Lessons From The World's Best Paddy Upton

Ryan Stramrood is an extreme ocean and ice swimmer, wearing only a speedo, swim cap and goggles. He achieved a Guinness World Record for the fastest crossing of the 32km shark-infested False Bay in Cape Town, spent 32 minutes swimming one mile in one degree below-freezing Antarctic waters, and has numerous extreme ocean crossings under his belt. At the time of recording, he had completed the 7.2 km Robben island to Blouberg crossing, in the cold Cape Town waters, a whopping 122 times.
What makes his story so compelling, is that he started out as an unfit, over-weight, average-Joe at the age of 29. He was not born with any particular gift for swimming or handling cold water. His is a story of how an ordinary guy trained his body and taught his mind how to push past impossible.
He shares fascinating accounts of his swims in freezing cold, pushing beyond extreme exhaustion, swimming through a field of jelly fish, swimming in shark- infested waters at night, blacking out due a rare lung condition in freezing waters and an up-close encounter with a great white shark.
He discusses how the mind is both our greatest asset and our biggest limitation, courtesy of its need for comfort and safety. How, as humans, we tend to be ‘excuse magnets’ and that you don’t need any special talent to achieve even greater heights in whatever your pursuit.
This episode promises fascinating stories and very achievable and universally applicable lessons from them.

Greg Minnaar is the greatest downhill mountain bike racer of all time. His professional career has spanned 21 years at the very top of this high-risk and highly-technical adrenaline sport. In 2021 and at the age of 39, Greg was crowned Downhill World Champion for the fourth time in his career, 20 years after his first World Cup series win. He has been runner up in the World Cup four times, placed third three times, and has been the winner in 23 World Cup events, the most by any racer in history. At 40, he is still competing, and winning.

In this interview he is his usual cool and calm self. He discusses how he manages fear of injury and crashing at speeds of over 70km/h, how he maintains consistent performances and a consistent performance mindset, and about adapting and adjusting to change. He speaks riding the fine-line of the perfect race, between hesitation and caution on one side, and reckless over-striving on the other, and about riding your own race in sport and in life. He also shares advice for recreational mountain bikers to go faster, with while getting injured less, and more.

Greg is the GOAT of downhill racing, and his lessons are applicable to all of life.



Ingredients for Performance  5.35

How it started 9.00

Critical voices 12.00

Managing self 17.10

Evolution of the sport 19.00

The best from the rest 21.15

Mitigating risk 28.10

Fear of injury 29.30

Mindset 31.35

Process and preparation 33.45

Fear of failure 37.00

Overcoming fear 43.20

Flow state 47.00

Character 52.05

Adapt and adjust 53.35

Downtime hobbies 1.02.50

Downhill tips 1.05.40 

Advice to young athletes and their parents 1.07.10

Life lessons 1.10.25 

The big question 1.11.35

Ryan Sandes is one of the world’s best-ever ultra-distance trail runners. His remarkable career started only in his 3rd year of university, when as a wannabe Springbok rugby player and non-runner, he entered the Knysna marathon – only because the half marathon was fully booked.

After only three weeks of training, he completed the 42.2km in a little over three hours - which marked the beginning of a rather unexpected and quite remarkable career.

His first official race as a novice trail runner, was a 250km race across the Gobi desert. Four months of training later, this totally unknown runner from Cape Town surprised the ultra-running world by crossing the finish line first.

He went on to become the first person to win all four races in the 250km Four-Desert Series, and then to become the first person to win an ultra-trail race on all seven continents.

Ryan upped the ante again, when he and a friend, Ryno Griesel, went on to set a new trail-running record by running 1 435km across the Great Himalayan Trail in Nepal, in only 25 days. Which included climbing 63.7km in elevation - the equivalent of running up and down Mount Everest 7.5 times!

He speaks candidly and without filter about his career challenges and lessons - and let’s us into his head as he describes the most extreme spiritual high moments of ‘going to the well’, and to the depths of hell when the mind and body shuts down through sheer exhaustion.

It’s a riveting conversation with someone who’s been to places that few humans ever have, or will go.



First Ultra .840

University/work life 13.45

Gobi Desert 16.40

Competition 19.20

Bonking 30.00

Winning 34.30

Going pro 36.15

Sponsors 42.10

In the Zone 44.40

"Going to the well" 47.10

Ex-South African cricketer Jonty Rhodes is still regarded as one of the greatest fielders of all time, having played in 52 Tests and 245 One Day Internationals for his country. He also represented South Africa at hockey, including being picked in the 1992 Olympic squad.

Since retirement, Jonty has coached professional cricket teams around the world. He has become an avid surfer and biker - joining local motorbike clubs for outrides on tours of particularly India, and on his tours around the professional cricket world.

In this episode, Jonty speaks candidly about the gifts sport gave him, how he succeeded against some of the odds and of his life lessons along the way. He also shares insights into his close friendships with the late Hansie Cronje and Shane Warne. And lots more...

Shaun Tomson is a former World Champion surfer, one of the pioneers of professional surfing, has been called one of the most influential surfers of the century, and is a successful businessman, author and evangelist for finding your purpose, commitment and positivity in life.

His life has seen him achieve the highest of highs- in being a World Champion, and possibly the lowest of lows- in tragically losing his happy, healthy 15yr old son, to a prank gone wrong. He co-produced and featured in the award-winning surf documentary ‘Bustin’ Down The Door’, which remains one of the iconic sporting documentary films. His book, the Surfers Code, in which Shaun shares 12 commitments to his purpose as a surfer, has translated to hundreds of thousands of people writing their own 12-part code for their own life.

Shaun is a masterful story-teller. He describes the elusive flow state (the ‘zone’) as beautifully and poetically as any. And has possibly experienced it more than most elite athletes. He is passionate about helping people find their purpose, and about helping others to be an even better and healthier version of themselves.

Shaun’s life experiences, his hunger and humility to continuously learn, and so much more about him, translates to him being something of a wise elder. The result is an insightful, thought-provoking and easy to listen to conversation.

Hawaii North Shore 3.00

Dreams to Reality 5.30

Sharks! 8.55

Surf safety in the early days 13.30

Scariest moment 17.30

The Tube-Rider 20.30

State of Flow 25.00

Competition vs Soul Surfing 33.00

In the Zone 39.20

Pro Surfing in the 1970s 42.20

Bustin' Down the Door 48.30

The Surfer's Code 52.00

"Paddle Back Out" lesson for all 56.00

Surfing Today 1.12.10

New book "The Surfer and the Sage" 1.14.13

Tragedy and the lessons 1.21

The Poem 1.31

The Big Question 1.34.42

Multiple International athlete and World Champion Oscar Chalupsky is a once-in-a-lifetime high-performance machine. Few will ever be like him, but almost all of us can learn some valuable lessons from the man.

Whilst still at school, he played South African schools water polo, was a springbok lifesaver, became the youngest Springbok canoeist, played provincial schools rugby, was the South African Iron Man champion, and South African ocean kayak champion.

He went on to become 12 times World Champion paddle ski or ocean kayak champion, winning his 12th title at the age of 49, 29 years after winning it for the first time.

Throughout, he was an amateur athlete who also worked full-time and built successful businesses. In the year South Africa was banned from participation due to apartheid policies, he took up golf, and a year later had a scratch handicap. For aspiring golfers, he shares how he did this, whilst remaining married and holding down a full-time job.

In November 2019 and at the age of 56, Oscar was diagnosed with multiple myeloma cancer and given 4-6 months to live. Today (April 2022) he is still running, swimming, kayaking, working and competing against the world’s best, whilst taking this cancer, plus a more recent diagnosis of skin cancer, head on and with a glass of wine in his hand.

This is one hell of a conversation with Oscar Chalupsky.



Young Oscar 3.30

Mindset during a race 13.00

The Molokai 17.30

Brain Training 22.40

The Science Behind the Sport 25.00

Entrepreneurial Mindset in Sport 29.40

Out of the Box 33.00

Pushing the Body 34.50

Winning (12th) Molokai  37.50

The Switch to Golf 42.30

1992 Olympics 48.30

Disappointments 49.45

The Diagnosis 51.50

Message to Cancer Patients 58.10

What's Next? 1.02

The Big Question 1.07.40