Episode 008

Asthma, Sailing & Surviving Hypothermia with Richard Hudson (008)

00:00:00
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00:59:17

December 24th, 2019

59 mins 17 secs

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About this Episode

"Each person has their own weakness". But this shouldn't stop you from doing the things you really want to do in life. It shouldn't prevent you from reaching your goals in life & attaining your absolute happiness. No matter what the circumstance is, DON'T GIVE UP, DON'T STOP.

Show Highlights

7:20 (Ari) - What was it like growing up with asthma?

7:24 (Richard) - I grew up before they had good medicines and it was difficult. I spent a lot of time in hospitals just not being able to breathe and as this is a kid, right? So you're sort of not really all that consciously aware that.

9:29 (Ari) - You said before I just want to touch upon a few of the points you made, You said before you spent time in oxygen tents, can you describe what it was like living in an oxygen tent?

9:39 (Richard) - It was I mean you could open it up and and you could talk to people but that's people who are visiting you like your parents, but you couldn't do it for all you really need to spend most of your time in there.

10:10 (Ari) - Confined, almost like a prison, huh

10:13 (Richard) - It is yeah, you're not able to go anywhere. So I had a lot of time to read books and I would find out about the world through books and that gave me a strong desire to see the world.

10:41 (Ari) - You described to me previously that you spent much of your childhood as a sickly child quote-unquote. How did that shape your childhood experience and your view on life back then

10: 51 - (Richard) -That time I spent a lot of time reading and dreaming of going out and doing things and seeing things

11:18 - (Ari) - And then before you were saying that your entire life changed when you turn 12 or so and the better medicines became available. What was that like having your entire world changed based on just a medicine?

11:29 (Richard) - That was fantastic. It allowed me to do things I couldn't do before it was truly fantastic.

11:38 (Ari) - Was it entire like the entire aspect of your life changed or was it just some parts?

11: 43 (Richard) - I was pretty young so I would probably say most parts. It's a long time ago. But yeah suddenly I was able to do of a whole bunch of outdoor stuff that I could never think of doing for as long as I had this inhaler with me.

12:20 (Ari) - You mentioned just before that one of your friends from asthma Camp had died. What did that do to you?

12:29 (Richard) - That was this big reminder of mortality that this could happen to me too. And there was no predicting it there is nothing that could be done about it.

13:49 (Ari) - Honestly, I feel like everybody could benefit from a viewpoint like that. You know anytime you take the time to contemplate, hey, we're not here forever. Where have I been? And where am I going?

14:30 (Richard) - If this is my last day is it have I done what I want to do? If not then should I be doing something different in case soon is my last day, right?

14:55 (Richard) - Being focused on doing what you want to do and getting your goals achieved us. That's a great result of something like this.

15:05 (Ari) - You describe before not being able to breathe and in our communications previously you had mentioned that not being able to breathe really twists a person twist their focus and just creates almost a culture of constant fear to some degree. So, can you describe a little bit more about how not being able to breathe necessarily twists a person in the way that they act?

15:31- (Richard) - It's more important than anything else and you don't think of it that way because you always think you can breathe until you can't.

16:41- (Ari) - I mean, we were mentioning that before, it happens to be a quote from Ethics of the Fathers as well. It says, "Live each day as if it's your last".

16:54- (Ari) - How did you get into sailing?

16:57- (Richard) -Shortly after I got the better asthma medicines and began to be able to do a lot more outside.

18:50 - (Richard) - I think I sailed 6,000 miles in total doing that.

19:20 - (Richard) - When you're sailing you have to plan ahead.

19:56 - (Ari) - I was reading through some of your materials and I saw you've done some long-distance solo sailing. It's the same idea, right?

20:03 - (Richard) - Yeah. It's an awful lot of planning for long-distance sailing, you're entirely self-contained. You've got to have all your food. You've got to have your tools to repair material stuff breaks all the time.

21:14 - (Ari) -What are the sailboats that you currently own?

21:16 - (Richard) - I have a 50 foot schooner that I have sailed around the Americas in Saigon from the Arctic to the Antarctic.

21:58 - (Richard) - I've been stuck in Harbor for many weeks because there was too much ice to chop through to get out and being in a boat and not being able to sail it, I find it a frustrating experience.

31:16 - (Ari) - I think people don't realize that in a sailboat, you're not moving at 60 miles an hour like you are in a car. What's your max speed over there?

31:24 - (Richard) - Under motor, it's five knots under sail, it's eight, but you can't be can't go against the wind right to go against the wind you have to zigzag back and forth and in front of it

32:30 - (Ari) - Let's move on to Kayaking. How many miles do you have in sailing?

32:38- (Richard) - About 80,000.

33:50 - (Ari) - I'm looking at maps and these are huge, it's like a really big lake that almost rivals the Great Lakes..

34:00 - (Richard) - It's really big. I always get confused because the spaces on the maps the projection makes things look a little distorted up North but it is a very big lake.

34:29 - (Ari) - So which trip was it that your event happened on? Is that the Yukon?

35:15 - (Richard) - My fourth trip was my longest one. And that was to paddle as far as Dawson City.

34:48 - (Richard) - I think that took three months and it was a great trip. I was delayed due to weather and also the weather gets harder later in the season and more towards the coast.

36:57 - (Richard) - It seemed overly dangerous to think about going straight across it seemed like the right way to do that was to go along the coast in a kayak.

40:41 - (Ari) - What's a floater coat?

40:44 - (Richard) - It's a Hypothermia survival coat.

42:30 - (Richard) - I had I still miss capable of starting a fire but my trouble was that I kept passing out from the hypothermia, and there's 15 knots of wind running.

43:05 - (Richard) - I try putting the match my teeth and dragging the striker across but the wind blows it out. I have these little bit gliders and you're supposed to light it with your thumb.

48:45 - (Richard) - It took a couple months to learn to walk again, but I wish to come out of it whole. I lost the boat.

48:53 - (Ari) - You had to relearn to walk again because of the frostbite or because of the muscle coordination from the hypothermia?

50:55 - (Richard) - I was actually using a lot of anger because I was really annoyed at myself for having gotten myself into this situation because I had screwed up. I mean I had been inattentive.

55:30 - (Ari) - One actionable thing for somebody to implement right now to help lead them on the path to Greatness the continued path to success. Do you have any little bits of advice that you might leave our listeners with?

55:46 - (Richard) -Don't stop. Don't give up.

Originally recorded 3/8/2019