Big DINK Energy | Over 40 Pickleball & Life
Big Dink Energy is pickleball, friends, funny shit, and the conversations that happen somewhere between the court and real life.
Hosted by Stephanie and Guy Beveridge with their longtime friend Stefanie, aka Paddle Princess, we're three adults over 40 who found pickleball and accidentally made it part of our personality.
We talk pickleball, life, gear, people, things we love, things that annoy us, and whatever else comes up. You don't have to be good at pickleball. Hell, you don't even have to play.
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Big DINK Energy | Over 40 Pickleball & Life
Pickleball's Viewer Gap & 100-Mile Grit | Josh Sprague w/ Orange Mud
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We're coming in hot with:
🔹 A junk drawer confession involving 300 box cutters and zero regrets.
🔹 Instant red flags range from fingernail clipping to empath opening lines.
🔹 A waterbed once required a full safety briefing for actual houseguests.
Plus, Josh Sprague from Orange Mud joins us to talk about turning a ruined water bottle on a training run into a hydration brand built for ultra-endurance athletes.
🎧 Listen now before you check your own junk drawer for expired ketchup packets.
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You know how a guy would know about patching a water bag?
GuyI didn't have to patch mine, but I had one.
StephanieI did.
GuyIt was nice. Could you turn on the heater underneath that thing? Oh, that doesn't matter. In the wintertime.
StephanieOkay.
GuyLike you would sink down in that sucker.
StephanieCould you imagine trying to get out of it now?
GuyCan you imagine how many ladies how many ladies I had to give a safety briefing to?
SPEAKER_03Oh my god.
GuyThat's many, so many.
SPEAKER_03This is how you get in a safety briefing.
GuyThis is Big Dink Energy, the pickleball podcast that's half insight, half nonsense, and all entertainment. If you love pickleball, don't take your stuff too seriously and think a little trash talk makes the game better. Welcome home. This is the place where life and pickleball intersect. We celebrate the chaos, call out the nonsense, and put the fun back in dysfunction. You're either in or you're out. And if you're still listening, you're in. So let's go. Big Dink Energy starts now. We don't need another hero. We don't need to know the way home. All we want is life beyond the Thunderdome. Thank you, Tina Turner. And thank you to our sponsor of this episode, the official podcast of Pickleball, Big Dink Energy. Here's our sponsor, Dink and Dash, and Big Dink Energy, that's us, will be at PickleCon this year. Yes, you heard it right. And you need to be there too. What are you doing that you can't be at PickleCon? Let's go. It's going down in Kansas City, Missouri, July 24th
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Guythrough the 26th, and it's packed with everything you could want. Tournaments, yep, clinics, uh-huh, vendors, you bet. Education, content creators, and community. And our very own Stephanie will be teaching a fun booty booty booty on the court. Dance warm-up activation. So you're not going to want to miss that. Whether you're looking to learn, compete, meet new pickleball friends, or just soak up all things pickleball and probably even have a pickle. This one event you don't want to skip. Get your tickets now at picklecon.com. I said picklecon.com and come say hi when you see us. All right. So uh something that came up to me this week was something that uh you don't even really think about. It is just there. And I and nobody's ever seen one built, nobody's ever seen one in a baby status. It it it it is your it is your junk drawer. And so I'm why do we all have a junk drawer? If you don't and you don't know what I'm talking about, you're missing out. But what's the psychology behind that? Why do we keep c uh crayons? Three crayons, one of them's broken. Why do we keep a key to a padlock? We don't even have any more. And why can't our generation, uh my generation, of course, just can't throw things away? So I wanted to talk about a
Kitchen Talk - Hot takes, weird news, and what’s on our minds this week
Guyjunk drawer. Like how do you make a junk drawer? How do they start? What's in them? What makes a good junk drawer?
StephanieWell, I know when we first built our house, we didn't have a junk drawer.
GuyNo, we had all brand new fresh drawers. All brand new fresh drawers. Straight up late night papering them.
StephanieAnd I, you know, put little dividers and everything in there. I like container stuff. And we're six years in, and they're kind of pretty good still. Oh, that's great. They're pretty good still.
GuyWe have two that are if well, we have three. Three on the end.
StephanieNo, two.
GuyNo, because the one has uh pins and everything.
StephanieIt still has pins and everything.
GuyThe one on the very end, though, it has a the a thing from a game where you have to keep your mouth, your lips wide open, and talk without moving your lips.
StephanieYes. That thing is in there because I'm trying to find that game.
GuyYeah.
StephanieSo I can put it away.
GuyMaybe it's in another, maybe it's in a junk cabinet.
StephanieI don't have very many junk areas.
GuyNo, you you're pretty clean. For the most part, for a woman, you're clean.
StephanieBut for the one that we do have, it has started slowly getting there, but I can tell you why. Why? Children.
SPEAKER_05Ugh.
StephanieOkay. Not me. I get rid of stuff. I don't keep soy sauce packets. Oh, I do. I I have no need for them. I don't care. I I don't need ketchup packets. I have my own ketchup.
GuyWhat if I have to charge a Nokia phone from 2009?
StephanieI did find now. I had the very first iPhone when I got it in 2006, the day it came out. Oh my gosh. I literally found that cord that's awesome the other day. But I kept it because I still have that phone. So they're in they're together now. Okay.
GuyI don't think Apple's updating that one anymore.
StephanieI don't think so either, but it's nostalgia. So that's why I've kept it. But I mean, like the gift cards with like 73 cents, like just the other way. Just get rid of it. Yeah. Like go use it or give it to your kids. I like to give my merchandise credit to my 16-year-old. There you go.
GuyYeah. Uh birthday candles. That's always one that's in the case.
StephanieYou're not three. You're never going to be three again. So just get rid of it.
GuyWell, it could be an M. Could turn into an M for a candle for mom. Could do a Mother's Day cake and you turn it three sideways.
StephanieI know some people have like takeout menus, but it's like, are we doing that anymore? Like, don't we just use DoorDash? Right.
GuyDoorDash? Grubhub.
StephanieNot Grubhub. No. DoorDash. DoorDash. So why are they why are there even menus anymore? Like, why do you have to keep those?
GuyNo, everything's that all that's all digital now. Maybe those are nostalgia things.
StephanieBut things like safety pins, rubber bands, like they just need a home. If they have a home, then then it's fine to keep them.
GuyEvery well, how every piece of furniture comes with its own Allen wrench. I mean, how many times do I need this one specific Allen wrench?
StephanieI I do agree. Like I like to have a lot of Allen wrenches, though, because we use them a lot for a lot of things.
GuyYeah, I have whole sets of them out in the toolbox in the garage.
StephanieBut I'm not going out there. Right. Yeah, but then you I want it now.
GuyNow you've got to gather up 17 Allen wrenches of all different sizes and just go through them like some weird janitor.
StephanieNo, because I'm not building anything that needs a weird Allen wrench.
GuyYeah.
StephanieI'm not building anything, period. That's what I'm saying. Like I'm only using it to tighten things that are normal Allen wrench size. Right. If it has to go beyond that, I'm getting somebody else to do it. I'm just not doing that.
GuyOther famous things, uh, markers that no longer mark.
StephanieYeah, just I don't know why you go to use it and then they it doesn't work, so they just put it back in the drawer. That's my kids. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that makes sense. They don't just walk over to the trash.
GuyIf you haven't had kids yet, uh rethink it.
StephanieAnd and owner's manuals. Oh my gosh. I was helping my dad move some stuff and he had a box because he's a box saver. And we talked about this on a podcast. I'm a box saver for sure. I am not a box saver and I do not like it. That's worse than the junk drawer. And he was like, Oh, we gotta save that owner's manual. I said, Dad, you know you're just gonna go to ChatGPT or Google and save those anymore. You're not gonna go find it. It has all the answers. No one is using it uh a manual anymore. I just don't understand.
GuyYeah, I mean, uh in this, um I guess you go back to who is that lady, Marie Kondo, who wants everything just. Does it bring you joy?
StephanieYeah, does it bring you joy?
GuyI don't know if it's gonna bring me joy. That particular screwdriver that I got free with this cabinet, so I don't know.
StephanieThe other thing that I have tend to tend to find in those is keys. And I know people don't get rid of them because the second you do, that's gonna be the key that you were looking for. Right. Nobody knows what they go to until it's gone. So maybe you need to just trick the universe, like throw it in a pretend trash pretend to throw it away or put it underneath the trash bag. Right. So one of the things, like just as far as hoarding goes, like I know people have a really hard time getting rid of stuff. So just put it in a trash bag or a a what are those called, like a Walmart bag, yeah, and you know, put it away, like in a cabinet or something. And then in six months, if you haven't used it, just toss that bag. Just throw it away, yeah. You know, but I I don't know. What do you keep in your junk drawer?
SPEAKER_04My junk drawer typically has uh zip ties. For some reason, we have an extreme amount of zip ties and we don't ever use them, so I don't know why we have them.
GuyThe only thing is to be fair, you're not you're not the one that would use the zip ties anyhow, so you don't know if they're depleting in the in the resources.
StephanieI mean valid. Zip ties are important though. That's a good junk drawer item.
SPEAKER_04I have a lot of command hooks and the stickies for the command hooks. That shit's expensive. Don't throw those things out. I know. I don't want to throw them out, and I don't want to lose them. And I have that in one of my drawers. I don't want to put holes in my wall. And then, of course, your normal stuff pens, notebooks. I tend to have a lot of random notepads and notebooks and random things. I do have a drawer specifically for fast food condiments. So I have a drawer that's organized. I have all of my Chick-fil-A sauces over here. I I get horsey sauce. I keep everything organized. I don't have any horsey sauce now.
GuyFrom Arby's.
SPEAKER_04Why do you keep those? Because they're easy.
GuyThe condiment packet is a lot easier than pulling the whole thing out of the room.
SPEAKER_04I am a dippy-dip kind of girl. Like I want to dip anything and everything in some kind of sauce. And we don't typically keep like bottles of it in the house. The only thing we really keep are like your normal ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard. I guess I could see that if you like if you like different types of sauces. I do. So I love all kinds of different sauces, and I love to dip everything in them and make my own little concoctions. It's so fun. Oh lord.
GuyThat's another whole podcast. I think that's a good one. Yeah, I do.
StephanieI love that. You know what the other thing is? And this is something that is there's so many of them in a junk drawer, but then when you want one, it's not there. And that's tape measures. It does.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yep.
StephanieYes, I thought you never find the tape measure. Never. And we bought little ones for the junk drawer specifically so that we would have one, but it's another kit issue. It's a kid issue.
GuyThey take it out, they use it, and they just put it down wherever they want.
SPEAKER_04Why do we buy 20 packs of scissors a year and I can never find a pair of scissors? Where are they?
GuyI have to hide pairs of scissors because.
SPEAKER_04I keep them in my nightstand now.
StephanieI bought 10 pairs of scissors in guys' stocking last year. Yeah, I got scissors as a gift. I'm so pissed. Yeah. And I'm like, I don't know. Like, I store them everywhere, but now I store those little little zip cutters. Oh, the like box cutters. Box cutters. Like the little ones. Yeah, we have them everywhere. I bought 30, no, 300. Oh my gosh. 300, you know, it was Timu. So you can buy one or you can buy 300. So now you have a box cutter drawer. But we I store them everywhere. I got three sitting right here. I love that. Because I use them to open vegetables. I use them to now I don't need your damn scissors, guy. She's got her box cutters. That's it.
GuyYeah, yeah. The scissors is a big thing for us around here. Some of the other things in our drunk drawer are obviously pennies. Pennies end up in there. What are we afraid to throw them away?
StephanieWell, hell, they're going away, so you better save them.
GuyYeah.
StephanieThey're going away. I think it's just a maybe we're just afraid to get rid of things. Like our generation is afraid to get rid of things. I am.
GuyI mean, that's why my closet is full the way it is for with shirts that I haven't I haven't worn shirts in there in like five years. But I keep I'm not I'm not giving them away. I earned them. I I collected them. They're not going anywhere. They're not going anywhere. What I mean, what's the bother? Are we worried about a closet fire? I can have my shirts.
StephanieI I guess it's so aggravate.
SPEAKER_04I get it. I still have some of my clothes from high school.
GuyAnd I'm 40, so well, you can still fit into your clothes from high school.
StephanieNot me. I have like five pairs of pants and five shirts, and that's all I wear. You're like, and I'm done. I'm done.
GuyI mean, I that's typically what I wear, five and five, you know, or my uniform. I don't get rid of my stuff, that's for sure.
StephanieI don't like it.
GuyI did. I did like last year. I got it rid of like 10 or th 10 or 12 things off the rack in there.
StephanieGood job. Yeah. We're proud of you.
GuyAbsolutely. 12 a year.
StephanieBut then you go and fill it with like these business jackets for one-time use.
GuyOh, the sport coat? Yes. I got a good use out of it. Everybody loved it. I look fabulous.
SPEAKER_04Good job.
GuyAnd I can wear it again.
SPEAKER_04I hope not. I would say another random thing in our junk drawer is you know how when you buy something and it comes with like the little anchor and the screws and like extra anchors and screws. Yeah. And then you're like, oh, I need to keep these in case something happens and I need to reuse them. And you put them in there, and then there's all these little packets. Yeah, I don't know. Random screws everywhere.
StephanieI don't even use the screws stuff comes with.
SPEAKER_04I'm like, it looks it looks fine to me.
StephanieYeah. Just put that on the floor. Go ahead and sit on that. Let's see if you stay upright. I'll have screws left over and I'm like, it's still standing.
GuySo if I have certain things, it looks like they gave us 10 extra. For some reason, they say they gave us 10 extra.
SPEAKER_04Even when you buy pool floaties and they come with that little itty bitty patch, I know I'm not gonna use it. Ever. I'm just gonna throw the floaty away and I'm gonna go buy a new one. But do I keep them? Yes. What am I gonna do with that? Nobody has any idea.
GuyWell, you never know when you have to patch your waterbed.
StephanieI always wondered. You know how Guy would know about patching a waterbed?
GuyI didn't have to patch mine, but I had You did have one.
StephanieI did.
GuyIt was nice. Could you turn on the heater underneath that thing in the wintertime?
StephanieOkay. Yeah.
GuyIt wasn't waveless, though. It was a full bladder. Like you would sink down in that sucker. You had to be prepared to get on the water bed.
StephanieOh, could you imagine trying to get out of it now?
GuyCan you imagine how many ladies how many ladies I had to give a safety briefing to?
StephanieOh my god.
GuyMany, so many.
StephanieThis is how you get in.
GuyHundreds, hundreds of ladies.
StephanieSafety briefing.
GuySign here, please. It's a release of obligation.
StephanieI'm here. Welcome to Duchatorium. You dumb. Oh my God.
GuyOh yeah. If you have things in your junk drawer that we didn't mention here, let us know. Show us a picture of your junk drawer, maybe featured on some of our social medias over at where?
StephanieBdepodcast.com.
Fan Mail (Shout Outs, Comments, Love)
GuySadly, nothing in the mailbag. What are you people doing out there? We have fans. Send us some fan mail, some encouragement. Just tell us you're listening. Say good things about Guy and tell us how the other ladies don't do much over here. I don't know what it is. Just send us some fan mail. Head over to our socials or website and show us some love.
StephanieJust the
Just The Tip - Pickleball Wisdom
Stephanietip. Just the tip. Quick pickleball wisdom, in and out before you know it. So this one is coming to you from personal experience. We take a drills and skills class on Wednesdays with Coach Dave from Heights Athletic Club.
GuyShout out Big Daddy Dave.
StephanieAnd I've always heard like who covers middle and they say cross, like the person like diagonal. Diagonal from you. You know, if they have the ball, then you cover middle. Every time I go to play, I'm like, what? Crisscross applesauce. I don't know what's going on. Like it's so fast that I can't focus. Same. So when we were there last week, and I know this is a longer just a tip, but it totally clicked. He said, When the person in front of you has the ball, you cover your line. I was like, okay, that I can that make it. Yeah, that you're your outside line. I'm like, Yeah, that makes sense. I'm like, that is so much easier than who's diagonal. Who's diagonal? They diagonal, then I cover the middle. It's like if they're across from you and they have the ball, you cover your line. Got it. So that means the other person then covers the middle, which is the cross thing. But I don't know why that I was just like, oh, I get it now. Like totally made more sense. So it might, the cross thing might work for people, but for my brain, this second in front of me. The second he said that, I was like, I got you. Nice.
GuyThanks, Big Daddy Dave.
Pickle Pals - Deep Dive with a Pickleball Court, Club or Influencer
GuyIt's time for people. Well, this is gonna be a test of endurance here. Our guest has done over a hundred mountain bike races, multiple Ironmans, 50,000 trail races, 50 milers, 100 mile ultra marathons. Uh Josh Sprague, he founded Orange Mud in 2012 to solve his own hydration problem, as you can imagine. Then moved to the United States of Texas. We're very humble people out here. Uh, launched Seven Clay custom apparel, and he has played pickleball before, and he's in Liberty Hill, Texas, right down the road from us, providing custom gear uh that you and your pickleball community can get involved with. We'll talk about that. From extreme endurance to dink culture and everything in between, welcome to Big Dink Energy Podcast, Josh Sprague. Thanks so much for being here, man. Thanks for having me on. Beautiful day in Texas. Oh, it is. It is a great day out there. So get out there. It's going to be a little warm, uh, but we're Texans. We're resilient and we we expect the warmth. Um, I can just say personally, for me, I'm so happy I still have green grass this late into the sum uh this late into the season. The grasses are crazy right now. I I can't believe the amount of rain we got around here. Yeah. So, you know, hundred hundred mountain bike races, trail races, fifty milers, ultramarathons, uh pretty extreme resume, right? When did you first discover you were an extreme person?
SPEAKER_06Well, I wouldn't, I I guess I would never really well like I probably should associate with that, but you know, I I played sports in school like most people do, but once I got out, I I've always liked riding my bike. And that's really what started everything. And I did a um a short mountain bike race one day, and it kind of led to the nether and another and another. Next thing you know, I'm doing super long mountain bike races, you know, hundred multi-hundred mile races. And you know, then I jumped into adventure racing. So I've always liked to run also. So I I ran and I bike and I kayak and I'd race, you know, 12, 24, 48 hour multi-day, you know, just a lot of fun stuff. It's just fun to just push your body and see what you can achieve.
GuyYeah, I love that. I want I don't have you done 24 hours in the canyon. I think it's like out in Amarhillo or something.
SPEAKER_06But I've done seven different races just like it. Yeah. Well, just up to 24 hours in the Pueblo and 24 hours of adrenaline and yeah, many.
GuyOkay, okay. So I was watching while I'm on the treadmill. I just had a total knee replacement, so I'm out trying to get in into running again. And I put one on. It was it was Rich Froning, you know, CrossFit Champion, and he was doing 24 hours in the canyon. I'm just like, how freaking extreme. And then of course the the thing that came up, you know, after about race six or seven of for him is just how much his butt hurt. And so I can only imagine out there in those races, that's that's like one of the things that are just okay, this is raw, but I've got eight more legs to do, right?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, you know, and honestly, it's one of the benefits of that sort of adventure racing, a stage race where or a triathlon even is you know, you you ride for a long time and then you're excited to run. Like, man, my butt hurts, I can't wait to run. And then you're like, then you're running forever, you're like, man, my feet hurt, I can't wait to paddle. And then you you paddle and you're like, God, my back hurts, I can't wait to bike again.
GuyYeah.
SPEAKER_06But yeah, you know, it's and the other part that's crazy about an endurance cycling is that it used to be, yeah, like a 50-mile ride was a long ways. And then now, like, I don't even worry. I'd I'd go in boxer shorts for a couple hundred miles without even thinking about it. You know, it's fine. You know, you after a while, you just kind of you either learn to block out pain. Well, you do, that's one piece. Sure, for sure. And then the other is you just you probably learn a little bit more about your bike fit, which is really, really helpful. A lot of people don't don't have their bikes fitted properly, so your butt is gonna get destroyed. So yeah, but that being said, when you do, you know, I've done uh like the the longest race I've ever did was 720 miles, and and after that, I I could feel I I had the stitches of my chamois in my in my uh bike uh bid. Yeah, you could see them in the bottom of my butt cheeks. Oh my gosh. But you know, when you spend that was five days on a bicycle straight.
SPEAKER_00And that yeah, I was gonna ask how long that is. That's five, yeah, five days. Yeah, I think four and a half. Now there's breaks in there though, right? A couple hours, yeah.
SPEAKER_06Maybe I I usually sleep in a ditch or you know, maybe get a cheap hotel or something. I think that one I mostly slept in ditches. But yeah, I've done I've done uh a lot of stupid things. Even like I did a 360 a few years ago, and that was just a straight 360 miles, and it took 34 hours and and it was just nonstop paddling or peddling, with the exception of stopping at a gas station to get some pizza and a Dr. Pepper and and uh keeping going. That was it.
GuyIs now are there are there big checks at the end of that, or is it just bragging rights, plastic trophies?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, great. Yeah, zero dollars. Yeah, huge check for zero dollars. The check is a big check mark that you draw on a piece of paper. Oh, I did that. Yeah, most of these no. And unfortunately, most of these sports in general, you know, you're lucky to make a few grand or something. Maybe. Sure. But but most it's like just pride, and that's all it is. There's some incredible races that I've done that are no charge. There's some incredible like Cannonball 550, one of the greatest races I've ever done. I've done it twice and it they charge nothing. It's free. And it's just if you're dumb enough to sign up and show up at the Grand Apart with a bunch of other Yahoos, and we all go for it. And whoever finishes, finishes, and there's no reward, there's no, there's no cost. It's just it's just a test of human endurance.
GuySo Kansas, right? That's where you grew up. Horse farms, wagon trains, all that kind of stuff. Did that does that kind of shape your approaches to the challenges, the innovation and frustration stuff that you're solving for?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, a lot of it we just came down to you just have to figure things out. Right. And you know, things break. And, you know, when you grew up a country kid and and doing all the crazy redneck stuff I did, you know, we we didn't have a lot of money. So, you know, things broke, you just had to fix it. And and or sometimes I would break things just so I could fix it because you're bored, you know. And I'm not gonna say I always did. I I was always one of them kids who take electronics apart thinking I could make them improved, and normally they just ended up broken. But but it's it's when it comes to mechanical things, I was always pretty good. I mean, I built tree houses, and I've even told people my first job, I was I was technically an arms dealer for my first job. I used to make rubber band machine guns and pistols, and I'd sell them in school to my friends. Yeah, they just shot rubber bands, but they were still pretty cool. But I mean, I was doing that when I was like seven or eight years old and using jigsaws and sawzalls and stuff in the garage. And I in hindsight, I can't believe my dad let me use all the tools when I was so little.
GuyYeah, well, that's an important part of growing up. So, I mean, being the Lord of war of the playground, that's that's awesome. But it is, you know, my kid, my kid, my son, you know, let's learn how this saw works. Let's let's see you use it. Now, we did work on a cross-cut saw first because I need you to understand how a saw works, and I want to see you put some sweat equity in, but then we'll we'll jump up to some uh bigger stuff. So I love I absolutely I love that. And I grew up in Vermont, so I'm I'm kind of same same with you, you know, side of a mountain, I can see my neighbor with binoculars. You just figure things out. Yep. So you know, you solved you solved your hydration problem. Like necessity is a mother of invention, right? I worked for a company called Blackhawk. The owner of the company started he was a SEAL, uh, started the company because he had a a backpack break on him in a critical moment. So he's like, I can do this better. And so with you, I'm guessing with uh with the orange mud, it was kind of the same thing, right? Is that what I read where uh your hydration system Just weren't working for you and you had to come up with your own.
SPEAKER_06Exactly. Yeah, I I just I always hated the waistbelts. You know, a lot of people uh used to always run with waistbelts and handhelds, and I've always been a backpack nerd. And then as an adventure racer, we did things that were, you know, they were dangerous. You know, you're out there racing for in the middle of freaking who knows where, and running out of water was one of the most dangerous things that could happen. For sure. And so having a backpack that would hold all your essentials and be able to, you know, make sure it got to the finish line with you was was important. So it was when I was training for um Iron Man St. George, is when I just hit my breaking point and I was so sick of waistbelts and handhelds, it just made running not fun. I've never really liked running. I always tell people it's odd I own a running company because I don't really like to run. And I run a lot. I don't understand the psychology behind behind that. Like I don't get runners high. I've never had a runners high, I've never understood it. You know, I maybe have a mountain bike high, but I don't get runners high. Runners running is just always hard, but I enjoy it. But but yeah, so it was when I was training for an Iron Man and um and this one day, it wasn't the day I designed it, but it was the day that got the ball in motion. I I was onto this mile loop and I went out there and I ran it multiple times and I stashed a water bottle. And on one of the loops, this was in Orange County in California, and and when I was making this loop, I came around and I on one loop I saw a homeless guy walking down the sidewalk. And another loop, I saw a coyote uh run by my bottle. And and and then on the third loop or whatever, why when I stopped to get a drink, it tasted like urine. And it was either, you know, the homeless guy or the coyote, somebody did something to that bottle. I don't know, somebody peed on it. And and it was when I just hit a point where I'm like, you know what, I gotta build something better. And and after my my son was born, I realized neither one of my wife and I could continue working the amount of hours that we did in our in our day jobs. That's when I I I'd always had this idea to put a water bottle up high on your back and it would be more stable, be easy to access, and you carry just your essentials, credit card phone, cash for the beer garden after a race, and your water, and that's it. And and yeah, I just went out and built it one night and out of a gun holster, a waste pack, and a ratchet strap and a hotel room sewing kit, and went for a test run and it worked. It looked terrible, but it worked great. And 10 months later we we had a functional prototype and we still sell it to this day, and then we've you know kind of grown everything from there. So it's been fun.
GuyThat's a that's a real Tony Stark Iron Man story right there. I like that.
SPEAKER_06Sure.
GuyIs there is there no like I don't do races like that, obviously, but is there no mid-race cigar that you put in there also? So you know, just halfway through just pull out of a channel.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, it's got shoulder pockets, man. You can put your light your lighter there and and your uh your cigar on the other side, you know. I've got some pockets you could probably put a waterproof bag in and be fine.
GuyThat's great.
SPEAKER_06You gotta celebrate at the end, you know?
GuyYeah, for sure. Yeah, absolutely. I'm I mean, I I'm celebrating after mile one, like oh my gosh, look how far I got. But then it's usually, okay, look how far I have to go back now.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, that is always the hard part. That's what makes it fun.
GuySo, you know, with these the Hunter Milers, the I I watched this guy on TikTok, you probably know who he is. He it looks like his his shorts are look like they're jeans. And I'm just yeah and I'm just watching this and I'm like, yeah, what is your body going through? Like, I mean, mile 10, you know, that's doable. Mile, you know, 15, and we see the the 26 milers, the marathons out there, but at mile past 26, what what's your body going through? Can you kind of describe that for us?
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Well, I'll say it in two ways. So one thing that I've always found is that marathons are extremely hard because it's pavement and then you're forced to run really fast. And and I think one of the reasons why so many people jump into the sport of trail and ultra running is one is because it's, you know, I think it's more beautiful if you see you know nature, which is great for sure pavement and 40,000 butts. But one of the nicest parts of trails is that they're softer. Then marathons, man, they beat you up. So in a marathon, you'll get you'll get a good taste of what it's like to run a giant distance because most people are going to have their feet and their shins destroyed about mile 18 to 26. Now, when you do a trail race, I would say the first like 50K, you know, the first 31 miles is really it's pretty much like running a marathon. I think it's easier to run a 50K, you know, 31 miles than running a marathon at 26.2. But and even 50 miles, I would almost venture to say, is in many ways, in many races, easier than running a marathon. But once you go above 50 miles, then you have a whole bunch of different fun things happen. And one of the things that often happens to a lot of ultrarrunners is you get to throw up a lot. And and that's and it's usually a factor of poor nutrition. You know, you're you're trying, you because you're it's like everybody, right? Like, oh, I ran 10 miles this weekend, therefore I get to eat a gallon of ice cream. It that doesn't work if you want to lose weight. It's fine to justify that. It's just it's not exactly going to help you. But that's one of the things that often happens in trail ultra races is that you you really discover what nutrition doesn't work for you. And sometimes that's obviously just poor choices of eating, you know, a massive amount of peanut butter cups and and gummy bears, which no offense, I've I've done it. But that being said, a lot of times you discover that nutrition that you can drink for an hour or two when you're training at your home turf is fine. But upon really long distance, your butt your stomach says, not a fan, I don't like this. Good luck, you're getting ready to meet the hunched over and throwing up on the side of the trail. So that's usually step one. And then step two.
GuyYou're really selling this to us. Keep going.
SPEAKER_06That's great. Oh, it's totally great. You should do it. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, you'll see it tomorrow. But then, but then the the next phase is is just that that pain phase. And that is, I, you know, it's there's not very many people that finish 100 miles that don't have extreme foot destroy. And that's going to be blisters, rotting, bruising, and then usually there's knees and hips that kind of start to you know get sideways too for many people. So that you know, running 100 miles is not for the faint of heart. It's something that there's you know very high DNF rate in most of the races because it's even for the most fit, you still need things to go right. And it's easy for things to go wrong.
SPEAKER_00Did not finish, right?
SPEAKER_06Did not finish, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Or did not make the yeah, there's did not finish. And sometimes you can finish, but you'll be unofficial because you don't meet meet the time cutoff. And and I've done that, you know, I've ran the leader. Oh my gosh. I twisted an ankle once really bad, and I broke four metatarsals in another one, and and I only made it to 72 miles on both times, and I had to, they pulled me because I wasn't fast enough. I'm still going, but I didn't meet the cutoff times.
Guy72. What a what a quitter you are.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah, I was. It broke my heart.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_06So yeah, it's 100 mile distance is brutal. But 50 and under, I I genuinely believe many people ought to experience it because it's a fantastic distance. Above that, you got to really want it. And and that's when you also realize how much grit you have because it's it comes down to a lot of grit after that.
GuyOh, I bet. Yeah. And and I'm I'm guessing the mental aspect after a certain number of miles, maybe even just be maybe even those those legs where you're just all by yourself, right? Yeah. You may see another runner way up there, but you're still by yourself and and trying to motivate yourself. It's it's tough.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, it's it's absolutely huge. The the mental is the biggest thing in pretty much any endurance sports. You can you can tell yourself that it doesn't hurt. And if you tell yourself that enough, it'll it'll go away, you know, for the flesh wounds. But I mean, obviously, you have some broken bone, you're, you know, you might not be able to perceive, but or continue, but but it is it is an incredible test of your mentalness, uh mental strength. And it and it's honestly, it's to me one of the coolest parts of human psychology is that you can block out pain, things that you would think would stop you. And I've seen people that have quit these races where I'm like, why'd you quit? Why why are you stopping? They're like, I hurt. I'm like, you were just running with me. You know, like I ran a race with a buddy of mine and and he quit. Like, we came in a mile 50, he just stopped. I'm like, dude, you're doing great. Like, we've been telling stories and having a good time. He's like, now my hip hurts, I'm done. I'm like, well, I mean, you're gonna drive 15 hours tomorrow. Why not just finish running this thing and then go home the next day? I mean, it you'll you'll find a lot of chinks in people's armor and things you people you'd never guess. You know, people you feel like, man, that that's one tough guy or tough tough girl, and and all of a sudden you just see that some people they have that negative demon in them that that can take over and and make them just decide that they won't finish. But that's what it is. They decided they wouldn't finish.
GuyYeah, we see that a lot in the special operations community, ranger school, special forces selection, and all that. The the brain shuts the brain stops you way before your body ever would. Yeah. And and you know, people just don't finish because of that. Not not nothing wrong with them, it's just that they weren't ready mentally. Yeah, when when you're out there doing those, uh, I mean, you got to have a killer playlist or just a book you're you know, maybe the Tolstein series for the hundred miles. Sure.
SPEAKER_06So, I mean, is that right? You know, sometimes, yeah. Like, I well, like one year, for example, when I did Cannonball 550, I that was that took me three days and eight hours, I think, to do to bike that distance. And and uh, and I listened to absolutely nothing the whole entire time. It was awesome. Oh my gosh. It was like, I I mean, I talked to myself, I told myself stories, I just talked to birds, you know, turtles and cows, lots of cows. And and and it's just uh it is something that I I think if you challenge yourself to not engage with any electronics with some of these events, you will learn more about yourself. But then the next year I listened to Shackleton's Endurance, and I think that was well, I think that was only one of the books because yeah, it was you know, same thing. I think it was like three days and seven hours. And so, so yeah, and it I I do. I listen to a lot of books on, you know, history, seals, business, I mean comedy, yeah, sci-fi. It really, it's all over the place. But one of my favorites for people that like to do stupid things is is uh endurance. Um it's about Shackleton, Shackleton's adventures to the Arctic. And when you listen to that book and they spent like what, five years or something in the ice, you you'll realize there's nothing that you're doing ever. And there's no one, I don't believe there's any hardly anybody left in modern day that have endured the amount of pain and suffering that crew did. If you listen, if you read that book, it'll just blow your mind. But yeah, that one's uh the one of my absolute favorites. I haven't read it for years now. But that in 438 days, you listen to a guy drifting across the ocean for 438 days, you're like, there's nothing I'm doing that's that hard. Yeah. Wow. How how insignificant am I right now? Yeah, yeah. You realize like you feel like you're tough and you're like, man, I don't think I could have even made it like to I I wouldn't have got past day one of eating seal blubber. You know, I mean, and I feel like I'm pretty tough, but man, it's like I I think, yeah, there's there's a different level, especially in the Arctic explorers of years past and the 1800s and early 1900s, it is just astonishing if you read into those books.
GuySo no, I I I've always said if I if I had to settle, you know, with the West, um it wouldn't be settled. You know what I mean? I I'd still be wherever I landed, just boohooing myself and hoping some hoping somebody else comes along and sure. Yep. So uh Orange Mud is up there now. It's it's top three, if not number one. I'm sure it's number one. Um what surprised you most about the success of that of that story?
SPEAKER_06Well, the the first would be that when I designed the initial backpack, that was all I had. I I really I was like, you know, I I I wrote my trademark based upon multiple industries and bike and run and and pet products, but I I really didn't have any other ideas, you know, to be honest. And and it was something that I thought it would just be its own product. And and I I really didn't, I never would have thought that we would, you know, have the business we do today. And so a lot of that really came about through ambassador, our ambassador program is extremely essential in helping me to come up with other ideas because they're like, hey, I like this pack, but can you put pockets or I like that pack? Can you use two bottles or I like that pack, but I don't really like the look of it cosmetically. Can you make a bladder pack because that's what I prefer? And then we make bladder packs, and and then, you know, it just kind of everything kept growing from there. So, you know, the the success really ebbed and flowed as a result of customer feedback. Yep. And and yeah, it's it's been it's been a you know a really wild ride and and uh and it's fun to have a business that's a passion-based product that you know we we get to use. Like my son and I just got back from five days of mountain biking and Moab with a bunch of buddies of mine and and we wore our packs the whole time. And my and you know, then like my wife and daughter mixed up with us and we we went hiking and goofing off. Same thing, we wore our packs, and that's kind of cool to be able to, you know, go and take your adventures across the US and and be wearing your your own kit and and seeing other people wear it and races and whatnot. So so yeah, that part's been great, but as far as the surprises, I guess surprise it worked. I mean, I didn't know what I was doing. You know, bird drag to consumer is a absolute monster. It's for sure, it's ripe with never-ending challenges in today's crazy market and complaints and yeah, everything. And fortunately, we're actually pretty good on that side. We educate people quite well with our website and and post uh purchase emails, which really reduces any confusion with you know use cases and fit and whatnot, but it's more of like battling the Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos of the world that sucks every penny of your ad spend away and takes the the profit at the end of the day down to you know a couple expired pennies. Yeah, yeah. But it's fun.
GuyAnd then so 2019, make the move to Texas and then immediately launch Seven Clay, right? Tell us about Seven Clay and uh, you know, kind of the impetus or the you know the the origin story for that.
SPEAKER_06Sure. So yeah, so we I I designed this seat cover called the transition sea wrap. It's a changing towel seat cover in one for Orange Mud, and I'd outsourced the embroidery of it for years. So we have like stores and teams and clubs that we put their logos on it. And sure, and we were outsourcing six figures uh a year in in embroidery and screen print of that product. And and we had been for years. And we we had always everything we do is with attention to detail and with quality being the number one focal point. And with embroidery, when it's something you outsource, you lose that control. And we had vendors that we liked, they were good people, but we didn't understand, I never understood. I'm like, God, can't that logo look better? And and I fought with them all those years, and you just kind of I they always are just like Josh, you just don't understand. I'm like, okay, fine. Maybe I don't. And then when we moved to Texas, we not only had bad quality, but we had a hard time finding anybody to take our work. And again, I'm trying to outsource six figures of business a year. And and and it was like, it was like pulling teeth to get people to take our work, which I just found amazing. And I mean, I like to this day, Orange Mud is it if somebody came to me at Orange Mud Size in my seven clay business, I would be like, yes, I will fly to meet you somewhere. No brainer. I'm having a hard time getting some little mom Paul shops local to us to take our work. And I just couldn't believe it. And even my my screen print guy, he told me, he's like, Yeah, I talked to my wife into doing your work. I'm like, what are you talking about? I'm like, I outsourced an incredible amount. There's no talking into. I'm like, Jesus. You know, and it's crazy. And so, so yeah, so that was we moved here in June of 19, and then and then uh September of 19, I came home one day and I said, Hey, honey, I just spent $58,000 on an embroidery machine, and we're gonna put some people out of business because I wanted to hurt the local people. And I genuinely did. I I was mad that I had to start another business that was total BS. You know, here I'm trying to help some other business grow, and I can't hardly get people to call me back. So yeah, I'm gonna hurt you. And I did, and we we put some other people around us out of business, and I could care less. Yeah, and now Seven Clay is actually bigger than Orange Mud. But again, it's it's just the end of that industry, it is and has always been full of flaky shops. And it's there's plenty of good ones, of course. You know, I'm not to knock everybody, but there's a lot of flaky shops in the in that business. And so we we jumped into it to do our own business, and immediately Orange Mud became a back seat in our own business because all the other business started coming in and in the supporting good space from all the events I sponsored and whatnot, a lot of people like, hey, you got these embroidery machines, can you make patches? I'm like, I don't know, I think so. I guess we'll find out. But but we we by the by within 48 hours, we were better than anybody else we'd outsourced to. And so the very first logo that we did, our products we we branded uh Fleet Feet uh on our on the transition rap for over 185 stores. And so we've made this many times with multiple embroidery shops. And so I'd argued with them all. I'm like, man, it's just text. It's real easy, it's a big running store. I'm like, it's really easy, logo. And they were all like, you don't understand. We literally were doing a better job within 48 hours than anybody we'd ever outsourced to. And all I did to my digitizer is I said, Hey, can you make it more dense? And he's like, ooh, that runtime is gonna go from like an hour and a half to or a minute and a half to like two minutes and 40 seconds. And I'm like, well, it takes me five minutes to load the machine. So if it runs less than five minutes, it doesn't cost me any different. Maybe an extra nickel and thread. And I was like, it's fine. And that's what set the bar. And then I realized these other shops just didn't try. And that's the story for most businesses. As everybody knows, the bar for success is so low in business. And you know, no one expects to like you can call Orange Motor 7 Clay and you'll get a hold of a human. You can't even call most businesses, right? Yeah, and it's so simple that people thank us. You know, they're on Orange Motor 7 Clay. We get more thanks than anything else. And it's like, you realize you're thanking us for you paid us. Like, I mean, thank you for thanking of us. That's really nice. But I mean, you're the one that paid us. Like, thanks for paying us. You know, it's but ultimately it's because the bar is so low that it's really easy to be better than pretty much everybody else.
GuySo it's just sad, but you know, I mean, over delivering is is your you know, motto on everything you do. That clearly comes through in our chat here. Sure. So, you know, and and when everybody's a is a race to the bottom to make sure I have enough margin, quality, quality is always gonna suffer.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, and that is that is sadly what you know I think a lot of the American consumer does has become trained to do as a result of Amazon and Timu and Shine and all these other things. You know, it's cheap is cheap is cheap, right? And and that, and that is that is one of the cruxes of of what we do today. We see, you know, we see brands on the seven clay side or competition that you know will sell a hat for $10. And I'm like, that hat almost costs that. And then you have to embroider it. And I think, what's the agenda there? Is this just another Chinese-owned business that is maybe trying to kill off all American businesses? So I guess long term they get. I don't know. I I got nothing. I I there's things when I see some of the pricing, we're the first to say, hey, sorry, okay, you get a better price. Good luck. We keep our number up because you'll probably call us back when you get them and they look like crap if you get them. Um and that happens more than not. Um, so you know, we we've just like OrangeMow, we just stick to our guns with what we believe in, and and that's how it goes.
GuyYeah, speed, quality, and price, right? Yeah. Yep. So you're probably a serial entrepreneur. What so what's brewing? What's the future? What's the innovation from frustration that's brewing right now?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, you know, Moto has been a new thing for me. And I so I got a uh an adventure bike last year. It's a just a small little, it's Yamaha TW200. It's a little fat, slow bike, and it's awesome. It's just like right my style. It's like riding a golden retriever on a on a on dirt roads.
GuyThat's nice, and it's a nice way to put it.
SPEAKER_06It's just awesome. It is, man, it's awesome. So I absolutely love that. And and I I think that as a lot of us endurance nuts that have been kind of growing up in this culture all these years are looking for that next thing. I do see more and more people uh and I talk with more and more people that are talking about motos. So I do plan on, and I have it on my clipboard, one of the not very many tasks, uh, on there to uh to work on a moto pack for adventure biking. Yeah. Just to be able to carry your bare essentials for moto. And that's that's an area that I'm really excited to expand our product portfolio into. And I've thought about the pickleball side. I I don't know that it's I don't feel like I'd bring anything really genuinely super needed. It's different when you're stabilizing a pack, you know. But in pickleball, it's like show up at the court. You don't need a lot of gear. It's one of the beautiful parts about it, you know. But it doesn't, you don't have to have it real super stable for as you're going for a run carrying your pickleball paddles, you know. It's it, but when it comes to you know running and biking, it all comes down to stability. And otherwise you start to hate the gear you're carrying. And so that's definitely a big focal point. And and we'll continue the push of run and and uh we have some other new new stuff coming out this year. So we're we're excited about it.
GuyAwesome. How's everybody gonna get a hold of you? Get the packs, get the the embroidery, where where are they gonna go for all that?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, at orangemud.com. If you look us up on the web, we're uh 7 S-E-B-E-N-C-L A Y Clay is our embroidery screen print, custom apparel, sure to everything business. But uh, or if anybody's in Round Rock, Texas, come by our shop. We love to have people in. We have a really cool how it's made facility. You can come in and see all the different aspects of manufacturing and from the show and we make all kinds of crazy stuff in there.
GuyMan, that's uh any Round Rock donuts there at the shop?
SPEAKER_06We've had them there from time to time, yeah.
GuyYeah.
SPEAKER_06The older I get, I try not to eat them dang things, man. I try to try to stick with meat and veggies, and I still put on a billy, but you know, you gotta run the hundred miles to run one of those giant things off. And then you end up eating a bunch of them, and then it goes, it just goes right back on. So yeah, that's a problem.
GuyJosh, man, thanks so much for being on. Love having you. We could just talk for hours, it seems like, and I'll definitely make sure the family runs by this job and see what you got going on down there. Thanks for being on the Big Dink Energy Podcast. Love Debian. Thanks. Pick
Pick 6 ( 1 question and 6 answers)
Guysticks, that segment where we take one question, we each bring two answers to the table and immediately regret this. I hope you're playing along at home. Today's Pick Sticks is instant red flags. Anything. It could be anything in life, instant red flag could be boyfriend, girlfriend, doesn't matter. Things that for you are just instant red flags about somebody.
StephanieInstant red flag for me, if you film yourself helping homeless people and post about it. Oh red flag. Yes.
SPEAKER_04I I absolutely hate that. Yep, 100%. I agree with that. I would say for me in pickleball, when you introduce yourself by asking somebody what their skill level is instead of what their name is. Oh. Red flag.
GuyYeah.
SPEAKER_04I don't want to be near you.
GuyI want a little bit deeper on these. Uh someone that eats their pizza with a knife and fork. That's a red flag.
SPEAKER_04I like to eat my pizza with a knife and fork.
GuyRed flag paddle princesses.
StephanieSo I can dip it in my dippy dips.
GuyRed flag paddle princes.
StephanieOh, man. Mine would be people who treat customer service workers like they're beneath them.
SPEAKER_04100%. I cannot stand that.
StephanieI in this Happened 30 years ago, and I still remember it. I was shopping with a friend in high school, and she was trying on clothes and she left them all in the the room, and she was like, There's people that do that. And from oh no, I will still I still remember that this to this day. Ew. And if she's on Facebook, she ain't doing too well. Just saying. I'm just saying, I do not like that. I don't everybody is equal. Treat people how you want to be treated.
SPEAKER_04My next one would be when you start the sentence off with, Well, I'm an empath. I'm done.
GuyOh yeah.
SPEAKER_04I'm done.
GuyWell, I'm not, so I'll see you later.
SPEAKER_04I am definitely not. I'm done with this conversation.
GuyWell, I'm a realist. I'll see you later.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
GuyGet your snacks out of your bag. Another one for me that really tells me everything I need to know about somebody is clipping your fingernails in public.
StephanieOoh. Ooh, ew. Have you seen that? Yes. Who does that? Oh gross.
GuyI travel. I see it at the airport all the time. No way.
StephanieHave you ever seen anybody do their toenails? I see too. That's the other thing.
GuyI see too many exposed toes from males in an airport for my weekend. And the number I need to see is zero.
StephanieOh, red flags. That's for sure. Immediately, straight to jail.
GuyYeah. Straight to jail. You tell us what your red flags are out there in life. Get up in our socials over at bdpodcast.com. News you can use. Let me toss it over to you, Stephanie.
News You Can Use
StephanieSo I thought we would dive into one of the most fascinating mysteries in our sport. Okay. So the courts are absolutely packed. The paddle stacking or they're overflowing. But why are we not watching the pros? So look at these numbers. 24.3 million. That's how many people play pickleball in the United States. It's massive, obsessive community, right? Right. 7.5 million are the core players. So people like us, the people who play on the weekends, do drills and skills, they gotcha. Live and breathe this game. 7.5 million. 150 to 200. That's the elite. The touring pros on the PPA and the MLP circuits. 24.3 million play, and about 200 of them are touring pros. That means for every one pro out there, there are 120,000 of us grinding at like the local parks.
GuyWow.
StephanieBut here's where it gets really interesting. When the pro tour hit major networks, they can draw up to 800,000 casual viewers. Because people flip the channels and kind of watch for a little bit. But when you look at the hardcore streaming, like YouTube, where the true fans actually go, live peak matches usually average 15 to 40,000 viewers. So the data tells us still more than WMBA.
unknownTrue.
StephanieThe data tells us that less than 2% of total players and under 10% of core players actively follow the pro brackets.
GuyI know that I'm that's true for me.
StephanieIt it really leaves like an interesting question. Why is pickleball so uniquely addictive to play, but so tough to convert into a spectator sport?
GuyYeah.
StephanieWell, I don't know.
GuySo we went to the MLP when it was in Austin. Uh when it was, I think they're they do Austin. And it was fun to watch that level of play, the pro players, but I don't know that I'm making it a destination. Maybe I would, because there were opportunities where you could play on those courts. You know, we could have if we wanted to. There was downtime on those courts.
StephanieYeah, I think it's because the game is just fun and it's hard to sit still and just watch it.
GuyYeah. Well, I mean, people watch tennis, right? So do they uh yeah. If you look at Wimbledon, they are all the the stands are always packed, but that's that's the premier event, right? That's like one of the world series of the game. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_04Also, I think that pickleball, in a sense, with the pro leagues, is still semi-new. So people don't really know the players all that well. They haven't built that rapport. I mean, people who are Dallas Cowboy fans or Dallas Cowboy fans, they're gonna watch the game, they're gonna make it a point to watch the game. People still haven't gotten to that level of commitment yet with sports with pickleball yet.
StephanieSo I think it's because the magic of pickleball is in doing the sport. It is a lot more fun to play. So many people out there that are like, they're not gonna play football. They'll watch it, but they're not gonna play. But we all like to play, and so when we're watching it, I think we're like, ugh, we want to play. Like, I don't want to sit and watch it. I mean, I do watch it, y'all know I do watch it, but uh I just don't think the people out there, the core players, or even your your rec players, are that interested in it because they'd just rather be playing.
GuyOr maybe it's because it is so accessible to the masses, like when like you said, with the for whatever reason, people watch the Dallas Cowboys at the adult level, it's not accessible to that's very true.
StephanieThat's a good point, too.
GuyRight professional basketball, not a I mean, we can go to a pickup game at a court that's like pickleball, right? Uh, it's accessible there. So, you know, maybe we're getting more watchers on that, but yeah, I don't know. Yeah, and I guess accessibility.
StephanieAnd I another thing I was thinking, and I might be wrong, but like golf and and tennis or whatever is individual sport, and so is pickleball with the PPA. It's like the individuals and the team. So you're having to like a specific individual, you know. So if you don't know who those people are or you're not following them, then there's no reason for you to tune in. And then with the MLP, while it is teams, they've been trading so much and so last minute, like one you're part of Chicago Slice, the next minute you're over here, and you're talking week to week. So you can't really like a team without liking a player. But if you like the player, then you're gonna switch to liking the play where they go. So now you're constantly, you have none of those die hard team fans, like Patriot fans, right? Yes. So I think that that may be hard because there's no connection, you know, because it's like, oh, I love this team because I love these players. Oh, they got traded. Oh, let me go jump over there.
GuyYeah, but look at that though, because why don't we wear what is the Austin team? I can't remember, Rebels or something like that. Why don't I wear Austin Rebels gear? I mean that's my most Texas Ranch. Yeah, Texas Ranchers. Why don't I wear Ranchers gear? You know, they're they're my regional team. They would be who I would resonate in the within the MLP, which I definitely resonate with that more than the PPA. So why don't I wear their gear? You know, it doesn't matter the individual players if if you I'm into pickleball and I'm into pickleball teams and you know wear their gear.
SPEAKER_04But I, you know, I just don't because you're not a diehard yet.
GuyRight. I I don't think I will be. I don't think I will be. Yeah.
StephanieWell, we're not really sports watchers anyway. Let's let's get that clear. Like, we don't watch sports in general. I watch a lot of sports. But as far as I as far as I know, like I do watch pickleball tournaments uh just because most of the time it's fun to see it at such a high level, you know, and then when you go play, you're like, okay. Right. You know, so I do like to see that, but I don't know. I I just thought those were some great numbers. Like you're talking 27 million people. Right.
GuyWell, maybe that's the reason we haven't well uh there's a there's a several reasons, and we all know what they are, but I think that's also one reason we haven't broken into the Olympics yet. If it was widely accepted, widely watched, and widely adopted at the pro level, then it would definitely be an Olympic sport.
StephanieBut do you think it will going back to your widely accessible, like people like to watch gymnastics because it's not accessible, like people aren't doing that at the park at that level, right? You know, and tennis, people aren't doing that at the park at that level because ain't nobody at those tennis courts. You know, football, uh, luge, whatever, you know, whatever, you know what I'm talking about. Extreme biking and the skiing and the all of those things in the Olympics are not in your local park.
SPEAKER_04No, but I think that like again, those sports have been around for a very long time. And a lot of people grew up doing gymnastics, playing football, doing all of those different sports in their region, and so that's what they connect with. So you think it's gonna take a generational cycle? I think it may. So, like, our kids will want to watch pickleball. My kids won't because they think it's cringe that we play pickleball.
StephanieSo our kids play with us. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Mine are like, no, I don't want to play with you, mom. No, I don't want to play with you, mom.
StephanieIt's interesting. It's just an interesting fact that this sport has attracted so many people playing but not watching, which I would prefer. I'd rather people play than watch. So if we had to choose one or the other, I would rather everybody be playing. So, anyways, thought I'd say news you can use. There you go.
GuyTake it to the water cooler tomorrow and get looked at weird. That's it for this episode, unless you've got something to say. Think we got it wrong?
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