In this case, I'm not moving the camera.
Speaker AI'm just keeping it nice and steady.
Speaker AI remember him coming past me and it sounded like a jet engine, like re entering the atmosphere.
Speaker BHello and welcome to the August 8, 2025 edition of the Tridock Podcast.
Speaker BI'm your Host, as always, Dr. Jeff Zankoff, an emergency physician, a triathlete, a triathlon coach.
Speaker BComing to you as always, from beautiful, sunny Deborah, Colorado.
Speaker BThe voice you heard at the top of the podcast was that of my guest on today's program.
Speaker BThat is Adam Barker.
Speaker BAdam is an accomplished photographer, one who is an award winner.
Speaker BHe won the X Games competition for a photograph that he took of a skier in that competition.
Speaker BAnd if you're watching on the YouTube channel, you'll get a chance to see that photograph and hear Adam's description of how he captured it during the X Games competitions.
Speaker BOr actually, it wasn't during the X Games, but it was while that skier was practicing for the X Games.
Speaker BHe is also an accomplished cyclist, and I got to meet Adam actually during the Ironman 70.3 Boulder Expo that took place just a couple of months ago.
Speaker BNow, because Adam has switched from being a photographer to being an entrepreneur, he has developed a shaving system for men, men specifically, who cycle and want to shave their legs.
Speaker BHe was frustrated by the absence of products on the market to help men be able to deal with their notoriously hirsute lower extremities.
Speaker BAnd so he took the bit between his teeth, developed the product, and he is going to tell you all about it.
Speaker BBut we're going to talk mostly about his exploits as a photographer in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah and around the world.
Speaker BWe'll talk about his cycling exploits as a very accomplished, elite, almost amateur cyclist.
Speaker BAnd then of course, about Bolt Shaving, the company that he has developed and that I learned about when I was at the boulder 70.3.
Speaker BBefore we get to that, we are going to talk, and by we, I mean myself and my friend and colleague Juliet Hockman in the Medical Mailbag segment, where we are going to discuss something that I think is rather relevant given that we are in the summer months.
Speaker BI cannot believe it's already August.
Speaker BIt's a little bit sad and depressing.
Speaker BI know that my friends in the Southern Hemisphere are just chomping at the bit because I should say champing at the bit because they are now seeing the end of their winter and they're starting to see the warming of the evenings as spring begins to emerge in earnest.
Speaker BBut we, alas still have the dog days of summer to look forward to.
Speaker BBut yes, fall is just lurking around the corner still.
Speaker BIt is warm here and the oceans of both the east and west coasts of North America remain very inviting for swimmers.
Speaker BAnd that means the possibility of interactions with those predatory animals that everybody loves to fear.
Speaker BAnd that is, of course, sharks.
Speaker BI saw something come across my social media feed not too long ago in the form of a shark deterrent made by a company called Shark Bands.
Speaker BThat's Bands with a Z.
Speaker BAnd so I thought to myself, I've heard about these products for a while, but is there anything to them?
Speaker BAnd so I asked my interns to take a look into the literature on this.
Speaker BThey came back to me with the science that has been done on these things.
Speaker BAnd Coach Juliet and I are going to take a look in the Medical Mailbag segment and that's coming up very shortly.
Speaker BBefore we get to the program though, I do want to talk about something that's been in the news and it's been in the news specifically for me and for many of my colleagues who are traveling triathlon coaches.
Speaker BYou will undoubtedly remember that it's been a couple of years now since my nemesis in the triathlon world, Tridot.
Speaker BI say my nemesis because they sound way too much like Tridoc.
Speaker BBut anyways, Tri Dot inked a deal with Ironman and in so doing really cemented their place in the coaching ranks for triathletes.
Speaker BNow, I don't know exactly what the specifics of the deal was, but but I do know they had a huge that the deal itself had a huge impact on coaching and on athletes.
Speaker BAnd the reason for that was because Tridot became very much integrated within the fabric of Ironman racing.
Speaker BIf you signed up for any kind of event, be it 70.3 or an Ironman event, Tridot got your information, your contact information, and you would be inundated with all kinds of emails and invitations to sign up with one of their coaches.
Speaker BAnd signing up with one of their coaches usually meant just signing up with their service to get AI coaching.
Speaker BAnd you've probably seen a lot of their advertisements.
Speaker BIf you have done a 70.3 or an Ironman event, Tridot has been all over the websites and you are continuously getting emails about signing up with them and trying to get coaching with them.
Speaker BThe other thing that Tridot did was that they took over Ironman University.
Speaker BNow, when I first started coaching several years ago now, the first course that I took was that of imu Ironman University University and between the Two that I've done, Ironman University and USA Triathlon's coaching certification.
Speaker BIronman University was really solid.
Speaker BIt was definitely the one that I enjoyed more.
Speaker BI thought it was fleshed out a lot better.
Speaker BIt was done in a way that was much more immersive.
Speaker BIt was something that as somebody who had a good understanding of physiology and had been an athlete for as long as I had been, who was now getting into coaching, I thought the IMU course was really good.
Speaker BWhereas the USAT Coach coaching certification course was more pedantic and a little more in the weeds of you had to read this long manual and it didn't really do as good of a job of educating you on how to make a coaching plan as the IMU course did.
Speaker BWhen Tridot came in and took over the IMU course, they immediately overhauled it so that it basically integrated their AI model and it became very much an advertising campaign to bring coaches into tridot.
Speaker BIf you took the IMU course, you basically were given a. I hesitate, but I do believe it was an indoctrination to the Tridot way of doing things.
Speaker BAnd if you signed up with Tridot, your recertifications were cheaper.
Speaker BThere was a whole bunch of incentives to bring you in as a cheerleader for Tridot and a way to get you in the folder.
Speaker BAnd it became very clear, as I was not surprised to learn, because I had seen the way Tridot operated, that the partnership between Tridot and Ironman was very heavily slanted toward Tridot.
Speaker BGet them more and more athletes, get them more and more coaches who don't have their own business.
Speaker BAnd it was really pushing out the independent coaches and the independent organizations that employed coaches because without access to all of these new athletes, you were relying on word of mouth, you were relying on people finding you.
Speaker BBut Dry Dot really took over and made it much easier.
Speaker BAnd listen, the fact that they offered a less expensive kind of cookie cutter approach for athletes who didn't, who were really new to the sport to get in at a much lower price barrier, that's good.
Speaker BBut I have always argued that the importance of a coach is not just the plan, but the support that a coach gives and the knowledge base that a coach has that they bring to the fore.
Speaker BSo I always thought that Tridot was going to be a bit of a threat to independent coaches.
Speaker BI thought that it was not necessarily going to be the best fit for a lot of athletes.
Speaker BAnd I was interested to see where it all went.
Speaker BDespite all of that, I had to acknowledge, and I have several times that it was a brilliant business move for Tridot.
Speaker BWhat better way to increase their numbers and increase their bottom line to do exactly what they did?
Speaker BBut I never believed that coaches or athletes were really best served by this arrangement.
Speaker BAnd over the past week, there has been a very public and very acrimonious kind of divorce that happened very quickly between Tridot and Ironman.
Speaker BI don't have any inside knowledge as to what happened.
Speaker BAll I know is that I got an email one day that basically said, hey, Ironman University is on hold.
Speaker BTridot owns Ironman University.
Speaker BIronman has nothing to do with it.
Speaker BWe are proprietary owners of the educational content of Ironman University.
Speaker BAnd it's on hold because we have a dispute with Ironman.
Speaker BAnd I talked with Coach Juliet about this.
Speaker BI said, hey, if they're airing public discourse like this, that never bodes well.
Speaker BAnd I won't be surprised to see this come to a split very quickly.
Speaker BAnd sure enough, a couple of days later, an email went out to all coaches, basically saying, ironman University is dead.
Speaker BWe have terminated our sponsorship with Ironman.
Speaker BNo details given as to why, no details given as to what's going to happen with people's certification that they paid for, that they did a lot of training for.
Speaker BWas this leaving coaches out high and dry?
Speaker BThese things are being fleshed out as time goes on.
Speaker BRight now many of us have USAT certification, so we're covered there.
Speaker BBut the loss of Ironman University is not to be understated.
Speaker BI felt a loss when Tridoc took over Ironman University and now that it's just going away, that's not a good thing.
Speaker BNow a couple of people have posted on social media.
Speaker BAs I said, this remains within the purview of coaches.
Speaker BIt's not really affecting athletes that much just yet.
Speaker BAt least not that I've seen.
Speaker BBut I did want to acknowledge that Thomas Skelton, who runs Merge Coaching, I believe it's Merge Coaching out on the east coast.
Speaker BHe and I have been friends since we met at Chattanooga several years ago.
Speaker BHe had an excellent post on Instagram.
Speaker BI actually shared it on my own feed and I just wanted to read from it because I think he does a great job of summing up what the issues were with Tridot taking over Ironman University.
Speaker BI think he did a really good job and I want to acknowledge that this was him, Thomas Skelton.
Speaker BHe wrote A very good day for sport and I was Ironman University certified well before Tridot.
Speaker BHe's referring a very good day being the split between Tridot and Ironman.
Speaker BOn the athlete side I think simple to access programs that help lower the barrier for entry to this sport are fantastic.
Speaker BBut on the coach side all Tridot was turn coaches into glorified cheerleaders and marketing agents.
Speaker BWhen a coach is not intimately connected to the work their athletes need to do and why they need to do it, it decreases the quality of what coaches can and should be and pushes towards quantity which just supported the Tri Dot business model.
Speaker BDollar signs couldn't have said it better.
Speaker BThomas, thank you for saying it and thank you for saying the quiet part out loud.
Speaker BAnd there it is.
Speaker BSo I don't know what happens next.
Speaker BI don't know if Ironman is just going to abandon the coaching business coaching model altogether and just go back to the way it was before Ironman University existed and just leave coaches to their own devices and we'll have to be certified by the different country organizations that we have.
Speaker BMy understanding is that Ironman University content is being picked up by someone, but those details to me remain a little bit hazy.
Speaker BSo we will have to see.
Speaker BWhat do you think about all this?
Speaker BDoes it affect you at all?
Speaker BI have heard from many coaches who I am friendly with and who have commented on my own feed and who've commented on Thomas's feed and have been just giddy with this news.
Speaker BIt's been somewhat refreshing to learn that I'm not alone in my disdain for Tridot and how they bulldozed their way into this whole space and kind of made what I think was not the best decision for independent coaches.
Speaker BAnd so I'm glad that they're not there anymore.
Speaker BAnd I look forward to hopefully re engaging with Ironman in a way that Coach Juliet and I have in the past.
Speaker BWe presented several webinars.
Speaker BWe were on site giving talks to Ironman athletes.
Speaker BThat kind of went away when Tridot came into the picture because Ironman was beholden to try DOT coaches who did not have the expertise or the ability to speak to the kinds of things that we did.
Speaker BAnd now maybe Ironman will bring us back and athletes will benefit from that.
Speaker BWe'll see.
Speaker BSo again, what do you think we would love to hear?
Speaker BJust head on over to the TriDarc podcast, private Facebook group.
Speaker BIf you're not already a member, you know how to join.
Speaker BJust answer the three easy questions.
Speaker BI will gain you admittance.
Speaker BAnd I'd love to hear your comments.
Speaker BIf you don't want to share them publicly, please do send me an email.
Speaker BYou can do that@triodocloud.com and I will definitely respond.
Speaker BAll right, with that now out of the way, let's get to the medical mailbag and talk all about shark deterrence.
Speaker BIs this something you need to be thinking about?
Speaker BFind out in just a second.
Speaker BI am here with my naughty colleague Juliet Hockman.
Speaker BShe didn't know I was going to do that.
Speaker BBut yes, this is the first time we are meeting since the Oregon race and.
Speaker CWell, that's true.
Speaker CYou're not going to press me about that, Lori.
Speaker BIt'S interesting.
Speaker BWe had a conversation on tempo talks last week.
Speaker BWe were talking about the congestion on the course and actually Justin Raphael was also making some, I thought, some really good commentary about how there's just so many riders out there, it's just so hard to avoid the congestion sometimes.
Speaker BAnd I, I think after you put me in the penalty tent for mispronouncing the name of the state, we should probably just come clean.
Speaker CAll right, so what Jeff is referring to is that we did have 70.3 Oregon two weeks ago.
Speaker CJeff and I both raced along with a whole squad of our lifesport athletes, which is amazing.
Speaker BAnd it was such a good time.
Speaker BIt was an amazing time.
Speaker CIt was such a good time.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker CSuper fun race.
Speaker CHighly recommend.
Speaker CWhether you're a first timer or whether you're seeking a pr.
Speaker CJust such a great race.
Speaker CAnyway, for the first time ever, I was given a drafting penalty, which I was mortified by and it is always a little bit tricky.
Speaker CI will say in my defense, I'm not saying I didn't deserve it.
Speaker CI was definitely within the six bike lengths regulation.
Speaker CThere's no doubt about it.
Speaker CThe only thing I would say in my defense is that if you are on the pointy end of the women's field, which myself and another life support athlete, young woman named Marlee, who ended up winning the whole women's field outright easily.
Speaker CShe's an amazing athlete.
Speaker CWe were within each other on the course and we.
Speaker CI could see her, she could see me, we were passing each other, et cetera.
Speaker CShe was doing an amazing job staying out of trouble.
Speaker CNot a question that she was staying clear.
Speaker CBut it is tough.
Speaker CThe motos were, I think I saw the motos eight times out there because they're watching the leaders of the women's field.
Speaker CMakes sense.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker CMarlee also got a penalty.
Speaker CI'm quite sure she did not deserve hers.
Speaker CThe challenge that we have and you've heard.
Speaker BYou don't even have to say it.
Speaker BI know it.
Speaker BThe men around you feel like it's somehow undermining their masculinity.
Speaker BTo have a woman go by them or to have a woman amongst them and they feel, oh, I have to pass her.
Speaker BAnd they put out a huge effort to get past you, and then they can't sustain it.
Speaker BAnd so they back off that speed and you are caught in that zone and you often, you have to sit up to back out of it, and sometimes you're just not fast enough to get out of that zone.
Speaker BAnd if the motorcycle happens to come up on you on that moment, then, yeah, that's what happens.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker CAnd to be fair, most.
Speaker CYeah, to be fair, most guys are completely respectful and they're great racers and everyone's doing the very best they can out there.
Speaker CAnd the roads are more and more congested.
Speaker CAnd yeah, it's a little bit tough if you've got a number you're trying to chase and then someone comes flying by you and they come in right in front of you, and you literally have to scrub 100 watts just bang to get out of the way or you have to swing to the middle.
Speaker CAnd so it's a little bit tough to stay out of trouble.
Speaker CBut I was at that point where the motor came by.
Speaker CI was not six legs back.
Speaker CSo I got the penalty that I deserved.
Speaker CBut I was so embarrassed because there's this young life sport athlete back behind me somewhere seeing this whole thing.
Speaker CI'm like, oh, my gosh, I'm such a terrible example.
Speaker CBut then she comes.
Speaker BBut you ended up spending time together.
Speaker BWe did.
Speaker CWe spent time together in the tent.
Speaker BSo anyway, well, as I.
Speaker BAs Matt and I talked about on the sister podcast, we were just saying.
Speaker BI was saying how I was mortified by what I was seeing.
Speaker BI was behind you by.
Speaker BI think I was behind you by three or four minutes, maybe if more.
Speaker BMaybe about five minutes.
Speaker BAnd the guys that were riding purposely in packs was really frustrating.
Speaker BAnd I did fortunately see a bunch of them get penalties.
Speaker BBut I just think the two minute thing is they're just.
Speaker BThey just don't care.
Speaker BThey're like, two minutes.
Speaker BI could deal with two minutes.
Speaker BI'm getting more out of drafting than I will sitting down for two minutes.
Speaker CYeah, interesting point, because that's a new.
Speaker CThey've reduced the drafting penalty to, quote, unquote, only two minutes.
Speaker CWhich I, in my moment of panic, actually said to the referee as she was giving me the penalty, how long?
Speaker CNot remembering the new rule because I was flustered.
Speaker CAnd she said two minutes.
Speaker CAnd I thought, okay, that's probably.
Speaker CI'm probably going to be okay.
Speaker CIt's still nerve wracking, but it's certainly not five minutes or longer.
Speaker BAnd I think we should say Marley won on the course.
Speaker BAnd once the age adjusted times came out, our very own Juliet Hockman was number one overall.
Speaker BSo congratulations to both of you and I echo what you say and this is a great race.
Speaker BI'm strongly considering going back to do it third year in a row and we'll see.
Speaker BJust thinking about my schedule for next year.
Speaker BI want to keep the medical mailbag timely as well.
Speaker BAnd so I wanted to talk about a subject today that's not a listener question.
Speaker BIt's something I came across in my socials and I thought it was worth looking at because we are 50 years since the release of Jaws.
Speaker BAnd of course that was a film that made people a little bit wary about getting into the water.
Speaker BWe have a lot of people who have the opportunity to swim in the open water on both coasts right now because the water's quite warm and it won't be long before our friends in the Southern hemisphere are warily getting back into the water.
Speaker BAnd something came across my social media feed not too long ago and that was an advertisement for some of these shark repellent sort of.
Speaker COh my gosh.
Speaker BThat you could buy.
Speaker BAnd I think it came out because we just recently had Shark Week, which is a big thing on television.
Speaker BI guess it's the Discover Channel that does all of the how to get killed by sharks kind of weak thing.
Speaker BI don't know.
Speaker CI'm not a big consumer.
Speaker CYeah, okay.
Speaker BNot a big consumer either.
Speaker BI'd love to dive with sharks, but I know that this Shark Week thing is just a cultural phenomenon where people just watch all of these documentaries on sharks attacking.
Speaker BI don't know what.
Speaker BSo anyways, I wanted to know whether or not these shark deterrents have any science behind them, because I've seen them off and on for a while and it seemed to me that if they actually worked that they would probably have more of a footprint and a cultural embrace than they probably do.
Speaker BAnd so I thought, you know what, let's take a look.
Speaker BYou won't be surprised to learn that there is a kernel of scientific truth to how they work.
Speaker BBut whether or not they're actually, actually functional or effective is a whole different story.
Speaker CNow hold on, back up.
Speaker CAre these things you wear on your wrist, is it like a strap that goes around your ankle?
Speaker CWhat does it look like?
Speaker BIt could be either way.
Speaker BOkay, so let's just.
Speaker BOkay, so first of all, shark attacks, I think we should just come right out and say they're exceedingly uncommon.
Speaker BWe have an outsized fear of them versus the actual specter or the actual reality of how common they are.
Speaker BAnd I think we should just say that up front.
Speaker BCertainly the.
Speaker BThe thing that most people are afraid of are the great whites, which, there's no question there are increasing numbers of great whites that frequent both coasts.
Speaker BAnd that actually is a good thing because we need our apex predators in the ocean.
Speaker BBut I think it's very important to mention that great whites really have very little interest in human beings.
Speaker BAnd the reason for that is because, number one, we are by far much more dangerous to great whites than great whites are to humans.
Speaker BWe are responsible for wholesale slaughter of sharks, and sharks kill very few people.
Speaker BBut that, of course, doesn't change the fact that sharks do kill people on occasion.
Speaker BAnd when they do, it's very sensationalized, and it's a big deal.
Speaker BYou don't want to go into the ocean for something fun and not come out alive.
Speaker BSo I understand that.
Speaker BAnd the great white.
Speaker BThe great white is a very impressive animal.
Speaker BI have had the good fortune of diving with them a couple of times in a cage.
Speaker BIt is just an amazing animal to see up close.
Speaker BI would not want to see it up close in the absence of a steel cage because it is like a.
Speaker BLiterally a Greyhound bus coming at you.
Speaker BAnd the first, like six feet is just teeth.
Speaker BIt's just an incredible.
Speaker CI wouldn't even do it in a cage.
Speaker CThere's no way in hell.
Speaker CNo.
Speaker BOh, it.
Speaker BWe were.
Speaker BThis is an aside again, but we were in South Africa.
Speaker CMy wife, I was gonna say was this.
Speaker CI know exactly where you were.
Speaker COff the Cape in South Africa.
Speaker BWe got a chance to go to Mossel Bay, and we were there on the boat and we were nervous and we didn't really know.
Speaker BAnd we were standing on the boat and they were.
Speaker BThey don't chum the water, but they put in oil, like fish oil.
Speaker BThey don't put any actual tissues or anything.
Speaker BThey don't feed the sharks, but they attract them with the scent.
Speaker BAnd this animal came by, it was almost as big as the boat we were on.
Speaker BAnd I looked at Sandra and we were like, oh, my gosh, we got to get in of front first.
Speaker BAnd we were like, we want to go right now.
Speaker BAnd it was just an incredible experience.
Speaker BIt's just amazing.
Speaker BAnyways, those are the big ones that people worry about.
Speaker BThey are really not interested in people.
Speaker BThey.
Speaker BMost attacks Occur because they mistake humans for something.
Speaker BThey're normal foods.
Speaker BThey're seals.
Speaker BAnd researchers have shown that, like a surfer, specifically a surfer from underneath when they are paddling on a surfboard, looks like a seal from below.
Speaker BAnd so when a shark attacks a human, they're almost invariably attacking surfers.
Speaker BThe second they take a bite, they recognize that this is not their desired prey, and they actually spit out the person.
Speaker BLike, they.
Speaker BLike sharks don't consume people.
Speaker BThey take a bite, recognize that's not their normal food source, and then they just move on.
Speaker CBut, okay, that's like a Gary Larson.
Speaker CThat's like a Gary Larson far side comic waiting.
Speaker BOh, for sure, right there.
Speaker BAbsolutely.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BBut the reality is those bites are traumatic and do so much damage that people will hemorrhage and die just from that.
Speaker BAgain, the shark is not intending to do that.
Speaker BIt's an accidental encounter where the shark makes a wrong guess as to what it's attacking.
Speaker BAnd then once it figures it out, it's unfortunately too late for the victim in most cases.
Speaker BThe other shark that's actually probably more dangerous than the great white is the tiger shark, and that's been responsible for even more deaths.
Speaker BAnd actually is the one shark that we worry about as scuba divers because it's.
Speaker BThat's known to be quite aggressive underwater.
Speaker BWhereas most other sharks are not interested in divers.
Speaker BThat one is particularly menacing.
Speaker BOkay, so all of that said, the sharks, for the most part, beautiful animals, incredibly well evolved to do what they do best.
Speaker BThey.
Speaker BOh, and I should also say they're very good swimmers, but keep in mind they're very poor cyclists and runners.
Speaker BSo if you can make it out of the water, you're bound to beat them in a triathlon.
Speaker COkay, good to know.
Speaker CAll right, so far, you're very much on the side of the sharks here, so.
Speaker BYeah, I am.
Speaker BAll right, so sharks, they've evolved over millions of years to be these incredibly effective hunters.
Speaker BAnd one of the ways that they locate their prey is through electrical and electromagnetic sensing organs that they have in their nose.
Speaker BAnd so they can detect the electrical perturbations that a struggling animal makes in the water.
Speaker BThey don't have the best eyesight, which is why they frequently misconstrue a human on a surfboard for a seal.
Speaker BSo they use these electrical detector.
Speaker BI can't remember what they're called.
Speaker BI think they're called elasto.
Speaker BI think I have it written down here.
Speaker BElasmo branches.
Speaker BSo they are elasmo branches.
Speaker BElasmo is something about the Electrical fields.
Speaker BAnd then Branck is just in the, the neck and nose.
Speaker BAnd these elasmo branch or elasmo branches are what detects the electrical perturbations that are made by struggling prey.
Speaker BAnd anybody who's had any interaction with shark documentaries will know that the more a prey or a fish is injured or struggling around, that is an instant detection for a shark.
Speaker BAnd that's what they're detecting.
Speaker BSo the idea behind these magnets is that these magnets can be used.
Speaker BA strong magnet can overwhelm the electromagnetic sense of these sharks.
Speaker BAnd there has been some sort of, like, studies in aquariums where they put like, bait, and then they put these magnets next to the bait and the sharks can get disoriented and actually pass up on the bait as they get closer to these magnets.
Speaker BSo that's where all of this came from.
Speaker BWhy don't we put magnets on a bracelet or an ankle something or other that we then affix to a surfer and that should help with disorienting sharks.
Speaker BAnd it sounds like a fantastic idea.
Speaker BAlas.
Speaker COh, no.
Speaker BHasn't borne out so well.
Speaker BNow.
Speaker BThey haven't.
Speaker BListen, they haven't sent 100 surfers into shark infested waters, Farley.
Speaker BThey haven't sent 100 surfers into Shark infested waters.
Speaker B50 of them with bracelets and 50 without.
Speaker BAnd see how many of them come back.
Speaker BSo they have to do things a little differently.
Speaker BSo one of the studies we found, and I should thank Cosette Rhodes, who was the intern that looked at this, they created a surfboard setup and they lured in sharks with these tuna bait.
Speaker BAnd what they did is they had five different deterrents.
Speaker BSome of them were very surf specific, like different kinds of board waxes.
Speaker BSome of the board waxes, like there's one called Shark bands.
Speaker BSorry, yeah.
Speaker BShark bands is a wax and there's chill wax.
Speaker BThere's all these different olfactory things.
Speaker BLike it smells bad to sharks.
Speaker BI don't know how you determine this, but whatever.
Speaker BAnd then they have the magnetic ones, which is the shark bands.
Speaker BMagnetic.
Speaker BSo shark bands makes a boardwax.
Speaker BAnd then they also make this magnet thing.
Speaker BShark bands is S, H, A, R, K, B, A, N, Z.
Speaker BThat is the thing that I first saw and I first was interested in.
Speaker BSo they would set up these baits and then they had these different olfactory and magnetic, different deterrents and they would see, okay, let's see.
Speaker BHow many of the sharks, how many of these baits would the sharks take?
Speaker BAnd how many would they not?
Speaker BAnd it turns out the deterrents did nothing.
Speaker BThe sharks went after everything and they didn't care what was there.
Speaker BI think they even ate many of the deterrents because they couldn't tell the deterrent was there.
Speaker COkay?
Speaker BAnd the article was incredibly negative.
Speaker BThe authors who wrote this were just like, and I understand why this stuff is being advertised as potentially life saving, right?
Speaker BThe authors who wrote this article were like, hey, let's pump the brakes a little bit here.
Speaker BThis stuff does not do what they're advertising.
Speaker BAnd people who are taking it into the water on good faith and thinking that this is somehow going to make them safe, they need to know the truth.
Speaker BSo they wrote a kind of scathing conclusion and discussion saying this is not work.
Speaker BThe guy who founded Shark Bands, his name is Nathan Garrison, he actually went on into Forbes magazine and wrote this like response in which he says, look, the study was flawed because they used rather than surfers, which we know sharks aren't interested in.
Speaker BThey use tuna, which sharks are definitely interested in.
Speaker BAnd we never said our magnets would prevent sharks from going after their preferred bait.
Speaker BWe said that the mag.
Speaker BAnd I can understand his point.
Speaker BI have said, when I've talked about studies on here before, I've said you have to use something that represents the real world.
Speaker BAnd his argument, Mr. Garrison, South park reference.
Speaker BMr. Garrison said, you, you can't use something that is so far removed from the real world example that we're doing, which is, which I think is fair.
Speaker BAnd even he said, look, we are not saying that we can eliminate the risk of shark attacks.
Speaker BWe're saying that we can minimize it or make it smaller, which I think is a very fair and measured response.
Speaker BSo good on him for that.
Speaker BHowever, there's more research and a lot of the other research and I think this is like the most important one of the research.
Speaker BAnd this came out of an article in 2022 evaluating the shark effects of the novel exclusion barrier in comparison to the rigorously tested shark safe barrier technology from the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering.
Speaker BJust in case you think we are limited to human research only.
Speaker BSo this talks about how there's no question that sharks have this whole magnetic organ and how the magnet, powerful magnets can interfere with this.
Speaker BThe problem seems to be the distance the, the magnets, the efficacy of these magnets that are in these deterrents is only about half a meter.
Speaker BSo you can imagine when a shark that is 10ft long is only 500 centimeters away from you, it's probably too late because it's moving.
Speaker BThose things are moving fast.
Speaker CThey're not gonna stop in time.
Speaker CLike a train.
Speaker BYeah, they're unlikely to get deterred or disoriented with that little space.
Speaker BAnd in fact, they were saying that the magnetic field degrades quite quickly and that it may only be 330 centimeters.
Speaker BSorry, I said 500.
Speaker B500 is 5 meters.
Speaker BSo it's 50 centimeters and 30 centimeters.
Speaker BSo it's like a really small distance before the magnet really has its maximum efficacy.
Speaker BSo they were saying, like, look, there are other stronger magnets.
Speaker BAnd part of the problem is they're using iron based magnets and they were saying you could look at some of these rare earth magnets.
Speaker BYou're familiar with the ones that are like super strong.
Speaker BAnd they were saying, look, we could use these.
Speaker BNeo.
Speaker BWhat is it?
Speaker BNeo.
Speaker CThat'd be so expensive.
Speaker CIt'd be prohibitive.
Speaker BYeah, that would be expensive.
Speaker BAnd the question is, does it even work any better anyways?
Speaker BRight, but listen, they were very clear that there is no question that when you set up like a wall of magnets and you expose sharks and a variety of different sharks.
Speaker BSo the Galapagos hammerhead, which I have seen and swam with, beautiful shark, lemon sharks, Australian blacktips, gray reef.
Speaker BI've actually swam with a lot of these bull sharks.
Speaker BAll those sharks, even white, even great whites, they will avoid those magnets.
Speaker BAnd there is some reason to think that this could be somehow implemented in some way to provide some kind of protection.
Speaker BBut unfortunately what is being promised in the advertisements is just so far out of keeping with what we actually see in the real world.
Speaker BNow I am not familiar with.
Speaker BI don't know how popular these things are.
Speaker BCertainly they don't seem to be aiming them towards swimmers.
Speaker BThere have been swimmers have been.
Speaker BI know of at least one story of somebody who was swimming.
Speaker BIt was not a smart person.
Speaker BThis was.
Speaker BI don't even know if this was a triathlete.
Speaker BThis was just somebody who was swimming in waters that were known to be frequented by great whites and they were attacked and killed.
Speaker BBut I am not familiar with.
Speaker BWe know that in Australia they've had to cancel the swim for the race out in the Perth because of its frequency of sharks.
Speaker BThey use shark nets in that area which are effective.
Speaker BIt's a barrier that actually keeps sharks out of the bay.
Speaker BSo there are ways of minimizing sharks.
Speaker BBut whether or not this kind of personal deterrent is actually ever going to be effective, probably not.
Speaker BBut I do want to come Back and just remind people, you know, look, be smart, know where you are.
Speaker BIf you live on the island of Amity and they're closing the beaches, don't think you'd be a hero and go into.
Speaker BBecause that's just asking for it.
Speaker BAnd if you don't know what I'm.
Speaker CTalking about, you're not 50, over 50 years old.
Speaker BThat's right.
Speaker CThe start of generation.
Speaker BExactly.
Speaker BIt hasn't really held up that well.
Speaker BI watched.
Speaker BI started watching.
Speaker CNo, I mean, if you, if we were to ask our kids to watch it, they would just be like, you've got to be kidding.
Speaker CThis scared you.
Speaker BReally?
Speaker CI know.
Speaker CCan't you just see a notice going up on the notice board at the University of Hawaii asking for volunteers who might help with an experiment?
Speaker CJust like the old psych experiments.
Speaker CYou could get paid 20 bucks to go into a psych experiment.
Speaker CRemember that happened to me as an undergrad.
Speaker CGood way to pick up some easy money.
Speaker CAnd now it says all you have to do is give us a morning of your time and be able to swim and we'll pay you a hundred bucks.
Speaker CYou could just be one of the guinea pig suggests these.
Speaker CWe'll have the one group that has them and one group that doesn't have them and see what happens.
Speaker BOh, gosh, it really, it's unfortunate because it is.
Speaker BI've talked, I think I've talked here about this.
Speaker BThe innate fears that we have.
Speaker BThere's two of them there, right?
Speaker BThe innate fear of like just the deep water and then the innate fear of being eaten.
Speaker BThose are two, I think, innate fears that we have as human beings.
Speaker BAnd that's why shark attacks are, I think, so continuously within our imagination as something that is just horrifying.
Speaker BAnd although I'm going next week, I'm going on vacation.
Speaker BI'm going to be in Bonaire in the Dutch Caribbean, which has no sharks.
Speaker BAnd I'm going to do some open water swimming.
Speaker BAnd you could see right to the bottom.
Speaker BAnd sometimes that's even worse.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker BBecause you see everything below you and sometimes you're like, oh, what's coming around?
Speaker CWell, I think you have.
Speaker CI think you have to add to that the fear of being snuck up on from behind, like, what's tracking you?
Speaker CI think that's a fear as well, for sure.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BAnd it is.
Speaker BI have done a lot of.
Speaker BA reasonable amount of open water swimming in the beautiful clear ocean.
Speaker BAnd I still have this kind of like nervousness whenever I do it.
Speaker BAnd so I get it.
Speaker BEven though I Am very well aware that it is perfectly safe.
Speaker BAnd I'm gonna be fine.
Speaker BI still have this.
Speaker BThis kind of like in the back of my mind sort of thing.
Speaker BSo I get it.
Speaker BI had to say why it's a fear for people.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BBut I thought where you were.
Speaker BIt's not gonna do it.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker CI thought where you were going to go with this product was that it was some sort of high frequency, emitting some high frequency noise.
Speaker CAnd the reason I thought that is way back in the early 90s when my then boyfriend, now husband, and I traveled to Tibet, which was just not a place people went.
Speaker CBack then, we were warned about rabid dogs.
Speaker CAnd so in addition to getting our rabies shots, we also took with us this thing that looked like a garage door opener and it emitted this sound that we couldn't hear, but the dogs would just run away from.
Speaker CAnd so we would walk down the streets in the capital of Tibet and we were like, this is never going to work.
Speaker CAnd we carried this thing over with us and we would press the button and all of the strays would be like, like immediately move away from us.
Speaker CAnd so it worked really well.
Speaker CSo I thought that's where we were going with the shark.
Speaker CMango.
Speaker BIt worked really well.
Speaker BExcept if the dog is rabid, it probably wouldn't work that well, except it's a.
Speaker CIt's a fear thing.
Speaker CI think they get so.
Speaker BI know they heated, but those rabid dogs, animals that are rabid have lost their mind.
Speaker BLike they are.
Speaker BThey are insane.
Speaker BAnd that's the problem.
Speaker BRight.
Speaker BThey're just completely insane.
Speaker CYes.
Speaker BAnd have you ever seen there is a video of somebody being attacked by a rabid raccoon.
Speaker BOh, it is scary to watch.
Speaker BAnd it's just because the animal is just out of, like literally out of its mind.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker BAnd that's.
Speaker BThere's a difference there, right.
Speaker BBecause with rabies, it's like they're.
Speaker BThey have this encephalitis and they're just nuts.
Speaker BWhereas with a shark, it's a.
Speaker BIt's being.
Speaker BIt's very cognitively aware of what it's doing.
Speaker BAnd we are trying to interfere with its ability to detect and sense, but it's not that different.
Speaker BIt's like instead of using sound, we're using electromagnetic waves.
Speaker CRight.
Speaker BNo.
Speaker BIt's interesting.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BI've seen those shark sprays.
Speaker BI've seen that.
Speaker BBut that's.
Speaker BThat was debunked a long time ago.
Speaker CYou'd have to be right in front of the shark here.
Speaker CLet me see like a bear I'm always wondering about.
Speaker BBut you wear it, you spray it on before you get in the water.
Speaker BThe idea that it emanates through the water and I just never understood that.
Speaker BBut anyways, we'll have to stay in touch with our friend Kelly as she gets back into the water, although where she lives up in Brisbane, the shark issue is not quite as big of a deal.
Speaker BThe water's a lot warmer there.
Speaker BShe has box jellyfish to worry about, which is a much greater concern.
Speaker BBut anyways, all right, that's another episode.
Speaker BWe have good listener questions coming up.
Speaker BWe've had a few percolating in.
Speaker BI'm looking forward to answering them.
Speaker BSo those will be coming up in the next episodes.
Speaker BIf you have a question you'd like for us to answer, I hope that you will email it in.
Speaker BYou could reach me at my email, which is tridocloud.com you can join the Tridark Podcast Facebook group.
Speaker BIf you're not already a member, please do look for it on Facebook.
Speaker BAnswer the three easy questions.
Speaker BI'll gain you admittance.
Speaker BYou can join the conversation about the things we talk about here and ask your questions that we can consider on an episode to come in the future.
Speaker BJuliet, thanks so much for being here and I look forward to chatting with you for our next subject in a short week or two.
Speaker CThanks so much Jeff.
Speaker BMy guest on the podcast today is Adam Barker and Adam is another very fine looking, shaved head young man, a cyclist who I met at the Expo for the boulder 70.3 and we got to talking because he is an entrepreneur who started up a company that we will get to in a short while.
Speaker BBut before we do that, Adam, why don't you introduce yourself, let the listeners know who you are and then we'll get to talking a little bit about you and your history and endurance sport.
Speaker AFor sure.
Speaker AJeff, thank you for having me.
Speaker AGenerous with the term young.
Speaker AI don't feel so young anymore, but I'll take it.
Speaker AI'll take it.
Speaker ASo yeah, my name's Adam Barker.
Speaker AI am based out of Salt Lake City, Utah.
Speaker AI founded Bolt Skin and Shave, which is the first brand for men who shave their legs and body.
Speaker AWe may or may not talk about that, but I've spent a lot of time in the cycling world both on road and on mountain bikes.
Speaker APrior to founding bolt, I spent 15 years making a living as a professional photographer in the active lifestyle and outdoor space.
Speaker ASo have always been very close to sport and have always had a great passion and love for all Things two wheeled.
Speaker AI spent a lot of time on a dirt bike as well.
Speaker ARode Baja in January.
Speaker AI got three boys, 18, 16 and 13, and a wife that is far more tolerant than most of us could ever hope for.
Speaker ASo, yeah, man, life is good.
Speaker AGrinding like crazy with this new business, but still finding time to spend time on two wheels.
Speaker BThat's awesome.
Speaker BSo tell us about how you married your love of endurance sport with photography and how that helped leverage you into a career as a professional photographer.
Speaker AYeah, really, I think it was just by default where I can't really tell my wife or I couldn't tell her I was going to ride my bike or go skiing all day, but I could tell her I was going to work.
Speaker AAnd if I could pack a camera, I found, wow, I could do a lot of these things that I would hope to be doing anyway, but I can do it in the context of work and play.
Speaker AThe lifestyle was amazing.
Speaker AI found myself exercising and active every day.
Speaker AI have been fortunate to travel from Antarctica to South Southeast Asia and most places in between.
Speaker AI've worked for many of the big brands in active lifestyle and outdoor.
Speaker AYeah, I think it was just.
Speaker ABelieve it or not, I actually come from a family of doctors.
Speaker AThe easy path would have been to go to med school and pursue a career in medicine.
Speaker ABut I just, I knew first I didn't want to go to med school for 12 years.
Speaker ADidn't want to spend the money, didn't want to spend the time studying.
Speaker AAnd frankly, I didn't want to leave Utah.
Speaker AI love Utah.
Speaker AAnd so I chose a career.
Speaker AI worked in pr.
Speaker AI studied PR at the University of Utah, and then I worked in PR in the ski industry for about four or five years and really just wanted to pursue then a career that allowed me to do the things that I love and the places that I love to be.
Speaker BYeah, medical school is not for everybody.
Speaker BI know too many people who go into it or went into it for the wrong reasons and find out that it is not the easy path they think it is because they think it's like you are alluding to it was made for them or they were made for it.
Speaker BAnd at the end of the day, if you don't have a passion for something, it's not gonna work.
Speaker BAnd so you were, I think, smart in identifying that.
Speaker BNo, this wasn't something you were passionate about and instead gravitated to something that you were passionate about.
Speaker BAnd that's why it's felt easy for you to do what you're doing.
Speaker BAlthough I would argue it probably would feel easy for a lot of people.
Speaker AIn a lot of ways for sure.
Speaker AThat was really the key is finding that passion.
Speaker AAnd I just learned early on, and this is even before I had kids.
Speaker AWe gotta be happy, right?
Speaker AWe spent so much of our lives working, especially with the culture here in America.
Speaker AWe really do spend a great deal of time working.
Speaker AAnd I just learned very quickly, like if I'm not doing something I love, if I'm not happy, it's gonna hard.
Speaker AIt's gonna be real hard for me to make others in my life happy as well and to give them what they need.
Speaker ASo obviously there's a balance there, but it is, it truly is about passion.
Speaker AAnd I really enjoyed being behind the camera and capturing some amazing things in front of the lens.
Speaker AAnd it just by default allowed me to do a lot of the things that I love as well.
Speaker BAnd could you give us a sense for some of the things that you shot?
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker ASo like most of my living was made doing brand work for brands like Yeti, Traeger, Muk Boots, Snowbird Ski Resort, a lot of the resorts around here.
Speaker ASo ad campaigns for any brain and active lifestyle, outdoor.
Speaker ABut a lot of people know me for my skiing and my fly fishing work.
Speaker AThose, like those industries never didn't necessarily pay all the bills, but those were my passion projects and what I would like.
Speaker APeople know me for my skills in my fishing work and my roots were in scenic photography.
Speaker ABut for sure it was always active lifestyle, always somebody doing something with a product in a beautiful place.
Speaker BAs a skier and with as a parent of a boy who is like an insane skier who likes to jump off things.
Speaker BWhen you were scouting a location for one of your ski photos, how much work goes into because we see the results.
Speaker BAnd I always wonder how long does it take to get those photos?
Speaker BLike are you out there for days in advance scouting locations?
Speaker BAre you then having someone ski the routes in order to find the best light, find the best angles?
Speaker BWhat's involved with getting those photos?
Speaker AYeah, I appreciate the question.
Speaker ASo there's a lot involved.
Speaker ARight?
Speaker ALike one of the funny questions that I would always get is it's like, so do you just kind of stand there and shoot skiers as they cruise by?
Speaker AAnd that is about the furthest thing from it where if you're skiing or if you're shooting in resort, you're usually the process is set up a turn or two and you're going over so many specifics.
Speaker AI want the turn deep, I want it shallow, I want it wide.
Speaker AI want it tight, I want it tons of energy, or I'd like you to throw the snow like this.
Speaker AThere's a lot of coordination and collaboration on both ends.
Speaker AAnd the thing about snow is once you skied it, that particular canvas is done.
Speaker AThe biggest challenge was always communicating verbally what I saw visually.
Speaker AAnd really helping the skier understand standing above what just looks like a run that they're skiing or a turn that they're, that they're hitting helped him to understand what I see through the lens.
Speaker ABut certainly it was a ton of work.
Speaker AAnd then when we shoot more in the backcountry than we would in resort, and in that case you are doing a lot of prepar preparation, so checking out particular spots with angles, lighting times of day, of course, then you got to consider safety and avalanche conditions.
Speaker ASo depending how a storm came in, did it snow more here is more there is.
Speaker AWhat aspect is the slope, what elevation, what's the danger here?
Speaker ASo there's all sorts of.
Speaker AAnd then from a photographer standpoint, I think a lot about athletes because some athletes are really good at hucking cliffs and other athletes are really good at just nailing a powder turn every single time.
Speaker AEven what gets us so specific is I know that X skier is going to look incredible, like shooting a POW shot straight on.
Speaker ABut from side profile, they might not be as dialed as Y skier.
Speaker ASo, yeah, it's a lot of collaboration and I was, it was rad.
Speaker AI won an X Games gold medal in 2018 for a shot of a skier named Julian Carr launching an 80 foot front flip at Brighton resort that, that took a lot of years to get to.
Speaker ABut I, I guess the saying is 10,000 hours, 10,000 hours and maybe you've begun to master it at that point.
Speaker AI would never consider myself a master for sure.
Speaker BI. I had a friend, he's.
Speaker BUnfortunately, he passed away far too early from cancer.
Speaker BHe was a triathlete.
Speaker BHis name was Lucas Moynihan and he shot surf pictures.
Speaker BAnd he was incredibly accomplished.
Speaker BHe was a physician, orthopedic surgeon.
Speaker BAnd he had this hobby of just shooting photos in the water of surfers.
Speaker BAnd the pictures that he got were just incredible.
Speaker BBut the amount of work that went into learning how to do it and then setting up each shot was really incredible too.
Speaker BAnd he would take a lot of his pictures in really adverse conditions, very cold water, really the waves themselves.
Speaker BAnd I always look at these photos and I always try to put myself in the photograph.
Speaker BCause we look at these photos and we marvel at the shot.
Speaker BBut I think we forget how hard it was to get the shot.
Speaker BNot just from planning and not just from all of the thought that went into setting up the picture, but also just the conditions.
Speaker BLike I think about, it's winter, it's cold, and the cameras are going to be problematic.
Speaker BChanging lenses when there's snow in the air and all of that.
Speaker BI shoot underwater photography, scuba diving, and I know how challenging it can be with what I have to deal with.
Speaker BAnd basically, once my setup is put together, I'm done for the dive.
Speaker BI just do that.
Speaker BBut when you're out there shooting, you're changing lenses, you're changing all kinds of things, and your hand's gotta be cold.
Speaker BIt's just I always marvel at how the finished product can belie how much went into it.
Speaker BI really think it's quite an accomplishment to get just one shot, never mind a whole career out of it.
Speaker AYou're kind and I think you put a lot more thought into it than most people.
Speaker ABut it's true.
Speaker AI actually always say the difference between a professional photographer and an amateur is that a professional doesn't show you all his amateur images because there's a lot of fair point, you got to shoot a lot of images to get that one five star banger.
Speaker AAnd yeah, there's a lot of suffering that goes into many of these images.
Speaker AAnd that's the fun part of it too is that's the story.
Speaker AMany of these images tell the story of what's happening in front of the lens.
Speaker ABut to your point, a lot of the time we don't realize what's happening behind the lens as well.
Speaker BAnd I think I'm aware only because I do myself shoot as an amateur underwater and I'm very aware of how much work and how much learning goes into getting any kind of shot.
Speaker BSo people look at a finished product and they think, oh, that's amazing, but they have no idea what went in together.
Speaker ATrue.
Speaker BDo you have any pictures you can share with us to show some of your favorites or some of your work?
Speaker AI do.
Speaker BSo if you're watching the YouTube video of the podcast, you will see the pictures that we are about to discuss.
Speaker BOtherwise, we'll try and describe them.
Speaker BAdam, what.
Speaker BWhat photos can you share with us?
Speaker AYeah, so this first shot is actually a shot that won me the X Games gold medal in 2018.
Speaker AAs I mentioned, this is a shot of Julian Carr, pretty well established and well known skier in the ski industry.
Speaker AWe're at Brighton Resort up Big Conwood in Amazing Spot.
Speaker AAnd the interesting Thing.
Speaker ASo the image.
Speaker AHere's the thing about ski images.
Speaker AIt's.
Speaker AI'm not going to say it's easy, but the challenge is to capture an image that really conveys, like the depth of the action that's taking place.
Speaker AAnd that, that's one challenge in and of itself.
Speaker AAnd then another one is photographically.
Speaker AI really like it to be a very engaging photo in and of itself.
Speaker ASo were it not to have the action there or.
Speaker AI'm a photographer's photographer, so I love engaging composition, dynamic subject matter, really great light, all the things.
Speaker AAnd for an image, for me to stand out, it really has to have all those things.
Speaker ASo this shot of Julian we had, he was standing at the top of the cliff when.
Speaker AAnd I'm way down below.
Speaker AAnd whenever I have an athlete up there, we would always have them throw like a snowball to show me their trajectory.
Speaker AAnd then I ask him, are you doing a straight air.
Speaker AAre you doing a front flip or all the things so I can understand best how to capture him.
Speaker AAnd he told me doing a front flip.
Speaker AAnd I tell him where I need the apex of that front flip to be for the frame that I am looking at.
Speaker AIn this case, I'm looking straight up the wall of this super jagged cliff.
Speaker AAnd it has this very imposing, impending look to it.
Speaker AIt's black and white, so it really distills it down to just the simple dynamics of the cliff drop taking place.
Speaker AAnd kind of honestly the date, it makes it feel dangerous because in fact, it is.
Speaker ASo anyway, like, he gives a 3, 2, 1, and we were just about ready to send him.
Speaker AAnd I could see that there was some blue sky coming into the frame.
Speaker AAnd I knew if we had that blue sky just up in the corner, that it would accentuate his shape, his profile, doing his front flip.
Speaker ASo I told him to wait for a hot minute, which is never fun when you've got an athlete standing at the top of such a gnarly thing.
Speaker AAnd anyway, he waited.
Speaker AWe waited 30 seconds.
Speaker AThe blue sky came in.
Speaker ALaunch this cliff.
Speaker AI remember as I'm snapping frames and I just hold that shutter button down.
Speaker AIn this case, I'm not moving the camera, I'm just keeping it nice and steady.
Speaker AI remember him coming past me and it sounded like a jet engine, like reentering the atmosphere.
Speaker AIt was pretty, pretty gnarly, pretty amazing.
Speaker AHe popped right up and then.
Speaker AAnd he was good to go.
Speaker ASo.
Speaker BAnd when did you know you got the shot?
Speaker BWhen did you.
Speaker BWas it almost immediate?
Speaker AAlmost immediately, yeah.
Speaker AIn this case, the important part was that the skier, that the subject was sharp.
Speaker AAnd so I took a quick look, look at that, to make sure that he was sharp.
Speaker AAnd yeah, when I saw, I knew.
Speaker AI knew that we'd gotten it for sure.
Speaker BAnd how much of your photography was to get you outside so that you could do the things you wanted, and how much of it was that you were outside doing the things you wanted?
Speaker BBut man, you were a really good photographer.
Speaker AYeah, I think it, it balanced out, right, the.
Speaker AI certainly found my love for photography early on in scenic landscape.
Speaker AAnd by default, I was already in these beautiful places.
Speaker AI just, I just was.
Speaker AWhether I was hiking or biking or camping or fishing or whatever it might be.
Speaker AAnd I just wanted to share these places with other people.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker ALike, I just wanted them to see what I was seeing.
Speaker AAnd so that, that was a big part of it.
Speaker AAnd then I think as my career progressed, I found opportunity to marry where my skill set lied, lay in what I loved with an opportunity to create a career.
Speaker AAnd there, to be honest, there are some things that I really held on to.
Speaker ALike, I actually never really shot that much cycling or mountain biking, and that's because I wanted something for myself because inevitably you get in these places and you're doing these things and you're always on as a photographer, especially if that's what you do for a career.
Speaker AAnd so I definitely never really shot a bunch of cycling or mountain biking because I just wanted to have it for me.
Speaker BYeah, that's fair.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BIf my son hears this, he's going to be.
Speaker BHe's gonna, he's gonna have a light bulb go off and go, wait, I can ski all I want.
Speaker BIf I become a good photographer, I'm gonna warn him.
Speaker AI'm gonna warn him that he's going to have to like.
Speaker ASkiing was actually the last thing I started shooting professionally, one of the last.
Speaker ABecause I just had such a hard time shooting Pow instead of skiing.
Speaker APow.
Speaker AAnd you really got to commit yourself to, to, to capturing.
Speaker AAnd it's same thing with fishing, to be perfectly honest.
Speaker AI always said if the light was good, I was shooting no matter what.
Speaker AIf the light was crappy and the fishing was really good, I'd maybe be fishing.
Speaker ABut you've always got to be willing to, to give up the doing in.
Speaker AIn favor of the capturing most of the time.
Speaker BI. I am not a fisherman, but I did love the movie A River Runs through it.
Speaker BAnd the imagery, the cinematography of the fishing in that movie can make just about anybody be romantic about fly fishing.
Speaker BSo I think good photography of fly fishing is pretty amazing aesthetically.
Speaker AIt lends itself so well to the lens.
Speaker AJust the motions, like backlit casting, water coming off the line.
Speaker BRight.
Speaker AFish jumping.
Speaker AIt takes you to beautiful places.
Speaker AOne of the last places.
Speaker AOne of the last jobs I shot before technically retiring from photography was in the Seychelles at a place called Cosmolito, which is an atoll in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
Speaker AIt took us north of 50 hours to get there from my home in Salt Lake City.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AAnd it's taken me around the world, so there's a lot to be said for capturing that.
Speaker BAll right.
Speaker BAnybody who's been patiently watching on YouTube has, of course, noted your hat.
Speaker BSo I think it's time that we get into your second career, which is you being an entrepreneur.
Speaker BAnd if you're not watching, then you won't know that Adam is wearing a hat that says hairy is scary.
Speaker BAnd for the two of us who have shaved heads, that is.
Speaker BIt's true.
Speaker BBut that's not really what the hat is referring to.
Speaker BSo, Adam, tell us about bolt shaving.
Speaker BTell us how you came to the.
Speaker BYou create that endeavor and what's it all about.
Speaker AYeah, I appreciate it.
Speaker AAs a cyclist, I've shaved my legs for the better part of my adult life.
Speaker AI shaved my legs with a pink razor and a bar of soap, like so many of us do.
Speaker AAnd a number of years ago, I had an aha moment where I was like, I shave my legs.
Speaker AI know a lot of guys who shave their legs, whether they're triathletes or swimmers or cyclists or crossfitters or bodybuilders.
Speaker AOr maybe they're just everyday men who shave their legs by lifestyle choice.
Speaker ABut in any case, there was no brand.
Speaker AThere was no brand.
Speaker ASo I started doing a little bit of research and really couldn't find anything.
Speaker ACouldn't find.
Speaker AThere wasn't an image.
Speaker AThere was a product.
Speaker AThere wasn't even a mention.
Speaker AYou'd find some really crappy YouTube videos of UK cyclists, like, in a Howard Johnson motel showing you how to shave their legs in the sink.
Speaker AAnd I'm like, okay, this has got to change.
Speaker AThere's an opportunity here.
Speaker ASo, yeah, I decided to make a full career shift, and Bolt Skin and Shave was born in.
Speaker AWe essentially, we have a razor and shave products for that are specifically designed for coarser leg and body hair, which men have.
Speaker AMen's leg and body hair is much, much different than a woman's.
Speaker AAnd our razor is significantly heavier and heftier than what's out there.
Speaker AThe blades are Swedish steel.
Speaker AThey're not going to go into all the technicalities, but put a lot of work into this.
Speaker ARaised quite a bit of money.
Speaker AA CPG startup.
Speaker ASo CPG is consumer packaged goods.
Speaker AIt's very expensive to start a business.
Speaker AAnd the razor was designed in Finland by a gentleman that had done work previously for Apple and Mercedes Benz.
Speaker AIt's a thing of beauty, but it shaves even better than it looks.
Speaker AWe've got shave products.
Speaker AWe got a shave butter post shave lotion and exfoliating leg scrub.
Speaker AThose were all formulated and manufactured in Connecticut in the lab in Connecticut.
Speaker AIt's been an amazing journey.
Speaker AWe are the official and exclusive shaving sponsor of USA Triathlon, which has been really great, really fun to work with them and project podium in developing those athletes and supporting them.
Speaker AAnd I spend a lot of time on the road, like where we met.
Speaker ASo I attend a lot of races and expos and events and introducing Bolt to the masses.
Speaker AWe've been in business just over 15 months or so, I want to say, so still very early in our journey.
Speaker ABut we've had great response and great traction.
Speaker AIt's wild.
Speaker BThat's great.
Speaker BAnd is it going well so far?
Speaker AIt's going well.
Speaker AIt's going well for sure.
Speaker AIt's.
Speaker AWe're up this.
Speaker AWe're up 300% like year over year.
Speaker AThis year versus last year.
Speaker AWe're growing.
Speaker AI would hope to be.
Speaker AWe added Black Edition razors.
Speaker AWe've got.
Speaker AOur brand colors are blue and yellow and black is the new black.
Speaker APeople love black.
Speaker ASo we added a second razor.
Speaker AIt's called the Black Edition.
Speaker AThat's been selling incredibly well.
Speaker AAnd it's just been really fun to see people's response and reaction.
Speaker AAnd then the honest truth is once our customers use the product, they're just blown away.
Speaker AMost men attribute it to an electronic tailgate on a vehicle.
Speaker ALike, you never know you needed one until you had it and then as soon as you have one, you can't stop it.
Speaker ASo that's how it is with Bolt.
Speaker ALike, you can get by.
Speaker AYou can have that, get it over with.
Speaker AUse whatever's in the corner of the shower activity.
Speaker ABut we've made it more of a treat yourself experience.
Speaker AIt feels good, it smells good.
Speaker AMost importantly, it works so much better.
Speaker AThe way I say is like you jump out of the shower, you wrestle with the chainsaw.
Speaker AIt's.
Speaker AIt's pretty good.
Speaker AYou can find us online@boltshave.com or on Instagram at Boltskin Shave.
Speaker BAll Right.
Speaker BAnd are you still cycling, Adam?
Speaker AI am.
Speaker AI'm starting to claw back a little bit of work, balance, have a race.
Speaker BAlways tough starting a business, right.
Speaker AIt's tough, man.
Speaker ALike, I really enjoy doing longer endurance races like Park City, Point to Point or for any Utah people.
Speaker AThey're going to know what those races are, but especially in.
Speaker ASo the road scene loaded.
Speaker AJazz.
Speaker AA 206 mile race.
Speaker AIt's from Logan to Logan, Utah to Jackson Hole roadies.
Speaker AIf you're in Utah, it's like your rite of passage and so you start doing it and just becomes a tradition.
Speaker AAnd then in my later years, I started doing more endurance mountain biking in Park City.
Speaker APoint to Point is 77 miles.
Speaker AIt's 11,000vert.
Speaker AIt's all single track.
Speaker AIt's a dream come true.
Speaker AHonestly, the first year I did, it's a very hard.
Speaker AIt's a hard race, but riding your bike is your mountain bike as fast as you can for as long as you can.
Speaker AThat's pretty awesome.
Speaker AIt's pretty awesome.
Speaker ANot racing, but definitely finding some time to get out.
Speaker ANot quite as often as I once did, but I'm still getting out for sure.
Speaker AJust got back from Sun Valley, Idaho for the 4th of July and did some great writing there.
Speaker AIt was.
Speaker BAnd do your kids ride now too?
Speaker AThey do.
Speaker AThey race Nika here locally, so they do the high school racing league and I'd say they're lukewarm on it.
Speaker AI do a decent job of just kind of letting them go at their pace.
Speaker AI'm still all in, I gotta be honest.
Speaker AI just love it so much and I don't want to be burn out.
Speaker ABut they do enjoy it.
Speaker AThey do enjoy it.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BI ask because I've mentioned on the program a few times recently my.
Speaker BMy own son who's 16, he's quite a proficient runner and he's really taken to cycling and it turns out he's really good.
Speaker BAnd he has.
Speaker BHe's come on several rides with me and he just drops me all the time.
Speaker BAnd it's a little bit humbling.
Speaker BIt's a little bit.
Speaker BBut it's also fantastic.
Speaker BI just love to see.
Speaker BIt's awesome to see your kids grow up and become so proficient at something that you love.
Speaker ATotally.
Speaker BAnd he has started to talk to my wife about how he needs to shave his legs so that he can pick up a couple of watts here or there.
Speaker BSo there we go.
Speaker AThere's plenty of studies that show you can grab those extra watts and also too, like I tell people, it's like not just about power.
Speaker ALike, you spend enough time on two wheels, you're probably going to hit the deck, right.
Speaker AAnd it's a whole lot easier to clean up road rash or dirt out of your when you get hair in there.
Speaker ASo we'll get you something product for sure.
Speaker ANo better first experience.
Speaker BThere you go.
Speaker BAdam, I can't thank you enough for spending a little bit of time with me chatting about your career as a photographer, your enthusiasm for all things outdoor cycling and skiing, and of course about Bolt, which was the way that we got to meet out at the boulder.
Speaker B70.3.
Speaker BWill you be doing any more expos in the triathlon world?
Speaker AYeah, so we'll be.
Speaker AI think we'll be at Boise here.
Speaker AI think that's.
Speaker AI don't know when this airs, but that's July 25 and 20.
Speaker AI think it's the 24th.
Speaker BThis will come out after that.
Speaker BBut y.
Speaker AWe will have been there.
Speaker AWe'll be in Tempe, I think in November.
Speaker AThere is a USAT endurance exchange event in January down in Florida that I think we'll be at and we'll fill in the calendar with some other trial as well.
Speaker ABut it's mostly western US because we're based out of Utah, but we do get Midwest and sometimes Southeast as well.
Speaker ASo just look for a big yellow tent, the big blue B in the middle, and most likely I'm going to be the guy standing under that tent.
Speaker BA very friendly and talkative gentleman wearing the Harry is scary hat.
Speaker BThat's right, Adam, I can attest is just a fun guy to talk to.
Speaker BSo by all means, if you see them out at an expo, make sure you stop by and say hi.
Speaker BAdam Barkin, thank you so much for chatting with me.
Speaker BBarkin.
Speaker BAdam Barkin is somebody I know here in Colorado, Adam Barker, thank you so much for chatting with me today on the Try Doc podcast.
Speaker BIt's been a real pleasure to connect with with you again and I wish you all the success in the world for Bolt Shaving and I hope to chat with you again in the future and see how things are going.
Speaker AThanks very much, Jeff.
Speaker AThank you for having me.
Speaker AAppreciate it.
Speaker DMy name is Stephanie Van Bever and I am a proud Patreon supporter of the TR podcast.
Speaker DThe TriDoc Podcast is produced and edited by Jeff Sankoff along with his amazing interns Cosette Rhodes and Nina Takashima.
Speaker DYou can find the show notes for everything discussed on the show today as well as archives of previous episodes@www.tridocpodcast.com do you have questions about any of the issues discussed on this episode or do you have a question for consideration to be answered on a future, future episode?
Speaker DSend Jeff an email@trycloud.com if you're interested in coaching services, you really should.
Speaker DPlease visit tridocoaching.com or lifesportcoaching.com where you can find a lot of information about Jeff and the services that he provides.
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Speaker DThe Tridock Podcast will be back again soon with another medical question and answer and another interview with with someone in the world of multisport.
Speaker DUntil then, train hard, train healthy.