The Grey NATO – 282 – Thomas Holland Returns To Talk Throttle House, Land Cruisers, Costa Rica Diving, Overlanding, and More
Published on Thu, 02 May 2024 06:00:00 -0400
Synopsis
Thomas Holland from Throttle House joins James to discuss his recent adventures and cars. They talk about Thomas's experience driving the new Ineos Grenadier, his growing obsession with vintage Land Cruisers after a trip to Costa Rica, and his plans to import a classic Toyota SUV from Japan. They also discuss the different types of camping setups like roof tents versus ground tents. Thomas shares his new watch purchase, the Notice Trail Trekker, and they compare it to the Rolex Explorer II. They reminisce about diving in Costa Rica and the challenges of the roads there. Other topics include Throttle House's micro-adventures for video production, YouTube analytics, sim racing, and upcoming car projects.
Links
Transcript
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| James Stacey | Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Graynado. It's a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 282, and it's proudly brought to you by the always growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support. And if you'd like to support the show, please visit thegraynado.com for more details. My name is of course, James Stacy, and I'm joined by a special co-host today as Jason is on a boat and I'm not jealous about it. It's fine. Uh, but I am joined by my good buddy and one half of the hosting team of Throttle House, Thomas Holland. How we doing? |
| Thomas Holland | I am very excited to be back. Very excited indeed. |
| James Stacey | It's been a weirdly because we didn't really plan this. I think I bothered you about coming on. This is a Tuesday. I think I bothered you about this on Sunday. It's a couple of days ago. That's it. Yeah. I was like, all right, let's go. And then in preparing for the show today, cause you know me, I do a lot of preparation. Yes. I realized that it was almost exactly a year. since you're on last time. Was it really? Different house, same couch. Yes. Is this the same couch? That's the same couch you recorded. Familiarly comfortable. It's pretty comfy. Yes. That's why I can't get rid of it. But we are now, if the audio sounds a little different to those of you, uh, eagle-eared in the audience, it's probably not a thing. |
| Thomas Holland | It's a thing that eagles, it's probably amazing. They have to hear mice and stuff. So that makes sense to me. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, so the eagle eared among you may notice a little bit more of an echo or room tone. That's because I'm actually we're recording face to face in my home in the north side of Toronto. And we're in the basement, no clue really how this will sound, but I'm sure it'll be fine. It's nice and cozy and comfy. |
| Thomas Holland | And I've got a coffee that you made for me, which is absolutely yeah, we were just discussing the virtues of spending excessive amounts of money on espresso machines. And after trying your I'm |
| James Stacey | He's going to drive over 20 minutes. It takes him 45 minutes to get the thing running. |
| Thomas Holland | Yes. Yeah. It's, it's, it's a process that you enjoy. And that's what I enjoy about coffee. Um, and it is, it's a, it's a whole, it's a whole, it's a whole that you can fall into. And I have fallen very deeply into the, I got the stirry sticks and like the tamper thingy with the, got the rake. You got to tickle it. I've got like a special like box where I can like knock the thing out and in said box is a spot for all the accoutrement to go along with the whole espresso. And yeah, And as a result, you know what it tastes like in the end? It's coffee. It tastes like coffee. |
| James Stacey | I mean, you did make me a cup when it was delicious. |
| Thomas Holland | It makes great espresso, but like at the same time, I'm like, why have I done this? |
| James Stacey | Uh, yeah, I keep telling myself when this machine breaks, I'll go into the deep end. And the more I think is like, I could just buy the same machine by the same machine again. |
| Thomas Holland | I'm telling you right now, I have to drink the coffee. |
| James Stacey | So look, normally we would kick this off with a discussion about the weather, what's going on in Minneapolis moving on. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah. The weather is not great here. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Uh, you did show up and we've got a ton of stuff to talk about. Um, but because we're probably not going to include this next little bit in today's episode, maybe in a later one, this'll function as a teaser. Then we'll get into the main stuff. Yeah. Because you showed up in what is genuinely one of the few new vehicles I care about. |
| Thomas Holland | Yes, and it wasn't something that I cared about until I spent some time with it. Yeah, Ineos Grenadier. It's the Ineos Grenadier and it is... I don't want to spoil too much because our video is coming out the day after this comes out. Yep. It's one of the coolest things I've driven this year. |
| James Stacey | So we are going to have a chat about this. You were kind enough to let me take it for a rip around Richmond Hill for a few minutes. It's green. It's boxy. It's everything that I like about a vehicle. Yes. It's got switches on the ceiling and definitely windows where you don't expect them. It's everything I want. Yes. It's great. Yeah. But we are going to respect the fact that your video comes out the day after this episode. So either Either there'll be a special little Ineos Grenadier episode, which I promise is not an ad at all, or we'll all attach that episode or that chat to maybe the end of the next episode we record. I'll figure it out. Whatever seems like more fun I'll do. Okay. So aside from the Grenadier, thankfully we are not short on kind of really cool consumer product SUVs coming out. Very much. |
| Thomas Holland | There's been a lot of stuff. There's been this boxy revolution and I am here for it. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I think the Bronco, I guess, to a certain extent. |
| Thomas Holland | I think so, yeah. |
| James Stacey | The start of the Bronco, the end of the previous Defender kind of pushed a bunch of people to get boxy again. |
| Thomas Holland | It must be. It must be. And that's going to be part of the Grenadier story when we get to that. But yeah, there's definitely been this huge push for these kind of purpose-built feeling off-road vehicles, right? Yeah, the coolest one I think I've seen in a while is the Lexus GX. Yeah, I agree. Really looks so good. And then just the Land Cruiser obviously that we that we just tested and I decided to go off a jump accidentally. It happens. It doesn't. It doesn't happen. But it did. |
| James Stacey | It looked like soft sand. Turns out it was there was something underneath. |
| Thomas Holland | It was basically an L like there was like a ramp. So for the for those that haven't had a chance to watch our video on it, we took the Land Cruiser into the Algona sand, is that what they're called? The Algona, the Imperial sand dunes is the more common name in California. And we did some overlanding, camped overnight. It was a whole thing. It was lots of fun. And on the way out, the sand dunes are very serious, by the way. Have you ever driven in sand dunes? |
| James Stacey | I've driven on sand and that was difficult enough. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah. So like, so sand dunes are completely a discipline all on their own, right? There's tons of like, there's basically, there's Instead of a list of here's what you can do, it's mostly a list of here's what you definitely don't do, right? It's this massive thing of this will get you killed, this will get you killed, this will get you killed. That's what sand dunes are. |
| James Stacey | And if my YouTube history is any indication, what you need is about a 2,000 horsepower Nissan. |
| Thomas Holland | Yes, exactly. That's the safe way. It gets you out of any problem, from what I can tell. Some of those videos are insane. Um, we, we, well, I, I guess I attempted that accidentally, but yeah, so we kind of had to learn our way through the dunes and we were doing the whole thing with a rooftop tent on. So right off the bat, like all surrounding us were all of these like trailers, uh, and guys that brought in purpose built dune vehicles, huge wide tires, big travel, like they're designed for the dunes. We were in consumer SUVs trying to go up and over these things. So it was dumb to begin with. But yeah, we kept getting ourselves in situations where you like, you barely make it up over a dune over into the next bowl. And then you're just, you're, you realize you're stuck there. You're like, okay, I can't go back up the way I just came. And the only way is deeper into the dunes. So we kept having to like route find our way in and out through things. Sure. And we came to this one situation where there is, as far as we could tell, the only way to get to our destination was to go kind of like up this really steep wall. So I, you know, gave it a little bit of beans. And it turns out it wasn't really a smooth ramp. It was like a soft, a soft, smooth ramp of sand. And underneath that was essentially like a hard step L. So I did hit it with the front tires and it launched us like about 10 feet in the air. And uh, it's a good part of the video. It's the part of the video. I think it's, that's why you go there for that one. But yeah, no, it was, We broke it. We broke it. |
| James Stacey | We broke the Land Cruiser. It's a fun thing to get into and I think we can, as is the case anytime that I solo. hosts an episode. I didn't really do a full proper intro here. We just talked about a video. If you're brand new, if we get off the rails, no, no, not at all. Not at all. I didn't set the rails. We started on the wrong track. |
| Thomas Holland | It's all fine. Great metaphor. |
| James Stacey | So, uh, if you're brand new, if you're looking at the title and you're not a hundred percent sure which Thomas Holland we're talking about, cause there's not Spider-Man, it's not Spider-Man to be fair. Um, and Thomas was on episode two 37, which came out just after the launch of the road to enlightenment, which is a fantastic kind of, um, buddy comedy that also revolved around two really classic, awesome, um, kind of, uh, I guess, late eighties, uh, Japanese and German hatchbacks. Highly recommend that. Um, but if you don't know, like if you're not into the YouTube car scene or the car scene in general, uh, like I said, in, in the limited intro that I did do Thomas's, uh, one half of the hosting team of throttle house, um, and included with that is his buddy James, uh, his other buddy James of, a Britishie James, who's fantastic on camera and I'm sure lovely in real life. Yes. And, uh, and yeah, you guys have, uh, one of my most favorite YouTube properties in general, let alone just the automotive space. I've been a fan for a long time. We started trading random comments on Instagram and then DMS and bits and became buds since then. And which has been really fun and delightful. And I get to learn a ton and you know, I'm not driving a, a wide range of different cars these days, like I have in the past. So it's great to have. uh, friends in those sorts of positions, you know, you guys are well on your way to 3 million subscribers. Yeah, I guess we are. Yeah. That's, that's pretty weird. You know, I think if you want a video that you guys have a lot of fun, it's, there's some goofy elements to it. It's mostly goofy elements. Yep. But you guys also have like the pure heart of enthusiasts and the core of consumers. So like, even when you're driving really wild stuff, it's clear that it's wild and not something you're saying you should go out and buy or try or get or experience or whatever. But then when you approach something a little bit more accessible, whether it's a land cruiser or even some, you know, you guys don't review a lot of kind of mundane JD power and associate style vehicles, but they do come up. |
| Thomas Holland | They do come up. It's, it's more, it's more to do with, you know, what we think our audience is going to be interested in. Right. And you know, sometimes that's a vehicle that costs $28,000. Not that that really exists very often anymore, but we, we just, we just do, you know, whatever we think is going to be interesting for people. So, Yeah. Sometimes it's, you know, maybe you want to hear an in-depth story on some special one-off restomod from Italy, or, you know, maybe you want to actually know what SUV should I buy? And we think this one's pretty cool. So we'll do a film on it. |
| James Stacey | So obviously last time you were here was, was around the time that Road to Enlightenment started to release, which was two or three parts. It's three parts. Three parts. And since then, since the last year, I mean, it's been a lot, there's obviously been, some, you know, land cruiser mishaps in the desert, that sort of thing. There has definitely been those. How has kind of the last year been, you know, if you, if you let your brain kind of rest into the memory of the last year, it's been good. |
| Thomas Holland | It goes by very quickly, if I'm honest. Cause it seems like, uh, every, well, first of all, every week is a, is a mad scramble to figure out what's happening and what we're doing. And, you know, sometimes things fall through last minute or appear last minute. So we kind of just go with the flow. We have been obviously spending a lot of time in California or other places that are warm because it's very difficult to film cars in Canada in the winter, in Ontario at least. How big's the team now? There are, let me get this right, so one, two, Joey, Harrison, Karsten, Dan, six. Nice. |
| James Stacey | You gotta get like a whole bobblehead set. |
| Thomas Holland | I do. |
| James Stacey | Especially as they've like slowly started to be in more of the videos. |
| Thomas Holland | Carson's start line face is pretty famous. I always worry that I get the number wrong and then one of my team members is going to be like, wait, wait a second. Was I the one that you forgot? Which one? You want to tell me something? You have to wait until Friday afternoon. No, no, no. We have a very dedicated, very talented team. Joey, I believe is the newest addition. He is our production manager and he's on the ball. He's excellent Obviously Karsten has been around for a while and Harrison's been around for a while. They're filming and editing and sound and editing. And Dan as well is a filmographer and editor. So we have a very talented group of people and we're very fortunate to have them as like the dedicated... James and I just go on camera and make jokes. That's what we do. And then write the videos and logistics and that sort of thing, right? It's worth saying that nothing you'd be seeing is happening without the team, seriously. |
| James Stacey | Oh, sure. No, no. And I think that what I was getting at was like, you know, in trying to describe the throttle huffs and how it's different than others is there's still a there, you know, YouTube videos, especially in the car space, kind of come in four or five different strata, kind of tied to how expensive they are to make. |
| Thomas Holland | Sure. |
| James Stacey | So you have some videos where it's one guy with a tripod. Yes. You know, nobody's going to do that better than Doug. Yeah. Good luck. Good luck. Yeah. Exactly. Talk about bread and butter. It's bread and butter for him and everybody else in Southern California. Every dealership down there. It's a good system. Yeah. Um, and then I think once you start to extend beyond that and you get into obviously camera movements that require a person with hands and feet and sound, that's really good. And, and, and editing that works out and the rest of you start to think like, Oh, there's a lot of moving parts in this. And you know, if you guys put out a video every two weeks, maybe you could do it with fewer people, but what's the current cadence. It's one, it's a video a week or more. |
| Thomas Holland | I think it feels like more often because of, because of, Yeah, well, we have another channel called Extra Throttle House, which we deliberately made to do intentionally lower production videos, because there are cars that we just don't have time to film and edit or, you know, maybe I don't want to say don't deserve a film on the main channel, but sometimes that's the case. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I mean, there's a there's a question of cost, like you are making an investment. Yeah, there's a cost to make the video. And if the car isn't worth the investment, which a lot of YouTubers will talk about, I thought that this was going to be awesome, but it turns out I was the third one to publish. So all of the extra money, the flights, the travel, the visas weren't worth it. |
| Thomas Holland | Or sometimes it's just a trim of a car we've already done. Oh, sure. Right. And, and you know, maybe it doesn't because 90% of what we would say in the video would be the same, but, but, oh yeah, but there's a little bit more horsepower now or something like that. Right. So that's worth maybe more of a discussion on extra throttle house. |
| James Stacey | And then extra throttle house is also where you guys kind of encapsulate more like off the cuff or like podcast style material? |
| Thomas Holland | Yes. Yeah. We do some couch chats. We call them, which is like, I've kind of like a podcast, but not nearly as long or as consistent. Um, I like those chats a lot. I think they're a lot of fun. They're fun. They're fun for us to do because you know, sometimes we give ourselves scenarios like what cars would you get for five grand or whatever it is. Right. And yeah, those are, we, we need to do more of those. I always say that we both always say we should do more and then we just never get around to it. Cause it's still quite a thing to go. You're already doing enough. But, but yeah, so it is it is quite a constant amount of work. But yeah, and the last so I think to recap, the original question was, you know, what's the last year been like? Well, it has been, I don't want to say much of the same, because it is, but it's a it's a great same, if that makes any sense. But the biggest change, I think, was that since we did that road to enlightenment, those, you know, we call it a full throttle house adventure. Yeah, it had its own branding and everything. Since then, we've decided to do these like mini adventures, right? Where instead of just, you know, making a film on a car in a singular location, whether it's on a canyon road or on a track or something like that, we decided to, let's go on like a mini trip. And this is like, what'd you do with Cybertruck? Cybertruck and the, uh, the, the roles, the new electric roles that we did. |
| James Stacey | Oh, I like that. That episode was fantastic. |
| Thomas Holland | I'll put that in the show notes as well. Yeah. That was right through Toronto. That was really fun. We stopped at, uh, The Spectre. The Spectre. Yes. Yeah. We, we, we, we stopped at, uh, uh, the music store and then we go get the band outside to test how the sound is super fun. Definitely like more work goes into those, but people seem to really like watching them and we like making them because we get to go on a little adventure, right? |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And I think it's an unavoidable if you're making higher end to very high end video for YouTube that encapsulates both a vehicle or several vehicles and the chemistry of the host together to not be compared to Top Gear in some sense. And I think in some ways, the road to enlightenment, these micro adventures, they capture some of that charm. I would say that, like, there's a there's a limitation on the goofiness. |
| Thomas Holland | Yes. |
| James Stacey | And the scriptedness that you guys avoid. |
| Thomas Holland | Yes, of course. |
| James Stacey | So if you think if you're a real Top Gear nerd, think the first six or seven series and not the last five. |
| Thomas Holland | Right. Yeah. Fair enough. That does make sense. But yeah, I mean, is inevitably if you do high production car reviews with humor, you're going to get compared to Top Gear. A little bit, yeah. Kind of no matter what you do really. So, so yeah. And that's okay. |
| James Stacey | And I mean, obviously, you know, you've also had a Top Gear host or two on the channel. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah. Yes. Well, we're going to be collaborating hopefully in, uh, in England with, uh, with, with a couple notable fellows as well. So, so hopefully that, uh, that pans out, but, uh, yeah, those little mini specials, uh, you know, we try to avoid using the word specials deliberately, right? So it's obviously not directly compared to all them adventures. But yeah, those those are really fun to film. And I think that's been the biggest change, I'd say, in the last year, and we're going to keep doing those. And we do have another full adventure planned with two cars that we've purchased that are sitting in storage right now. And yeah, we haven't announced what they are. No one knows that we don't even know when we're doing it. But we're just trying to find the perfect kind of trip to do. |
| James Stacey | You told me the cars and the rough plan. Yeah. And I've not, I would never give anything away, but I will say like, this is worth getting pumped up about. |
| Thomas Holland | The cars are so much fun. It feels like it's going to be really fun. Yeah. So, so hopefully we can make that happen sooner rather than later. But, uh, of course time is always the thing that fights us. |
| James Stacey | Absolutely. You know, the other thing that I think it comes up, we see it in the slack and we see it in, in like sort of broader discussions of media these days is like, Over, say, the last year, have you noticed any specific changes to the way YouTube is working? The way the videos are finding an audience? You guys launched the Throttle Clubhouse. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah, yeah, we did. We started kind of like a little private clubhouse online club. We got a Discord. It's great. It's been a lot of fun. It's really fun. Right now, it's a nice tight-knit group of guys, super enthusiasts. We're writing some articles and doing some extra content for Clubhouse. So that's been, that's been a lot of fun. And I've been doing some sim racing. I mean, I've been losing some sim racing. I've been losing badly actually at sim racing, but it's been great fun. It turns out there's some really talented fellows out there. |
| James Stacey | Isn't that a bummer? |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah. I was, I went in and I was like, I'm going to, I'm awesome. I'm going to cry. I'm last place every race. It's hilarious. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. No, I mean, being able to connect with the communities. Awesome. I'm a big fan of, of like it's currently, it's the only discord that I'm active in, like in checking. And it's a nice thing. Not unlike the TGN Slack where you can like finish your day or if you've got some downtime between the end of work and the start of whatever comes next and you click through the post and read what's going on with folks. And there's the, the level of nerdery. It doesn't surprise me that you'd have some great sim racers because you sometimes I'll read a thread and I'm like, Man, there's 20 people involved and all of them have what I would consider a professional opinion. Easily professional level of knowledge. We're totally disconnecting from the freaking comment section on Kotaku or whatever. Like it's a whole different vibe. |
| Thomas Holland | I'm a big fan. Yeah. No, there's some engineers in there. There's some guys really know their stuff. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And then I guess outside of Throttle House, outside of that kind of stuff, like you've obviously got, you know, can't talk a lot about videos that are necessarily in the works. But being, having the brain chemistry that I know you to have, it's not just for videos. You've got other cars coming and going all the time. Always. Yeah. I think the last time you were in, we talked about spaghetti a fair bit and I guess spaghetti season's back. |
| Thomas Holland | Spaghetti season is back, which is nice. Yes. I actually just had spaghetti, which is my 1972 Alfa Romeo Spider. I had a spaghetti out for a little drive a couple of days ago. Well, the battery was dead because the trickle charger either didn't work or I unplugged it and didn't pay attention. So I had to hook it back up and I charged it over a day. And then it started and I don't think the battery has been ruined. So that's nice. I put that battery in last year because last year I also torched the battery. I'm it's classified as restoration at this point. |
| James Stacey | If you ever needed an example of what makes you and I different or how much further you are in the car journey, if I got a watch and it wasn't quite right, I would do what you did. Because I've got lots of watches. I would send it away, have it restored, have it come back the way I want it, and it would be fine. If I bought that 1300 and it ran when I got it. I'm not sure I would have ever gotten out of it. I would have, bring me a pillow and a blanket and a spoon and maybe like a rocket torch or something, like someone cook a can of beans or something in here. It's just such a cool car, man. |
| Thomas Holland | Oh, it's insanely cool. So when I, when I first got it and I drove it, like it started, the engine was, was great. Uh, not very many horsepower, which I'm fixing by the way. I'll tell you, tell you about that in a second. But, uh, yeah, the, uh, It drove fine, except it was a little bit kind of loose in the front end, a little bit loosey-goosey. I was like, yeah, maybe the suspension's tired or something, leaning a little bit too much on the front end. Yeah, bushings or the steering box maybe wasn't in the best. But then I had a close look and the front left engine mount had completely detached itself from the chassis. No longer mounted. No longer a mount. Yes, it was a space where there should be a mount. Um, and the front left engine void. Yes. The front left engine void and the, uh, the sway bar attachments where it's supposed to attach to the chassis, they were no longer attached to the chassis. So I was like, okay, so I can't keep driving this cause it's just going to keep disintegrating itself slowly. But yeah, it's one of those things where like I looked, you know, I know that the shape of that chassis pretty well to know what to poke around on when I'm buying a car. And I did not see any of this rust. It was so hidden. It's insane. You might have been a little bit blinded by the price. 100% blind by the price. Yeah, in hindsight, I should have poked harder. But yeah, but you know how it is. I saw it. I did the math, roughly in my head. And I was like, Okay, for the price of this is even if I have to put like 20 grand of restoration, I'm still fine. So and that's still true, hopefully, right in terms of like how much equity is in the car. But yeah, So that engine is being rebuilt with a two liter. Oh, okay. So we got, we got a big change. Yeah. So it went from, uh, the, the 1300 CC to, to the full two liter engine with hot cams, different motor or totally different motor. Okay. Yeah. So, so it's a full engine swap. So obviously I'm going to keep the original motor. Why the two? Well, the 1700 is the most sought after because it's really revvy, right? But they're extremely hard to find. And if you take the two liter and you put hot cams in it, you can make it just as revvy, but with more overall torque. So it should rev right to seven and pull hard right to seven and it's carb rated. So it should be a pretty wicked little thing when it's done. And I got a whole bunch of Alphaholics suspension and stuff to slap on it. |
| James Stacey | Side note on Alphaholics. Have you seen their wait list? |
| Thomas Holland | I haven't seen it, but I have heard of it. You've heard that it's like a decade? Yep. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Good for them. |
| James Stacey | I mean, good, straight up. Good for them. |
| Thomas Holland | It's a whole thing. Yeah. Well, those cars, they've stripped them down to nothing and they like seam weld them and like, it's an incredibly involved process. But if the wait time is that long and you're getting that many orders, hire more people. I would think to a certain extent. |
| James Stacey | Also, I don't know how the system works, but your brain goes to the business side. I go to the buyer side where I'm like, If I was a car enthusiast and that was the car I wanted, I understand going like, well, it takes how long it takes. I really want one. Yeah. But in my mind, like if I knew I was going to wait two or three or four or 10 years for a watch, I also am going to be buying and selling other watches in the interim just to fill the gap for this one that I'm going to get eventually. Exactly. Yeah. So that, yeah, that kind of weighs in, I guess. Speaking of watches, this is a watch show we should probably... Yeah, we can get into some watches because you've had quite a few actually over the last year or so. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah. I mean, I have a problem. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, well, welcome to the club. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah, everybody here will understand that. Yeah. Okay, good. Um, yeah. So, so basically what was I wearing last time? We were, we were, was it the speed master? |
| James Stacey | Uh, yeah, I think it was the speedy. Yeah. So, which is like one of our first like friendly interactions. You were, you were curious about getting a speedy pro. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah. And I did. |
| James Stacey | And it didn't because the brand new one had come out and it was a certain price point. And I said like, you know, they're like, basically identical, like in many ways, they're identical to the previous, the 3570. |
| Thomas Holland | Which is what I did. Yeah, it's great. I love it. They are. But shortly after that, and shortly after the last podcast, I think we were talking about, actually, maybe we were talking about it then, but the, I've been obsessed with the Pelagos. And then the FXD came out. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, just a few months later, because we recorded that in May, end of April, and then it was, you know, August or whatever that they did that launch. |
| Thomas Holland | So at first I got really interested in the FXD in general, and I really liked the blue one. Yeah, it's awesome. I really, really wanted that blue one. And then I went to a dealer and I tried them both on. And the black one, the newest one, totally felt different to me on the wrist. So I don't know what it is about the black one versus the blue one. Maybe it's a little red text that says Pelagos. Or I think what I've what things here and there. |
| James Stacey | But yeah, so why don't you let people know what you've got on wrist? I think you put it on Instagram not that long ago. I think people were bugging you because you wore it in a video. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah, yeah, I did. So, well, I was going to wear the FXD today because it's been on my wrist, as I said, most of the time, but I just picked this up and I wore this in the Land Cruiser video. This is the Notice Trail Trekker, right? And I, well, you, it popped up on your, because you did a review of it right away, right? I saw it and I think it's the quickest I've ever made a financial decision in my entire life. I looked at it and I was like, Raven and Notice just had your number. Don't need to know any more than that. I texted you. I was like, I want one. Right. So yeah, so I absolutely love this thing. Primarily because it's a local jumping hour hand. Yeah. Right. And I just do a lot of travel to the West Coast. Right. So it's nice to keep track of the two time zones. Yep. And I got sick of zinging the thing around trying to or just reading off of the GMT hand. So yeah. So, you know, it's also got 16570 vibes. It does. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Which you're a big fan of. |
| Thomas Holland | Which I'm a huge fan of that watch. And one day maybe I'll own one, but... Yeah, I agree. |
| James Stacey | The pricing isn't where it needs now for it to be like a must buy. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah, yeah. If one of those Explorer IIs drops down, I'd say significantly more than maybe I'll sell a few pieces and swap to it. But in the meantime, this thing's been keeping me pretty happy. And I like the adjustable bracelet. Is really nice. Right. And it's it's like small and smooth enough that and the loom is good enough that it was perfect for I just when we were camping on top of the Land Cruiser. Since since the wind was so horrible and we were hardly getting any sleep. It was really nice. I just left the watch on my wrist. I don't usually sleep with a watch on it, but I just slept with it on and I could every couple hours I could check and go like yeah, no, still not time to wake up. Still got to try and get back to sleep. Yeah, yeah, it was like 11 o'clock, 1 o'clock, 2.30. I've had nights in a tent like that, for sure. 4 a.m., 4.30. That was the wake-up. |
| James Stacey | I was like, oh God, is this my... A windy night in a tent will make you a morning person faster than anything else. |
| Thomas Holland | 100%. I was so excited to not be in the tent anymore. |
| James Stacey | Is the sun coming up? It's time for every cup of coffee that I can make. Let's go. |
| Thomas Holland | That's exactly what it was. Probably part of the reason why I decided to jump a Land Cruiser. Sleep deprivation. Um, but yeah, no, that, that was, that was a really fun adventure. And, uh, this was, this James made fun of me because he, he took one look at it. He's never seen it before. He notices that if I got to do watch on, he's not much of a watch guy himself, but he always points it out. Yeah, exactly. Oh, well, I've tried. It's hard. Trust me. Um, and, uh, he, he looks at that and he goes like, Oh, for God's sake, what, what do you got? What's this? It's like, did, did you, did you specifically pick a watch for this trip that would go along with the trip? And I, and I said, Yes, I did. He goes, what's it called? I said, the Trail Trekker. He's like, oh my God, we're trucking trails. |
| James Stacey | What do you want from me? Yeah, exactly. Come on. Um, yeah, it's a great watch. I'm a big fan. Uh, I, I was lucky enough to, uh, yeah, borrow one for review and, and do all that. And I noticed in Raven really, I think absolutely hit the mark on that one. I mean, both brands are doing really well lately, but that just feels like a super wearable, nicely thoughtfully made product that comes from people who really like sport watches. I agree. Which is kind of the blast. Because I thought you would be wearing your FXD, I wore my Pelagos 39. So that's what I've got on. I've got it on a sand NATO. It looks awesome. Yeah. Lately, I was wearing different watches for the last little while. I picked up the Thrifty Fathoms, the Scuba 50. Yeah. And I was wearing that a bunch lately. I've been wearing the Marathon SS Nav D a ton lately. It's one of my favorite summer watches. It's also nice like we went to the cottage for the first time a couple of days ago just to make sure everything like it wasn't a raccoon hotel and that kind of thing. Yeah, we're lucky everything was fine. But I like having the really nice like the tritium loom yet when I'm not around, you know, my normal kind of sleep and bedside scenario and that sort of thing. So yep. But yeah, with you coming over, I figured I'd throw this on and I mean, this is just I love this watch. We talk about it too much. It's become like a meme on the TGN bingo, who says FXD, you're 39 first. So look, if it's a drinking game, guys, like take a break. |
| Thomas Holland | Seriously. |
| James Stacey | I'm not saying you shouldn't like enjoy the show or whatever. Just pause the show. Come back when you're sobered up. |
| Thomas Holland | It'll be okay. But yeah, no, yeah, it is bad. It's just such a cool, such a cool watch. Actually, I've been using my FXD even when I don't wear it. The power reserve is so substantial. I can only wear it every couple of days if I have to, and it sits on my bedside table. because I have stopped bringing my phone into my bedroom at night. Um, I, that was, that's a pretty recent addition to my life. And, um, I don't know if this helps anybody, but make the jump because try it out for a week to try it out for the first night. I thought it was a fluke. I put my phone away and I made sure that I didn't look at a screen for about an hour before I decided to go to sleep. Um, and I have an alarm clock, so that's what the FXD is for, but I slept hard. like super deep. I was like, okay, that's probably just a fluke. Sure. Next night, same thing. And literally ever since I, I feel like I'm sleeping way deeper because I don't, you know, it's almost as if the science is correct. Sure. Um, but yeah, so I, I, I don't know if it's just like a lack of stimulation, the blue light or whatever it is, or even though I've got the tint on my phone that makes it orange or whatever, it was a notable difference to not have the phone in the bedroom. Also, I feel like it's probably buzzing and making noises through the night, no matter what, and it might just be pulling me out of a deep sleep subconsciously. So that was a huge thing. But yeah, that's what the FXD is when it's not a watch, it's also my bedside clock, which I grab and the loom's so bright, right? Just like, oh my God. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. The phone in the bed is a tough thing. I wake up terrified of my phone, so I should put it in another room. not have that as part of the scene. So like your last hour, you're reading a book, something like that. |
| Thomas Holland | Yes. Yes, exactly. Yeah. I've actually been, uh, been reading, uh, what are you reading? The Bond novel, Kim Sherwood, uh, the first one, which is called double or nothing, double or nothing. Yes. |
| James Stacey | I've been reading that. It's excellent. I'm seven or eight chapters into spy like me. And like, I woke up excited to go to bed tonight to read an excellent. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah. I can't wait to finish this one. It was, it's just, it's top-notch stuff. |
| James Stacey | Kim's great. If you're listening, we are hoping to have her on again. Uh, one of our, my favorite guests of the last little while, but those books are, so much fun. They are great. Yeah. Remarkable. And I'm definitely at the point now partway a third of the way into the second one. Let's make a movies. Let's go. |
| Thomas Holland | I agree. I agree. |
| James Stacey | I agree. Yeah. Thomas and I and Jason are all here to consult on or should play who or be the actors in Jason should probably be in a bond. |
| Thomas Holland | A hundred percent. I should. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | I don't get wrong. Your boy would also like to be in a bond. I could be a good baddie in a bond. I guess a hundred percent put me in a track suit with a gold chain or something. Right. |
| Thomas Holland | Like I was thinking a suit, but you went right to drag suit. |
| James Stacey | No, I think, yeah, you got to give me like an Eastern European danger sort of vibe. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I think. And maybe no lines would be perfect for me. |
| Thomas Holland | No lines. Okay. Okay. Forget a line you don't have. Well, I mean, well, Heaton has to have some lines. For sure. His voice. Some sort of a quartermaster. Exactly. His voice is like being wrapped in Merino wool. It's the best. Right. It has to be in a movie for sure. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Take it from a guy who's edited thousand hours of his own voice and Jason's. There's one is significantly better than the other for sure. But yeah, I mean, look, the the bond thing, I think there's going to be a ton of bond stuff. And I think I've been thinking about this for a while of like, especially when the next whatever the next one comes out or the next one starts its press cycle to do like a bigger bond show with several voices. So you have to be on that for sure. Yeah. Can't do too much bond without heating. He's on a boat in the Pacific. doing Bond style stuff. We can get a download on that. But yeah, the Sherwood books are incredible. Spy Like Me is great. I just like I'm enjoying every single page. I'm staying up too late reading it. It's all the good stuff, all the good signs. So that's been good. Look, I mean, so We're talking about two alphas, but there's also a new truck, right? It's not new, but there's a new truck. |
| Thomas Holland | Well, it's not officially here yet. |
| James Stacey | Are we talking about that yet? |
| Thomas Holland | I'm not going to say exactly what it is, but I will hint at it because we'll do a video on it when it arrives. But yeah, so this is tied into Costa Rica, so maybe we can bounce into that after. But yeah, I have ordered from Japan, importing an old Toyota Land Cruiser. So I don't, I won't give away what one it is yet, but it is a right-hand drive JDM Land Cruiser. Um, because I have become absolutely obsessed with Land Cruisers because they're so cool. Also, I was probably hurt emotionally by my, my Land Rover, my, uh, my LR4. Well, the, Cruise |
| James Stacey | previously done production or future production. Yeah. And then you have crew vehicles. |
| Thomas Holland | It is a mess. The whole thing is an absolute mess. It's a mess. I need a spreadsheet is what I need. Yeah. You go to the commissioner route. Yes. He's so organized. It's insane. Um, I am the exact opposite of reaching every single way. So, so you basically, uh, that Land Rover for those of you that didn't know, we bought it as a crew vehicle because the rear hatch goes up because it's good to shoot out of for long road trips and stuff. And it was on its second engine. Um, and the second engine immediately broke down on us. Like literally immediately after buying it broke down on us and the dealer decided that they weren't going to do anything about that, even though it was within, within the warranty period on the new engine. So I was real happy about that, but, um, yeah, yeah. Oh, it sucks so much. It's a great, great vehicle, but I, I was so scarred by Land Rover reliability that I just, I had this like, like awakening when I was in Costa Rica, seeing, seeing the Land Cruisers everywhere. |
| James Stacey | They're all the coolest ones. |
| Thomas Holland | And they're all the coolest ones. Yeah. You got the 80 series, you got the 70 series. I got all the really good looking trucks and they're all fully decked out. The roads in Costa Rica are horrid, real tough, real difficult. And they're, it's very confusing. And yeah. Yeah. Well, also I rented a Land Cruiser when I was there, a little Prado, previous gen Prado. Which I had to pay extra for, but I knew we were going up into Monteverde, into the mountains. And so I knew that the roads were bad. And so I knew I needed something that's going to be durable with some ground clearance, which actually did very much come in handy. But yeah, so it ended up being a pretty amazing trip where I just was inundated with this world of Land Cruisers that we don't get here. Oh, yeah. Right. We just, especially in Canada, don't get anything. Right. There's like, I know there's one Landcruiser many generations ago that we got, I can't remember which one it is, but the, it was before the 200, the 201. Right. Yes. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. 170, something like that. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah, exactly. But, uh, the U S obviously got more. They did. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Then they got the more recent one. |
| Thomas Holland | Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but now at least we're, we're getting the new Landcruiser now, which is nice. The latest one. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Look, I will never forget I was, because we drove from, and I had a very different trip to Costa Rica. You were there about two weeks after me, three weeks after me. |
| Thomas Holland | I was there for a wedding. Almost overlap. |
| James Stacey | It was really weird. Yeah. And I was there for a wedding, went in through the San Jose airport, rented like a little Suzuki with a four wheel drive if you needed it. It's not that kind of off-roading scenario or bad road scenario where you need more traction. You just have to go so slowly because of how bad the roads are. |
| Thomas Holland | They're very bad. It's a puncture. |
| James Stacey | everything I was worried about. And so we drove from San Jose to no Sarah. And to get there, you basically go through another spot, which is about an hour away called Samara. And if you look at just the distances and I've talked about this, so I won't bring it up, but if you look just the distances on the map, you think all hours or 20 minutes from Samara to no Sarah. Well, it's an hour from Samara to no Sarah. And it's not a couple hours or even a few hours from San Jose to no Sarah. It's like seven or |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah. It's like seven or eight hours. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because the roads, so there's like three different types of roads as far as I can tell. There are, there is a couple of good paved highways. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Really well maintained. Super nice. Excellent. |
| James Stacey | And then there's low speed limits, but super nice. Yes, exactly. 80s the max. |
| Thomas Holland | Which was good because my Land Cruiser was shaking like a mother. So I didn't want to go much faster anyway. But the, probably from a pothole or something from a previous person. On road adjustment to the steering. Yes, exactly. And then there's the roads that were paved. but are partially now not paved with potholes. Those are the worst ones. And then there's ones that are totally dirt, which are actually kind of like smooth rutted, kind of the three different types essentially. And yeah, and you just kind of never know is the GPS will just take you the quickest route, right? I did a couple of river crossings going to Samara. |
| James Stacey | You know, after I started driving for a couple hours, I realized like, oh, my moving average is so low. I'm maybe averaging 30 kilometers an hour. Yeah. Which is this foreign to somebody from Canada and the Google guest was way off. Yeah. It just seemed to fluctuate pretty wildly. And we were also like getting held up by things that Google wouldn't know about. Like they had just like decided to close a bridge. So we sat in traffic for 45 minutes. Yeah, exactly. Without moving. And then they opened it again and everybody kept going. But we were driving, get all the way to Samara and that's where the road from Samara to Nosara, the road's genuinely bad. It's genuinely bad. Yeah. So driving this car, my only concern is one, not making my father who's in the back seat any sicker than he needs to be. Exactly. Cause he's getting tossed around. Yeah. Yeah. And nobody's, we haven't been talking for the last hour. Everybody's just keeping their head down. Yeah, exactly. And it's the kind of toss around where like, you're not going to hurt yourself, but if you have to pee a little bit, Five minutes in this car, you have to pee a lot. Exactly. Four hours in this car, it's real bad. Yeah. And it's not like you're going through towns or even like the road connects the downtown area of one little city or town to the next. No. It's just kind of disparate neighborhoods. Pretty much. So you think you're in the middle of nowhere, you see a farm or a sign for a farm, and then the next one, there's a school and there's five houses and one restaurant, and then you're in the middle of nowhere again. Exactly. And then it gets dark. Yep. And so I just figure I'll find someone who seems like they would drive at a professional level and I'll follow them. Yep. So I follow a tour bus that says no sorrow on the back. |
| Thomas Holland | Right. |
| James Stacey | I know where I'm going. I have GPS. That's fine. But I wanted like, if they're breaking, I should break that sort of thing. Lead follow. And, uh, I just, I couldn't believe how bad the roads were. And then we're like, we must be getting, it says we're so close to no sorrow. Yep. And we're driving in the dark and we're trying to get to the spot called blue Garza. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | which is like a convenience store restaurant. You get sandwiches, stuff like that. And as we're getting there, we're driving behind a metallic red FJ 75 pickup. Oh, so good. With two dogs in the back. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | A snorkel that reached the heaven. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah, exactly. |
| James Stacey | And it's just, I was like, this is, it had like extra lights on, but it was, it was nice, but not fancy. Yep. It was like, it was nice for the area. It was like clearly well-kept and they pulled in and we pulled into them next to them when we finally made it to blue Garza. And that was like my, the, my last final like guardian into the darkness and into, uh, into this part of, you know, it's going to get there. Right. Oh my goodness, dude. |
| Thomas Holland | It was so cool. They're just so cool. Yeah, I just I just started seeing these things. And every single one I saw, I started getting more interested. I was like, OK, which one is this one now is like Googling stuff like whenever I had service and like take pictures of them and like log them in my phone. And I just started like educating myself over the course of the week on like the oh my God, look at that thing. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I just I pulled up a worldwide. It's perfect. Vintage autos. Don't know them. It's not an ad, but they have an FJ 75 in 1990. Yep. In white with a hilarious graphics package. Yeah. French fog lights. They're two-tone seats. |
| Thomas Holland | They're just so cool. So that's the full heavy-duty 70 series, right? Yeah. All the heavy-duty 70 series have leaf springs. So the ride is atrocious, but they're known for being able to go anywhere forever. The UN uses them. |
| James Stacey | It's fashion, honey. Look it up. Like, yeah, everything's got a car. Yeah, exactly. |
| Thomas Holland | Right. Cool. It's cool. Yeah. But those things, those things are awesome. And there is a new 70 series now. Like I, I watch all the, uh, the, uh, cause what Cole's got, right? Uh, yes, he's, uh, yeah, I don't know. |
| James Stacey | I gotta, I gotta drive around Geneva and that. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah. They're just so cool. So much fun. Yeah. Um, the, the most, the most recent one, instead of having the V8 has a turbo, uh, engine turbo four cylinder. Yeah. This, this, I believe it was turbo four. Oh, is it the turbo four? |
| James Stacey | I don't remember. I don't remember it sounding like a V8. Cole, if you're listening, I'm sorry if I got it wrong. |
| Thomas Holland | Um, but yeah, I've been watching all the Australian YouTubers cause they get them out there right in there. They know what they're doing. |
| James Stacey | If you see a, if you see like an FJ 75 with light force lamps on it. Yeah. That guy, that guy has no clue where home is. It does not matter. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah. He doesn't care. Um, yeah. So basically I became obsessed with land land cruisers. And then as a result, I, it was, I think I started calling my guy at a collection auto flaws. I started calling him while I was there. By day five of the trip, I was like, I'm going to need one of these. So I don't care what I have to sell. I'm going to figure it out. So I got one of those on the way and hopefully that'll be, it's a couple months basically to get it here. But I did find one and I won't spoil exactly which one it is. |
| James Stacey | And then you've still got the BMW race car, the 330. Yep. |
| Thomas Holland | That one is currently in my garage and it's broken enough that I'm going to miss the first race weekend. So such is life. Um, yeah, I'm just, I'm doing the clutch on it and I got a few things to do as well. It's my own fault. A hundred percent. No one else's fault. I just didn't get around to ordering parts in time and whatever. So yeah, it's sitting on my, uh, my lift. |
| James Stacey | Um, and is the, the main daily. |
| Thomas Holland | So the M two, if it's just you getting around, yeah, the M two is, uh, I am pondering selling the M two. Yes. Um, if only your boy could afford such a glorious blue vehicle. And I do, I do, I do love the M two very, very much, but I'm just not driving it enough and it doesn't make any sense to have, like that vehicle is a vehicle that I use to, we have the truck as well. We have an F-150 for towing our trailer for filming and stuff. So, and for the race car. So the M2 is filling the gap of kind of like a daily and a vehicle that I would leave behind to pick up a press car. And it's just, it's overkill for that purpose. Yeah, that could be a Honda Civic. Exactly. It doesn't need to be that. And like maybe even depending on how well the Land Cruiser is that I get, I could drive that as a daily, right? But, but yeah, so I'm pondering Which is sad, but it doesn't make any sense. I hate not using a car. Oh, sure. I'm not a collector, even though I have way too many cars. No, you're just more of an addict. Yeah, more of an addict. If I have them, I want to drive them. If I'm not driving them, I feel bad and I don't want it anymore. I'd rather someone else enjoy it, or I'd rather take that money and put it into something new. Yeah, of course. Right? So, yeah, it doesn't make any sense. There's always new dive gear to buy. Exactly, there's new dive gear to buy. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | I did go diving, by the way. Yeah, I was going to try and bring us back to Costa Rica on that one. So look, I totally took over your story with our drive to, but you also went to Samara. |
| Thomas Holland | Yes. Yeah. Well, first I went from, I went up to Monteverde. Right. And I did that drive at night as well. And let me tell you, so I had my wife with me and she was actually feeling a little bit sick. She was recovering from a cold. So she was just kind of like sleeping. And I was worried because I knew that the time my flight was going to land, I was going to be getting to Monteverde, which is a mountain town way up, way, way, way, way up elevation in near the cloud forests. I knew I was going to be getting there at night. And then my flight was delayed three hours. So now I was really at night and it was like a mountain road, pothole, no guardrails in a country I'd never been in before. It was honestly, I loved every minute of it. It was like a driving adventure. And that's, that's what I'm here for. Right. So, so it was super great. But then on the way down, yes, it was what should have been a hour and 40 minute drive was six hours because you've got to go so slow and Google puts you wherever. But yeah, I did eventually go to Nasara and then Samara. And I think I used the same dive company that you went on. |
| James Stacey | And you met Seamus? |
| Thomas Holland | Yes. Yes, I did. Yes, dude. Very good dude at the end of the beach and on the beach. Yeah, you need a guy at the end of the beach. I had a coffee. Yeah, you go. Yeah. No, it was it was an it was very Costa Rica in that whole area where you want. It's really cool. |
| James Stacey | Let's talk diving. How did you find the diving? Because we had a little bit of a different scenario when we went we don't with the same outfit as yes, you and your crew. Yeah, my wife and I But when we dove, their dive boat was out of commission, so we were using Seamus's fishing boat, which was, to be honest, fine. It would have been weird if you were like a brand new diver to be asked to use a pretty small fishing boat. And they were setting up the gear themselves, there was all that kind of stuff, which I'm not crazy about, but we worked with it fine. And I think I talked about it on the show, the diving was okay. Conditions for us weren't incredible. |
| Thomas Holland | The diving So, okay, so we did two dives, um, and the dive boat was fixed for us for the, for this. And that's nice. Yes. It was a very small dive boat though, but on some many different dive boats over the years. And this one was, I think, I think it was max people was seven people on the boat. |
| James Stacey | I'd guess that 16 tanks at least probably would spare. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah. If not, maybe not even, yeah. Like, yeah, it really not that many. They were very nice. Very, very nice. A little bit disorganized, I found. But very nice. Extremely nice people. But they obviously didn't know the dive sites very well. So the diving was... I've never done diving in that area of the world before. Mostly Caribbean. First of all, I did not know the water was that warm. So warm. It's extremely warm. Very weird. Didn't see that coming. But we did two dives and they couldn't have been more different. One dive was like crystal clear and like no current. And it was really nice. And we saw some sharks, and we saw a turtle. So it was beautiful, right? It was a whole thing. Had a great time. You know, kind of volcanic formations sort of thing. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, it was an interesting kind of topography. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very three-dimensional. It was good. And not maybe the coral you would expect from the warmth of the water. |
| Thomas Holland | Correct. Yeah. But there was some, you know, interesting life, some macro life growing on the formations as well. there was a lot of fish that I've never seen as I've only ever done Caribbean. So it was like Moorish idols and like that sort of thing. Right. Uh, that's Gil from Finding Nemo, if you're curious. Um, yeah, so that was really exciting to see. And some angel fish that I've never seen before. So like, I always wanted to see, I was, I was, I was having a great time. It's like, I, growing up, I had my little fish book and then, you know, like I'd tick them off with the date. And then my dad was like, make sure you write all those fish. He said, I got a dive log with everything I've ever seen. Right. So it was cool to like add a whole new set of species. But the second dive was in a slightly different location. And the way that he described it is essentially, since it's the ocean, obviously the currents come in and they bring in different densities of water, salinities, and that sort of thing, right? So you get crazy variable conditions. So at the beginning of our second dive, it was great. And then it immediately went to hell, right? So crazy currents, no visibility, right? It was just kind of like, and you're getting in the surf, you're getting moved back and forth. 10 or 15 feet, right? So like, you know, you're like, okay, so here I am. Oh, look at that fish. And then you're gone. You're like, I'll just wait a couple seconds. I'll come back. And then, you know, there he is again. Right. So it was just a, it was weird to get used to, but, um, it wasn't like scary or anything. It just was a little bit chaotic compared to the first dive. So yeah, that's my impression of is that you never know what you're going to get. I think. |
| James Stacey | No, I think not. You know, I think also that area, that Samara Nosara area is kind of, it's the diving is fine. Yeah. And I think a good dive there is probably very good. Yes. But there's at least two other spots where if you were going to Costa Rica to dive, there's better spots for sure. Up north. Yeah. There's, there's other spots. Um, so I mean that, that's Tamarindo and near Tamarindo. And I think, um, so yeah, if you, I think if you watch a YouTube video or, or read a guide about diving in Costa Rica, where we were diving out of, it was probably pretty low on their list of like the best spots. |
| Thomas Holland | Well, there was only one dive shop there. So that tells you everything you need to know, I guess. Right. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | But yeah, the I enjoyed I mean, any day in the water is going to be a good one. For the most part. Yeah, that we had kind of one dive that had one set of conditions. We also had like most people on the boat were in five mil. Yep. Sarah and I were in t shirts. |
| Thomas Holland | I would just wear a t shirt and shorts. And like I was warm. I was with my dive buddy, Larry. My wife couldn't dive. She still had a cold. Unfortunately, otherwise she would have been in the water with us. But we were just stoked to like, just get diving again, right? I was one of my Pelagos. He had his Seamaster on. So we're like, who took like a bunch of losers took selfies with our watches right yeah you know how it is strong but okay yeah you know it's self-deprecating you have to um but yeah it's uh it was it was fun it was just cool to get out there and and get diving and i haven't been diving that much i used to go every year right yeah but uh reason we're diving locally. We got it. Yeah, let's do it. |
| James Stacey | I mean, I still could, you know, Tobramore is up there. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | That was pretty good out that way. It's definitely a, definitely an option. I haven't done anything like in Lake Ontario. I know there's dives like that you can attach to on a Sunday. |
| Thomas Holland | Yep. Just down in the city. Yeah. Well, we were talking about doing some sort of like an overlanding trip. I'm in for that. You got a Jeep. I'm going to have a Jeep type thing. Right. Let's go slap a tent on the roof or tent in the trunk and off we go. There's not much around here, unfortunately. |
| James Stacey | No, and I mean, I think with these things, like you're constantly always kind of testing gear. So like we could easily start by camping at my cottage property. |
| Thomas Holland | Exactly. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And then we could push up into Algonquin. Yeah. Go, you know, west from there. There's there's there's a lot. |
| Thomas Holland | I become obsessed with it, with the world of overlanding. Like it exploded in covid. And I didn't love a little shovel. |
| James Stacey | Oh, what's what's the what's the riff on the little tiny water? Well, tiny water. Yeah. I like them, too, to be fair. I'm not throwing any shade. The Grenadier, which you brought today and is sitting outside. Got a ladder on the back. Very cool ladder on the back. |
| Thomas Holland | It's very strong. It's a nice ladder. Yeah, you can option that thing to the moon. But yeah, like I've been, as I said, I've been watching this YouTube channel. I highly recommend it if you haven't watched it. It's called 4x4 24-7. It's an Australian YouTube channel. And these guys, Sean O is the main presenter, is his name. They're super hardcore four-wheel drive guys. And they go on these like hour long episodes of these adventures. They go and they just go overlanding. They go, they do some serious technical off-roading and then they camp. And every episode has like a, a cooking camp scene. Oh, cool. And they've got like the coolest stuff, right? Like these drawers pull out stoves. They got the fridges, all these amazing camp lights, these awnings that just like pop up and look amazing. And it's just all the gear is incomprehensible. I didn't pay attention during COVID when it exploded. I just recently have bounced in and I'm like, Oh man, how on all this stuff, right? |
| James Stacey | Yeah. During COVID, I got obsessed with Drew Sims. Yeah. Who we recently got connected to recently. If you're listening, if you're the fellow who connect us, I know when I say recently, you mean six months ago, it's been a busy six months, but Drew Sims is incredible. Uh, Chris John's venture four wheel drive, uh, great stuff. And then like, uh, it's a lot of it's Jeep centric unless you get outside of the like North American space. Yeah. I'm You wrote this great story for the paid side of Throttle House about the conundrum of a highly specialized vehicle. Yes. And one of the main points, which your boy has learned every time he's modified a vehicle, is if you modify a road-ready vehicle, not always, but almost always, definitely if you modify electronics, wheels, Stuff like that you trade you'll make it we better at one thing that we worse at everything else Yes, and usually it gets more worse than it gets more better. Yeah Increase in in something the ability to climb a vertical wall Yes, but a 50% decrease in the stability of the steering at speed exactly. Yes, exactly. That's usually what I needed 37s. Yeah The overlay anything it remains fascinating to me I think that while it felt pretty hypey and trendy for a little while, and the van stuff still does, it seems like the deeper you get into it, the more variety is actually there. It's not just sprinters, great $50,000 Jeeps with $150,000 worth of gear on them. You get people doing it in Subarus with cool bed platforms. And the flexibility of it, I do really find quite entertaining. |
| Thomas Holland | Well, the idea of it is that it's just going from A to B. You can do it in a Subaru Outback. you don't need a jeep, like you don't need to do Moab to go overlanding, right? You can literally go to a place that's slightly remote that has a lot of dirt roads and maybe a couple ruts and you need something that has four wheel drive or whatever. Drive up to the cottage. Exactly. Yeah. You just find a cool spot to camp. It's just, it's just kind of part of the fun. It's the idea that you just get to go actually, uh, uh, James, when we were on the, uh, the land cruiser thing, he, he hates camping. Okay. Sidebar, he hates camping, but, He had this hilarious epiphany in this moment. I've tried to convince him to go camping so many times and he finally caved and I'm going to convince him again to do it. But he had this moment where the following day we were packing up all the gear and we just had picked this spot in the desert, literally randomly in the middle of nowhere, wherever we could find shelter from the wind. And he kind of looked and he was like, so we just slept here? This is after we'd done it. I was like, yeah. He's like, this was our home for tonight. We camped here. I was like, yes. He's like, we just chose it. It was just a random spot and it became our place. I was like, oh my God, you're getting camping. You're understanding it. Freedom. It was it was this absolute freedom this moment. It was gone in a moment, though. I'll tell you that. He's like, anyway, hotel, right? But but yeah, it was it was this. That's what exactly what it is. It's that freedom to just go. It doesn't matter what car you have or whatever. Not really. Roll out a tent on the ground. You don't have to have a rooftop tent. I'm really not a fan, if I'm honest. Exactly right. So so just go wherever you want and go camping. That's the fun of it. You don't need all the fancy gear. |
| James Stacey | If look, if where you're camping or overlanding doesn't have wind, Most places have wind. Yes. A rooftop tent is going to be great. Yes, exactly. Yeah. All the things that suck about a tent will still suck, but you'll be on top of a roof. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah. But if it's windy, you've made it worse. Yes, exactly. 100%. It was very windy. We were just getting battered. It was horrible. But I like rooftop tents because they're just cool. Oh, they're absolutely the only reason like 100% it makes more sense most of the time to not put the weight that high up on the car. No question, right? Bring a little rollout 10 or a normal 10 put it on the ground and camp like a normal person. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I've always just been a fan of like a decent. I don't even think you have to spend a ton of money a reasonable four man pop up tent. And I don't think it matters one brand to another, buy whatever's on sale, buy from a well-known brand. Maybe, maybe don't buy the first five brands that are commonly on Amazon, like go to an REI, go to a Mac and buy something that has been vetted by some folks. Yeah. But I think like a tent is a tent to a certain extent, how you treat the rain fly makes a big difference. How you set it up makes a big difference. But like the product itself is like locked in. Yes. That said there's it's, and it's perfectly fine to pull into a campsite, pull a tent out of the back and put the tent up near your car. Right. just not as cool as like unlatching a thing and watching your house lift up off the roof of your vehicle. |
| Thomas Holland | It is. It is very cool. But also in terms of tents, I've been recently introduced into the world of swag tents because, um, so I didn't know this. This is the Australian, like a, a roll tent. Yeah. It's a rollout tent. Ironman 4x4 America, which is like a company that does a lot of Australian and South African and now American overlanding equipment for vehicles as parts as well. They hooked us up with a bunch of gear for the trip, which was awesome, but they gave us a couple of swag tents. And I thought swag was like their brand for the name of the tent, but it's, it's not, it's like a, it's a style of tent where it's like, it's got the pad built into it. It's made out of a heavy duty canvas. It comes in a huge bag to be fair, but you just roll it out, put a couple of hoops through it and like tie down the things. And it's like this super heavy duty, durable thing designed for the Outback. Right. Um, so, and that's, that's literally the Aussie roll out of swag. That's what they're going to do. That's what camping is called. Sure. They're going to roll out a swag. I'm like, okay. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. In my mind, like if you're, if you're listening to this and you're maybe a little bit more dialed into say the, um, outdoor world of hiking, climbing and ultra lightweight camping. If you think of like a, a bivy tent bag where it's all kind of one thing that you can just put down on the snow and go to sleep. Yeah. It's like imagine the beefy version of that that keeps the scorpions out. |
| Thomas Holland | Pretty much exactly what it is. Yeah, it's been like a heavier duty material, right? And there were literally scorpions in our camp. So it was nice to to also there is these things called we didn't put this in the video called sun spiders. You ever heard of them? I'm already out. It's like, I'm not even making this up. I regret this. You know what, you're gonna Google it and you're gonna you are gonna regret it. It's half spider half scorpion. And it's like this like white color. It just looks like a camel spider and they're big worse and like, Oh, they were running around the camp and they do not look friendly. So there was a bunch of them. |
| James Stacey | It is also known at times as a camel spider. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah. These are bummers. Yeah. Yes. Big bummers for sure. They don't look nice. No, they don't look friendly. Actually. Scorpions look kind of fuzzy and cute, cuddly compared to them. |
| James Stacey | I kind of like scorpions. They glow in the dark. |
| Thomas Holland | They do glow in the dark. It was very cool to see one. Ours was a really tiny little baby one. Um, he's like super tiny, but, but we found him and he happened to be right in front of our sign that we jokingly put up and said, no scorpions allowed. So we thought that was hilarious. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I also have a direct fondness for animals that, um, their proportions don't change, but they just get bigger as they get older. Like a baby giraffe is largely the same as a smaller giraffe. |
| Thomas Holland | They just keep getting bigger. |
| James Stacey | And like a little tiny scorpion doesn't really change that much to become a full size. Like maybe that was its full size. I don't know that much about scorpions. There's a whole bunch of different scorpions. So it could have been, yeah. It turns out there's more than a couple. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Fair enough. Man, that's a, that's a good one. Yeah. I mean, thinking on the summer adventure plans, like there's, there's definitely a lot, anything, you know, let's say this truck comes in in time and you can put a rack on it and get a tent on it. Is that kind of the plan to get out at some point before the end of the summer? |
| Thomas Holland | A hundred percent. I'd like to, there's, there's a, there's a place, we're lucky here. |
| James Stacey | Our summer extends well into early October these days. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah. And, and if not, it's nice to go in the fall either way. Right. Um, but yeah, like I was looking, there's a, there's a cool river up near Sault Ste. Marie. Okay. Apparently it's got some crown land that you can do some camping on. Um, but I mean like worst case scenario, a two days drive is South Dakota, right. And you can start there. True. And you go visit beautiful Sioux Falls. There's some pretty crazy stuff there. And then from there, obviously you can connect and keep going into where the real mountains and everything start. Right. |
| James Stacey | I don't know if the gas cap, which is the current running name for my Jeep, because that's what it says on the dashboard every time I turn it on. I assume it's its name. Used to be Mean Joe Green, now it's gas cap. Gas cap, okay. I'm not sure gas cap's got a drive to South Dakota in it. |
| Thomas Holland | No. |
| James Stacey | Without some attention. Fair enough. |
| Thomas Holland | Fair enough. Yeah. Yeah. That's a lot of wandering steering on the highway as well, right? |
| James Stacey | Look, I'll throw it out there because I know it's a great bit in the Jeep world. The steering in mine, at least to my knowledge, is great. I haven't driven much else for the last few years. It doesn't do the wobble. I haven't modified the steering at all. In fact, the very few modifications I've made to that vehicle, I've undone almost all of them. The extra lights that took a battery and an alternator with them, surprisingly, those aren't still on the vehicle. It makes it a little harder to make it clear that I was hoping the Nissan Rogue in front of me would move without two crazy bright spotlights. I can also just be a more relaxed person in general. Not my skill set. Probably for the best. I have a place to be all the time. Anyways, look, I think that's at least a whole episode. Let me double check. Oh yeah. We're well over an hour at this point, but we got to get to some final notes before I let you go. Yeah. Um, you want to go first? |
| Thomas Holland | What do you got? Sure. Yeah. I had a couple of things in mind for this, but, uh, all right, you do one, I'll do one. Well, one of them was some pair of pants that you guys have already talked about. I didn't really, yeah. The, the doer live free adventure pants. That was called? Yeah. Yeah. Um, I just, I think the great, I just like the, the horizontal pocket on the side of the leg and, uh, the, I use it for my passport on the plane. Just slip in there. Comfy, lots of articulation. I like the cuff, like different types of ways to wear it. |
| James Stacey | The pockets like in a perfect spot to tap, to make sure your passport's there. |
| Thomas Holland | Exactly. Right. Like a good touch pocket. Yeah, exactly. No, it's, it's a good pair of pants, but, uh, anyway, so I brought another one along because you guys have already chatted with that one. It's the, uh, it's called faster by Neil Bascom. It's a book about the Delahaye 145, which is a pre-war racing car. And it is a excellent introduction, I think, into the, the world of pre-war racing. Right. So if you've been even like remotely interested, and I honestly wasn't really that interested in it, but I said like, you know what, I'm just going to read this and see how it goes. I loved it. It was like kind of a little bit narrative to some dialogue, you know, like, you know, kind of semi-fiction based bits to kind of keep you interested in the story. And it tells the story of this French car, the Delahaye 145, um, and, uh, the, uh, the, the very wealthy, uh, patron who kind of purchased the rights to the vehicle more or less and helped get that car into the Grand Prix's in the time to try and take down the, uh, the Mercedes silver arrows. Right. Um, and at that point, It's a really interesting era of history because this is just before the war broke out. Right. So we're talking like 39. Right. So all of these Mercedes Silver Arrows that were winning everything were very much built for the sole purpose of promoting the superiority of Germany. Of course. Right. And so like at that point, like Rudy Caracciola was like saluting Hitler on the podiums. Right. Like so it's that era. It's really like right before the war came. started and then this one car, you know, in a, I won't ruin the book, but it's, it's definitely great. It's, it's a really great, and you really get to learn about the different types of racing that happened in the period, the different types of cars and like the crazy different engine, uh, you know, like straight eights and that sort of thing. Really cool engine. Uh, and, and obviously you learn a lot about real, this is a true story, famous racing drivers, right? Um, like, uh, yeah, like Rudy Caraciola and, uh, Tazio Nuvolari. It's like a really cool, really cool name, right? Yeah. Famous, uh, wrote race for Alfa Romeo. I think Alfa Romeo, but yeah, no, it's great book. Highly recommended. I loved it. Easy read, easy read. |
| James Stacey | That's awesome. So that's called Faster by Neil Vascombe. And you can find that in the show notes. Uh, to close it out, I have, um, I have a, you know, I'm a, I'm a real sucker. I'm, I'm, uh, Instagram can really get me with an ad. Yeah. Hits me a few times. I'm going to need that thing. And this is technically not an ad. I have a bunch of these, um, people I follow on Instagram that are just kind of like have aesthetic living rooms. Yes. Just really cool. |
| Thomas Holland | 100% have a lamp. Yep. |
| James Stacey | The lamps are, yeah, I got a real thing for lamps. I'm in my lamp phase in a lamp phase of life. That's right. Yep. And I really are genuinely enjoy weird lamps, old lamps, new lamps, like Instagram stuff where people make cool lamps. All of this is good. But the one that I keep seeing that people are using kind of in the same way, if you think like, if you go back, four or five years, like when led strips first became kind of decent quality, whether it was Phillips or whiz or, and everybody was putting strips behind their TV and all that kind of stuff. It's that energy, but it's in an even cheaper product. And this is just called a sunset lamp. And I've been so curious for so long. And then the other day I was like, you know what? I'm just, I'm going to do it. I'm going to get one. It's $22. It's currently $25. Okay. on Amazon. And it's a little tiny, um, essentially just a projector with a bunch of LEDs behind it and a remote control to change the colors. Okay. And it's just about where you point it. Cause it's like a friend, like a domed lens on the front. |
| Thomas Holland | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | It gives you this like wide arc of colors and you can kind of set it to like a sunset thing and put it in the corner of a room or up into the ceiling. And like, as like a nighttime lamp, like maybe a lamp for the last, this last hour of your day when you're not around screens and stuff. |
| Thomas Holland | You're not on your phone. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | I plugged it in last night and I just enjoyed every minute. It was a weird, you could change the colors if you want, but it's just this like glowy orange sort of nonsense lamp that I really like. And all the, all the images they have on, on Amazon for these things are like, no, not at all. They're like weird, like using them for weird portraits. Oh, I see. Okay. But it's this little, and to be fair, I was expecting a lamp quite a bit bigger in this photo, which Thomas and I are looking at. You can, you can see in the show notes, that's how big it is compared to a phone. It's a little tiny thing. |
| Thomas Holland | Okay. |
| James Stacey | Cause, cause when it's on at three inch puck, maybe. |
| Thomas Holland | Oh, it's tiny. Okay. |
| James Stacey | And then it's got a little like tripod stand thing and they make about a hundred to thousand different versions of these go on Timu. They're like six bucks. Yep. I don't care which one you buy, but I do really think it's kind of rad. Like I set it up, I think in a more powerful one, like in a room like this where you could direct the light away from a T we're in my kind of like TV listening basement space where you could direct light up into the ceiling, but not have it like eat away at the screen. Yep. It would be kind of nice. No, that's very cool. So another weird $25 ambience. Right. Um, you know, at least I stick to a format. Fair enough. Yeah. But, uh, but yeah, that's the one. And, uh, look, Thomas said, and we've got a little bit more to talk about with the Grenadier, but I think this will cover it for this specific episode. Yep. An absolute treat to have you on as always. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me back. |
| Thomas Holland | This is, you know, you, you guys in this world talk about all the stuff that I love to talk about. So I'm always game. |
| James Stacey | Well, the love is very mutual. We're big fans of everything going on at Throttle House. And, uh, you know, obviously a shout out to James and the rest of the team there. All right. So in just a moment, I'll leave you with a chance of dropping the quote as you've got one, which would be great. But for everyone else, as always, thank you so much for listening. If you'd like to subscribe to the show notes, get into the comments for each episode or consider supporting the show directly. Maybe even grab yourself a new TGN signed NATO or get into the slack. Please visit thegreatnado.com. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the free music archive. |
| Thomas Holland | This quote is by James Engelsman. This is after I jumped a Land Cruiser. He said, Thomas, you are an idiot. |
| James Stacey | There it is. |