Joe Rogan Experience #1193 - Shane Dorian
Joe Rogan (host), Shane Dorian (guest), Narrator, Young Jamie Vernon (guest), Young Jamie Vernon (guest), Young Jamie Vernon (guest), Young Jamie Vernon (guest)
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Joe Rogan and Shane Dorian, Joe Rogan Experience #1193 - Shane Dorian explores big-Wave Surfer Shane Dorian On Competition, Hunting, and True Freedom Joe Rogan and legendary big‑wave surfer Shane Dorian dive into Dorian’s life story, the HBO documentary *Momentum Generation*, and how intense competition nearly ruined his love for surfing before he rebuilt it as a lifestyle. They explore performance psychology in surfing and fighting, drawing parallels between flow state, nerves, and how mindset makes or breaks people under pressure. A large portion of the conversation centers on bowhunting, ethical meat, invasive species, and how hunting shapes a deeper respect for life and food. They also roam through topics like Hawaii’s volcanic eruptions, off‑grid living, trucks and gear, Elon Musk, Daniel Day‑Lewis, media hypocrisy, and online outrage over hunting and identity politics.
Big-Wave Surfer Shane Dorian On Competition, Hunting, and True Freedom
Joe Rogan and legendary big‑wave surfer Shane Dorian dive into Dorian’s life story, the HBO documentary *Momentum Generation*, and how intense competition nearly ruined his love for surfing before he rebuilt it as a lifestyle. They explore performance psychology in surfing and fighting, drawing parallels between flow state, nerves, and how mindset makes or breaks people under pressure. A large portion of the conversation centers on bowhunting, ethical meat, invasive species, and how hunting shapes a deeper respect for life and food. They also roam through topics like Hawaii’s volcanic eruptions, off‑grid living, trucks and gear, Elon Musk, Daniel Day‑Lewis, media hypocrisy, and online outrage over hunting and identity politics.
Key Takeaways
Competition Can Destroy – and Then Rebuild – Your Love for a Craft
Dorian explains how hyper‑competitive pro surfing in his teens and 20s turned friends into rivals as money, sponsors, and world titles entered the picture. ...
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Mindset Under Pressure Is the Real Performance Differentiator
Both Rogan and Dorian emphasize that whether it’s fighting in the UFC, dropping into 60‑foot waves, or drawing a bow on a bull elk, the decisive factor is mental: staying calm, non‑emotional, and in a flow state (around 2400–3300s). ...
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Surfing Is Inherently Unfair as a Sport but Perfect as a Lifestyle
Because surfing depends on unpredictable waves, contests often reward whoever randomly gets the best sets rather than the most skilled surfer. ...
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True Mastery Requires Adapting to Constantly Changing Environments
Dorian attributes surfing’s brutal difficulty to having to read and react to never‑identical waves while effectively “reacting to the future” shape of the water (around 2700–3350s). ...
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Hunting Deepens Respect for Meat and Builds Ethical Awareness
Both men argue that killing and processing your own animals fundamentally changes your relationship to food. ...
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Invasive Species Must Be Managed, Even When Photos Spark Outrage
They use Hawaiian axis deer and goats, and the viral Scottish ‘goat hunt’ controversy, as examples of how public backlash often ignores ecology (around 7200–7800s). ...
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Modern Life Often Lacks Peak Moments Humans Are Built to Crave
Dorian calls riding a perfect 60‑foot wave a “first‑kiss” level, mind‑exploding moment and says as adults we rarely experience that intensity (around 3500–4100s). ...
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Notable Quotes
“From the moment I stood on a surfboard and rode my first wave, I knew that was who I was in my DNA.”
— Shane Dorian
“Those moments don’t happen very often, man. That’s what people like yourself or myself are chasing – these above‑average moments where everything’s elevated.”
— Joe Rogan
“Surfing is just as a lifestyle, as a way to stay sane and have peace in your life and meet friends – that’s what surfing’s about.”
— Shane Dorian
“Most people who eat meat have never seen an animal die. They’ve hired a supermarket hitman.”
— Joe Rogan
“You can be the biggest kook in the world and have the most fun. That’s why surfing’s so cool.”
— Shane Dorian
Questions Answered in This Episode
In *Momentum Generation*, what specific incidents or turning points best capture how sponsorship money and world‑title pressure fractured your surf ‘family,’ and how did you personally navigate those breakups?
Joe Rogan and legendary big‑wave surfer Shane Dorian dive into Dorian’s life story, the HBO documentary *Momentum Generation*, and how intense competition nearly ruined his love for surfing before he rebuilt it as a lifestyle. ...
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You said the killer, hyper‑competitive part of you is now ‘100% gone.’ What concrete mental practices or life events most helped you let go of that identity without losing your drive to perform at a high level in heavy waves?
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When you compare surfing’s unfair, nature‑dependent contest format to MMA’s more controlled environment, what would an ideal, truly fair surf competition look like—if such a thing is even possible?
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On the Hawaii invasive‑species front, what management strategies or policy changes do you wish non‑hunters and lawmakers better understood, especially regarding goats, pigs, and axis deer on islands like Lanai and Maui?
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Given your kids’ firsthand experience with hunting and meat processing, how has that shaped their views on food, animals, and environmental responsibility compared to their peers who only know supermarket meat?
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Transcript Preview
Yeah. He's, uh, I think he's too smart. He's too smart to talk to regular people.
Fun.
Boom! Powerful big wave surfer. How are you, buddy?
I'm great. (laughs)
We just got back from playing a little Tekno Hunt.
We did, man. Ah-
Greatest thing of all time, right?
I was just saying, I, I don't care what the price is, it's worth it.
(laughs)
It's a, it's a bargain at twice the price, or whatever it is. (laughs)
Yeah. For people who don't know what it is, it's this game that it simulates bow hunting. So, what it is, is it's a giant screen that's made out of Kevlar, and then, uh, it's got a s- like a projector, projects HD images of elk and deer. Y- you can set it up for a bunch of different animals, but elk and deer walk across the screen. And you shoot at 'em, and it's like the perfect... There's a, we show a little video of Shane doing it earlier.
(laughs) It's really cool, man.
But it's, it's a perfect practice for bow hunting, because one of the things about bow hunting is it, you get nervous. And the more you could do something like this, where you just shot a perfect shot, the more you can do that over and over and over again, the more it becomes ingrained in your, your, your nervous system. I mean, ingrained in your muscles, ingrained in your memory, and then it becomes natural.
Yeah. It's awesome.
Yeah. It's pretty dope.
We're gonna make this podcast about 15 minutes long, go back and shoot some more. (laughs)
(laughs) Yeah. That's what we... We were actually talking about cutting off the podcast short just for that.
(laughs)
So, tell me about this movie, man.
Yeah. So, I'm in LA for the premiere, the HBO premiere, of The Momentum Generation. It's a, it's a, uh, it's a sports documentary they, that, uh, that HBO and Robert Redford did. So, it's cool, man. It's, it's, it's really cool. It's um, it's a story about my friends and I. We, you know, we all grew up, uh, competitive surfers and in high school, we all sort of met each other through, through competitions, competing. So, this tells the story of how we basically, how we met, how we grew up, um, and how we became friends and family, basically. Like, traveling around the world, you know, together, as basically like little kids with no, with no chaperones on, on tour around the world.
Wow.
So, it's fucking crazy. It's a, it's a wild story.
Pull this up to your... Like, keep this like a fist away from your face.
All right.
Mm, how old were you when you first started surfing?
I s- started surfing on a standup surfboard when I was five.
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