fair, and that's what makes me love it just that much more. It's like me and that deer are playing this chess game and because of because my sense of achievement, the thing that I desire to accomplish is to do it with a bow. Um, you know, I just have a realistic site of those goals. Yeah, it's a mix right. You have to that that mixes is tough to suss out in your even your own motivations, right, I mean it's you know, you try to figure it out. You say, well, I've always said, like Huntings three dimensional, there's the two dimensional game theory where I'm trying to do this, and that that achievement does matter for my mental state, for my physical state, you know, for how I interact with a natural world, my understanding of of how I eat like that, that achievement means something to all of that. But then at the end of the day that the three dimensional part comes in, when I can take that meat home and sharing that achievement, the where it turns into the into the sharing the achievement is where it's really important. But that achievement you would never get there. You wouldn't feel as good when you're eating that meat if you didn't have the rest of it. So you you know the balances. It's super interesting to me. But I want to you know, you made a post that this is when I originally got a hold of you to come back on. You made a post um you know what was it? You turned thirty? Yeah? Last month probably, so you turned thirty and you've had you know, if you follow Mr David Wise over there on Instagram or anywhere you travel on the social media's, you're pretty open about what's going on. I mean, you shattered your femur? Was he shattered your femur? I mean spiral fractures at all? Right? Yeah, three pieces spiral fracture. Yeah, it was. It was not fun. And if you ever watched any of you, well, we'll try to get some some videos and post some stuff of what you actually do. Um, when we keep talking about gold medals and and free skiing, like, you gotta see it to believe some of the stuff that David can pull off when you're when you're in the air, so it's not Can you gotta describe that that day, what you were doing, what happened with the with the injury. Yeah, like you said, my my sport is pretty hard to describe in words because it would take me ten times as long describing words as it would for you to watch it. And essentially, I am trying to launch myself as high as I can, oftentimes in as safe a way as possible, so I'm not out there just chucking my meat around and hoping it works out like everything is is pretty calculated. But um, on the day that I shattered my femur, um, we had just set a world's highest on a certain type of feature we had built a. I was at an event that one of my good friends puts on called Auti Nines UM. And the whole concept of the event is they rather than having to be a competition uh where you win prize money at the end, they take the prize money on that front end and make it and put it into the build of the feature. So this is one of the most picturesque features you will ever see UM. And you guys can check these clips out on YouTube just look for Autie Nines and you can kind of see what I'm talking about. But they make it look good and safe and fun. And so one of our goals for that year was to build a quarter pipe takeoff feature with a sort of a banked landing where I could just basically hit a quarter pipe as fast as I possibly could and see how high in the air I could go. And so earlier in the week we had already set a world's highest and we're just like, you know, so stoked. And it was the last day and I was enjoying myself and and unfortunately or fortunately in my sport, like you have to, you have to be aware of danger at all times. And and I should maybe learn a little bit more from the mule deer that I try to hunt and recognize, Like, no matter what, no matter how simple it seems, I am on the edge of potential catastrophic injury at all times. And um, I was just trying to go from one take off to a different landing, and I was I was using the feature not as directed, which is pretty typical of free skiers. We kind of like the event organizers build a jump and we look at it and we're like, well, we're not gonna land on the normal landing. We're gonna jump from this feature all the way over to the landing of that feature. And so I went to land on a different landing, and but just just mentally wasn't as wasn't as aware of how dangerous what I was doing was until I was midway through the air and realizing, holy shit, I'm about to hit him. I'm about to hit a ice wall from in the air. Watch the video right now as you're describing it. You gotta you just search OUTI nines David Wise, it comes up. Appreciate it. You were in first light. Shout out. It's unbelievable for somebody who has barely ever put on a pair of skeys in his life. This is just just un human. It's wild. Sorry continue, but yeah, So anyways, like I said, I had this split moment that will forever be imprinted on my memory where I realized that you have you have really done a bad thing. You really have this update now you're now you're in trouble and hit the ground. I pretty much folded over my leg and kissed my toe. And I'm not a flexible human. So, um, I knew right from the start broken my femur, and I told the doctor that was in the bottom of the landing. In the midst of my cries of pain, I was like, I broke my femur and it's in at least two pieces because I can move my hip but my foot is not moving. So yeah, I've heard you yelling that, and I watched a video where you're just yelling that to the doctor and in surprising detail for I'm sure the shock and pain that must have been going on, you're just kind of describing this is the injury and this is what happened. I was. I was pretty lucid. I've been I've had a few fair few injuries in my career. Um, and so I was loosed at first, and I the doctor was like, well, are you in pain? I was like, well, no, I'm I'm fairly certain I'm in shock already. I'm not feeling any pain. She's like, okay, let me know when you when that wears off and you are in pain. And about five minutes later, I was like, yeah, I'm feeling it pretty good now. And then, um, you know, I was in Austria, so um, I got to experience Austrian healthcare from the emergency standpoint, got got loaded into a helicopter. I feel like, potentially slightly over medicated on hill where um I went from Holy sh it, this hurts a lot too. I was like hallucinating, like was trying to talk to my wife and um they I was so drugged up that I started like getting really euphoric and I was like, Babe, I just want you to know that if I don't make it out of this, it's been a great journey. And so she's bawling her eyes out while I'm like telling her these you know. Anyways, it was a traumatic, traumatic experience. And then then that crazy thing about taking a helicopter to the hospital in a foreign country is guess what you're the first person of anybody you know to get there. So now I'm I have a shattered femur in a foreign country and I'm in the operating room alone, and the doctors there are very on it. They're like, hey, this is what you have, Um, this is what we're gonna need to do to fix it. And I was making all these decisions by myself. Luckily enough, UM, I have my one of my team doctors is a really good friend, Dr Cooper, and uh, he and I go elk hunting together every year. So, um, we've progressed beyond the just friends professionally stage to where he's just actually one of my best friends. So I called him and I was like, this is where I'm at, this is what's going on. I know it's two in the morning where you're at, but can you help me out? And so he proceeded to call every person that he knew, UM, to make sure I was at the right hospital and that the surgery was you know, that the chief surgeon at the hospital I was at was going to do a good job and all that stuff. So that really helped my confidence level because I didn't ever see my family or friends, my my wife and kids were there with me. Actually we were kind of having a little bit of a European vacation before I shattered my femur uh, but I didn't see any of them. My sister was there too. I didn't see any of them until after I woke up from surgery. So luckily I had my phone and I was able to call Dr Cooper and I was able to make sure that, you know, he was confident that I was doing the right thing, etcetera, etcetera. But it was just, I mean, it was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life. Uh, and one of the biggest learning lessons of my life too, you know. And it all comes down to that one moment, you know, where I was like, Oh, I'm gonna try to take off there and land there. That'd be super cool, uh, and just didn't put enough forethought into it, like, oh, this is what could go wrong, this is where I need to be, this is what I need to be aware of, and just realizing, wow, the consequences for that split second decision are were catastrophic. Here I am a year and a couple of months later, and I'm still not quite a hundred percent in terms of strength. Obviously, my bones healed by now, and I have a big piece of metal in there, so it's probably, you know, stronger than it ever was before. But muscularly, I'm still struggling daily to get back to where I was and a man. So, yeah, talk about catastrophic lessons, and sometimes you have what I like to call soft lessons where you're like, that was sketchy, that almost that almost went bad, and you're you it's really good to take note of those soft lessons because then you don't have to have the hard lessons I've think sometimes. Yeah, I mean is and you know, once your folks out there have either seen what David does or go now and watch it. Yeah, I imagine something that's that amazing, that that's that hard to do, is going to have kind of polarized results. Either you landed and it's the best thing that any would ever did, or it doesn't go right and and it can be traumatic um for for a long time. But yeah, you so you talked about in that post when you turn third, you talked about ups and downs, you talked about COVID, You kind of talked about where you were at that time, and you you use this word depression that sometimes it's hard to talk about. People don't like to talk about it, or in my experience at least, if they do talk about it, they're very open and a lot of times connected with going outside or sport or or whatever, obstacles can help you kind of get perspective. So you want to try to give a little I don't know that you know, the what you wrote kind of paints the whole picture, but it does paint a picture that you were struggling with something. So you want to kind of give people a rundown on what what was going on last month? Yeah, I think, um, my wife and I started calling sort of the year and it's not over yet, so we were calling it the Year of the Broken, but now we're just going to call it the Era of the Broken because I broke my femur, um my daughter broke her arm like two weeks later, and then my wife broke or had a compound neck uh sprain, like a couple of weeks later, and so we were just all broken, and it became this like theme like Okay, well we're just broken, and we're um figuring out what that means for us, and if anything, we started to learn how to be okay with being broken and be honest about being broken, Like, hey, it's all right to not be a hundred percent at all times. And I think our society, especially with the advent of Instagram and Facebook where you only post your highlights, um, has created this illusion that we all have to be okay all the time. And that's one of the upsides I think that I'm seeing people recognize with COVID is like, Yeah, this is a really shitty situation that we're all in and it's not that fun. But I at least am learning to be aware of my brokenness and and the things that I appreciated before this whole shutdown happened and all of that stuff. So I went from this, you know, really obviously difficult time shattering my femur um and then I've always been UM. I've always been the guy who just keeps going no matter what, Like I cannot quit. I can't. Like even just this past Cali Blacktail hunt that we were talking about earlier, UM, I begged my friend Max, who I was there filming with, I was like, can we just stay an extra evening? Man? I just want to go out and give the Hills one more shot, even though we had not seen a single legal buck the day before. I was like, what if, what if we see one? And what if I can shoot it? Like, I just can't give up. So my mentality, my my method of overcoming adversity has always been Okay, things are bad now, but I'm just gonna keep going. I'm just gonna keep going. I'm just gonna keep going. And that's always kind of worked for me in the past, and and so that was my approach to overcoming the female injury. I was like, Okay, this is a crappy situation that I'm in. I would rather not be here, but I am, so I'm going to do the best. I can't overcome it. Um actually came back and was on the podium the first event of the year, and I was like, Wow, that was an easy recovery. And two weeks later I crashed in getting ready for X Games and reinjured both my leg and my h my right knee my meniscus there, and I was like, I just got done being injured. I don't want to be injured again. And so I got to struggle through the rest of the season with a minor injury not a major injury, but a minor one, and um, it just continued the Year of the Broken, and then COVID hit basically right as I was getting back to where I was like, man, I feel like myself on a pair of skis again. And we were going to have the X Games China, and we had a couple more you know, banger events scheduled for the rest of the year. All of a sudden, everything was canceled, and I was like, Okay, this is a new state of existence. What am I gonna do? And as a task oriented person, I was sort of unaware that I was finding my identity so much in what I could do and not in who I was, so um, you know, as a guy who just takes, who just won't quit. I just got home and I was like, well, I'm gonna keep skiing. I'm gonna keep doing what I can do while while trying to stay safe and try to keep people around me safe and you know, follow the rules and do all this stuff. But I'm still gonna keep trying to be me and and just keep going, just keep going, just keep going. And eventually I got to the point where I was like, man, where am I going like I don't have anywhere to go, the events are all canceled, next year's events might all be canceled. And I just realized that I had run out of goals to go towards. And that's when the depression really hit. And and I have always been very like disinclined to ever put it put the depression word on how I'm feeling. Sometimes I would say, oh, I'm bummed, or I'm sad, or I've had a rough year, or I'm injured, But because the word depression kind of carries like a mental health uh aspect to it, I always really avoided that. But I just realized, like I am actually like I'm actually so un certain of who I am right now that I couldn't call it anything else. And it was actually once I admitted that and told my wife, like, hey, I feel kind of depressed. Actually I feel really depressed. I'm I'm really lost. I don't know who I am. Um, once I admitted that out loud, it kind of took the power out of it. Where I wasn't fighting, I wasn't fighting to be okay anymore. I was just not okay, and I was okay with that, So um, I was able to kind of redefine what, you know, who I was and what I was trying to do, and rather than focusing on my identity being the tasks that I can do, I started focusing on who I was. And I was like, well, at the end of the day, I still have a lot to be thankful for. I still get to go and shoot my bow in the backyard, I still get to do cool things with my kids. We get to go for especially with COVID, we got to go for mountain bike rides every single day, and you know, we had a lot more freedom than we were used to having. So I just learned to embrace sort of the upsides to a really admittedly shitty situate wration that we're all in. And uh yeah, I think everybody's struggling with this in their own way. But I just wanted to put that out there to say, Hey, I'm struggling too. And I know that you think that because I'm a professional athlete, that my journey as butterflies and rainbows, But I want to admit to you my journey is not butterflies and rainbows. I'm really struggling, and I think it's okay if you're struggling to um. So that's that was the my heart behind those posts. Uh. I certainly have a hard time actually posting when I don't have something good to share. So I totally understand people's like desire to only post their highlights. But I don't know, I just felt like the right thing to do for me. I was like, this is authentic, this is where I'm at, and I think people people maybe need to hear this message. Yeah, that's how I felt when I read it. Like, man, you know, for someone, if you look at your highlights, you have extreme highlights. You know, beautiful family, beautiful kids, beautiful wife, a lot of accomplishments in your young life, a lot of great living a to you. Um So I think sometimes for for not necessary for me in that moment, I know, but I know for a lot of people when they see someone like hey, look, I know this looks great, but it's not always great. Um and it and this is something I have to deal with. And and even in finding ways to get over the hump and get through those obstacles that you're you know, whether physical or mental, is inspiring for people. And I just to me, whether it's a hunting story or a story that just just about life, especially in this time when you connected to COVID like you did. Um, I know that it's a story that will resonate with a lot of people. Um. And especially like for you to define depression like I'm not feeling great, I don't really have much motivation, Like what is depression? Um? So I think that's it's important for you to kind of tell people. Man, it's it's this lack of direction. It sounds like, is that how you would Is that how you encapsulate it all? Like just for you, because I know it's it's not something that you can nail down with the textbook. Yeah, exactly. I don't think that there's a I don't think there's a one size fits all for what depression looks like. But for me, it was it was a lack of It was exactly like that you can't shoot a bow at no target. I mean, and I was just aimless. I was like, man, I don't know, I don't know where I'm going because I don't have these competitions to look forward to. And so that's where I that's where my awareness of the fact that my heart was in the wrong place came from us because I I realized, oh, I'm depressed because I'm worried about not being able to compete next year. But is that really what I should be stressing out and worried about anyways, And so I look at it as something that I'm very thankful for having gone through because now I'm going into this next season and whether we have competitions or not, I'm gonna be stoked to be out there skiing. Pretty much right after I had dropped that post, I was able to, for the first time since COVID stru go out and ski again at Mount Hood And you know what we were. We were following protocol social distancing. Everybody was staying safe, but there was a half way for me to ride, and my my sense of gratitude for the ability to go out and ride was way higher. And I wasn't working towards a run that I need to do at this competition, this competition there, this competition. I was just out there enjoying skiing and I was like, well, these are some tricks that I want to do on skis period. I think it'd be I think that'd be a cool thing to do, and I think that that would be art that like I like to think of skiing as my form of art in the same way that guys like you and Remy think of bow hunting as your form of art, Like this is what I go out there and and artistically create. Um, And so yeah, man, I really I'm actually still I'll be honest, I am not an expert in this, and so I want people to know that I said what I said and will continue to say what I think is authentic and true from a from almost like a layman's perspective, like this is how I this is what I think depressionist, this is what it made me feel like. But I'm not an expert, and the answer might be different for for everybody. But that was one way that I was able to define it, and and those were some of the things that I was able to do to get past that. By admitting, hey, I'm depressed and I feel aimless, So why do I feel aimless and admitting Okay, I feel aimless because I'm My identity is tied up in what I can do, not who I am. So I'm going to focus my attention over the next two or three weeks on who I am. Really really like pouring into my spending time with my family and really enjoying it more thoroughly again, rather than filling the time like, oh, here we are again, we're all stuck in the same house again, instead approaching it from like, all right, I get to be stuck with my kids and wife for another day. What are we going to do? What new adventure are we going to do? And and um, that trip up to Mounthood actually was really good for us because we went up there as a family and we sort of got out of the us that we have been stuck in for four months and we're able to I was able to go skiing, and we were all able to go mountain biking and stuff, and it just just really healthy for us to have a break from from that spot. Um. Not everybody has the opportunity to do that, but there are small opportunities for that kind of a break every day. Yeah. And gratitude is a good word to use because you because it strips away it doesn't matter how nice your houses, it doesn't matter how many, what what your possessions are. If you if you can't find gratitude and just waking up and being who you are and being with your family and the people that are important to you. It doesn't nothing else really matters, so that achievement doesn't really line up, um, and it feels hollow. And then when the thing that used to give you satisfaction starts to feel hollow on the back end, that's uh. You know, I don't have experiences too specifically in hunting. You know, I had to kind of last year. I had to kind of strip away the social media for a minute. And because I was two turkey seasons ago hunting turkeys, super stressed out doing the thing that I really used to enjoy, super stressed out because I wasn't killing a turkey, rather than what you we were talking about earlier, which is enjoying the turkey hunt, enjoying the more the you know, the mist covered hills and you know, in the black hills in the morning, I was thinking, I gotta get this turkey down because I gotta film a video and I gotta do a recipe, and I got to do a podcast. And I had to step back from that and be like, this is this is going to lead to a really bad situation later on, you know, if if this is where I'm making this connection, because this used to be my escape from this type of stress, and now it is this type of stress. Yeah, exactly. And I've experienced that. I've experienced that both on the skiing side and on the hunting side because I've done some hunting UM hunting related media, and of course, like you can't help but want to get something down on the ground because it makes the project that much cooler. You're like you're like, well, I don't have to, but I really really want to, or or like sometimes you do get to the point where like I gotta get something down or else I can't do the cooking aspect of this or etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, And it does cause that stress. And I think that that aspect of hunting is kind of caught up in um sort of this illusion that we have as a society that if you get X number of things, or you have x number of success or you have this, um, I don't know, projected idea of what success is, then you'll be happy. I think that people from a young age are told if you go to college, get a good degree, you know, find the right partner, buy a big house, drive a nice car, then you will be happy. And you you have to work towards that in order to be happy. But the reality is, I can tell you from somebody who has had all of those things at different points in my life, and I've met all the rich and famous, and I've gone to the Oscar parties and I've seen I've seen what it's like to be I haven't. I've never have been, and I hope I never am super famous, but I have seen what it's like to be super famous. And the reality is those things don't make you any more happy than than you were before. So if you can't learn to be happy now with what you do have, um, you're not going to be happy you later. And I'm not I'm not encouraging people to just be complacent and just say, oh, I need to be happy right now, so I don't need to want anything. That's that's actually the last thing that I'm in. I love setting high goals and seeing how far I can take things. But um, but you have to have a sense of gratitude for where you're at in order to be able to appreciate where you get to. And that's the same thing in hunting. I definitely have struggled with that, like, oh, if I get a deer down, then be happy. You know. It's like this, It's just this if then mentality. If I get a deer down, then I'll be happy, or if I get um, if I get you know, X number of animals for the season, then I'll be happy. And you put these you put these sort of requirements, these check boxes on your happiness or your contentment or your joy, and you're really just taking the joy out of the day to day, like you said, you you and I fell into this just this last time where I was like, man, we've got this great film put together. I'm so excited to put it out there, but it would be so much better if I get one and we get to end it with a banger. And so I caught myself over refreshing myself, like, don't f up this next stock, like you know, stay stay focused, stay mental, staid, be like Rammy, just be like Rammy was just and and I got at one point I realized I think I just had had a sense of awareness. I was like, Dave, you can't shoot the deer that's not there. Bro, Like it's you cannot kill the animal that is not there. And I had to just admit that to myself, and I realized in that moment. I was like, put, you're you're sitting on a peak in northern California and you're out here bow hunting during COVID. Not everybody else is getting to do that, So you should be happy for where you're at. And it just gave me the sense of gratitude. And I think if I had had a couple more days, I would have my whole perspective would have been different. And I look forward to taking that lesson that I learned on the last day of this past hunt into my next time. Yeah, And I think it's it's very parallel, very analogous to what you were explaining about how you got over the hump with skiing, that you were focusing on the run. Your goal wasn't your goal, ultimate goal wasn't to get a trophy. Your goal was to do the best with that run that you can do. Right, So transfer that onto hunting. My I'm going to do the best I can with the stock. I'm gonna draw when exactly when I think I need to, and I'm gonna let that are flying exactly the way that I know is the best possible form and process, and if it if the deer jumps the string, or the deer's not there, or he smells me in spooks, there's nothing I can do about that. I did the best I could do based on what I know. And then you know, you can then derive some joy in the failure because otherwise, like you said, you're just chasing man and that's that's happened to me before. Where you get so you can't You did not enjoy a full day of hunting, being disconnected from social media, all media, disconnected from our modern struggles, being out there, being physical, being connected to the ecosystems in the natural world, tracking these animals like we've done for millions of years. And I can't enjoy it anymore because I because I did, I wasn't successful. Um, And I imagine that will be a constant struggle for everybody. But just understanding that's the struggle that you're in, it's helpful, I'm sure. Yeah. I think redefining success is would be is healthy for everyone. And that's one of the things that um, I'm constantly preaching to two younger athletes, says, hey, redefine what success is for you, because if you define set success as winning gold medals. Um, you're only gonna be disappointed because once you get that gold medal, guess what, it's over. You've already got it, and that competition is over. That that moment only lasts one moment, and that means you have to look forward to the next one and the next one and the next one, and you're you're never gonna be satisfied. No, no, no gold medal. No. The satisfaction from no gold medal lasts forever. Uh. And it's the same thing with Hounting, Like you have to redefine what success is. And I love that what you said, Like, I'm going to do my best today and a lot of times in spot stock open country hunting, like I do the most of I mean, I'm an opportunist all hunt, anytime, any place. But um, a lot of times it comes with the walk in. I'm gonna hike in here and I'm gonna I'm gonna get there, I'm gonna get there as efficiently as possible without blowing everything out. I'm gonna do the best. I'm gonna do the best hike in as I poss we can. And then you're sitting down glass and you're like, all right, I recognize that I only have so much mental focus, So I'm not going to try to destroy myself to find a deer. I'm going to enjoy the aspect of glasses right now, and I'm gonna look for all. I'm gonna look for the right vegetation. I'm gonna look into the right shadows. I'm gonna look where that I think the deer should be. If I see one, great, If I don't see one, that I at least try, you know, and just taking each aspect of the hunt and doing your best in that aspect and making that the goal rather than knocking down the biggest deer of your life, every single one um will really help with you know, the the overall satisfaction of the experience. Yeah yeah, rip a perfect bugle. This year, I'm like really determined to to take my elk feeling game from like oh noises are made to to it really being something that I'm starting to understand the you know, understand the ins and outs of And then and that's why you know, you have young children mine or even young or you know what younger. When I think of teaching them, I want to try to get them in a place where it's hard. What you do is hard. Um, mule deer in in anywhere or if California blacktail spotstock is really one of the harder things you can do. Um. When you talk about archery, tackle and then say, like when I introduced them, there are other forms of what you would say, like maybe smaller successes, killing a squirrel, killing a duck, um that can come a little easier. So at least somebody starting out can feel that like tinge of success and like understand what that is. That way when they graduate to you know, a harder pursuit, that they understand kind of what it takes to get there, at least in a smaller way. Yeah. Yeah, And that's my favorite thing to do with my kids right now too. It's just like introduce them to those small satisfactions. Like we haven't done a great job of getting out and fishing as much as I want to do this summer. But we went out one time and we've got a big old bass and my my son was so struck, My five year old, he was so stuked. He was like, yeah, Dad, we caught a stacker. I can't wait to eat this fish. And he didn't even really like it. Once we cooked it up. But at least he got to like he got to tell everybody at dinner, like I was, I participated in the catching of this fish. Enjoy, you know. And um, I was fortunate enough to get a wild hog earlier in the year with my bow and my my kids both participated in the grind process. We made some some wild game broths and um, so every time we break those out of the freezer, I always like to ask Malak. I'm like malc I who made these hot dogs? And he's like a man, and it's just so satisfying, those small satisfactions. So yeah, I look forward to Uh. I look forward to teaching my kids the things that I've learned, um in my journey and see how it contributes to theirs. Yeah, it's fun to track that, huh. Like I've tracked it with my kids. We you know, I killed Melior last year. We grinded, I grinded up. My son was, you know, to three, just turned three at that at that point, so he he doesn't have much understanding, but to have him start to learn what a mule deer is, what a mule dear burger is, how good it tastes with pickles and catch up and bustard, and to be able to watch him slowly understand that and then start to want to apply to other things. You know. Then we go catch a bluegill and I always ask him, you want to explain catch and release? He already knows the eating part. I'm like, here's what catch releases. You gotta have fish for later, you know, this is the philosophy. And every time I'm like, do you want to catch it or do you want to keep it? Throw it back? And every single time I want to keep it. I want to keep it. I want to keep it. He want to keep He wants to keep every fish. So just to let him kind of discover that and introduce him to that and then watch him track with it is it's its own little joy to see what they do. You know, what they're gonna do with the information you give them. So I love him, man, Well, you know, I appreciate your your openness and talking about it. Like I said, I've I've I've had other people in the outdoor space talk about depression. A lot of them are veterans, a lot of them are are just going through something hard in life. And I think that's probably more amplified with COVID, but talking about how you were feeling, you know, the contributions that hunting and archery kind of have to your life as a whole, and then into even kind of pulling you through the depression. I think, I think it matters. In fact, I know it betters, So I really appreciate it. Um. Is there anybody and articulate kind of what the outdoors means in terms of making the lows better, in the highs higher? Yeah. For me, the outdoors is just a conduit to gratitude, UM. And I think anybody listening to this show probably shares that with me, and the fact that, like at the end of the day, whether we get to kill something or not, UM, we appreciate being outside. And I always feel personally, I feel I can hear God's voice. The further away from humanity I get, Like the further end I am to the wilderness, the more clear I feel like I can hear God's voice, Like I can just find that piece, I can find that sense of Um, going back to what I was talking about earlier, who I am rather than what I can do and UM, so that was a big thing for me. Is once I once I realized, hey, you're you're actually super depressed. And to be honest, I realized that I hadn't shot my bow and like two months, and I was like, that's so dumb, Like, if anything, that's what I should be doing, but I'm getting caught up in things that I shouldn't be getting caught up and not doing the things that I should be doing. So I cracked my bow out that very day and I was like, oh, yeah, I do feel a little bit better. Like I had a calm my, I had a seat in my heart rate. I had to be focused. I had to um, you know, remember my repetitions and my my mantra that I say to myself when I'm shooting. I always just repeat the middle of the middle of the middle of the middle of the middle of the middle. That's my everybody's got one or I'm not sure if everybody has one, but I think you should. There's a little hot tip for you, something that can something that helps you continue to aim no matter what part of the shot you're in. Uh, and no one for me, the middle of the middle of the middle. And I was like, oh, it just feels so good to have one small thing to focus on trying to get that pin as close to the middle of that dot as I possibly can and let everything else go. And those couple of shots made me feel a little bit better, and I was like, Okay, I'm still depressed, but I'm slightly less depressed. And then I went out for a hike with my family and I was like, Okay, I'm slightly less depressed. And I'm not saying that there's a formula to solving depression. I wouldn't. I wouldn't dare step into that space. But at least that was a partial solution for me, was recognizing I am so fortunate to be able to go out and enjoy the outdoors. If I have nothing else, I still have that even with COVID, And that was like, that's where That's what walked me back into a sense of gratitude. It's funny how you know, people that have listened to most of them, not all of our shows here, you'll you'll recognize the term flow state because it comes up in these weird ways, not only in the success we're in shooting your bow and kind of a kind of feeling a certain way it comes. It's come into the conversation in ways that I that I don't think I would have ever guessed. But it seems like a constant, like if you can find this mental place, whether it's in it's in your archery process, or it's just in the way that you sit in glass and what you're looking for and what you're trying to pick out flick of an ear um your glass and things like that. It's just something for everybody to remember. You know. It's not that you can go out there and dial it up and achieve flow state just because you want to. But I think when you're in it, you kind of know and you want to keep keep repeating that, keep chasing that that state of being. That's good man. I'll let you go. I know you got what you got some yardwork to do. You're building a hogpen over there. Yeah, work and work and working always something same here, shoveling rocks in the backyard. But man, I, like I said, I really appreciate it. I appreciate it. I'm glad we got to connect. I appreciate that post when you when you send it um and I know that that that will mean a lot of this conversation mean a lot to a lot of people, so I appreciate it. Man. Yeah, thanks for having me on man. Yeah, where can everybody find your hunt materials? Yeah? So I run two different Instagram pages. Um, one of them is Mr David Wise. That's where I post all my skiing related you know, well that's just me, that's like my athletics side. And then another page that my wife and I run together is called wisem TG or wise Off the Grid, and UM, that's where I post hunting stuff and farming. We're getting into like, you know, micro farming. We have a pig now, Um, I might have some more pigs eventually. We're just kind of getting into this sustainable, you know, self sustained lifestyle. So that's where you can follow those things. And then I have a YouTube channel and a YouTube series that I'm doing this year called People of the Woods where kind of embracing some of the things that we talked about today, UM, embracing this outdoor lifestyle that I love, and and teaching my kids that love or or or at least bringing my kids into with me. So we're going to go on a big road trip this year and UM stop off at beautiful scenery along the way. Uh, while I take my bow out here and there and do some hunt so that that series is gonna be called People of the Woods and people can keep an eye on my YouTube channel for that Mr David Wise as well. And yeah, that's that's where you can find me. And thanks everybody for listening. I'm I'm so too so to have a chance to have a cool conversation. And thanks Ben for what you do. Man, thank you, thank you, appreciate it, and and go follow that. I'll be following along. And there's nothing like Fall. It's like the early all Time Friends. Just isn't it just the best. It's like you don't know what's gonna happen, but you could have the worst fall ever. It could just be just a calamity after calamity. But this this this moment, like opening Day, It's like nothing's going wrong yet. All the tags are just sitting there staring at you, and that's all that matters at this moment. Yeah. But so that's how I felt this last weekend going into the Cali Blacktail Woods. I was like, well, if nothing else, I have a tag in my pocket, which means that I have a chance, and uh yeah, I look forward to that for everyone this hunting season. Dude, I'm tracking it all right, Dave. Thanks Bro. Thanks, that's it. That's all another episode teaching the books. We're gonna make it quick here in the outro today because Phil has got to get back to your emails and you're angry text messages. Um, that's right, and you're angry d m s on Instagram. He's got to fix what he broke. Finally he's here to admit to it. False. No, he didn't break it. But David Wise an important co station, you know, for everybody out here that's struggling with UM tough times during COVID or just in general. Again, I think it's important to hear from a guy like him who seemingly has it all, has had great success in his career, it's a wonderful family, but still struggling on the day to day basis. To get through his openness, I think is important. It's important for me, important for all of us UM to listen to. So I hope you enjoyed that one. We'll keep this short and sweet, UM, but again, thanks to our our guest early and show, David Hasselhoff and UM thanks for his lovely, lovely music. This is true survivor. Alright, Phil, good luck. You get out there and fix this podcast. Buddy. We'll see you next week. Say by screw you bad bye, because I can't go we without doing Rong Oh without doing Rong drinking out run and I'm to wrong drinking in Inven

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