Tom Court

[00:00:00] Tom Court: Hello, and welcome to the modern adventure podcast coming up. I did a kite surfing trip with my dad, actually down the coast of Peru and some of the best waves, best waves in the world break along the coast of Peru and and, and a really long way I was out there. It there’s only two of us, me and my dad, no one else around.

And I dropped my kite and the wave took it and I was leashed onto my kite. And before you knew it, I’m just underwater being dragged by the waves. So the wave power and energy is in the car. And I’m there underwater water being like sort of hogtied and dragged back bits, and it’s just going and going and going and going.

And I’m like, oh my God, this is going on for a long time. And then I’m trying to reach behind my back to the quick release, but because I’m being dragged too fast, I can’t actually get to it. My next guest is an adventurer and kiteboarding extraordinary. He has some remarkable stories from his times, traveling all over the world from Dominican Republic to Sri Lanka, to Cuba.

We talk on the [00:01:00] podcast about some of his incredible experiences over the years. We also talk about his passion for the extreme and how he overcomes fear in doing some of these incredible stunts. And I am delighted to introduce Tom court to the pod cost. John, thanks for having me mate. Pleasure to be here.

Oh, it’s absolutely great to have you on, I haven’t seen you in quite a few months or some sit down and actually have a proper good chat. Yeah, man. Yeah, it’s been great to catch up with a fellow adventure. It’s a, it’s been a strange time for all of us, I think. So it’s nice to, you know, to be doing these things and to share experiences at this time for people listening, Tom is a kite sporter kite surfer, whatever you want to call it and has done some incredible stuff over the years for people listening, let’s start at the beginning.

How did you actually start down this sort of path? Well, I, yeah, I’ve always been interested in and travel. And I guess for [00:02:00] me, I’ve always used the sport as a vehicle for travel and, and kite surfing for me came along a lucky time in my life where I was young enough to sort of get into a good time for the sport and a good time for myself.

And, and that opened up for me, like the opportunity to travel with, with kite surfing. I learned to kite, so my, my dad taught me to kitesurf when I was about 11 years old out in the Canary islands register on a family holiday out there. And that’s sort of where I first yeah. Like learned and really got my hands on, on a kite.

And then since then I never looked back really. And and kite surfing has been apart of my life and a part of my career now. Since, since I can remember, so yeah, I was very lucky to have that opportunity. Cause you, before you sort of did a lot of traveling, you were sort of traveling up for competitions and.

Winning when he metals high potassium. Yeah, well, yeah. I mean, [00:03:00] so that’s how it started. My dad taking me around to competitions in the UK and doing the British championship series in kite surfing, which realistically at the time was just a really good way to have a nice weekend and and a fun time and catch up with like-minded people doing similar.

Sport. And then I won the British title. I think I won the British juniors in 2002. And then, and then I won the top flight after that. And then once, once that sort of the ball was rolling in that direction, then I started looking into the world, turns dead about five or six years traveling around on the world to, and then that sort of, you know, naturally got me into the, into the, to the motion of the whole, to the whole thing.

Well, you have this sort of privilege of living on the isle of Wight, which is sort of your sort of background playground, as one might say, you had a, some pretty awesome sort of content Shane [00:04:00] over the summer and the summer sort of taking you all over the place. Right. Yeah, well, I mean, it’s been a strange couple of years, I guess, for everybody around the country, but yeah, living on the island, Y is, is definitely a blessing when it comes to, you know, sports and access to nature and like, you know, getting in, getting in the water.

Yeah, and that’s been a big part of, of me having access to sport was living on the island and just, you know, getting, getting out and see as much as I can. So, yeah, it’s been a, it’s been a nice place to live over the years. I mean, initially with travel and like getting away, it seemed like a disadvantage because obviously I’d have to get the ferry off the island every time.

And then the tax to the airport, you know what started as a struggle, I guess when I was younger or, or an added cost, at least that’s become very much an advantage. You know, now. That’s for sure. And so with the sort of [00:05:00] we’ve kite surfing, I mean, it’s sort of your passion is for this sort of extreme element of the sport.

And I mean, we had Megan on yesterday, not yesterday last time or a few weeks ago, sort of talking about sort of fear and we’ve kite surfing. You’re throwing yourself up many, many meters into the air. How did this sort of progression to sort of conquer that fear or bringing yourself into your sort of element of pushing it sort of one step up every time?

Was it a progression or have you always had this sort of drive to push yourself further and further? Yeah, I think S and N it’s a good question. I think, and risk taking risks. It’s a massive topic. And it’s, you know, over recent months as well, like fear and other things have come into other elements of our life that, that, that you can [00:06:00] see holding, holding you back or, or doing things like that.

Where, and I think, yeah, learn like through extreme sport, through kite surfing and through taking risk I think the more you do it, the more you become. Yeah, capable of doing it. And the more you look for it, and the more you realize, actually that the risk isn’t necessarily a bad thing. And for me now, you know, I got to the stage where I really am like searching for risky things.

And so, you know, looking for the adrenaline that is associated with pulling something risky off or, or pushing yourself to the limits, you know, physically or mentally. And I think, you know, sport and kite surfing got me into that from an early age. And yeah, now the age of 30 plus it’s like become something more systematic in my life where I, you know, I know that I need risk.

I know that I need to push myself. And I, and I feel that, you know, I, I don’t shy away from. But [00:07:00] it’s just learning. Yeah. It’s all about learning to, to kind of manage it and choose your risks wisely and and kind of calculate those risks before you take them on. But definitely, you know, taking risk is a big part of, of sport.

And it’s something that gives me, it gives me a lot of kicks and the dynamics. Oh yeah. This sort of drug of adrenaline, you’re sort of looking for that next. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it’s something you don’t get from doing anything other than pushing yourself to the limit, you know, to, to the limits or close to the limits.

And, and it’s, and it’s not something you can cultivate that really in any, in any other way. So in a way it’s a very healthy addiction, assuming you assuming you, you, you know, you can calculate the, the possible risks you know, Amazing. So your, as you said, your trips have taken you all over the world from Sri Lanka to Morocco, to all sorts of serving credible places.

What’s the [00:08:00] one that sort of sticks out for you as like the adventure paradise. The adventure paradise. I mean, as many different types of adventure, that’s something that I’ve learned over the years. That’s a show. And yeah, I had different phases of my career where I’ve been traveling for different reasons.

I traveling for competition is very different to traveling, you know, for free riding, which I’m doing now, where I’m very much absorbing myself into the location, the place and looking for. You know, different experiences within that rather than staying in one place and pushing yourself from a competitive angle.

So I feel like, you know, earlier in my career, I got to see a lot less of the places that I was traveling to because I was very focused on, you know, certain specifics, even though. It was definitely the reason why I traveled so much was for the sport. But I think, you know, the, the recent trip that I’ve just done was felt to me, like one of the more adventurous trips I’ve done in a long time, because I was coming off the [00:09:00] back of COVID and doing not much yeah.

Getting out into the Sahara desert and just disappearing into, into the middle of nowhere. With no one around for me, that sort of, that sort of exposure and separation is something that you can’t, you know, easily get these days. So yeah, for me, something like that is, is very exciting. So you’ve had a recent one in the Dominican Republic.

What happened there? Yeah, Dominican Republic’s it’s it’s a paradise in many ways. It’s a great island. I it’s next to Haiti. It’s on the same island as Haiti. But it’s, you know, it’s blessed with really good wind conditions and two seasons of the year. So good, good wind and good waves.

And it’s pretty much 30 degrees most days. You know, it’s a tropical island. Unfortunately I left my laptop on the plane on the way out there, this time round. So I immediately landed on a back foot. [00:10:00] Never found the my MacBook pro didn’t get any response from the airline on that either. So I sort of handicapped myself straight away on that, on that trip.

And the rest of the trip was sort of you know D dealing with repercussions. But those are the things that can happen. I think you have to just say setting them up as you go along because kite surfing was quite a sort of new sport in the sort of grand schemes of it. And I suppose it’s been growing in popularity over the past sort of 20 years or say it’s your aim to continue to sort of promote it.

Are you doing lots of work to sort of encourage more and more people into kite surfing? Well, yeah, I mean, I, it goes hand in hand with some of the things I’ve just said. You said like the the ability for a sport to give you access to a lifestyle, or, you know, create the ability for you to take risks or, you know, get out there and experience [00:11:00] things because you’re focused on a sport.

For me, that’s a very powerful motivation tool. I think a lot of people lack, like if you, if you imagine going on a trip, So sunbathing. I mean, I can’t really even imagine it, but like it’s, there’s very little reason for you to get up and go and do it, you know? And it’s very easy to give up on that, on that that trip for whatever reason that might be.

Whereas if you’re going somewhere to do a sport, to chase the wind, to access things that you can’t get in, the place that you currently are, that, that. That’s where the power of sport really lies for me. Especially nowadays he used to be motivated by competition and things like that, but yeah, I mean, my, my drive within the kite surfing industry is to, is to promote it for, for the amazing lifestyle possibilities and the amazing know.

But I think impacts it can have on your life. And then, yeah, other than that, I, I like to represent kiteboarding in a visual sense across my YouTube channel. [00:12:00] And, and keep putting out content that, that really represents kiteboarding for what it is. And I think, yeah, now, especially as a good time for kite surfing with the entry to the Olympics in the next in the next round, it’s, it’s going to get them a lot more visibility.

And I think the industry, the industry has been on a, on a sort of indefinite rise since I started the sport at the age of 11. And now, and now it’s looking like, you know, something very popular with a lot of very engaging, engaging, and interesting people. And you’re taking part in it. It’s still an exciting time because staffing, I think, yeah, I think there’s a lot of people.

And as you say, you travel around the world, sort of probably with the same sort of group of people who are always competing, what do you think separates like the exceptional ones from the good ones in terms of how do you push yourself to becoming number one in . Yeah, well, it’s [00:13:00] an interesting one. I think, to become number one in anything you do in life, you have to have a certain psychology.

You have to be very single minded and highly motivated. Full that ends, you know, to become number one. I mean, there is only one number one, but that’s not to say there’s only one place to be good at something, you know, like there’s, there’s, you know, having a bigger industry around the sport, I think makes a big impact and a lot of space for other people that have talents that aren’t necessarily winning.

I mean, myself and my career. Has always been motivated by the lifestyle that the sport can offer rather than, you know, winning the next event. I mean, I always enjoyed that part of it and got kicks and enjoyed the competitive side of it. But now it’s abundantly clear that, you know, you’re not always going to be number one, you can’t always win, but there are always opportunities within a growing industry for people to represent different areas or inspire people in different [00:14:00] ways.

And I think, you know, Yeah. With the content generation and YouTube and different things that are going on there now. Yeah. It’s opening doors for possibilities to be good at other things within an industry. So, yeah, I think yeah, that’s, that’s a really interesting thing for me, I think about, about the development and how things are going.

Your psychology has changed over the years from, as you sort of said from the sort of competing to more like now more of the enjoyment of the sport. Yes, definitely. Definitely. And yeah, a big part of that for me. And I think a big part of any athlete’s career, it was injury and coming across, you know, injuries that really prevent you from and hold you back from doing the things that you enjoy doing.

And then the process of overcoming those injuries. And, and, and the PR the whole process involved with, with coming back from injury that has definitely changed my psychology into, into something [00:15:00] much more aligned with, you know, appreciating the moments that the sports can offer, rather than just being in a highly motivated in one direction to, to achieve.

Then the pinnacle of achievement. Yeah, it gives you a much more rounded perspective on, I think, what, what the sport can offer you in general. So what happened with this injury? Well, I’ve blown my ACL twice in my right knee and once in my left knee. So I’ve had a knee knee surgery three times. The first knee surgery to something like 12 months to come back from.

And then the second one, I did it again in competition, in the same competition. Exactly. Yeah. Later doing the same trick. It was like a big deja VU and I blew the same ACL second time round, but the second time round takes a lot longer. So it took like 15 months to get back from that. So when you, you know, A three year [00:16:00] span of coming up against not being able to do sport and not being able to do things that you enjoy or work or anything like that.

And then my soul realization out of that was I just need to get back to a place where I can enjoy what I love doing. And that was my motivation, you know, to come back from it. Or I think if I didn’t have the sport, I would have found it very difficult to, to get over the injuries. I think. Certainly gotten an appreciation that the sort of psyche of an injury, especially if sports and exercise or anything around that is your life getting injured.

Just absolutely knocks you for six. And if it takes where your whole, I don’t know, identity it it’s only takes a lot. So to come back from that, And you have to sort of completely change your mindset with it. I, I certainly felt that when you [00:17:00] get injured, like you have some really dark days and you have to sort of find the root at the end of the tunnel, which is for you kite surfing.

And as you say, you went from that competing to now sort of more of the enjoyments. Definitely. Definitely. I mean, I, so I, I mentioned I did it twice, so I’m on one knee and I, the, the profound realization that I had was when I felt this felt it happened the second time was that I had not actually really learned anything from the first time it happened.

So. And, and, and the first time round the recovery process for me, it was very much to getting back to where I was prior to the injury. So, you know, becoming the person that I had been getting back to competition and getting back into competing and getting better again than I was previously. And I just realized actually on the second time round, You have to become a new person.

You have to become somebody who you will be, you know, not [00:18:00] who you were. And injury is a very I mean, it’s the most educational process I think anyone can go through. And I think, yeah, having, having a focus, having a drive and having a sport, that’s something that, you know, that you love is key. To getting through it, to getting through it.

And, and also the knowledge that you will be somebody new after it, rather than the person you were before is a, is a vital piece of the puzzle, I think, to, to getting through it. Yeah. It’s that sort of process of who you are to who you’re about to become. I thinks, I think is definitely important. And for anyone who’s had long long-term injuries, I think would understand, but that’s what, four years with three ACL’s that’s four years of your career on the sideline.

Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, pretty much. And you know, this is where I, I kinda knew an issue. You know, every [00:19:00] athlete is aware of the injury risk. And I kind of knew that the knees were a weak point and call it surfing. And I was expecting it in sight in many ways, but it doesn’t help you when that finally happens, but I’ve been.

Filming and building content libraries and, you know, really kind of almost without realizing it, investing time and, and things that I could do when I was injured. So, you know, within that time I released a movie sort of like called the free ride project on YouTube. It’s, there’s four of them. Now I’ve done four movies.

Yeah, it’s like a 45 minute sort of edit about, you know, the staffing industry and getting behind the scenes and like how boards are made and, you know, the, the life of the riders and kind of absorbing myself into the industry and in other ways and, and kind of being entrepreneurial in a sense of how do I stay in this industry?

How do I add value to this [00:20:00] industry and how can I, you know, retain my. You know, position within, within it over the recovery period. And I was lucky enough to have sponsors that really stuck with me through that and and supporting my vision. So it was you know, in the end we came, it has become a very positive process in my life.

And I think, you know, it could, at one point it could have easily gone the other way. I think, you know, when it comes to finding out who you want to become through injury, I think it’s an amazing sort of transition and one that, you know, as you, as you say, for me, for you, it was trying to stay in the game.

For me, it was trying to sort of stay in the game and, you know, it’s why one of the main reasons why I set up the podcast and through it, you actually discover so much more because I think. Maybe like you, I was very focused on one part. And injury sort of makes you [00:21:00] step back and sort of look at the bigger picture.

Yeah, definitely. They definitely like opens. I mean, if, if you don’t take the time to open up and to look at, you know, the bigger picture and you, you focus on the minute of your injury. You don’t. Yeah, you don’t get the perspective. And I think that’s a big part of a big part of the recovery process or a successful recovery process rather, you know, is to really do that and to kind of expand your mind around the topic and absorb in the process of recovery and let that journey become the journey.

You know, that’s, it’s a very it’s an important part of it to kind of let yourself go and into that. Don’t fight the process, you know, like let it in somehow. And and really you can make almost anything positive for yourself over time. So, yeah, that’s what, it’s kind of what I came away from it with.

And I’m still, still caught surfing. [00:22:00] And I was told many times I would never walk or never do sport again by, you know, by a lot of doctors. And you just think, you know me, you don’t know me, so I’m going to go back to it. Got it. That’s incredible. As you say, you, you you sort of been traveling over the world pre COVID, let’s say quite a bit sort of from place to place.

Cuba was one of your many interesting trips. What were you doing over there? Yeah, so Cuba was quite a while ago now, but yeah, there’s a few videos on my YouTube channel about that, but I went to Cuba when they opened up the. The tourism to America. And as part of my role you know, within the brands that I ride for and, you know, within the kiteboarding industry, I’ve done quite a bit of like location exploration in terms of kiteboarding development.

Where’s good for kiteboarding, you know, how, [00:23:00] how countries or tourism boards would use sport and kite surfing too. Yeah. Encouraged tourism in their areas. And that was a big part of my role that going to Cuba was to represent kite surfing as a sport in a way. And you know, painting the picture is how you can develop tourism around sports and around an active lifestyle that really can benefit, you know, the area and the country.

And it can be a very positive way to get to it. In in, into your area, you know, you’ve got people coming for interest revolving around nature. They’re all very, they’re very aware of their surroundings. They’re not the tourists that are gonna like destroy the environment or, you know, they’re there to appreciate what’s going on.

And they’re also there to spend money on what they love doing. So it’s not a begrudging. You know, relationship with, with tourism in that, in that respect. So there’s a lot of positive angles to, to sports development. [00:24:00] And I think, you know, many trips I’ve done in the past, including Sri Lanka.

Actually, I went to Sri Lanka in 2005 and when I first went there, Hardly anyone kite surfing, like, and you know, not much going on no tourism. And we found this lagoon in the north of Sri Lanka and I mean, there were a few people kiting there and maybe a few college schools just setting up, but like, you know, maybe three or four people on the water at a time in a village with nothing but fishermen.

And then now skip forward, like. Yeah, well, nearly yeah, 15, 20 years later, it’s one of the most well-known kite spots in the world. It has got like high-end kite surfing setups there and, you know, safaris the golf down the coast on boats. And it’s got a bustling productive, a Western tourism industry. That is Symbian with the local village and the local town.

And, you know, you’ve just got [00:25:00] people coming in for the interest of it. And you’ve got people, you know, villages like hundreds of people, thousands of people living off that source of income. So it’s. I’ve seen the very, very positive side of what kite surfing can be for four countries and people. Yeah. I think when when it sort of comes to it, you know, kite surfing has this sort of incredible LA you know, even got me back here, you know, when I was trying to learn how to kite surf, I won’t go into detail of that experience, but no, it’s got this incredible law where these places.

Could easily sort of set up and it’s just amazed, incredible then a sort of picturesque view to sort of, as you say, to shoot up and down the coast on. Yeah. I mean, it’s a, it’s just an insane sport for exploration now, even around here in the UK. [00:26:00] So much so many good spots for it and so many good opportunities to learn.

I mean, yeah, it’s, it’s a great place to, it’s a great way to experience like everything and, you know, coastal direction, I guess. So I have to say over the years we’ve seen a few sort of probably viral kite surfing videos. Have you ever tried to kite surf a hurricane? Oh yeah, of course. That’s big storms before.

Yeah. Yeah. A hundred mile an hour winds down here on the isle of Wight. Definitely kites after a few hurricanes in the Caribbean. As I’d, haven’t filmed them, but just been out for fun, you know? Yeah. And what is it up in Necker island? I know Richard Branson always very, very keen on his kite surfing where they sort of just lobby you off.

A sort of rock on the side and they just sort of drift round and round and round slowly, too, for about sort of what 30 seconds. [00:27:00] What’s it paragliding or mace with the kite? Yeah. That’s a friend of mine, a friend of mine, Nick Jacobson jumped off the top of Necker island. I’d asked definitely not one that they’re going to do to the average guest that I think I’ve been out to NACA and, and, and sort of Kaiser for the Richard a few times.

And, and yeah, I mean, that one amazing thing about the surfing industry. As it’s very close knit. And there’s a lot of really interesting people that do kite surf. And if you, you know, if you’re really ingrained in the sport, there’s probably not many places you haven’t been with it, you know? So it’s, yeah, there’s a lot of people that love kite surfing out there.

And a lot of amazing things to be done with a kite that’s for sure. Are you planning to push yourself for a new new one? I’m always pushing myself, definitely. One way or another. I think that’s something I realized, you know, over time you need, you need goals. You need to push yourself. You need definitely need motion.

[00:28:00] So I’m always looking for fun videos to make and fun stuff to do. I’ve got my eye on a few of the cliffs down here on the island while they haven’t been done before. So we’ll see. What’s oh, well, we’ll have to follow your little Instagram, please. No, I would say it hasn’t been that long since I’ve got over injury sound not jumping off any clips just yet.

Once I feel the itch again, you know? Yeah. It was suddenly be like, ah, injury. Now I’ve forgotten all about that.

Suddenly CLL, I can do it, I can do it. And I suppose he knew apart from your injury. So there’ve been many police scares on the sort of trips. Cause you know, Right. You do hear sort of big waves getting caught out with the kite. Yeah. Yeah. It’s true. Wave trips. I mean, waves always Andrew. I mean, the ocean is always dangerous.

Every time you do something stupid in the sea, you’ve got to be, you know, you got to have your eyes open, you know, like [00:29:00] she’s a, she’s a cruel mistress. But yeah, we, I did when I nearly drowned in Peru we did a, I did a Chi surfing trip with my dad, actually down the coast of Peru and some of the best waves and best waves in the world break along the coast of Peru.

And and that, and a really long. And I was out there. It there’s only two of us, me and my dad. No one else. And I dropped my kite and the wave took it and I was leashed onto my kite. And before we knew it, I’m just on the water being dragged by the wave. So the wave power and energy is in the kite and I’m there underwater being like sort of hogtied and dragged backwards and it’s just going and going and going and going.

And I’m like, oh my God, this is it’s going on for a long time. And then I’m trying to reach behind my back for the quick release because I’m being dragged too fast. I can’t actually get to it. So. I was luckily enough. I, you know, the, the wave kind of let the kite go and I managed to get up and get a breath before [00:30:00] before really anything too bad happened.

But yeah, you know, things can happen very quickly. Very quickly. You just have to be kind of aware and ready, ready for it, you know? Well, it’s an amazing sport and I suppose anyone sort of listening and still very keen, what’s the sort of, one thing you would recommend for people wanting to get started in kitesurf.

Yeah, so, well, I mean, getting done in class, that was one of the most fun things. I think like what you got to bear in mind that your first contact with the sport will be, you know, a little overwhelming, there’s a lot going on. You’ve got kite, you’ve got a board, you know, there’s a lot to like kind of seemingly process with it.

So the best thing you can do is go to a school, find a local, you know, coach or, or teacher and, and really get some time. Where the education process at the very beginning is, is ingrained in you, you know, like how to rig up your car, how [00:31:00] to, you know, really be safe for yourself because that will stand you in great stead, further down the line when it comes to being independent and like, you know, being able to assess the weather correctly and the wind, like there’s a lot of elements in it that you actually probably wouldn’t consider.

But that’s definitely the way to get into it is, is go to a school or, or, or coach and get them to, you know, invest some time in you to, to kind of get that first contact point. Oh, nice. Nice. They have their own gear as well, and you can trash that rather than trashing your own. So I would a hundred percent recommend trashing someone else’s gear first before you invest, you know?

Yeah. No, that’s always best get in line and then get your own. Yeah. Yeah. And that’s, you know, safety elements and community guidelines and things that you need to like, you know, learn is like, when I learned it was. Wild wild west, you know, like you just go down the beach rigor and send it. And there was no one around, there was no, like, [00:32:00] you know, there was nothing, there wasn’t even kite school.

So now the gear is so much easier. So much safer, you know, you’ve got a system in place in schools that really like teach you so that the learning process can be any anywhere between like a week or like even a couple of days, if you really. Just get into it, you know? Yeah. Well, Tom, this has been absolutely awesome to hear about.

There’s a part of the show where we ask five questions to each guest each week. With the first being, what’s the one gadget that you always take with you? It used to be well, okay, so definitely a camera, definitely a camera, but then it’s probably an iPhone these days. So I mean, probably the iPhone is the, is the gadget I would take with me now having just come back from the Western Sahara with nothing, but my iPhone, now I can tell you it’s probably a good, a good, good one gadget to have.

Yeah, it’s a lifesaver. Yeah, but I, I camera a [00:33:00] laptop and a phone and that’s it. So what you need in life, really? Yeah. Yeah. What about your favorite adventure book or travel book? My favorite adventure backs, probably just my diary. I reckon. Just take the diary, write down the diary. So Tom court, the dollar is the tow car I’m working on it.

Yeah, that’s unbelievable. Once in there you’ll have your memoirs. When you’re 70 of this sort of vast encyclopedia. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s true. You don’t any really get into the really interesting stories once you get a bit older. I thought I used to have a lot to write about, but definitely got more now that’s for sure.

Why are these sort of adventures important to you? So, I mean, that, that really important to me. I mean, getting yourself out of your comfort zone, pushing for me personally. Getting, yeah, getting myself out of my comfort zone and looking to expand my knowledge, you know, whether that’s meeting different people, seeing different places, a [00:34:00] large part of my education in life, I feel has been through travel through experience, through meeting people and, and through, through sports.

So like for me, I find it it’s a, it’s a personal development thing to me. As much as, as much as the enjoyment of life at the time, it’s, it’s about, you know, really developing yourself and, and, and not letting yourself get too comfortable. I think that’s a big thing, you know, like getting too comfortable for me is, is, is a problem, you know?

And and I think that’s, that’s really important to realize. Yeah. I think someone that was saying yes, Yesterday or this morning, I can’t even remember. It was basically saying that the best things in life always come from uncom uncomfortable situation. No one ever sort of goes, oh my God. The best time happened when we were super comfortable.

Just relaxing. Yeah. Yeah. To achieve a goal or to [00:35:00] drive. Yeah. And I think hardship, hardship, whichever way you look at it, like hardship, flowers, some of the best art, some of the best inspiration, some of the best, you know, feats of human endeavor come from hardship. So I think, you know, not being afraid of putting yourself in a situation that is uncomfortable is, is a big thing.

And you know, when I, you know, having sat at home on the sofa for a long period of time, for the longest period of time I’ve ever done. I now know really the value of, of getting back to yeah. Pushing yourself outside of your compensating. I think it’s so, so valuable for, for me and for, it can be valuable for a lot of people.

Very nice. What about your favorite quote? My favorite quote. Oh, he put me on the spot here. It’s a lot of quotes about isn’t that I think one that’s cropped out recently was a, life’s not about learning to weather, the storm. It’s about learning to dance in the [00:36:00] rain. Yeah, that’s a good one. I like that.

The still might not ever pass that’s the issue. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And that meant that somebody just randomly Instagrammed me that not so long ago. And it just, I mean, it’s it’s right, right. I mean the storm doesn’t it doesn’t pass. Life is the storm. I think. Cause the, is the thing that you need to come to terms with.

Yeah. People listening are always keen to travel and go on these sort of grand adventures around the world like yourself. What would you recommend for people wanting to get stuck? I would say, I mean, so I hosted a series of travel trips personally. And I know that there’s a lot of people that do this sort of thing that are sort of adventure based.

But with a coaching element like if, if you, if you’re not comfortable, Traveling on your own or, you know, or you feel [00:37:00] like there’s a, you know, you want to get started with it. I would say something like that is a great way to start, you know, book, burka, a trip with somebody that does it a lot and get some experience, learn from people that do a lot and see how people’s psychologies are.

And it’ll say, once you get the ball rolling with these things, you meet people, you know, you meet people that are also doing it. And before you know, it. You’ve got friends that are traveling and then you’ve got connections and you’ve also then got focused of where to go next with somebody else’s going there or, or whatever.

So, yeah, I mean, yeah, without self-promoting too much check out my slice of life, campus and stuff, but yeah, like, look, look for something like that. And finally, what are you doing now? And how can people follow you in the future? So at the moment, I’m back in the year. Okay. For, for the next month or so I’m doing a display at the south Hampton boat show with flight board, which are these new electric foil boards.

That will be for the most of [00:38:00] September. And there’s also a kite surfing event down here in the UK called the kite surfing our motto, which I’ll be out for a weekend. But yeah, follow me on Instagram at court and the act and yeah, subscribe to my YouTube channel as well. Just Tom Cole Tom Tomko, Kai on YouTube.

And you will you’ll be able to follow along on my various activities and missions. We, I did see you in the press the other day. You’re on that little flight. Yeah. So I did a, there’s another mission that came off the top of my head. I wanted to see if I could commute from the isle of Wight to sand banks, pools, and banks for lunch on a, on an electric foil board on a flight board.

And yeah, I managed to pull it off, like in between a few trips. We yeah, just did 30 miles. Over over water in a suit on an electric foil board and and got to lunch from time. That was pretty good. Pretty sick. Actually did that [00:39:00] C managed to weather the storm? Yeah. It’s still there. Yeah. I got wet and go out at the end.

You have to watch the video, but yeah, no, it was really cool. And it was on the hottest one of the hottest days of the year that we had so far. And yeah, it sort of went all over the press really went to the times and the Telegraph. Yeah, I think, you know, just encouraging people to do things differently and that’s, there’s quite a good you know, innovation element there with yeah.

Eco water use and different ways to enjoy yourself. So, yeah. It’s an interesting one. Yeah. They’re pretty cool. So I have to say, yeah, awesome. Best care. It’s like back country snowboarding on flat water. Just grab it, grab it. And off you go. Yeah, pull the trigger and just send it. And finally, I’m sure everyone is wondering what’s what’s next for Tom?

That’s a difficult one at the moment. I haven’t got anything in the diary I’ve got, I’ve got a free, so that’s the most worrying [00:40:00] thing for me generally is having nothing in the diary. I mean, I’ve got September as planned. Let’s build around here in the UK. But yeah. After that I have nothing, nothing solid, but it might be back to Dominican Republic, maybe even Brazil for the winter season.

And then maybe some time in the Canary islands before coming back to the UK, you know, salmon next year. Very nice. Nice. Well, it could be worse. Could be worse. I mean, let’s see, you don’t know what’s possible. Nice. Nice. Well, Tom, it’s been an absolute pleasure listening to your stories and about your life.

In an interesting one. I had, it’s always interesting. Talk about, about these things. They, they, they stay very much under the surface and less I’m sure. I’m sure there’s a few more stories to come in the future. Yeah, maybe we could sit here for hours. Well, again, thank you so much. No worries. Thank you.

Thanks for the time. And thanks for having me. Well, that is [00:41:00] it for today. Thank you so much for listening and I hope you got something out of it. If you did hit that like button and subscribe, if you haven’t already, and I will see you in the next.