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Sidney Smith
128 Plays1 year ago
Sidney Smith is a double amputee who had every reason to quit on life. Instead Sidney has entered into what he calls his second life. He is a true inspiration to what is possible when you put God first and change your outlook on life.
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Transcript
Introduction & Guest Overview
00:00:07
Speaker
You are listening to the Tricer Podcast, where we talk all things hunting, gear, and the great outdoors. Before we begin, let's start things out right and put God first. Lord Jesus, I thank you for Tricer, and I ask that you can use this podcast as a way to bring joy to all of our listeners. We lay Tricer and this podcast at your feet. Amen.
00:00:32
Speaker
All right.
Meeting Sydney Smith
00:00:33
Speaker
Now that episode of the Tricer Podcast, this time I am joined by Sydney Smith. Sydney, how are you doing? Good. Drew, how are you? I'm doing great, man. I'm excited to finally get to meet you in person in the 2024 sense and get to talk to you because I've been following you for a long time on Instagram. You do a bunch of inspirational stuff and you're really active in the hunting community and I really just wanted to pick your brain and get to know you.
00:00:57
Speaker
I appreciate it. I love to talk. My wife hates that, though, because when we go into Walmart, I'm a small town. I'll talk to everybody. I don't like Walmart anymore. My wife has to leave me in the car. Yeah, they give you that look, right? They're looking at you and you're just trying not to see it, but they're giving you that shut up
Youth & Disabled Hunters Advocacy
00:01:15
Speaker
look. Let's get out of here.
00:01:17
Speaker
I still do this. As a part-time pastor, aspiring pastor, I like to talk. I like to hear myself talk and teach. I'm the kind of guy that can walk into a room and meet you and just talk to you and just get going. My wife can relate to your wife for sure.
00:01:36
Speaker
I guess what really drew me to you, and I guess we can go into your whole origin story a little bit too, but what I really appreciate about you is that you do a ton of stuff for youth hunters, and not only youth hunters, disabled youth hunters.
Sydney’s Early Life & Hunting Tradition
00:01:50
Speaker
I think also disabled adult hunters as well, if I'm correct, but you are taking kids and people who
00:01:58
Speaker
otherwise couldn't and they make it to where they can. I was telling you off air, as a foster parent, I understand that, right? You're standing in the gap for somebody who can't stand up for themselves or can't do things and you make it a possibility for them to make it. You're taking people who other people might walk by and you're being that good Samaritan that's, hey, let's get you out in the field and give you an opportunity that no one else is giving you. I think that's just so admirable
00:02:23
Speaker
and heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking seeing some of these stories that you're posting up. Tell me about that, man. Tell me about you as a person. What do you want to
Battle with Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease
00:02:32
Speaker
hit first? Yeah, let's talk about you first, yeah. Yeah, my name's Sidney Smith and I like to party. That's all. It's my favorite movie, by the way. Yes, I love that. Hot Rod is my favorite movie, hands down. I was actually him. I have a costume that I can't fit anymore because I've gotten too big.
00:02:49
Speaker
But when I was in my 20s, I was hot rod. I had a fake mustache, I think, so I couldn't even grow one. But now, look at you now. Look at you now, dude, making Rod jealous.
00:03:00
Speaker
Uh, nope, that's a great one. No, I, I, I'm just an average, I guess the best way to explain it. I'm just an average 40 year old man. I grew up in Provo, Utah. I currently live in Vernal, Utah. Um, I grew up loving the outdoors, hunting, fishing, camping. My dad taught me how to hunt.
00:03:21
Speaker
I used to hunt with my grandpa. So even at Deer Camp some years, I had my great grandfather with me trying to kill two-point mules. That's where my addiction for hunting started. My kids, my oldest is 15, who loves to go hunting with me and fishing, ice fishing. And then my girls love the fishing side of things as well.
00:03:42
Speaker
The only one that doesn't like to participate is the wife, but she does appreciate it when we bring me home. I guess the one thing that stands out that people recognize me from the average Joe is when I have my pants off, not in a sexual connotation, but a literal scenario where I wear shorts, you can see my prosthetic legs.
Life After Amputation
00:04:02
Speaker
And I was born with this disease called Charcot-Marie-Tooth. And what this disease is, it's just a quick rundown.
00:04:10
Speaker
It's a progressive genetic disorder in the muscular dystrophy family. And I was born with a normal body. I could do some of the things I love, hiking and playing in the playground. But as I got older into the end of middle school, early
00:04:26
Speaker
in that age is when it was pretty difficult to do sports. My feet would atrophy, and I'd lose muscle, and then I lost structure, bones would break, and then I would wear those big old Forrest Gump braces. Ironically, that's when the movie came out. So, of course, people tease me, run Sydney, run at school. Middle schoolers are great. They're just so supportive. Yeah.
00:04:54
Speaker
Yeah. And then as I got older, it just got so bad with the multiple surgeries. And, and then it got to the point where I couldn't do the things I love. And then I got really bad where I couldn't play with my kids. And then walking was super difficult. And then when I hit 30 is where it was like the last straw. I've had 10 different surgeries and trying with plates and screwed. I was trying to fix it. And then it was just, it was, my feet were so deformed that I was walking on the ankles that the ankles were my heels at that point.
Living with Prosthetics
00:05:23
Speaker
Cause they had just rolled over.
00:05:24
Speaker
And that's the doctors like, golly, you should have came in sooner, but there's not much we could do. So in 2015 is when I had my legs amputated. So that's my story in a nutshell, what happened to me. Of course, there's been lots of ups and downs since then to get what I'm doing now. But we could talk about that if you want, but
00:05:46
Speaker
Bottom line, people see what they see on Instagram and I do like to share my story and what I do on a regular basis. But you ask my wife, I'm an average Joe. I leave my dirty clothes on the floor. I fart at the dinner table. I have a nine to five job. I'm just an average guy, but I've learned some things in life such as my
00:06:08
Speaker
faith and purpose and overcoming failures and then ultimately the power of gratitude that's been able to get me through hard times and has given me a new set of life, if that makes sense.
00:06:22
Speaker
That does. Yeah, it's neat. I actually had no idea. So I guess it's one of those things where maybe it's just like, there's like negative connotation to asking. Because you're like, I don't know, shark victim. I don't know. Truck hit him. You never know. Like, I don't know. Machinery accident, Bobcat, grizzly bear. But so, so yeah, you see, you've, it wasn't like you just had this incident. And it had to change. Like you have been dealing with adversity your entire life.
Overcoming Mental Health Challenges
00:06:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's as long as I can remember. I do remember like playing in the playground and running a little bit like early years. But after that, the last the time after that when I ran was when I got my prosthetic running leg. So it was like.
00:07:07
Speaker
30 years maybe at the most really so i have a friend who did the same summer thing he had broken his ankle multiple times and he had ended up getting amputated because it was just like he was better off amputating and now he's actually way more functionally able to surf and do these things he couldn't do ski by doing it so it almost sounds like you almost got a new a new set of legs literally
00:07:30
Speaker
Correct. New set of legs, new set of life, really. My personality is a lot different, mainly because of the things that I've had to go through, the gauntlet and the prayer. There was a moment where suicide was thought of.
00:07:46
Speaker
attempted, but for the most part, like that brought me into a whole new space. And I'm not saying I'm grateful for those moments, but I am. I did learn a lot about myself and my purpose here on life. That's where I am grateful for those dark times.
Ironman Training & Gratitude
00:08:07
Speaker
So now that like the I don't want to go too much in the suicide stuff, but this is this prelegs or after this is after your laser amputated or before?
00:08:16
Speaker
so it was in between actually in between like when you knew you were gonna get your legs amputated so I did them one at a time so I lost the first time and then it got infected and so that's when I hit rock bottom because I thought for sure that this was a constant thing that I'm gonna have to deal with my wife's gonna have be a caretaker and just
00:08:40
Speaker
Like I didn't know any other amputees, so I didn't know what this process was going to be like. And so I thought at the time that my situation would get better, but when I had to start over and they actually had to amputate again on the left foot, go even higher because of the infection, that's where it was. The worst of the worst, I should say. So you are like the modern day job.
00:09:07
Speaker
why at this point you're probably even I guess more better be Jonah, right? Yeah. Well, Jonah would be, I think Jonah would be a good example,
Inspiring Others Through Adversity
00:09:16
Speaker
right? Like why me, God, he took away, he even took away the takes away the plan. Like this is ridiculous. And then, you know, all of the nimva gets come to salvation. So I'm sure at the moment, in the moment, you were, you know, very angry, you were sad, you were confused, you were probably questioning like, why me? But man, like,
00:09:36
Speaker
it's almost giving you a new lease on life to where those two legs have done so much more without them than when you had them. That's my 10,000 view looking in, but I'm just seeing what you're doing now and the lives you're changing, the people you're getting to talk to. And you were at a prison today or a youth detention center today talking to kids like, man, Sydney 10 years ago wasn't doing that.
Disabled Outdoorsmen Chapter
00:09:59
Speaker
So man, it's like, that's pretty neat.
00:10:02
Speaker
No, I never thought, I sometimes will sit there and fantasize like, I wish, what would it have been like if I could have showed just a day of my life now to a guy 10 years ago? Like I just, I would love to see that guy's reaction.
00:10:18
Speaker
I was in such a bad spot thinking that life sucks and I did have a lot of resentment, especially towards God because I felt was this a cursor? Why me? What was me? And it wasn't even when I had the prosthetic legs for a while.
00:10:33
Speaker
I still had that in the back of my mind. It wasn't until I was competing in this Ironman race. And so just a quick story, when I was in the hospital, I was watching the Ironman on TV, this big giant triathlon, it's a 140.6 mile race. And I was like,
00:10:52
Speaker
I just felt compelled and inspired that I would love to do that because I know I've heard with prosthetic legs, you can run or do some things and did a lot of little races and trained for four plus years to get to that point. And then when I finally competed into the Ironman,
00:11:09
Speaker
I hit this wall at the very end of the race. It's mile 133. I talk about it a lot. And I had all kinds of problems physically. It was hurt. The adrenaline wore off. I had some cuts that opened up inside my stomp. It just hurt to run. It went from 9 to 10 minute miles to 25, 26, 7 minute miles, which in that race you have to do under 17 hours.
00:11:37
Speaker
And so I was looking at my watch and trying to figure out that I get this rate, it wasn't going to finish in time. And so I just started thinking mentally of the things that I positive things that would help me not think about the pain and where I was at on that course. And I just thought of the things I was grateful for, for example, my family.
00:11:56
Speaker
is one that i absolutely love and i do a lot of things for them there my purpose and my inspiration and my my friends my job that i had at the time that that helped
Stories of Inspiring Hunters
00:12:06
Speaker
me get to this race and allow me to make this happen and then i started thinking about like physical things like my eyesight my hands my lungs things i still had and then i got was working down my body and i started thinking about my legs and
00:12:21
Speaker
sort of something that I was always thought was a curse and was angry about my whole life. I just thought this is just the way it is. Sometimes things suck. I started thinking about my legs was I great for my legs and because of my
00:12:37
Speaker
legs I started thinking out like what has happened in my life because of it and here I am doing this race in Florida and I'm kicking butt I'm doing well and I wouldn't have done it without this scenario and then I started thinking about the people that I've helped and inspired in my life then I thought about the pain that I've experienced in my life that's brought me
00:13:00
Speaker
patients and a pain tolerant. And those things have allowed me to be a better father, but her husband has got me better jobs at work because of that strength and trait that I've developed over the years. And while I was thinking of this, like out of the blue, my legs started just
00:13:17
Speaker
going in this race and I just started thinking and tears coming down and thanking God on apologizing for all the anger that I had towards them and just being for the first time truly grateful and for this trial so to speak of having
00:13:35
Speaker
this physical pain and this disease and dealing with prosthetics and I look at it now and if I had to choose my life over again I would never change anything different and that just that little energy of mental focus of gratitude is what got me across the finish line and that's how I became an Iron Man so it's amazing what
00:13:57
Speaker
My second life has become, and it's because of just that gratitude mindset. What was holding me back, obviously, was the fear and what I did not know. But even with this disability, if I was able to look at trials as an opportunity to become stronger and better and be more purpose-driven, it would have dramatically changed my life
Passion for Hunting & Fishing
00:14:22
Speaker
earlier.
00:14:23
Speaker
It is neat. I had this conversation recently about Tricer, and it is neat to think what our plans are for our life versus God's plans for our life, how much better God's plans are than our plans. And you look at where we are today and you're like,
00:14:38
Speaker
you never could have ministered or motivated people if you had had this thing you went through and endured. You've endured things that I can't relate to. You've endured not only physical things, but I'm sure mental things and emotional things, and especially as a child going through that. But through that, being tried by fire,
00:15:04
Speaker
now you're able to go and use that. So now here you are, 133, life has changed. Your second life, I love that. That's really cool. Things have changed. This is what, 2018 then, I guess? 2019. And I think you never stopped running. You probably ran back to Utah because you just, it seems like three hit and now you're just out there just constantly helping people and doing things. So talk about that. Talk about the second life.
00:15:34
Speaker
Yeah, so we talk about purpose. Amazing drive is because it definitely, I think God put us on this earth for many reasons. Sometimes we think we know why we're here and what we're doing and things can change. And growing up, like I said, I love to hunt. I love to fish. It's just something that was my favorite time to spend with my dad. Like that's our bond. And I love to carry that tradition on to my son.
00:16:03
Speaker
And when I lost my legs, I wanted
Intense Ironman Training
00:16:05
Speaker
to pursue that still and take on new challenges such as bow hunting. That was something I never did earlier in my years. It wasn't until I became an amputee that I actually pick up a bow and start training and practicing and then.
00:16:20
Speaker
and got pretty good at it. And while I was focusing on hunting and doing these outdoor stuff and camping and hiking and all that, I never really thought of being different from anybody else. I didn't think about my legs. I didn't complain. Just because I was so purpose driven, if it was an elk, I wanted to hike to this point to get to it. I didn't think about, man, I wish this elk would come to me and feel bad for me because I have prosthetic legs. Like they don't do that.
00:16:51
Speaker
I smell the same. Yeah. Those jerks, you don't have compassion there, but it just was, it's made me happy. And I don't think about those problems of being an amputee. Like it just, it's like you put it on contacts. It's become the same thing for me.
00:17:10
Speaker
and about this idea and a friend of mine west and down in Texas, he had a similar idea. He had a friend, or excuse me, his cousin, who had a disease that only allowed him to live like into his late teenage years, the longest. And this disease, it's, I don't know the name of it, but it just basically all his, a lot of his organs start shutting down. But his cousin was super set up
00:17:38
Speaker
into deer hunting loved deer hunting absolutely obsessed with it he would hunt the best he can with his ability but he's slowly losing all his ability and
00:17:50
Speaker
after doing it for so many years he lived into his 20s and now he's in his 30s and he's still it's amazing like he's on oxygen and is in manual wheelchair or excuse me electric wheelchair and the doctors think this is the longest anyone has ever lived in this disease and it has something to do with your driving purpose and that's why maybe hunting is a good medicine for that
00:18:13
Speaker
And so with my thought process and what my buddy Weston thought of with his cousin, I started this group called Disabled Outdoorsmen down in Texas. And it's just to have that idea of bringing people into the outdoors, introducing them into the outdoors, and get them involved in areas that they didn't think was possible. Constantly with disabled people, they think, well, I have a disability, I can't do those things.
Fitness & Lifestyle Integration
00:18:40
Speaker
We've tried to provide them opportunities, we've tried to buy them equipment, we mentor them into areas where they can be successful and do a dream hunt. Since then, we did that for a couple of years or so and then we've branched and grew. I'm now with a few other guys here in Utah where we have a Utah chapter.
00:18:59
Speaker
And we do the same thing where we take people with disabilities anywhere from quadriplegics to amputees to some mental disorders. We take them elk hunting. We did about 22 to 25 big game hunts every year. We do certain events with the youth especially. For example, we do these shed hunts.
00:19:20
Speaker
where we go out and with the under 18, we have different landowners that have offered their land. And they go out and we have these track wheelchairs or any kind of adaptive equipment.
00:19:34
Speaker
And we have a mentor there to help them go find sheds. And we get a lot of people help and donate sheds anywhere from a two point white tail deer to Yukon Moose. And we have, it's a good old time and like these kids will come home with a teen or 20 sheds. That's, that one's one of our favorites where we do that one in June every year. And those are just fun events that get things going. So. That is, that is awesome and inspiring. And when I can imagine that,
00:20:02
Speaker
When these kids see you and you put shorts on, it probably makes them feel like part of something almost. Oh man, speak to that. Like how have you been able to use that to get these kids out there? Sorry. I said, imagine when these kids see you and they, you're wearing shorts, they see your amputees that probably almost makes them feel like, Hey, I could do it too. Right.
00:20:26
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's true. I'm out there doing the same thing with him and I definitely sense that they feel super comfortable because they see that, hey, he's not a two-legged freak like everybody else. He has done some amazing things and maybe I can do it too. And that is, it does make me feel obviously honored that someone like that would look up to me as an example like that. But bottom line, if we can get him that little bit of
00:20:55
Speaker
inspiration. It's just amazing what they can run with. I'll share a quick story. My friend Adam, I met him a couple years ago. We heard he was in the dumps like my scenario and he recently had a mountain bike accident.
00:21:13
Speaker
and a super small incident. It just wasn't even like a crazy mountain bike accident. It was just like going over his handlebars and he broke his back and became a paraplegic. So from the waist down was unable to use his body. And it
00:21:31
Speaker
Adam was a very manly man, like he took care of his family and now all that kind of went out the window. And because of that, he was super bummed, he felt in the dumps and our group got word of him and talked him into coming on a dove hunt with us. And we took him, we got the birds knew the pattern, he's able to shoot some doves, he had a good time and he says, I'd like to do this again.
00:21:56
Speaker
So then last minute, we were given a, from one of my landowner buddies, a, an antelope doe tag. And for those that are in the big hunting or big game hunting world, you probably have your moose at the top of the list. Maybe your ram, you have your elk, you have your deer.
00:22:13
Speaker
and then you have your squirrel and then below the squirrel you have your antelope doe and but he came out and he shot this one shot at 400 yards first big game kill was amazing shot and he was like on cloud nine he thought he would have killed like a 200 inch mule deer like he was and because of that moment like a slight
00:22:37
Speaker
came on and he was so moved with this new purpose that now I'm bringing home meat that he helped. I showed him how to clean it and process it and skin it and get it taken care of and he brought meat to the table. He fed it to his friends and family and they loved it and like way to go at them and that was enough in that drive that he turned around and he started going hunting on his own with no help.
00:23:03
Speaker
and started killing elk and deer out of his wheelchair. And then he started inviting other people with disabilities and helping out. Then he even donated to my group. He bought a wheelchair for somebody that we use. And it's just, it's amazing. Just like that little bit of purpose. It helps, especially as men, like you take away that manly instinct of bringing food on the table. That's like almost like a caveman thing. And that hit him pretty hard. But now that he realized, hey, I have this back.
00:23:34
Speaker
He's able to do so much. Guys, that purpose is huge. That's awesome. One of my favorite quotes is, true discipleship is reproducing reproducers.
00:23:45
Speaker
So
Family Life & Fitness Insights
00:23:46
Speaker
if you're like the proofs in the pudding, so if you're producing people like that, that's awesome. Like you're not only like now this, like what you started doing is becoming exponential, right? And you get more people doing it. And that's where you're seeing such growth. That's awesome, man. That's really cool to see you guys doing that. So enough about the kids. Not only are you doing all this awesome stuff for the kids and people with disabilities, dude, you're like in the gym, like hardcore.
00:24:13
Speaker
like you're not you are not a victim at all like you are i see you do some stuff and i'm like dude i hate doing those i do love i do really love your sense of humor like you have like cafe and stuff like i think it's funny that you can have that kind of like uh i have that kind of morbid humor so you trained you i can't imagine you are as good a shape as you are now before you got your leg amputated no i can't
00:24:39
Speaker
Before that, bench press is what we had to do and it was like a required class as a freshman. I couldn't even lift the bar just because I was just this puny little old freshman. No, it was a new thing. I did triathlons.
00:25:00
Speaker
Especially this last year I just enjoy the gym challenging like you said the things that I hate the most or a lot of people hate lunges or balancing but it's just there's so much benefit especially doing the lunges weighted lunges it helps with my balance being a double amputee it
00:25:21
Speaker
Because I don't have ankles a lot of my how I feel the ground and balance and correct uneven ground how I correct my balances in the hips and so doing lunges and having that extra quad or surrounding that muscle group.
00:25:37
Speaker
has paid huge benefits, especially like hiking and having running, doing that extra power stuff. So I hate them, but when I get through them and see like the progress or the reward comes when I get further than I expected in the mountains, that's when I'm like, okay, I'm glad I did them.
00:25:57
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, and you're pretty Jack dude. You're like flexing on me right now. I'm making fun of your arms. I don't know. I mean, you're in shape like you, there's no joke way around it. Like you're in the gym and you're in shape how, and I feel like we probably the same goal. Like the only reason I go to the gym and I'll go tonight after this, I try and go four to five days a week is because I want to, especially pushing 40 now, like I want to be able to get out and hunt. So is that your motivation really? Or are you just, or is the running your motivation? Like what motivates you to do that?
00:26:24
Speaker
It's actually, it's neither. Really? No, yes and no. Like I do try to stay in shape year round because I do activities and hunt year round and I do love to run. My wife's probably not going to allow me to do another Iron Man for a while. So there's just other things I like to want to do in mountains. I've always had this goal of swimming the English Channel, like.
00:26:49
Speaker
I go to the gym because it's a mental medicine for me. If I stop, I don't want to go back to that guy who didn't work out before. I just love that endorphin release. I just love to...
00:27:04
Speaker
basically enjoy the second life the best again. That's probably the main reason why I go. My wife, I tell her, you're 10 and I'm at best maybe a six and a half. I need to at least find ways to get hot so that way people don't think I have all this money and that's why you're married to me.
00:27:23
Speaker
But I just do it because it feels good. Like it honestly feels good to work out. But like at the same time, yeah, the hunting does come from it, especially as I get closer to backpack season. I do a lot of stairs and I'm the nerd that will wear his exhale backpack and have it weighted and I'll go do the stairs on the Stairmaster with my backpack. So that's what that's why I like the gym. It's just good medicine mentally.
00:27:52
Speaker
Yeah, I do agree with... I've been pretty much on this whole fitness journey now since 2019. It was pre-COVID. I was very active, and then we started having kids, and it's life catches up to you. It's hard. And then I started to go in the gym, and it's really hard to get that routine. And once you get that routine, you don't want to break it. Once you start eating cleaner,
00:28:13
Speaker
It's funny how when you're working out and running and staying in shape, you don't want to eat, I do like donuts, but you want to eat healthy, you want to eat clean, it all goes together. I feel a lot better as a person, healthier, and I'd much rather live like that than live like I did before, where I was drinking a couple of Red Bulls a day and eating Jack in the Box and just getting by. It's nice to be in shape, it's nice to be fit, and I'd rather give myself as much of an advantage as I can
00:28:41
Speaker
Versus going out there and sucking wind. No, I'm, I'm not perfect. I love pizza. I do like heartburn like crazy from pizza. I can't do pizza. It's killing me lately. That's, that is my kryptonite is pizza and cold cereal, which is so random. Cause cold serious just junk, but it did all do cereal at 9 o'clock at night. Sometimes. Oh, I love it. I love it at night or after a cardio workout. Cause it's just that quick carbs and sugar. Yeah.
00:29:11
Speaker
Yeah, my wife does. She doesn't get good cereal. She gets, at the most, we might get some frosted mini-weeds. Mostly it's just Cheerios and really healthy stuff. My wife's a great woman. If it wasn't for me, the kids would just be eating donuts. But a man's frosted mini-weeds at like nine o'clock at night after the gym is, oh, they're good, dude. Have you had the strawberry ones? No. Oh, the strawberry frosted mini-weeds. It's life-changing, so be careful there.
00:29:35
Speaker
Do they have those? We just eat everything. We have five kids. We have a passenger van. We have whatever Costco sells. Do they have them at Costco? I don't know if they have them at Costco.
Ironman Experience
00:29:44
Speaker
I know at Walmart they sell them. They have them at Costco. They're pretty popular.
00:29:50
Speaker
I gotta go get them, but yeah, no lucky charms in our house, regrettably, but we don't have that. What about on, you said your wife isn't gonna do another Iron Man anytime soon. My wife's training for a marathon, or a half marathon right now. We're all gonna go down, cheer on, she's gotten two weeks. And man, the time it takes to train, you go run 12 miles, even at 10 minutes a mile, that's two hours. Because she just ran 12 miles on Sunday. What does training for an Iron Man look like?
00:30:19
Speaker
That has to be just like your whole life. Yeah, for like I what I did is like right out of the hospital once I like when the stitches healed, I went and I taught myself how to swim. I got a coach that at an organization called Challenge Athletes Foundation and I did some underground underwater GoPro videos just because like
00:30:47
Speaker
Swimming is, there is some power and endurance, but most of it is a technique. And because I didn't have legs, I was struggling. I was, my butt was sinking. And so I, I needed help with the swimming part of things. And that's initially where it started. I basically how I swim without, you can't have that in any competition. No more fins. Yeah. No, no more me. I just imagine you had to have gotten like some kind of a special
00:31:16
Speaker
Dolphin tail and his kick butt? No, that would be sweet to have a mermaid fin or something like that or a little jet motor. But no, you had to go straight nubs like it was really, it was tough. So basically, I just I had to focus my energy in my upper body. So I was hitting the water a little bit harder than normal.
00:31:40
Speaker
And that just helped me compensate where my butt was falling down. I moved my hips enough that kind of gave my stumps to raise. And so that way I was more parallel in the water and just practicing that form over and over again. So swimming was the first part and then biking and then of course running. And I started off with small races. I did half marathons, full marathons. And then I did what they call sprint tries, Olympic tries, and then
00:32:08
Speaker
Half Ironman's was to 70.3 and then I took a whole year in advance to do the full Ironman. I got a coach at Salt Lake that's worked with some Paralympians so they had some experience with training with somebody with a prosthetic leg or prosthetic arm, how to balance that because if I went too heavy on that, I can beat up my stumps and then that will cause problems.
00:32:36
Speaker
And my recovery doesn't go bad, but the peak of my training, building that endurance was anywhere from 25 to 28 hours a week. It was bad. It was every morning would be about three plus hours, sometimes during lunch or after work as well. And then Saturdays was just full almost all day, just long eight hour bike rides along with 10 mile run, just to get that used to your body, just accepting this awful torture.
00:33:07
Speaker
So all that training, you get to 133 and you almost quit. Yeah. Yeah. It was tough. That, that was, it was just, the problem was I was going to do it no matter what, even if I had to crawl the last seven miles. But the thing is that I had to do under 17 hours. And so that's where I was stressed about where I was at the race. Um,
00:33:32
Speaker
That's, they would start pulling people off normally, but I would have thought too, cause I just knew I had to do it. But at the same time, I was like, technically I'm not an Iron Man. If I don't do it, and I did the course, but I have 17 hours. And so mentally I was just like, no, I got to find something to get me out of this hump.
00:33:51
Speaker
That was tough. Actually, to rewind, I had an incident training for that race six months into it. So I had reached towards my peak of training and then I was just going to start continuing with speed and endurance. But six months into my training, so about halfway
00:34:10
Speaker
to the race, I had another infection similar to the first one that caused me to amputate higher. Yes, I had recognized this infection and went to the doctor and luckily they didn't have to amputate higher but unfortunately they had to do an incision and I had to do surgery and train all the infections and I couldn't do anything for six weeks so almost all my endurance that I
00:34:31
Speaker
It was gone backwards. So that was probably where I almost quit then too, or at least more so postponed it. Cause I thought to myself, crap, I signed up for this race and I told everybody I was going to do it. I did all this training. Maybe I'll just, maybe I'll just do the race in 2020. Like what's the worst that can happen in 2020?
00:34:53
Speaker
I just talked to my dad and my coach and just thought it through. I just invested so much time into it. I asked my coach, I said, so is it still possible for what happened to me that I could still do this race? He says, oh yeah, your run's going to be hard because we're going to probably cut back on your running and focus more on the swimming and biking so that way you have
00:35:19
Speaker
more time to do the race itself, the running part. And because of this incision I had, I didn't want to take any chances of any infections. And then that's what got me there because of my heavy training. I was getting blisters from in the prosthetics and it would cut.
Hunting Trips & Aspirations
00:35:37
Speaker
And then if the cut got dirty or something like that or a bacteria got in, that's what ended up happening. It just didn't heal and didn't put that right antibiotics on a cut. I just thought I was a man. I can read some dirt on it or something.
00:35:50
Speaker
I can imagine lots of dirt and sweat going down into those things. Yeah. One thing that was cool too, is you keep saying, I wouldn't be an Iron Man, and then you said that, nope, no fins allowed. Nope, you have to do 17 hours. They don't give you any breaks for being an amputee. If you want to be an Iron Man, you got to do it. No, no breaks. I guess the only perk was, this is down in Panama City, Florida. When I got out of the water,
00:36:19
Speaker
Because I didn't have legs, they did carry me a few hundred yards from the beach. So I didn't have to crawl to the sand and have all the other racers trample over me. They did have somebody carry me up to a bench where I could put my biking legs on. That was one nice perk. Oh man, I couldn't imagine having that sand on you too, having to run the rest of the race with that on you.
00:36:43
Speaker
Yes, they did, which was really funny. My wife was there because she came to this race. She was my leg caddy, so she'd bring my legs to each transition is what we call it. The race director who become good friends, he was really intrigued that I was going to be the first double amputee on his course to finish.
00:37:06
Speaker
And so he, he was all, he was the one that was carrying me. And so he was like, yeah, let's get you rinsed off in this room. Hurry, come follow me. You know, so that way you can get on the bike and take off. And so we're getting to this spot. My wife's following and she didn't realize, but we walked into the, to the men's locker room and get dressed and she's standing right there and there's just naked dudes everywhere getting dressed, getting into their biking clothes. And she, and the race director, oh my gosh, hold on, stop, stop, go in the back. Oh, California, that's legal.
00:37:36
Speaker
That's true. That's true. I don't know about the Florida. No, not Florida, Santa's down there. He's a good guy. That's why Trump moved there. Tell me about the hunting side of it then. You're doing some pretty hardcore hunts now.
00:37:52
Speaker
Yeah, I enjoy the challenge. I live for mule deer hunting. That's just what I grew up. That's what I'm obsessed with. I love the glassing. I love the optics. I love just watching their pattern. And there's just something really cool about the quietness and the solitude of mule deer buck. However, my wife doesn't like
00:38:13
Speaker
the mule deer as much as she likes the elk and I do the elk hunting too more so just because we love the meat and my son loves it he loves the thrill and the sexiness of the bugle and all that good jazzy stuff but those are my two favorites if I could do that forever I'd be totally content but
00:38:33
Speaker
I'm starting to branch out and went on a bear hunt this last year. I wasn't successful, so I'm going back this year and then saving some money. I think I would love to go to New Zealand. I have some amputee friends down there that go up into the mountains there and go after the tar, which has always been something I've wanted to do. I'd love to go to Alaska. All those things are
00:38:55
Speaker
basically goals of mine to do eventually, but until then I do have a normal nine to five job and I do speaking on the side and I do this nonprofit charity as well. And so I got to be careful about how much time I have not use that. And so a lot of my time I like to spend is helping other people hunt too. Have you hunted cozier?
00:39:18
Speaker
I haven't, the great ghost, I haven't. No, I've been invited to go out with some guys I met actually five or six years ago at the end. He keeps bugging me every time I see him and I am gonna take him up on that because coosdeer, I love whitetail, and it's just a cool combination of it. I don't know, they're not quite mule deer, but the fact that they live in an ASX open like that, it seems exciting.
00:39:46
Speaker
Dude, you will be ruined. If you like glassing and you like the seriousness of mule deer, these deer, they're the most cagey animals. They're the most quiet animal. They just disappear. They are by far my favorite. I can't tell you enough. I want to hunt them. I guess you'd be the first person I tell. I put my notice in on Monday to my father that I'm leaving my family business. I'm going full-time tricer in June. Oh, way to go.
00:40:15
Speaker
So I'll be full time Tricer and I cannot wait until this hunting season so I can put a bunch of time into because you're like January of 2025. I'm going to spend, I wish I would have got my over the counter permit for Arizona, but I just never have time to do it because I'm always working. I work 16 hours a day. Like I worked from 4am until two o'clock today and then I drove home an hour and got on the call with you.
00:40:37
Speaker
I'll do much trash stuff after this, so I didn't get the over-the-counter tag. But man, I cannot wait to spend so much time behind the glass looking for those deer, and mule deer too as well. I like anything you can glass for. If you have an elk hunt where it's going to be thick, not my thing. If you have an elk hunt where I can get up high and glass a big old basin or glass a big old canyon and
00:40:59
Speaker
I'm all about it. I don't know if you know this, I enjoy classic. It's the company. I know a tripod company that does pretty good.
Total Archery Challenge Tips
00:41:12
Speaker
The gray ghost is where it's at, man. You got to go chase skis and you're right there. So you're not far from Arizona, really.
00:41:21
Speaker
No, it's a little bit of a John. I mean, you're talking maybe 10, 10 plus hours. I'm on the northeastern side. So like, I'm on the board of Wyoming and Colorado in that top corner. That's where. Oh, okay. I don't know if I, so that would be a drive, but you still got to do it, man. Put in for it. I don't know if you put in for, do you put it through New Mexico draw at all?
00:41:42
Speaker
Yeah, I have, it wasn't successful, but they do have, New Mexico actually has a disability draw as well. So they do have that. It's with rifle, but it, I mean, you can do el mule deer, cuz deer. And the,
00:42:00
Speaker
Orks. I have eggs. Orks? Okay. Yeah, you got to put it. So that's coming. That draws in two weeks. So you got to have it from New Mexico. But put it for koozier, man. You would love that hunt. That's such a rad hunt. Now you're telling me you're in Northern Utah. I am going to my first total archery challenge this year. And I'm going to Big Sky, but then I'm also going to have a booth at the Utah one. Are you going to beat either of those? Yeah, I'll be at the Utah one.
00:42:24
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. What? You tell one. Yeah. I was, we messaged a little bit. I was at the hunt expo, but yeah, it's, I did get to see her cause I've always wanted to put hands on cause I'm a big fan of Cody rich and he talks very highly of your stuff. And so it was very interesting how light it was. And just to watch like.
00:42:43
Speaker
I can't remember which booth it was. And it just was interesting to watch like people's reaction and then like they take the spotting scope off and then put it back on and just see because it was trippy. Do you think something light? Cause I have a really light one that I got. It's my beater. It's for, Oh shit. What's the name of it? Probably a survey or slick 634 or something. No, I'm not loaded. No, it's a, it's a,
00:43:13
Speaker
Vortex. It's a vortex one. Okay. It's a Summit. It's a Summit tripod. Okay. And it's super light. It's nice because it's light in the backpack, but when you have it set up, it's like toothpicks on the bottom. So I've never seen a tripod where it was the opposite, where the legs were.
00:43:33
Speaker
It just makes sense, right? It's like me. Think of me, I'm 220. When I have my pack or if I have elk and I'm out walking around with my carbon feet, that's the lightest pieces, the ankles. I'm sitting there and I'm trying to balance, but meanwhile, my springs are going like this. In a way, it'd be nice to be
00:43:56
Speaker
more dense there. Your hip stabilizers must be in same. Oh, they go. That was one of the things that went out on the Ironman was my, both my hips, like to lift my leg up. I was tripping all the time, but yeah, they, that's the thing that sucks. And when I was my prosthetist that built my legs, he was telling me now that you run, you have to do that girly exercise where you sit there and you go in and out. Yeah. And I try not to make eye contact with it.
00:44:27
Speaker
Yeah, there's a rule, you know, how to use that. When I was down in town in Dominican Republic, my wife, couple of weeks ago, I'm like, yeah, I ain't getting on that one. You're such a minimal, you don't tell us such minimal equipment. And I'm like, nope. Yeah, that one, you can't, you know, can't make noises. Ugh, come on. No, as long as you're not wearing your spandex pants, I'm good. What can I expect from, I'm actually going with Cody Rich to the one up in Montana. I'm nervous as heck because I'm hoping to, I'm probably shooting people who are way better than me. What can I expect with Total Orchard Challenge?
00:44:41
Speaker
He wasn't.
00:44:58
Speaker
First of all, that's cool that you're going with Cody. He is salt of the earth kind of guy. He really, his family, wonderful family, but I would say lots of arrows. Lots of arrows? Yeah. Don't like two dozen. Valtry arrows where you're spending in all their like 50 bucks an arrow.
00:45:15
Speaker
have something that you're okay with losing because and plan on it like I don't be like I'm not gonna take a shot cuz I don't want to zero let's see the whole reason why you're going there is to have fun cuz they make shots that are hard they make shots that are like it's like a dick move because they'll put like the vital shot right next to a stump and you look at
00:45:34
Speaker
It's just hammered with arrows. And so I would say that definitely packed like you are hunting because you're on the mountain and you do go all day in the heat. So sunscreen, bug spray, whatever, food and water have good. I always like to make sure I have, you don't have to worry about this, but I always bring extra prosthetic parts because I have things that can break. I almost asked you what I almost asked you what boots to wear.
00:46:03
Speaker
That wasn't intentional, because I was thinking today, I was like, what shoes should I wear? I'm asking you, what if I should wear boots or trail shoes? No, I would, yeah, drill shoes would be good. Trail shoes are fine. You don't need to wear boots. Okay. Like those, yeah, I don't think you need the big kind of trick. No, you wear my kind of trick. I was wondering if I should wear those or not. Well, I don't know. I don't know how, if you have weak ankles or whatnot, but it's hot. So plan on wearing shorts and t-shirts. Really?
00:46:31
Speaker
rain jacket because you obviously are in the mountains. That was the mistake I went my first year up in Snowbird and it just down poured. Like it was awful. And it was like a monsoon and I was like crap. So bring one of those, plan on taking long bomb shots. Make sure you're, if you have a slider or just, there's going to be some shots that are like 80 to 110 yards. And this is fun. That's the thing. Make sure you go with, like you said, if you're going with Cody, you're going to have fun.
00:47:01
Speaker
That thing, so they text me as I get in, I was spot number 1010 this morning. So I actually didn't even get a spot with Cody. I got a spot on Sunday morning because I'm hoping
00:47:13
Speaker
I'm going to be there for the whole week. I'm going to go to Ryan Lampers, our tree summit the weekend after. So I think I'm going to go up there and stay with Cody. And I'm hoping I can weasel my way into the course somehow and get someone up there that has a spot because it seems like everyone just buys extra spots and shoot. And then hopefully to ride some dirt bikes that week and have some fun with it. Yeah. So two dozen arrows, probably good. Are you going all week and you're going every day? I'm only have, I only have one spot on Sunday because it's all I could get today, but I'm going to try and go more than one day. Oh, you can get by with a dozen, but bring two dozen. I don't, I don't know how often you practice.
00:47:43
Speaker
every day right now I'm practicing but I'm also going to Ryan's archery some of the weekend after so I'm gonna bring at least two dozen arrows with me because I got the archery some of the week after so bring that I one year I thought I was mr. hotshot and I did it with the recurve and I lost all my arrows
00:48:01
Speaker
Oh man, that's awesome. I'll see you at the one up in Salt Lake. It's up this year, it's at Solitude, right? Yeah. I've never been to that one. I couldn't go last year because I had family meetings, but it's usually Park City or Snowbird is usually where they've been doing it. Yes, we booked that. I ended up booking a house. I'm bringing my partner Paul and his family and then bringing my whole family. We're going to go up there and we're going to make a road trip out of it and try from San Diego.
00:48:31
Speaker
Do the whole thing and then run the road trip back. Maybe we'll jump off from there, maybe go up into Wyoming or something, then drop back down, see everything, come back down here. It's definitely a good experience and they make it into real-life scenarios. The years that I go and I do a few of the total archery challenges, the more confident I feel in the field and I've actually made better shots.
00:48:54
Speaker
It's fun and it's fun to end it, especially if you go with a group of guys that you enjoy and it's overall a good commodity if you haven't been. Yeah. I imagine it's, I always tell my friends trying to shoot a deer target at 600 yards because they're all long range shooters until they do that and they gut shoot it. I imagine that tack humbles you a little bit and you realize, Oh, maybe I shouldn't be dropping the hammer at 85 yards or nine.
00:49:19
Speaker
Oh yeah. I, I'm not going to say names because I would, it would just, it's just mean, but like people miss all the time. So I'm on the mountain ops team and there's a few known hunters on the mountain ops team. And they invited us one year and there was someone very famous that dry fired their bow in front of camera because they were just focused on this shot and didn't remember to knock an arrow. And it was, their bow blew up. So it happens.
Conclusion & Social Media Connections
00:49:50
Speaker
Dude, I once did that on a rabbit after a freaking death hike of a day. I was like almost back to camp and I was like just pissed off, tired. I freaking dry fired my bow and blew it up.
00:50:04
Speaker
It was probably my second or third year bow hunting. I was actually able to fix it. I had to do some rigging and get it to work the rest of the hunt, but it was not a prideful moment for me. That's for sure. That was definitely probably the first person I've told. I guess my father-in-law was there, so he knows about it. You and the rest of the world now know about it.
00:50:24
Speaker
I don't think my neighbor listens to this podcast but I put a hole through their camper because I was using a thumb release and I was just trying to get used to it and I was just going back and I just bumped it anyway just enough to go right through it and I was like oh my gosh
00:50:40
Speaker
I'm trying to, like with my thumb release, I'm trying to work on not punching. So I'm working on like wrapping my thumb and then touching my fingers together, then squeezing with, not with, not pulling my thumb, but like squeezing it. And I've had a couple times where I'm like, I need to make sure I'm pointing down range when I do this. Cause it'll, I did the other day and I'm shooting underneath my deer, trying to put it into the wood and then losing the arrows, bit broken off of me. So we don't get that arrow back. So yeah, it's, I know the thumb releases are great. I don't want to go back.
00:51:08
Speaker
It's like a wrist strap one, but they are touchy, man. You get it set up right. They are that you did it wrong. It's going.
00:51:14
Speaker
You're right, but I will say this, once you go, I don't know, a lot of people hate the back tension, but I cannot shoot anything else. I'm obsessed with a thumb release. I have to have one. My friend has this company called Native Archery Traditions, and he makes this wrist strap. I'll have to text you a picture of it. It's a wrist strap for your thumb release, and it ties to it, and it acts like spandex, and you can just put it on your wrist and carry it on your wrist when you're hunting.
00:51:40
Speaker
See, I have to talk afterwards because that was the only thing I don't like about the thumb release. It's tied to your wrist. It's tied to your wrist and it's a bungee where you can put it, you basically put it in there and it's just stuck there, you know, with the spandex.
00:51:56
Speaker
It's a really cool thing. So I might even bring some of those toiletry challenge for him because he's someone who's going to really help me be able to do it because he works at the bow shop. Nice. My wife's looking at me. She wants my keys. We're over that hour mark, dude. Where did this end it? Where can we find you? Where are you up to?
00:52:10
Speaker
You want us to find you? Whatever you'd like. I guess like social media is obviously a great tool. I try my best to respond. The message is the best I can. But yeah, if anybody wants to know what we do for the disabled hunting, Disabled Outdoorsman USA is their national chapter, the one we do here in Utah. And we do stuff in Idaho and Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona as well.
00:52:34
Speaker
for do Utah. It's just DO underscore you Utah. So do Utah. That's where you can find us on Facebook and Instagram. And our website is www.doutah.org. Me personally, if you're looking to, I do like I said, I do motivational speaking on the side or just want to see what I do. My handle is try TRI underscore no feet. It's the same on Facebook, YouTube, that kind of stuff. So
00:53:01
Speaker
That's awesome, dude. What a great podcast. What an inspiration. I'm proud of what you're doing and keep it up there. We need more guys like you standing in the gap for these kids and that's tipping up for them. So I appreciate it. It's inspiring. Thank you so much. I was super like stoked when I got this invitation. I like these guys. It's super nice. Let's do it again, huh? Okay. Yeah, no problem. I love it.
00:53:28
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Tricer Podcast. Do us a favor and like and subscribe on whatever platform you're listening on. Give us a follow on Instagram and Facebook at TricerUSA and go and check out all of our innovative gear at www.tricerusa.com. Until next time, shoot straight, have fun, and always put God first.