[Intro]
911, what's the nature of your emergency?
Ashlie: Welcome back to another episode of Tactical Living by Leo warriors. I'm your host Ashlie Walton.
Clint: And I'm your co-host Clint Walton.
Ashlie: In today's episode we're going to talk about why it's so important when you work in a line of a first responder to make sure to have some downtime and even further if you can to build that commodity with the people that you work with outside of the job. So just sit back, relax and enjoy today's content. Clint and I love deep sea fishing. We've talked about that before and for the past I would say since January or so Clint and one of his partners Nate have put together a fishing trip. This is a two day tuna trip outside of Baja and it will be my first experience on a boat for that length of time. The whole idea that Clint and his partner had worked was to put together this trip to where as many officers as wanted to be a part of this could really join and experience something as cool as deep sea fishing in the middle of the ocean while doing it together. And Clint if you can you just talk a little bit about what your intention was in putting this whole trip together in the first place.
Clint: So when my buddy and I started talking about planning this fishing trip we thought it'd be really cool and we've talked about it before on previous fishing trips to really put something together where we can get members of our department onboard to really get in the world to deep sea fishing. It's something that you and I and Nate are passionate about. I have my collection of rods and just like any hobby everyone has their collection of things that they like to stack up. So as we talked about it we're like going over different ideas of what we could do and how we could approach it. And it was always talk. We've talked about it for years now but we never really took action on it. So this year I said you know what. We're doing it. And I asked for a few phone numbers, contacted a couple of skippers and really plan, started planning the trip and our mindset wasn't just to get people into fishing but to showcase the brotherhood that we have. And I shouldn't say just brotherhood but the brotherhood and sisterhood and family hood of being together on the boat in the middle of the ocean for two and half days and shedding light on how you can have fun outside of work and you don't just have to be friends at work.
Ashlie: And not only that but something that just came to me was there's been many times when you or us as a couple have been invited to do things outside of the workplace and a lot of times that involves drinking.
Clint: And it's funny that you mention that because I've made it very clear to everyone who's coming on the boat that they can't bring alcohol on the boat. You get cops together and they start drinking, it turns into a mess.
Ashlie: And for us we're always very grateful to be invited to those types of things. And there's no shame on anybody who enjoys doing that.
But for us it's just not our lifestyle. I can count probably on two fingers how many times a year I put alcohol in my body. And it's always when you and I are together, alone together and it's just not something for us. You've been through that, you've lived through that, you've moved on from that and in creating this environment where you put together this event for people to go and do something new for many of them. Very exciting. That requires some teamwork and I say teamwork because when you're out there in the middle of the ocean and you have a big catch, it's very important that you're cognizant of everybody around you. Because there are times when you have to manipulate around one another to make sure that your lines don't get crossed, especially when someone's trying to like reel in a big one.
Clint: And that's what I'm actually looking forward to see how well we can work together with going over and under each other and making sure we don't cross our lines throughout the whole time and how we can help one another. I've been on these trips before where it's a whole bunch of random people and there's no teamwork involved with it. And it makes it really hard.
Ashlie: It's something so cool that this has stemmed into was it hasn't just turned into this simple fishing trip where a bunch of officers or people involved in law enforcement in some way go out on a boat together. It's turned into something a little bit bigger than that. You and Nate put forth a lot of effort in reaching out to some pretty big companies to get them to sponsor the trip in a way. They've sent us a lot of swag that we can give out. We're planning on doing raffles on the boat. Somehow one of the founders, del from del taco is going to be going on our trip. How the fuck did that happen I have no idea. And just a really cool dynamic of people and we're excited because we're going to bring out some of our equipment. We're going to shoot some podcasts on the boat.
Clint: Get some interviews with some of my partners and people who aren't in law enforcement to have that mindset brought forth to you as a listener.
Ashlie: I'm so excited for that and I think the more and more that we've shared with people coming on this trip what the intention is and some of the other things that you know are going to be happening besides just the fishing component of it. I think people have a lot of hype built up around this trip.
Clint: And I think one the other great things is we have a representative from western outdoor news coming on the trip with us who's going to showcase us as police officers going out, we work hard but we fish hard too. And the spin he's going to put on, that is going to be really cool to see.
Ashlie: It's exciting. I never thought back in the beginning of the year when we were kind of collaborating and talking about the idea of this trip that it would have even turned into what it has up until this point. And as an officer or anybody that works in a demanding line of work, it's so important to have something like this to look forward to. For you and I where we said Clint I know for us usually it's planning that big international trip every year. We do that because it gives us hope. It gives us this excitement of knowing that just keep grinding it out. And when that date comes up there's no excuses. Like this is going to happen and we can just disconnect and just experience life in the way that we're supposed to.
Clint: And I love that you said disconnect. I've told everybody who's coming on the boat you're not going to have cell phone reception, you're going to be in the middle of the ocean. You're forced to disconnect from the real world. And we also set a rule of there's no work talk, there's no shop talk. We're just people going out to go fishing together.
Ashlie: Well I would hope except for when we start to record some interviews.
Clint: Yeah. But I'm just talking about war stories amongst each other trying to pound our chest to see who's better.
Ashlie: And I think that in just knowing the experiences that we've had fishing before, again I've never gone this far out into the ocean. But there's this certain sense of vulnerability when you're exposed to the elements in that way. And for us we'll of course be sleeping on the boat, eating on the boat, fishing on the boat, peeing on the boat, showering on the boat. Like this is going to be our life for the weekend. And in that sense of vulnerability it puts everybody on that same playing field to where perhaps that pounding of the chest won't even come up. Because everybody's equal. Everybody is there just to experience life and to enjoy themselves. But by doing it in a company of like minded people where everybody knows there's no judgment.
Clint: It's a safe environment.
Ashlie: Exactly. And as you sit there can you think of a time in your own life where maybe you've gotten to go out, maybe it was an event or out with some friends for the evening going over to someone's home for a party or even a concert just this element of being around like minded people and people that you know are going to support you no matter what. And in this trip it's very taxing. Fishing is exhausting. And Clint and I watched some videos of the type of fish and the weight of fish that we can anticipate to catch on this. And I mean for most people this is even happened to Clint where you catch one big fish and you're spent.
Clint: Yeah you're done for the day. Like my arms are dead and I'm just going to go sit down for a little bit.
Ashlie: But even that, even the thought of just sitting back and watching everybody else enjoying themselves and even experiencing the struggle of pulling in a big fish. It excites me. It excites me to see everybody get to do that together and then to pull those stories home with them and to use that as fuel to really get to do something like this again.
Clint: And that's our big hope with this trip is to turn it into an annual occurrence to where we can share pictures, share stories, share look how great this was to get more people to jump on board.
Ashlie: I think that will happen because just the mere topic of presenting this to people, you presented it to the union you received support from the union and a lot of people are all for seeing police officers out there in the real world outside of work doing something that is fun. It really showcases exactly the humanity behind that badge and that brother sisterhood that you talked about. And as you sit there if there's anything in your own life, anything that you can think of that might be a little challenging or even time consuming to put together something along these lines. I know for Clint it was a little challenging in the beginning because we are financially responsible for over twenty thousand dollars to secure in reserve this boat. That means that if one person shows up, we're still responsible for that money. There's a lot of pressure that comes with that. But in knowing it's a good idea. And what Clint did was, Clint and Nate you know they kind of took a tally and they asked around to see what would excite people. What is something that everybody would want to do together. And this was a commonality because they know that fishing is something Clint and Nate have always bragged about doing before. In a growing up in a home with five brothers I always saw that, sort of envy that comes along with seeing something so awesome that someone else is doing. And then you ask yourself well why is it that I haven't done that too. Like why haven't I put myself in a position to experience life this way. And as you sit there if there's anything that comes up for you that you can maybe just be a part of not necessarily instigating create on your own, but just to put yourself out there to experience life in a way that gets you out of your comfort zone. Gets you out of that normal routine of life. And that really allows you to discover new things about yourself based on new challenges that come with whatever that new thing is. It allows you to grow. I believe that's one of the only ways that we expand is by getting comfortable with being uncomfortable and when you're able to do that. There's this new power that comes to you and there's this new drive to continue to do like things as you move forward. And by this continual expansion and growth by experiencing new things in life, then you're really able to enjoy your tactical living.
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