Joe Rogan - Shane Dorian on Becoming a Pro Surfer

It's too smart to talk to regular people Boom Powerful big wave server. How are you buddy? I'm great. We just got back from playing a little techno hunt we did man I ah greatest thing of all time right. I was just saying I don't care what the price is it's worth it It's a it's a bargain at twice the price or whatever it is Yeah, for people don't know what it is. It's this game that it simulates bow hunting so what it is is is a giant screen that's made out of Kevlar and then it's got a projector projects HD images of Elk and deer you can set it up for a bunch of different animals But elk and deer walk across the screen and you shoot at them And it's like the perfect there's a we show a little video Shane earlier. It's really cool, man It's a perfect practice for bow hunting because one of the things about bow hunting is You get nervous and the more you could do something like this where you just shot a perfect shot The more you could do that over and over and over again the more it becomes ingrained In your your your nervous system 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 Yeah, that's what we're actually talking about cutting off the podcast short just for that 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 It's a sports documentary that that that HBO and Robert Redford did so it's cool man. 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 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 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 So I'm crazy. It's a it's a wild story pull this up to your like keep this like a fist away all right How old were you when you first started surfing? I Started surfing on a stand-up surfboard when I was five and when did you start traveling sir? When I was 12 I went to England for the the world amateur championships So I was on the Hawaii team doing this traveling surfing thing yeah most of your life Yeah, I have it's crazy That is nuts man. I've been I've been putting my surfboards in a board bag and you know walking out the door with my passport since I was 12 and Going to so many different destinations around the world literally just for surfing Wow nuts this is such a crazy way to grow up and that that's the cool thing about the film is all of us had that in common and it's it's crazy the way the story set up to because There's so many things in it that I didn't really realize were happening at the time like like I came from the I Came from a broken family alcoholic father. You know kind of a radical Situation at home, and then like a lot of us had like broken families a lot of us had that in common, so We sort of have like this weird fucked up family dynamic in common So we all became sort of like our own family on the road, so we were competing for a world title We were all competing and going around the world all the time staying together So we became best friends like this nucleus of surfers And we all just became ultra close and then when things get got really serious With a surfing competition there was a lot on the line with sponsors and money and big brands coming in The shit hit the fan, and then we started like breaking up It got too serious It was almost like a band who just couldn't stand each other anymore or things got too radical You know girls got in the way or money got in the way and so there was like this kind of like breaking up Element you know throughout our group wow I would imagine when you're living like that those people must be so valuable for you though people that can Understand your way of life because it's their way of life too because like to a regular person Who commutes every day and goes to an office and comes home like your life is alien. Yeah it is I still get Like I still get uncomfortable when people ask me what I do for a living You know like I'll be in like a normal random setting and so yeah, what do you do for a living? I'm like no Do not ask me that Because nobody understands you know it's like what do you tell them I? Tell them the truth, but it's I just tell always tell them like it's it's really hard to explain, but I serve for a living And what the fuck is that yeah, do they go how does that work how do you paid yes all the time? And I just got no idea well you don't I guess check early compete any longer right now Just right at all ride big waves. I do all right big waves That's my focus, and I also ride all kinds of waves I serve every day and you know the waves don't get big that often right when the waves are biggest I'm on it Yeah for a person that like is Just meeting you for the first time and doesn't understand surfing and it's trying to wrap their head around making a living Yeah riding the waves of the ocean What's a how why? No, I went to accounting school, and I and I don't have there's not like a there's nothing I mean There's there's not like another category. I can really point to to to to make the point go quicker to it there's not like um You know it's like there's basketball players and football players and all of them are like scoring goals and getting these brand endorsements from that from competition element so Because I'm a free surfer who doesn't compete at all. It's just it's hard to wrap your head around, but it's even harder Yeah, basically I you know I I uh You know I Have a large surfing profile and so like I work with a lot of brands, and that's just the kind of the way it works It's just sponsors. Yeah. Yeah now this movie this documentary. Do they have footage of you guys from when you were really young. Oh, yeah Yeah, they do is that weird watching that stuff. Yeah very weird cuz we're all in our 40s now We all got kids and yeah for most of us except for Kelly Kelly still going 40 46 years old I I saw him on your show the other day is pretty classic But so so he's like a focal point in the film. He's he's part of the momentum generation and And so he there is incredible footage of him when he's you know nine years old or ten years old And he's in Florida like a little rat like a little sunburned rat and it's neat You know I mean I mean we all had that in common That's we we all grew up in in different places, and then we all fell in love with surfing You know separately, and then we all just became Super tight so wow it was a great. It's it's great And then now we're all like best friends again because there's no There's no points on the line or world title on the line or like brands getting in the way or girls getting in the way We're all we're all you know yeah, we're finally growing up That I mean that had to be strange though to be so tight and then everything Sort of get bottlenecked by the pressure yeah And you think serving how much pressure could there be but you know we're all trying to make a living right it's like Yeah, you know that was our dream to like surf as much as possible and see the world And that's the only way you could do it for us whenever there's competition There's got to be massive amounts of pressure whenever there's someone trying to achieve something or someone trying to rise to the top of a profession And you're surrounded by a bunch of you But you also must have pushed each other too, and it must have been beneficial to have people like you around as well I think it's it's part of It's just you know I think it's like part of our our like human DNA to you know to be naturally competitive It's I think especially men I think we feel like we have something to prove You know like where we stand like compared to the other guys whether it was like in the caveman days Or or like the hunt you know the first hunters where it was like there for sure there They're they were competitive to see who could bring home meat for the for the tribe Yeah, and then it just you know kept going from there And and then now we we we compete with whatever we're into and you know for us with surfing we came hyper competitive and Especially me like from the time I was like maybe 16 or 17 till the time I was like my mid-20s I was like super competitive where I want to rip people's heads off my heat like I would like Visualize horrible horrible things happening to them while I was competing against them And it's flies so crazy how is that gone 100% gone from my my being now I can't even imagine doing that. I'm like the most Relaxed non-competitive person. I have no competitiveness left in my body Well, I've only known you for what four years or something yeah in those years I could not imagine you having evil thoughts no towards someone no seem so chill. I was a shit talker Were you really? Oh, yeah, I I I remember I was surfing against this guy Damien Hardman and And he was like an Australian world champion. He was like an older generation We were from the young like new school generation We're coming up and there's these established guys who didn't want it But you know like BD thrown and there was this guy Damien Hardman who was a badass competitive surfer, but he was a very like tactician Conservative you never fall He seemed like a nerd to me know what I mean I was like a rock kid from Hawaii and this guy was like so presentable and professional and I just like resented it and I was in a heat with him and he got priority which means that he had first right of wave and I just needed a tiny little score to win and he basically sat on me which means he uses it He used his priority to chase me around the lineup and sit on me and keep me from getting a wave and let the time Run out and the whole time I was like you surf like a girl You you surf like a little bitch like I was like totally shit talking him and um did it work. Did he get you? He got me because he wrote the time out I I I basically cracked and started like getting emotional and he loved it He went I got this guy beat he's starting to shit talk me He loved that I any any he actually came up to me later and goes. I love it that you're that passionate I love it that you got that psyched and that emotional where you just started like trying to like insult me He's like that's my goal when I'm in heats with people is to get them to that point