Joe Rogan Experience #1429 - Colin O'Brady

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   Three, two, one. Boom.…

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:01

      Three, two, one. Boom. Hello, Colin. Welcome back.

   2. COColin O'Brady0:04

      What's up, man? Good to see you.

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:05

      You wrote a book?

   4. COColin O'Brady0:06

      I brought a book. I wrote a b-

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:08

      You wrote it? You wrote this book?

   6. COColin O'Brady0:08

      I wrote this book last time, since I saw you last.

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:10

      The Impossible First.

   8. COColin O'Brady0:12

      Indeed, indeed, yeah, about my, uh, solo journey across Antarctica and kinda diving deep through my whole life and kinda what brought me there and other expeditions and the ups and downs of it all.

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:23

      And you're coming back from another crazy trip, right? What-

   10. COColin O'Brady0:25

       I am indeed.

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:25

       What is that nonsense that you did on a kayak?

   12. COColin O'Brady0:28

       (laughs)

   13. NANarrator0:29

       (laughs)

   14. JRJoe Rogan0:29

       What did you do?

   15. COColin O'Brady0:31

       So, uh, after I got back from The Impossible First: The Antarctica Crossing, right about the time I saw you last year, um, I got a, uh, a funny phone call actually, of all things. People were asking me, you know, "What's the next expedition gonna be? What are you gonna do?" And I said, "You know, I just walked 54 days by myself across Antarctica. Give me, give me a minute, give me a minute to, uh-"

   16. JRJoe Rogan0:49

       Right.

   17. COColin O'Brady0:50

       "... relax." And, uh, I get a phone call via a buddy of mine from college, connects me to this, uh, this guy, uh, this Icelandic guy, I've never met him before, his name's Fionn Pol. Don't know his story, I do now, he's an absolute legend. Um, and he says, "Hey man, you were just in Antarctica, right?" And I was like, "Yeah," and he's like, "I think we should go back to Antarctica." And I was like, "All right. Well, what are you thinking?" He's like, "In a rowboat. I think we should row a boat from the southern tip of South America to the peninsula of Antarctica across Drake Passage."

   18. JRJoe Rogan1:19

       How far is that?

   19. COColin O'Brady1:20

       About 700 miles.

   20. JRJoe Rogan1:21

       Can I see what that looks like on a map?

   21. COColin O'Brady1:23

       (laughs) Um, and I said, "Please delete my phone number." (laughs)

   22. JRJoe Rogan1:28

       700 miles rowing a boat?

   23. COColin O'Brady1:30

       Uh, yeah, so Drake Passage is known to be, um, you know, in seafaring, one of the most treacherous if not the most treacherous kind of passageway in the world. You know, you've gotten, you know, the Atlantic and the Pacific and the Southern Ocean kind of all converging between the Antarctic Peninsula and the southern tip of South America. So you've got 40-foot swells, you got, you know, crazy waves, icebergs as you get close to Antarctica. Um, and the, uh, the mission or the goal was to see if we could, uh ... There it is right there.

   24. JRJoe Rogan1:54

       That's it?

   25. COColin O'Brady1:54

       That's it. That-

   26. JRJoe Rogan1:54

       That whole area?

   27. COColin O'Brady1:55

       That whole area, yeah, right there.

   28. JRJoe Rogan1:57

       From there to there?

   29. COColin O'Brady1:57

       From there to there. Um, all the way down, yeah, the main, the main peninsula there of Antarctica.

   30. JRJoe Rogan2:02

       How long did this take?
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   So he traveled further,…

   1. COColin O'Brady15:00

      as well as, you know, he was able to use the kite going 125 miles in a single day, um, which is, like I said, it's amazing. It's really incredible what he did in the time that he did it. It's just really kind of an apples and oranges, um, comparison when it comes to polar travel and the distinctions, uh, of that, um, in the world.

   2. JRJoe Rogan15:17

      So he traveled further, but he used some assistance.

   3. COColin O'Brady15:20

      Yeah, so there's basically these different distinctions in the world of polar travel, and that's another one of the things, again, um, I'm not sure how they got this wrong. I, uh, actua- and in the link on the 16-page thing, I show the text message when the journalist asked me, "Well, tell me about these definitions of unsupported and unassisted," um, and I sent him the link, and there's these links. It's, it's a kinda published thing on this website called Antarctica Logistics, um, and Expeditions, the main sort of expedition, um, facilitator, the person who, like, runs the logistics down there, and it's very clear. Unsupported means no use of resupplies.

   4. JRJoe Rogan15:49

      Right.

   5. COColin O'Brady15:49

      Unassisted means no use of kites or dogs. And so the thing that I did solo, um, that people, I guess, have gotten somewhat confused about, or th- uh, first, was I was the first person to cross the landmass of Antarctica solo, unsupported, no resupplies, and unassisted, no kites. What Børge Ousland did is he was the first person to cross Antarctica, not just the landmass, but also the ice shelves. So there's frozen ocean on these ice shelves.

   6. JRJoe Rogan16:17

      Right.

   7. COColin O'Brady16:17

      Um, so from the coast, across the ice shelf, across the landmass, and across the other ice shelf. And no one yet, including myself, has ever done a solo, unsupported, unassisted crossing of both the landmass and the ice shelves. It's tr- I hope someone does it, man. (laughs) It would be amazing. I had a 375-pound sled, and I almost ran out of food at the end crossing the landmass. Um, and, uh, if, uh, you'd need maybe a 600-pound sled or something like that, or maybe a more optimized food solution that no one's thought of yet, but, um, hasn't been done yet. Uh-

   8. JRJoe Rogan16:48

      How big was Ousland's sled?

   9. COColin O'Brady16:50

      Similar size as me. So he was out there for alm- I think he was out there for 63 days f- roughly. I was out there for 54 days. So we were not out there a lot difference in duration of time.

   10. JRJoe Rogan16:59

       Oh, okay, so the sled really did make a big difference then, if he's going that much further than you.

   11. COColin O'Brady17:04

       Exactly. Exactly.

   12. JRJoe Rogan17:06

       Okay.

   13. COColin O'Brady17:06

       Yeah, so-

   14. JRJoe Rogan17:06

       That, so, so, so- so one more time, you were out there how many days?

   15. COColin O'Brady17:10

       I was out there 54 days.

   16. JRJoe Rogan17:11

       And he was out there 60-

   17. COColin O'Brady17:12

       63 days.

   18. JRJoe Rogan17:13

       Okay, that's not that different.

   19. COColin O'Brady17:14

       Right, and so he, like I said, on a co- some of the days, he talks about it openly that he went... he does it in kilometers, but if you calculate back to miles, like, 125 miles in a 15-hour period of time. That's unfathomable (laughs) just walking pulling a sled. They're just two different things. It's like the difference between sailing across an ocean and rowing a boat across the ocean.

   20. JRJoe Rogan17:31

       Why do you think National Geographic got that wrong then? Because the way they wrote it, it was, you know, it's-... they made it look like you're just a fame whore, and that, you know, there was a bunch of other explorers and outdoors people that were in support of the fact that Ausland was the only one ... the first one to do it. They didn't make this distinction, and they actually made it seem like s- as if this, the sled was an ingenious solution. But it seems like that was a planned thing, and that was an engineered thing, and that it wasn't something that he built up on the fly. This was the method that they used to help him get across the snow.

   21. COColin O'Brady18:07

       Totally, and if, like I said, if you look in the e- letter that I wrote, it's got links to the actual manufacturer. They kind of talk about it as being this elegant solution. It's like he put a kite up randomly.

   22. JRJoe Rogan18:16

       He figured it out. "Hey, I got an idea."

   23. COColin O'Brady18:17

       Yeah, but it's like a fully manufactured thing. It's a legit kite, and like I said, this is not me knocking on that. I actually think that project is one of the projects that inspired me the most to do what I did. It is amazing. Um-

   24. JRJoe Rogan18:27

       It sounds amazing. Can we see what Ausland does ... Is, is there any photograph of, uh, Ausland's kite? I wanna see what it looks like.

   25. COColin O'Brady18:33

       D- Yeah.

   26. JRJoe Rogan18:34

       Yeah, um, it's ... (sighs) Whenever someone does something extraordinary, like, there's no doubt, just what you did. 50 ... How many days again? 50, 40?

   27. COColin O'Brady18:41

       54 days alone. (laughs)

   28. JRJoe Rogan18:42

       It's fucking crazy.

   29. COColin O'Brady18:44

       (laughs)

   30. JRJoe Rogan18:44

       It's crazy, and for anybody to shit on that is nuts. So, and you're the first one that's ever done it, just pulling that thing, and you showed us what it was like last time you were here.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Mmm. …

   1. COColin O'Brady30:00

      statement.

   2. JRJoe Rogan30:00

      Mmm.

   3. COColin O'Brady30:00

      And I'm like, "They're about two completely different things that I'm talking about."

   4. JRJoe Rogan30:03

      Oh, douchebag.

   5. COColin O'Brady30:04

      And you're like, "Dude."

   6. JRJoe Rogan30:05

      That, that's what people do, man.

   7. COColin O'Brady30:06

      (laughs) You know?

   8. JRJoe Rogan30:07

      They wanna sell dirt.

   9. COColin O'Brady30:08

      You know? Or he says-

   10. JRJoe Rogan30:09

       (laughs)

   11. COColin O'Brady30:10

       ... like, "Colin made up this thing about no rescue zones. No one's ever written about the fact of, in Antarctica," and he talks about me getting picked up in Antarctica like I can call an Uber. He literally says in there, uses somebody else's quote, he says, "I mean, getting picked up in Antarctica is like calling an Uber." Which is, by itself, just-

   12. JRJoe Rogan30:24

       He really, really said that?

   13. COColin O'Brady30:25

       Literally says that in the article, which is just crazy. And then-

   14. JRJoe Rogan30:27

       That's hilarious. Bitch, try getting an Uber-

   15. COColin O'Brady30:29

       (laughs)

   16. JRJoe Rogan30:29

       ... in the woods in Montana.

   17. COColin O'Brady30:31

       (laughs)

   18. JRJoe Rogan30:31

       Okay? Geez.

   19. COColin O'Brady30:32

       I'm like, I'm like, "An Uber?"

   20. JRJoe Rogan30:34

       You know?

   21. COColin O'Brady30:34

       And then the craziest thing, and again, the-

   22. JRJoe Rogan30:35

       That is so crazy that someone says that.

   23. COColin O'Brady30:36

       My response to this is just factual. It's, it's not, you know, it's, it's, I just try to not be too defensive or anything about it, but it's just-

   24. JRJoe Rogan30:42

       Well, the good news is this will reach way more people than that article.

   25. COColin O'Brady30:46

       Yeah, it's-

   26. JRJoe Rogan30:46

       But-

   27. COColin O'Brady30:46

       But the, I would say one last thing about it, the irony of this is if you google Borg Eielson, in 2018 right after, or 2019 right after I finished My Crossing, he's interviewed about all this. And in a quote, and I link to this in my, you know, my letter, it, him saying, "There are parts of Antarctica, particularly in the large sastrugi zones," which is exactly what I was talking about, "where rescue is impossible." Like, he, the guy-

   28. JRJoe Rogan31:07

       (laughs)

   29. COColin O'Brady31:07

       ... who uses it against me is also quoted saying the other thing, but then he says... It's like the whole thing is just-

   30. JRJoe Rogan31:12

       (sighs)
4. 45:00 – 59:57

   Oh, whoa. …

   1. COColin O'Brady45:00

      there, so we all try to get in the cabins. But, like, this Icelandic dude who's the captain, Fionn Paul, I mean, he's, like, amazing row- you know, six foot two, broad shoulders, whatever. All of a sudden the two of us are jammed inside of, like, the smallest little compartment, it's like two feet round- three feet wide by three feet tall, we're like spooning each other, we're wet-

   2. JRJoe Rogan45:17

      Oh, whoa.

   3. COColin O'Brady45:17

      ... we're cold, we're in there for 26 hours that time, like we-

   4. JRJoe Rogan45:20

      How did you guys poop?

   5. COColin O'Brady45:22

      Uh, (laughs) so if you look, that's me, yeah, that, this one shows kind of the wave, the big swell. I'm the, I'm the f- the one in the back there, um, and, uh, I'm sitting right next to a really fancy toilet, a little something called a five-gallon bucket. (laughs)

   6. JRJoe Rogan45:34

      Oh, that's what you did, you pooped in a bucket?

   7. COColin O'Brady45:36

      Pooped in a bucket, not, not too fancy.

   8. JRJoe Rogan45:38

      And then chuck it over side?

   9. COColin O'Brady45:38

      Yeah, um, and, uh, and then, then, then the fish can snack on that.

   10. JRJoe Rogan45:42

       Jesus.

   11. COColin O'Brady45:42

       But, you know, you obviously get, not only were we spooning under sea anchors, smashing these little things, and, and oftentimes those other, the other guys in the other compartment are either three, um, three of them were inside the compartment at a time and one would be sitting out, um, and taking shifts, or they sometimes smashed four in there. Um, but I mean, they're like literally on top of each other. So we got close, but then also, obviously, you know, there's no space on the deck, so it's like, "Hey man, just turn your head away, I'm gonna be, you know, pooping, uh, basically a foot away from you while you row into this bucket. Like, don't mind me."

   12. JRJoe Rogan46:08

       And believe me, those mountain houses will create some horrible smells out of your body.

   13. COColin O'Brady46:12

       (laughs)

   14. JRJoe Rogan46:12

       I've had those mountain houses while hunting, they're rough.

   15. COColin O'Brady46:15

       (laughs)

   16. JRJoe Rogan46:15

       Especially for me, 'cause I don't eat a lot of carbs-

   17. COColin O'Brady46:17

       Yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan46:18

       ... like, there's just a, it's all like, you know ...

   19. COColin O'Brady46:20

       Yeah, so-

   20. JRJoe Rogan46:20

       They taste good though?

   21. COColin O'Brady46:21

       They do taste good, yeah, they especially do.

   22. JRJoe Rogan46:22

       Especially when you're in the middle of the ocean, I bet they're delicious.

   23. COColin O'Brady46:24

       I loved 'em, yeah, yeah, they're really good. That, that and the bars. I was happy with, with the- eating was good, but, uh, yeah.

   24. JRJoe Rogan46:29

       When you're halfway out there, was there any point in time where you're like, "What the fuck is wrong with me? Why am I doing this?"

   25. COColin O'Brady46:34

       Yes.

   26. JRJoe Rogan46:34

       (laughs)

   27. COColin O'Brady46:35

       100%. So one of the things, like, you know, people have asked me was, you know, Solar Antarctic Crossing harder than the row, whatever, and it's like, they're very different. But one of the things that was so brutal about this, Antarctica and the crossing was, was a lot colder than the Drake Passage row. It was about, average temperature when we were out there was probably like in the low 30s, you know, dipped below a few times. But the ocean temperature-Like I said, it's 32, you know, 33, you know, just above freezing. There's icebergs in the water, and we're getting close to it, and you're just getting splashed the entire time. So from, like, minute one, hour one leaving Cape Horn, we are soaking wet.

   28. JRJoe Rogan47:09

       And what kind of equipment are you wearing? Like, what kinda gear are you wearing that keeps you from-

   29. COColin O'Brady47:14

       So-

   30. JRJoe Rogan47:14

       ... getting really cold?

Episode duration: 1:20:05