With just one breath Professional Freediver Arnaud Jerald can dive more than 400 feet (120 meters) underwater. We talk Freediving, becoming an 8x World Record holder and finding peace beneath the waves. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Things We’re Too Scared to Do.
Arnaud Jerald: 01:38
Pointless: 26:05
Top 5: 46:44
Interview with Professional Freediver Arnaud Jerald
Nick VinZant 0:11
Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode, free diving, and fear,
Arnaud Jerald 0:19
with a pressure is completely different. If you are just holding your breath on the surface, the pressure makes something in your body in your mind, and you don't want to breathe. And it's really enjoyable. This moment when you turn is really important because if you are too stressful with your, with your chest, you can break your lungs easily. This is what I'm following. I like following this vision about these kinds of frustration after an attempt to go to court, I want to trash the surface and to say to myself, probably I have more,
Nick VinZant 0:57
I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or review, we really appreciate it really helps us out. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So I want to get right to our first guest. He's a professional free diver and eight time world record holder, Arnold Gerrard real quick English is not his native language. And while he really does a great job, we have included a transcription of this interview on our website at profoundly pointless.com. Is this more physical? Or is this more mental,
Arnaud Jerald 1:40
I think is a monster sport, I think is 80% in mind freediving. Because it's not so natural to enjoy when you're not briefing. I think in the world, you don't have any other sport like that. Yesterday, I was looking at the match of, of the tennis player of a friend Nadal. And I was saying to myself, of course, you have a lot of pressure, probably the end of his career. But he's more of the pressure of the people who put in himself. But my pressure is my is to say, Can I have the time to crush the surface at the end?
Nick VinZant 2:17
Yeah, that's a lot of a different pressure. Right? Like he's got the pressure of the crowd, you have the pressure of are you gonna make it back up and not die?
Arnaud Jerald 2:26
Yeah, exactly. Breathing seems
Nick VinZant 2:28
quite important for our species. Is your body just screaming at you like, get up there? Take a breath like how can you be in the moment, when I would only compare it to like cold when I'm cold? All I can think about is the fact that I'm cold?
Arnaud Jerald 2:43
That's a good question. Because on the way down, I don't feel the urge to breeze, I just feel relaxed. And in the wind in the water with the pressure is completely different. If you're just holding your breath on the surface, the pressure makes something in your body in your mind, and you don't want to brace and is really enjoyable. But when you are closer to the true face on the way up around 30 meters, sometimes you used to breeze and the natural way is to speed at this moment to join the surface fast, but it's really the biggest mistake you can do because you use too much oxygen to speed at this point. If you use yours to breeze, you just have to relax. And it's not so natural to relax when the surface is at three or four meters to you. And you say okay, I come down but I will see I take my time is to accept and to upset the pressure upset the stress of this moment and to to live with
Nick VinZant 3:51
the natural kind of water pressure around you as you're going down. That makes it a little bit easier on your body like you don't feel that big need to breathe as much. Exactly,
Arnaud Jerald 4:02
you have a lot of mekinese on your body. For example, when your face touch the water, you have immersion or reflex and your heart beats low decrease, your heart beats decrease. After a few meters, you have like bloat shift. The pressure is so huge. And if if your lungs are squeeze, my lungs are squeezed like a lemon at these depths. But after that my heart beats low down at 15 beats per minutes. 1515 one five years. And you don't feel the hair on your lungs. You feel just too liquid here. And you'd never you don't feel your hurt bit. But down there. I feel like I am I have nothing here.
Nick VinZant 4:59
Your body He's just slow down to that point. But
Arnaud Jerald 5:03
it's more I go down was a pressure increase. Unless I float and this around for 400 feet, the pressure is so huge and I don't need to swim I just freefall down there. But when I arrived there, they're on the bottom plate, I need to come up and to come up is really hard. Because if I don't swim, I flow I fall down. And the first 20 meters on the bottom to join the surface is like a nightmare, because I have to lie in front of me. And you have each matters with Mark, and the matters go really slow, but my legs go so fast,
Nick VinZant 5:45
you have to work so much harder to kind of turn back around this moment
Arnaud Jerald 5:49
when your turn is really important because if you are too stressful with your, with your chest, you can break your lungs easily, and to have lung in blood inside. And this is why you need to be really flexible when you do the loop down there. And to slow down on the way up trying to be fast but to not be stressful.
Nick VinZant 6:14
How did you get into this?
Arnaud Jerald 6:17
Oh, it's taught at seven. I was with my dad and in Tehran cough Marseille in South of France. And he was doing some spearfishing for fun. And every weekend I was looking at him going to water and back with some fish. And I say oh, he's crazy what's happened down there, what is new world. And one day he told me, okay, I know Come with me, put you on, put on your wetsuit and come with me. And I jump on the water with my mask. And I opened my eyes in this new world, I was really afraid because I always remember I was looking back, but to me to not have a shark or something. But here we don't have these kinds of fish. But you know, when you're seven, you have a mission, right? I was following my dad and I was really happy to show me how to dive off to equalize my here and how to just float in the water. And every weekend I was faced to my to my fear. And, you know, it was to me more like feeling like pizza prom, flying in the water. And at 16 miles that was saying to me, okay, now you start to dive deeper than me. I learned about the sport, I understand the sport, we can have this old, stressful environment, but trying to enjoy this few second, on the present moment. And after that, I just say to myself, you have to be professional freediver. But what is it professional freediver you know, it's not a proper work is. And to me it was more secret to find my dream at 16 years old, you know, you don't know where you go, you don't know how work you want to do is really a key moment on the life. So I
Nick VinZant 8:08
know there's kind of lots of different disciplines. So the discipline that you do is primarily what
Arnaud Jerald 8:14
my discipline is like biofin. In my sport you have for discipline, you have biofin Like when you're going to water with too thin, you have monofin is like a wave sort of dolfin you can go really deep because you have a lot of power, after you have nothing is without fin is just like that is really hard. And after you have free motion, you just grabbed the line. Me I do. By Finn, I made eight Wilder called the slice five years with my team. And I think more than metals, I really gain experience and I gain maturity to feel more confident in my life with my family with my partner and it's really like a school to me to go in the water.
Nick VinZant 9:09
Of those four different disciplines. Are they all kind of looked at equally? Or is one more like no, this is the big one. Right? Like I can only compare it to like track and field we're like Alright, there's lots of different events, but it's the 100 meters at the end of the
Arnaud Jerald 9:21
day that are really different. Because if you compare to monofin and biofin monofin The world record is 176 meters and by Finn is 124 meters like close to 400 feet. And I think there are really respect between these four discipline because each of them are really tricky like in monofin you can go deeper, but it was less a fault but when you get deeper you have more pressure and in, in in No fin, you know, Fin you don't have any fin. Yeah, just your body is really hard. And of course, you will go less deeper. Me I like by fin because it's more natural to me to dive like that,
Nick VinZant 10:11
like, how do you essentially know when to turn back?
Arnaud Jerald 10:14
It's a good question. On the beginning, I was really afraid about it. And I didn't understand when when was the point? When was the limit. And after that, it's like going to the Everest to the Mount Everest, you're not going on a one way you are to adapt your body. And for food, I think is the same. I started my season in March, and I start with 20 meters and 30 certified 40. And each month, I increase my depth. Like I have three dive week is not a lot. And I increase little by little. And when I close to my world record attempt or my personal best, I try to increase like one one by one one meter by one meters. And if my daytime daytime, okay, like, a dive is around 330 minutes, and four minutes is a full dive. And if everything is okay, I can try the water code. But if the green, the light green or not green, I tried to repeat my dive or to not dive. And this is the way you are just little by little your limit. And for example, if you try to surface after a deep dive, and you are really okay, you can go deeper. But if you try the surface and you feel your legs burning, or you if you feel really tired, you really huge to raise on the recovering part. I think you need to probably repeat this dive or to go less deeper. And this is how you know if is your clause or not to your limit. But sometimes it's tricky is tricky, because, of course you are diving on naturally lemon sometimes the water is is colder or warmer, when is warmer, your heartbeats increase a lot. And when it's colder, you use a lot of oxygen to be to feel more warm. And yes, it's it's really interesting to to know when to increase or when to not increase. And the best key on my sport is how to say no, when to say no. And in my sport, I don't have choice. If I don't feel to diver and I dive, I can have a lot of risk.
Nick VinZant 12:45
When you did that 122 meters looking back on it. Could you have gone 123? Could you have gone 124 When you finished it and you'd be like, Oh, I've got I had more in the tank.
Arnaud Jerald 12:55
This is what I'm following. I like following this vision about this kind of frustration after an attempt of pseudocode I want to trash the surface and to say to myself, probably I have more I have more because these of these like really concrete pout and not just on my dream or with the color of the star is really concrete points. And I like this because it gives me the power to train all the winter without diving in the winter, going to the gym going to the Montaigne or training mountain biking and to say to myself, last year you feel you have something better, you can do something better, easily trained for that. But to my last eight world record, I always crush the surface with the smile saying to myself, yeah, you have more and nothing is better than that. That's
Nick VinZant 13:53
cool. That's a good way to look at it right? Like, oh, I could have done that. But then how hard do you have to kind of reel it back in? Like if you know you could do more? Like if you know you did 122? Like why not go 130 Like to me like from an outsider's perspective is like alright, it doesn't seem like it's that much farther, when you get down to that depth, like how much farther is 123 than 122. From
Arnaud Jerald 14:15
120 to 123. It's just one matters is not so huge. But mentally is a huge aspect of the performance because you're trying to go somewhere, have nobody go in the past. And you don't know if your bodies adapt to this pressure adapt to this time spinning in the water is really like going to the space feeling like an astronaut. And what matters is not so huge, but after three meters is huge, because you do three meters and three meters on the way up at the end of the day is six meters. He has
Nick VinZant 14:56
doubled you gotta he kind of forget about that. Like oh yeah, the coming back up is kind of the important part. Right? How far down? Can you go? Well, you can go all the way down if you want. Or
Arnaud Jerald 15:07
yeah, you can go one away. But no, you don't have the ticket of the width. Well,
Nick VinZant 15:11
if you have you ever had an instance in which like, you didn't make it back, I'm assuming there's like rescue teams there that can grab you and things like that. But have you ever had an instance where like, I went all the way down, and I didn't make it back up to the top?
Arnaud Jerald 15:24
Yeah, my, my biggest fear was on the beginning of my career. And it was my first world championship. And I remember, I was diving, and I was folding. And when I reached the bottom, I was so happy because it was a personal best to me. And when I tried to come up, you know, I have a lineout clip to the to the line to never lost the line. And I tried to come up and the line was stuck on the bottom with my line yard. And I remember going down again, and I trying to swim again. But at these depths, like I say, before, you can do, you can stretch a lot this part because you can break your lungs. And I say okay, what I need to do, I'm stuck here, the platform is really far from here. And I this time I remove the line yard. And I try to follow the line all the way up, because you don't have any reference about the surface. And about the bottom. If you look down, you think is the bottom, but sometimes he can be the surface all around you is blue or dark. And if you lose the line, you you lose yourself. And I trying to, to come up at this time. And to never forget the line in front of me. And at this point, I remember saying to myself, it's so sad like, staying in the water like that is so sad. Like, I was just accepting the situation, but trying to Persian to join to join the surface. But I was like kind of upset Ching going to be really bad to me. At the end. I saw the safety around me at 30 meters freedivers safety, and I was feeling okay, and I crushed the surface. I did my protocol and everybody was happy because it was a personal best to me, but didn't know what was happened in the bottom. And to me was more like the big step. I took it like a popular not like a non decap at the end, I spent one week without diving one week, crying over the night because when you you see the Deaf close to you like that. At this age, I was really young at the beginning of my career. I just like realize how it was how my support was extreme.
Nick VinZant 17:55
Did you think you were dead?
Arnaud Jerald 17:56
I was thinking yeah, I'm
Nick VinZant 17:58
slightly lighter note how long can you hold your breath?
Arnaud Jerald 18:02
I can hold my breath Seven Minutes in static without moving. But trust me is not so fun. Because seven minutes you own the pool was with your wetsuit, and the surface is just here and from like an ancient way right? Like I would just be like oh so hard with 100 meters on my head is okay because I know the surface is really far and I just need to focus on the present moment. But in the pool. I start to use to boolean to true minute. And from seven you have to wait is a war is a war I have spies. My buddy used to breeze and the surface is just here. I want to just inhale it just for a few seconds. But I can't I did it. Seven years ago, I never do it again. I don't like static, free diving too hard.
Nick VinZant 19:03
I was gonna ask this like does your body have like almost a reflex where at some point it's just going to make you well I guess when you pass out. You
Arnaud Jerald 19:11
hold your breath you have you circa one minute or you don't feel you're yours to breeze. After that you feel you hear your stories. It's called the spasm it's like a reflex of briefing. You can all your breasts are on this point and after that you don't feel any huge to breeze from few circle. This font is really dangerous because you are far from your limit limit. And after that you can do a blackout or or something like that. And this is why I always say to the beginner or to the professional freediver to never dive alone because the new water it can be in in one metre or in in your pool. We have a lot of accidents in a pool on the summer. People are trying freediving alone and is really dangerous to do a lot of water because when you do blackout, after two or three minutes, your bodies start to inhale naturally to recover, to inhale to just wake up. But if you wake up on the water, you breathe water as well. I think there's some free divers they have. They're not afraid about the limit and they want to reach the limit. But I think to keep your mind happy to keep the power and to try to have a long career, you have to protect your mind of this kind of extreme bot.
Nick VinZant 20:41
So what's happened in here? When
Arnaud Jerald 20:43
you you dive like that without mask is completely dark now? I try to open my eyes but I see nothing. I
Nick VinZant 20:53
see what you mean about like where you really can't tell which way is which? Like, you can't it gets hard to be like are you going up? Or are you going down?
Arnaud Jerald 21:01
You don't know. You don't know if you don't have line you don't you're dizzy can disappear. And of course is something real Fred but sometimes sometimes you feel really free on this kind of environment. Because now we all are all the time we are noisy streets noisy, and we aren't man we never we are never alone on the Earth. Even if we are going to the Montaigne or if we are going someplace we like it there is always people around you. I like this place down there because you really feel alone and you can more connect with yourself.
Nick VinZant 21:42
You're so it You seem so calm. Yeah, I think not. There's not it doesn't look like you're really trying too hard. Is that part of it? Are you just
Arnaud Jerald 21:55
you can be hard. You can be hard and I think is more about commitment. Like when you go on this board, when you go at this kind of depths. Do you have to be at 200% commitment. If you go you go and you don't need to, to esitate Of course you can turn before the goal. But if you want to go to the girl, you have to engage yourself and your mind your body, your life everything and to become because if you're not calm, you have the fear coming and your hurts increase your heartbeats increase. Why in the hell are you is a crazy place in Jim bluer in Bahamas, sand falling down all of 200 meters is really unnatural, or it's called Diems blue all in Bahamas in Long Island. And this is the best place for freediving because it's like a big pool. And this is a place I like to go for my word record and it's warm water without current nice food. This is all we need to have on freediving. Last
Nick VinZant 23:15
question. How far do you think you can go? Like what do you think like, Okay, this is my goal. I want to get to this place.
Arnaud Jerald 23:23
You know, I never have gone I think when I learned freediving I saw a lot of freediver reaching the goal. Like he was 100 meters or something more, something less. And once they were reaching their goals, they just lose the power they lose the passion because it was the end of the world. Me I always continue on my weight. My goal is really like enjoying myself with freediving. Today I didn't I don't enjoy freediving. I quit the sport. It was it's always like learning about myself learn learning who I am in this extreme situation. And of course number is important for the world records is cool for the media is cool for the sport to to increase the level. But it's not the finality of my goal. And I don't know I really don't know where I can go on the next few years. But we will see and of course I think the depth is not the limit. So now's the time you spend on the water. I think this is a limit because we can spend 10 minutes that one urgent matters. We will see. We will see where we can go in the next few years. But I hope we can go on the safety bot on the safe way.
Nick VinZant 24:44
That's all the questions I got. Is there anything else that we kind of missed or what's coming up next for you? How can people get a hold of you learn more?
Arnaud Jerald 24:51
I think my next goal is to try to increase my level in training in the winter. I'm training with Olympic swimmers, they are really crazy in training, they are trained every time everywhere. And I try to go deeper and deeper, because I like that. And, of course to try to, to communicate better better to open my profile in us and I really grateful about the opportunity you gave me today to talk about my sport on your community is really cool. And I tried to, to learn about everything and of course, sharing my passion. First,
Nick VinZant 25:37
I want to thank our not so much for joining us if you want to connect with him, we have linked to him on our social media sites. We're Profoundly Pointless on tik, Tok, Instagram and YouTube. And we've also included his information in the episode description. And if you want to see him do some of these dives, the YouTube version of this interview will be live on May 9 at 12:30pm. Pacific. Okay, now let's bring in John Shaw and get to the pointless part of the show on a scale of one to 1010 is the highest. How brave would you say that you are
John Shull 26:17
probably a nine. I don't seek out bravery. But if it's brought to me, I'll do it. Oh, you're not
Nick VinZant 26:24
looking for the challenge. But you will rise to it. That's what that's how you that's how you look at yourself.
John Shull 26:29
It's kind of been my life motto, you know, underestimated, but I always get the job done.
Nick VinZant 26:34
I could give myself either a one or like an eight, depending on how you look at it. Because I'll do some stuff. But I don't know if I would ever really do something that I thought I wouldn't be able to do. Like, if I'm going to take a risk, I'm usually pretty sure I'm going to be able to do it.
John Shull 26:56
Yeah, there are some things that I don't know if I'm gonna be able to do sometimes that's the best. I mean, obviously, as you get older, the risk usually become less. But I mean, what I love doing is, say you're in a crowd of people and somebody has that go, who's gonna jump in that, that lake that is 12 degrees, and everyone stands around, and they're like, Ooh, I'm gonna do it. And then they never do I just jump right in. Oh,
Nick VinZant 27:21
I wouldn't even want to do it, I would want someone else to do it. Because then you're going to jump in, you're going to be freezing cold. And you're not going to have any dry clothes. And I'm going to be standing over there with Dr. Cole is nice and warm. Pretty happy about that. But what would okay, what would you say then? Do you think it can? Is it still a risk? If you do something thinking with the understanding that you think that you can do it? Because I don't think that I would ever do something with no idea if I could do it or not?
John Shull 27:48
I think a true risk is not knowing the outcome. I feel like if you already know that you can probably do it. That's already knowing the outcome. I feel like a risk is, you know, somebody's telling you Yeah, there's a 5050 chance that your parachute may open. But you're gonna get you're gonna take the dive.
Nick VinZant 28:08
Oh, well, no. Would you do that? Would you go 5050 odds?
John Shull 28:14
If I was younger, maybe and if there was a significant amount of money on the line. But no, not now. But once again, I was going to ask you before you brought that up? Is there a difference between bravery and stupidity?
Nick VinZant 28:28
Stupidity is doing something without understanding what the results are, without understanding the complications or the possibilities of what could happen if you do it. That's what I would say stupidity is bravery is knowing what they are and doing it anyway. I
John Shull 28:44
go back to this group always. And it's the Jackass guys. Are they brave? Or are they stupid?
Nick VinZant 28:53
I think they would probably be I think you'd have to put them into real well, it depends if they knew what could happen. Right? I don't think that you could say that they were stupid, because they ended up basically making a lifelong career out of that. So I don't think that that would be stupid. in those regards. It would be stupid if you were doing that not filming it and didn't have a TV show.
John Shull 29:17
You Oh, that's fair. That's fair to say. I can agree with you on that.
Nick VinZant 29:21
Right, man, you got to think of the concept. But that's why I don't take huge risks. Because all I do is think of all the different consequences of what could happen.
John Shull 29:28
I don't think actually, no, I don't think about it. And I don't want to as someone saying, hey, jump over this fire. And it's there. I'll try it. I've done it before didn't make it. Burn my legs. But here we are. It's a great story to tell
Nick VinZant 29:48
what I would the thing that I would say about it like I think it's pretty obvious which one of those is probably the better circumstance for preserving your own health and safety. The oh the question is what is Better for life success to be truly successful at something to be brave or stupid. I think you have to have a little bit of stupidity in in it. I think that like genius has to be a little crazy.
John Shull 30:13
Yeah, I think that's been proven over the course of human history. Most people that we think are the bravest are the ones who are the not the not the most sound minded? We'll put it that way.
Nick VinZant 30:26
Okay. Oh, I pulled the audience. poll the audience. What do you think most people are? On a scale of one to 10? What do you think most people would say that they are? Well,
John Shull 30:37
people that go to our YouTube page probably are going to be six or sevens.
Nick VinZant 30:43
Oh, 123 11%. I would honestly kind of put myself in that. I think if you really, really like analyzed it, I would put myself pretty low. Three to 530 8% 68 43% and nine to 10 8%.
John Shull 31:03
Okay, I mean, I actually thought there was going to be like 70%, nine, you know, nine, nine or 10? So I'll say that that seems like an honest answers. Okay. Was that is the time for a shout outs out?
Nick VinZant 31:17
Go for it. All right. Don't even look it up. Just shout out random people. They're
John Shull 31:22
just random, noisy,
Nick VinZant 31:24
man. What advice random names just make up 10 random names. Don't give me five random names. Give me five actual shout outs. And we'll see which ones are the which ones. And I won't look at you because I'll be able to tell if you're just like sitting there thinking. So give me five random names. And I'll just go thumbs up. If it's a real person. Thumbs down if you just made it up.
John Shull 31:44
And I was supposed to correct you after each name. Yeah. All right. All right. Ready? Here we go. Tony Cieply. That's a real person. Correct. Brian Anderson.
Nick VinZant 32:00
Oh, that's fake. Wow. Two for
John Shull 32:03
two. J Berzon. Real? Correct. Jenny Catholic.
Nick VinZant 32:12
Oh, that's real.
John Shull 32:14
That is real. Ah, Alberto Del Rio. Thank you. You are good. What is that five now? Alberto Rubio. Fake. Real. Gotcha. Oh, man. Denise James. real fake.
Nick VinZant 32:36
i The and then my you. Gotcha. I thought maybe you would throw it up. But I was I was watching you analyzing a pattern that I thought I figured out all
John Shull 32:45
right. Number eight. Anthony Feeny. That's real. That is real. Fidel Romero.
Nick VinZant 32:55
That's got to be fake. That is somebody actually named Fidel.
John Shull 32:59
That's that's what they're saying. And they're on their Instagram page. That's
Nick VinZant 33:04
yeah, that's you don't hear a lot of Fidel's. You don't hear a lot of people who have the name of a certain German person. You don't hear a lot of those. Don't hear a lot of Digg people named after dictators, generally Fidel,
John Shull 33:17
a jack of all trades, who is a master of none. But better than a master of one. Don't know what that really means. I
Nick VinZant 33:28
think it's probably better to be really good at one thing. That would be my personal opinion. I would think that if you had a choice between being a met Jack of all trades, or being really good at one thing, it's probably better to be really good at one thing. I think
John Shull 33:41
you're correct on that. All right. Last Name, Josh Berkowitz.
Nick VinZant 33:47
Oh, that's probably real. Fake. That was fake. That was fake. My strategy was if it was a simple last name, you were probably just because I couldn't come up with like crazy last names on the spot either. Like I couldn't think of just some random last name that wasn't a famous person.
John Shull 34:09
I think I did pretty well. It kept you off balance. So that was the key. I just had to I just had to keep you off balance. And then I was able to get a couple by.
Nick VinZant 34:17
Yeah, you sneaky sneaky sneaky. All right.
John Shull 34:21
Well, I don't know how this is gonna work out. It's kind of a childish game a little bit, but we're going to flip it up again. So that part of the show, so let's just play a simple game of Never Have I Ever. Okay, and you can just say no, you don't have to say like I have or Never have I but you can just say yes or no then explain if you want to. So let's start here. Okay, never have I ever ate something that was alive. Well,
Nick VinZant 34:48
I mean, everything that I've eaten was alive at some point. No,
John Shull 34:52
I'm not talking about at some point I'm talking about while you were consuming it. No,
Nick VinZant 34:57
I have no interest in that. I have apps have literally no interest in that whatsoever.
John Shull 35:02
Well, I have I guess I'll give mine too. I have.
Nick VinZant 35:06
Go ahead. What did you eat? What did you eat? Well,
John Shull 35:10
I've eaten crawfish live. I've also technically eaten I was basically seafood. I've never eaten like a mammal or something alive that that seems gross to me, but I'll eat seafood, which really doesn't make a lot of sense. There was actually one time where it's actually at a bachelor party, and we found some crawfish in the bottom of the pool at a place we were staying at. And one guy just bid the head off it and then some of us followed. And then there was another time where we were using real jumbo shrimp to deep sea fish. And the guy that we were out with the charter boat captain said you just have to bite off the tail while still alive and did that as well. Don't know if that counts is eating but a bit into it. You know things like that. Nothing too crazy.
Nick VinZant 36:03
Okay, does does punani count it's alive. I've eaten it. Does that count?
So I guess Yeah, I
Unknown Speaker 36:21
have. That's funny. I would
Nick VinZant 36:22
never just eat crawl dead fish off the bottom of the pool. That's one of them got to be one of the worst decisions I've ever heard. That's, I mean, you deserve. Like if I was a doctor, and you came in like, oh, dog, my stomach. What do you do? I'd be like, you deserve that. I'm not even helping you.
John Shull 36:41
Never have I ever skinny dipped.
Nick VinZant 36:43
Oh, yeah. And then the NYTimes me
John Shull 36:46
too. Unfortunately. Never have I ever peed in a body.
Nick VinZant 36:51
Technically you haven't skinny dipped?
John Shull 36:55
That is true. I've never seen more like large,
Nick VinZant 37:00
large Husky Husky dip. I ain't man. I'm in the same boat.
John Shull 37:07
Oh my god. I don't even want to hear from you. Never have I ever peed in a body of water. Oh,
Nick VinZant 37:14
all the time. I'm uh, I still pee in the pool. I have no problem peeing in the pool as a grown adult with children. I will still pee in the pool. And I don't feel bad about it for one second. I don't care.
John Shull 37:29
This is actually going much better than I thought this is kind of entertaining. Never have I ever
Nick VinZant 37:33
pee in a pool. I will go to a gym, a gym that I go to and pee in that pool. I don't care. Everybody's fine. Right? Everybody's fine. There's 1000s upon 1000s of gallons of water in there. You're going to be alright. P sterile anyway, so don't feel bad about it.
John Shull 37:50
I mean, I'm not against it. I've done it. I mean, as I've gotten older, I usually try to go before I get in the water. But I mean,
Nick VinZant 37:59
well, yeah, I do that. But I'm not getting out.
John Shull 38:03
I mean, it's kind of just a reaction, right? It's I think it's scientifically proven that when you hit the water, sometimes you just gotta pee. So you just let it go.
Nick VinZant 38:10
It just makes you go right, right. It's sterile. It's everybody's all right. All right. All right.
John Shull 38:15
Never have I ever pretended to be somebody else to get sex.
Nick VinZant 38:22
Oh, no. You pretended to be somebody else. Not
John Shull 38:28
somebody else. But occupation. Yes. You know, I bet an astronaut. Oh, who
Nick VinZant 38:35
did you pretend?
John Shull 38:36
I bet a car mechanic. I've heard all kinds of things. Oh, you
Nick VinZant 38:40
mean like you like you in the missus? pretending to be somebody else or like, Were you just duping random women on the street? Like I'm sorry, man. But if somebody of you came up to me like I'm an astronaut. I don't think you are. This was many years ago. Your internet gave out?
John Shull 38:59
What is it? I don't understand what's happening. I don't understand what's happening.
Nick VinZant 39:02
You live in Detroit. You live in Detroit. That's what it is. That's the gigantic live in Detroit.
John Shull 39:07
pile of shit. You hear me? Comcast it's a gigantic pile of chips and stuff. All right. Moving on. You get I never have I ever I mean to me. Made it. You didn't
Nick VinZant 39:21
finish your thing. Are you doing this with random people or like you and the wife just bored on trying to put some spark in the love life? Or are you just trying to dupe random people on the street?
John Shull 39:32
It was definitely random dupes, for sure.
Nick VinZant 39:35
Okay. All right. I'm sure everybody's done that. Well, except he probably lied to you and told you how big it was.
John Shull 39:43
Well, it's alive right? Never have I ever made a mistake and blamed it on my kid.
Nick VinZant 39:54
Oh, no. Oh, no. I have used my children and excuse not to do things things, but I've never blamed something on them.
John Shull 40:04
Never, not even a little bit. No,
Nick VinZant 40:06
I like my children. Oh, and I try to treat them with respect. All
John Shull 40:11
right, well, then Never have I ever farted and blamed it on somebody else.
Nick VinZant 40:17
Oh, yeah. But in a joking matter. Like, I don't have a sense of smell. So I don't really care that much about farts. And quite frankly, I think me not having a sense of smell gives me full right to fart in public whenever I want to.
John Shull 40:33
I don't think that's correct. But should I think
Nick VinZant 40:36
I have immunity? I think that I should get immunity to fart in public as much as I want.
John Shull 40:44
Why? Because you were born was right. A sense of smell. No, right.
Nick VinZant 40:47
Right. Right. I think I should get a free pass. Like who did this? Like I did, but I don't have a sense of smell like Well, okay. You get a free pass. Right? Like, if you don't have very good vision, and you accidentally wander into the street, nobody can really get mad at you. Like we you didn't see the car like no, I did it. Okay, sorry. Sorry. You're right. You're right. So I get a free pass. This is my new platform. People without senses of smell like myself. The Nazmi EQ, a Nozman. It's anosmia, whatever it is. Get free passes to fart in public.
John Shull 41:28
Next one here. Never have I ever rode a mechanical bull?
Nick VinZant 41:32
I don't think so. I don't think so. It's a possibility. But I not entirely sure. I wasn't sober enough to fully remember if I did it. I don't think I have it doesn't seem like I don't generally liked for people in public to be looking at me. And
John Shull 41:52
I think you would know if you have because I've done it. And it's something that I have never forgotten about. So
Nick VinZant 41:59
was it fun? Or did you get hurt? Ah,
John Shull 42:02
it was fine. I just remember doing it to impress a group of people I was with kind of like the old dare thing. I lasted maybe seven seconds.
Nick VinZant 42:15
My my thought about it is like why should I ride a bull when I can just have sex with your mom?
John Shull 42:22
You know, not why do you cross those lines? I'm telling you. Anyways, it
Nick VinZant 42:28
was that was good. There's lines that you there's times when you can make a mom joke. And that was one of them.
John Shull 42:34
Less last one here. Never have I ever shipped myself.
Nick VinZant 42:40
Oh, I have? Yeah. It's under five times. But I think everybody has have you. Yeah,
John Shull 42:48
probably five times in the last year. What?
Nick VinZant 42:53
And that's a lot. Where are you talking? Like, are you talking? I'm sick? And more liquid variety or have you like Gone solid in there.
John Shull 43:04
Now there has always been to two ways it's either. When I get sick to that level, I can't control throwing up and my bowels. So I'm a surefire thing that I'm going to poo and throw up. And there have been times in the past where I've been a little too inebriated. But those of those were years ago, I mean that in the last decade, man,
Nick VinZant 43:27
I don't know if I've ever been drunk enough just to put myself and be there. How do you what are you? Did you wake up at least at your house? Or did you have some splainin to do?
John Shull 43:40
A 5050 ratio.
Nick VinZant 43:42
Wow. What do you do? What did you do? Did you just throw I would be like, go outside real quick. And then I would like find the dumpster outside throw it away after outside like somebody else's dumpster to
John Shull 43:58
I'm not proud of the story. I was I'll tell 1/32 story. One time I did it. I was in college. And I had had way too much to drink. And I don't even know how I found my way back to my dorm room. But I remember my roommate was kind of a video gamer. And I literally fell onto my bed and I remember that I was conscious. But I just started doing that. Like deprecating while I was in my bed. And I laid there I woke up the next morning. And let's just put it this way. It causes rashes,
Nick VinZant 44:39
and gah Oh yeah,
John Shull 44:42
the next week. The next week, my roommate. He filed like a complaint against me with our residency or residence hall. And he moved out. So I got a whole room. And that happened like first month of my freshman year of college. So I gotta I gotta whole year to myself in a dorm room. That was kind of fantastic. Actually. Yeah,
Nick VinZant 45:04
that seems like a win win. That seemed like a necessary evil. Like you had to do that. But wait a minute, Was that your first offense with this roommate? Or did he just go straight to the he went straight to the nuclear option? He was already treading on thin ice. Yeah,
John Shull 45:18
he just didn't click you know, and, and as I've gotten as I've gotten older, you know, I'm sure it sucked for him. We had nothing in common. And it just wasn't gonna work out. But, but anyways, hope he's doing well now. Steve Reed, if you're out there, I apologize. God,
Nick VinZant 45:38
Steve Reed one day, like, no matter what, like so if somehow you become President of the United States, that guy will know like, oh, yeah, I know, shit his pants. freshman year in high school, and I'm a freshman year of college and I moved out like some no matter how high up you are in the world of life. Somebody has a story like that about you. Like somebody could cut you down to nothing in a second.
John Shull 46:03
Here's what I'm what I've come to gather as I've gotten older is that story while grotesque in probably I shouldn't say out loud. If that's the worst thing in 20 years that somebody can come out and say about me. I'll take it. Because look at all these men and women who are politicians, actors, actresses, the company terrible things come out about them as the them just not being good human beings.
Nick VinZant 46:29
That's a good point. Right? Like, if that's the worst thing that somebody can say about you, then you've lived a pretty good life. You know, Johnny pooped his pants when he was 19. Yeah,
John Shull 46:39
well, I'm 20 years removed from that now, so I change a lot, right?
Nick VinZant 46:44
Okay. Are you ready for our top five? What is our top five I kind of forgot. So our top five is top five things we want to do but are afraid to do. What's your number five.
John Shull 46:59
So I have a pretty hefty list here.
Nick VinZant 47:04
What do you emotionally it's going to be emotionally deep list. No, no, no,
John Shull 47:08
I'm okay. I just have a lot of things that apparently, I want to do, but I seem afraid of doing. So my number five I have run with the bulls.
Nick VinZant 47:20
Oh, okay. Why are you afraid to do that? I feel like that's not a crazy, crazy, crazy one. I wonder what like this statistic is about how many people actually get hurt, like what percentage of it?
John Shull 47:36
Because once again, I think I would be the idiot. And especially if somebody one of my friends like you were there. John, John, there's one. There's one running down the street. And then of course I go trying to run and it kicks me into the air and knocks me unconscious. And then stomps my head to death. Yeah,
Nick VinZant 47:53
that mean they're big. That's why I would go I would only go run with the bulls. Like if I knew who else was going. Like, I think I can outrun you. So I like I'll go with you. Oh, man, I know. I'll go with you shares. I
John Shull 48:09
swear to God, if we ever if we saw one coming to us left me. I would try to trip you so fast. I would try to do something.
Nick VinZant 48:16
Oh, if it's just you or me like I got kids, man.
John Shull 48:19
I got five. Four. I got kids.
Nick VinZant 48:22
My kids
John Shull 48:24
because we're not through I guess we're throwing that not parent into the mix, I guess.
Nick VinZant 48:28
Man, my number five is spicy food. I would like to try really really spicy food but I have no tolerance for spicy food. So I'd like to know what it's like but I can't I can't go beyond medium
John Shull 48:43
well, I actually have one on my that's like that related on my honorable mention that I've actually done but it's suck so bad that I'm afraid to do it though. I still I would do it again. And that's the one chip challenge.
Nick VinZant 48:56
Oh, is that like the ghost pepper chip or whatever it is? Yeah,
John Shull 49:00
by Paki or Paqui or whatever the company? I've done it. Pocky Is it maybe it's Pocky? Yeah,
Nick VinZant 49:08
but maybe they may be Pocky makes talkies
John Shull 49:11
I have no idea Takis I believe I've done the one ship challenge. And yeah, it feels like you're eating saw dust that is on fire. And it doesn't hit you at the first at first. It's like maybe 30 seconds. And when you're like this was a terrible mistake.
Nick VinZant 49:28
It's really that hot. I have no desire to do it. It's absolutely
John Shull 49:32
that hot. And I know there's people online and stuff that eat eight to 10 of them in a setting like good for them. Like I can handle the spicy food. And I swear I had heartburn for three weeks after eating the one I ate. It was not fun at all.
Nick VinZant 49:46
Yeah, that's not well, that's why I'm not going to ultimately do it which number four?
John Shull 49:52
Ah, so it's kind of a twofer, but it's basically going deep scuba diving or like holding your breath on underwater for a long period of time.
Nick VinZant 50:03
I mean, you can do that in your bathtub, if you really want to, you can just go underwater in your bathtub and do it. It'd be perfectly safe. I feel like you could make that part happen. I'd have I don't want to go real deep underwater. Yeah, I don't think I ever want to be more than I don't want to be more than 10 feet away from sea level, whether that's up in the air or down below, I don't really want to be more than 10 feet away from sea level.
John Shull 50:25
Maybe, maybe that's how I should just classify my number four is like I don't ever want to be deep underwater. Like, I think it would be great. It probably would be fantastic. But I'm scared to death of doing it. I remember going just snorkeling and getting pushed out by the current. And like looking down at well, we're in 10 feet of water. Oh, we're getting close to the buoy. Now. I can't see the bottom. That was scary stuff.
Nick VinZant 50:55
You don't mess with water. Man. You don't get second chances with water. I don't think that I would ever, ever in my life. I don't care if it is a cave the size of I don't care if I'm in the Pacific Ocean, and it's a cave the size of the Atlantic Ocean. I would never, ever, ever go into a cave underwater. I would never do that.
John Shull 51:20
I don't even know what that means. I would never go into anything underwater.
Nick VinZant 51:24
Nothing. I wouldn't go into a shipwreck. I wouldn't go into it like the Roman Colosseum and arena. I wouldn't go into I don't care how big it is. I'm not going into any underwater structure. Submarine, nothing. Do you read any books about submarines this year? What's your number four? Is that a yes or no?
John Shull 51:47
It is a no actually, I have actually done a terrible job of reading this year. I've only read two books. And it's something that's actually kind of bothers me because I want to read more. I just don't know why I don't. I
Nick VinZant 52:00
found a book that I read twice in one week. The murder. But no, that's more of a picture book. The murder bot diaries, all systems read those best book I've read a long time. It's great if you're into that kind of sci fi stuff. It's really good book. Um, my number four is telling people off. I have a couple of family members and friends that need to be told off. And I feel it's common. But I haven't worked up the courage yet to do it. Like I need to set some things straight with some people in my life, but I haven't done it yet. needed it needs to be done.
John Shull 52:37
That's good. I have that on my honorable mention, because I'm usually pretty good. There's a couple people still, that I really need to let it have it that I haven't. And I don't know if I'm ever going to so yeah,
Nick VinZant 52:48
I don't have a problem doing it if the situation presents itself. But I don't know I won't usually do it like just randomly. Like the situation kind of needs to present itself for me to tell somebody off.
John Shull 53:03
Kind of like recording this podcast with me. Yeah,
Nick VinZant 53:06
but it hasn't presented itself yet. Once he presents itself, my
John Shull 53:11
number three is like going sailing on the ocean or being on a boat. And the ocean.
Nick VinZant 53:20
We mean like any size boat or just like a little boat, like a
John Shull 53:23
little boat, like not a cruise ship, but like a, you know, on a sailboat going from New York to the UK or something like that. I would love to do that. But it just, it sounds scary as hell. Yeah.
Nick VinZant 53:36
I wouldn't really want to do that either. Like I said, I don't really want to be anywhere where my feet aren't touching the ground. Like I don't really like being off the ground in any way.
John Shull 53:49
But I think it'd be great like I want to do it. I'm just afraid to try it.
Nick VinZant 53:53
We had a guest on this shows circumnavigating the world, we should actually probably check in with him. I think he's probably about done.
John Shull 54:00
That was probably like three years ago by now. I
Nick VinZant 54:03
think it was like a year ago. It takes like a year it takes him like a year and a half. It takes a long time. Just sailing three miles an hour. So how fast he said he usually goes, my number three is just buzzing my hair. I would like to kind of shave my head to see what I looked like. But I don't have the courage or the confidence that it's going to grow back. So I'm not messing with it. But I would like to like my hair.
John Shull 54:25
I have gone down to zeros. Before and yeah, I mean, you look different. That's for sure.
Nick VinZant 54:34
Were you surprised? Were you like, oh, that's what I thought I was going to look like or did you go down to zero and be like, Oh, that was? I think I actually remember it.
John Shull 54:43
It's yeah, it's I mean, I wasn't I wasn't impressed. Nobody else was. Somebody called me Uncle Fester, which wasn't a great compliment.
Nick VinZant 54:55
Yeah, I could see that. But you know, other than that,
John Shull 54:59
other than that, It turned out fine. I mean, I am fortunate enough so far to have my hair grow back pretty quickly. So, you know, I'm, I'm okay on that. And for now at least,
Nick VinZant 55:09
I would like to do it. I just don't have the courage to buzz my head. Maybe a one. Maybe I know. I don't think I could go below it for
John Shull 55:20
not okay. All right, Reg. Good. My number two. downhill skiing.
Nick VinZant 55:27
Oh, you mean just skiing? You've never you don't have the guts to go skiing? No,
John Shull 55:32
no, no, not not like skiing, like downhill skiing, where you get going really fast. And you got to turn and it just seems like it's just an out of control chaos mess if you have no idea what you're doing, which would be me. And I don't feel like dying that way. So.
Nick VinZant 55:53
But yeah, have you gone regular skiing like you can work your way up, man. Like you don't have to jump right off the 10 meter board. If you're going diving, you can kind of like try to dive off the side first. Nick
John Shull 56:03
limited. It's up here. my center of gravity. Oh, yeah. isn't the greatest. So I'm probably just going to start canning ball, the faster I go, no matter how strong my legs were, or how much balanced I had. But in saying that, I'd love to try it. And once again, if if you and I were on a ski hill, and I'd had a couple of drinks and you're like, try that one. I probably go. I don't know how far I'd get. But I'd probably try it.
Nick VinZant 56:35
I mean, you're not gonna get seriously hurt. I goes, I started snowboarding this year. I've skied before but I started snowboarding this year, and I crashed probably on the first time. The first time I did it. I've crashed probably 50 to 75 times. Pretty sure I had a concussion actually crashed so hard. I almost pooped myself. But now I love it. You just got to go out it's fun man. You don't really get like you get injured but you don't get hurt. No way. It's the opposite. You get hurt but you don't get injured. I mean, some people break their legs and their knees and have to have surgery but
John Shull 57:09
pretty sure Michael Schumacher has been in a coma for a decade because of a skiing accident. I'm sure Sonny Bono would still want to be around to tell you about how he didn't run into a tree trunk and die.
Nick VinZant 57:21
Wasn't there a Kennedy there's been a lot of people that have died skiing. Yeah,
John Shull 57:26
it's wasn't Liam Neeson his wife didn't she died in a skiing accident.
Nick VinZant 57:31
I thought she was taken.
John Shull 57:35
What's your number two,
Nick VinZant 57:36
hang gliding, hang gliding or paramotor ng or Para motoring or Wingsuit Flying. Any of those kinds of things. I would like to go hang gliding. I just don't really want to be more than 10 feet off the ground.
John Shull 57:52
Yeah, I mean, I'm okay. I mean, I try it. Especially like paragliding where you're behind a boat over water.
Nick VinZant 58:00
I don't feel like that counts. I feel like that's not that's not the real thing. That's an amusement park ride to me.
John Shull 58:11
Leave me alone. I'm starving here. What is that? That's just a quote. kind of goes with my number one. Which is eating contests.
Nick VinZant 58:24
Oh, you'd like to sign up for an eating contest?
John Shull 58:27
I would but like I'm scared to death of multiple things. One, that I would gorge myself to where I just felt. I don't know the worst I've ever felt, too. I would love it so much that I would just keep doing it and gain another 100 pounds.
Nick VinZant 58:46
Like another another 100 pounds.
John Shull 58:50
You know, so but yeah, I would love to do it. Like I would love to like enter a real hot like a hot dog eating contests. But like, I'll just go for it. Would it actually feel good to eat 20 to 30 Hot dogs in seven minutes? No,
Nick VinZant 59:04
no, I don't think that that would really be enjoyable. I don't really like the feeling of being very full. I don't really enjoy it. It to me. It feels awful.
John Shull 59:15
The same dinner every night so you don't know what that's like. First
Nick VinZant 59:19
of all, I've been changing it up. I usually have chicken and fruit but Now recently I've been having sausage. Sausage and fruit.
John Shull 59:27
How does that sausage nevermind what you remember what
Nick VinZant 59:30
I love a good hard sausage. Big old sausage in my mouth. I'll take the whole thing. I'll eat the whole package. Whole thing. They're amazing. Come back for more. I can sausage. There's
John Shull 59:43
a guy on social media that eats hot dogs whole and I'm like, wow, how do you
Nick VinZant 59:49
do that's one of those talents that like I understand that that may be your talent but as a man don't show that off. Unless that's your thing and you're looking to attract a certain audience but like There is no point where I would ever show online. Like how much stuff I could fit in my mouth as a man, I would never do that. You would never see that happen. Um, my number one is not really something that I don't know if it really counts as being afraid of it. Because I'm not afraid of it's just something that I would say I've never done and that would be try my hardest at something I don't think I've ever given more than 95% effort. I don't think that there's a single thing that I've ever been like I tried as hard as I could not because I'm afraid to because I'm just really not that interested.
John Shull 1:00:38
Me. Maybe you should try it something.
Nick VinZant 1:00:43
I have something that I really like go all like I'm gonna go all in.
John Shull 1:00:48
Not being a father. Oh, well. Yeah, of
Nick VinZant 1:00:52
course it that. Well,
John Shull 1:00:53
so you have
Nick VinZant 1:00:54
what's your honorable mention?
John Shull 1:00:56
Oh, there's a there's a hefty list here. Scuba diving. skydiving. cave diving. Bungee jumping. Oh, no, no, no. Hard. No. And then I have doing a luge or skeleton run.
Nick VinZant 1:01:16
I think I would do that. I would do that. That seems like such a well, I don't know you can get a little bit out of control and you're gonna be in a lot of hurry. I think that's something that you've got to be like, No, you can't half ass that. You got to either do it and do it right or not do it at all.
John Shull 1:01:31
Yeah, you got to you got to pony up or you're probably falling crashing
Nick VinZant 1:01:38
I think I would like to climb a mountain. I don't know really how high of a mountain but I also really don't want to camp outside. Like looks and we built shelter for a reason. Why would I like I can just imagine our ancient ancestors like We're going camping. You got this house? Why would you go camping? Go in your house. That holds me back. I don't want to I need a mountain that I can climb and be backed by five. Oh, ah, okay, that's gonna go ahead and do it for this episode of Profoundly Pointless. I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance. Leave us a quick review. We really appreciate it. It really does help out the show. And let us know what you think or what for you are some things that man I really want to do this. But I'm just just haven't worked up the courage yet. And I think the optimum word there should be yet because you never know. And if you don't do it that's kind of okay too.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai