Garrett McNamara: Conquering the 100 Foot Wave and Other Nutso Acts

Guy Kawasaki:
I'm Guy Kawasaki, and this is Remarkable People. We're on a mission to make you remarkable. Today, we're diving into the awe-inspiring, maybe fear-inspiring world of big wave surfing with Garrett McNamara. He's a surfer who has not just danced with the waves, but tamed the mightiest among them. He has the singular distinction of riding perhaps the largest wave ever recorded. This is an epic story immortalized in the HBO series 100 Foot Wave.
Garrett is not just about surfing. His journey encompasses a profound narrative that extends beyond the ocean into family, colleagues, and his own development. His story is as deep and riveting as the gargantuan waves he surfs. I'm Guy Kawasaki. This is Remarkable People. Now, as we say in surfing, it's time to turn and burn with Garrett McNamara.
You're all vulnerable, right? You're all susceptible to injury or really, death, and feeling vulnerable is a survival instinct, but I just want to know how do you push past feeling vulnerable, and actually do it, and go out there and risk your life?
Garrett McNamara:
For the actual action of surfing and going out there. It's what we love. It's just second nature, and it's my passion, and I'm just excited like a kid in a candy store. I don't really ever get butterflies. I never really get nervous. I definitely get excited. That's what I have. I always have to slow myself down because I get so excited. I get so worked up that I can't wait to get on the waves, I can't wait to be out there, and I'm just like a kid in Christmas, a kid in a candy store, just excited.
Guy Kawasaki:
You're not fearful anymore, but how did you get to that point? Is it the lack of fear or you put fear in a bottle?
Garrett McNamara:
Fear is something we choose when we're thinking about the past or thinking about the future, two things that don't exist. We're so conditioned. We're always thinking about the past and the future. We're never really in the moment. So then, fear is super easy to choose. It's super easy for us to choose to be afraid. I would just face my fear.
When I was sixteen, I wouldn't go out over ten feet. I was terrified. I got pounded on a ten-foot wave. It was only a ten-foot face, and I bowed to never surf a wave over ten feet. Then, at sixteen, my buddy forced me to go out, gave me the right board, gave me the right advice, and I caught every wave I wanted, and then that was it. The fire was lit.
I lived for big waves. The passion. I loved big waves from that day forward, but limits, it was ten feet, then fifteen feet, then twenty feet, then twenty-five. Waimea. I got pounded on a solid fifty-foot face. The worst you could ever get pounded, came up laughing. So then, I was like, "I can handle anything." Then, a couple weeks later, I break my back at Waimea.
So it was a good lesson that no, I was losing respect for mother... I had to respect, but I was like, "Ugh, I'm stronger. I'm better. I can handle. I can conquer." So now I take the approach of complimenting and always having a 100 percent respect. No matter if it's two feet or a hundred feet, respect. The fin can come out of two-foot wave and cut your jugular vein, and you're gone on a two-foot wave. Boom. So you have to have respect.
The real reason the fear disappeared was I had been surfing so many waves all over the world and trying to just go deep, trying to get barreled, trying to get barreled, trying to get barreled, and I got that barrel at Jaws. It was a sensory overload, the most rewarding spiritual feeling I've ever had on a wave. Just beautiful, and special, and endorphins, and adrenal, and just say, "Waa, ta-da. That was it," and that was 2003.
Then, from 2003 to 2007, I just surfed every swell I saw on the map. If I could get there, I was there, and I got the most monumental swells that happened during the year no matter where they were: Japan, Chile, Australia, Indonesia, wherever the swell was going, I was getting in front of it, and I was going to catch the wave. Mavericks. So I surfed Mavericks probably fifty times if not more in 2003 to 2007. So I was just conditioned to be used to it. I started to get very used to it.
Once you do think something so many times, you get used to it. I took Anderson Cooper out to Nazaré. We went around the rocks, and it was a pretty big day, like thirty-foot faces, maybe forty, and he said, "I'll go through the rocks over there." I'm like, "No, we don't do that on a big day this." He's like, "What are you, chicken?" I'm like, "Oh, you're calling me chicken?" So then, I did a big U-turn and start to go through the rocks, and right where you get in front of the rocks, the most dangerous place in the world where Cotty was, he falls off the jet ski, and the wave is coming.
So I had to turn around, pick him, and then pluck him, and then go through the rocks, and then I tell him, "What's up? What's up? You're not afraid. What's going on? I don't have any fear, but I'm wondering, what about you?" I go, "I don't have fear in the ocean," and he said, "Oh, no. I've been through so many dangerous situations where you just get sensitized. You desensitize, and the fear, it's more of a natural thing. It's like more a walk in the park."
I went to Alaska, the glacier wave in 2007. When that thing was falling down, and then it created this perfect... this teeny wave, three-foot wave that didn't even break, more of a swell, I'm getting towed at it. I let go of the rope, and I'm riding under, and then I look up behind me, and it's 300-feet tall, and it's a mile wide. In reality, that whole thing could fall off at any time if the whole glacier went and moved forward, but any little pinnacle anywhere along the whole mile can fall at any time.
If they fall flat, I was immediately dead. There was no question about it. I was smashed under... When you fall flat, it's called a bookshelf. When they detach and go straight in, that's what creates a good wave. But if they detach and go flat, it's the few biggest shotgun in the world, and so I always envision positive thoughts. I always envision positive outcomes. But while I was on that wave detached from the rope, looking up, thinking, "Oh, shit. If this thing falls, I am dead. Fact," and I envisioned myself smashed at the bottom like a tomato.
That sensory overload was the heaviest rush I've ever had in surfing, way heavier than any ocean experience. From that day forward, there was no more rush in the ocean, so I wasn't afraid. When you're afraid, you get the rush. The endorphin is released. Adrenaline. But if you're not afraid, it's normal.
So every time I would catch wave at Chopoo, and Mavericks, or wherever, and I would kick out... Usually, at Chopes because everybody is right there. You catch your wave, and all your friends are right here. My friends knew what was going on with me, and I'd kick out, and they'd go, "Well, did you get the rush?" I'm like, "Uh, not really." I couldn't get the rush anymore. So I'm like, "What?" I always surf for the rush. I surf to put food on the table and surf for the rush. Now, I wasn't getting the rush. I was like, "What's going on here?"
Guy Kawasaki:
I'm also afraid to ask you this question, Garrett, but can you apply that lesson to people's lives? People are struggling to get past fear of a new job or fear of a new challenge in their career. Does any of what you just said translate to mere mortals?
Garrett McNamara:
It's not mere mortal. It's going after it over and over no matter how many times you fail. Don't be afraid to fail. Just go out there. Do your best. Prepare. Prepare, prepare, prepare. Do your best. The rest is up to the universe to allow or let you go on to another interview or let you go on to another job, but the most beautiful thing that I've found is figuring out what you love to do, and then make that your goal before you go out and try to get any jobs. "Okay. I love playing music," or "I love writing," or "I love doing podcasts," or whatever it is you love, and then make a roadmap.
Do very detailed, but not too rigid, but detailed of exactly what you feel realistically will enable you to do that for your job, for your career, or for fun when you're not doing your nine-to-five. Preferably, that is your nine-to-five. If you make it very realistic, and it will come. It will happen. The best way to make it long-lived, and enjoyable, and love it for always is when you attach a selfless component to the blueprint, so somehow giving back, somehow making a difference. Then, everything always falls in place, and you're always happy because you're making people happy. You're not just trying to be a capitalist. Capitalism is okay, but do it in a good way.
Guy Kawasaki:
So this is theoretical. Let's say I have a friend. He's about seventy years old. Intermediate surfer at best, won't go out in anything bigger than three or four feet. How does that friend get past this fear of stuff that's head high and more?
Garrett McNamara:
How old is he?
Guy Kawasaki:
He's sixty-eight years old.
Garrett McNamara:
You could still do it. You have to want it, first and foremost. Then, I would recommend training very smart. If training hard is smart, train hard too, but more smart training than hard training, and with bands is the best, bands for ligaments and tendons. Free weights or machines for bone mass, and muscle mass, and bone density, and then the breath work, but you got to be able to handle where you're going to take your body. If you're physically ready, then there's much more chance and possibility to be mentally ready. If you're physically and mentally, and you're spiritually ready, then it just falls in place. You feel good about it.
The best way to get over fears in the water is proper equipment. A really nice thick leash so the board... and not too long. Now, you have to weigh it out. Do you want that board close so you can get it really quick and get around the next wave, or do you want a little further just so there's a little more for between you and the wave so the board doesn't hit you, or do you want it really far away from you, but then you got to fish? So then, you're not really surfing. You're fishing for your board every time you fall. I choose the shorter leash.
I'm the first guy to ride thick short leashes in the world that I know about. Everybody, all the big wave riders, ten-foot leashes now. Everybody else was twelve to fifteen. I see everybody fishing. I'm grabbing my board, and I'm getting around the next wave. I went to Taiwan and built leashes way back in the day, custom the thickest leash ever made. It was too thick. It would rip your hip off and maybe your knee or your ankle, but it works. I used them for the standup paddles back in the day, but-
Guy Kawasaki:
How long?
Garrett McNamara:
The leash? The board, get a board that you're comfortable, that you can cruise around, and don't go too short. Everybody is going so short. It's this big short board freaking craze. They're just too short. You got to find your balance. Everything is a balance, but the main equipment that he will feel very comfortable in bigger surf is a Patagonia or whatever flotation vest. You put the flotation vest under your wetsuit. It has a nice chest plate which helps raise your chest so your neck doesn't get sore. It's really nice. I love the chest plate because you're raised up without raising up, so you have room to paddle. Especially when you get older, your neck gets sore, your shoulders, anything you can do to be more comfortable.
The Patagonia vest is... They're not my sponsor. They send me stuff when I need it, but I still... Me saying that's the one, that's the one because they don't pay me any money. They're not my sponsor, but they're good friends. They send me stuff when I need it. Pretty much anybody will send me things if I ask, and I just look for what I feel is the best. The Patagonia vest, or spring suit, or short john, or full suit. They have all four, but the vest will make him-
For the waves he's surfing, all he needs is the vest, and every experience he has in the ocean from that day puts that vest on forward will be comfortable. So he'll be going bigger, and you'll be like, "Oh, shit. What did I do with my friend? He's out there at twenty-foot sun. Well, he's at sunset, fifteen-foot. Oh, now, he's going to Waimea. Oh my god."
Guy Kawasaki:
Wait. Are these the vests with the canisters in them?
Garrett McNamara:
No, just the flotation.
Guy Kawasaki:
Oh, okay.
Garrett McNamara:
I highly recommend it for any surfer almost anywhere. Make sure you have a really good leash that's not going to break, which is the Stay Covered are the best. Stay Covered big wave leashes are the best. There's no better leashes, and then the big wave leash. The medium wave leash and the small wave leash are just like everybody else's, but their big wave leash is the best. The flotation. There's a few different companies making them, and then there's a few different companies making inflation, but for what every average surfer can utilize, one, to be super comfortable, two, so they guarantee pop up if they black out somehow, whether the board hits them or they hit the reef or hit the sand, they're going to pop up. You don't even need a full flotation.
I, back in the day, before anybody, cut my life jackets up, glued them into my wetsuit, and everybody... All the guys are like, "Oh, Garrett. What's he doing? He's crazy. He's got flotation." Now, they all got it. I wasn't crazy. I felt very confident because I have flotation. I was going to come up sooner or later. So I would go on any wave anywhere anytime. It didn't matter if I was going to make it or not. I was going. So that made everybody think I was crazy.
Guy Kawasaki:
Geez. Okay. For this theoretical sixty-eight year-old, five-foot ten, 200-pound person, right, what length board to surf a ten-foot wave?
Garrett McNamara:
A ten-foot face?
Guy Kawasaki:
Yeah.
Garrett McNamara:
Arrow has a freaking seven-foot six-inch that he made for Jake Davi that's thicker and wider. I rode it at Punta Conejo, and I was on top of the world. I was just so happy I could turn. It was light, it was functional, and I could catch almost any wave I wanted.
Guy Kawasaki:
But he's not Garrett McNamara.
Garrett McNamara:
No, but I'd have my shoulder. My shoulder doesn't work. He probably paddles better than me. I only paddle my ten-foot six-inch these days. I don't even paddle shortboard ever, and that was a short board for me, seven-foot six-inch. It was a seven-foot ten-inch and a seven-foot six-inch. They were both really good. I ordered a board just recently in between both of them. Hopefully, it's as good. It's a seven-foot six-inch, but the shape is in between the seven-foot six-inch and a seven-foot ten-inch.
Guy Kawasaki:
Just conceptually, is it ten times harder to surf a hundred-foot wave than a ten-foot wave, or does it go up logarithmically?
Garrett McNamara:
Ten times harder? When you compound things like that... We were just with Rocco from Malibu who just moved into New Zealand, and he was breaking all these mathematical equations down, and it was just incredible. I was blown away that this pro skater turned skate revolutionary guy who's had all the biggest companies in skating, and he went to school on his own I guess after skating and learned freaking... all the way to chemistry, and he was just breaking all the stuff down about the 5G and about the hertz and the microwaves. He knew every number and every equation. I was just blown away.
Now, I have no idea if it's ten times harder, but if you think about it, you're going a lot faster. There's a lot more consequence. Every wave is unique, and you could get your worst beating. One of the worst beatings I've ever had in my life was at twenty-five foot faces at Waimea Bay, a twelve-foot day just breaking. It took me so deep, and I was touching the bottom. I had a skinny leash, and I couldn't come up. I didn't have the new equipment we have these days, and it was scary. That was the most scared I've been underwater, but then I've had fifty-foot, sixty-foot waves and thoroughly enjoyed it. Not scared at all. Just loved the pounding underwater. But when you're actually riding... I usually love my underwater rides more than above the water because they're just so exhilarating. There's so much more there. So you're at the mercy of the ocean. You have no control.
When you're riding a wave, you have control where you're going to go and where's the exit, and you can actually make the wave when you're towing pretty easily if you get let off at the easy spot, or you can get let off deep, but run for the shoulder. So, ten times harder. You're going faster. There's so much more water. It depends on the conditions. If it's smooth, Cortes Banks, and you got bumpy, Nazaré, and if you got a hundred-foot wave at Cortes, and it's smooth and glassy, and you have a ten-foot wave at Nazaré and its bumpy, it might be harder at Nazaré. The conditions are what dictate how hard it is. The consequence of falling, yeah, it'd be ten times worse usually, but like I shared, that twelve-foot wave gave me one of my worst poundings.
Guy Kawasaki:
When people watch wipeouts and they see you bouncing three times at Mavericks and all that, so they play it in instant replay. They magnify you bouncing and all that. Then, they show you being pulled out and recovering, but I want to know, once the wave pounds you, and you're off the board, and you're underwater, what exactly is happening? Are you just like in a washing machine, you're just thrown all over, you have no control, or what's going on under the water?
Garrett McNamara:
First, you hit. Hopefully, you can prepare with a couple breaths. Most people just breathe in one time. If you have time, you're coming down, you see you're not going to make it, you want to do a couple dump breaths as many as possible, more of the better. Three good dump breaths is good. One works, and that's squeezing all the air out, and then do three dump breaths, and then one full breath. Most people just go... but you got your belly, and you got your chest.
Most people don't take the last third of the tank. Throw your head back, you get another third or another quarter tank of air. You want to maximize the amount of air in your body before you go down, and you want it to be fresh air, not stale air that's just sitting in your belly. You want all that stale air out and all the fresh air in, oxygenated air.
Then, when you're under, if you get hit super hard right out the gas, you might get all the air knocked out of you, which happens to people. Then, you're really vulnerable, and it can be very challenging. But normally, you can hold your breath. Normally, you're underwater, and you're spinning. You're going down around in this way parallel to the bottom, in circles, around up and down towards the bottom and above the surface, and sideways, every direction.
Imagine you're in a washing machine on spin cycle, and then for lack of a better person, King Kong grabs the washing machine and starts shaking in all directions. That's you under the water, and the whole time, you're trying to relax, doing your best to relax, not to use any energy, but at the same time, trying to stain a ball. Keep your body, your limbs in. You retract your legs up a little bit. Try not to get ripped apart because it can rip you apart, and it can rip your arm apart. It can rip your leg apart, your groins, your hip, your... Yeah, it's a very vulnerable spot to be in. Normally, it just shakes you really good and lets you go. It's been my experience.
Guy Kawasaki:
My god, Garrett. I surf two to three-foot waves, and I've fallen and being total disoriented, and I'm like stroking, and I'm trying to get to the surface, and I'm actually going down, and I hit my head. This is in two-foot wave. I just cannot imagine what happens to you at Nazaré, or Mavericks, or... Yeah. It boggles my mind.
Garrett McNamara:
Different animal. Yeah. Different monster. Everyone is so different as well.
Guy Kawasaki:
I know the whole thing lasted about six seconds, but it seemed half an hour I was under water.
Garrett McNamara:
It's really interesting. If you can bring yourself to count, "One, two," you never really get over five to fifteen seconds, and that's easy for us. When you count, you relax because you know, "Oh, it's one, two." You're totally relaxed. But if you don't count, then you can't really judge how long it is, and you just feel like it's forever if you're not relaxing. If you're relaxing, you can handle it.
The funny thing is on the small waves, that's when you get more exhausted because you're trying to get up. You're on this little six-foot face, and you're trying to swim up. But if you relax, it's super easy, but once you're trying... Every year, at the beginning of the winter, when I was living full-time here in Hawaii, and I would travel a little bit in the summer, the winter would come, the first six-foot swell would come, and I'd go out, and I'd get pounded, and I'd think to myself, "How am I going to handle the big ones this year?" because I'm trying to swim up. But then, when the big one hits you, "Ah, okay. Here we go."
Guy Kawasaki:
That's a life lesson right there. Garrett, I got to tell you, man. I feel like this is GarrettGPT, right? I can ask you all the questions I've ever wondered about surfing. You're my artificial intelligence. Okay? So can you just tell me how you physically train? Are you running laps? Are you carrying stones underwater and doing the Laird Hamilton thing? What's your physical training like?
Garrett McNamara:
There's so much good training now. There's so many different techniques, and so many different teachers, and so many different theories and methods. I've trained sport-specific. I train to be able to stay in the water, and I don't do anything that I don't feel will enable me to stay in the water, and I don't overdo anything. I love the bands. I love the weights. I've never was a swimmer. To be honest, I can barely swim.
Guy Kawasaki:
What?
Garrett McNamara:
I can dog paddle easily to the beach, and I love just cruising.
Guy Kawasaki:
What?
Garrett McNamara:
If I got a sprint, I can throw in a stroke, but I've never learned how to properly swim. Just recently, somebody shared with me a few things. She said, "Okay. Swim on the beach." I swim on the beach, and she said, "Okay. Just do this, and just do that," and I was well. Big difference, but I love getting pounded.
The only time I swim is when I'm swimming to the beach to go get my board because I just wiped out. I do love cave diving. I love running with rocks. I used to do that every summer, all summer. If I wasn't traveling, I was running rocks and cave diving right in my backyard.
Guy Kawasaki:
Wait. What does running with rocks mean? Can you explain to me?
Garrett McNamara:
Well, where we do it, you swim down forty feet with no fins, and you pick up a fifty to a 100-pound rock, and you run across the bottom as far as you can. We would go thirty seconds to a minute, but we would do distance, and we would see who could go further. My buddy, Akoni, he and I were just like machines, and they had a Red Bull Rock, a running contest, on the West Side, and me and Akoni... I think I used to beat him mostly, but we battle each other, but I'm pretty sure I beat him most of the time.
He wasn't really a surfer. He surfed a bit, but he was a badass skateboarder, a Red Bull skateboarder. They had the Red Bull thing on Mākaha, and I was traveling. He went and did it. He beat everybody by seventy-five yards. So I was bummed I wasn't there to at least challenge him or maybe beat him, but-
Guy Kawasaki:
Wait. He beat everybody by seventy-five yards, or he got seventy-five yards total?
Garrett McNamara:
Yes. Seventy-five more yards than everybody.
Guy Kawasaki:
Holy cow.
Garrett McNamara:
So they probably all went like fifty, and he went 125, something like that.
Guy Kawasaki:
So that's like saying he could run the length of a football field holding a fifty-pound rock under the water, forty feet?
Garrett McNamara:
Yes.
Guy Kawasaki:
Oh my god.
Garrett McNamara:
We would push it. We would push it so far that when you're coming up for that forty feet, you got your full breath, but you're barely swimming up. You're couple strokes, and glide, and glide. Then, as you're getting to the surface... Numerous times, I saw the freaking black closing, almost passed out right as my lip... It was just like big wave riding. Right before you pass out, your lips come through, and you get the air.
Guy Kawasaki:
Oh my god.
Garrett McNamara:
Yeah. We pushed it. We loved it. I just saw him recently here in the wave pool. I haven't seen him in years. He's a beautiful human, nice guy.
Okay. So more bands, weights. Get a really good trainer who's really in tune with the symmetry of your body, knows your body. Preferably somebody who actually works on your body, and they know about sculpting a body with different techniques, and they can straighten you right out, or they can share with you how to straighten yourself out, and they can straighten you out, but you have to do the work. They can only do so much. They can put you in place, and they can set you up, and then you got to keep it going and change. With a good trainer, everything is possible.
Now, a lot of us love to do it ourself, and a lot of us work with a lot of different trainers, and then go home, and do it ourselves. I really like working with a group of guys or group of girls. I like group training, but the biggest challenge with group training is you got to leave the ego at the door. The hardest part about group training for me is leaving my ego at the door, but it's really one-on-one or two or three-on-one.
It's really nice when you're working out with your son, or your wife, or your brother, or a couple people come by. Big groups. The ego gets in there, and all of a sudden, you're running sideways with a weight and freaking throw your back out or throwing a kettlebell around and ruin your shoulder. Yeah. You get ego, man. You just got to leave it at the door when you're training. You've got to training smart. Train smart, and I've trained hard and smart. Train hard, too.
Guy Kawasaki:
Okay. So, that's physical. Now, what's the mental training regimen?
Garrett McNamara:
I have to bring my body up to par with my mind. My mind is going to take me. I'm going to go, so I got to be ready physically. If I'm not ready physically, that's when I'm a little afraid maybe, but I'm a lot more patient, cautious. The best word to use is patient, but it might be a little more cautious, a little reserved, a little like, "Uh, maybe I'll go. I'm not sure. I'll put you on some waves."
But if my body is feeling good, and I'm feeling good, and the waves are perfect, then I get... Just recently at Cortes and just recently here in Hawaii, I was back to normal, just frothing, but I didn't want to be behind the wave. I wanted to be right on the apex. I wanted to be in the perfect spot. Normally, I want to be behind it, way behind fifty/fifty. Make it, get the best ride of your life. Don't make it, get a nice underwater ride.
Now, I would just want to make the waves. I don't want the underwater rides as much. I don't mind underwater rides, but the possibility of getting hurt is higher now. Maybe it's not higher. I just feel like it is after this darn shoulder injury.
Guy Kawasaki:
I swear like 20 percent of a hundred-foot wave is you doing yoga and CJ doing yoga. So what's with that? Isn't that all mental training and stuff, or is that physical?
Garrett McNamara:
The meditation and the yoga is more for me to focus on being a good husband, being a good father, being a good human, figuring out what to work on for personal growth and focusing on that during a meditation and my mantras, and to get flexible, but a meditation is just for personal growth, and with that comes spirituality and comes calmness, accomplished feeling. We're so caught up in our rat race where we all run around like freaking chickens without a head, without any real goals. We just go day by day.
We have these visions, or dreams, or hopes, or expectations, but we don't really write it on a paper. We don't really make a roadmap to achieve it, so we're aimlessly wandering all day, "What's coming next?" Maybe we'll plan for the next day, or plan for the next week, or even plan for the next month, but it's just day-to-day. It's not like big picture, "How do I become an amazing human? How do I contribute? How do I feed my family and do what I love?"
You make the plan of that, and you focus on that every day. You look at that roadmap every day, then you're like, "You have a life of purpose. You know what you're doing. You know why you're doing it. You know what you can do to improve yourself, what you can do to improve your relationship, improve your parenting skills."
Unfortunately, people are inspired by the show, which is the only reason we did it, to try and inspire people, and try and make a difference. We told the producers, "We do not want to make a surf film. We want to make something inspirational that helps people," and it worked. Now, all of a sudden, people are looking to me for answers. I'm like, "Oh my god, I got so much responsibility now."
Guy Kawasaki:
You mean people like me?
Garrett McNamara:
"I just want to go drink coffee, but I don't want caffeine, so what do I do? I want to go eat a pie and a Häagen-Dazs, but I don't want this belly. Oh, what do I do? How do I do it? I love my açaí, but I don't want to eat sugar." I know. I want to turn back the clock. I want to biohack, get younger inside, and I just took all the tests to see where I'm actually at my age by all the tests of your internal everything, the saliva, the poop, the pee, the blood, and the brain.
We did all the scans, and so they're going to give us the results on the fourteenth of where I am at my age, my physical age where it seems to be right now at fifty-five. Am I seventy-five, or am I thirty-five? I want to reverse it wherever I'm at. I know I can do a lot better than I'm doing, so I'm going to work on that for the next year.
Guy Kawasaki:
Okay. Can you take us inside the dynamics of the team of surfer and jet ski driver? What's happening there? Is the jet ski driver picking the wave? What's happening? What's the interaction there?
Garrett McNamara:
If you have a good partner, somebody that you prefer to work with and like working with, it's somewhat like a marriage, and maybe the guy that you want to have driving you isn't the guy you want to hang out with on the land. Maybe you have different goals, but that's not really a good way. It's better to find somebody that you have the same values, and same interests, and same goals, and work together to achieve whatever it is you guys want to achieve.
I love Cotty more than anything. He's given me my world record wave, changed my life with Nazaré, and was always there for me always. Then, we went out to Cortes, and he couldn't put me on the wave, and I lost it. I was lost the plot. I was screaming and yelling.
I'm fifty-five. Cortes, how many times does it break a year? How many times does it break every ten years? If you're lucky, you get to surf it in a lifetime. I've been lucky. I've gone out there four times. I think I've surfed it three. That was the best waves I've ever seen, the best big waves I've ever seen in my life. Not the biggest, but the best, and he couldn't put me on the wave.
The number one wave I wanted. We're towing at it. I'm like, "Yeah, yeah." For some reason, he drove right over it. I lost the plot. It was the one that Lucas got, the big one that Lucas got. Lucas was like, "Go. That's your wave. Go," and we drove over it. I lost my mind.
Then, we get here to Maverick, to Hawaii, to Eddie Swell. I've never seen a swell that strong from dawn to dusk with that much power and energy the whole day with the perfect northwest swell. Every spot was good from my house all the way to freaking Keauhou. We go to the biggest best spot, log cabins. I say, "Okay. I want to warm up couple."
So he towed me at a couple. Just towed me at a couple. On the inside, just towed me at them. He towed me at the first one. Let’s me go too early; I don't make it to the wave. Tows me at the second one. Let go too early, I don't make it to the wave. So I'm like, "You know what? Just tow me straight down the wave. Don't whip me at it. I want a big one. Just tow me straight down the wave."
So this biggest wave I've seen of the day is coming at us, and he goes full speed, towing me at it, behind it, and the bowl is here. Now, we're behind, and I'm going full speed on the edge, and I'm about to drop into I'm not sure what instead of just going straight down the wave, and kicking out, and letting me go where I want, and I just kicked out.
Now, I'm out by myself. There's a giant wave coming. There's no Cotty. He thinks I'm riding a wave. Luckily, I didn't get caught by the second one or I would've been really bad. Then, I lost the plot again. I was livid. I was so mad. I was like, "This ain't no Mickey Mouse."
So that's why it's like a marriage. I hadn't been so excited to surf big waves in about... since 2006, so almost ten years. He hadn't seen me so fired up at Cortes or here, and he said he couldn't handle the pressure of me wanting a big wave, and I'm just like, "Just put me on a wave. You got a jet ski. You got a rope. Drive down the wave. What the fuck?" Sorry for swearing, but man, I don't like reliving that.
It was not a fun scene. I shouldn't have lost it, but I don't have a lot of these days left. How many days? I never thought about that until Twiggy. Every time I see Twiggy, "Oh, I only got another year left. I might only have one more year. I got to get it," and I'm just like, "Bro, you got as long as you want." I was like, "Oh, fuck Cortes. I might not ever get that again. Ugh." I'm like, Log cabins. Perfect. Nobody out. I might not ever get that again. Ugh." So I was losing it.
Guy Kawasaki:
How do you form this team then? You just talked about failures, and you've been a driver, too. So this is a lesson in arguably management. How do you form this team?
Garrett McNamara:
Sometimes you got to put one guy as safety and another guy driving, and sometimes you got to let somebody else drive instead of you. I can honestly say I didn't do the best for him either, but I asked him what wave he wanted, and he told me, "Yes, I'm on this one." Every time he told me yes, I put him on the wave. But then, most of the time, the second wave was better at Cortes that day that we missed a lot of the best waves. I put him on thirty waves. I caught two waves. I was done.
After he missed that wave, I was just done. I'm like, "I'm done. I'll just drive. I don't want any. I didn't get the wave I wanted. I don't want any. If it gets bigger, I'll consider," but it never really got bigger. It only got up to about sixty feet, maybe seventy, probably more like sixty. You don't know how big they are, unless you're under the wave getting ready to get pounded. Other than that, you can't really tell.
You choose the people you love. You choose the people you know are genuine and real or people that are like you. You definitely want to choose eagles. You want to fly with the eagles. You want to choose expanders. You want to choose people that are as good or better than you or a version of yourself or a better version, people that you can level up to people that help you expand, people that help you grow, people that help you achieve your goals and dreams.
Surround yourself with eagles. Chickens are great. I love eggs. I love eating the eggs, and chickens are cool. They provide. They're running around eating worms, and I'd rather be soaring with the eagles, but for some people, the chicken life is great. You don't have to think too much. You don't have to do too much. You do what's expected of you, and the rest of the time, you don't have to think and stress. Eagles got to think about everything, got to figure everything out, got to really make things happen or nothing happens.
Guy Kawasaki:
Okay.
Garrett McNamara:
You're definitely an eagle guy.
Guy Kawasaki:
E-G-O or E-A-G-L-E?
Garrett McNamara:
E-A-G-L-E. Eagle. You look like an eagle right now. Yeah.
Guy Kawasaki:
Yeah. I'm also the guy I was describing who's sixty-eight years old who won't go out in a wave that's six feet.
Garrett McNamara:
Oh, come over. I'll take you out in front of the house.
Guy Kawasaki:
Listen, I was going to ask you. So someday, if I come to Nazaré, will you tow me out like you towed out-
Garrett McNamara:
100 percent. 100 percent.
Guy Kawasaki:
You'll tow me out at Nazaré?
Garrett McNamara:
Yeah, yeah.
Guy Kawasaki:
Then, I can say that Garrett McNamara towed me out at Nazaré?
Garrett McNamara:
Well, we just get the right day. You got to come at the right time. 100 percent, I will tow you. If it's small, and perfect, and manageable, yeah, everything is possible. If you want it a little bigger, I can get you a little bigger, but we just got to see how you are on the rope. You wakeboard or water ski?
Guy Kawasaki:
No, I only longboard.
Garrett McNamara:
Okay. If you're going to come, do some wake surfing first during the summer.
Guy Kawasaki:
Okay.
Garrett McNamara:
Go on a wake surfing boat. It's super fun. You'll love it. You can even do it on your longboard.
Guy Kawasaki:
So, going back to 100 Foot Wave. I just love that series. Two seasons now. How did you put that together because there's so much footage? Were you planning that long to record all that footage and have all that? Then, they have these scenes where you wouldn't think you would let a Camry go, and Cotty is going crazy and driving along, and he's all screwed up. What's the backstory channel of how that series is made?
Garrett McNamara:
My goal and Cotty's goal was to just be able to keep surfing without doing a nine-to-five. When we aligned, I already had that goal for a long time, and he didn't really think it was possible, but that was his dream. We quickly had him write his goals and his blueprint, his map. He quickly quit his plumbing job and his lifeguard job, and quickly became a professional big wave surfer overnight. He struggled for a while. He would just barely make it every year, just barely make it, but the goal was to sustain the water.
The goal was to keep surfing. The goal was to be able to train and surf, and he succeeded mightily. I've had other friends that were on our team that I asked to do, "Write your goal. Write your map." They didn't do it. I don't want to say any names, but they're both aimlessly wandering the earth, not professional surfers, and they could be. 100 percent. They could be making very good money surfing, doing what they love right now, but they're both doing I don't know what.
In 2009, 2008 or 2009, I was training... Oh, 2007 for the Eddie. 2006 even. I was training with Rob Garcia and... Was it 2007? Maybe? No. Man, I think it was 2008 or 2009, whenever the Eddie happened. I was training with Rob Garcia for about three months, and he introduced me to this guy named Rick Solomon. I was with Rob. I said, "Rob, I want to do a reality show. I want to do a freaking reality show on surfing so I can keep surfing."
Back then, if you had a show, you had sponsors. The sponsors were coming after you. You're making real money. You had a show. If you had a second season, you had a third season, you had companies just knocking on your door. Nowadays, it's a little different with Instagram, right? So it's a weird world.
So he introduced me to Rick. Rick wants to tow. Rick wants to do a show, so I take Rick towing. Rick hires a bunch of cameraman, a producer, a director. We filmed for six months, spent a lot of money, half a million filming for six months for a maybe show. I knew it was going to be a show. He knew it was going to be a show. We had Buttons in there. We had Jay Adams. We had John John. Those are all the guys I'd hung out with. They were my boys, and they were there during the filming. It was super fun.
Mainly, Buttons, little bit of Jay, little bit of John. We pitched the show, and it was... Basically, they wanted the show, Discovery, I think, but then the director/producer/partner never delivered the deliverables that they requested to go forward. He was on drugs or something weird. Rest his soul. He passed now.
So then, I meet Nicole. That six months of filming is in the can dead, not being used, but I had already visualized it. I already planned. Then, I meet Nicole. I got shut down in my previous marriage with the filming, and my goals and my dreams all got shut down, and then I met Nicole, and then we went to Nazaré. She got us to Nazaré. When we met, she saw the email chain. She said, "I want to get you organized." She's probably looking for emails from girls, but she didn't find any.
I'm just a one-woman man. Kind of weird. You go traveling around the world, and all your friends are doing whatever, and I didn't, and they're... I'm the weirdo. It doesn't make sense, but whatever. A lot of local boys are pretty solid, but a lot of them like to do whatever they do.
But anyway, we go to Nazaré. She finds the email. I'd been emailing this guy for five years now, went nowhere. It wasn't going anywhere. Was it Interest on my end, interest on his end, but it wasn't happening. She saw the email. She said, "Do you want to go?" I said, "Yes." She replied. In one month of her replying, we were in Portugal.
So it's because of Nicole. The whole thing is because of Nicole. She's my muse. She's my everything. She's the most amazing woman in the world. If only the world could see through her eyes, it would be a much better place. Just so much empathy, so much love, so much passion for everybody and everything.
So we get there, and they have one cameraman. His name is George Leo. He actually just had a stroke a year ago and should have died. They thought he was dead. He's on the freaking bed basically dead. They're talking to the family about what are they going to do with his organs. He's laying there. His eyes are closed. They say everything is shutting down. He's got no brain action.
He somehow wills his eyes open, and they looked. "Oh, his eyes are open. Oh, it's just a reflex. Don't worry. What are we going to do with the heart? What are we going to do with the liver? What are we going to do with the kidneys? What are we going to do with the freaking lungs?" Then, they looked. "His eyes are moving a little. What? Oh, George, can you hear us? Blink once. George, can you understand everything? Blink twice. Can you hear everything we're saying?" He had locked-in syndrome.
90 percent of the people with locked-in syndrome die in four months. Their body shuts down. Only one person has recovered 95 percent. Very few in the world get locked-in syndrome. The rest of the people got it didn't really recover. He's already standing, doing art. He went from frozen for a month or two. We got him an amazing facility.
The reason I'm sharing this is because there's a GoFundMe page that we helped him raise. He raised about $50K or a hundred. We helped him raise $130,000. A lot of it was through his contacts. A lot of it is through ours. Regardless, he's raised $130,000 so far. He wants to raise $200,000, and it's $15,000 a month. Then, he's been in there I think about nine months. Don't quote me on that.
So anybody out there who wants to donate to the man responsible for 100 Foot Wave, the man responsible for capturing the images that made season one, the man who captured in such a special, unique way that the world was able to grab onto those images and be captivated, and he shared it with the world through his lens.
Without his lens, it might not have turned out the way... Maybe nobody would still be there. Maybe I would've got there and not liked the crew and not been interested. I told him, "Don't turn the camera up." He had a still camera, but it had a video mode. I said, "Put it on video, and don't turn it off, and here's my five GoPros. Keep them running the whole time because this is special."
So we filmed everything for three years with the town, and then the mayor changed. A new mayor came in, project was dead. We were all, "So, what are we going to do now?" He killed what we created and just took it all for himself. Hopefully, that comes out in one of the seasons, how terrible the politics are and how terrible mayors and politicians are. They're just terrible. It's so sad.
Most of the world. I don't know if there's any good ones. I'd like to know about a good one if you know any good ones. Okay. I don't know anything about politics. I just know what I hear, and I don't have a TV, and I don't watch anything on the computer. I just look at my Instagram once in a while, and look at the surf report, and check my emails. I don't look at anything else ever.
Guy Kawasaki:
You're better off for that.
Garrett McNamara:
I told him, "Don't turn the camera off." I knew we had gold. The second year after filming, the big TV network of Portugal went together with us, made the movie called North Canyon, and then we made Nazaré Calling the second year, and then we made another movie the third year that we didn't let go out because we didn't like it, but the first movie is okay. The second movie was really good, and the third movie didn't make a difference, so we said, "No, we're not making no freaking mini II movie. We have to make a difference, or we're not doing it." So we shut it down.
So Nicole writes a script for a movie about the human spirit, about overcoming challenges and obstacles when doctors tell you that you can't do something, that doesn't mean that you can't. So the story was about me, Andrew Cotton, and CJ. CJ had a horrific back, Cotty had back and knee, but mainly the back, and I had the shoulder. Three guys that the doctors told we shouldn't ride big waves anymore or maybe won't be able to, and three guys that came back.
So she wrote that script for a one-and-a-half hour movie to win an Oscar. That was her goal. No, she doesn't go for no potatoes. She was going for the Oscar. "100 percent, I'm getting an Oscar." Her cousin married Joe Lewis, who was a Senior Vice-President of Amazon TV, co-founder, and so we called her and said, "Hey. Do you think Joe can take a look at this? Give us some advice." She said, "He just stepped down from Amazon, but he got his own private production company now. He could give us advice, for sure, or maybe."
So then, we sent her the thing. He gave it to him. He instantly said, "Okay. Let's get on call." We get on the call. "This is really good." He didn't know us. We didn't even know him yet. It's Nicole's favorite cousin married him. He go, "This is really good, and this can win an Oscar. If you want any advice, I'm here, whatever you need."
He didn't like go, "Oh, I want to do it. I want to produce it." He was like, "If you need anything, I'm here." It's really subtle, really soft, not very direct of his excitement to be involved, and he said, "But if you want me to be involved..." I don't know how. It was just really strange, but it wasn't like, "Okay. You can win an Oscar. I want to help."
It was like, "You can win an Oscar," and then Nicole was like, "What? Here, take it. You produce it then," because Nicole was going to produce it herself gorilla style with some Portuguese guys and blah, blah, blah. It was only going to be a one-and-a-half-hour movie, and we kept telling him, "We have this hard drive that has the first three years. We have this hard drive that has the..." They don't. It goes in one ear and out the other.
Every interview, I hear them say, "Oh, and then the hard drive pops up. They didn't tell us about the hard drive." "Bro, we told you we have a hard drive a hundred times." Then, they get the hard drive, and they're like, "Oh, this is a docuseries. It's not a one-and-a-half-hour movie," and Nicole lost it. She's like, "No docuseries. I want to win an Oscar. I want to do a move." She was pissed.
Then, Joe was like, "Don't worry. We can win an Emmy." She's, "I don't want no Emmy. I want an Oscar." This is true story. This is how... She's gnarly. She'll manifest whatever she wants and make it happen because she's so good at knowing what to do, and how to do it, and when, and what's important to the world.
See, that's the main thing. She always takes a selfless approach to everything. First and foremost, what's important for the world? So we said, "Okay. I might get a season two. We can share more. We can tell more stories." But then, they get involved, and they start twisting it and crafting it, and we have no control. Legally, we can't give any input. They don't have to listen to anything we say. We gave away all rights.
The season one was exactly her script just by chance because she knew what was there. She knew what was there, and they followed slate. They could have done three seasons with what they had. There was so much footage, so many crazy, fun, out of this world situations that we got ourself in those first three years. They have four editors go through all the footage who have no idea what they're going through. Never watched the first two movies that we did that all the footage is built on, and then they send it to the head editor, Zach, and then they craft whatever they want to craft.
Then, they send it to Chris, and then Chris goes, "Ooh, okay. This is how we make this good. This is how we make that good." Speaking out of turn a little bit. I'm not positive if that's how season one went, but I'm like 99 percent that's season two. Season one, I don't know how many cooks were in the kitchen. I think it was pretty much the same. So there's about fifty amazing stories and amazing, crazy, dangerous, just so many things that just disappeared that could have been a minimum of three seasons.
Guy Kawasaki:
Wow.
Garrett McNamara:
Then, you should see how much they film now. They shoot a thousand hours, and they use one.
Guy Kawasaki:
Really? Wow.
Garrett McNamara:
There's so many storylines that just get lost. They're incredible. I don't know how they figure this stuff out because they don't have anybody storyboarding on location. So they just get this pile of footage. They're starting to do things a little better now. They're starting to have the videographers tell the log what they shot, but nobody is storyboarding. Nobody is saying, "Okay. Today, this was the monumental thing, and this was the downer, and this is the upper, and this is the good, the bad, and the ugly."
They don't do that every day. They need a guy on the land writing good, bad, ugly today, good, bad, ugly yesterday, good, bad... There's so many teams, and so many cameras, and so many... but they just need somebody at the end of the day. "What happened? What happened? What happened? Okay. Here's what happened."
I was supposed to have a call to help them with that, but Joe is a scripted guy. He's not a documentarian, and Chris is a documentarian, but he's got fifty shows going. So he just sits back and shows up once in a while and mastermind. He's a genius, but he's spread really thin. So when it's time, he gets in the trench. When it's crunch time, he gets in there, and he goes to work. But until then, he's doing fifty other projects.
Guy Kawasaki:
Geez.
Garrett McNamara:
So it's incredible. It's incredible. Without Chris Smith and Joe Louis, it would've gone who knows where they are? They are the masterminds. They are the magicians. They are badass. They have the best teams. Then, you got Topic Studios who Joe Lewis brought in and Maria Zuckerman who is one of the most badass women in producing right now. Then, they brought in HBO which... It was Netflix and HBO bidding war which was really cool. Netflix would've been better for more viewers, but HBO is a better network, more of the Mercedes, so we're happy.
Guy Kawasaki:
There's going to be season three?
Garrett McNamara:
Yes. Cortes Banks, Eddie Swell.
Guy Kawasaki:
Wow.
Garrett McNamara:
They don't even know what they have, so who knows if they'll use any of what I shared. Hopefully, they listen to this. They might know a little. I should have Zach listen to this. They're all really good. They're all just doing their best, and it's not easy. I wish the capture log and editing, no, man. I can't even imagine doing that. It baffles me.
Guy Kawasaki:
Okay. This is going to be a silly question, all right?
Garrett McNamara:
No, men or women, sorry.
Guy Kawasaki:
Listen. I see how much you use GoPros. Garrett, I'm at the other extreme, right? So I'm using a GoPro, and I'm surfing two-foot waves. I swear to God, one out of five times, the GoPro crashes mid-session, and you lose the whole thing. You don't get any of the takes. Sometimes, every day, it's asking me to reset the date.
So is it just me or you have all these weird stuff happening with your GoPros because it's one thing for me to miss a two-foot wave. It's another thing if you are on a hundred-foot wave. There's not multiple takes of that. So tell me about GoPro experience you have.
Garrett McNamara:
With all the products I use, I find out if they're GMAC-proof or not.
Guy Kawasaki:
Yeah.
Garrett McNamara:
I'm really hard. If the stuff handles me, it's really good. Most of the companies I work with don't really have me test anything. Even though I'm testing it the whole time I'm using it, they don't ask, "Oh, so what about this? What about that?"
I'm putting the shit in the most extreme conditions, and I need it to be streamlined and safe, so I don't hurt myself on the equipment. When I went to Nazaré the second year, we were putting on a contest. They didn't even put that in the docuseries. We made a contest, 2011. We did a trials for an event we're going to do in 2012, and GoPro sent me thirty GoPros. One for every ski. One for every board.
There was twelve guys in the event. I had a couple extras for me, came home with three of them. Half of them got lost because they had really insufficient mounting systems back then. The other half just malfunctioned or... I met Nick Woodman his first trade show.
I saw GoPro, and I'm just like, "This is what's missing from surfing and action sports, POV, but mainly from surfing. Now, we can invite the world into what we're doing. They can be a part of what we're doing. They can feel it through that camera." I said, "I want to be involved." I didn't get in deep right away. I should have. I skated on the outside. They'd send me a camera here or there. I'd try and get a camera here or there. They were my friends.
If I emailed, they would get back to me, and then they did send me the thirty cameras, but they never asked me for any technical, or any mounting, or any advice on anything, but they did so good. They evolved so quick, and the cameras are so amazing, but yeah, it's an electric technology in the ocean, salt water. If it works at all, it's a home run. They do work for a long time, and they last if you clean them and you take care of them.
Yeah. Sometimes they'd shut off and won't turn on. Sometimes you got to reset it. Sometimes, yeah, they malfunction a little bit. They definitely malfunction, but I believe they'll give you a new one if they do, and each new version, some of them are really good, some of them have more malfunctions. I've loved them. I love using them. My challenge has been when I was always in a rush to catch every wave and always in a rush to get it.
A lot of times, I would miss the wave or blow it on the wave because of the GoPro, so it's a little frustrating. Towing, a little easier, but paddling, you got to get up there, and reach on, and turn it on. If you just leave it on, it's okay. But then, you got to go through all that footage. Look for your wave when it's a ten-minute clip. Yeah. I like to turn it off and on all the time, but I like to leave it on, but just turn it off, record, and off and on. Leave it on the on mode, but record is off and on.
Guy Kawasaki:
But then the battery doesn't mess up. Yeah.
Garrett McNamara:
Or you leave it on the mode where you just press it once, and it starts recording.
Guy Kawasaki:
Yeah. Quick start thing.
Garrett McNamara:
Yeah.
Guy Kawasaki:
My last question for you, Garrett. How the hell do you balance your responsibilities as a parent and as a big wave surfer because it seems to me those two things are in opposition many times?
Garrett McNamara:
Yeah. I was always a big wave rider. So, the children, it was second for them. It was second nature for me. It was normal to have kids and ride big waves. I always thought to myself that before I had children, I didn't mind dying riding big waves. I had no problem. I was like, "This is what I love to do. If I die, great. I don't want to die, but if I do, no problem. This is the way I'd like to go." But once I had children, I felt a responsibility to be here on the earth for them as long as possible, and I'm not dying in the ocean. So then, I took training really serious and surrounding myself with the right people really serious, and not partying.
Yeah. Right now, I'm not where I want to be. Right now, I'm definitely not in the shape that I want to be to survive giant waves. I can handle a couple here and there, and I can get pounded by two or three waves. No problem. But if it's ten waves in the head, I might be passing out, so. My lung capacity isn't there, and my strength isn't there. My mental and physical is not where I want it to be, but there's a little bit of time left before the winter starts.
Guy Kawasaki:
So Nazaré starts in October?
Garrett McNamara:
Yeah. I'll be in Fiji the month of August, and if a giant swell comes, I'll definitely catch a few. I'll be in Mexico. I'll stay in Fiji for a month and a week, or I'll go for two weeks in Fiji for sure, and then it's either go to the Mainland at Tavira, and then it's either go to the Mainland or go to Mexico, or Australia, or Bali. We got work towards Portugal, so Mexico and Costa Rica makes sense, working our way towards Portugal.
We got to be in Italy. We're moving to Italy in September on September fifteenth at the latest. School starts on the fifteenth for the kids in Italy. Yeah. So I've taken the backseat of being there for my kids, actually moving up into the mountains in Italy for their school, but I do have Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, all two to five hours away, I think.
Guy Kawasaki:
You're like the next Doc Paskowitz.
Garrett McNamara:
I don't know about that. My butt is not clean like his. Remember, in the documentary, it was all about clean butts because they all lived in the van together? You had to be clean. The two things I remember were the parents were having sex all night long every night, and the kids had to listen to it, and you had to have a clean butt, or you're not allowed in the van.
Guy Kawasaki:
I interviewed Abraham for this podcast. I should have asked him about the sex.
Garrett McNamara:
Sex and the butts, those are the two things that really stuck out for me. I love Doc. He's a dear friend. We would talk all the time. He would always share his theories and life's lessons. We talked a lot all the way to the end, this really sweet, special human and the whole family. Izzy Paskowitz is how I met Nicole through Surfers Healing. We met in Puerto Rico.
Guy Kawasaki:
Really?
Garrett McNamara:
Yeah, from Izzy.
Guy Kawasaki:
Wow.
Garrett McNamara:
Yeah. Good people.
Guy Kawasaki:
Do you use the Isurus Wetsuits, Abraham's company?
Garrett McNamara:
No. I should probably call them up. They used to send me some back then. Yeah. You know what? Actually, I'm using Cynthia Rowley now, the New York fashion designer that makes women's clothing. She makes all the Roxy Wetsuits. She's making my suits. I finally went for a visible suit after CJ disappearing with that white jersey. I always didn't worry too much about the visibility of the person. I don't know why. I had these black and white camouflage suits.
I did have a silver helmet which sparkles in the sun, but if it's cloudy, you're not going to see it. But now, I'm going fluorescent orange and fluorescent green camouflage, and it is visible. The green, you can see in the whitewater, and the orange, on the wave. The green, you don't see on the wave as much, and the orange, you don't see in the whitewater as much. It's weird. So those two colors are the best.
Guy Kawasaki:
I'll keep that in mind if I ever go into anything over head.
Garrett McNamara:
Wait. Where are you? Are you in Santa Cruz or San Francisco? Where are you?
Guy Kawasaki:
I'm in Santa Cruz. I'm one block from the beach. Right after this is over, I'm going to go surf in one to two-foot wave.
Garrett McNamara:
Go, go. You got to go. Yeah. Go get padded on. You go get your flotation vest that you put under your... You can't even really see it.
Guy Kawasaki:
For one or two-foot wave?
Garrett McNamara:
Yeah. You can't even really see it.
Guy Kawasaki:
Okay.
Garrett McNamara:
It will feel nice, and get a bigger one than you think though. You don't want it tight. You want it looser because it's under your suit like an extra, double X.
Guy Kawasaki:
I have a new goal in life which is to be towed out by Garrett McNamara at Nazaré.
Garrett McNamara:
Wow, that's amazing. Let's do it.
Guy Kawasaki:
Garrett, I have to tell you. One of my favorite experiences ever was when you and I were in Norway for Mercedes, and the two of us were in the same EQS, and they were like drag racing on that airport strip. That was a very fun day, Garrett.
Garrett McNamara:
No, it was like bounce to the wall. So when you come out those corners... Yeah, that was fun.
Guy Kawasaki:
Yeah.
Garrett McNamara:
That's where we got to know each other. I was like, "Wow, Hawaiian. What's he doing over here? Oh, Santa Cruz? Okay. Right on."
Guy Kawasaki:
I never quite understood Mercedes ambassadors. So there's Garrett McNamara, there's Sebastian, there's Mike, the guy who walks across Antarctica, there's Roger Federer, and there's me, the little nerd, and all I did was evangelize Macintosh. Okay, Garrett. Thank you so much. This has been so delightful. Oh my god, every surfer in the world is going to want to listen to this podcast, and that concludes our incredible episode featuring the legendary Garrett McNamara.
I hope you enjoy diving into the world of big wave surfing and discovering the remarkable achievements of this extraordinary athlete. Garrett's journey serves as a testament to the power of guts, determination, and a deep connection with family, and keep riding the waves of life with courage and passion.
I'm Guy Kawasaki. This is Remarkable People. My thanks to the Remarkable People team. This would be Peg Fitzpatrick, Jeff Sieh, Alexis Nishimura, Fallon Yates, Luis Magaña, and the big wave surfer of Santa Cruz and the longboard surfer of Santa Cruz, Madisun Nuismer. Until next time, mahalo and aloha. One last thing. If you know my wife, do not tell her that Garrett said he would tow me out at Nazaré.