The Grey NATO - Ep 91 - Ready For Adventure

Published on Thu, 10 Oct 2019 06:00:14 -0400

Synopsis

The podcast hosts Jason and James discuss various topics related to travel, adventure, exercise, and living an active lifestyle. They share their personal experiences with different types of workouts like running, cycling, and strength training, and offer advice on finding activities that fit one's preferences and schedule. They also touch on the importance of a balanced diet and moderation. Additionally, they provide an overview of Bremont's new limited edition H4 Hercules watch, which incorporates materials from the historic Spruce Goose aircraft.

Transcript

Speaker
Jason Heaton Hello and welcome to The Grey Nado, a Hodinkee podcast. It's a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 91, and it's proudly sponsored by Bremont Watches. And Bremont has an exciting new release, so let's stay tuned for a bit more later in the show.
James Yeah. And if you, if you can hear from the room sound, we're both in New York for some meetings and Jason, it's great to see you.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Great. I'm just here for a day, but you know, we wanted to take the opportunity to meet up here at, we're actually at the Hodinkee offices and, and a great new space. They just opened some new offices here and I got a quick tour from from everybody and just great to see some old faces. I think last time I was in New York was gosh, in the spring, I think we met up at the Bramont townhouse.
James So I mean, that was another one where we recorded in kind of a live room. We're in a room in the Hodinke's new offices. It's not a perfect room. They're currently working on a podcast studio. And normally, Jason, I do this from the extreme quiet of our own home. So you do get a face to face, but you might also get a little bit of echo. And of course, I'll do my best to mitigate that. But we appreciate a little bit of flexibility on the audio quality on the top there. It's, yeah, it's nice to be in New York. We had a nice breakfast this morning and we don't get to do a lot of things face to face, especially hang out. Like often, like with the Braymont thing, I see you, but we're socializing and you're on other people's schedules and other people's pages. So it's nice to be able to spend like a day with you. And then oddly enough, we get to spend more time together next week doing a project that we kind of can't talk about, but a really, really interesting project that we'll share more about once it's live.
Jason Heaton Yeah, two weeks in a row. Wow.
James Yeah. I like this pattern. This is good. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Very cool. And today if we get some time, we're going to sneak off to head up to the Upper East Side, go to the Explorers Club, maybe grab a drink there and just take a peek around all the old artifacts.
James I've never been, so that sounds like an absolute blast for me. And I, you know, I've been, I finally got to a point where I've handed in a few things. We're going to record this and I actually kind of have an afternoon off, which is a first. in a while, so I'm excited. And the Explorers Club, you've spoken about it in the past with very glowing reviews.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And then we'll grab maybe some Thai food tonight and then I'm out of here tomorrow morning and then we see each other again next week. Yeah. About a week from today.
James So that's pretty cool. Anything else new as far as comings and goings or not so much?
Jason Heaton No. I mean, you know, we've had the summer kind of winding down and I guess the last time we spoke, I had come back from my dive trip up in Michigan. And since then, it's just been kind of getting feedback on dry land and just plugged in my Rolex review story, which I would assume by the time this episode's up should be live and people can read about that. Really fun one to write. Some great photographs, both from Ghoshani on the kind of a close up product side. And then my friend Chris, who did a lot of the dive photos. So excited to see the reaction to that, that one. Actually, I thought, you know, since we recorded last was the release of the the new Land Rover Defender. And a few people have written to me and said, Oh, are you guys going to talk about it on the next TGN? And, uh, it just occurred to me, we, we probably should, you know, kind of rehash that a bit. I mean, I'm, I'm an old pre Defender Land Rover owner and, and you're obviously well into the car scene. Uh, what are your kind of impressions from what you've seen?
James Um, okay. So I mean, simply as this is, this is a modern take on the Defender platform, which is their kind of, It's like Land Rover's most rugged or agricultural sort of heritage vehicle. And obviously the previous generation, which ended a couple of years ago, you know, commonly just called the Defender or a D90 or a D110. That's a wheelbase indication. But, you know, it's this very boxy, squared, military-esque. They're in James Bond movies. I think they're in like an iconic style within the automotive world. And that body style, which of course came after yours, lasted for a really long time, and there were versions that were actually federated for North America. Those are commonly called NAS. They're very expensive. They could be $80,000, $90,000. You can find them on Bring a Trailer if you really want to track one down. Otherwise, you'll see a lot of people driving right-hand drive ones, which they imported. You can buy a TD5 D90 for $10,000 to $15,000 and bring it over and then deal with some of the headaches of trying to do drive-throughs and toll booths from a right-hand drive car, all part of the fun. But I think, you know, when they removed this Land Rover's really, um, you know, under, under this connection with Jaguar and, and launching some very successful vehicles, they arguably make one of the best perceived luxury SUVs in the world with the Range Rover. And then they recently redid and on a brand new platform and everything, the Evoque, which has been a very popular vehicle for them. I'm not a huge fan of the Evoque. It looks kind of like a Barbie's. Yeah. Vehicle in any color. I don't necessarily mean that it's feminine. It looks kind of toy-like, but they did kind of give it some of the look of the Velar, which I think works nicely. And then with the Defender, they really tried to bring the original style into something that would pass modern day crash standards and durability standards and things like that. And it'll be interesting to see if they really make something that resonates with the sort of agricultural landed gentries of people who have really appreciated the original Defender for its ruggedness and its simplicity and yes, certainly some lack of creature comforts, but in trade, a vehicle that just kind of always worked and could get itself out of a bog and could get you down to the store and get to go to church on Sunday or whatever it is that you use your, your more, uh, pedestrian vehicles for, uh, with this new one, we're looking at a starter of, uh, about 50 grand. I'm running a two liter turbocharged inline for about 300 horsepower. And then they're making a shorter version and a longer version like they have in the past. So there's a two door Defender and a four door. I think aesthetically, I really like most of it. And we can get into some of the stuff I don't like. But you know, where do you land? I mean, you a Land Rover fan, obviously, I think there's a charm inherent to a series two series three sort of existence that doesn't exist. Yeah, with a modern vehicle, but where do you kind of sit, sit with it?
Jason Heaton You know, I'm not such a purist that I'm going to hate on it initially just because it has, you know, electronic control units throughout the vehicle or, you know, the creature comforts you mentioned. Right. But to me, it has lost a bit of the charm of the last one. I think it's such an extreme departure from the previous Defender and obviously the series vehicles. it's a really tough act to follow. And I think they kind of did the best they could looking at the market that they're trying to hit, uh, you know, in reading a lot of the feedback online from a lot of people, including purists, you know, people are by and large impressed with what it can do. The capabilities doubtless. I mean, this thing has, well, I think I've read 900 millimeters of water waiting, uh, capability. So we're talking what, that's almost a meter, uh, you know, three over three feet of, uh, water can forward. uh, you know, all the, the traction control features. Um, I think it has dual drive for front and rear, uh, all of this, you know, insane capability that that's been honed over, you know, years with Land Rover's experiences with the Range Rover and all these other vehicles. I guess I would have really liked to see a much more stripped down version, uh, with some of those capabilities and that they do make one with the coil springs. So you can opt for a version that doesn't have the air suspension. which a lot of people will like, but the days are over where if you get stuck in the bush with something wrong with it, you can't just pull out a hammer and a screwdriver and fix it yourself. That's just not going to happen. But I also think that those days were over for Land Rover for a while. You could do that with a Defender, but the people that were driving them that way, were fewer and fewer. And I think Land Rover recognized the reality of that. The argument that, you know, if you're going to be stuck out in the bush and you get a flooded ECU and all this electronics, you're kind of dead in the water and you can't fix it. OK, that's fine. But those people are in a great minority. I think that the farmers that were buying Land Rovers back in the 70s, 80s, 90s moved to something like a Toyota Hilux or something like that, probably back in the early 90s.
James Yeah, or like Subaru Foresters or like just some other kind of agricultural but polished vehicle. And I think the other thing to keep in mind is, yes, I would agree that these modern vehicles on a whole aren't as fix them with a hammer as older stuff, but they're also much better made. So this may not be the same sort of expedition vehicle as a previous D110, but it might drive over all the same stuff and just not break.
Unknown Right.
James I mean, they're definitely capable of making a good vehicle. They're definitely capable of making a very tough vehicle. Right. And I think that this vehicle will, for the most part, slide right into the hole left by the loss of the Defender. And the other thing is they made a lot of the last one. You can still find them. Yeah. I would say I like the styling quite a bit, especially of the 110. Cole, our co-worker Cole Pennington, has seen it at Goodwood, seen these in person. He said they're very big. So I thought kind of in the same sort of size and shoulder feel of like a Wrangler, but he said, no, it's a Wrangler plus plus. Like it's, it's quite a bit bigger. Um, the thing that really irks me and, and apparently I, and I would love to be wrong on this. Apparently, according to the website, it's not optional on the one 10 it's, it's a standard item. So maybe it can be deleted at a dealer level, but they have this weird square of body colored panel. Yeah. in the rear window segment, which should be one long, clean line of window. There's just a floating square of color. And on the larger version of the vehicle, it actually is in the door seam. I find it to be really upsetting visually. I don't like it. For me, if it was the kind of thing where I went to everything else was good, that would be a deal breaker. I wouldn't buy it because of that. Because even if you colored it black, so it kind of But if you're inside, there's just a wall where you might want to look out.
Jason Heaton Yeah. It wasn't clear. Is that translucent, opaque? Is it painted on?
James It's body colored and it seems to be, they call it a floating pillar in the window. Yeah. Yeah. But if there's a door line that goes through it, I don't know what it serves. I didn't do a ton of research. I didn't actually know we were necessarily going to chat about this on this episode, but, uh, I really hope it's the kind of thing where after the first model year, they're like, Oh guys, come on. We just, we, you can just not order it. Right. And it's fine. You have a normal, but every single picture, has this panel in the glass. And it's like, it's not a different colored piece of glass. It's a panel inset in the glass that's body colored. So it's painted the same color as the body. And otherwise I think this is like a pretty good looking thing that has a lot of Land Rover aesthetic attached to it, but still some rugged elements. And you can see that the departure, you know, and incline angles are really strong. The wheels are way out at the end of the vehicle. You get a spare wheel on the rear gate. You know, we can link to Henry Catchpool's little preview. He saw the two static vehicles. So he does a walkthrough of the interior where you can have a center jump seat, which I love. I think the new interior looks awesome. And it uses a bulkhead stress member. as actual design element. These are things I adore. You see that defender element on the inside.
Jason Heaton It's a total holdover of the last one. Even mine has that sort of, yeah, it's a big pocket in the front.
James It looks, yeah. And so that's actually like a piece of structure that they just left bare because it's cool. And it has this nice kind of center console that kind of reminds me like older, um, discoveries that like wider center channel. Um, obviously lots of tech, you can't make a vehicle like this without the big center screen. I've seen some of this tech at work in the new Evoque and it's incredible. Like the stuff that we drove through, we did this like playground drive through tunnels and through pools and over these insane leaning elements in the Evoque at the original launches. So it wasn't even a road test drive. They were not road legal.
Unknown Yeah.
James This was last November. I went and drove the new Evoque and it was just like a spot in downtown London that was clearly like an old train yard, but they had built a pool so you could drive through a bunch of deep water. They'd built these crazy steep ramps and these leaning panels and there's a bunch of really good tech. And like, is that needed to go off-roading? I don't know if you're an off-road professional, definitely not. If you're a guy who might occasionally take his $5,200,000 nice city SUV off-road, I might want something that keeps my wheels from rubbing up against a rock that I could have avoided. Or getting stuck in a field or something like that.
Jason Heaton To me, like I said earlier, I would love to see them do a $40,000 version with less tech. None of the cameras. The one that appeals to me, of course, is the one with the steel wheels. They even demoed or showed at the Frankfurt Auto Show what they're calling the commercial version, so it's what they used to call the old hard top. I mean, that's the one for me, the absolute most stripped down version, and they do all these different packs with them. They have an Explorer pack, they have an Adventure pack, they have a Country pack, they come with All of these different features, roof racks, ladders, exterior boxes.
James The little bits kind of remind me of like Lego, but this is something like the whole industry has learned because of Wranglers. And I think you look at some of these, I mean like I absolutely like the Country Pack quite a bit. I like the Urban Pack quite a bit because it has the least kind of stuff tacked onto the vehicle. But I mean like that Adventure Pack looks cool on the Steelys with the side packs on the rear window. The big rack and they still have the, I call them safari windows, but there's another name for them.
Jason Heaton Alpine. Alpine windows.
James There you go, yeah. So they have the alpine windows and the roof. I'm just happy to see that they're still making stuff like this. It'll be interesting to see if it kind of evolves to offer, you know, your Rubicon version, which may be remove some tech, but add some off roadiness, some more, or maybe just one that's like the new base.
Unknown Right.
James Maybe they want something that slots in under an Evoque and they offer something like that. I think it looks cool. The one I specced out that I was the most happy with because again this weird body panel in the rear windows was a 110 in all black. It looked pretty good because you could hide that panel a little bit because it looks like it's glass. It's not. Again, it isn't glass. Yeah, I like it. I think I like the interior more than I like the exterior. I think the design is like really, it's close enough that they can tweak it over the model's generation, where I think in a couple of years they'll hit something really interesting. Yeah. Especially when, you know, enough buyers have kind of like given them some feedback and not feedback from like me, I'm never gonna buy one of these, but feedback from actual buyers.
Unknown Right.
James Who might want, you know, might have their Land Rover or Range Rover and they want this as their city car or their town car or something, you know, go out into the country I think it's a successful thing. I think it's a pretty good design. I think that body panel in the rear window sucks. That's kind of where I land on it. There's so much to like about it.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I'm curious to drive it. I'll keep an open mind. And I think it's a great vehicle. It's going to drive. Bravo. I'm sure it's fantastic. And I think they did as good a job with the design as you could possibly do updating such an icon. Except for the side panel. Except for the side panel.
James I agree entirely. Like I'm being kind of a joking about the side panel. It bugs me. It would it would it would be a bit of a deal breaker for me. But I also it might be the kind of thing you just like. I don't want that. Yeah. Don't put it on it when you order the car. Yeah.
Jason Heaton But I would take it. I would take a short wheelbase in I think they call it Pangaea green with a white roof, steel wheels.
James So like the adventure that's like I'm looking at here.
Jason Heaton Super stripped down. Yeah. You know, I'm not going to part ways with my my old series three anytime soon. I'm partial to older vehicles, not simply out of the nostalgia or charm, but you know, we have a 2004 Volvo as well. And what I like about it is the lack of tech. It has just the right level of tech. I think there was a point at which, without getting too deep into this, but there was a point at which cars got a little too tech heavy for my tastes. I still like, you know, actual hard buttons and dials for things like, uh, temperature and, you know, defrost and seat controls and things like this. I don't want to have to be punching a touchscreen and take my eyes off the road to find how to increase the temperature or something like that. And, uh, so for that reason, you know, I'm still partial to slightly older vehicles and, and as far as Land Rovers go, yeah, if I were to spend 50, 60 grand on one of these, once you spec it out for that, I'd probably opt for, you know, try to find an old one that someone has imported and maybe restored.
James Yeah. I mean, you're, you're, you are starting to push close to the price of the NAS ones, which hold their value the best. offered in yellow with the external rails on the body, which are kind of fun. And then it's left-hand drive, and it has a normal VIN number, and all these sorts of things. So I think they're going to do really well with it. You can pretty much guarantee, based on how just ridiculously capable all of the other Land Rover products are off-road, and how comfy they are on-road, that it will drive really well no matter where you go. And I think it looks pretty cool. So I think they mostly nailed it.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I guess we can leave it at that. I just, you know, thanks everybody for sending me the direct messages on the day that it was launched. And we just wanted to cover it briefly here while it's still fresh in our minds here.
James So, yeah, I was in Vancouver for a little while and all I drove when I was literally all I drove while I was there was supercars. Oh, I can't really weigh in on anything similar. I had a McLaren 720S Spyder for a photo shoot. And then I very briefly, like for a day, I borrowed the new Huracan Evo, which is the Performante engine base Evo, or not base Evo, it's just like an all wheel drive, rear steer, the new interior, the new infotainment system. I mean, it's just that car's just, it's a party. Yeah. Basically it's loud and it's kind of raucous and it's razor sharp. And I mean, I've talked about the Performante in the past, so I would say most of that carries over, you're buying that car for the engine. It's this high revving 5.2 liter V10. It sounds like your F1 car in the eighties. It's amazing. And I know I spoke at length about how unbelievably good the 720S is, whether it be the Spyder or the Coupe. So we don't have to go any deeper into that. But I would love a chance to drive something that we would describe as being more agricultural than a current modern supercar. But I'll be in a Westphalia next week. So that should be fun. I've never driven one. It's kind of a bit of a long trip. So I think that should be pretty cool. And I'll have more details on that kind of on the other side of it when I actually have something to speak about. But yeah, it's a little bit of a high-low phase between... That'll be suitably agricultural. Yeah, I think so. I think we'll be struggling to maintain a lot of highway speeds in that, so. Yeah, you feel like it may be worth jumping right into our main topic?
Jason Heaton Yeah, let's do it. So, you know, this is something you and I have talked about for, boy, years. I mean, we're always going back and forth about exercise, you know, running, training for mountain climbs, et cetera. And I just thought it'd be a good one to kind of bring up for, for this episode because you know, a lot of people have the same struggles and ambitions that we do.
James And I get a fair amount of messages asking like, what's your, where do I start with running? How much is too much running? How much is too little? Because I'll put up like a picture of a garment or a picture of my feet running or something. And like everybody has, you have to find your own routine obviously. Um, so what's like a, uh, Where did you kind of start? Where did you find like some exercise you actually liked doing? Where it didn't feel like a chore but rather like the part that kind of saved a bad day?
Jason Heaton So the brief history of me and exercise goes back to high school days when I was more of a team sport guy. I played football and basketball in high school and looking back it was probably not the best fit for me but Uh, regardless, you know, after, after high school, I really got heavy into individual sports. And the first thing that I kind of got into was running. I was really into it, really heavy duty, uh, training for marathons and, and, you know, did five and 10 K, you know, runs every weekend when I could, you know, 18, 19, 20 years old. And I am, you know, I'm big guy. I don't really have the body type for, uh, running. It's pretty pounding on, on the physique and whatever. And I, I ended up dropping a ton of weight, probably an unhealthy amount. You know, I weigh about 230 now and I think back then I was weighing in the 160s maybe. Okay. Yeah. Probably not terribly healthy at the time. Um, and you know, I guess if I look at, you know, from then till the present, I go in these cycles of almost getting obsessive about types of exercise and then getting to the point where I burn out on them. So if, you know, for a while it was running and then probably starting in the mid nineties, I really got into cycling. And, you know, road bikes, uh, I was doing mountain bike races and I was racing on the velodrome track up in Minneapolis, uh, bike racing and, you know, riding daily long rides on the weekends, et cetera. Again, you know, burned out on it. Um, you know, and then I got into swimming. I've always done cross country skiing. So I really like endurance sports, but I think, you know, the lessons I've learned have been to find a balance. And I think I'm kind of at a good point now where. I can find that and a lot of it is seasonal based or activity based. If I'm training for something specific like climbing Mount Rainier a few years ago, it involves a heavy amount of carrying a pack and running and hiking just a lot. When I did the Alcatraz swim, I was open water swimming on the lake several nights a week and doing some pool swimming. But I've just kind of found now that the right balance for me is if the weather suits take the kayaks to the lake, do some paddling one day, uh, you know, go biking with my wife, uh, the next night, um, maybe do some hiking on the weekend and that sort of thing. And I think that just works for me. You know, I'm, I'm getting to the age where, you know, fitness is something I, I can't just start to take for granted. And, um, and so, uh, I'm, I'm just, uh, just been really, uh, sort of more mindful about where I expend my energy and also what I'm eating and drinking and that sort of stuff. So,
James Okay, before we get too much further into the main topic, it's time for a brief chat about this episode's sponsor, Bremont Watches.
Jason Heaton Yeah, and Bremont is returning to support a second episode of The Grayado, and we're really thrilled about that. And as part of this second sponsored episode, they've got quite the limited edition for us to talk about today. As some of you might know, Bremont has a history of doing annual limited edition watches. These are very small run timepieces that they make that often incorporate pieces of historical aircraft. In one case, they did the Code Breaker, which was a well-known one from their history that used wood from the floor of one of the buildings at Bletchley Park, which was the code breaking facility during World War II. They've done the 1918, which was one that commemorated the hundredth anniversary of the RAF. They've just done some really neat stuff in the past and this one really is no exception.
James And yes, so this new edition is called the H4 Hercules Limited Edition. It comes in three different versions, but all of them carry a little bit of the H-4 Hercules, which for those of you who know your aviation history was also called the Spruce Goose and was famously flown by Howard Hughes in 1947, a very famous plane. One that was, you know, widely considered essentially a national treasure. And within that, Bramont's been able to source a little tiny bit of wood from the plane that they've used to adorn the rotors. of these watches and there's going to be 300 in stainless steel, 75 in rose gold, and 75 in platinum. So from what we've seen, which for Jason and I is just images, the watch looks incredible. It's one of the few of Bremont's LEs that isn't a chronograph. So this is actually a GMT expression of the same Le Jouperet movement they used in the Wright Flyer, which was of course also connected to a famous plane in American aviation history, world aviation history, really, the Wright Flyer. And with this model, so they still, they're using the BWC02, but it has a, like I said, a GMT function. It's still a 43 millimeter case and you get a date at six o'clock and each of the three versions kind of have their own dial treatment. They really carry on what we saw with the Codebreaker and the Supersonic last year, which is a little bit more of an elegant, really beautifully designed. It still has that sort of rugged charm of a Brema, but it is, you can very quickly tell that it's something special.
Jason Heaton Just looking at the photos here, they've got a steel version, a rose gold version, and then they're actually doing a platinum version. It's similar in kind of dial layout to the Wright Flyer, with the exception of the GMT ring around the outside, you know, in that it has a small seconds register on the left side of the dial. But you're right, it has a very dressy look, not quite as dressy as the Wright Flyer, which had sort of an oversized onion crown and looked definitely sort of very 1930s or 40s. a bit more broad-shouldered like a Bremont sports watch, but I think that kind of open dial with the beautiful Arabic numerals and then that small seconds kind of has a bit of a throwback to more of a mid-century dress watch. And it definitely has some Bremont DNA to it, but it's very different from kind of what you'd expect from a typical Bremont sports watch.
James Yeah, I agree. And at 43 millimeters and using one of these movements, this is a watch you could definitely wear every day. It would be something obviously very special to wear, but, you know, gorgeous and really cool. And certainly if you're a fan, not only of Howard Hughes, but of early aviation, mid-century aviation.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I agree. You know, Braymont has established this well-known history of, of these limited editions and there, there's quite a collector community around these in the past. And I think what separates them is the incorporation of these historic bits into the watches. I mean, you know, when you think about something from, you know, the, the arguably the first plane to fly the right flyer. The Codebreaker with its history in World War II. They've done, you know, P-51 Mustangs and Spitfires and all of these historic planes. And, you know, this just continues that. And when I first heard about this, I, you know, Googled Howard Hughes and the H-4 Hercules. And, you know, you can really go down a rabbit hole. And I encourage anybody who's interested in learning more about this plane to do that. Because, you know, Howard Hughes, if you're not familiar with his aviation history, was a remarkable man. And this plane in particular is, is incredibly historic, which is where Bremont sourced the wood for the watch.
James And yet again, Bremont's able to capture just a little slice of a really special plane, quite literally, and put it in one of these watches. And it's something that while they've done it so many times, they always manage to find just the right plane or just the right touchstone from either aviation history or British history or something like that. And this is one we really can't wait to see in person. And until then, just a huge thank you to Bremont for supporting the show. Stay tuned for more news about the H4 Hercules LE and be sure to visit www.braemont.com or hit the show notes for all the details.
Jason Heaton Back to the show. I know you obviously had a big year training for Baker a few years ago, and that involves you were living in Vancouver. So you had the mountains in your backyard. And then more recently you've been kind of really into running.
James Yeah. So it's funny because I didn't, uh, I hated sports. Like definitely team sports, not interested, never considered myself an athlete or even the type of person who could enjoy athletic experiences. Um, and then when I moved to, uh, Vancouver, I'd, I'd had some time previously lived in a town called Hamilton in Ontario. And I'd had some friends that would go to the gym frequently. So I'd go to the gym with them, but aimlessly probably if I had had any more focus during that time, it would have hurt myself. It was just like, you're there just throwing weights around and like it felt good and it's exercise. And I was in my very early twenties, so I was loosely indestructible.
Unknown Yeah.
James and your body responds to exercise really well. So you think like, oh, I'm so fit, right? And then I got to Vancouver and suddenly I was in a place that didn't really have winter. So like you really only had, if you wanted to run, you only really had to stop for like a little bit in January where it was icy. Otherwise I could run almost in a t-shirt year round. So as I would do, I'm an obsessive. I got really deep into running and I got to the point where like my feet started to complain at about 80 to 90 kilometers a week. which is a decent distance. Um, I really loved it. You know, I would run an hour a day. Um, I had, um, a very close family member is a, is a sports physiotherapist and he had always said, you know, the, all the injuries and running happen at people who run once a week and people who run seven times a week. So I used to take Sundays off. I thought that was smart. Um, eventually it got to the point where I just felt like I wasn't getting any better at running. Um, it just, uh, It was, it was more something I was doing, like to think and to have a break from everything else. And your phone doesn't really work that well. Like you can't take a phone call while you're running or you shouldn't. Yeah. So I would just run to have a break from everything else, which is great. Um, and, but you know, I had lost a lot of weight and you're kind of like, ah, maybe I should put on some muscle. And so I slowly got into working out, but I don't like gyms. I'm going to have to change that tune for Toronto, but in Vancouver, I really didn't like the idea of a gym. So I would work out at home. And that started like, I'm a big fan that I think like you can't really think of exercise or diet in terms of success very differently. Everything is about adherence. It's a lot less important how you exercise than the fact that you do it a lot or a long, an amount that's enough. And it's a lot less important what the diet is versus than it is to adhere to it. So if you want to pick the hardest diet in the world, you want to go from having a terrible diet to being keto. I would say good luck. Your adherence rate's probably like 5%. Yeah. We'll stick with it long enough to even lose their weight. And then there's like, just, you need to find something that's less of a diet or a workout regime and more of just something that fits your general movement of lifestyle. And my problem is moving from Vancouver to Toronto. I'm now dealing with a place that has four full seasons, including a winter. And I travel all the time. So the travel used to be a lot of travel, but I worked out so much. It didn't make any difference. I could take two days off when I was going to drive a car in Austria or something. Now I travel like more than 50% of the month. And I just don't like working out in hotel rooms and I'm not carrying, I don't wanna carry running shoes everywhere I go. So I'm currently working on fixing that. What I've done is I just dial back how much I eat. So that I'm not just consuming 3000 calories a day and not needing anywhere near that much. Especially the other thing that I think people don't consider is as you get older, you require fewer calories. Which is something to consider. I'm in my early thirties, but I still think it's worth being mindful of these things. And I try and eat things that make me feel better throughout the day, or I try to not eat at all. Especially if I have a really busy workday, I prefer to just stick with coffee and water. And then when the workday is mostly done, then I'll find a meal. And I don't have to be too concerned about what it is. I would say that I got to a point with what I really loved and what I would go back to immediately if I was home more often and in a place like Vancouver is I was running every other day. an hour. I'd go 30 minutes in one direction on a $15 Casio and go 30 minutes, turn around and run back. It was easy. Uh, you run along the ocean. It's gorgeous. If it's raining, it's still pretty. And it felt great. And then on all the days where I wouldn't run the other other days, I would simply do, um, a workout with, um, you can buy these Bowflex. This is, I promise not an ad. I have no interest in getting money from Bowflex, but I used their product for several years. It's these two Bowflex weights that have dials on the side and you can go from like five pounds to like 55 pounds. Yeah. And then it has a whole app that goes with it. So you design the workout you want. So I would have like an arm day, a leg day, a back day, a core day, and then it would repeat. So over the course of two weeks, I would finish seven runs and seven workouts and do almost a full cycle of, of fitness. And I loved this. It was 40 minutes. I could listen to a podcast while I did it. The app, as long as you didn't leave the app, the app timed everything. So there's no like getting a text message and spending 10 minutes between a set when it should have been a minute. You just, it would go bong, bong. And then you were starting.
Unknown Yeah.
James And you did a certain number of reps, a certain weight and it recorded everything so that you could increase as you went. Sure. Really helpful if you, but that was kind of like a later phase for me. I think if you want to start working out at home, Make it real easy. Do a hundred pushups, like five by 20 or do 50 pushups or 20, like just break it into chunks and do the same thing for air squats and do the same thing for like sit-ups. It's going to take you 25 minutes. You'll feel a lot better. And then eventually you'll get to the point where that's boring or it doesn't feel like a workout and your body will crave that like workout thing, the endorphins or whatever it is. And you'll up the ante and eventually you'll get to weights or you'll go to the gym and get a trainer or whatever it is. I think people go too hard. too fast when they flip the switch January 1st, they're like, I have to work out. Right. They go to the gym a few times. They feel terrible because it's really hard. Everything in the gym is heavy. Everybody around the gym looks like they know what they're doing, which is demoralizing if you don't. And it's really easy to just like go on YouTube and find a yoga video that's like 20 minutes and see if you like it. And if you don't move on by one kettlebell, you can do like 50 exercises at home and just follow along on a free YouTube video. And you will get stronger and try and focus on these sorts of things that aren't going to hurt you in the long run, whether it's running too much or running. In my case, I ran and then did Baker on a terrible pair of shoes and I'm still injured from it. If I run enough, if I start to hit 60, 70K in a week, my right foot starts to fall apart.
Jason Heaton I think, you know, our TGN for as long as we've had it has been really largely focused on accessible adventures, the gear you can use with it. And I think we've never really talked about training. I mean, we won't do that this time. I think if we have a specific activity that we want to talk about, maybe one time we'll talk about how we train for our mountain climbs. But I think for me, I'm not a gym guy. I can't stand gyms. I don't like anything that smacks of a workout routine.
James I love, and it's funny because I adored the routine.
Jason Heaton I miss it so much. I can't stand routine. And for me, as long as I feel like I'm doing something going from point A to point B or doing a loop on a bike or skiing around a, you know, groomed ski course in the wintertime, it doesn't feel like exercise to me, even though, you know, I might look at the Garmin and check, you know, download my heart rate afterwards and kind of get some satisfaction from that. As long as I'm doing something that feels like an activity, that's why I love hiking in the mountains.
James Hiking is the finest exercise in the world.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it really is. I mean, just covering ground on foot is such a sublime pleasure.
James It doesn't have to be mountains either, like hills are lovely, fields are lovely. Find a path and just walk.
Jason Heaton And the only sort of routine that I Sometimes do and I kind of go in spurts our push-ups. Yep. I love doing push-ups. It's such a it's the perfect exercise It works out so much of your body and it's the kind of thing that I'll do You know, it's very portable.
James Obviously you can do it in a hotel room Yeah, the push-ups the air squats in the sit-ups or if you're if sit-ups if you're I'm of the camp where I don't think sit-ups are all that valuable But it's a nice place to start if you're starting a workout do V ups where your leg comes up Yeah, so your knees come into your face. Sure And if you break that into three things and eventually you're doing a hundred of each, it's not a bad workout.
Jason Heaton It takes, it takes like 15 minutes to do these things. And I would always do it. Uh, my excuse would be, I'd do it before I'd get in the shower. So anytime I'm going to take a shower, whether it's after one workout or after, you know, just at the end of the day, beginning of the day, it's like it, even just the pushups will take, you know, less than 10 minutes sometimes just hammer out three or four sets and then jump in the shower. It's, it's just kind of the perfect, perfect opportunity to do that. Um, But you know, other than that, it's got to be activity based for me. It has to be, um, doing something, especially if I'm training for something, which I'm finding that I'm lacking a little bit right now. I need to find my next goal. I need another mountain to climb. I need another, you know, lake or distance to swim or something. And I, you know, I've got some ideas I'll chat with you about later, um, for next summer that might be something maybe we, we talk about and get together or something. But, uh, That's always kind of been the way I've enjoyed it.
James I've been thinking I may just like sign myself up for a marathon, like a full and just like make the mistake of putting that pressure on myself.
Unknown Yeah.
James Like one of the ones you're allowed to just walk into. Yeah. Um, because I know that, I know that I could probably not run a marathon right now, even if we're talking like six hours, like I just don't think I would finish. Yeah. My foot's going to give up or I'm going to hit a wall or I'm going to hate it. Um, but I remember, I remember how much I used to like, and this was like six months ago, how much I flat out loved being at like, 20 to 25 K laughing Stanley Park in Vancouver. And just like, I think that would be it. The other thing I might be a crazy, you know, yuppie for even saying this, but I've been eyeballing Pelotons. Oh yeah. Cause I'm stuck. I'm going to be stuck inside for part of the year. Um, I've never been a cyclist. Like I've never gotten in. I might, my dad recently gave me a bike and I, it's literally sitting in my living room. I think it looks great. I have not taken it out. Yeah. When I'm home, I'm home for like a weekend. It's with my family. I don't really take any time. I might get out for a half hour run. Or when they go to bed, I'll do one of these quick cycle workouts, something like that. But for the most part, you know, on a bike, the other thing, and I've said this on the show before, is like, if it's 10 units of swimming, then it's 20 units of running, then it's 40 units of biking. So the efficiency of a cycle means that I have to really enjoy being on it. Otherwise, I should have just been running, because I get more for my minutes. And I should probably just find a pool and learn to swim. Maybe that would be my fastest workout. The other one I would love to do is to learn to box. Yeah, that's which I think would be like an incredible mixed. I did a couple of those classes.
Jason Heaton Man, that's tough.
James Yeah, it's really tough. Yeah. If there's a gym around the corner from me again, I've never really fathomed it. I've never enjoyed a minute that I spent in a gym. Yeah. But there's a gym around the corner from me that does a weekly boxing class, but I don't know if it's a bag or if it's just air box. I have no idea. So maybe that's what I ought to do. I'm not home enough to hold these type of schedules.
Jason Heaton I should really find something that I can. Travel's really tough. It's just destroying it. I know running is portable and I know, you know, Russell.
James You have to carry shoes and your bag smells and how many, how many t-shirts can I really afford? Like I can do two weeks out of my small away. I'm going to have to start checking stuff if we're talking like t-shirts and spare shorts and then it's winter in New York. I'm also not running outside here.
Jason Heaton You know, funny you should mention the Peloton. That's been an attractive prospect. Again, for someone who doesn't care for routines or gyms, the Peloton is attractive. But also, I'm a big fan of rowing. I really like rowing.
James I don't have the room for a rowing machine.
Jason Heaton I agree though, it's a whole body. Rowing machines take up a lot of room, but we do have a reasonably sized finished basement that doesn't get a lot of use. And these Concept 2 rowing machines are, you know, rock solid. It's the kind of thing I think I could, you know, get down for half an hour and kind of hammer and get a decent.
James Yeah, I'm gonna, I'll make a, now that I'm committing it to air. Yeah. It's now mid-September. Yeah. I'm going to try and figure out something that I think I could all share at some level, whether on Instagram or something, if anybody else is interested and maybe we'll start logging it with the Garmin and we'll make a thing out of it. Yeah. But I do encourage anyone like I still I will always remember the first day I decided I wanted to run.
Unknown Mm-hmm.
James I went I ran for four minutes. Oh, yeah Yeah, literally made it like two blocks in Vancouver and was like my throat. My lungs are on fire. I Did not realize how like problematically unfit I was and then I walked the rest of the route that I had established Yeah, and then over time I realized I was walking less and less and then I completed the road and then you would do the whole route again Yeah And it's great because you don't have to be able to run that far to say you went for a run. You went out. The goal isn't the run. The goal isn't doing 5k in 20 minutes. The goal isn't doing 10k in 40 minutes. It's leave your house or to get off the couch or to go to the grocery store instead of going to McDonald's or Postmates or whatever. Like it's just making the initial step. And then it eventually becomes a habit and your body wants that instead of staying on the couch. Like I get so restless now. which is why the travel's problematic because it fills my restlessness. It quells that, but it's not actually good. It's not exercise. I carry bags around. So whenever I have a weekend, I try and get out hiking or into the park and move around. And then other than that, I'm less of a believer in the need to be counting your steps. Get for a walk, go for a walk, use the stairs. Your phone, my phone tells me when I hit 12 or 13,000 steps, which really isn't that hard to do because I love walking. I love taking a camera out and going for a walk. And I think that's where, like, if you're really at the one end of this where you're like, I don't do any exercise and I'm not interested, find a hobby that requires you to walk around, whether that's photography or listening to podcasts or something. But know that, like, I have an hour podcast. That's where I'm going to finish my dinner and I'm going to go for a walk. And then eventually, I think you'll talk yourself into like, I'm bored of the walk. I'll run or I'm going to get a bike. I'll go for a bike, I can still listen to my podcast. Lower volume, please. Cars hurt. But yeah, I definitely don't want to sound preachy because this is something that I've totally lost touch with since I left Vancouver and started working a lot, just busy, crazy busy weeks. When I'm home, I snap right back into it. I go for a run every day, I love it. But it's something that I lost what was essentially five or six years of working out every day.
Jason Heaton I was, I listened to, or maybe read an interview with one of our heroes, Jimmy Chin, a great mountaineer photographer, free solo director. Yeah, very fit guy. And the interviewer was asking, you know, what is a busy guy you are? He travels a lot and et cetera, et cetera, getting older as well. And somebody said, you know, how do you, what was it like, what's your workout routine or how do you get fit or something? And I think he said, he said, he said, I get in fit by doing the stuff that I do. He doesn't have time to have a dedicated workout. He just is out there doing stuff. Not all of us are lucky enough to do that. However, my slight tweak on that is, you know, you and I have jobs that often take us to interesting corners of the world, doing interesting things. These opportunities come up where, you know, hey, we've got a new watch, you know, you want to go take a diving or, you know, we've got an interesting opportunity to go diving or, or, you know, last winter it was this, um, Richard meal that, that we took up in the Rockies. You know, these things come up on fairly short notice and if you're not fit, you simply can't do it or it'll be absolute misery to do it. And so my philosophy or my mentality is I don't need to be super fit. And even if I'm not training for a mountain climb, I want to be fit enough that at a moment's notice I can kind of do almost anything I'm asked or I don't have to pass up opportunities because I'm limited by my my own fitness or my abilities. And so I think having a well-rounded group of activities that you can do, whether that's, uh, you know, I like to do kayaking in the summer. Um, you know, paddling works the upper body. It keeps the skills sharp about, you know, just being in a boat. Biking is good for balance. You know, biking is makes your legs and back strong. Um, hiking does X, Y, and Z. So, you know, all of these things, this, this sort of well-rounded overall fitness really contributes to just an overall lifestyle and the ability to kind of do things and try new things.
James I know that the other one that I've heard or that friends have recommended, uh, not directly to me, but in these sorts of conversations you have about, Oh, what's your, what do you like? I, you know, what, what's your mental position on diet and exercise or the consideration of diet and exercise. And, and there's like, is it the New York times or New York mag has like a seven minute workout. And I think it's now on an app. And the idea, the other one that actually went through my entire friend group way back in the day was an app. I'll find it. I'm sure it still exists. It's called a hundred pushups. Oh, and the idea is it's an app that phase trains you to get to a hundred pushups in one set. Oh wow. Which is intense. Yeah, it is. Um, I think at my best I might've cracked 55 like, and this is elbows in. Oh sure. Proper, like a military style pushup. Um, maybe 55 and it was, there was not going to be another set of 55 for two or three days. Um, but the way it does it is you kind of turn the app on and you do as many as you can in one setting and then it puts you on a schedule. Oh, okay. And so every day you do, you do these three phases or these five phases where it kind of says like, let's say you did 22. Yeah. Then it has you do 17 and then 22 and then 16 and then 21 and then the next day you're up It edges you up. And the idea is if you stick with it, you do a hundred and there's a chin up one. Um, you know, chin ups and pull ups, it's, it's really hard to recommend because as, as easy as it is to buy one of those $30 chin up bars, which I have, you can really like improper form not only robs you of any of the benefits. Um, you can hurt yourself. Yeah. It's hard to hurt yourself with a pushup or a sit up or an air squat. Yeah. I think like air squats are really, really strong, especially in the, it's too little, just buy yourself a cheap kettlebell and hold it. Sure. and add a little bit of resistance. But I think there's a lot of options, especially for people who have 15 to 45 minutes at home. And I would include the shower time in that. You can find a pretty solid workout for 10 minutes. And you can find a really good one for, say, 35 to 40. And be back with your family, back at work. You can do this over your lunch break. I have lots of friends who used to work. They'd go to work, they had a normal day job, they'd go to work, and at lunch they would go to the gym.
Jason Heaton The one thing that I struggle with, and I've talked to you about this before, You know, there's all endurance and strength training, which is all well and good, but I'm terrible with flexibility. I'm very inflexible. And I think a lot of it is because, you know, most of us, let's face it, are sitting at a desk and sitting is about, I wouldn't say it's the worst thing you can do, but as far as for flexibility, it just, it sort of just cramps up or, or kind of distorts your, your hip flexors, your back, um, your legs. And, and I just don't do much about it. I never have, and it's a real goal of mine to, I'm not a big fan of yoga, but I would like to find some sort of a good, simple, again, 10 minutes for pushups before the shower, add on another five minutes for some stretching.
James I really like, there's a guy on YouTube, and I bet you I did this for well over a year, his name is Sean Veague.
Jason Heaton Oh yes, you've read about him, and his was good.
James His was fine, it's super practical, he's friendly, he's not using terms that are really problematic or difficult for someone to understand, He'll say some of the original terms of the poses, but it's mostly just do what he's doing. Yeah. And if you fall over, that's okay. You'll get stronger. Yeah. Um, I really like his stuff and he had classes that would be like seven minute wake up yoga, 20 minute yoga for hip flexibility, 30 minute power yoga, body shredded, you'll die sort of thing. And like, I'm not doing that kind of stuff, but just like your normal, um, the flow that's like downward dog. And then the, the one where you like scoop forward, And like, you just, I feel like I'm taller, a little bit taller, a little bit. And like, I have kind of tight shoulders and, uh, I'm also not very flexible. It was something that I attempted to work on more when I used to throw some weights around, because you can hurt yourself if you don't have some ring. I would say that I think largely what Jason and I are saying here, and we can get into the food thing if we want. I think mostly the food thing is like, you need to understand why diets fail. Um, it's about adherence rate. It's about not making it too hard for yourself.
Jason Heaton Um, and maybe even not considering it a diet, but just, how you eat. Just how you eat regularly. Just make it regular.
James And when I'm in a scenario that I can't control, like today with our lunch, I just won't eat. Yeah. I'm happier. I'm happier being hungry many times. I hate that feeling. Right around now, you know, it's 2.15 when we're recording this. I hate that sluggishness. I would rather be sharper now and then just be really hungry at four or five when dinner comes along at six or seven. And when I'm at home, I actually just eat like the most ridiculously simple stuff. I like arugula in a bowl, in a bowl with olive oil and lemon pepper on it. And I'll eat that for two meals, usually with a couple like, um, cured pepperoni sticks and avocados. Um, if I'm, if I'm feeling fancy, I'll make myself scrambled eggs. Like I don't like going to the grocery store and thinking about the 10 things that have to go into one meal. I don't cook, I don't bake, um, left to my own devices. I would eat bread and cheese forever. I just like, I like cheese a lot. Everybody likes bread. And the big thing for me is just trying to consider, like, if I really want this hamburger, how am I going to feel afterwards? And I'll eat a hamburger. My joke is every time I see an In-N-Out, I do a gentleman's triple, which is three double-double animal styles. But I only see In-N-Out two or three times a year, so it's not going to kill me. So, I mean, it's really how you approach the day-to-day, and I don't think calorie counting has proven to be that effective. I think understanding when you should be eating and how and how much and understanding that like as you get older that you know when I was 20 maybe I did need 3,000 or 3,500 calories a day. I don't. I just don't. I can function just fine on way less than that. If you're comfortable not eating that much read into intermittent fasting. Some people like it. Some people hate it. I like skipping meals because it means I didn't have to shop for that meal. It means I don't have to think about that meal. I don't have to consider I don't have
Jason Heaton I think I'm quite different in that respect. I tend to front load my days eating, so I like breakfast a lot. I like a decent sized lunch. I typically eat a much smaller dinner.
James Maybe that's smart, maybe going to bed with a full stomach I should phase out of at 30.
Jason Heaton And also I think my wife and I, Gushani, we're, I wouldn't say foodies, but we enjoy cooking and shopping and going to farmers markets and things like that. But I think we are both kind of of similar mind that we seek out quote unquote whole foods, not necessarily the store, but you know, foods that are, you know, not processed and fresh and locally grown, organic, et cetera. And then lately the thing I've been doing is for about the past six to seven weeks, I've, I've just skipped alcohol and I do that from time to time. Yeah.
James You like to phase in and out of it.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And this time was sort of the result. I went for a physical and the blood test showed that my liver enzymes were a little bit high, which the doctor said is typically a result of alcohol. And you know, I'm not someone who, you know, you know me, I don't drink a ton in the winter. Maybe there's a few, a couple of whiskeys a week, but it could just be the way my body processes it or whatever. So he said, you know, take a couple of months off and come back for a retest. So I'm kind of in the middle of that. And I remember I did this a few years ago. I think I stopped drinking any alcohol for six months. I lost 15 pounds. I felt better. I feel great. Yeah. I'm sleeping better. You look great. Um, you know, skin seems to look better. You just have more energy. Um, so you know, I'm not saying that's for everybody. Uh, I'm not going to comment on anyone's alcohol use cause I'm Lord knows I enjoy my, uh, my scotch.
James But so yeah, I mean, that's something that I think everybody has to find their own comfort zone for. And, uh, I would say that if you can, if you can lead a life where you don't miss it, don't drink. Yeah. I would miss it. I don't have that many vices. It used to be a lot more exercise, but I would miss it like I miss occasionally watching some dumb cartoons. I would miss it the same way I miss a Rick and Morty. It's not needed. If I didn't see another episode of Rick and Morty again, I would be okay, but I would miss it. Part of me would miss it. And I think it's realizing that everybody's going to have their own phase when it comes to that kind of stuff and just figure out the one that works for you. Don't think about it as a diet, as something where like, I'm on a diet now, I won't be at some point.
Unknown Yeah.
James Just that I'm on a methodology of eating that isn't going to kill me faster. Right. Would be, you know, enjoy some things, have cake on your birthday. Obviously, I love pizza. I'm not going to throw pizza away. Yeah. But maybe less.
Unknown Yeah.
James Especially as you get older. Yeah. So that's probably a good place to leave it. Yeah. I mean, I would hate to think that people thought that we sound preachy because my diet's a mess. When I travel, I do my best. And the workout thing's even worse. But I know I will get back to workout because I love it so much.
Jason Heaton And we're certainly not... So we're on your side. We're certainly not offering this episode as any sort of an advice program.
James It's just a topic that comes up a lot for us.
Jason Heaton It's just what we do. And I think a lot of people ask about these things. And I would love to hear other people's feedback on... Please, yeah.
James And if you feel you have broken the hotel workout, the remote workout scenario, please tell me what you figured out. Because I will give it a try. I will give it two months. and see if it's something that makes me happier. The stuff I do now is simple and it's fine and it maintains a certain level of, let's call it detrained ability. But yeah, I miss being able to know that literally at any time I could get off the couch and run 10 or 15 kilometers, I could do a fairly aggressive hour-long workout. Like that's all gone now. A five is very comfortable. I'm sure I could squeak out a really ugly 10. But I like that these things come and go. And you can get in shape and you can detrain and you can get in shape and you can detrain. I don't think it's... And it's kind of nice to know that you're at a lower level because you'll get something from a lesser... I look back at some of my notes from old workouts and I'm like, I couldn't touch this now. This is a different thing. But I think mostly what we're saying is, you know, we get questions about this. It's a big part of our lives is wanting to make sure that we have the health to maintain the sorts of these adventures and these abilities and being able to say yes to things that come up. whether that's a mountain or swim or a run or anything. And I think, uh, for me, it's, it's, it's a huge part of it is how I manage stress. Um, and, and I think that could, that, that speak, I would assume that speaks to a lot of people's mentality is just having that ability to burn off some sweat and some extra energy and sleep a little bit better and that kind of thing. So I don't feel too bad about devoting one episode in what's nearly a hundred, um, for, uh, for exercise and a little bit on diet. So if you really hated it, there probably won't be another one for some time. And if you'd like to send us an email, we're always around. If you want a sample workout or something, or if there's a link that we missed in the show notes to something that you found interesting, let us know. Otherwise, as always, thegreatnadoatgmail.com.
Jason Heaton Cool. How about some final notes? Yeah. Okay, I'll jump in first. My first one, actually my only one today, is a recommendation of a book by our good friend Zach Pina aka Dagbert on Instagram. Zach told me a while back about a book that he was reading that he thought I might be interested in and it's called In Oceans Deep. The author's name is Bill Striever. And so I had this trip to Whitefish to go diving up in Michigan and so I downloaded the audiobook, which I've become really fond of audiobooks lately just for driving and flights and things. I listened to most of it, I've got about a chapter to go, but it's really fantastic. Strever is, if I'm not mistaken, he was a commercial diver for a time. He's also a marine biologist, I believe, as well as a journalist. And so he really knows his stuff about what goes on under the surface of the sea. And so this book, he kind of dedicates each chapter to a different aspect of undersea exploration. So he starts out by talking about the descent of the Trieste, you know, the, the, the Bathysphere that Don Walsh and, and Picard took down back in 1960. He talks about diving in the hard suits, the history of saturation diving, um, kind of what decompression breaks down decompression sickness. He talks about, um, the chapter I'm currently on, he's talking about that sort of niche market of submersibles that are built for, you know, really rich guys.
James Um, one of them is based in Vancouver. I, I,
Jason Heaton Yeah. In fact, he visits that. He visits that.
James It's a Phil Newton. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I was supposed to go for a ride in that and, and the deal, like the setup with Nuvo had fallen apart and too bad. It looks like an absolute blast.
Jason Heaton Yeah. So it's a great, really wide ranging book, um, about anything that has to do with undersea exploration. And the audio book isn't read by the author. I'm not as keen on the guy who's reading, but the content is superb. And so I highly recommend In Oceans Deep. And thanks, Zach, for that recommendation.
James That's a great recommendation. And Zach's awesome. You should definitely be following him. Hit the show notes if you missed his Instagram handle, at Dagbert. Mine is a super easy one, but it's one that I get questions when people see my camera around my neck. It's a UV filter. So I don't wear, like with none of my cameras, do I use a lens cover or a lens hood or like a cap?
Unknown Yeah.
James I just find them annoying. They get in the way. You lose them. You take, you pop them off the camera, you put them in one of your pockets and then you can't find it, that sort of thing. Or it goes into a camera bag and you just kind of have them floating around. So especially like with the Leica, which has a guarded hood that screws on top of the cues, front filter threads. I use just a simple UV filter. So this is my very simple, like usually about $20. I bought the Gobi or Gobe ones on Amazon. The B&Ws I really like. I like all of their filters. Zeiss makes lovely filters, of course. I wouldn't spend a crazy amount on a UV filter. The idea is to just present a clean piece of glass in front of all that glass you paid for. But in the terrible scenario in which you bump it into something as you walk through a doorway or physically, you know, it takes an actual hit on the lens, you're going to break that UV and not the lens that hopefully not the lens that then requires a substantial repair and the loss of your camera and that sort of thing. For those of you out there who are shooting and would maybe like to step beyond having to deal with lens caps or those little ones on the string that dangle around, right, all the different options, go with a UV filter. They're cheap, they work really well. And as soon as I got my cue, our buddy Brett Curry had said, you know, if you want, you know, this is how I set it up. I run it with the guard and a UV and just forget that the complicated cap or any of that kind of thing that you then have to hold somewhere or put in a pocket. You know, I'm already managing sunglasses every time I want to take a picture. So that's my, that's my tip. UV filters for your camera. And yeah, that's episode 90 something. So thanks very much for listening. And as always, a huge thank you to Hodinkee for supporting the show. You can hit the show notes via hodinkee.com or the feed for more details. You can follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton and at J.E. Stacey, and you can follow the show at The Graynado. If you have any questions for us, please write TheGreyNado at gmail.com and subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. Music throughout a siesta by Jazzar via the free music archive.
Jason Heaton And we leave you with this quote from the cyclist, Greg Lamond, who said, it never gets easier. You just go faster.