Ep.258 Sam Wride Australian Army 8/9 RAR - PTI - Professional Buhurt Fighter

SPEAKER_00 1:36

It's time for the Zero Limits Podcast, hosted by Australian veterans. Chatting with high-charging humans with hectic stories from around the world, we'll give you the motivation to take on whatever life throws at you in the kick to complete any goal you set your mind to. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Zero Limits Listeners in Brisbane podcast with um he's kind of like Heath Ledger. What's that movie?

SPEAKER_06 2:13

The Nights David. That's actually super that's a massive call. That's a huge mental health a little bit better. Sam Ryder. How are you, mate?

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Good mate, how are you? Uh yeah, good. Sorry, I've uh introduced you a little bit early, but generally, um, yeah, 11 years in the Defence Force. Uh you spent uh a few years in uh 8-9 RAR. Yeah, 89 OE. Yep, and then uh moved into that PTI world. Oh yeah, uh, which is you know the best. Yeah, which is the PTI. Legs are still shaven, they're still clean, still clean. During your time in Defence Force deployment to Afghanistan 2015, which is part of that force protection element, which we'll talk about because uh again, you know, I I ran into you know, obviously went to the base that you're at uh as a contractor a few times, and I didn't understand too much what you guys were really doing out there, but uh we'll definitely talk about that. Beautiful. Now, a couple of weeks ago, me, Skojo, uh Little Chocolate, okay, the black man, the black man. We all come out to watch you do your boo heart stuff, yeah, yeah. Which opened our eyes to the violence.

SPEAKER_06 3:25

It's crazy once you see it in person, like you like you see clips and you're like, oh, that's pretty cool. But then you see it's like, oh, these cunts are bashing each other.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

That's it, that's it, you know. And obviously, my uh interpretation of what you were doing was from watching role models. Everyone says that watching fucking McLovin. Yeah, yeah, kiss my aunt, yeah. Yeah, yeah. You know, and that's what we thought. It was just like laping.

SPEAKER_04 3:45

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

And then we get there, and you've got, you know, you've got on the wall here, or put some photos up, you've got these fucking medieval whatever the hell they are. Pole axes, helberts, yeah, yeah, yeah. And these are the ones you use in battle.

SPEAKER_04 3:57

Yeah, these are the my two ones. I've uh broken six collarbones of that bad boy and a couple hands of that bad boy.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Yeah, yeah. And like like I said, when we watched it, we're just like, holy shit, this is this is violent. This is you know, I'm sure there's different scales of it that was more of a you know, this is a festival, so it's probably a little bit more relaxed. Yeah, that was that was quite relaxing. There's a couple of LAPAs actually that try and fight, yeah. They were, yeah. And they just get absolutely bashed. But there was one part where you're just like just clipping this dude with I think one of these big that one right there. Yep, that axe thing, and you've just whacked him in the back and then dropped it and then just fed him, yeah. Fed him a couple of fucking left rights. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he went good night. Yeah, yeah. And there was a couple of other ones, like you weren't in the the other teams that were fighting. Dude was just getting knocked out. One dude just got knocked and he just dropped.

SPEAKER_06 4:41

Yeah, that was my mate Colin. He's the I'm fighting with deadly doers with him, but yeah, punting someone in a full suit of armor with armor is like nearly more like violent than getting hit with a weapon because it's your whole body just going into it. In the head top, oh, it's crazy, yeah. The concussion world's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Yeah, yeah, man. I uh we'll talk about it later on. Yeah, you know, the rules and stuff. One thing we notice with the armor, there's like you know, there's there's obviously vulnerable points. Yeah, gaps, and I'm sure dudes get hit in those spots.

SPEAKER_06 5:09

You aim for them sometimes because you're it's not against the rules, so you can't yeah, yeah, it's called gapping.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

What do you mean? Well, if you see someone if you get hit in the arm with one of those, like in a it doesn't tickle, but like you're not gonna die.

SPEAKER_06 5:21

Well, you probably could. Yeah, with in the neck, maybe, but like usually like in the arms, like where your elbows are, like people aim for that. Like my friend Colin, who is my teammate, but we haven't always been teammates. I was fighting in Germany against him. He deliberately pins my arm to the list, which is the the fence we fight on, and hits me two times in the elbow with his one-handed axe and like disabled my arm. Um, so it's it's it's all part of the game. You sign up to join that, you don't complain. It's the ultimate combat sport, if you ask me. Yeah, because you're in a team like awesome for veterans, awesome for veterans because you're in a team environment, you work with you know your mate's strengths, and you just bash people and you just have a fucking flock, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Yeah, again, like when I saw it, I was like, fuck man, it makes the UFC look gay.

SPEAKER_06 6:04

Super, super. I didn't want to say it, but 100%.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Yeah, yeah, you could say it did. It honestly, UFC, the knickers pretty much roll around.

SPEAKER_06 6:11

Yeah, pillows within the hands.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Dressed as knights, just bashing each other with metal rods. It's wild, it's wild.

SPEAKER_05 6:16

It's addictive.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

We'll get into it, but uh, you know, before we do, like I said, extensive career within the defense force, moving out of the PTI world, obviously doing a bit of tactical gun stuff now, which we'll talk about in the other track as well. But before we do, mate, let's get back to the younger days growing up in a small town between Geelong and Ballarat.

SPEAKER_06 6:32

Oh yeah, Meredith.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Meredith.

SPEAKER_06 6:34

The dearth. No one's ever caught it that until then. But yes, I grew up on a uh essentially it was a hobby farm, uh, super fun merino. Uh my dad uh is an was an anethetist, mum's uh a nurse. So obviously, silver spoon up my ass. Didn't didn't the hardest time my life only got hard until I joined the army, really.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Who was the doctor? Your mum?

SPEAKER_06 6:53

My dad. Your dad, yeah, still is, still is.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

And an etherist, they they get paid pretty fucking good too.

SPEAKER_06 6:57

Yeah, he doesn't fuck around. Yeah, yeah. Like I tell you what, I had I had a game boy, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 7:02

When a game boy colour got out, yeah, I had one. Um yeah, so I grew up on a farm out there. That's when I started like shooting, hunting, and I guess that's where my love for I guess the military came from. So I was like, well, how can I do this as a job? Uh but then went to school in Geelong, uh, the Geelong College, so private school boy. Um, got bashed on the public school bus for having a blazer, which is fine. Did you? Yeah. But then I've been doing boxing and martial arts since I was like six, and I was told not to ever fight outside the ring. So I used to get bullied all the time, and then my dad's like, dude, you can you can fight back. And then when dad said I could fight back, and then it was fine. But yeah, got bullied a lot as a as a child, so uh, which is kind of shitty.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

So uh brothers and sisters, two older brothers.

SPEAKER_06 7:42

Uh I got my oldest brother Sean, he's like makes hospitals, engineer, super smart, and my other brother Matthew is a doctor who's actually on an uh anogarics doctor. So shout out to the Nogamarics Health Center.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

Are you the only one that joined the defense force?

SPEAKER_06 7:55

No, Matthew was a captain in the army. SSR, it doesn't really count. I literally had to put his uniform on him for his first day and iron it for him because no one told him how to do it. Yeah, right. Yeah, I told him to salute dudes with chevrons. So he's a captain. It's so good.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

So uh you know, in regard to your schooling life, yeah. Um, how'd you go at school?

SPEAKER_06 8:15

Uh I didn't try, I didn't do very well because my guess my fullback plan was the army.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

So yeah, so that was always your fallback.

SPEAKER_06 8:22

Always wanted to join the army, no matter like in my uh in my room at home to still to this day have newspaper cutouts of soldiers and like Afghan, Iraq, and everything like that. Just all I ever wanted to do um was be in the army. So school for me was fun. I just didn't really try. Um, but uh, or more so like I wouldn't say the most intelligent person, but also it comes back to like trying. But school was great. Um, yeah. I went at the younger days of school, I was bullied a lot, and then I think I went to senior school and then I didn't come to bully, but I protected the nerds because I am a nerd, so it was like a nice, nice change.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

Yeah, I figured that with the Warhammer downstairs.

SPEAKER_06 8:57

Warhammer's sick. If anyone's in the Warhammer, come hit me up. I'm ready. 2000 point aren't we? Let's do it.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Um, like you said, uh, you know, you didn't do too well at school. No, obviously you already had that plan within your head joining a defense force. Sorry, what years are you going to school? What year is this?

SPEAKER_06 9:14

Uh I was from the start till year twelve, so I finished school. What year? Uh I finished school in 2010. Oh, 2010. So you're probably in Iraq or something.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Uh yeah. Far out. 2010. How old are you? 35. 35. Yeah, 35. Yeah, yeah. What older or younger? Younger. Yeah, fuck yeah. It's a moisturizer.

SPEAKER_06 9:34

Yeah, it is. It's because I got a black missus, that's why, yeah. It rubs off of me. Black don't crack. Yeah. That's what they say, apparently.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Family history within defense, first spawning, any anything there?

SPEAKER_06 9:44

So my dad was a a contractor to the Air Force. So kind of not really, but um, this is actually a big one. My great uncle is great, he's uh Digger James. Is it? Yeah, so he I was digger James with two. Yeah, but he uh wing is go, yeah, exactly right. He um was a winger was he? No, he was uh he was a grunt, he was a grunt, got his leg blown off, and then uh couldn't be a grunt anymore. And he's like, you know what, I'm gonna be a doctor. So he started to be a doctor, um, and that they're like airlifting me into the field environment because he had no leg. And uh so he failed his medical exams time and time and time again because he's just a grunt, right? But he's like, I want to make a difference. So he passed his exams, became a doctor, and then he created Digga James Platoon because, like himself, he's like, if you're injured, there still needs to be a place for injured soldiers. So that's where it all comes from. Um, so essentially he's a linger, right? Yeah, bigger than the first linger ever. But no, he um he created the digger James Platoon and he sadly he passed away when I was in Afghan. Yeah, but I still um see uh Ani Barb, so his wife still kicking around in Brizzy, and I wear his tie on Anzac Day every day, uh every Anzac Day.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

So that's pretty cool. Crazy honestly, like everyone that's been through Kapuka. You'd know Digga James Plato. My granduncle Digga. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 11:00

A weapon blow, huge bloke. He was friends with the Queen, start his photos with him with the Queen. It's insane.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Surely his photos down at the Yeah, it has to be, yeah, yeah. Just malingering with him.

SPEAKER_06 11:09

Yeah, just ling it out with his one leg. I remember when I was younger, he had like his broke, like he'd look after us and he'd put his leg in the bath with us and it would float. Very funny. How did he lose his leg? It got blown off in um Tobruk, right? No, no, no, that's a lie. That's a lie. That's ages ago. That's a that's a long time ago. Um, Korea? Korea, yeah. Korea, I believe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but yeah, that's where you got blown off. He was a web, yeah, exactly. Look at you. You're like a Mongolian, aren't you? Kick me out. Yeah, get the out of here. Um I saw you looking at the rice coming in, had a ball of rice in there. Matt couldn't keep his hands off it.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

Oh mate, that's so cool. That is I'd say that is pretty cool. That is pretty cool. Did anyone link that? Like, did you know?

SPEAKER_06 11:52

No, I I I I said it a f I said it a few times and then someone got really mad that I didn't say anything. Someone's like, wait, your uncle great uncle's digger sent an email saying, Hey, my relations uh at your regiment would love to come down or something like that. And I think it got lost in the void. And I don't know, I think my OC or CEO, someone's like, Roddy, are you fucking kidding us right now? He was like asking permission to come on. He didn't ask me, so I had no idea what was going on. Uh and yeah, they gripped me up for not letting him know that my great uncle Digger. Yeah, which is upsetting. Like, I feel like uh when I was in, I didn't fully appreciate um what what a like amazing, like I always respected service and I always always a hero, but I never really appreciated it because kind of in my own head, you know, you're younger, you're in the army, think you're invincible. Um, but yeah, it's not until like these later years that I realized, like, geez, that's actually amazing to have that in the family, and yeah, it's very cool.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

So, like you said, uh you finished school in 2010, but during you know, obviously during this time, the the war on terror is going on. Yeah, T Malls happened, solis have happened, uh, Iraq, Afghan. Have you got any concept, you know, why you're in school, exactly what's going on? Because there's soldiers dying as well. So that's popping up on the news.

SPEAKER_06 12:58

I I had I honestly was pretty ignorant as a child, as you like, I guess it would come to the fact that I was like prep school boy, whatever, doing being a young kid. But yeah, I just knew that there was conflict going on, and I wanted I that's what I wanted to do. That's I and obviously when you're a young kid, you're like, yeah, war, yeah, shoot bad guys, whatever. Like, but that's what I was like the whole time. Um, it was that my biggest driving force was like newspaper cutouts of soldiers doing their job um and everything like that. So it's just yeah, it was my biggest driving force was just to get in. And it took me, I think, a year and a half for infantry to free up.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 13:34

It took me a while, like I waited a year and a half of just boxing and waiting tables.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

So yeah, yeah. It's crazy, like you say, you've cut out all these things and put posters up, and that's my era. Yeah. So there could have been the you know, there's the Craig Hamburger infamous photo with the Schmug in Iraq. Probably, yeah. Probably, you know, like that's wild, isn't it? And I've had them all on the podcast.

SPEAKER_06 13:54

Yeah, yeah. That that's what I'm saying. Like, you I think you invited me a year ago, maybe a year ago.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Fuck man, like I was just talking about that. So I sent you an email, you sent me an email 28 of February, 25.

SPEAKER_06 14:04

Yeah, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

So we first started talking, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 14:06

That's and then I remember thinking, like, dude, I'm not a door kicker. Like, I'm just some dude that shaved his legs and like told can't do push-ups. Um, and then yeah, so it's kind of like intimidating at the start, but like everyone's got their story, and you shouldn't like like that's what you said, and everyone's service is important, regardless if you're like flipping burgers or you're kicking in doors, like it all it all matters. So 100%.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

And you you know, look at your your social media accounts now and the engagement you get on those. And um I'm I'm I'd be guaranteed to say that someone has joined because of what you've put up on.

SPEAKER_06 14:38

Oh, 100%. I get I get messages all the time from um lads and ladettes saying I joined up because of your content. Um, like also, can you give me your help to get into the defense force, like fitness and everything like that? Um a lot of people saying like it's good to see someone positively talk about the defense force because a lot of people get out and they neg hard, like which is like it's very easy to do, but also pretty destructive in the same way. Like I feel like yes, the defense force isn't where I believe it should be right now, and just probably the same as you, but like we still need a defense force, we still need young, fit people. Um, and like talking negatively about it is terrible, is a terrible thing to do.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

100%.

SPEAKER_06 15:16

Um, we need young, strong, fit individuals in the army, and people like yourself that spruke in a positive way is is really gonna help the country in the long run.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

Yeah. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

It's on silent, it's on silent 2010, you finished school. What is like you said, it takes you a year and a bit to get into, you know, the again, the army at this stage is uh fucking flying. Yeah, Afghan's in full swing. So everyone's it's all over the news, but I'm sure. It's the same thing when I joined up in 2003. It was the same thing. I had to wait a year before I can get into the regular forces because that's when the Iraq war kicked off, that's when Afghan just kicked off. Now it's in full swing 2010. You've been told that you know, you've obviously got to wait. When do you first engage with uh 131901?

SPEAKER_06 16:11

Um I think it was you mean like get in or like give them a buzz?

SPEAKER_01 16:16

When you first yeah, reach out.

SPEAKER_06 16:18

Um I think I I called them like as soon as I had tried to get in a gap year. So I tried to get in a gap year while I was in year 12 still, but obviously couldn't get in. Called them up, they gave me a a year and a half wait time, and they called me up, and I remember I was in Nando's eating some chips after a boxing session. Like, hey, next week we got a spot for you to get in. So like in six days, like you need to go to Kapuka. I was like, all right, so this was April 2013, and I was like, I'm in. It was insane. So I got there, got the Kapuka.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

Um just before that, sorry, 2010, 2013. What are you doing?

SPEAKER_06 16:48

Bartend, you said bartending and boxing and fighting is all is all I'm doing. Like, I wasn't good at boxing.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Were you living at home still?

SPEAKER_06 16:53

Uh no, I moved out to Torquay. Yep. So on the coast with some mates, and then just living around his um my best mate, Santal Chapote, his dad, Domi Chipotti. I don't know if you've been to Geelong. You know Lammies? I've been to Geelong, but no Lammi's and the edge, they're like bars. His dad owns them. Great establishments, by the way. That's where you worked. Yeah, yeah. I worked in those places and just just literally just enjoyed life because I knew I wasn't waiting, I was just waiting for the call. Uh, and so yeah, just boxed, trained, and worked in bars. So just waiting for the call-ups, yeah, yeah, yeah. Not a not a bad life to have, you know.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

2013 comes around, you get the call-up, you pass all your cytome testing, medical, all that jazz. Uh, you go to enlistment day and then straight from there, straight down to Kapuka. Yeah, or straight up to Kapuka. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 17:34

Insane. It was the best idea.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

How was it? Like, run me through it again. Everyone's got their own experiences. You know, I've had some of the most battle-hardened veterans on this podcast, and one or two of them struggled at Kapuka. They're like, I hated it. Yeah, it was, you know, the separation from family, your phone, like especially like being my age.

SPEAKER_06 17:50

Like, I think the first night, I was like, I was like, what the fuck have I done? Like, this is not what I expected to be. Like, they go and you shave your head, you're in a line, you're marching around like a fool in your civvies on the trying to do like fucking the basic square gating everywhere, getting yelled at. And then I remember thinking, How do I get out of this? The first night I was like, I can I gotta roll my ankle. You know, when you do a really long stomp and then you see a pothole, I was like, dude, it'd be so easy. That'd be so easy for me to step in that hole and I could just finish this right now. Um, I was like that on the first night of Kafuka. I was like, How do I get out? This is fucked. And I remember that I think you get a phone call the first night. I think you get one phone call just to let you know your family that you're there and you're okay. And I remember my mum just asking me, Are you okay? And I nearly cried. Because it was just it was just straight out. They were yelling at you straight up. It was crazy. Um, I don't know what it's like now, but I remember my mum just saying, Are you okay? And I just nearly cried. I'm like, Yeah, I'm fine, I'm a fucking weapon, but not fun. Just overwhelmed. I think it was overwhelmed, it was crazy. And then the first night you're giving you bunk and your battle buddy, and you just like like yeah, see you in the morning with your sheets over your shoulder. Yeah, and you're just sitting and staring at the ceiling like this can't be what my next fucking 10 years is like, surely. And it's not. It's definitely not, it's definitely not, yeah. It's definitely not.

SPEAKER_01 19:05

And how how long is the Kapuka then?

SPEAKER_06 19:07

It was 80 days, 80-day Kapuka. Oh, 80 days, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Shit.

SPEAKER_06 19:10

Yeah, but they didn't have because then they got pistol and grenade now at Kapuka. Do they? I think so, yeah. Because we we just did minimize dire.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Uh, but yeah, so it was 80 days uh and then on to single. So just uh through that 80 days, how'd you find everything else? How'd you find the you know the fundamentals of becoming soldier, uh, you know, the firearm side of things and just anything fitness, obviously you're already fit. Yeah, boxing.

SPEAKER_06 19:34

I um I found it pretty easy to be honest with you. Like I'm quite a people person, so I got along with the lads real easy. Real easy, got a got a strong friendship group straight away. Fitness was pissed, like um beep test. I think you do your peep test and then you do 2.4. So didn't struggle with that. Um the classes was what struggled with me because I've I struggled to sit down. Um and I was like, God, you just do death by a PowerPoint. Like, don't do this, don't lick batteries.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

As in it wasn't uh computing, yeah. I was like, oh which is wild because you come from a very smart family, it seems.

SPEAKER_06 20:04

Yeah, no, yeah. My yeah, but my dad's the most proud of me. All right. Fuck you, Sean and Matt. Fuck you. Um, but yeah, it it kind of was very confusing. I'm like, when am I gonna start shooting guns and crawling around? Little I didn't know that comes very quickly. Singer, yeah, that comes very quickly. Yeah, but um, yeah, no, Capuca, I I honestly did like it. Um, after the first initial shock of the first week or two, yeah. Um, you find a rhythm and then like you kind of think about nothing else, which is weird. A lot of people ask me, like, what platoon were you in? Like, what were like alpha? And I remember going through, I didn't even know there were other platoons that existed. I didn't think about anything. I didn't know I was an alpha platoon or alpha company, I didn't know any of that. But people ask me all these questions. I was like, I was so like tunnel visioned on what I was doing. I don't my blinkers are on, I had no idea what was going around. Yeah, which is crazy. Like, I can't even remember seeing other platoons at Kapuka.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

No, no, no. I think you could see it. I can I can picture it now. You can see, you know, like gold tabs walking around like, oh fucking. They're just killers, they're just about to march out, yeah. Killers, yeah, killers. They're ready for war. Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, no, I totally get it. So you spend that 80 days down there. How many infantry guys? You got a few infantry guys?

SPEAKER_06 21:14

We had a um full platoon of direct entry commandos and um infantry and engineers, so full stag platoons, all dudes, yeah. And what about your section commanders? Were they infantry? We had Cav, well, he's a Corporal Keegan. I think he was he's a warrant officer now, anyway. Adam Keegan, if you had that, you're a legend. He was he was Cav and he was actually a fucking weapon. He was a good dude. And then I think he had a truckie, he was a bit loose, he was a bit weird, cunt, and then a bombardier as well.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

A corporal.

SPEAKER_06 21:41

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bomber corporal. Bombardier, yeah, bombard all. Uh, and then yeah, I think that's we had a lot of that was our setup. So I still was confused about why I don't call him corporal. It's like, look at my hat badge. It's like, yeah, it looks like every other fucking hat bad. You're in the army, aren't you? Yeah, it's corporal. Yeah, um, so yeah, that that was pretty much his setup, but yeah, had a full stag platoon, which is great.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

Yeah, yeah. From there, you obviously all your infantry boys jump on a bus, head to singleton, mate. How is that again? This is where it changes from the fundamentals of becoming an Australian soldier, the bullshit. Yeah, now you're focusing on infantry tactics and all the bigger guns. Yeah, you think you're the hardest blow kicking around, and like mind, it's just like-minded boys.

SPEAKER_06 22:24

And it 100% is that, and it it was the single was the best. Singo was the best. You just run around shooting leopard. It was hard, don't get me wrong, there's times where I'm like, fuck, this is this is hard. Um, but you get like shredded, you're fit, you know what you're doing, your drills become amazing. Um, and there's no question in your mind that you want to be a soldier at that point. Like, by that time, if you've done your first two weeks of single, there's already people going to like back squatting, they don't want to be there. But then the majority of like 90% of the boys are like, This is what I want to do, which is fucking sick.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

J just quickly on the mindset now. Again, I joined at a time where Gee what everything was going on. If you did not get a deployment when I was in, yeah, there's something wrong with you. You were in Dickie James. Yeah, yeah. You had no you had no leg we have.

SPEAKER_06 23:08

Hang on my old uncle.

unknown 23:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

You know what I mean? So it what was the mindset like for you boys knowing that Afghan was winding up? Yeah. You know, for more on the combat operational side, uh, and not too much was going on.

SPEAKER_06 23:21

Well, I think when I I was at Singo. I think I was told that all the deployments are drying up. So I was a bit upset. I was like, fuck, like this sucks. I wanted to do it. And then I didn't really think about outside of Singo until I left. But I remember there was one time where we're doing, I think it was Urban Ops. We're doing Urban Ops where you take like a shipping container, village. And they're like, if you walk through like a building like this, you're gonna get your face is gonna get fucking blown. I feel like holy shit. I remember one time walking through clearing a building like the mad dog was my BT BFA on, and I walked in and someone like the enemy shot me right next to my face and like shook my world. It's like bro, that's me done. That's my ticket stamped. Like, and this is just training, I understand this is just training. But like I didn't check that corner, I just walked into a room and some guy just pulled the trigger in my face. And that was a big shock. That's when I was like, oh, this isn't like real a game anymore. Like, this isn't like it and I was marching out in two weeks. I was like, this, like I could potentially get shot.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

There's no respawn.

SPEAKER_06 24:17

Yeah, there's no respawn. Like, I know I know it was a blank, I get it was a blank, like, but I have severe PTSD from that night. Share that to Vetcom. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Vetcom, actually, really good uh veteran claims company if you hit them up. Um we'll talk about that in the later. Yeah, we'll talk about you later anyway. Zach, you Zach, you're a pussy. Um but yeah, so it wasn't really like on my forefront of my mind of actually getting a diploma. I think by that time it wasn't a reality for me, which was kind of disheartening, but also like what do I do then? Do I just keep training hard? Do I want to go SF? Like, what do I want to do? Um but yeah, that was the majority of the thing. I didn't even think I was gonna get a trip.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

With the the uh section commanders, obviously they're all you know, they're corporals and sergeants, yeah, and they're all Afghan Iraq vets. So you're getting are they feeding you guys stories?

SPEAKER_06 25:09

They were feeding some moud warriors, like, and it was like genus all up. Like you're out in your pit and they're like, Yeah, mate, I fucking went through this door. I didn't shoot some, but I shot a fucking dog. Like, oh hell yeah. Hell yeah, fuck that dog, dude.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

Yeah, um, fuck those dogs. Yeah, I shot a couple and fuck man. One I shot like nine times and it was still barking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was wild. But he was in 556. 5'5, yeah. And it was massive. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the craziest thing is that this there was a dude right next to it holding a baby, and I've come around the corner and it just charged me, and I had to do it. It was like, and my yeah, my second comment was like, bro, that was sick shooting.

SPEAKER_06 25:49

Yeah, that was, yeah, that was like great drills.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

You didn't kill the child or or that fucking dad.

SPEAKER_06 25:52

Yeah, commendation, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

And they're like, Oh, you killed dog, kill dog, $500. No, no, yeah, that's a free dog. Talk to the boss, but like I said, you know, all your uh instructors down there are Afghan, Iraq, feds. So the training, you know, I spoke about this before on our podcast where again go back to my my my time in the defense force going through training, all our stuff was relevant off pretty much what we from Vietnam. Yeah, yeah. So it was very, you know, Timo was a new thing. Yeah, so you know, all those TTPs weren't transitioning to the to the training world, whereas by the time you get in, everything has been established off, like you said, dudes that have actually pied around a corner or thrown a grenade or got into a contact and they understand what you know all that stuff which is implemented in that training, and then you guys get some of the best best training out there.

SPEAKER_06 26:44

Honestly, like you saying that makes me think back on that is like I'm very blessed to go through that time because I am thinking about my instructors, they're telling me like, don't do that, like like roll your fucking ammunition up like that. It's like, nah, you need to dry your weapon out, it's too dusty, like it's too wet for like you know, like all these little tips that now I take on to like even just going hunting, you know what I mean? Which is crazy. Um, it was awesome training, like it honestly. I that's why I say I loved Singo because it was so pertinent to what was going on in the global sphere right then.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Yeah, 100%. Now um you finish Singo, yeah, you get your preferences to which battalions you want to go to. Yeah. What do you think about it?

SPEAKER_06 27:24

I at the time I didn't even know what a battalion was. Like, like I didn't know what eight nine did, I didn't know a one or two, I didn't know any of that. Like I didn't I didn't know three um theories. I actually got a joke for you that you may know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here we go. But I was gonna say this at the start, but I'm gonna do it now. Just a little icebreaker. What does um COVID, and I'll get you to answer this because I know you know the answer to this. What does COVID and three RER have in common? You could say it. They're both not. I'm not gonna say they're both not airborne. Anyway, um, I lost where I was going with that. But anyway, yeah, no, I uh I chose I I I specifically chose my battalion like a rookie I was.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

But yeah, well it actually doesn't count for me because I've got my wings.

SPEAKER_06 28:07

Yeah, yeah. Remember, I did that on your pre-workout on your and you're like, I hope you joke. Oh, I was supposed to do that at the very start, but I got carried away. I'm glad it sounds a little Easter egg. Anyway, but yeah, chose purely for location, um, because I didn't know the difference between battalions. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

Sorry, 89's in Brisbane, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 28:28

890 in Brizzy, yeah, 890E. And um yeah, so I picked 89, uh, just because um I think it was just I was worried about a social life, I think, because I had like what, six months of training and I was all army, army, army. And I was like, you know what, I'd like to see girls for one, like for maybe a weekend. That'd be great.

SPEAKER_01 28:45

In Brisbane.

SPEAKER_06 28:46

Yeah, in Brizzy, yeah. So yeah, picked the 8-9 purely because of location. I'm very glad I did because they were they're full, they were fully motorised uh at the time. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

Yeah, yep. How many blokes uh go with you? Uh I think it was Was there any other uh batons?

SPEAKER_06 29:00

One one one REI and Townsville, yeah. Yeah, Townsville and Brizzy were the only two we got to pick from. Uh but they got the one got their trip to Afghan first. So then a lot of the boys were like, fuck.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

Should have gone to one.

SPEAKER_06 29:11

Should have gone to one. Yeah. Um, but yeah, like half and half, I believe, where were they? So some of my real close mates, we all went to Brizzy and then the other boys went to one. It was pretty easy. We just went around the room and said, You want to hang out with your boys? Like, yeah, let's just go our separate ways. Yeah, yeah. And then the direct entry guys, they all went to the direct entry.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

Yeah. Yep. From there, you go to Brisbane, like you said. How was it marching into the units?

SPEAKER_06 29:34

Uh okay. I as well as you get you get beret at uh no, because we didn't get a beret at Singer. We just rolled because I think that's at the time where they like banned them.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

That's not because of the sun safety.

SPEAKER_06 29:45

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

Who would have thought fucking the military dumb? But uh don't wear a beret because you might get sunburned, but go to war and get blown up and lose a leg.

SPEAKER_06 29:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But don't wear that body armor, you know what I mean? Like it's too expensive. Yeah, it's mad. Um, yeah, no, so we had slouches uh rocked in. Uh obviously you you walk past all the companies at 8.9, they all just call you a lid and stuff like that, which is great. Um, but I think what was my first my first week in battalion. I forget who it was, so if anyone's listening to this podcast, if it was you, please let me know. Someone called me, I'm gonna use a bad word here, so sorry, Hesto. Um, someone called me a lid faggot, right? And I was like, hey mate, you can call me a lid all you want, but don't call me the faggot, you know? It's the worst thing in the world at that time was to be gay, right? Sorry, Hesto, it's not, it's great, it's fine. Love you. Um so I was like, you can call me, you can call me that, you can't call me faggot. And he's like, Well, guess what? You are. I was like, if you call me that one more time, I'm gonna have I'm gonna fight ya. And then my mate was like, Don't fight Riley, he's fucking thrown some hands before. He's like, No, he's a little lid. So what happened was I fuck, I wish I knew who this was. So we had to punch on a little little tussle wasn't too bad. Chinned him, put him on the ground, and then Sergeant Payne, I remember, came out. He's like, What the fuck's going on here? He's like, Oh, well, thingo called Riley a lid faggot, and then Riley didn't like it, so we hit him, and he was a seco at the time. The guy I was fighting was a seco, and then I was like, I'm gonna get charged. Or so I've seen movies where people hit the rank above them, they're screwed. Um, and then the sergeant comes through and goes, Well, you're supposed to be an infantry corporal and you got beaten by a lid, so you got extra duties, right? You can have the rest of the day off. I was like, Oh, this army's sick. The army's great, dude. So yeah, it was crazy. It was I was a few. Yeah, whoever it was, yeah. Uh like it wasn't like a massive like haymaker or anything, it was a bit of a scuffle. Like, um, like in my mind, I'd like backflipped him and like haymaker, but probably just like a jumper punch or something. Like, I don't know. Sorry, something super, super lame. Um, but yeah, I was I got in there and then I kind of was the guy that would like that could fight, right? So it was quite, it was easy. If you could fight in the army, you kind of had like a real easy time. Um, so yeah, pretty I loved it. I got the battalion, got discuffles all the time. Everyone's like, Right he's a short cunt, but he can punch on, so let's be friends with him, which is great. And I'm a gobby cunt too, so I had like a really good time making like a lot more friends. So yeah, big boys club, as you know, big boys club.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

So you just just on that, like you move into the Heath Ledger stuff down the track. Yeah, yeah. Like, are you even thinking about that stuff then? No, no, not even not even think.

SPEAKER_06 32:17

I didn't didn't even think about it. I like I loved fighting and stuff, but I I essentially stopped training in like boxing or MMA since when I joined. So I stopped all my training. Um, because you're just exhausted, you know, it's like on the field all the time. Um but yeah, didn't had no idea that I wanted to be a full-blown knight. I had no idea.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

2000, was that 13 or 13? That was 13, 13.

SPEAKER_06 32:43

At the end of 13.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

So end of 13, you get to the battalion. Obviously, you got to do uh guard duty over Christmas. Yeah, I did.

SPEAKER_06 32:49

I did do all the lids out there. Two in the row, two in a row. Oh, did yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I I think I bought one of the boys paid me to do his on at Christmas. I was like, sweet. Yeah, yeah. Good day, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:58

I remember those days. Going right was like 300 bucks, I think, for a normal one, and then Christmas was up to about a grand. A grand.

SPEAKER_06 33:05

I think I got a grand for it. Yeah, it was sweet. I was like, yeah, I'll give them my family doesn't like me anyway. So that's great, that's great. That's a joke, Mum. I know you've got it. They're all smart. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. They're all so we bought the place and fired the bitch.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

Uh 2014, we move into that year. Is there any talk of any deployments? Obviously, again, like the the the combat side of um the military has completely it's I think they've withdrawn by this stage, it's just the force elements working throughout Kabul, Kenha, etc. Is there any talk of any deployments? Because like you said, one RER is already deployed.

SPEAKER_06 33:39

Yeah, so there was there was, I think we thought one RER got the last trip. We thought was it, but if you're in 8-9 RER in 2014, you know if you're in Bravo Company, you'll go on field for the next eight months. We had uh Don Baker, if you're listening, fuck you. He made us go field all the time. If we weren't going field, we were on the mountain, you know, digging in. Um we were outfield relentlessly. Um, so thinking about deployment, I just I just I think I was too fried from being outfield all the time. Like we did a CADA, we did um just like eight weeks, I think it was like a 16-week X or eight-week X or something ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

There's so many training areas here in Queens End. Yeah, we did white water, shoulder water, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 34:21

And obviously towns were not too far away. It was just back to back to back. 2014 was a m is a massive year. Like I saw my family maybe once that year, um, but yeah, didn't didn't even think about anything, and then then we got the Iraq. So the very first Iraq um trip came up.

SPEAKER_01 34:39

14, 15, yeah, 2014, I think. Because ISIS have kicked off.

SPEAKER_06 34:43

Yeah, so the very first one kicked off, and they're like, Yeah, 8-9, you got it. And we're like, fuck yeah, I'm gonna Iraq, that's sick. I was on a vehicle crew commander's course at the time, and they're like, nah, you can't go, you've got to do your crew's course. I was like, What? Why can't I do that? So I was absolutely shattered. But then somehow 8-9 picked up the Afghan troops as well. So Afghan was 8-9 was going to Taji and Afghan. Um, so then little did I know that we were doing that crew commanders course to be crew commanders in Afghan. So I was stoked. I was happy about that, and that's when it kind of all set in. And I was like, fuck, finally, like my dream has come true that I haven't been thinking about the last like eight months. So when I got in the army, I was right 2013, 2000, and then we got deployed in 2015. So two years getting in and then deployed, looking back on it was quite quick, like two years and then you're in a war, like a war zone, quote, quote unquote. Um, yeah, it was insane.

SPEAKER_01 35:36

So let's let's let's talk about this deployment again. Um, like I said, as a contractor, I you know, I've uh run into the force protection elements both the at Taji and uh at Cargo. So mate, run me through this, you know, what are you doing? Is there a a pre-deployment?

SPEAKER_06 35:51

So we did um uh pre-deployment on inaugural barracks, um, which was just like doing vehicle road moves, um vehicle checkpoints, whatnot, doing that living out of like candacs and stuff that are there, um, which was I think I think it was like a six-week maybe, six-week um exercise. No, that's a lie. It would have been like a three-week X all on base. And this is the time where I nearly lost the trip to Afghan because I uh got detained. Uh I went to military prison, I got charged twice for prejudicial conduct. So they took what did you do? It was a funny story. I won't say names, but um one of the guys that went to Taji posted up a video of him with his rifle up by his neck. Thought he was a mad dog. Um, and then someone made a family member made a video of him. It looked like he passed away. Had that poor walker, I will see you again. So I was like, what the fuck? He's like, he was literally in Dubai shopping at the time. So me and the boys wrote on that post, oh, rest in peace, blah blah blah, you're a mad dog kind of thing. And the mum's like, what happened? What happened to him? Like, oh nothing. He's in Dubai right now, like nothing. And then she sent screenshots into the guard room saying that we're joking about her passed away son. And looking back on it, I understand. I get it, because like if you have other soldiers commenting on a soldier's post saying rest in peace, like not the greatest look, right? I get it it was a joke, but yeah, anyway. So then his family started messaging me, calling me a shit cunt, my mom's a slart. You don't deserve to wear the uniform, like fully feeding me. Um, and I was like, holy shit. And then my mate Benjamin Viana uh wrote back on my phone saying, 'Shut the fuck up, you dumb slart. You don't know what we actually do. It's just we're just joking around.' So they screenshotted that one message and sent it to the guard room as well. So when I got marched up for my charge, I was in my polys, and they're like, Did you write this? Uh rest in peace. Like, yeah, I did. It was a joke, didn't mean to. It's like, okay, cool. And then, because it was on a projector, and then another slide came up with that message. It's like, did you write that? And I was like, shut the fuck up. It was all Ben Rain. I was like, fuck. And you know, snitches get stitches. So I was like, Yeah, I wrote it. So I got 14 days rompers and then like four days detention in the cells, and I nearly lost my trip. But uh, yeah, it would have been a very expensive. And all they charge you was was two pr two counts of prejudicial conduct.

SPEAKER_01 38:07

Yeah, that's and that's for the listener out there, that's the throwaway charge. If they can't charge you for anything, yeah, prege.

SPEAKER_06 38:13

I've got it, I got it. Which is fine, but uh yeah, nearly lost it was very expensive. Facebook comment because it would have lost some nice deployment money and like obviously a trip of a lifetime.

SPEAKER_01 38:20

Yeah, I'm just looking up at this uh plaque that uh the PDI guys who made it, Josh Laporta. Josh. Yeah, um he's a he's an X2CR. Just letting you know that enlisted has an L in it.

SPEAKER_04 38:34

It's riddled. It's more than that. It's so good.

SPEAKER_01 38:37

It's a riddle that's really so good. It's so good that it's almost fake.

SPEAKER_06 38:41

I know, yeah, it's so good. It's like I wasn't that he's like, oh no, I'm reprinting it. It's like, do not reprint it, it's perfect the way it is. Yeah, one job. Perfect the way it is, one job. And he took that much time off work to make that for me, too.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

But I love it how it says notable achievements and that's it. So I can print it. Oh shit. So you almost what what they say about that? Were they threatening things?

SPEAKER_06 39:02

I think I think I was very lucky as I was a crew commander at the time, and they were kind of in short demand. They're like, all right, righty, fuck, sort it out. It's like too easy. But then I made the mistake of while I was being in the cells to order pizza through a mate to bring it to the cells, and I didn't know that one of the sending orders is you have to eat on base at the at the mess. So yeah, I nearly got another like charge from ordering a pizza. So I was like, if can you just give the pizza to the guard room guys and act like I didn't do it? And they're like, Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:30

It's restriction of privileges. I didn't know. I didn't know you can't have pizza.

SPEAKER_06 39:34

I was like, I Barnsie, can you give me pizza? Just throw in the throw in the cells. Or I think I was sleeping in the garden at the time because when you rompers, you gotta sleep in your hoodie. Yeah, so I was in the garden, I was like, just throw in the garden, I'll pick it up. But yeah, not a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 39:47

And it's again, just for the listeners, restriction of privilege uh privileges, ROPs, they call it. You can't have anything that is it comfort, say anything. Can't even have uh, you know, we're drinking Coke Zero chemical. Yeah, you're sleeping definitely no pizza.

SPEAKER_06 40:03

No, yeah, I didn't know. Like I I understood what Bromps was, but I didn't know that was no pizza. But they um so we had every morning at 5 a.m. drill with 30 kilo pack on for an hour every morning and evening, and then when you weren't at work, so you go to work as normal, but before and after work, you're doing extra duties, sweeping rocks, you know, painting the grass or whatever you want to do um until 10 p.m. every night. So you start at 5 a.m. drill at 5 a.m. bed at 10 in the garden. In the garden bedroom. Yeah, yeah, I've done it. Yeah, it's great. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 40:35

What'd you do? Um we went down for a mortars uh that's all you need to say. Yeah, mortars mortars is played down in in um Pacapunio. Oh yeah. We weren't even there for two hours, and that Sega's like, whatever you do, just don't get too drunk. Key words. Yeah, don't get too drunk. So we got too drunk within like two or three hours, destroyed this common room with the fire extinguisher. Just just destroyed it. We thought it was a good idea to take our boots off and put footprints all over the walls. Like, this all confuse the MPs. Yeah, they'll have no idea. Long story short, everyone went off and I punched someone and oh the classic story. Well, we had to start to do the more exercise and then I got escorted by the MPs back to Holesworthy. Oh, really? Yeah, you went to Holesworthy. I was from I was in Hollsworth. Oh, sorry, sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, I thought you went to um yeah, so that was uh the worst part is losing money. Yeah, because you don't get much anyway. Yeah, exactly. Fuck. Or you're weak.

SPEAKER_06 41:34

Well, they call you S U S, soldier under sentence.

SPEAKER_01 41:36

Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 41:37

That's what they called me. And then the like, yeah, soldier, like when I was in the actual sales wearing an orange jumpsuit, they had to take orange jumpsuit. I was in a full orange jumpsuit, they took the shoelaces out of their boots, and I kid you not, so I was going on a date that night because I thought I was just gonna get like a slap on the wrist. I didn't know I was going to the cells. I was going on the date that night, I fully shaved my pubes. Sorry, I was going into that, and I thought I was killing it. I was like, Yeah, I shave my pubes, going on a date, two things that we hate dick. Went to the cells. The our RP sergeant's like, yeah, take off your clothes, like and take off your underwear because they have to inspect you for, I guess, shanks or shivs or something.

SPEAKER_01 42:08

Under your four.

SPEAKER_06 42:08

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, I was like, I didn't know I was coming here. How was I supposed to smuggle something in? And then um, and then he's like, because I was fully shaven, looking good, and he's like, all right, and he's reading from a tablet, or Peter Saber's like, now run your fingers through your pubic hair, and because I hadn't done it so I just slapped my belly, and he's like, do not ever do that again. I was like, I don't know what to do then. I gotta run my fingers through this clean boy, but um, yeah, that was a funny time.

SPEAKER_01 42:36

Interesting.

SPEAKER_06 42:36

I fully checked my butthole as well, like made me cough, bend over and cough. I kid you not, I kid you not.

SPEAKER_01 42:41

What's going on? Was there any other people in?

SPEAKER_06 42:43

Yeah, they had to witness in there. Yeah, but was there any other any other prison prisoners?

SPEAKER_01 42:47

No, that quite.

SPEAKER_06 42:59

So you're a fit, cunt, 45 minute burpees gone. I was like, oh fuck. It was insane. It was a fucking crazy time.

SPEAKER_01 43:06

That's crazy. Like you said, uh, you've done done your time in prison. Yeah, just a couple of teardrops. H I run H depression now. Done the pre-deployments. So you're back on the pre-depth, obviously, you do pre-deployment and eventually you guys deploy, mate. Run me through again. This is you know, this is what you joined for.

SPEAKER_06 43:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

You think it's gonna be all about warfare?

SPEAKER_06 43:27

I thought I was gonna I thought I was about to start Drax and Fools. You know, I thought I was in the high ready at all times. I was on the plane high-ready. I had 31 names in my gat. I was ready to go, right? Top up drill, done.

SPEAKER_01 43:38

You get over how are you guys getting over there? I don't see the process these days.

SPEAKER_06 43:42

We threw Civier to um Qatar. Yeah. No, AMAB. AMAB. So Civier Air to AMA.

SPEAKER_01 43:49

Um UAE.

SPEAKER_06 43:49

Yeah, yeah, UAE. And then um then from uh AMAB to Afghan is by Air Force B jumbo. Um, but yeah, fucking insane. Coolest time. We did our pre- we did like a little pre-deployment in AMAB with some medical dudes, and you'd be doing like running drills with your body armor on. Well, that's where you get issued your body armor, I got to put it all together. You spent about a week there, yeah, about a week there. Uh, had the wraps at the mess there, insane.

SPEAKER_01 44:15

I'm sure you would have had them, but they're fucking never went there.

SPEAKER_06 44:18

Someone hit me up and said try the wraps, and they were insane. Anyway, that's uh one of the things I remember wraps. And uh that's how insane my life was at the time. Uh, and then yeah, did the uh little pre-deployment on medicals. I think it was just like slap a tourniquet on us, high and tight. And then uh yeah, then went landed in country. And the weirdest thing was we we land in and um into Kaya, I think that's the airport kaya, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:43

Yeah, uh Hamid Kazoo International, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 44:46

Yeah, and then um we get there, we get off the plane, and I remember one of my Secos, his name's Shammy, fucking classic, he asked if we could use white light, like this was in the city with white. He's like, We're using red light or white light, and I don't know. I just thought that was hilarious. Um, Shamie, if you're there, classic. It was a full city, it was full city, and he asked if we could use white light. Um and a and a international airport, yeah, yeah. Like we're in a building with lights.

SPEAKER_01 45:11

And for the listeners, like if for HK, Hamid's like uh Karzai International Airport, one side is obviously the the Civi airport, Emirates is flying in, and obviously the other side is where all the military is.

SPEAKER_06 45:23

Yeah, yeah. Um yeah, so we flew in there, got our kit ready, and we didn't have any our weapons, so our pistols and our rifles were at Camp Cargo. So we had no GAT or anything, which was which was insane. Oh no, sorry, I take that back. We had our rifle, we didn't have a pistol. Um, and then you had to walk around the base when you get cargo with your pistol, but we didn't have that for like a week because of the hotel. So we had to walk around with our weapons on our back. I don't know why I brought that up. I just thought I'd bring Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:50

So yeah, so obviously from Hkay, you gotta um ship it. Transit over to in bushmasters, they pick you up with the the outgoing um, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 45:59

The company I think it was one, I think it could have been one RR. Um they picked us up, and then because I was a vehicle commander, then we had to do like road moves with them for like a a week.

SPEAKER_01 46:07

Um super patrols.

SPEAKER_06 46:08

Yeah, no super patrols. Very cool, very cool stuff, throwing frozen water bottles at the Jundis um and the kids. Yeah, which was great. This was a fun time. Uh pen flares were a legal or banned from pen flares, apparently.

SPEAKER_01 46:19

Shooting them too much.

SPEAKER_06 46:20

Uh we didn't we didn't get to shoot one because the guys before us were just absolute draxing kids with them.

SPEAKER_01 46:25

Yeah, that's what I was doing.

SPEAKER_06 46:27

They're so sick.

SPEAKER_01 46:28

It was like a fucking, I was like, like a laser beam.

SPEAKER_06 46:31

Yeah, it's like a Jedi.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

Passing spells, yeah. Yeah, you're essentially doing booha at that time. Yeah, uh, yeah, right. So you get you get out to Camp Cargamate. Just explain to me like how how are you feeling again? You know, you're cruising through the streets, it's totally different. Like it's such a different percent. You uh you can't experience it unless you've obviously been there, but you know, coming from Australia and Brisbane, beautiful and clean, and the smells are different when you get to you know places like that. And it's the the driving out there, if you can drive through the streets of Kabul, you're a weapon, you're a weapon.

SPEAKER_06 47:04

Yeah, 100%. Well, yeah, it was a shock too because we got in with our road movie was at night, and I was in a bushy, I was in the backseat, and you just see headlights come towards you, and all you hear about all your training's been VBIDs hit another convoy, boom, boom, boom, and then it got to a point we're driving around that I was like clinching up to the side because I assumed that every car was a VBID, so I was like clinching up the whole time, which was crazy. But you get there, there's there's rubble everywhere, it smells like shit. Um, there's like dead dogs on the side of the road, sometimes there's bodies on the side of the road. It's just it's like, well, this is a shock. Um, but I was very excited, very excited. Once you get out of those PVs into Camp Carga, it was surreal. There's like yeah, Heskos, you got guard towers, there's dudes running around because we're with the Brits, so we had the working with the Scots, um, which was awesome. Uh, but yeah, surreal, awesome, very excited, very ready to get into work.

SPEAKER_01 47:58

So and it explain to me what the force element does, like what's your what's your you know, your role or your AO.

SPEAKER_06 48:04

Yeah, so pray uh uh my primary role as crew commander was just vehicle moves from like base and then also to transfer the guardian angels, which is just like the infantry protecting uh the mentoring force. So our main job, our job was security for the mentoring force to teach the Afghani officers because we're at uh right it's connected to an officer school, I believe. Um, so we were just uh the PMV would set up outside a building, our uh security force would go in, set up security, and then the mentor would come in and they would just set up security and watch them. Um that was our main gig. And then as a crew commander, uh well, just part of the um, I guess, truckies essentially, doing convoys from the air airport um and back for mail, personnel, equipment, everything like that, which is cool. Yeah, which is very cool.

SPEAKER_01 48:52

And just run me through you know the first few weeks of doing those jobs. Anything uh like how how's it all going?

SPEAKER_06 48:58

It's uh it was nothing really like the no no one was shooting at us. Uh I think the biggest thing, like we had a few VB IEDs hit the front gate, but that was where the Afghans were holding, so it wasn't the gate we were holding. Um, a few mortar attacks, nothing. It was it was really ramped down. Like, and that's what I like to tell people is like you don't like I think a lot of people get upset with their service because they're like, oh Right, he went to Afghan, so he like he's a war dog. It's like no bro, I fucking played Age of Empires since I it was a fun good time. And I think a lot of people get ashamed that they didn't serve, like get deployed in their in their career, which is really sad to see. Like people kind of talk down their service a lot because they weren't deployed, which you shouldn't do. If you're listening, don't talk it down, it's still important. But yeah, it wasn't hectic. Like there were some a few times you've seen like dead bodies of stuff, like would not the greatest thing to look at, but like you joined up to do a job, right? Um, but it was pretty chill, kind of like moving through some checkpoints, like moving from carga to the airport. There's a point where a crew commander has to get out and walk. I think it's 200 meters to a Turkish checkpoint with like floodlights on you, and all you've got is your pistol in your chest. And that was, I think that's like the scariest moment is like these guys are tracing their guns on me and I have to go up and show my ID at this gate in this like this tunnel of love, um, which is so dodgy. Like I got on my GoPro footage, it's very funny. But um, that it was just like situations like that were real dodgy, like getting held up in like a street, getting surrounded by like people, and you're just like, what the fuck? Like, I've seen I've seen Black Hawk Down. This isn't good. This isn't good for anyone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but I think it was more moments like that of just the unknown, which is it was a bit is a bit sketchy. Um, but it was it was very, I guess, I would say I almost say enlightening that um not everybody in that country is a terrorist, right? Like not everyone wants the harm.

SPEAKER_03 50:55

No.

SPEAKER_06 50:56

Um like we had in turps that were awesome. We had all these really lovely people who wanted their wives to be educated, you know, they wanted their kids to do well, they didn't want their wives to be like a towel all over their body, you know.

SPEAKER_01 51:08

Um It was a functioning city. Yeah, 100%. You know, there's women, children on the streets. Now there's not. Yeah. Um, but like you said, not not everyone there was a terrorist. Yeah. They knew that we brought money as well. 100%. You know, yeah, you know, that's the especially for us as contractors, we could literally we were stopping at places to get food and buy smokes on the side of the street and whatever, you know what I mean? Like pump smokes up there. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_06 51:32

The Dunhills? Yeah, yeah. The double pump, the double pump. Yeah, double pump. Little the double ones.

SPEAKER_01 51:38

I was on those ice ones and the little skinny ones. Oh bro. Dual drive. Absolute classic. But but uh, you know, during this uh deployment, you are wounded, wounded in action.

SPEAKER_06 51:56

Is this from the dildo thing within the lid?

SPEAKER_01 51:59

With a VB ID guys in the right.

SPEAKER_06 52:02

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:03

Wounded in action.

SPEAKER_06 52:04

Yeah, so my biggest worry, I guess, was the dildo. Have you heard about that one? No, but we'll talk about that as well. I was like, I was like, how did you know about that? Um, yeah, so I think it was a week in, um, a VB ID hits the front gate, so not the direct front gate, but where the Afghanis were holding, and a little bit of, I guess, a shockwave, but then I was having a Siggy in the Sanger, which I'm supposed to do, and then the bomb kind of jiggled the sanger a bit, and dust fell from the ceiling, hit me in the eye, made me flinch, and I burnt myself with a ciggy on my arm, and then I pressed my SBR and screamed into the SBR. So everyone thought I was fucked, I was hit or something. Uh, but yeah, that's my biggest worry was getting dust in my eye and then jabbing myself with a cigarette. So warrior's hell, team, for someone else.

SPEAKER_01 52:53

War is hell. And what's his other one?

SPEAKER_06 52:55

So we'll do it. I got a photo of it. I got a photo of it too. Uh, we're doing a hotel with the boys and we're cleaning out where our sleeping rooms are, and there was someone had this huge, like 16-inch dildo, like in the room, and we're like, what the fuck is this? And then it was again thrown around, and then someone threw it at me, and I tried to block it, but it hit me in the mouth. This thing was like five kilos, and my tooth went into my lip through my lip, and I started bleeding everywhere. So we had to do like a medivac because I got a dildo to the mouth, to the thing, because there was blood everywhere, and they had to glue up my lip uh and put like nearly put stitches in it because I got hit in the face with a dildo. And I was I had to stay there for a couple of days because it was You got Medivac for it. Well, I didn't get medivax, but like the the Yeah, but you got told to go to the RP. I got they like told me to go to the RP because it was an unsanitary thing going into my body.

SPEAKER_01 53:53

What was the story they just told them?

SPEAKER_06 53:54

I told them that someone threw a dildo at me, I tried to block it, and it was heavier than I thought it was. They fucking clocked me, but um, and then my other mate, Batesy, uh, they had these tor tortoises that with feet. They had pet tortoises out there, and then for some reason we thought it would be a good idea to put the tortoise on his nipple to bite him on his nipple, and diggers will be diggers, but yeah. So this is a couple weeks like two days in, and they nearly to send him home because of rabies, because tortoises can have rabies, apparently. So, yeah, that's another thing. We nearly had two guys get out of there for the first couple of days. So don't put a tortoise in Afghan on your mate's nipple. Is the is this is the moral of the story, really.

SPEAKER_01 54:37

That you know, the funny thing is that there's a lot of diggers out there, a lot of you know, even from my time, I'm just like, fuck man, I I know exactly where you're coming out of this. Yeah, there's many of these scenarios that have happened. That's the life you live. But um how long is that is is that deployment?

SPEAKER_06 54:52

Uh that was seven to eight months. Is it? I believe. Yeah, it was a bit while we got held up at Chrissy time, I believe. I think it was a it kind of extended out a little bit um more than we thought.

SPEAKER_01 55:04

Yep. Um through Christmas.

SPEAKER_06 55:06

Yeah, yeah. So we went through Christmas um and then came back in February. So is it July?

unknown 55:13

September, October, November, December.

SPEAKER_06 55:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:18

That's a fucking that's that's a long did you get Rockle?

SPEAKER_06 55:21

Yes, I yeah, I got Rockfah to I went to Austria skiing.

SPEAKER_01 55:25

So it was pretty nice. Two weeks?

SPEAKER_06 55:27

Yeah, two weeks. Went to Austria and Prague.

SPEAKER_01 55:30

And you just blew all your money.

SPEAKER_06 55:31

Yeah, we we racked up a 2,000 euro tab because me and my mate Bates were just buying everyone drinks. It was insane. That was classic digger money, but yeah, it was a good time. Yeah, it was a good time.

SPEAKER_01 55:42

Yeah, I've always thought, yeah, again, I've I've spoken about this on another podcast, you know, on a serious note. I never thought it was a good idea to send they, you know, they should be sending diggers home. 100%, but not uh, you know, because they pay for your flight.

SPEAKER_06 55:55

Anywhere in the world you want to go, yeah, they'll pay for it.

SPEAKER_01 55:57

Yeah, which is crazy.

SPEAKER_06 55:58

Yeah, and like I was skiing, I I I bast my knee up skiing, and I had to like hide it getting back uh back in the country because it was very sore. It was crazy, it was a crazy time.

SPEAKER_01 56:09

Um so after uh Rocko uh Rockle Rockfahr. Yeah, rockfah. Rockfahr, yeah. We call it Rockle.

SPEAKER_06 56:15

I think Rockle's home, rockfah's like Rockle's home, rockfa's not home, but holiday. I think I don't know. I don't know either. I'm not a doctor. Someone, yeah, I'm not a doctor.

SPEAKER_01 56:24

Yeah. UFT family, yes. Yeah, yeah, educated family. Um so that you like you said, that deployment's eight months long, and you know, obviously there's a couple of VBOEDs, um, nothing else really.

SPEAKER_06 56:40

Just we had uh I think the a chopper hit the P dids at Campground, which was a mass cas situation. So chopper crashed, hit the wire. It was a coalition one, yeah, yeah, full of Brits. And my mate Ogre.

SPEAKER_01 56:52

Oh, is that the one that crashed into the into the blimp?

SPEAKER_06 56:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, hit the cord. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And so had a lot of I think my mate Ogle just got off that flight. Like just got off it before it crashed. So which is crazy. But um, yeah, and then we had a mass cas situation. Some of the boys had to treat apparently they were just picking up body parts and like trying to identify them from uniforms, which is crazy because or uh British yeah, British uniforms and stuff like that. So pretty, pretty hectic, pretty uh pretty hearing.

SPEAKER_01 57:17

Yeah, yeah, because it had all those blimps, there was tons of those blimps everywhere, which was surveillance blimps and yeah. What else were they used for?

SPEAKER_06 57:26

Just the like I think but does it does it help with indirect?

SPEAKER_01 57:29

Yeah, I think it did, yeah. Yeah, had the technology on it, so like see where it came from. And early warning. Thermal cameras and everything on it, so you could pretty much watch everything.

SPEAKER_06 57:39

Well, one time a A vehicle hit my bushy while we were driving, and then we had the pullover, and they're like, This is $100,000 you pay for that. I was like, No, I'm not fucking giving you 100k, dude. Like relax, and like they wouldn't let us leave. And then I was like, screw it, I'll just have a Siggy, and then and then we were told never you not let us smoke. If you're outside, like doing your job, don't smoke, keep your helmet on, whatever you're doing. And we were there for ages, Jundy wouldn't let us leave. And I was like, fuck. So I was having a Siggy, and then I get back to base, and this was many times that I caught, and then their battle captain is like, right, is what's one of that main rule about you know going outside their professionalism? I was like, uh always have your gad on you. He's like, No, no, no, it's even basically that. He's like, Don't have your helmet off and don't smoke when you're on the job. I was like, Yep, too easy, got it. It's like then what's this? And he pulls up a photo of the PD and me leaning up against the bushy helmet off. So I was like, Oh yeah, fuck. So yeah, got extra duties for that too. In Afghanistan, yeah, get the sanger two now, can't I was like, fuck, which is crazy.

SPEAKER_01 58:39

Yeah, that's funny. I mean, I had something similar where I I bumped a car and this this Afghan just sat on the bonnet. Yeah, yeah, and I had a grenade and an Fine American grenade, so I just put on the like on the dashboard, and he's just looking and going, Well, yeah, I'm just took off. I'm out of there. I'm like, we don't give a fuck. Yeah, we'll blow you up. We'll blow you up and we'll blow us up.

SPEAKER_06 59:01

We're done. We're done with this, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:04

Yeah, right. So that eight months in the GAN, um, pretty quiet, but um, you know, awesome experience. Amazing experience. You can't beat it.

SPEAKER_06 59:14

Yeah, like I love to tell, like, I I love to just let people know. It's like I don't claim to be a door kicker, like I'm not SF or you're joining a different time. Exactly right. It's a different time, and I think a lot of a lot of dudes I think get intimidated at the fact that they didn't, right? Even from my trip or even Taji, they'll try and play it up a bit more than it was. Like, and and I I think me coming out and saying, like, I'm not a war dog, I think it kind of helps people. Well, I've been told it helps people deal with the fact that they weren't like you know, all the guys you get on your podcast are like killers, right? They're they're SASCats or Tudo and they're they're absolute weapons and nothing but respect for them. But we we all don't have that career path in the army, and I think a lot of people hold themselves to that level. Like, oh, you're in the army and you got deployed, or you should have seen you probably saw some shit. Yeah, it's like you don't need to see some shit to still have like an experience, experience, memories, cool stories.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:05

It is what it is. So again, it's different, different times, different eras. Yeah, if you joined 10 years early, then yeah you'd be in the thick of it, but that's just how the cookie crumbles. 100%. So you do your eight months, you come back to Australia, mate. How'd you go? This is the first time back to Australia too after eight months, yeah. Outside of the two weeks of skiing. Yeah, yeah. How'd you go coming back to Australia? And you boys are you pumped or what's uh pretty pumped.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:27

I think we're ready to come home, ready to come home. Um, pretty good. I had uh this is my parents are gonna hate this, my parents are really gonna hate this. But um, so got to the airport and I had no one there to say hi to me or get because you everyone gets their families, the hug, they're like, Oh my god, so glad they heard him. And I got straight into a cab and then went home. So that thing, nothing to do with my parents, not your fault, by the way. But it was kind of a it was a surreal experience. They're too busy being doctors, they were too busy making that dough, you know? They're too busy just you know doing crochet or playing lacrosse or something. But um, yeah, that was that was a big one, is just getting off a plane, gone straight to a cab, watching everyone like hug their family and stuff. Then I've that's when I was first like, oh, that kind of was an experience. Like you know, that's when it kind of sunk in. I was like, fuck, maybe I should have like maybe I should think more heavily about where I've just been. Because I think it was all just a party for me. Um because I was just ignorant, I was young, I was just and cashed up. Yeah, cashed up.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:18

So I was like, What'd you do with all your cash?

SPEAKER_06 1:01:20

Bought a house. Oh, did you? I became a bought a house straight away in Lutwich. Um it's not a house or an apartment. Smart move. Yeah, yeah. And then yeah, then was very poor for a while because I didn't realise the costs of buying a house and then like But a good place to be poor is in the army. Yes, yes, exactly, exactly, yeah. Um nice secure job security, and somewhere to eat, somewhere to ship, somewhere too, yeah. Ration packs, bang, there it is. Yeah, I've eaten a few notes. Um, but yeah, so bought uh bought my place and yeah, just kind of kicked on with uh the infantry life and then realized after being Afghan doing my PS, my sub two for corporal, that infantry uh isn't for me.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:00

Um yeah, so you you get back, you do all you know your your subject courses and you realise the infantry again, not again, not too much is going on. So what's what's you can either go to Tarji or go back to another another FPA.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:15

Yeah, but still then they will give into another battalion.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:17

That's it. There's it there's only one, yeah. There's not much going on. So the chances you probably get back on something is pretty minimal anyway. Yeah. But you land on the PTI world, where this is coming. Obviously, you're a fit guy.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:31

Yeah, I got best at PT Capuca and Singer. Just let me know. Just to let you know. Just to let you know. Um, it's actually a prizer there somewhere, I'll show you. It's in a book, so it's pretty cool. Um, yeah, so well, actually it was a geotech, so transferred from infantry to geotech. To what? Geotech, geospatial intelligence analyst. Actually, it was just called a geospatial um technician. They were engineers. You just make maps, yeah, essentially, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it was sick because there was no field whatsoever. And that's why, because there was heaps of other grants there. They're like, right, if you don't want to go field and you want to do like not a lot.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:04

Is that a core transfer?

SPEAKER_06 1:03:05

Core transfer, yeah. So core transferred. What core is it? Uh it was engineers and now it's intelligence. Yep. Yeah. Um, and they're like a higher pay grade too. So more money, no field, chill. I was like, this is sick. So I did it. You have to do like a bridging exam for maths and stuff. I was like, holy shit. Somehow past that. I think I was at really mates with the war that was running, it was a good bloke. Um, and then yeah, got into geospatial intelligence is called now.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:30

Is there an IT process?

SPEAKER_06 1:03:31

Yeah, full IET is full intelligence. We had to do so the geotech course is in Hallsworthy with the engine with the School of Engineers. You have to do like the first phase of engineering course, um, and then you go and do your special course, which is just like on a computer the whole time. 12 hours a day on a computer, doing maps, mapping, statistical analysis, all this stuff, uh, which was pretty interesting. Uh, and then yeah, did all that. And then I remember one time the greatest, one of the greatest feelings in the army was I was in doing an exam with a coffee in my hand and was piercing down with rain. I was looking out the window and it was engineers mind prodding in the rain, like it was piercing down winding, winding, windy, and I was like, this is nice. So I was still a grunt at the time called transferring, and it was a grunt out like there was this, there was mind prodding, and I was having a brew. I was like, this is living. So that was awesome. Uh, but yeah, did that for a couple of years and yeah, just boring. And that's in Brisbane here. That was in Brisbane up here. Yeah, at Enogra. Yeah, at Inogra. Uh, which is still a really good job if you're into that, uh, into that line of work, like geospatial work, really, really good job in the army. Like, honestly, really good career progressing as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:38

But just not for me.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:38

And what like what are you doing? What is the actual role here?

SPEAKER_06 1:04:41

So as a geotech or geospatial intelligence analyst, you get attached to um units, and essentially you can do things like uh if you're going field or you're going to go in overseas, I can give you um, if you're on this feature and you're two meters high, from this point you can see all these locations. So um it's like uh visibility scale, it takes in elevation, vegetation, but also really good for like setting up ambushes or looking up um antenna reaches for comms, like black spots for comms, because it'll give you all the data and overlapping data and like all this black spots here, yeah, yeah. So you're doing all that and root route analysis and everything like that for people um overseas, like where like caches are, or most likely caches, HLZs, you do all the data and you're like, you can land a chopper here, here, here. These are specifications for like a chinook, bum bum bum, and you can put up the HLZs wherever.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:34

So it's almost like a um like an information package for whoever's deploying to whatever location.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:39

And that's what you do, you're attached, you usually go to with an analyst.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:42

So they don't they don't have to do it on the ground, like we used to in the back the old days.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But they still like I don't know if they do it now, but they didn't utilize them. Like if you gave her recon command, they'd be like, if you could tell these two nerds can tell you where to put your OP before you get it.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:55

100%, yeah. That's great.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:56

They can do that, but they didn't do it. I was like, and I was I was trying to push them. I was like, you can get these two guys to give you all these features, it can tell you exactly where you can see from elevation data and vegetation data for your OP or your gun line or anything you want.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:11

And all all that person on the ground has to do is go check it out and go, Yeah, this is fuck perfect. So I don't I don't have to find it. It's off we've got the three.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:17

Yeah, you give you a 20-figure grid if you wanted to, um, and they can use that.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:22

And if we're having like Helos. That'd be great. You'd you know, you go into go do an operation, you get a wounded in action, you're like, fuck, there's already three fucking helo spots I can in that area that we're already going to.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:33

Well, they do this thing called um like automating like um products, right? So you'll get an area, and if you want to know where the HLZs are, you just drag like some data on and it'll pop up instantly on any map because you'll take it in, which is crazy. And same with like tracked vehicles, how far they can go, elevation, wheels, everything like that, like wet, um, dry terrain, sand terrain. They can do they can tell you where they can and cannot go. Can and cannot go from all data, not utilized, in my opinion. SF probably do use their geotechs. I know that geotechs are very high heavily used in the SF world, uh, but like normal battalions just don't use them, which is ridiculous. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:13

It's really good. It's it's almost like chat GBT. Literally, you know what I mean? Like you can you can find me uh three fucking three spots with uh 10 metres by 10 metres.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:24

Uh-huh and that's what it is. It's like, oh yeah, it can be stepped. The elevation can be stepped because of the uh the statistics on this helicopter. So it's it's very cool, very cool stuff. But yeah, that was just a lot of office work for me, and I hated it. Yeah. I hated it.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:37

Yeah, because you're stuck in an office. Yeah, all I can picture is you know that uh the South Park episode, the big fat guy.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:43

Yeah, yeah. How do you kill with something that has no life? Yeah, that's literally there were a lot of neck beards in the geotech world, but you need them. You need them, they don't need to be combat soldiers.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:53

Yeah, because they're mad nerds.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:55

Some of those dudes are retarded smart. Yeah, and one of these guys, um, I don't know if I should say his name, his name is Brownie anyway. He um was so smart he invented all these products to help save thousands and thousands of hours of work time, maybe even lives. But he tried to do a course, but because he's retardedly smart, he couldn't progress in his rank because he couldn't do drill or anything like that, because he's just like a full nerd. Yeah, but they kicked, they essentially he left because he got treated so badly, got bullied by cunts. And it's like, bro, he doesn't need to run.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:28

There's a point, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:28

He can pass his fitness test, right? He can do that, he can shoot straight, he doesn't need to do all this other stuff. But yeah, the army lost a massive capability from losing people like that. Yeah, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:36

That's it. Not not everyone's an infantry soldier, not everyone's a you know, uh, an engineer, not everyone's a a transporty, there's gonna be those mad nerds, Warhammer nerds that are just switched on with whatever they do.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:49

And it some of those people there, and even them working there today, are absolutely phenomenal. Yeah, so smart, so switched on, and they just make life easy for boots on the ground, which is which is what's you know was what's needed.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:59

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Where are we at? So you you're in this geospatial uh intelligence role, however, like you said, it's just office-born and I was running just PT and shooting ranges anyway.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:11

So yeah. Um, and then yet transferred out uh to the best job in the army, uh, PTI. And like again, how does this come along? Um, I did I think because I was running PT all the time, I was working out, and then there was one moment where I had to do my sub four for corporal four geotech, and it was like coding, Python script and coding. I was like, I don't fuck, I want to this is yeah, sorry, Hesto, but this is like this is shithouse. Um and then I kind of it was it was an overnight decision. I was like, I'm transferring to PTI. And I work out the next morning and I went down to the PTI office and I said, I want a PTA, PTI, what do I have to do? Did my I think it's called CF, my CFL course or AFFL, AFFL, I don't know, it's called something now. Course did that and then yeah, passed that, then went off to uh Cerberus, HMA Cerberus for IT uh for yeah, IET's PTI school.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:03

Yeah, run me through PTI school. Like what do you do? Like, is it just CrossFit? It's the dream, mate. I'm telling you, it's the dream. Like, yeah, what like how long is it? What is it?

SPEAKER_06 1:10:10

Um I think a couple of months, three months, maybe to learn how to be a PTI.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:14

It's honestly the best.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:14

Like, do it it's what do you do? Like you just do. You just do military lessons first. So your first like two, three weeks of military lessons. So it's like um boots of glues, high knees, make a tea, yeah, yeah, yeah. Top hand, bottom, low of the body. Yeah, all those lessons, and you gotta like learn them verbatim in the right sequence and everything like that, which was easy. Like people would like study all night and everything like that. But because I talk shit all the time, I was just I didn't practice at all. It was the it was honestly the best time. I just did it live. Um feet landing. Yeah, yeah. Two feet landing. It's oh so good. It's weird, bring me back, bring me back. Yeah, it was so good, and then like those through the first three weeks you're doing military lessons, you've got to do you're in a group, but you've got to do everyone's lesson in the one day. So you're doing like six BT sessions a day, so you're getting shredded, you look, you're looking good. Uh, and then you train after work because you've got your own PTI gym, and then you do all PTIs and red shorts everywhere, yeah. Well, it's tri-service, so you got navy air force, so it's it's great, it's a good time. There's a there's a lot going on, boys. Um, and then yeah, so you're doing those lessons, then you do like a bit of like um bioscience, so like muscles, the cells, and everything like that, which you know don't really use, it's pretty much cool. Well, this hurts, like just don't be worried about it.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:28

So it's like a cert three, cert four, but obviously a bit more scientifically involved, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:33

A little bit more. Uh, and then yeah, then you do just classes, and then you seem to get smashed on running classes for people, like strength and conditioning was a big one, which is really good. They they teach really good strength and conditioning, like actual fitness that'll help soldiers either rehab or be fit for the combat world, which is yeah, really, really good. They do an amazing job. Like the PTIs these days um are really well trained, like are really, really well trained. Um, even though some of them don't look like they should be PTIs, um, there's some fatties out there, uh, and you sort that out. Honestly, some of those some of their buttons are an instant.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:08

It's like dated luck in the city, you know, but some of them are strong, though.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:11

You only get to an anytime and you're like offering training, like, yeah, but then some of them are really strong, so you're like, I get it. Like I get it. Like, I'm not ripping on fatties, but sort it out. Um, but yeah, just to get it, it's just a really good job. And I think the really what I really gelled with the PTI is like you do your job every day. I'm not fighting the Missourians, I'm not laying down a fake minefield, I'm teaching soldiers, um telling them how to recover, I'm getting them fit. Yeah, yeah, to be exactly which is an essential part of 100% being a soldier, 100%, you know, and you and you get to do your job every day, and and like in my mind, I was making a difference. I was like, I was treating these trainers hard, sure. I was telling them they're pussies when they're pussies. I was like, Yeah, you need to lose weight, but then that's kind of my downfall at the same time.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:57

So vocal.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:58

Well, I was very vocal, uh, and it got to that point where I think it was the peak of wokeness. I think when I was leaving, was like, you can't gender people, you can't do all this stuff. Like you can't fat shame them. Yeah, you can't. I there was a point where I was doing it.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:12

Which is wild, because you know, back in my time again, like if you're a fat guy, you were you were fat-shamed. Yeah. Which was great because that person generally flipped their lives. Became unfat.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:21

Yeah. Well, there was a point where there was I was getting watched by this OC that were watching me, and I was trying to explain to this trainee. I was like, hey, she is like, he's like, Corporal, why do my knees hurt when I run? I was like, all right, this is a really good question. So what what's pushing down on your knees like when you're running? Like, what's going on? It's like, oh, is it my T bass? It's like, well, we're not wearing T-bass. So it's not your T bass. Like, what else could be pressing down on your muffin top? Yeah, yeah. It's like, what could it be? It's like, oh, I don't know, could it be the bitumen? It's like, could be the bitumen, yeah, it could be. Is there something else that's it's like, oh, it's my weight, corporal? It's like, correct. Correct. It is your weight. It's like, oh, am I fat corporal? I was like, you said it, you said it, not B, but yes, you need to sort your weight out, bro. You are huge. And then I got in trouble for that. Even though I led them down the road to their own, you know, salvation. Yeah, nothing. Yeah. And then I called a female soldier a female soldier, boom, not allowed to do that. There's a group, what do you mean? There's a group of 200 trainees in front of me, and this female soldier was carrying a log, and this, and this, and this soldier, she was a weapon. She was a weapon, but she just couldn't carry this log by herself and like, oi, someone helped that. I think I may have said chick. I said chick or female soldier out, go help me out. And then this other ooks echo came up to me and said, You can't say that. I was like, What do you mean? He's like, Well, you can't single their out because of their gender. I was like, What she's like, it's 200 fucking dudes and there's one chick. Like, how am I supposed to say? And that guy's Asian, and like I call him an Asian soldier, so you can't do that either. That's gonna group you up for that. I was like, fuck, there's heaps of round eyes here, and there's one Asian. Of course I'm gonna cut. Like, it was getting and I was and I was swearing in battle PT, and they're like, You can't swear. I was like, what? It's battle PT. Like, what am I training you for? So it was getting it was doing my head in. So I was like, you know what, maybe this isn't for me anymore.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:00

Just just back to it though. Three you finished that three months training. Um how do the the postings work from there? Do they just send you where they where they need you?

SPEAKER_06 1:15:09

Yeah, SPH, you get preferences wherever they need you. Um, I think uh if you go to a training establishment like Kapuka, I think you then get your next pick, like wherever you want to go. I think that's how it worked with me anyway. But yeah, I wanted to get back to Southeast Queensland because I was married at the time, not to my beautiful brown wife, uh to someone else. So obviously qualified for sergeant. So yeah, I was married at the time, so I wanted to go back to Southeast Queensland, but I got Oki um up at Ne Toomba, which is the sickest, which is the best posting for PTI, which is awesome. Um so went there and what units up there? Uh 6-7. Uh so yeah, aviation, so the uh um mechanics and everything like that, which was really cool. And the Chinooks. I remember seeing Chinooks, but I don't know if they're out Chinooks. Yeah, I don't know if I don't know they're out Chinooks. Did you say you were at Kabuka first though? No, no, I wasn't. I'm saying if you for your preferences, if you got to go to Kabuka, you then got your next pick. Yeah, but uh but Kabuka as a PTI is pissed because it's all standard.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:05

Could you do that eventually?

SPEAKER_06 1:16:06

No, I wish. But my friends are there is like it's um it's all the same stuff every day.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:10

Same stuff every day.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:11

It's a lesson plan, you just repeat it, verb, and then you just train to get jacked.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:14

Yeah, and just on that, obviously, uh when you get posted as a PTI, you're posted to that unit, yeah, and you just become their trainer.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:21

Yeah. Yeah, which is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:23

It's a really cool time. So you go up to up to Oki and again, run me through, you know, I guess run the listener through. I I understand the the process of getting smashed every day by PTI. Yeah. Um yeah, like you said, you've got to do different sessions every day and yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:38

So we we ran up there. Um, I was with a guy called uh Corey Tongkins, he's a legend weapon, I think he's a woe now, Sergeant Tonks. Um, he was big into his strength and conditioning. So you essentially get freedom of how you train your troops to meet the needs for that unit. And so these are all like tradies and some pilots and stuff. So we just needed them to be fit, we didn't need to do anything crazy, we just need to be super fit and super strong. So we're essentially running them through essentially crossfit lifting and then circuits every single day with a sprinkler of battle PT that meet the needs for the CEO's need. Um, but yeah, so you get there every morning, you get up, you smash them, do you do a warm-up, you do your weights, you do your circuit, and then on Wednesdays is battle PT, and then you can see this the drop in attendance from all the um secos and everything like that. It's crazy. And you grip them up, you're like, dude, not everyone is got a meeting on Wednesday morning. So yeah, but that's what happens. That's what happens. But um it was Did you see the difference from the inventory world where there was no excuses to have to do BT? And that is a massive thing too. Like the difference between a combat unit and a non-combat unit is absolutely insane. Like, if you don't do PT in these non-combat units, whatever. Like, you know, yeah, he's just that's classic Smithy, you know, just being a fat cunt. That's classic him. But then like the at the 8-9 is like, oh, look at this weak, can't even pass a BFA, fucking pussy. Yeah. Um, like if you can't pass a BFA, I'd say, or in my opinion, when I was in, uh, it was shame. Oh, yeah, especially as a young guy. Yeah, like you should be able to smoke six Siggy's while doing a run and pass it.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:13

Bokes work, yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:15

The fittest guys were out there who smacked a whole chockey milk and had a ciggy and then ran like an 820 BFA, yeah. But yeah, massive difference, massive difference. Um, which is very interesting, right? You'd think that also even no matter your job, you'd want to be fit and strong, and you're getting paid to go to the gym.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:31

Like is there any um just on personal training? Yeah, you can you have a soldier come up to you and go, Oh, can you give me extra lessons? Or you know, is is that is that something to do?

SPEAKER_06 1:18:43

Not really, you can give them so when I then I got posted to Simpson Barracks, so the school of SIGs, so there's some types there. Um you can't we there are extra programs you can give. It's like remedial essentially, yeah. But there was a remedial session on Saturdays if you failed your BFA, but you can't really like one-on-one. Yeah, one on one. Um, yeah, you can't really do that. Yeah, especially because they're all trainees as well, so it could be shunned upon. But um, yeah, I got I was in Oakie for like maybe only six months, maybe, maybe a year. And then my dad nearly carked it. The week cunt. Um he got nah I'm kidding, dad. He had bad back surgery and nearly like carked it. So I got like compassionate posting down to Simpson Barracks at the school of six.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:23

Oh, did you?

SPEAKER_06 1:19:23

Yeah, and then that was an even bigger change from like from aviation to Sigs.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:29

As in good or bad.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:31

Oh different bit of both, bit of both, bit of both. Um SIGs are meant to be smart, right? They don't need to be fit, but there's gotta be a there's gotta be a standard um of some sort of fitness. Uh but I think that is changing. I think it went very well to like everyone should be in the army. Now it's like going back to no war fighting.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:48

Yeah, I think it is definitely it is there is a swing, which is very good to see. Which, you know, I I reckon I'd say in the next couple of years, especially when the federal government changes as well. Yeah, I think there's gonna be a big swing in how organizations, not only the military, cops and fire is it's gonna be a lot different, I think.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:06

Which is which is what needed the way it should be. Yeah, which is what 100% needed.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:09

You don't join the army to fucking you're joining the army to fight wars, yeah, defend the country. Well, look at the fight wars, defend the country.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:16

My biggest example when I was even at um the School of SIGs or at Oki, I was like, look at Ukraine right now, all the chefs, all the SIGs, they're on they're digging trenches right now. It's like you think they were like a first world country, like this could happen anywhere, so you need to be fit and you'd be able to shoot. Um, and like, yeah, that's obviously very unlikely to happen, but that's your job. Yeah, that is your job, and not even for the organisation, for yourself, yeah. 100%. Extend your life, be a useful human. Like, if you can't drag your partner out of the car and or like run up a hill to get reception with your baby, you're a weak cunt. Like you should everyone in society should be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:52

100%.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:53

Uh, unless you are obviously injuries and stuff, but there's certain ways you can train regardless of what's going on. Yeah, no excuse. No, there's literally no excuse. Digger James. Digger James, exactly. Blew his leg off, all right? For you. That's my uncle you're talking about, little dogs.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:07

So, like you said, you've got down the school of SIGs. How long's that for?

SPEAKER_06 1:21:11

Uh, I was there for two years, I believe. Two years. Yeah, two, three years.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:16

That's a long time. Where's that at?

SPEAKER_06 1:21:17

That's uh Melbourne, uh Greensboro. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:20

And all your family's still at Geelong Way.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:23

So my brother and mum and dad, so my eldest brother down in Geelong, still in that area. But my other brother's up here. Um, what unit? He was 2 HB. 2 G HB, I think it was. I think that's just 2 HB. 2HB. Yeah, yeah, Captain Ride to you. Captain Captain. Is he still in? I think he does reserve time. I think he is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think so. Everyone, it's funny because I'll put him on my story and everyone's like, oh, is that is that Dr. Ryan? I was like, Yeah, it's my brother. Everyone's like, that's crazy. And so weird so many people were like, oh, your brother's my doctor.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:55

So he's the smart one.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:57

Yeah, he's funny. He's the nicest guy in the world, by the way. He's the best. He's the best.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:01

Uh so you spent two years down there. What year is that bring us to?

SPEAKER_06 1:22:04

2022, 2023. Yeah, right. 2023. So I got out in 2023.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:09

Oh, did you? Yeah. And again, where where does this where does this come along? Or what's your obviously nothing's going on in the defense world.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:16

Nothing's going on, like my body was pretty bad, like not just from training, but because I was fighting boo hurt at this time. Um, and it wasn't even like boo hurt injuries, just like my headspace wasn't great. And I think also getting constantly told that I can't train soldiers to be soldiers, it was really, really messing with me. Because I was like, then what am I doing? Like, I feel like a useless, useless human right now, and I can't even get this fat bloke to be unfat. Like, if I'm not allowed to put these procedures in place to get make him a better soldier or even help him with his injury, I felt useless and I was like, this is just this is worse for my mental health, this is worse for my like my physical health wasn't doing it great because I was just like, nah, what's the point? Like, this is a shit job. So yeah, I was like, nah, this is dumb done.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:57

Just before that, you spoke about the boo heard stuff. This is where the Heath Ledger stuff comes in 2017. Like, again, where does this like it it is so far you know UFC or mixed martial arts or kung fu, yeah, Heath Ledger. Like, where does that come in?

SPEAKER_06 1:23:14

So I was on my IETs for Geotech at Holzworthy, and I saw this video on YouTube with these two guys in armour, just beaten, like ground impounding MMA in armor. I was like, that can't be real. So I did some goggling and I found an Australian like organization. I was like, oh, send him an email, see what's going on. Send them an email, they get back to me, like, hey, where are you located? We'll try to find your club. I was like, hey, I'm in Hallsworthy. He's like, hey, there's a guy that's in the army who lives on the army base. If you're anywhere near an army base, you could try and to hook up with him. And I was like, okay, well, I'm in the army base and I'm on the base as well, living there for IETs. So I go there, I hit him up, they give me his number, his name's Shirley Bird, by the way. Shout out to Shirley, legend. Sig, he's a SIG. So obviously fucking rigged like a Har-Field sandbag. But he's a weapon, he's a weapon, he's a great bloke. Um go to his room, which is like a building away from mine, and yeah, shows me his armor. Big Warhammer nerd, there's Warhammer everywhere in that room, by the way. And uh yeah, just started fighting in in this little niche sport after work. Like I think I was getting an armor like three days a week after my IETs. Uh, and yeah, just fell in love with it, became pretty good at it, and now I guess I'm like um I guess I'm like the first boo hurt influencer, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:27

How does it uh evolve though? Like like when do when does it start going from you know the start there where it's just funny? You're like a white belt. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then now you start getting you know a bit more professional, you start fighting. When's that and you're still in the army at this stage? Yeah, 100%. Yeah. Um does anyone know?

SPEAKER_06 1:24:44

And it was like no, I think I think people did know that just didn't care because they're like, this is weird. This is so weird. Yeah. And then like I'd bring my armor to work and I'd fight, like put my armor on in the cages and like hit the tyres and stuff. But yeah, the sport has grown so much. So when I started, we trained in a park with foam swords, like laughing. Literally, like laughing, because it's soft kits. So we had the because you couldn't train in armor all the time. I didn't have armor at the time. So I started off just training in this park after work, like with these random nerds, these random nerds, like random, random dudes. Um and then it just got bigger, and they're like, hey, come to this tournament. I did my first tournament ever while I was on my IETs, got given armor, and I was like, hey, this is pretty sweet. Like, I'm actually taking some people down. This is alright. And then it's kind of built, and then I got posted to Queensland because I was in New South Wales and started the in the Queensland club. Then I kind of started running training sessions because I was a fit dude. I was like, we should do this. Um, and then everyone in that club kind of left, and then the club fell to me. So then I was running this boohoo club maybe a year into the sport, and I was like, holy fuck, I don't know what I'm doing. So I'm messaging this guy called Colin Campbell, who is like one of the best fighters in the world, who I fought with him in my first tournament. And he's like, hey, dude, he's American. He sounds like the turtle from Nemo, like it's how he talks. He'll do shit. That's how he talks. He's like, Well, sorry, what's happening? I was like, dude, I'd fucking been dropped this club. Are you moving to Australia? He's like, Yeah, yeah, dude, I don't know where to go. I was like, Come to Brizzle, please come to Brizzle and help me run his club. He comes in, he moved to Australia, moved to Australia because he married Siobant, his wife here, but uh also an excellent fighter. Both of both of them are heavyweight champions of the world in the sport at this point. Are they at right now? They are. And then so he comes along, we start training this gym, the gym starts growing. We're like, what the fuck? Let's change our name to something else because let's let's do it. So we change it to the Brisbane Beasts. This was like maybe six, five years ago, and then we just the gym's exploded, and now um we won national titles for the first time with uh me and Colin as like running this club. So first time ever a Victorian or a New South Wales team didn't win nationals was from a Queensland team. So we did that, and then I had to move to Melbourne for my dad being a pussy, killing nearly killing himself. Uh, and then I fought with the Queens at Kraken, the Melbourne team, won all the nationals with them. You're still in the army, still in the army, then moved back to Brizzy, back to Beast, and then won nationals again. So there's a common denominator who's winning nationals. But um, but yeah, so now the clubs in every state are now running like an MMA gym. They got classes, uh, no one's training in parks anymore. Some people are when they start early off, but the club and the sport has grown into a spot now that they've got this thing called MMA, huge MMA cage, millions of views, millions of followers, and now it's becoming more and more noticeable, uh, which is fucking insane to where it was eight, nine years ago when I started, which is crazy.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:39

Now, just on to you know, I guess that final part of your career within the defence force. Yes, what again, what do you what are you thinking and what's the motivation here to get out?

SPEAKER_06 1:27:48

I was doing quite well on social media. I think I was, I think I was at like maybe 50 with the booheart stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:54

With the booheart stuff.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:55

So like I was just doing content, I was getting paid from sponsors.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:58

What's boohead stand for? Like, where's it?

SPEAKER_06 1:28:00

It's like an old French word called for wallop.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:02

For wallop.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:03

For wallop. Because what they did, it's a historically accurate sport that they used to do when there was no wars on. So when the the knights, there was no wars to kill the peasants, they would go in and they'd fight other knights, but that had blunt weapons, just like we do, and they would blunt, but people would still die. But when they did it back in the day, it was like pink slips. So if I fucked you up in battle, I'd take your armor and your horse. And like an armor and a horse is like millions of dollars back then. So like a suit of armor, I think is the equivalent of like to this day, like one suit of armor was equivalent of like a two million dollar house today. Shit. So it was like and a horse. And a horse is even like it is more as well. So that's what it was. So when you did these boo hurt games, like it was a lot on the line, so people would take it through it so seriously, and like if you kill people in the list, that's fine back then. That's just you being a shit night. But uh yeah, but that's what it was. It was that's what and that's where the sport came from, is originally back then. They just were trying to get ready for war, but there were no wars on. So, and that's just carried on to this now modern day sports optimized version of it.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:00

Yeah, like you said, your Instagram, you know, your social media starting to gain a bit of traction, you're getting you know 50,000 followers at the start there. And this gives you the idea maybe there's more are you making money?

SPEAKER_06 1:29:14

At this point, not a lot, not a lot, but enough to be like, hey, if I could do something here. And then um, I think it helped at the time, I was clean shape. And I was quite in good shape. And when I took my helmet off, people were like, oh, that's not what I expected a fucking nerd to be fighting in this sport. So that kind of helps with um getting into the sport, the sport bigger. And then I got more and more eyes on. I started doing stuff like flipping people over over my shoulder and like fly kicking people. So people were like, holy shit, this is crazy. So the more and more I did cooler stuff, I didn't even have to win, to be honest. I don't even need to be the best in the world. I just have to be like, I have to do something cool once. It just kept getting bigger, bigger, and bigger. And now I'm on like what 125,000 followers on Instagram, my YouTube, 145,000 subs. It's got to a point now that if you know about Boo Hurt, you probably know about me, not to float my own boat. But my whole point of my social media was to get more people into the sport. Into the sport, yeah. And that was my main goal. Yeah. Well, to grow up, but I also wanted kids to be like, I know, like I'm I'm not very I'm not a very PC guy, right? Like I don't like day PC, but I'd love for kids to be like, you don't have to play soccer, you don't have to play rugby, you don't have to play netball.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:21

And bash out of dudes with it.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:23

If you want to play team sport and bash counts, whatever the fuck that's called.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:26

It's a helberd. Yeah. It's got a helber in a glaive.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:28

Yeah. Um, if you want to do something like this, there is a way that you can do something that isn't that mainstream sport. Like you don't have to fit into that category. Um and that's what was my main goal was to get it cranken.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:41

So you pull the trigger and and discharge from the military. Yeah, obviously you're going through your interview to discharge, you're like, oh yeah, I just want to I want to fucking I want to fight knights.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:49

What's yeah, what's your what they're like, what are you gonna do? I'm like, um, I'm gonna do um, oh my god, I just turned that hot. I'm gonna um fight people in medieval armor. They're like, oh, okay, um, how's that going? And I gave them the rundown and they're like, oh, okay, so you got it, you got a plan. And I was like, uh, yeah, I got a plan.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:06

I got a plan, I got a plan. On their form, they're writing suicidal tick.

SPEAKER_06 1:31:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:11

Please watch talking rubbish.

unknown 1:31:13

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:31:14

I think J Jared Gowndry said it funny the other day. He's like, Sam's made a job that stopped being a job 500 years ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but yeah, it's it's just insane. And now obviously the shooting has come into play. Yeah, and that's just even more time to play.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:30

So you get out of Defence Force, how'd you go? You know, 11 years in Defence Force, institutionalized. What's the plans uh outside of you know, you I'm sure you've got to do all this fighting, but it's not bringing money, money. So you gotta get a job.

SPEAKER_06 1:31:42

So I got I got I got I got a I got a pretty good uh DVA payout. Um so I was living with that for a while. Uh had my house that I sold. Um, so I was alright, and the money I was making from Boo Hurt wasn't terrible, but I was just living off that. I was living off that for a while. Uh and then um now I think maybe it would have been it wasn't that long, maybe six months, six to seven months after discharging. I got two big sponsors from armorers, and they're like, hey, we want you international ones, yeah. Ukrainian sponsors. Were they? Yeah, Ukrainian, they're stripping medal of tanks, Russian tanks, stripping off making the armor. Um so they they gave me money and then I was like, all right, yeah, I will want a monthly retainer because I'm done a full-time job. They're like done. So I obviously wasn't making amazing cash, but my richness was my time. Like I could do whatever I wanted, like you know, and I could train, I could fight, I could, you know, give my black missus a high five, you know, whatever you want to do. Um, so yeah, and then it just the social media growing, the opportunities growing, and then more sponsors came in. Like I said at the start, like lots of small rivers make great stream. Um so yeah, I started doing that, and now I just you know make content and fight for a living, which is a fun. It's it's I'm extremely, extremely blessed.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:58

So that's all you've done since pretty much you've left the Defence Force. You haven't had a real job.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:02

No, exactly right, exactly what my brothers do.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:04

Which is pretty cool.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:05

It is a I never want to do that nine to five grind, which is nothing wrong with it, but I think I had a pretty easy run. A lot of people struggled to get out of the army and find who they are. Lucky for me, I had that kind of like instant step into a group of dudes that like high-intensity sport where I'm traveling in the world, I'm fighting people with axes. So it kind of took my mind away from being a soldier. Like, I'm not a soldier, but I'm like, I'm traveling around fighting people. Like, what's better? Like, what is it? High intense, I made to make sure I'm fit, need to make sure my armor's good to go. I'm going to Finland, I'm going to Germany, I'm going to America. A lot of that. And I'm fighting, I travel all the time. I got uh world titles in Italy next year. So it's a lot of travel internationally for fights.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:49

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:49

Is it is that every year? Every year. Every year.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:52

Really, like professionally, you got into this, say 2000 when you left the defense.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:56

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Probably 2000, yeah, 23.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:58

Is there is there like a professional division or is there so that's that AMMA I'm talking about?

SPEAKER_06 1:34:03

Yep. And also the Armored League is another who I work with closely. They're getting they're getting to the point where, yeah, it is quite professional. Athletes get paid very well, but not well enough to be a full-time job just yet. Um, I'm able to be a professional in quotation marks because of my social media. Um, but it is getting to the point where things are going uh are ramping up. Like at the January next year, 16th of January, I got my deadly duos. So 2v2 tournament where myself and my buddy Colin take on France, UK, and uh the US on a 2v2 tournament, and that's like we're selling tickets, 800 tickets, you know, like it's paying the fighters, paying for their flights, um, obviously in conjunction with the armored league, but it's getting to the point where there is money in the spore and people are taking it very, very seriously. It's just growing. It's massive, it's blowing up, it's honestly blowing up.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:51

Now run me through what do you need? Like again, what do you need? To get into the sport or you can't just go on a team.

SPEAKER_06 1:35:01

Well, you can so to start the sport, you don't need anything because we do soft armor, which is like essentially like a foam sword.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:07

Laughing.

SPEAKER_06 1:35:08

Laughing, essentially, but it hurts, it's like a synthetic sword of hurts with a helmet and a shield or a two-handed uh soft, and we do 95% of our training in that equipment. It's still hot as fuck, you're still wrestling, you're still doing full contact. Um, so you can join a club for a year and just do that, but then the clubs will have armor for you to borrow for your first time in it. But there's a lot of people that you know, professionals who come in and they're like, Nope, I'm gonna buy a full set of armor. So yeah, it can happen. A full set of armor, looking at like five or six grand. Is it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Custom or is it just it's all built to you, but it's measured up and sent overseas to like Ukraine usually. Um is that where a lot of it comes from? A lot of it comes from Ukraine, yeah, yeah. Just because I think because the labour's cheaper than it would be here. So like a suit of armour made in Australia, like a good plate armor, not like proper steel, would be like 10 grand. Just maybe because of the market, the the black labouring? Yep, like a proper blacksmith. Proper blacksmith. And then if you want titanium, you're looking like 16k, something like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:05

And what sorry, what's the difference between oh, I know the difference between titan and the same.

SPEAKER_06 1:36:08

So steel, so steel, um, you want like a hardened steel, mild steel is bad because it's a is it's very soft, but absorbs most of the thing and it doesn't snap. Harden steel snaps, but is harder and blunt force. Blunt force. Um titanium is more fragile, but it's lighter, so it's half the weight of steel. So you still have the protection of steel, but it's half the weight. But cost. It's very expensive, but also you feel hits like when I get hit in my titan, my arm is all titanium apart from my shoulders, my helmet, and some of my hands. It hurts. It stings like a motherfucker because it's steel absorbs much more force than titanium.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:43

Yeah, and what about weapons off? What's the what's what's the go here?

SPEAKER_06 1:36:46

The weapons, so they all have to be historically accurate, so they need to be real steel. So they have to be like, there has to be like there's some sort of guideline. Manuscripts. So you've got manuscripts and there's like a there's a rule set of weights, lengths, and everything, and like the corners have to be a certain thickness, they have to be one mil steel. Yeah, um, so essentially they're just sledge hammers, thin hammers. You can think of it, they'll um, but you felt them, haven't you?

SPEAKER_01 1:37:06

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:37:08

Like that, that thing right there, that's that's the that's the I've absolutely palmed people with that.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:12

And that's like that's yeah. How heavy is that?

SPEAKER_06 1:37:15

That's like 3.2 kilos exactly. Is it? Yeah. The maximum weight you can have for. But just leveraging. It's crazy. Like 3.2 kilos doesn't sound like a lot, but when you're swinging like a metal tip at someone at the end of it, here we go.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:26

Yeah, it's hard, that's hardened. Yeah, that's that's hard. Just like a normal blade that's just not sharp.

SPEAKER_06 1:37:32

If you put a blue put a blade on that, that's a high, very, very, very, very, very high quality axe. Yeah. It yeah. Because that's hand forged steel.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:38

You'd probably want to be hit with a fucking sharp blade rather than a blunt one.

SPEAKER_06 1:37:42

100%, because you probably wouldn't feel it. You'd probably bleed out. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, that's a very like all the axes I have again made from a guy called hammer and scale. Hand forged steel, like that. Where's that? Uh, that is just in Dalesford, near kind of in Meredith, nearly like near Ballarat kind of. Oh, sick. Yeah, yeah. Oh, so some dude makes it like yeah. He used to be a fighter, he used to be in the sport. Oh, yeah, right. Full like blacksmith's blacksmith has weapon, Rob Haynes weapon, hammer and scale as a name is. Yeah, he makes sharp blades too. If you need a hunting axe, yeah, I'll get you one. Yeah, I'll get you on. I'll get one of these, but sharp. Dude, I'll I'll get you one. Yeah, I'll get you on. Yeah, sick. Because I sell axes. Yes, yeah, selling. That's that's a that's an S-right axe right there. Yeah, that's uh yeah, one of a kind. But yeah, they're home defense system. Well, yeah, I've got plenty of them. This is not it, that's not even half my I know.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:26

Imagine some poor pick breaking in is going, and you're just dressing fucking nightmare. Naked in a helmet, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:38:31

It's like what I was like, I hope, like, I leave weapons around a house because I hope. I leave weapons because I hope someone comes in and picks up one of these axes, right? Oh, then it's like a jewel. Well, like you think about it, you get some junkie come in with like an axe, right? I train every day to fight another person with an axe. You just throw one down in front of him. Yeah, I'd be like, go for it, yeah. Pick this up. It's like, and I like I know how to use this axe very, very well. You do not know how to use that axe. Because as soon as you put a weapon in someone's hand, they turn into a retail. Yeah, it's so funny. Like, you get all these heroes like, oh, I'd destroy if I'd get in that spawn. Like, I always call out the haters, but they never want to come down. No, never want to come down. I've seen it, and it's it's brutal. Oh, yeah. It's the most violent sport like in every world.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:09

Chucky sent me a message before, actually. He said, um, what'd he say? Something about watermelon and chicken. I think it was Chucky and Skojo. Uh no, they said we've got to fight you. He said someone said that you wanted to fight three people.

SPEAKER_06 1:39:25

I said I'd fight you, Chucky, and Skojo. Yeah, done. And if you get me down within three minutes, I'll give you all a sword.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:33

Yeah, I'll I'll I'll spend 15 grand on a fucking suit of armor.

SPEAKER_06 1:39:36

No, I've got armor for you.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:37

No, I'll just do it.

SPEAKER_06 1:39:38

Okay, do it. Do it.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:39

Just I've got it as well.

SPEAKER_06 1:39:39

Yeah, it is cool to have. You know what I mean? Like, look at this, yeah. They got armor, like it's armor everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:43

Yeah, because we bought swords the other week. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was sick.

SPEAKER_06 1:39:48

But yeah, there's yeah, it's addictive. Like, I've got weapons everywhere in the house. Like you see, there's a sword there.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:52

And so that that helmet that's all forged by someone.

SPEAKER_06 1:39:55

Forged, yeah. Ukrainian uh forged steel. Yeah, so that's my that's my current helmet. Um, and yeah, all armor's consumable because it yeah, pick it up. That's fucking insane.

unknown 1:40:07

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_06 1:40:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:10

Is this the one you is this the one you wore the other day?

SPEAKER_06 1:40:12

Yeah, it's my that's my that's my helmet, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:14

And it's just padding on the inside. Yeah, yeah. Fuck that's not much padding though. It's like yeah, it's basically it's almost like a fucking baseball glove.

SPEAKER_06 1:40:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like a it's got a coif. That's heavy. Yeah. What's that weight? 6.2 kilos. Yeah, and you got and you got that and that's on your head. That's why like if you see my neck, my neck is just absolutely just And you can hit someone in the head with one of those fucking.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:35

As hard as you can.

SPEAKER_06 1:40:36

You can see big dents in it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, as hard as you can. What you just made that up? Uh hardened steel. Uh it'd be spring, spring steel.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:44

Fucking hell. That's cool. That's next level. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:40:49

It's I honestly think it's the most it's the most violent, but it's the most combat um most realist combat sport you can do. Because it not only are you working in a team, yeah, but you're using weapons. Yeah. And you're not always like, you gotta have good situational awareness. That's half my training is looking left and right. Oh, hit someone left and right, hit someone left and right. Communications is used too, so you gotta because you can't hear anything in your helmet, so you gotta use words like we got catchphrases when you want to get someone to like let go, like hands off, hands off, and you gotta scream it, so your mate will let go and you can just pepper them with axes. Yeah, I think we saw some of that. Yeah, I hit my mate's hand, Harrison. Yeah, I saw that. Sorry about that, Harrison.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:27

He was yeah, not happy about that. Now, like you said, the sport is getting bigger. Yeah, um, you know, I'm assuming when you do these overseas ones, you're fighting again. The one we saw, I'm sure there was a couple of fucking LARPers there that thought they were keep ledger, but they weren't, which we saw. They got knocked out pretty quick. But when you go to these overseas ones, you're fighting dudes that are they're weapons, and these dudes are spending money as well. So they're training every day. They've got the titanium shit and all the all the Gucci.

SPEAKER_06 1:41:54

Like they're like, for example, there's a fighter, plenty of fighters around the world, and if I don't mention you, I'm sorry, there's a guy called Johnny Porter and Emil Guz. They're both uh one's Polish, one's um US. They're middleweight champions of the world in 1v1 and they train everyone's weight class, yeah, for 1v1s.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:11

Yep.

SPEAKER_06 1:42:12

Um, and they're MMA fighters, like they're absolute athletes, and they uh at the skill level is crazy. Like there's that league, I'll get I'll show you after this, but the AMMA league is insane. It's just US AMMA, so armored MMA.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:27

I'm just gonna Google it.

SPEAKER_06 1:42:28

Yeah, it's um it's like I guess it's the closest thing we have is to a full professional league, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:42:34

Yeah, so this will be the the the top league.

SPEAKER_06 1:42:36

I'd say the top league because the fighters that are fighting in it are extremely good. Uh most of them anyway. There's some people that are doing the expedition fights, but um who's this governed by uh a guy called Mick Mickey is a is um they run this called Nashville Armoured Combat. Uh they're good, they uh really good people. I'm friends with them, they're awesome. Mickey and Kelsey, they run it and uh yeah, they just started off, they grew at small little cage fights and it's growing into huge. Um, same with a guy in Twomba called Dave Malloy, who I'm working with my Tv2 uh competition in January. He runs a Fight Night as well in Twomba. Uh so yeah, they're popping up everywhere. But the AMMA is probably the most um well done at the moment. The Armored League, who I work with a lot of the time, they're like they're my main guys. They um they're great and they've got great production value, it's just their fighters aren't there yet. They do get awesome events, like one of events that have the world-class fighters, and they're amazing shows. Um but it's it's it kind of sprinkled in because they're like, hey, this is like a show. Uh, we want to show people armored combat. So it's a bit of a difference between the two, but there's always every every time there's business, there's always competition. There's always of course, yeah, yeah. There's always a political thing going on.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:47

So yeah, especially because it's such a new new thing-ish.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:50

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:43:51

Uh so yeah, Armored Never May is the one you want to be watching um for high quality, as well as the Armored League does have awesome stuff with my Deadly Duos and uh everything like that. So big shout-out to those two organizations. They probably don't like each other, but go check them out.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:06

So, what's the one you're doing in January?

SPEAKER_06 1:44:07

Uh, the one in January is uh it's called the Sam Rides Deadly Duos. So it's a 2v2 tournament. So I invented this rule set.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:13

Oh, so this is your tournament? This is me. I'm I'm running it. So it's like that's uh and then you're flying in athletes from the best athletes. Yeah, yeah, so the armored league.

SPEAKER_06 1:44:21

Yeah, so the armored league, um, which is what I'm doing it with, they're flying in the fighters and everything like that. We do the ticket sales, we organise the event. Um, so we're flying in the best duos and that we can. And we've we did the first one at the start of this year in New York City sellout event. Um, so I thought um This will sell out. Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:39

The the people that were at that medieval fair in Newcastle was next level.

SPEAKER_06 1:44:43

Dude, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:44

There were thousands of people.

SPEAKER_06 1:44:46

Yeah, yeah. Well, this is gonna be the first, I don't want to say the most well done because it hasn't been done yet, but in Australia, this will be the most professional, well done, ticketed event for this sport done.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:55

In Brisbane?

SPEAKER_06 1:44:56

In Brizzy, 16th of January. Whereabouts? Mansfield Tavern. Where where can people there'll be I've got a link. Um is it up yet? It is up, it is up. I'll send link.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:06

Is there a website?

SPEAKER_06 1:45:07

There is a website, I'll send it to you right now. If you go on to, I might just text it to you.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:11

KeithLedger.com.

SPEAKER_06 1:45:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, uh lick my anus or anthia. Yeah, I'll send it to you in the I'll send you in a text message, just so you've got it there. Or do you want your Instagram? We've got your. So this uh while you're doing that, so this armored league um Deadly Duos is run by B. It's my rule set I invented because I don't like 1v1 fighting in armored sport. I fought 1v1 my whole life in the fact of like boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, and I fell in love with the team aspect of Boohoo. Like you're working with your mate and you're fighting on. But to try to fly teams around, because a five-man tournament is an eight-man team, it's very expensive. Especially with the equipment, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:00

16 kilos, yeah, quantus 32 kilos. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:46:03

Yeah, I'm gonna take two bags everywhere I go, and weapons, and they're long.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:07

And how do you do that?

SPEAKER_06 1:46:09

You just let them know. Usually you put it because they're blunt weapons. You go in there and be like, oh, these are just blunt weapons.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:13

That's all oversized as well. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:46:15

So you've got an oversized bag and then a golf bag. Yeah, or like a surfboard bag is really pretty good. Um, but yeah, I invented it because I wanted to do more team fighting but make it an event so people can watch. So I invented this 2v2 rule set. I wrote the wrote the rules myself. Um, so essentially what happens is when you're fighting in a 2v2, the way to get the other person out or win the round is you've got to pin them on the ground, but actively ground and pound for 10 seconds. So you have to strike them with your weapons or your hands or your fists for 10 seconds. Oh, so it's not like the other one where as soon as you get knocked to the ground, it's finished. Yeah. But this one's like you've got 10 seconds of dominating position for 10 seconds of ground up, continuous striking. And then that person with fists or with weapons, whatever. Whatever you can, like knee dropping, anything you can do. And then, say my other person is still fighting, then the person I ground up over 10 seconds is out, he's gonna stay down. Then it goes to a two v1, and then the rule set changes back to the three points of contact to the ground. So when it's a one versus two, only way to get someone out on either side is by three points of contact to the ground, by throwing or knocking them out. So that gives the one in the one v2 uh opportunity to get the advantage back to a one v1. Yeah, and then if it goes back to a one v1, then it goes back to the 10 seconds ground and pound for victory. Um, so that's the rule set in a nutshell.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:31

Yeah, sorry, I'm just having a look at this.

SPEAKER_06 1:47:37

It should be a full yeah, tickets are up, you can pick your seats, there's seated, there's ringside, um, reserve seating, and then standing.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:48

Yeah, so I'm just looking at ringside tickets. 208 bucks is pretty fucking cheap. Yeah, honestly.

SPEAKER_06 1:47:53

Well, it's it's um it's gonna be a full bar behind everyone, there's a full bar, they're gonna be doing turkey legs, so they're gonna be there's gonna be full meat, full meat off the bar. Medieval type style. And they've got a mead sponsor coming in, so it'll be mead, meat off the legs. It's gonna be a really fun time. And the 2v2 fighting is honestly very fun to watch. Yeah, because it's two guys just feeding each other, and then if my mate's getting ground a pound, I can spear tackle or cross-check him off my mate, so I can help my mate get up, I can kick him off, side-checking him in the back of the head with an axe.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:24

Um, yeah, right. Well, for the listener, Sam Ride and Tears. Tears? Tear Warriors, yeah. Tear Warriors present the Armored League Australia Deadly Duos to Brisbane. Yeah. Saturday, 16th of January, kicks off at 5 pm. Head to what website is it? Uh, Oztix. Yeah, OzTyx. Head to OzTix and just type that in. I'm gonna tag, we'll tag it all in there.

SPEAKER_06 1:48:47

Yeah, target in the yeah, get it all sorted.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:50

Um, I reckon I'll be there. I reckon Chuck will come and I think we're all planning to come anyway.

SPEAKER_06 1:48:55

Come on up. Yeah, it'll be a fun time. I'll get you in the ring because we've got some a spare armor line around. Tell you what. That'd be funny. After the fight, I'm like, you up. Yeah, that black guy up here. No one else. I'll probably get fed like last time. I ran the event in uh New York City and I came second. The two guys at one uh UK fighters, his name's Bo Mill, like massive dude, excellent fighter. He's like 30 and he's like 31 and zero in like his wins in 1v1. Yep. He there's this footage of me, this him on top of me, this fucking ground and pounding me in the face because he's huge, because the weight limit for this one is 85 kilos and under one fighter, the other fighter 85 kilos and over. So that's the weight categories for the two fighters.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:38

And that's for just one v1 only.

SPEAKER_06 1:49:40

No, that's that is for my event, that's a two v2. So for the teams, one fighter has to be under 85 and the other team has to be over 85.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:47

Oh, okay, gotcha, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:49:48

Yeah, so that's for the 2v2.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, but when you do those big large scales ones, it's just yeah, it's like footweight. Because there was a couple of fucking monsters in that last one, yeah. Like six foot six dudes.

SPEAKER_06 1:49:57

Yeah, dude. Usually when you fight these guys called the Prague Trolls, huge dudes. Prague trolls. They're huge. Obviously from Prague, believe it or not. But uh, yeah, they're massive dudes. Their smallest fight is six three, I think.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:50:09

And fighting them is, and then you're squaring off with them and you're in the Australian Tabar and you see these absolute behemoths walking towards you with axe.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:16

Like, oh shit, this is real. This is yeah, yeah. So for you, this is gonna gauge where the next event's gonna be, you know, you know from here, like you're you're probably gonna establish your own sort of tournament here in Australia that's uh you know continuing theme.

SPEAKER_06 1:50:31

100%. I wanna I wanna do 2v2s 100%. There'd be 1v1s as well. But it's getting to the point where like oh I'm 35, I did an Korean army, my body's pretty shot as it is. Um, I'm doing well just to be able to compete with these guys right now. Like, I want to kind of continue this on, and something like this really would bring light to the sport, and we need more people in the sport, more people, more people fighting, there's money in, more engagement.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:56

Um it's it's gonna be live stream, not live streaming.

SPEAKER_06 1:50:58

I think it will be live streamed. It will be live streamed. I think it'll be live streamed, and I think there'll be like a geo block. So you can't if you're like within 80k's, you can't stream it, you have to come see or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but yeah, I think it will be live streamed, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:12

Yeah, pay like twenty bucks. It'll be something like a main event.

SPEAKER_06 1:51:14

It'll be biscuits, it'll be nothing. Because we we don't really want to make a lot of money from this. We just want to make it really, really good. Um, just to show like this is a sport, you can get into it. Um And I just can't wait to bash people in front of my hometown. It's gonna be so good, dude. It's so good. It's gonna be so because I that's the axe I'm using that one, that glaze, the middle black one. That's the one you had last week or the week before, yeah. Yeah. So we chop it. And then my mate Colin what rolls a shield and sword and just is it your preferred, is it? Yeah, the two-hander, yeah. I just like the I like to wrestle with uh we have hand free uh and as well as the damage you can do.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:47

Can you use those um the mace looking ones?

SPEAKER_06 1:51:50

The flail? Yeah. No, you can't. You can't. No, you can't. We'll tend to change the rules. We'll tend to talk to the boss too. Dude, that'll be cool. Well, actually, it's more dangerous to the user than the enemy, apparently, they said.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:59

Because he hits it.

SPEAKER_06 1:52:00

Yeah, because it bounces off and like hits your wrist or something.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:52:02

But apparently that's like a fantasy weapon. Is it a bombing knocker, whatever? Flail. Yeah. Because it was like a I think it's a uh an old rice stirrer, like any nutshell to be rice stirrers. I think it's like an adaptation of that.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:14

Like because you could scale this up to, you know, I'm doing I'm thinking business here, scale scale it up and then have your own medieval festival. Because it, like I said, that festival fucking killed it. And it was like 50 bucks a ticket or something like that.

SPEAKER_06 1:52:26

Yeah, what's that for the one day? That's the that's the goal. We got four more fights lined up from this event at Mansfield Tavern.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:52:31

So we got four more fights scaled up, and then we're gonna do a 5v5 tournament. So the grand prize will be 10 grand for the team to win.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:52:38

So that we'll be inviting best teams in America, best team from Europe, and everyone coming into Australia to fight. Um, and that'll be on hopefully we can get a stadium. That'll be a big indoor arena or something. Yeah, like indoor arena like that. Boogle Entertainment or something. Something like that, something crazy like that. Yeah, because um, when we did the one in New York City at the start of the year, sell out event. Absolutely sell out. It was line out the how many people? Like 800, something like that, something crazy. It was absolutely sellout event. And um, yeah, it's just weird that a random guy from Australia made a random rule set, and now it's yeah, it's very bizarre. Everyone's like, How are you the guy? I was like, I don't know. I just tried heaps and then it succeeded. Um, but yeah, it's very cool, it's very exciting. But yeah, armored league, deadly duos. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:25

Stay tuned for that. Listen, like I said, head to that uh OzTix and type in those details, get some tickets and uh yeah, get into it.

SPEAKER_06 1:53:32

It's gonna be it's gonna be a sick time, honestly. It's gonna be fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:35

I wish I was watching turkey legs and yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:53:37

I'll try to get some wenches and some chain mail, yeah, some big titty chain mail. I'm hoping, yeah, I'm hoping. I've I'm looking around. So if you've got some large breesticles and don't mind some chain mail, hit me up, outside Instagram. Obviously, Samantha, that's just business. But um I'm all about it.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:52

Yeah, all about it. Yeah, I think it's really cool, mate. Uh again, I've seen it and uh we were impressed.

SPEAKER_06 1:53:56

We're just like, yes, yeah, it's it's just it's a very different thing seeing it like, oh no, these guys are out to kill each other. Yeah, which is cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:03

And also, like outside of you know the the boo heart stuff, you're you're into the tactical, you know, you get your sandroid tactical shooting side as well, which is uh which is blowing up as well.

SPEAKER_06 1:54:13

Blowing up, it's gone crazy. I think because I wasn't a massive CV shooter before I left, like I shot obviously a lot before I joined the army. I had no idea what a 308 was, I had no idea what like you know what a 6'5 Creedmore was, had no idea. So I started my channel to kind of help veterans get into shooting. Because, like, you know, you get in the army, you shoe like 762 machine guns, grenade launches, 84 mil, beanacal gustoffs. You think you're a weapon, but you go into a CV gun shop and you look like a retard. Yeah, you're like, what does what is that? Yeah, it's like it's a bolt action. It's like, yeah, but what does it shoot? It's like, yeah, two, two, three, you're like, what is that? It's like, oh well, could be this, could be that, like at 80, like 55 grain. You're like, what the fuck does that mean? I just got given a bullet and I shot it, you know what I mean? So I started my channel to try and get more people like educated about guns as well as help veterans in. But also, everyone in Australia, in my opinion, should have a gun license.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:04

100%.

SPEAKER_06 1:55:04

Everyone should have a gun license, even if it's just a double barrel or even a bolt action, a little 22 for your kids. The more education we have about firearms, the less scary it is. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:13

And there's nothing scary about them.

SPEAKER_06 1:55:14

Yeah, just don't shoot anybody. Yeah, like it's not that. Don't be terrorists. Yeah, don't go to Bondi. Yeah, like it's pretty easy. Yeah. Um, that was my main thing. And now I'm blowing up like with range of point precision. I'm getting like pulsar, Zero Tech, all these people are sponsoring me gear and they want me to do it. And it's just amazing. Like it's it's honestly, it's really good. It takes off the stress from my boot hurt channel because I can make money shooting and then I can focus on actually fighting in boot hurt, which is really good.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:41

Which, yeah, for shooting is fun. It's the best. It's such a good, especially if you come from the military world and you know you try and find a hobby. It is a great hobby as well. Well, you get out and build your own guns and yeah, and learning about it.

SPEAKER_06 1:55:53

Go hunting, yeah, hang out with the boys. Like the best thing I did is I went to my first ever Civi range maybe a year ago. And then at this time you could only put one round in and you couldn't use a magazine. You can only put one round in at a time, super, super lame. And then I was going there and I was a bit nervous. And then my mate Congy was there, who I served with 8-9. He's like, Ronnie, what are you doing? I was like, Thank fuck, bro. I had no idea what he was doing. But now me and him beating up, we've got this group of like 15 vets, and we just go out shooting, hanging out all the time. Yeah. Um, and it's it's absolutely insane. Which started me and Benjamin, mostly Ben doing all the paperwork. We started this non-for-profit called Beyond Service, and where we it's like a hunting group where we now have insurance and licenses to be able to take veterans, even if they don't have a shooting license, out hunting with us and like do fitness out there, do PT, do a bit of shooting, bit of hunting and camping. And we can get veterans, you know, into the realm of shooting their own food and hunting and just getting back to like getting dirty, you know, getting dirty out and camping. And it's like lamping, you know, you'll we'll have solar panels, like it'll it'll be nice. Men and women, so it it's yeah, it's a very exciting time. That's cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:01

That's cool. That's cool. Yeah, we'll we're gonna have to link up for a shoot. Oh, right.

SPEAKER_06 1:57:05

Well then truly uh overdue.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:07

Yeah, I've uh got a few bang sticks which you can definitely uh have a crack at.

SPEAKER_06 1:57:11

Yeah, that big slugger, yeah, the Coke bottle.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:15

Uh and obviously, mate, that that that kind of just leads us to the current day now. This is this is what you're doing. Yeah, too hurt. You're a social media influencer.

SPEAKER_06 1:57:24

I it's bizarre to say it is kind of getting to that point where I have to say that that when they ask me what I do for my job. Like they ask me what do you do? And I'm like, fuck, I don't know. I make videos and people tell me to kill myself. Like I saw that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:38

And I I get I get them all the time as well.

SPEAKER_06 1:57:40

I get, I get, I think it's a big thing if you want to do social media. Like you've got to put up with that if you really want it. Like, I put up with like probably 17 to 20 hate messages a day.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:51

Do you? Yeah. That much.

SPEAKER_06 1:57:52

Yeah, yeah. Even and on my shooting channels, even more now. Yeah, I saw that.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:55

But I saw someone winched the other day, like, oh, why is he holding the magazine grip on? Yeah, like it's it's pump action. As soon as you touch that, I've got a pump, yeah, you know, a type hand. As soon as you touch that pump, it cracks that fucking bolt. Yeah. So it won't fire.

SPEAKER_06 1:58:08

The hero. And the Americans are like, oh, you're govern you're getting cucked by a government. It's like, I guarantee if your government arked up, mate, you wouldn't say a fuck on it. Yeah. But yeah, I get hatred every single day. Every single day. And like the amount of death threats is crazy. Yeah, I get a few. Especially just from but the Boo Hurt channel, which is bizarre. Is it? I'm a I'm a knight, I'm a guy fighting an army, and you're telling me to kill myself because that's not real fighting. Just challenge them. Yeah, I do. I do. I was like, sick, dude, come on down. Here's my gym. Come fight me. Yeah, no one. Never, no one ever I always tell him, I was like, it's it's all it's make this happen. Never. If you're out there, come on.

SPEAKER_01 1:58:41

Yeah, I'm really like you said, mate, like if you are moving into that social media world, you just gotta expect it.

SPEAKER_06 1:58:48

Yeah. Well, I ignored it for a very long time.

SPEAKER_01 1:58:50

And now you post it up now. Now I throw it up by it.

SPEAKER_06 1:58:53

I throw it up now and I and I love it. And the people love it. They're like, feed those pricks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:58:58

It's always the the the weird ones, too.

SPEAKER_06 1:59:01

Yeah, it's the ones that probably don't even hunt. That's the big thing. It's the it's the it's the the backseat shooters that are the worst.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:06

They're like, oh, okay, if you put your shot on the wrong shot, I can get this.

SPEAKER_06 1:59:09

When's the last time you wearing shooters? I'll hold your gun like this.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:11

Like, man, I'll hold it how I feel comfortable.

SPEAKER_06 1:59:13

Yeah, it's like I'm not a SEAL team six bloody C gripper.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:16

But even all they're different, you know, they all hold their guns different. Yeah, you shoot your gun how you feel comfortable shooting. You wear your equipment exactly how you feel comfortable. I know plenty of people that have weird orthodox methods of shooting guns. I'm like, how's that fucking work? And I try it like that, it doesn't work for me, but this works for me.

SPEAKER_06 1:59:32

Yeah, everyone's an expert these days. That's the issue with the internet. There's too much information going out there. So as soon as someone reads something, they think they're an expert on it. Like I read once that you need a six-five creebork and shoot the moon. It's like sick, bro. Like, I don't give a fuck.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:46

Like, yeah, fuck, I don't get but uh like I said, mate, it's it's growing, which is good. It's good to see not only the you know the shooting stuff, but the boohead stuff. It's good to see that it's really getting big and starting to people are starting to get into it now, which you know that's good.

SPEAKER_06 2:00:00

It's really cool. More controlled violence is what's needed in this society. Yeah, more controlled violence is what I think is very much lacking in society, like it's getting there, like the good the MMA scene, blowing up BJJ, probably one of the fastest growing sports. That's 100% controlled violence. Um, it definitely makes you reconsider your life choices when a 40 kilo ringing wit wet female can choke you out in two seconds. Like it's like, holy shit, I am not prepared for this. Yeah, yeah, it's scary, mate.

SPEAKER_01 2:00:32

Uh well, I guess we've moved on to the final part of the podcast. Oh, yeah, we are ready. Yeah, a couple of couple of final questions again, mate. I really appreciate your allowing me into your into your safe space. My dojo. Heaps of knives, they're sick.

SPEAKER_06 2:00:46

Yeah, they're nice, they're good ones. That's an African Messiah knife, whatever they are.

SPEAKER_01 2:00:49

Is it? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, all right.

SPEAKER_06 2:00:51

Yeah, no big deal.

SPEAKER_01 2:00:52

But uh yeah, no, I appreciate you. And obviously sharing your your you know, your life story, like you said, you know, your military career wasn't all war fighting and you know, like majority of the guests I've had on the podcast. Yeah, the Hamish McLaughlin. Yeah, yeah, shooting dudes in the face, all this stuff. Like even I'm jealous of that. I'm like, fuck, that's sick. So nope. But you know, i like I said, everyone's got a uh a career path, everyone's got their own own life to live. You've lived your life, and now you moved into you know, something that majority of people with leaving defense would have no idea. It's bizarre. It's you wouldn't have thought this 15 years ago when you joined the army that you're gonna be into the social media space no, not at all, fucking fighting, you know, Heath Ledger and Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Like it's just it's madness. But appreciate you coming on. But before we before we crack off, mate, uh, a couple of final questions. What advice can you give to people just to keep on keeping on complete any goal they set their mind to and to crush it in life?

SPEAKER_06 2:01:46

My biggest thing is just keep trying. Like you like I say to everyone that comes into the gym and they get upset they're not as good as they thought you were. You don't go to the gym already good, you go to the gym to get better, and that's that should be everything you do in life. You never start off good. Took me eight, it took me seven years to make any type of money in social media, seven long years, and I just kept trying it and I loved it. So be yourself, don't try and be something you're not, because you will fail if you try and be something you're not. Um, authenticity is key. Um, and you know, uh yeah, just keep just don't listen to the backseat um drivers, is essentially what you're saying. Yeah, yeah. Don't listen to them.

SPEAKER_01 2:02:29

Like you said, don't listen to them, and who cares what people think? Exactly. Fuck them, fuck them. I think Warhammer's absolutely raging homo.

SPEAKER_06 2:02:36

Yeah, it's the best, bro. You love it. It's the best. I love Pokemon. Yeah, I love Pokemon 2. Yeah, Pokemon 6. Let's go with Pokemon 6. Yeah, I've actually got a fucking manifold next door. Oh yeah, I'll check that out. Fuck yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_01 2:02:47

But uh, yeah, like like you said, just go for it. Just do it. Yeah, just do it, don't care. Do what you love doing. Yeah, simple, isn't it?

SPEAKER_06 2:02:54

It it honestly is it simple, but people do get in their own head a lot. They do that a lot. It's like, oh, I'm not good at it, or people are gonna pay me out because I'm talking to the camera. Took me like a year to get comfortable talking to the camera. Fuck, just do it. And now all I do is do it. Yeah, yeah, and get paid to do it. Yeah, it's so good. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 2:03:09

Uh, second question, actually, just on that, uh if people want to get into the boo hurt world, what what like where do you go? Do you type online or do you go online?

SPEAKER_06 2:03:18

It's simple as Googling Boo Hurt Clubs near me, or you can email the AMCF, the Australian Medieval Combat Federation. Uh, you can email them directly uh and they can send you to your closest club. Or you can DM me on Instagram, Sr I'd, but I'm pretty bad at replying.

SPEAKER_00 2:03:32

So yeah, really bad.

SPEAKER_01 2:03:34

Yeah, yeah, cool. Um second question what scares you most in life?

SPEAKER_06 2:03:38

Ooh, okay. Now that I'm a dad, um not being there for my son, uh that's the big one. Um and then I guess the non-big one would be falling into a swimming pool in my medieval armour.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:51

Ooh.

SPEAKER_06 2:03:51

Yeah, that's scary. I think about that too much. Can we try this? Well, yeah, if you had like a pulley system, we'll have lifesavers there and stuff. I just don't know. Do I take my helmet off first? Like, do you know that's that that's that is my biggest fear. It's falling into a pool. That's content terrifying to think about it. That's content though. Do I have the strength to jump up to grab the side? Probably not.

SPEAKER_01 2:04:10

We'll just have like two or three blokes in the pool so they can lift you up. You know, yeah, yeah. But we would give you at least a you know, at least a minute to figure it out for yourself.

SPEAKER_06 2:04:17

Dude, it's terrible like you've got straps like that.

SPEAKER_01 2:04:20

That would be wild, isn't it? Because that's like in saying it, you said that helmets 16 kilos. Oh, six kilos, six kilos. Six kilos. How much is your your full armor?

SPEAKER_06 2:04:28

40 kilos, 35 kilos, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:04:29

So you're yeah, you're sinking.

SPEAKER_06 2:04:31

Yeah, like imagine falling into a river, muddy river trying to get it. Which has happened, don't you?

SPEAKER_01 2:04:36

Back, I'm sure, in the 40 years, yeah, yeah. Battle magic, yeah, yeah. Yeah, when they were fighting.

SPEAKER_06 2:04:40

That's that terrifies me more than anything. Apart from my son, I love my son, but falling into a pool.

SPEAKER_01 2:04:46

With those helmets, they just come straight off.

SPEAKER_06 2:04:48

They got a buck got two buckles. There is a buckle under there. Chin and under chin and underneath.

SPEAKER_01 2:04:53

So that's terrifying. Oh fuck, we'll have to line this up.

SPEAKER_06 2:04:57

I've got one right there. Oh, yeah, I know. We're on. Yeah, like but the good thing about my pool is like I can walk out because it's not too much of a hard thing.

SPEAKER_01 2:05:05

So Brisbane River's not too far.

SPEAKER_06 2:05:07

That terrifies me, dude. It's just yeah, you see your fate coming. Yeah, you would, yeah. You'd see your fate coming. What about you? I'll ask you one. What's your biggest fear?

SPEAKER_01 2:05:16

Oh, my biggest fear is um it's not living old enough to see my kids grow up. Yeah, you know what I mean? That's that's that's the biggest thing, you know. It's so it's crazy because the other week uh my daughter's one of her friends she went to daycare with, her dad passed away suddenly. Yeah. Um and you know, she's the same age, obviously seven years, six or seven years old. And six, seven.

SPEAKER_06 2:05:45

Yeah, fuck up. You are a dad. I'm just new to her.

SPEAKER_01 2:05:49

Yeah, six seven. Um and you know, like that poor girl's now gonna grow up, and uh her you know, her sister and older sister are gonna grow up with no dad, you know. Like it's just I just feel like you just need to see them grow up first. And it's the I think the biggest fear would be losing one of them. That I which you know, I did a podcast with Jason Hiscox, um SES guy, and he's uh you know, he's two, three-year-old drowned in a pool. Man, it was it was the roughest thing I've ever done. Tell you what. That's what and then like every single cop I've had on the podcast that's done a rescue and been to a scenario with kids, it's just fuck man, like it's just that like I I bug tearing.

SPEAKER_06 2:06:29

I'm thinking about that. I couldn't even possibly bro, man.

SPEAKER_01 2:06:32

You fuck, you ought to listen to it because it was it was heavy. It was heavy. But uh yeah, that's probably my biggest fear um at the end of the day. At the end of the day, like I guess your your your directional life changes when you have kids and blah blah blah. You know, in the younger days, probably would have been you know, the the story would have been different for me, but yeah, it's definitely that. Yeah, definitely 100%. Um third question, tell us something about you people don't know. Guilty obsession.

SPEAKER_06 2:07:01

I love a ciggy. I don't know, that's pretty well known knowledge. I think that's pretty well known knowledge, which is wild because you're a fitness man. Yeah, I know. I just love them. I just love them. I don't know. I think that's I could be I'm pretty transparent, everything. I was married uh to a whore. That the most respectful way she was the only fan star. Very wealthy, very wealthy. Very wealthy, yeah. Yeah, right. That's something people might not know. I don't know if I could say that. If you know who you are, you know who you are. She would she wouldn't listen to this anyway, but uh yeah, that's that's something. Was that your first marriage? That's my first marriage. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Not this one. I was like, oh Samantha. Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah. That's a big one. Oh shit. Got cheated on in that one, so yeah. Could see why. Yeah, I wonder why. Yeah, should have seen it coming, you know. Gee.

SPEAKER_01 2:07:47

Tullia sex tape. There's massive money in that stuff. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_06 2:07:50

I think 1.6 million the first year she did it. 1.6 million. Bro, insane. Samantha's pissed I didn't take half. She's mad at me for not taking up. She brings it up all the time. She brings it up all the time. Yeah. She's funny. She's funny about that. Retrospective? Yeah, yeah, retrospective divorce. That's a thing. Is it a thing? Will we? Uh or think about retrospectively. Uh Vetcomp. Uh Vetcomp. All right.

SPEAKER_01 2:08:13

Let's uh quickly have a chat about Vetcomp now. Uh, yeah, I'm I'm I'm I'm now affiliated with uh Vetcomp.

SPEAKER_06 2:08:19

They are a veteran-owned and operated uh DVA claims specialist team. They're honestly the best. They um what makes them so good is like, yes, they're veterans, and I serve personally with Zach, the director. Great bloke, he's got a good rig on him, by the way. Looking good, looking good, Zach. Um they they go through your medical docs and they don't just pick up your medical docs and throw it to the wall and expect it to stick, right? They go through everything with a fine like comb and they make sure it's all good and actually related for you. They're not taking the piss like other companies that are just trying to make a buck. Um, but yeah, they're com honestly, if you're having trouble with your DVA claims, if you're nervous about it, if you don't know what's going on, go hit them up. They're honestly the best. Um, and also on that, don't be don't hold off too long on them because it's gonna get to a point in your life where you wish you had the support you could have, uh, and it's they're just a free phone call away.

SPEAKER_01 2:09:12

So yeah, yeah, exactly right. And uh, you know, I've uh I've started dealing with them and absolutely awesome guys too. And what I love about it is they're young, they understand the system, yeah, and that they just want the best for the person that they're working for, that that that they're consulting for. Because we know that uh, you know, the the DVA process can be and it's taken life. So the worst part is it has taken lives that DBA process. Yeah. Um so obviously what they do is they help you, you know, and for the listener out there, if you're currently serving, yeah, make sure every single injury, this is a hot tip. Tip for young players, every single injury, it could be a you could be LARPing in uh, you know, the geospatial space and you've cut your figure. Yeah, paper cut.

SPEAKER_06 2:09:59

Paper cut.

SPEAKER_01 2:10:00

List it. Go to the RAP, get it, put in your bed docs. 100%. Absolutely everything, because we know for a fact, especially you know, the combat core guys. Yeah, uh you even just spending four years in defence as an infantryman is like the damage it does on your body.

SPEAKER_05 2:10:15

Your body's 60 years old when you get out.

SPEAKER_01 2:10:16

Trust me, when you get out, you'll feel it. I feel it now. I wake up in the morning. Like it we'll, you know, we're literally outside before talking about your you're like, oh, should I get a rooftop tent? Or something, man, like bro, you need a rooftop tent. I'm at the stage, I'll get to the stage where I cannot get off the ground. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? So I've got a rooftop tent for that reason, and it's all because of the life in the military that absolutely destroyed me. So if you're young tip for young players out there, document everything, document absolutely every injury, in on the job, if you're outside on the piss and you get punched in the face, get it go the RAP, get it logged in because it's all all relevant.

SPEAKER_06 2:10:49

And don't be ashamed to do the process as well. A lot of guys think I'm a weak cunt, I fuck it, I don't need this conversation. It's not like that at all. It's like if you get help from DVA, right? It's not only you who benefit from it, it's your family as well. Exactly right. So not only financially, but they can get you put you in avenues to help you with your mental health. Correct. Even with even with financial help, right? Correct. They can help you in all these other avenues. It doesn't directly just help you, it helps the people around you. Because if you've got a bad mental health issue and you're a cunt to everyone, and you know, you're not doing anyone any favors. Exactly. And you can help yourself, help your family by going to people like VETCOM and doing your DVA process.

SPEAKER_01 2:11:28

Yep, exactly right, exactly right. And you know, like you said, it's not all about you know the conversation that you you can get out of it, it's also about covering those injuries. Like you said, getting a white card or a gold card where you can go to the physio, you can go see the doctor for your specific injury, and it's all covered. Yep. DVA, it's all covered by the government, so it should be. No cap. No, yeah, no cap anymore. That's that's been dropped, you know. Uh typical fucking Labour government with their bullshit that they come up with. Big topic. Yeah, definitely reach out to vetcompet vetcomp.com.au. Yeah. There's a link in my phone, check it out. 0731327887. That's the phone number.

SPEAKER_06 2:12:09

Oh, is that one? Yeah, check it out. Well, there's a link in my S Ride tactical page, you can go straight through there as well. Correct. And one on mine as well.

SPEAKER_01 2:12:17

Yeah, there you go. So definitely, definitely check it out and uh reach out to them. Um what is the next question? Where are we at? We're with the second question, third question. Tell us something about you that people don't know. Yeah, you said smoking, it's gotta be something. Food or anything? Because you're a fitness. I love chocolate.

SPEAKER_06 2:12:35

I love chocolate. I eat chocolate all the time. Black chocolate or yeah, I love a bit of brown sugar, a lot of brown chocolate. Not dark, plain real chocolate. I'm trying to think. I'm a boring guy. I feel like I'm boring. Um, I love chocolate, like ciggies. Don't drink much at all. You should stop smoking though. I have like one cigar, I have one a week. Just cut it. Nah, cut it.

unknown 2:12:53

Nah.

SPEAKER_06 2:12:54

You will. I will. I don't recommend anything. And you will be a kid because if a kid says you smoke, it's not it's not a good look. I've been doubted by the dad. I've been doubted. He's disappointed if you're not sure.

SPEAKER_01 2:13:03

He's saying that I do smoke cigars. Yeah, I pump cigars so pump cigars all the time, and the kids are like, oh, you're smoking again. I'm like, bro, it's different. And there's a class. Or get mouth cancer, not throat cancer.

SPEAKER_06 2:13:14

Relax. My dad always says I like my cigars to be rolled on the thighs of virgin nuns. Like, all right, dad. He also says you need to be. I'm kidding. That's a joke, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 2:13:27

Uh mate's uh fourth question. Movie TV show. What's your what's your go to?

SPEAKER_06 2:13:32

Go to the gentleman for TV show. The new one? The TV show, yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:13:36

I haven't I'd literally just downloaded on my phone to watch on the flight. So I'm gonna watch the first set, I think, on the way back down in Newcastle.

SPEAKER_06 2:13:42

Watch it now. I'll watch it with you. It's good. It's so good. Gentleman TV, like season one or two, the best.

SPEAKER_01 2:13:47

It's based off the movie, is it?

SPEAKER_06 2:13:49

It's not based off the movie, but it's the same kind of like lore like of what's going on. Yeah, but very, very good.

SPEAKER_01 2:13:54

The gentleman movie was like fucking four hours long. It's a good movie. It was a good movie, as well.

SPEAKER_06 2:13:58

Well, the cool thing about the protagonist in the TV show, he's like old British officer, army officer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he's a bad boy. Yeah. He's a hot cunt as well. Yeah. But yeah, that's my favourite TV show. And movies, I'm a big Lord of the Rings fan. Figures. Yeah. Yeah. Why was cool anyway? Big shout out to the Gap Games. But um, yeah, no, that's yeah, more Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit. Yeah. But the gentleman's.

SPEAKER_01 2:14:20

What about um like the Knight's Tale or anything? Like Heath.

SPEAKER_06 2:14:24

I can beat them all in a fight.

SPEAKER_01 2:14:25

So like it doesn't impress me. That was a really good movie. That was a great movie. That's when Heath Ledger was like just on the side note. Heath Ledger was like killing it. He was the prime prime B's knees, Ten Things I Hate About You, Knight's Tale, man. Fuck you smile. You grew up and you're just like, I want to be like Heath Ledger.

SPEAKER_06 2:14:39

Yeah, 100%. Yeah, not anymore. You don't want to be like No. No. What happened to him?

SPEAKER_01 2:14:42

He suicided his He cocked himself, yeah, certainly. Yeah. Just drug over something.

SPEAKER_06 2:14:46

I think I think he was gone through some hard times. Yeah, it's very sad. He was a weapon.

SPEAKER_01 2:14:50

But also, again, proves that's doesn't matter how much money, fame. Look, look at Robin Williams. Same thing. 100%. You just need that. So if you're out there and you need support, again, reach out.

SPEAKER_06 2:15:00

It's not weak to speak, like literally, like, and that sounds like a throwaway line, but it's literally, you're not a pussy if you're struggling. Yeah. Reach out to the boys or girls.

SPEAKER_01 2:15:07

Yeah, reach out to VETCOM. 100%. Yeah, 100%. You get your white card at least and cover the psychological and all that type of stuff. But um no other movies like that. What else is there? Role models was always playing. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:15:23

That's a great movie. Well, Kingdom of Heaven, obviously. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great movie. Crusade, very popular at the moment. Yeah. Um Braveheart. Brave Heart. Oh, yeah, Braveheart. It's a great movie. As a classic. I'm trying to think of what movie I watch all the time. Um, I literally watched Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit on repeat. Yeah. It's so good. Because my first baby's first birthday party is gonna be a Hobbit.

SPEAKER_01 2:15:42

I've never watched a full Lord of the Rings movie. Get out of my fucking house. Get out of my fucking house. I just I just couldn't get into it. It's like um what's that uh TV show that everyone was blowing up about?

SPEAKER_06 2:15:52

Oh Game of Thrones.

SPEAKER_01 2:15:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:15:53

Couldn't get into it. No. There's bulk TVs in Game of Thrones.

SPEAKER_01 2:15:55

Yeah, I know, but I just couldn't. As soon as that little midget came across there, he's great, dude. He's a legend. The first episode I said, I can't take this seriously.

SPEAKER_06 2:16:03

Oh, so you're against the midges now? Oh, I was against that. Okay. Personally, my wife's brown as well. Are you happy with that? And I know you like the Australian flag too, so that's racist.

SPEAKER_01 2:16:13

I don't know, it was just weird. I just didn't expect a little midget to come out and start fighting fucking dragons. Everyone knows that you're a bigot now.

SPEAKER_06 2:16:21

I'm surprised your friends are Chockey. Yeah, black Chalky. He's yeah, he's pushing the line. He's the Civvy. We like to say he's the what is it, the bridge to the Civvy or the big Chalky. He's yeah, he's the ambassador for the civvies.

SPEAKER_01 2:16:32

It's like I've got nothing against midges, by the way. If you're out there and you dig up. And you're under five feet. I've got no issue with you. It's just I just couldn't get into it. It was too, I don't know, it was just too much fan. It's the same as the Lord of the Rings. It's just too much. I don't know. It's just too you've got a poster up there.

SPEAKER_04 2:16:49

Yeah, that's the look that's the map of the Middle Earth, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:16:52

Which is New Zealand, pretty much. That's right here is the head of the Belrog. If you know what the that's in Lord of the Rings, this is a skull of a big demon. I never heard of it. Never heard of her. You need to grow up, mate.

SPEAKER_01 2:17:01

That's you need to grow up. Because that's that they filmed all that in New Zealand.

SPEAKER_06 2:17:04

Yeah, yeah, been there a few times. Yeah, seen summits.

SPEAKER_01 2:17:07

Yeah, I I the funny thing is I have been to the some of those setups. Waste it on you.

SPEAKER_06 2:17:12

It's wasted on you.

SPEAKER_01 2:17:13

No, even Harry Potter. Uh you know what Harry Potter is.

SPEAKER_06 2:17:14

I like Harry Potter, but I'm not like I'm not obsessed with that. I couldn't get into it either. See, you're the type of dude that like you what do you read war books?

SPEAKER_01 2:17:22

Do you read a lot of like obviously I did you know when I is in defense, yeah? Yeah, not anymore, no.

SPEAKER_06 2:17:27

I read fantasy, all those books over there, Dragon Swords, I read everything. Look at us all you're a mad nerd, yeah. Dude, look at that. There's like more Lord of the Rings up there, got a fallout. Is that from Star Wars? That's Fallout. You're a fucking I don't know what a jock. Are you a jock? No, like I I don't mind. No, it's just a bit too fantasy for me. I love it. If if it doesn't have a dragon, I'm not in or a sword, it's gay. It's gay.

SPEAKER_01 2:17:50

I like role models, that was great. Yeah, it's because it's ripping on nerds the whole time. Yes. Uh mate's um fifth question, music. You know, what what's what's the what's the go-to here?

SPEAKER_06 2:18:03

I'm a uh what it what's it what's the word? Eclectic, I believe it is. I um I listen to everything from like hilltop hoods to zeal and arder. I don't know if you know zeal and arder is to like old school transplant, a little bit of fleet whoop mac, the offspring, um red hot chili peppers, a bit of everything. Just everything.

SPEAKER_01 2:18:23

What's what's your go-to like when you're sitting there ready to battle? Silence is my favourite.

SPEAKER_06 2:18:27

I like to, when I have a helmet on, I like to listen to myself breathe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's my biggest thing. And then I also like stare at someone I really want to like hit. Even if they're not on the field next, I'll look at them the whole time. Is that? I'm not even thinking about like hurting them, I'm just looking at them like, alright. I'm gonna fucking. Well, it's just like it's just like when you're fighting someone, even when you're like boxing, it's like they're just bags of meat in front of you. Like you know, if you hit them, they're gonna feel pain. It's just a it's a bag of meat and blood.

SPEAKER_01 2:18:55

Are you like forecasting what you're gonna do? Like it's like tactically.

SPEAKER_06 2:18:58

I I always have my go-to targets, which are hands and uh rib cages. Yeah, right. So I always hit arms and like hands and rib cages, that's just my go-to. So if I can hit their hand when they drop the weapon, they can hit them in the rib. Um, because that that'll knock them out straight away, hit in the rib, take out all their oxygen. Yeah, well, I sort of seen it.

SPEAKER_01 2:19:16

Yeah, when the dude get hit with one of those things, another dude, he just literally just powered. He just buckled and just dropped. Yeah, like the old off switch, the old off switch. It's good out the crap.

SPEAKER_06 2:19:28

Well, yeah, when I swept that guy when you were filming, yeah. So good, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:19:31

Yeah, and someone's uh someone next to us screamed, twist his dude. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:19:39

Oh, that's so good. Yeah, that was very that video is very funny. Listen to all you guys yelling. That's so good. That's so good.

SPEAKER_01 2:19:46

Yeah, right. Um again, for whatever reason people want to reach out to you, your channels.

SPEAKER_06 2:19:52

Uh S-Ride on Instagram, S-W-R-I-D-E. All there's Sri Tactical, which is S W R I D underscore Tactical, which is my shooting page. But yeah, they're my main ones. I got YouTube on both, uh, but probably more responsive on Instagram.

SPEAKER_01 2:20:05

Yeah. Yeah. Cool, mate. And um, yeah, like I said, if you if you know for the listener out there, you want to get into the boo hurt, reach out to him and 100%. I'm sure your social media's accounts are slammed with messages, but you do get through them.

SPEAKER_06 2:20:18

I do get through them today. I think today or tomorrow I'm going through all 460 messages. So it's gonna be a big deal. You do that on the computer? Yeah, yeah, I do that too. I'll pump that.

SPEAKER_01 2:20:25

It's a lot, it's a lot on the phone sometimes. Yeah. I've just got the new iPhone. Oh, look out. Moneybags over here. Four and a half thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_06 2:20:33

What is that?

SPEAKER_01 2:20:34

The two terabyte iPhone. Oh, yeah, I need the two terabytes. Four and a half grand. Four and a half grand. It's funny you say that because that's yeah, you're an influencer. That's what we need. Like we need, I need it to put the podcast on there and put it, you know, put clips onto the code.

SPEAKER_06 2:20:46

The worst thing is when you film, it's like out of the thing. You're like, fuck.

SPEAKER_01 2:20:48

Yeah, I know, yeah. Yeah, four and a half grand. That is insane. It is insane.

SPEAKER_06 2:20:52

You can buy a suit of armor for that nearly.

SPEAKER_01 2:20:54

Yeah, yeah. And it's the first time I don't normally wear it, put a case. Yeah, this is the first time I'll put a case on it. Fourk, you put a case up. Two grand, I'm like, uh case not needed. Four and a half grand, like, fuck you. I don't even want to carry it. Yeah, no, that's insane. It's just in a sealed box now.

SPEAKER_06 2:21:07

Yeah, yeah. In the black box of the car, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:21:10

Okay, I couldn't. I tried to call you, you didn't answer. I'm like, mate, I had to get out of the box first.

SPEAKER_06 2:21:15

Yeah, it's my black box of my car.

SPEAKER_01 2:21:17

It's too expensive, mate. Uh, yeah, sweet. So yeah, people can reach out to you and uh get you onto there. But again, really appreciate you coming on the potty and um you know, wanting to share your story. And yeah, mate, good luck for the future, and yeah, we'll you know, we'll come yeah, come support you, man. I'd love to see it. I'd love to see you guys there. Yeah, yeah, we might, I don't know, about getting into the ring. I yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:21:35

I prom if you Chucky and Scojo get in the ring, I will fight you and I will win. I will fight you. In the one time, you guys can all charge me at once.

SPEAKER_01 2:21:44

I don't think I'll do it. No, it's too dangerous.

SPEAKER_06 2:21:47

That's no, I won't hit you hard. I'll just wrestle you up.

SPEAKER_01 2:21:49

We'll give you a uh um a noodle. All right. Pool noodle.

SPEAKER_06 2:21:53

Yeah, okay, you're done. Alright, I'll have a soft weapon, you can have real steel.

SPEAKER_01 2:21:56

No, you'll kill us. No, you'll kill us. You get you well, how much do you weigh? 125.

SPEAKER_06 2:22:01

Yeah, fuck, you just sit on me.

SPEAKER_01 2:22:03

Just yeah, yeah, and then Chucky will bench press you.

SPEAKER_06 2:22:05

Yeah, yeah, yeah. God, he's jacked.

SPEAKER_01 2:22:07

He is.

SPEAKER_06 2:22:08

Vegetables don't do that to people.

SPEAKER_01 2:22:10

No, well, certain types of vegetables do with chemical compounds, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:22:15

Injected in the bunch of it, no, no. No, we're not that's just all speculation. No, it's not.

SPEAKER_01 2:22:19

That's what I did it back in the day. No, I guess our test is the best, mate. That's what they say. But um paying the cost for it now. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. Just that's what happens. What yeah, sperm or cock? Just everything, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Just gone smaller, gone. Mine's pretty small as well.

SPEAKER_06 2:22:35

I look down on like it's 2026. I can be whatever I want to be in there. Yeah, exactly right. That's true. Well, I take these supplements from uh Zero Limit Supplements and I look down at my stomach. I don't even have a stomach anymore. They're just stay tuned, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:22:45

Actually, by the time this podcast comes out, Zero Limits supplements should be back in stock. Oh, really? We screwed up. And it's funny, we did we totally screwed up because we thought, let's come out with a supplement brand. You know, we've got the following. We did, yeah, didn't buy enough.

SPEAKER_06 2:22:59

Yeah, sold out.

SPEAKER_01 2:23:00

It just went crazy.

SPEAKER_06 2:23:01

Yeah, because I I'm out I'm out at the moment. I'm out. I'm out for I'm out, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:23:05

I'm using another brand.

SPEAKER_06 2:23:06

Yeah, I have to use that.

SPEAKER_01 2:23:07

That's how ad I am.

SPEAKER_06 2:23:08

Yeah, yeah. I've got another, I got a brand sending me anything, and I had to let them know I was like, hey, happy to accept your pre-workout, but in a few months, you'll be you'll be with a new brand.

SPEAKER_01 2:23:15

Yeah, other than that.

SPEAKER_06 2:23:16

Which uh we're gonna actually we've got to sort about. I didn't realize that wasn't me trying to buy my way in. No, that's yeah, that was my tactic.

SPEAKER_01 2:23:21

You're in, you're in. Um stay tuned for listening. Hopefully, by the time this potty's out in the next two weeks, I think I should have this one out. Fuck, it's cold in here. Uh, we should have some stock. But anyway, appreciate you again, bro. Thank you so much for coming. It's awesome. Contact, go for a shoot, maybe fight in the ring. We will probably not.

SPEAKER_06 2:23:39

No, we have to. We'll put a poll up. Like, should maybe borrow. Don't be scared. Don't be scared. You're a fucking warfighter, bro.

SPEAKER_01 2:23:45

But I'm yeah, no, this is different though. This is not yeah, you don't have a gun.

SPEAKER_06 2:23:50

No, you do you'll do good. It it's fun. It's fun.

SPEAKER_01 2:23:53

But it the whole process is fun. Again, that whole festival last week. I brought we brought our kids, Choggy brought his kids, Scow Joe brought his kids, everyone had fun. It's not fun, isn't it? The only thing I disliked about that thing was no turkey legs and there were no turkey legs. I didn't see any. They had hot dogs and stuff. I'm like, that's not very medieval.

SPEAKER_06 2:24:11

Well, at uh Deadly Duo, at the 16th of January, there'd be turkey legs. Turkey legs, chain mail titties, potentially, if you're out there, if you're out there, let me know.

SPEAKER_01 2:24:18

Or if you're a dude with big titties.

SPEAKER_06 2:24:20

Or I would like some jack dudes as well. I'm not sexist like that. Yeah. Maybe chalky. Chalky. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:24:26

Was there any black knights?

SPEAKER_06 2:24:30

Historically accurate, no. I don't think there was. But you know, I could be on at the moment, uh, my mate Spencer is a big black American dude, a weapon fighter. Yeah. A lot of black knights now.

unknown 2:24:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:24:39

They're killing it.

SPEAKER_02 2:24:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:24:40

They fight the weapons. Yeah, it's interesting. Just quickly, you does your family track back to the UK?

SPEAKER_06 2:24:46

Uh family history? My my dad is, yeah, from uh UK. His dad was a red devil paraltrooper who um dad was actually born in India because he was stationed in India.

SPEAKER_01 2:24:56

Yeah, but even before that, I'm talking like medieval times, maybe.

SPEAKER_06 2:24:59

Surely. I don't know. Track it. I'm pretty sure.

SPEAKER_01 2:25:02

I've tracked mine back to Parks and Kent, which is uh on the south of um China. Of the south of the two. I'm on both sides. When the Chinese come and invade Australia, I'm switching sides.

SPEAKER_06 2:25:15

I was about to say, yeah. You got a bit of a glinty. I could I could you I thought you were glary in here, but your eyes are just permanently screwing, bro. I thought that glare.

SPEAKER_01 2:25:24

That's definitely my Chinese side. Yeah, which is crazy because uh yeah, my I did that DNA test. We've gone completely off track now. We should have finished the podcast, but yeah, 50% uh Asian, obviously.

SPEAKER_06 2:25:34

What type of Chinese?

SPEAKER_01 2:25:35

Yeah, Chinese and um Malay, like Singaporean.

SPEAKER_06 2:25:39

Okay, that makes the dog shooting story makes sense now, Chinese. Yeah, we eat them too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It makes a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_01 2:25:44

Oh, we eat them too. But then the 50% is on my dad's side, which is all. We tracked it back to I tracked it back to Parks, Kent, uh of the southern side of the UK and got it back to the 1700s. So hopefully we can there's gotta be I don't know if it goes back any further, but surely there's like nights and shiny. There's two percent fucking French, some shit. 2% 2% surrendering. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:26:08

Get that line. That's where I'm fucking surrendering already. That's where that's already come back.

SPEAKER_01 2:26:11

That's not me. That's just the two percent. That's just genetics, it's genetics.

SPEAKER_05 2:26:14

It's just talking more like that. Yeah, surrender.

SPEAKER_01 2:26:16

All right, bro. No pressure. We're done. We're gonna off track there. All right, catch up.