Katie Spotz Is The Youngest Person to Row Across the Atlantic Ocean

So you start off with this first mile and then eventually work your way up to all these challenges and then eventually you decide I am going to row across the Atlantic Ocean by myself. Yeah, so okay, so the row. I was on a bus, right? And I was like talking to someone sitting next to me and we were talking about endurance challenges and I was a stubborn know-it-all 19 year old. So of course I was like, oh, I've heard it all. I know people climb Mount Everest. I know people sail around the world. I know about all these things. And then he mentioned his friend rode across the Atlantic and that was like, that just stopped me in my tracks. Like what? People can do that? It was so far beyond anything I ever imagined. And I think with endurance, what's so cool about endurance is at a certain point everyone's body hurts, right? So what makes endurance a really cool experience is seeing how the human will and how determination and how a strong mind. It's a requirement because everyone, no matter how fast or slow you are, is going through that mental wall. And so yeah, I found out about ocean rowing and I was really captivated not only by that mental component because like if you do a marathon, you go home, you take your shower, you have people cheering you on, but ocean rowing you're stripped raw of that. And something about that was intriguing to me because it's like, okay, how can you dig deep internally when you don't have the finish line, whatever party and the swag and the people and the nice cozy bed? And I liked that idea of being so stripped raw that you have to dig deeper than you ever would if you didn't have all those other externals. So yeah, I found out about it on a bus. I went home and went and googled everything I could about ocean rowing. And it was at a time where I did my first ultra marathon. So it was like 100 kilometer run or 62 miles. And it was again, one of those moments where I was like, I never thought I could do that. And my body proved otherwise. So what are all the other things that I'm saying, I can't do, but maybe I can. So it was really that information at that particular time where I was like really open to the idea of wow, maybe it is possible, but it was a matter of like researching everything. It wasn't like, Oh, I got to do this. It was, Oh, I got to find out everything. Because I mean, if someone told you someone rode across the Atlantic, wouldn't the first thing be like, is that really true? So I mean, that was the first place I look like are people legitimately doing that? How much time was it between you finding out about it and you actually doing it? Two years. That's not that long. No. What kind of training did you do? So like physical training, like compared to doing like, I've trained for like Iron Mans and then train for adventures, like physical, purely physical to like these more adventure type things. And like training for an Iron Man, 90% is like what you're doing in the gym for ocean rowing and for like the more adventure type athletic pursuits. I would say that like 90% was like the logistics, like you could be the most fit person in the world, but if you don't have a boat, what does it matter? So I spent most of my time just like sorting out through all the logistics, the sponsorship, getting the gear, training with the gear. But yeah, like my training priorities for rowing and ocean were injury prevention. So I did a lot with like strengthening my core and my lower back. And then on the weekends is when I would do like a six to eight hour row training row just to get more to get used to the boat and the equipment more than anything else. But you would go on a lake, Lake Erie. Yeah. Now, how fast do you go on this boat? Uh, like maybe I would go like 30 miles a day. No, no, no. How fast like per hour, three, two or three miles, two or three miles per hour. Yeah. Basically like the speed of walking. Yeah. So, um, my boat was a 19 foot row boat. It was like 400 pounds, but once it was fully loaded, it was a thousand pounds. So it did have like a sliding seat. Yes. Okay. So, um, I, I had a sliding seat. So that meant that like my legs and my back were the main source of like power. But, um, I think the best like, you mean a sliding seat, seat, like a rowing machine. Exactly. So that helps you. It means that like the power was coming from the most powerful parts of my body, not in my arms. So some people assume like, Oh, it's just your upper body. It's just your arms. But in fact, it's more your legs and back. But, um, so this thing's going two or three miles an hour. Correct. And how many miles is the Atlantic ocean? How many miles? 3000. Yeah. 3000. So, oh my God. Don't think about it. Don't even think about it. Oh my God. That's so far. That's so far. It was the worst reaching the halfway point just because like, how long did it take you the whole trip? 70 days. 70 days. That's not that bad. Yeah. When you think about it, how far you went. Yeah, I would say so. Yeah. I anticipated it would be 70 or a hundred days. Oh my God. That's a big gap. I had 30 days of extra food and. Oh, that's good. Yeah. Yeah. How did that bring you? Uh, I had like a tracker so people could like look online and see where I was. But there wasn't like a follow boat or anything like that. Oof. What were those nights like? It was pretty amazing. Yeah. So of course the stars were amazing like shooting stars and just like, yeah, breathtaking. And then what surprised me, like I thought it was like, wait, is this real? Am I hallucinating? But the, the, I think the most stunning part was actually looking in the water because they had like, um, this type of glowing plankton. So it was like a phosphorescence. So sometimes I would see things glowing in the distance and then all around my boat, anytime my ore hit the water, like I would see all of that. And yeah, like I was so busy planning the trip and the logistics that I didn't know like what wildlife I'd see. And so that was definitely like a pleasant surprise to see that. That must have been really crazy. Yeah. Have you ever seen? No, no, I've seen it on video. So you can find video of it. Um, what is it called? It's bioluminescence, but there are like, Puerto Rico is probably the closest place to here that has really good bioluminescence too. Like yeah. So that it really looked like that. Like that bright blue. Yeah, around my boat, yes. That's amazing. Very trippy. That is so wild. Yeah. So I could put my hand in the water and, um, did you take any photos or film it? I did have some, uh, film and, uh, yeah, sometimes I know like you can't really take good. I mean, yeah, I didn't have really good bioluminescence photos. Um, look at that. Sure. That's insane. Now you said the stars. Stars were amazing. Yes. Like how amazing? I mean, no light pollution at all. Right? Yeah. I mean, I, I mean it in some ways it felt like I was just like living this national geographic experience of like, you know, I had dolphins come right up to my boat. I had, um, yeah, yeah. Like, uh, I think it was like the fourth way mark. I was like, I want to celebrate. Um, my way of celebrating was very limited. It was like, oh, am I going to have two Snickers bars? Like there's not really anything other than what I had, but the spot of dolphins surrounded my boat and we're doing like flips and tricks and like, right at that moment that I was reaching it. So yeah, the, the dolphins and sharks and birds. And, um, I even had like fish following right underneath my boat. Like because barnacles would grow, it was like I on, on the side of my boat, I would, um, scrub them off, but sometimes they would just keep following my boat. So every time I, I named them Ed Edd and Eddie, but I had like three Dorado's that would keep following and birds that came on my boat. And yeah. Catch new episodes of the Joe Rogan experience for free only on Spotify. Watch back catalog JRE videos on Spotify, including clips, easily seamlessly switch between video and audio experience on Spotify. You can listen to the JRE in the background while using other apps and can download episodes to save on data costs. All for free. Spotify is absolutely free. You don't have to have a premium account to watch new JRE episodes. You just need to search for the JRE on your Spotify app. Go to Spotify now to get this full episode of the Joe Rogan experience.