Sailing with Purpose: Healing Waters with Dog Smile Adventures

Join us for an exciting episode as we chat with Eric Nelson and John Totten from Dog Smile Adventures. Discover the intriguing journey of sailing in North Idaho, from training in jujitsu to launching a therapeutic sailing program. Learn how John’s passion for sailing turned into a mission to help others, providing therapeutic sailing experiences for under-resourced communities. Hear about the challenges and triumphs of bringing a derelict boat from Antigua to Idaho and the impactful stories of veterans and others finding healing on the water. Don’t miss this inspiring conversation!

Sponsor:

This podcast is brought to you by Your North Idaho Agent. We are a full-service real estate team serving all of North Idaho, comprised of former first responders and veterans with years of experience in all aspects of real estate purchase and sales. From bare land and new builds to condos, commercial properties, and resales, we’ve got your back to ensure a safe, smooth, and profitable transaction.

Be sure to subscribe to our real estate YouTube channel, The North Idaho Experience, and check out our website at YourNorthIdahoAgent.com. It’s an excellent resource to learn more about North Idaho. Whether you’re looking to move right now or 12 months from now, give us a call, text, or email.

We don’t just sell homes—we sell the North Idaho experience.

Dogsmile Adventures (00:00.078)
Well, we’re rolling. I like to sneak it in on you because sometimes I miss some good gems at the beginning. I missed that perfect gem that you all heard us laughing about, but I guess you’ll just have to wonder what we were talking about. All right. I’m pretty excited about this episode. I got one of my favorite human beings here on earth, Eric Nelson. Eric and I trained jujitsu together, so there will be some banter.

probably inappropriate, apologize for that in advance. And we’ll see what happens. And with us today, got John Totten from Dog Smile Adventures. That name is intriguing. And from that name, you have no idea what he does, do you? But we’re gonna find out. I wanna dig into that a little bit because it’s pretty fricking rad. So, man, thank you for joining us, you guys. We kind of made this, people came from all parts of North Idaho for this. Yeah.

You can’t be, do you live up in Palm? Like, I live in San Point. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. So thank you for coming down. I know you might’ve been down here anyway, but appreciate it. And, Eric just ran here from work and bought me a coffee. I owe you a coffee now, dude. I’ll get you back one of these times. It’s delicious. Is that the one with the cream? Cause I drink mine black. She’d be able to tell. Yeah. It looks like you drank about half of it already though. What did you do to this thing? Nothing. Should I be concerned? Definitely not.

If you wanted to take advantage of me, you do that you did do anyway, so yeah, I think I’ll probably be fine Eric I should mention why you’re here today not just for comedic relief, but Eric Eric as a side hustle has a business called Nelson family canvas and he does canvas work, but he’s nervous about getting too busy so Don’t call him, but he does really good canvas work. I’m just kidding. You can call him, right?

Yeah. Do you have a website? How do people find you? Mostly I’m on Instagram. So just Nelson family canvas at Instagram is mostly where I’m posting and Facebook as well. But I don’t have a website yet. Talking to the microphone. Sorry. So much better. That is. Yeah. How about if you can move it over that better? Mostly I do all my social media stuff on Instagram and Facebook and I’ve got a couple of jobs through there. Mostly word of mouth local stuff as well. That’s actually how John and I kind of hooked up actually.

Dogsmile Adventures (02:19.214)
was up in Bayview. So we wanted to talk mostly about sailing in North Idaho, right? Yeah, that is why we’re here. That’s where you just tell us a spoiler alert, dude. I didn’t get there yet. Sorry. Yeah. So I was taking care of boats up in Bayview, actually. My wife and I, when we moved here from Tucson, we had spent 10 years in the desert. And that’s about as far from a boat as you can get. Dude, suppressing sailing for 10 years while living in the desert. Is it one of those things that gets in your blood like hunting gets in people’s blood? Yeah, I mean, I was born in the right.

Yeah. There’s nothing like it really. So suppressing that for 10 years. When we moved up here, I saw the water like Lake Ponderay driving over the Coeur d ‘Alene bridge. You know, that’s where everybody comes up here and just falls in love with it. And I said to Kelly, I need a boat. And she said, we don’t need a boat. What you need is someone else’s boat that you can use whenever you want smart. And me kind of thinking that was a dumb idea. And being a bit of a smart ass to her, I put a big ad in in Craigslist said,

I’m looking for a boat, want to use it, we’ll do maintenance and care on the boat for use, maybe a little exchange of money. And mostly it was totally being snarky to her thinking this is, no one’s going to call. And I had like three people. So over the course of the last seven or eight years, I’ve taken care of other people’s boats, done maintenance work. And usually just about the time that I get it all fixed up and super nice, they sell it.

And so then I got to start over a strategy. It is. And I was like, you know, this kind of thing, a friend of mine actually made fun of me. She’s like, you should start a business. They use it till I lose it. Boatbroker. And she was spot on. Like, I learned a ton. And that’s actually where I met John was up in Bayview. Yeah. And then when I when the first boat sold, I was sort of so bummed out and I was like, I just can’t do that again. It was such an emotional commitment to that boat.

that I decided I was going to do canvas work. I’ve always wanted to do that. So I kind of went crazy to YouTube videos and bought a sale, right? you had no experience. No experience. I thought you’d been doing something you’ve been doing a long time. No, that was about five years ago now. Okay. And just started practicing on small jobs in my garage and have since upgraded my machine and really tried to make it go. You do nice stuff. I’ve seen actually full disclosure. All I’ve seen are your fanny packs that do you have one on? I do. I do. It’s my work one though. It’s a little.

Dogsmile Adventures (04:42.638)
It’s a little dirty. Do you want to show it off? Sure. But so John actually has one of mine too. He actually got one of the cool Kevlar ones. But yeah, so Kevlar sail material, not bulletproof material. Because I need my lower abdomen to be bulletproof. So I need that covered. Are you still making them? Are you selling those? I’m not really doing these anymore. I’m doing a couple for a couple of people here coming up in the custom jobs.

Once the canvas I got to slow it down a little I just bought a boat actually So I have my own boat now. Does John know that? Yeah, he’s seen it. It’s really nice boat But we’re gonna try to launch it this Friday. So I’m trying to slow down, but I’m grinding right now trying to get three jobs done Probably by the end of the week. It’s gonna be a lot of hours, but yeah, they’re turning out really well Fantastic. So you guys met in Bayview. That’s where you keep your boat or do you have more than one boat? I do. Yep the

flagship, the Dog Smile, is in Bayview. And then I have two more boats up in Sandpoint. So man, that’s a lot. So what’s the acronym for boat? It’s like, bring out another thousand. That’s it. So when you have three boats, bring out another 3 ,000. It’s great to feel the dreams of business model. How did you, well, you both had your stories on how you got into sailing. So like, how’d you get into sailing, John?

I got into sailing right here in Coeur d ‘Alene. Okay. Yeah. I, grew up in Wisconsin, moved to Idaho to go to college and got into the outdoor community, got into guiding and teaching in the outdoors and was into white water and the mountains and so on. And then, when I graduated, I got a job at North Idaho college in the outdoor pursuits program. So I, moved here and was running the waterfront rental program and so on.

and leading trips for the program and going to grad school. And when I got here, I got down to the beach and there were five sailboats sitting there and I’d never been sailing. And this was 2003. And I remember saying, well, okay, I guess I’ll learn. And they sent me to a two day class in Seattle. And the next week I was teaching collegiate sailing to our students and going for it. Lots of experience.

Dogsmile Adventures (07:07.79)
But it gripped me right away. And yeah, from this lake, it’s taken me all over the world on boats. But I learned right here on Lake Coeur d ‘Alene. That’s cool. You learned on the East Coast? Well, no. I grew up in Wisconsin. My dad had a boat since I was tiny. And it’s funny because my dad always did fixer uppers. Like when you go to a marina, right, there’s like all the really expensive boats in the front. There’s like the moderate boats in the middle and then in the way back.

are the derelicts. And that’s where my dad and I shopped. I think it’s where I started my rehab career is I love like just derelict boats that are so terrible. And I remember sitting with my dad looking in the back going, look how cool that boat would be if we could bring it back. You can see the potential. Yeah. Now I’ve since learned though, that that’s thousands and thousands of man hours in time by the rule of threes. But yeah, so I grew up in the Midwest, Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin. We’re both Wisconsin people. We’ll do that.

microphones. I’m special. I can face me and talk. It is more pleasurable. Yeah, I know. Looking at your face with your beard is attractive. So Winnebago, the lake of the land of stinky waters, I believe is the actual Indian name of that lake. Yeah, it’s terrible. 20 feet deep and it’s like 36 miles long. It’s just it’s a terrible, terrible weather lake. But I learned to sail there. And then when I was 17, I graduated high school and I went out to the state of Maine and I got a job working on traditional

sailing ships like gafferig schooner ships like cool stuff. So I did that for three summers and then moved back to Wisconsin, went to college in Maine actually. I lived there for 10 years, beautiful place. And met my wife Kelly in Wisconsin. We traveled all around, ended up in Tucson and then we came here. And now you’re just a dad. I’m a dad. I work in a rehab hospital. You work a lot? Yeah, I work a lot. Work in a rehab hospital as a PT, as a physical therapist.

I’m taking care of neuro patients. That’s not how you tell me what you do at jujitsu. The rehab world is mostly taking care of older folks, getting them moving after stroke or spinal cord or something like that. So professional of you. Yes. Good job. Yes. So that’s cool. Like, full disclosure, my dad built a sailboat when he was in high school. So he’s always been into sailing. And when I was in high school, we bought a, he bought a derelict.

Dogsmile Adventures (09:36.43)
Hobie cat and we took it out. We got this thing out on the Hudson river one time and like it immediately started taking on water and it was like, I mean, just sinking. So it was kind of, we got it back to shore, but it was like kind of a bummer, you know, cause we had this big dreams. Like you always wanted to get a hobby cat and we got one and it was a piece of crap. And yeah, that was that. That was about the end of my sailing experience. Been on a few small sailboats here and there, but until the summer.

Yeah, no, I’m like, I’m in. I totally want to do that. Like, it’s something really peaceful. I used to dream. I don’t know why I used to have this dream about like living on a sailboat, you know, a bigger boat. I’m sure you probably preaching to the choir right here. And it just looks peaceful. It’s quiet. It is nice. Yeah. So I get that. It’s good. Yeah. Yeah. Are you like full time on a boat? No, no. But you have been? Yeah. Yeah. I’ve been working on boats for.

pretty consistently since 2015. So nine years now of mainly sailing. It’s my primary job, so lots of boats. Pretty dang cool primary job. Are you around as well? Like, or? I used to be. Yeah. I worked as a charter captain in the Caribbean. Dude, you’re outta here. Down there most of the year on different boats. And now that I’m up here, I sail, you know, for…

four months straight in the summertime. And then I have been working in Mexico in the spring the last two years, which has been nice to go down there and get some salt water and work on bigger boats. So you went from a two day class to teaching college kids to now charter captain. Wow. That’s pretty wild. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a full time. Is this something like, did you ever like look when you’re a child, like, that’s what I want to do.

I was a kid, I wanted to be Marty Stalfer. I wanted to host Wild America. That was my, like, I wanted to be him. I remember that for the longest time. And yeah, I never quite made it to, this is probably as close to showbiz as I’m gonna get, but I am outside every day. That’s a good living, man. Yep.

Dogsmile Adventures (11:51.886)
That’s good stuff. So let’s dive into dog smile adventures. Where did this come from? One, I love the name, by the way. Everybody loves dog smile. Thank you. Yeah. Well, the name dog smile came to me when I was a boy. We had a dog on the farm named Pepper and Pepper would come up and smile and show our teeth. And I always thought that dog was going to bite me. And and I remember vividly dad going like holding me and being like, no, no.

He’s just really happy to see you. And ever since then, I started to make the face. So I would go around and show all my teeth. So if you do that, I know that you’re just happy to see me. OK, good enough. Like family pictures, everything. Like mom wasn’t a fan, because everyone would be like stoic in the church photo. And I’d be like, wait till the last second and just bust it out. And so people, yeah, it’s just been with me my whole life. And when we…

When we found the boat, so the dog smiled, the boat that’s in Bayview now, I found that boat in Antigua, abandoned. And in the back of the boatyard – What? He likes, Daryl likes too. Antigua. Yeah, it was rotten and forgotten, like black with mold. No one had touched it in years. And it was just gross, but we got it for a song. And the bones were good and it’s just work and money to make it run again. But it had three names at the time.

And there’s some taboo, there’s a lot of taboo in sailing, a lot of superstition, which I think is mostly baloney, but they’re renaming boats, you know, there’s a ritual and a thing. And this boat had three names, two different documents, big name on the side, none of them were the same. And so we felt safe to simply rename it Dog Smile at that point. And so that’s been with me a long time and that was way before the charity ever came into existence. So.

So let me back up a little bit. Antigua. Right. That’s not in Idaho, right? No. Okay. I didn’t think so. So how did you get this derelict bow? And how big is this thing? It’s 35 feet. You got a 35 foot bow from Antigua. Antigua. Antigua. Antigua. And I mean, it’s a J -105. So it’s really, it’s a racing boat, right? I mean, really it’s a racer cruiser, but way more racer. So imagine taking that thing, what, across the Gulf stream? Well,

Dogsmile Adventures (14:20.11)
Eventually, I mean when we found the boat, I was working in Grenada in the southern Caribbean for a sailing school called LTD sailing down there. And we wanted, what we realized was that we were teaching people to sail on big live aboard boats and they weren’t really getting it. They weren’t getting the fundamentals of sailing because big heavy boats don’t give you the feedback that smaller boats do. And so it’s harder to learn.

on those big heavy boats and so we were like we want something smaller that’s a little more responsive and we also wanted to compete wanted to race in the regattas down there as opposed to crewing with other people and so we started looking for boats and that’s where we found the J 105 which was the ideal boat for what we wanted to do and J boats are performance boats and 105 was a one of their better designs there’s a lot of J 105s all over the world and

We started looking and then yeah, that we found this boat listing in Antigua. And so we went up there to look at it. And I’ll never forget that day. That boat was just, like I say, black with mold. No one had touched it in four years. The only reason it came on the market was because the yard was foreclosing because no one had paid the yard bill. And so there was this whole thing going on. And we opened that boat up, I remember, and it smelled like a dead animal inside. Like it was like a dumpster. It was gross.

And we got off and I was like walking away. I’m like, no way. And my buddy, Chris, that was with me. He was like, well, let’s get the survey, you know, see what happens. And he had, he had optimism and I didn’t in that moment. It was not love at first sight. And, and so, yeah, the work, you know, we got the boat for less than half what they were asking and we put a lot of time and money into it. Before moving it. So you did it down there. We did a bunch of Antigua. Yeah. And then we brought it down to Grenada and we ran it.

in the sailing school for a couple years. I bought that boat in 2016. And then, yeah, we ran it down there for a few years. And then in the spring of 2020 is when this whole charade of dog smile adventures began. And the short version is in late 2019, I decided to make some big changes in my personal life. I…

Dogsmile Adventures (16:44.366)
was an alcoholic and an addict and I went to treatment and got sober. And at that point got out of the business. I was like, I don’t want to be a charter captain anymore. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do next, but I knew I wasn’t going to go back and do that work. And, but I had this boat in Grenada and I’d gone to treatment up here in the States. And so I was trying to figure out what to do. And so I ended up going down there and the mission when I left was to get the boat.

and I was going to sail it to Texas, to Galveston, Texas. We’re going to put it on a truck to Seattle where it was going to go into charter and then be sold. And so I was just going to get out of it. So that was the plan when I left. And that is not what happened. We got, I got down there, we took off, we left Grenada on the 15th of March, 2020. It was like right before the whole virus exploded. And we ended up in the Virgin Islands when,

everything was happening and we ended up sitting there for almost three months. You know, we won quarantine. I think we sat in St. John, which is a national park on a sailboat during lockdown. Hell yeah. It didn’t suck. But what happened during that time and early on, like in the first week or so, I called the folks in Seattle and was like, Hey, you know, I’m not going to get there.

I don’t know what’s going to happen. And I remember that gentleman on the other end of the phone saying, John, you need to make other plans. And he hung up on me. And I was like,

Okay. And I started to freak out. You know, I was three months over and didn’t have money, didn’t have a job. And no, I was still making payments on the boat. And I started to pace and my friend Jenny was on the boat with me and she, you know, the dog smile is 11 and a half feet wide. And she’s like, you’re just walking back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And she stopped me and she said, what would you do if you could do anything you wanted?

Dogsmile Adventures (18:45.358)
And I looked at her and I said, I would kick you in the head off the back of this boat. And she’s like, very stoic. She’s like, come on. We’re stuck here.

Just play along, like what are we gonna do? We can’t leave. And she pushed me and with no thought whatsoever, just the first words that came out of my mouth were I would give it away. I wish that this thing that we get to do, which is have all this fun sailing these awesome boats, I wish it was free. I wish we could give that to people who really need it. I wish we could give it to folks who are never gonna buy a trip. I wish we could do that.

And she looked at me and she’s like, why don’t we? Very matter of factly. And she pulled out a yellow pad and we went to work. I mean, from the boat in St. John, we launched the whole program. Isn’t it funny how sometimes getting that perspective from somebody else, it’s just like, duh. It’s not even a consideration for you at the time, but you just have that one person to push you, that one catalyst, and it’s just like, shit, here we go.

Yeah, totally. Yep. So this thing is 35 feet long. I did not realize it was that the beam 11 and a half. Look at me with my terminology. Impressive. That’s a big boat. It’s a it’s a boat here. I’m sure you’ve been on a lot bigger boat there. Yeah. Yeah. But when we you should have seen it when I mean when we you know, so we sat there in quarantine and then eventually as things opened up, we sailed up through the Bahamas and up to Florida with

boat and hauled it out in a little place called Indian Town, which is like central Florida near Lake Okeechobee. And when it comes out of the water, it gets bigger. And, and then hauling it down the highway. Because for, so for example, the keel, right? Right. It’s not removable, I’m guessing. So how long is that? And it has to sit up that high on the trailer, right? That boat draws just shy of seven feet.

Dogsmile Adventures (20:53.102)
Okay. Yeah. So it’s, it’s tall. How do you find a trailer? Yeah, it’s not a, not easy. We found through friends of friends of friends, on my, you know, one gig a day in St. John, I found, these three guys in Portland who had a J one five trailer when they’re, they’re not common because these are ocean racing, but you don’t haul them around. Right. and so these guys had a boat called free bowl of soup. And, I thought, man,

They must be in charity too. Like they must run like a soup kitchen. No chance. It’s their favorite line from Caddyshack. That’s the name of the boat. Right. I was like, they’re still my people. This is funny. You know, I called them from St. John. They had me on speaker. They were like, are you for real, dude? And I’m like, yeah, I’m sitting on the boat right now. I’m going to be there in a month and I’d like to take your trailer from Portland to South Florida.

pick up my boat, haul it to Idaho, and I’ll bring your trailer back. And I was like, I’m going to rent it. And they were like, no way. You’re not paying us. We got money on this to see if you even show up here and if you exist. These dudes were like, they were like, you’re so full of shit. They’re like, you’re not real. And I was like, there’s the sailor crowd. I was like, OK. And I did it. And so we, you know, I flew to Wisconsin, got my car, drove to Idaho.

drove that truck down to, I rented a, I had to rent a one ton dually with a gooseneck hitch and got that in Idaho Falls. That’s where I got the big truck, westbound to Portland. It’s a process, man. Showed up. Yeah. I got the trailer and then we went all the way across the country, loaded the boat and that’s where the 105 gets big. And you know, the fun part about once we were the crane operator, we’re like, we were lifting the boat.

yeah, you’re not back in that trailer. No chance. Okay. Yeah. This is like craning it. I had to hire a crane to lift the mast out and then lift the boat up and set it on the trailer. He looked at me and he was like, big girl to go down the highway. I was like, yep. He goes, you got all your wide load permits and everything worked out. Yeah. I was like, you know,

Dogsmile Adventures (23:08.302)
I was like looking into it and you know, and it’s a pain. It’s state by state. Every state’s different. Sometimes you have to have a pilot car. Sometimes you have to have lights, all these different signs. And it was like, I just shut the laptop. I was like, we’re just going to ride dirty across America and see how it goes. We’re only told you like the story. Like we’re, you know, it’s in it’s a

It is huge. I mean, okay. Like, as a former trooper, I can attest that highway lanes are 11 and a half feet wide from the center line of the of the of the center line. You know what I mean? That’s like the double yellow line in the middle to the white line. Right. You’re like, you’re over the double yellow. The law is eight and a half. Yeah. Yeah. So we’re three feet over, but I was like, there’s nobody on the road. It’s locked down. And I was like, the police are busy. yeah. They got.

They got other problems. They got there’s Black Lives Matter protests happening. Like there’s like they got a lot going on. This is your moment. We’re going to make our move and hammer down. Just, you know, westbound and down. You’re right. And I take off and, you know, it was I wish I would have had a drone when we drove through Atlanta. There was six lane interstate. No cars. It was like the twilight zone. Like insert tumbleweed like rolling across the road. Nobody except us in this brand new Ford like.

F 350 do like this beautiful truck that I rented and this huge sailboat behind me. Holland like we just rolled all the way from yeah from like I say from from central Florida to Bayview. I got pulled over. I got to tell them because I was like all that way. Right. I drove I stayed the night at my buddy’s place in Post Falls. And we were we were launching with the crane with Gary at McDonald’s in Bayview.

the next morning. And I think Gary, I don’t think he believed me. I existed. I was real until I drove down the driveway with that boat. I believe it. I believe it. A lot of people were like, this guy’s not for real. There’s no way. And so I get there. I leave my buddy’s place in Post Falls and I I’m like game on still hustling. And I drove right past the invasive species inspection. the one that got you right. And I sure enough, the invasive species guys. County.

Dogsmile Adventures (25:27.662)
County Sheriff comes out and I have a great photo like in the, in the looking in the mirror of the lights. And I was like, almost made it boys. I’m in post falls. I’ve driven 10 ,000 miles at this point. And I get, I get pulled if I’m like, if this goes down right here and the guy, of course it didn’t. He was so nice. He’s like, Hey, you missed the station. Can you swing back? And I was like, you got it officer. Just don’t look up at how way big this boat is like way too big. He didn’t.

And so I swung back through and the lady was classic. She’s like looking up at it. And I was like, she’s like last body of water. I said the Atlantic ocean. And she’s like, it was like, nobody’s ever said that to you. And she laughed and she’s like, kind of looked and I was like, well, I’ll tell you, there’s no zebra mussels in saltwater. You can take my word for it, or you can climb up there and look, you know, she’s like, do you have a ladder? I was like, no, it’s like, and it was too tall for her ladder.

her little ladder that’s used to like looking in kayaks and stuff. And she just signed the thing. She’s like, good luck, you know? And off to Bayview I went, I was like, yes. Was there any concern about highway overpasses? Like, were you that tall? I was at the height. No, that thing on the trailer was like 12 feet tall. It wasn’t that tall. It was the width. It was the width that was the dodgy. yeah. And the mast was on the deck? Nope, the mast ran alongside the trailer. I can show you a photo of it on the trailer sometime. But can you send me a photo of that? I want to post it. yeah, for sure.

And we halt. So yeah, we dropped in and baby you. And then I drove the trailer back to Portland and then I took the truck back to Idaho falls and dude, I don’t even like going to the store at night to get a loaf of freaking bread. And you, and you did all of this. Yeah. Yeah. During lockdown, I traveled 24 ,600 miles, I think was the total journey by land, air and sea. While most of my friends didn’t leave their house during, during lockdown, all to give away sailing in Idaho.

Yeah, for this trip, right? There was no guarantee at the other end of that, right? It was just like, I’m going to get this boat there. That’s step one. The money was just going down. Yeah. Wow. Freaking rad. I can’t wait to see this boat. First of all, I’m really excited about this now because now I have like a mental image of it. I’m like, I got to see this. And as a trooper, I’m like, man, if I saw that thing going on around, like, what is going on here? What did these guys, did I tell you the story about how the,

Dogsmile Adventures (27:51.854)
the invasive species people saved me on my trip back from Reno with the boat. yeah, you had this is a great story. So I go down to Reno to pick up my boat from this guy, Randy, who’s just the nicest man in the world. Right. And I look at the bearings and I take the caps off and it’s like, I mean, they look OK, but he assured me it was fine. But again, I’m just so panicky thinking I’m coming back through the desert. There’s no cell coverage. I have nothing like if this trailer goes, I’m in big trouble.

So I’m coming down out of the mountains and as I’m entering into the state of Idaho, right? I come up and there is the invasive species people on the side of the road. And I thought this thing’s been in the desert for three years. Like, I just want to get home. I’ve been on the road all day. I’m like so stressed. My butthole pucker was just like the whole time freaking out. And so I’m like, I got to pull in because they’re going to light me up if I just drive past this boat. So I pull into the driveway, right? And these two nice guys come out.

I get out and walk around and one of the bearing buddies from the trailer that I had put on the day before and pumped full of grease had come off coming down the mountains. So I dropped, I walk around the bearing buddies gone. All the grease is like sprayed just everywhere over the side of the trailer. And I thought if I hadn’t stopped for those people, I would have been in the middle of nowhere and that trailer would have come apart. And so I’m like, I’m looking at these guys going, thanks so much for having me stop. And I’m like,

What am I going to do? Like, I don’t have any. I don’t have a Jack. I don’t have grease. I don’t have anything. And I pull out my phone and there was cell coverage right there at the station. And there was a Napa like two miles away. And so I like drove into the Napa, bought new bearing buddies, bought a whole new grease gun and the whole thing. And I thought those guys saved my butt, making me stop. I’ll never complain about the dude. Those guys. This is a world I didn’t even know. I didn’t even know. I’ve told a few trailers of my time. I’ve never even.

considered that the truth is the trailer had a great the whole way home, but still like the stress of having something that heavy behind. yeah. You know, like sailboats are not meant, especially a J one five is not meant to travel. Yeah. Is that a true state? Yeah. Were you, were you like, I mean, were you puckered up the whole way back or were you just like, you’re just chilling? You’re pretty even killed dude. No dual. Okay. I, I grew up.

Dogsmile Adventures (30:16.494)
on the farm for operating large equipment way before I had a driver’s license. And so I have a pretty high tolerance for large things and towing down the road. And so I wasn’t really that worried about it. And we had like, you know, this Excalibur truck that we were driving, which was really helped. And the boat being, it’s big, but it’s not heavy. Not for, you know, one ton pickup. Like it was never stressed the rig at all. And again, and there’s,

No traffic. I mean, none. It must have been eerie almost. It was weird at times. Like they’re like literally no, you know, the big rigs are out there, but other than that, like that’s it. Like, you know, there weren’t, there weren’t, there wasn’t much traffic. And so it wasn’t, it wasn’t that big a deal. It was just like, you know, I had two good friends, buddy Brian Shirley went down, went down with me, empty. And then my buddy Brian Fretwell came back with me. And so I had a, had a wing man.

That helps too, having a buddy. I remember we were still working on launching the nonprofit, getting the GoFundMe ready. We were working on branding with my friend Katie Linder here in town, here in Coeur d ‘Alene. I was working on this at the time. We were doing that while I was hauling the boat to get here in time to try to start a charity.

What a wild dream, dude. Did you back the trailer down to Gary’s?

No, I pulled in because the trailer was on the, what I guess would be the East side. There the crane was on that side. So it was easy. okay. Pulled down and just back straight to him. That was no big deal. And that thing, like I say, with the, with the Goosenecks, it was cake. It’s easy to back up. It’s just, you can’t, it’s hard to see because where it’s 11 feet wide is also 10 feet in the air. That’s the wide part. The wheel base isn’t like it’s the big part is way above your head.

Dogsmile Adventures (32:18.126)
And so it’s, we had the mirrors all tweaked so we could see it, you know, and make sure we weren’t scuffing the sides. Well, and the funny part too is like, if you know anything about up in Bayview at North, in North Idaho in general, right? So on Lake Coeur d ‘Alene, what there’s, hey, get on up in Bayview, there’s Hope, I think, and then there’s Gary’s place. So at McDonald’s Marina, there’s very limited access to put boats that.

big in the water right so I think Gary’s limited in tonnage of his crane so you almost had did you have to hire a crane to come or you used his crane yep he picked me up and dropped me in our biggest issue is depth like he just has to swing me out far enough that we didn’t hit just like strapper on the whole boat because there’s no lift points I’m guessing yeah yeah big straps and and just left it up I imagine that was a pretty good feeling seeing it in the water there and being like all right

Yeah, I remember like the first day I went sailing and you know by the time we got the rig in and everything going the first time we put it together and sailed it on Lake Pend Oreille I was like…

I can’t believe this actually pulled it off. It was the wildest adventure of my life by a long way and long too. And it was just like, and right from the beginning, you’ll hear this theme for me. It’s like, the universe wants this to happen. I tell this to people all the time. I’m like, this doesn’t make sense. When I tell you that people look at me like, why? Like what? What?

They’re just like in total disbelief when I share what happened and, and then how it’s continued, you know, and, I’m like, no, there’s a, there’s a power bigger than me that is behind this, or there’s just no way that one could execute such a ridiculous mission. Right. Right. I mean, you clearly had a strong conviction in what you’re doing. Otherwise you wouldn’t have completed that. Right. Like I did. Yeah. But I think.

Dogsmile Adventures (34:22.734)
But it’s a miracle, right? That have accomplished. Yeah. Like, could you have done that if it wasn’t a lockdown? Could you have done it if all of these little factors had to fall into place at the exact right moment? The variables that have lined up are beyond planning. You could never pick a time. Like, I’m just going to dial up a pandemic. Right. Right. And then all these other things, right? It’s just, no, that’s it. That is an epic journey, dude. Yeah, it was pretty rad.

Okay, so you get this vote on the lake Now what how do you how did you get this going? What like all of it? What’s the goal? So the you know, so the mission is therapeutic sailing that’s the words that kept coming in like that’s what this is and you know and It’s that simple. So I want to take people sailing if something’s therapeutic. It makes you feel better, right? And so I said I want to take people sailing with a therapeutic intention all the folks that I’ve taken, you know, I

anywhere in the great outdoors, whether I’m working in the mountains or rivers or on sailboats, it’s always been either with a vacation intention, like an escape, or an education, like a training intention. And yet, again and again, healing would happen. But healing was always a byproduct. It was always icing when it happened. And I was like, well, what if we went out there and healing was the point?

is I believe there’s a lot of power and intention. And so that’s the root of it. I said, we’re gonna take people sailing with a healing intention. And with that, we’re gonna target under -resourced populations. Most therapeutic recreation programs focus on a specific population. We serve veterans or we serve children with cancer or whatever. And I resist that in my heart because I don’t believe that I wanna just help one group. I think that…

almost anyone, unless they’re deathly afraid of the water, is going to feel better after we take them sailing. And so why limit ourselves to one population? Let’s just take anyone. But what we did specialize in, we’re just going to do sailing. So we don’t do any other activities. We just do sailing, but we’ll do it with anybody that thinks it’ll help them feel better. And so that’s the root of it. So that’s the mission is to do sailing with a healing intention. And then logistically, it was.

Dogsmile Adventures (36:47.118)
another thing that was brought on by circumstance. So during COVID, there was the COVID relief fund from the government, which allowed me to liquidate all my funds. So I had a retirement plan from my years working at North Idaho College. I was able to pull all that money out without the early withdrawal penalty, which is like 30%. If you try to get to your retirement money early, they just nail you, right? That went away. So I grabbed, it wasn’t very much, but it was all my money.

that I had, every dime I had to pull this off. So that’s how I paid for the whole excursion across the country. Got all that done using that money that I withdrew. And then we got into the fall of 2020. We got a website up. We got our 501C3, which was another gift from a peer organization in Park City, Utah. Shout out to Park City Sailing.

They emailed me their 501c3 application and 501c3 is the designation from the IRS that allows you to be a charitable organization and therefore not have to pay income tax and also allow you to give a tax write -off to anyone who donates to you. So the 501c3 designation is the key to the castle for a nonprofit. You have to have it. But the application’s quite extensive and intimidating. The folks at Park City were like, here, take ours.

They paid a lawyer $5 ,700 to do that. I changed the name and the address and I mailed it to the IRS myself and I got it. I got it approved. It was kick ass. It was written well and I was like, I’m just doing what they’re doing in a different place. Why would I rewrite this? And so it’s been little things like that along the way that again, just they helped me believe when things aren’t so easy. It’s like, look, look at all these, these things that have come, come my way seemingly by luck. Right. So I, you know, we got that in, we did, and then we did a go fund me.

to get it off the ground. So we did a GoFundMe fundraiser in the fall of 2020 and made $33 ,000, I think, which was amazing, mostly through my friends and family. And that following spring, we took our first people out sailing for free. And I’ll never forget it. And no matter how long this lasts, however many people we get to take out, which is now we’ve

Dogsmile Adventures (39:07.598)
done almost 2000 experiences now. You know, almost 8 ,000 hours of therapeutic sailing in three seasons. And that first one, I was like, we did it. We gave it away. It was a family from here in Coeur d ‘Alene, three daughters on the autism spectrum, never been on a sailboat. And they came out and they went sailing for free and they all felt a little better. And…

And I was like, worth it. The whole excursion, all the money, all of that, like that first time we did it, I was like, there it is, boom. And every time since has just been a bonus. So, I mean, I’m guessing was sailing very therapeutic for you coming from an addiction background, like getting through that process, which is not easy, right? Yeah. I mean, the reality is that, you know,

still the vast majority of my selling was Dunwick in the throes of addiction. But what I can say is that the thing that I needed and one of my many advantages in sobriety is purpose. I had something to do that I believed in with all my heart and I still do and I still believe when I work with addicts now, I tell them like,

Let’s find something you care about, because that’s going to help you choose that instead of the other. It’s really important for some people, it’s families. For others, it can depend. But it’s purpose that held me through all the challenges with sobriety. That’s my rock, is that if I relapse, if I go back to the life that I was living,

this beautiful thing that I’ve created out of nothing will end. And the thought of that family and those girls not getting to go sailing for free this summer because I chose to go to the bar. I just no way I can’t even it makes me sick. I like I like gagging right now. Yeah, not not an option. And so I don’t. That’s friggin beautiful, dude. So.

Dogsmile Adventures (41:31.502)
How do people find you or how do you find people to take out? Yeah, so we’re online dogsmileadventures .org Websites there explains kind of how everything works. We’re also on social media at dogsmileadventures You can tune into the stories and get in touch and tell people there’s really like there’s really two sides to the house with it with the business There’s our community partnerships community programs and then we do day sailing

So with the day sailing, you can buy a trip. So you, for example, could purchase a sailing lesson, or you can purchase a day sail, a sunset sail, a half day trip out on the lake for you and your friends or family. And I tell people when you buy a trip from us, you’re buying two. One for you and one for me to give away. And so that’s the commercial side of the business. It gives us a revenue stream to help us pay because the community programs that I run,

are almost all free to the participants. So and with that what I do is I partner with community organizations who serve certain populations. So for example one of my like flagship collaboration is with specialized needs recreation here in Coeur d ‘Alene. So their mission is to provide recreational opportunities to families in our area with members who have special needs. I reached out to them and said hey do you want to add sailing to all this other.

stuff that you do for these people and they were like, yeah. Lindsay, the executive director is a rock star. She’s like, how do we do this? And so we started, you know, first the staff came up and we scout the scene, make sure it’s safe, make sure it’s gonna work. And then we started bringing people up and that’s the model. And that’s the model that I was given from Park City Sailing. They said, it’s gonna be hard for you to organize individuals. The.

The way to do this is to partner with organizations who serve these people. So partner with a veteran organization, partner with a special needs organizations, partner with schools, partner with addiction recovery, domestic refuge, foster homes, women shelters, all these places that serve these people who could use a little bit of sailing in their life. So that’s what I do. So I partner with these different groups and then we make it happen for their folks. Do you have a veteran organization that you partner up with?

Dogsmile Adventures (43:53.262)
with your reno? I do. Yeah, my I have a great relationship with the Spokane Veterans Forum. So if a veteran is convicted of a nonviolent crime in Spokane County, they have an opportunity to go through a year long program. And if they complete that program, their record is cleared, which is super progressive and awesome. Because as a lot of us know, like a five hundred dollar fine and a night in jail can change your life. It can. Like it can. It can wreck you. It can wreck you.

And it seems small from the outside looking in. But if you’re living it, like that could be the difference. I didn’t make it to work that day. Now I don’t have a job down off the cliff you go. And so I got involved with that program through a Marine Corps friend of mine who was like, hey, come and teach. They were looking for someone to come in and share a sobriety story. When I got there, I was like, so I’ll tell you all about that. Also, you guys want to go sailing? Hell yeah. And.

And so I’m super proud that we’ve gotten veterans from that group to come up to Bayview and go sailing. And this summer we’re gonna do our first veteran regatta up in Sandpoint. And we’re actually signing people up, I think it’s probably full by now, but we’re signing up veterans right now. We’re gonna have 16 vets, they’re gonna bus them up from Spokane, and we’re gonna go sailing for a whole day up in Sandpoint. So yeah, so that partnership has been huge.

But I’m always looking because that has been the path. And if you go to the website, we’ve probably got 25 community partners now. Some of these programs come once a year. Others come once a week. And it’s been just fantastic because I can lean on those people because they are experts in that population. They know how to work with children with special needs, or they know how to work with young adults in recovery or whoever it is. So I can lean on them for the specifics.

And then my area of expertise, which is taking people sailing, we work together and we tune the instrument for that group. So some of it is more like discover sailing, like come out and try it, just get a feel for it. Some of it is more educational in nature, like with the Lake Pondery Alternative High School, those kids are gonna learn to sail, right? That’s what we’re doing. And then others, we race, we compete in all the sailboat races happening. We race four days a week all summer, and I do that with veterans and young adults, because they respond.

Dogsmile Adventures (46:13.646)
best to competition. Especially the vets, like, yeah, I get a group of vets on Thursday, none of them have been sailing, right. And we got from Vietnam era to young men and women who have just returned. We got this whole mix of veterans out there. Nobody’s been sailing before. They don’t care. They want to win. And like, you know, it’s like, and I’m like, sweet. And we get out there and they, you know, the veterans respond really well because teamwork is built in.

camaraderie is built in. Like when it’s my turn to do my job, I execute, right? And they, so they just sponge it up. And we, it like, it works so well. And I had a, there’s a Marine Corps veteran who’s been with me from day one, Brian Hillen, who said it best. He said, it’s the task and purpose without the trauma. He said that to me. And I was like, testimonial.

Like that’s, you need to put that on a t -shirt, bro. That’s he said, he said that he’s just like, it came out. That’s a good line. And so, and so yeah, with each group, we, we tune, we tune it to them and we, figure it out. And that’s what keeps it exciting and interesting for me is that I go sailing every day all summer and it doesn’t get old because each day is so different. I’m on the same boat in the same place possibly, but like yesterday’s group is nothing like today’s group.

And so we’ve got to figure out how are we going to keep it safe? Are we going to be effective in what we’re doing? And that’s what I love about it. And yeah, we make that happen. So that’s the primary ways to get involved. We also, we have a great group of volunteers. So, you know, anybody listening to this, if this sounds like something you want to get involved with, you don’t have to be a sailor. There’s a lot of ways to help. I’ve never run a business in my life, let alone a charity. And so I’m.

I need a lot of help and it still blows my mind that we’re still in business four years later. I can’t believe it considering how it’s all gone. But there’s great ways to get involved through volunteering. And then we also work with local, it’s just individuals and businesses for sponsorship. This doesn’t happen for free. The boats are expensive and the crew. And so we’re always looking for folks that are interested to support us financially as well. And again, all that paths to us through the.

Dogsmile Adventures (48:30.126)
Yeah, okay, cool. We’ll definitely link that in the description so people can find you there. This is so fascinating to me and I love hearing stories about this where people are selflessly helping, you know, these underserved groups. It’s super important to me, you know, coming from a law enforcement background and some of my partners are veterans and, you know, a lot of our clients are veterans and first responders and like there’s always trauma, right? Anybody that comes out of those fields, there’s trauma and there’s a lot of PTSD and I think that…

That is a huge, that is a good way to deal with it. Right. A lot of people cope, you know, drugs, alcohol, all of that stuff, but that’s not really, you’re not healing, right? You’re just masking. Right. So to find an outlet like that is phenomenal. I mean, we could talk about like, what is it about sailing that is, is so therapeutic? Right. I mean, it’s not different than the jujitsu mindset, which is just that whole mindfulness piece, right? If you go look at all the research on mindfulness, right? Just being present in the moment when you’re on a sailboat, like,

Dude, you’re unhooked from the electronics. You’re unhooked from the world. Like you are present in the moment. You are dealing with the weather. You’re dealing with what is the boat doing? I have to be so present to feel what is going on. I can feel that little wind shift. I can see what’s happening. Like you just have to be so present. And then the whole teamwork aspect, right? Being able to operate with other people. If you have social issues, you better figure it out because you’re in a small space, right? Like you’ve got to work with one another. Like.

I can totally see the therapeutic nature of it. It’s one of the reasons I love it so much. I often explain it in the same terms. Like if you’re going to sail the boat well, you can’t be anywhere else. And most of my suffering occurs in the future or past. It’s not the moment. Right. You know, and I’m very fortunate that way in my life. But the reality is, is that for a lot of us, like we suffer in our minds and…

That goes away when you’re held in the moment by an activity as dynamic as sailing and engages your body and mind. And so it’s pretty hard to be anywhere else. And I’ve had people get off the boat over and over and be like, God, I just feel relief. You know, like she was lifted and like, yeah, well you, you got out of your head for an hour. And, and you know, in order to do that in while walking the earth takes a lot of work, takes a lot of practice and meditation and.

Dogsmile Adventures (50:52.334)
mindfulness and so on and a lot of folks aren’t there. They haven’t had the opportunity or done the work, right? So the sailboat can get them there. The sailboat will do it. And I tell people, like, I’m not a therapist. I run a therapeutic sailing program. The boat and the water do the work.

Like we know you don’t get on the boat and I start asking you like, tell me about your childhood. Like, I don’t, that’s not what’s happening. Yeah. When we get out there. which most are probably relieved by that, right? Like, let’s not mash that out again. And there’s a lot of these populations of veterans specifically who don’t, necessarily respond great to traditional modes of therapy. Like there’s a lot of stigma. There’s a lot of things that can be barriers to them engaging with that and say, well, let’s try this.

I’m not going to ask you any questions all day that don’t pertain directly to the sailing of the boat. And you wait and you see what happens out there over and over again. It’s just, it breaks people open. People share things on the boats that I’m often don’t feel I’m qualified to entertain, but, but like it’s, that’s how it goes. And then everybody there is supporting each other. The groups, you know, the folks that are out there helping each other out while we’re sailing the boat, it just.

It cultivates this very wholesome community feel while you’re out there. And so, you know, you’re not alone. Everybody’s here. We’re all doing this thing, this collective mission of sailing this boat together. Super healthy. Really, really helps people. How many people can you take out on one time at one time? On the on the dog smile, I’ll take six. Not including me. And and now we’ve acquired two more boats since.

that are up in Bayview and they’re a little smaller and so I’ll take four participants. Okay. On those boats. Do you sometimes have all of the boats out at one time with other people? yeah. Yep. Yep. I’ve got four different skippers that work with me now. Okay. So we’re running multiple boats at a time. Yeah. And those are all licensed captains, right? Like they got to have a six pack. Yeah. Licensed captain. If it’s a commercial endeavor, the captain has to have a license. Yep. Yep. Dude.

Dogsmile Adventures (53:06.254)
This is so cool. We were kind of talking before the show about like trying to get into the first responder community. And I think North Idaho in particular, and I say this all the time, like there are 22 ,000 veterans up here. I don’t know the number of first responders, but it’s probably similar, maybe even bigger because a lot of guys retire, guys and gals retire up here. There’s a lot that work up here too. And yeah, like I…

I would love to help connect some of those people to that world because, you know, people find the thing, like everybody has a different thing that’s therapeutic to them. But if you don’t go out and try things, you won’t ever find it. Right. Like for us, it might be jujitsu you have sailing to like. And but that doesn’t work for everybody. Some guys come and try jujitsu and it’s like, that’s not for me. I don’t like dude sweating on me. I get it.

Or the injury side right where the injury side sailing tends to be yeah, there’s no right people that have injuries and whatnot and some guys It’s hunting and that’s cool like everybody, you know You got to find your thing and but it involves having to go out there and try all these things and like it’s nice that you’re giving people the Opportunity to do that. Yeah with a low threshold of entry, right? It’s it’s pretty easy to get in there totally Part of the reason why I pick, you know sailing for this is that it’s a pretty easy point of entry Yeah

Again a lot of therapeutic recreation programs are gonna require a higher level of physical ability than sailing like if we can get you down the dock and on the boat you can do it. Yeah, which you could probably take somebody in a wheelchair. yeah, we had our first wheelchair user last year. It’s like a mega celebration like that happened. We have amputees, elderly, like we have folks with all manner of physical challenge and like well get creative.

And we figure it out. And if we can get you down there on the boat and we feel safe about it, we’ll do it. And it’s awesome because, you know, I have a, there’s a Vietnam veteran who comes down with us often up in, up in Sandpoint. And he’s like, yeah, I don’t have, I, his body’s so banged up. He’s like, I can’t hike a trail anymore. I certainly can’t ride a bike. I’m not going to go snowboarding like the, but he can get down there. He can get on the boat, takes three of us to get him on. And we plug him in the corner and he’s trimming.

Dogsmile Adventures (55:19.15)
He is on the team. He is contributing every bit as much. And it’s like incredible, like to be out in nature and move in and doing this and having fun. And he’s like, yeah, this is like the only thing I can really do outside that’s like physical and moving because his body’s so banged out. It is probably the highlight of his life. It’s a big deal. It’s fun. Yeah. Yeah. We love having him too. He’s like the old Nam Vat takes no shit.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’re right. The young guys are moaning and he’s just like…

They’ve learned to stuff a lot of shit their whole life. yeah, tough dude. To me, he’s such a legend. I do with a couple other people, we put on a weekly event in Coeur d ‘Alene called the Patriot Pour and it’s for veterans and first responders. And like, man, I feel like maybe having you come down one of these times just to meet the introduction, because we have the gamut, right? We have the Vietnam vets. We have Vietnam vets that were cops for 30 years. And it’s like, that’s just trauma on top of trauma, right?

Those dudes are beat up physically. So, and then we have younger vets and then we have cops like some working, some retired and you know, just having that as an option and making that introduction I think would be huge for them. Yeah, okay. I’ll keep you posted on that. We’ll get you down there just to say hi, make the introduction and maybe, you know, get a few of those guys out there because that could be the thing they need. It’s so important, you know, I get guys that are like retired cops. They’ve been with their cops 30 years. They want to move here. They call them.

talk to them and they’re like, I want to want five acres in the middle of nowhere and all I want to talk to a human being again in my life. I’m like, it feels like that now, but you really need that community. Like that’s how you can go hide in the woods for the rest of your life, but you’re not going to feel whole. You’re going to, you’re going to be feeling like shit in a dark place. Well, and the other part too, for those folks too, is I take care of them later on when the health starts failing and they don’t have anyone. They’re like alone. And so that idea of like,

Dogsmile Adventures (57:22.414)
connecting with people is really, really important, especially when they’re still mobile, right? Like you can really take care of those folks. That’s like the biggest draw to North Idaho for me. And I’ve lived in eight states and like, I’ve never experienced that anywhere else where like there are so many communities here and not everybody’s the same, right? There’s lots of little communities, whatever you’re into, you can find it and just connect with people in that world. And it’s so freaking good for your soul. So good. And the sailing crowd’s pretty great.

Like, sailing’s a fringe activity here, you know? It’s not mainstream, it’s a small group, but it’s like the island of misfit toys. What a bunch of wing nuts. It’s fantastic. I love how, right? Everybody’s different, but we have this common thread, which is trying to make a boat move with the wind. And I’ve found these folks that are, if they’re struggling to find community, and loneliness is the precursor to a whole bunch of problems, right? And –

And you come down here and I’m saying, well, yeah, maybe you’ll become a sailor. Maybe you’ll take this further. That’s great. But what I can guarantee is you’re going to make some friends. You’re going to have a group of people where you feel like you belong to that group. And that right there is one of the greatest things you can do for your mental and physical health period is having people. You’re, you’re a part of something. And we get that with the sailing community here in North Idaho. And it’s awesome.

It’s so fun. Yeah, I mean suicide is so prevalent in in those groups and I think it’s because of that you come up here to yeah. yeah, right because you know It don’t hurt. They don’t have purpose. They don’t have that community that can support them So to find that and tap into it man, that’s like literally saving lives. Yeah, 100 % and that’s huge Dude, what’s next? Have you thought that far ahead or you just still living in the moment and carrying on? What’s next? I would say, you know

There’s been a big transition in my heart in the last, I would say, three to four months in that most nonprofits fail between years three and five. We’re in season four, and I get it. And the startup energy is over. That’s gone. Now it’s like, are you going to make it or not? And we’re not established enough to, we haven’t, staff isn’t big enough to bring in.

Dogsmile Adventures (59:46.126)
more money to become more stable and so we’re in this like kind of grindy phase and but this spring there’s you know there’s just there’s been a change we’re more financially solvent than we’ve ever been we’re learning how to fundraise we’re learning how to write grants we’re learning how to run a business and but I just I launched the boat I didn’t launch but we rigged the dog smile like two three weeks ago I took the boat out by myself and I sat

in Bayview just looking at Lake Ponterey and I had this overwhelming feeling of arrival.

And it took me a while to kind of like, I feel like I just got here. In a place I have sailed more than anyone I know, I’m in that bay every day. But then this like, it felt different. And so there’s a momentum shift, there’s a mindset shift that’s happening right now. Programs are now calling me, instead of me soliciting them, we’re adding that capacity. Like we will sail 150 days this summer. And.

And unfortunately, we’ll have to say no to folks like we’re going to be full and compared to three years ago when I’m just like trying to find somebody who would let me try this out on, you know, because I really did you cry when the phone rang? Right. A lot of tears still are. But and so what that feeling allowed me to do is like for the first time in a while is kind of look further. You know, and I would say that the next thing on my list is.

I would love to take our young adults and veterans to the coast. I’d love to start coastal sailing. That’s a big part of it for me. So I’d love to take us, take groups here like, and have a B merit base, like earn your way in, do some volunteer work, do, you’ll serve the organization and I will reward you with a trip to the next level. And from there, we can cross oceans. Like there’s no, the.

Dogsmile Adventures (01:01:49.71)
the fundamental of what we’re doing doesn’t change, but we’re rooted here on Lake Ponterey and then we’ll go as far as we want. And I really believe that’s possible now. And I don’t, a year ago, I don’t think I would have said that. The other thing is, you know, what’s next, I think, and that’s a question that’s always plagued me in my career is I take people outside and do things. They do it once and they’re like, well, how do I, what do I do next? You know, I don’t often have an answer. And the beautiful thing with, with sailing here is that if we introduce you to it,

at some point, if you really take to it, you can join one of our sailing clubs here and go do this on your own. So you don’t need me. Like, we’ll, we’ll get you going, but the Lake Ponderay yacht club and Bayview and the Sandpoint sailing association are there and they’re just like. Ready and waiting. And so, you know, cause I hate to introduce people to things and then see, I’m going to go take the next person sailing. And so they have an opportunity if you join either of these organizations, but you can get out boat, get out on boats.

You can rent boats, you can go sailing, you can, if you decide to buy a boat, it can help you get more edge and get involved. And so, you know, that veteran that comes down to learns, you know, we’d actually just ran into a guy named Dave who sail. He was a, he’s a vet. He said, he sailed with us the first season. He’s bought a boat. He has wife bought a boat. It’s in hope there and they’re doing it. And it’s like, it’s awesome. We were part of that. Yeah. And so now that he’s found this thing that, that helps him that he loves.

And he can keep doing it without us. And that’s kind of the what’s next piece for me too. It’s like, how can I help you all? You know, once you come and we get you into it, we wet the whistle for sailing and you find out that it’s gives you some purpose, gives you something to hang on to. It gives you a wholesome outlet for whatever you’re going through that you can go do it on your own. You don’t need me and we’ll help you do that. That’s huge. We got a guy that can fix your sail cover. There it is. Nelson family canvas. You know, like I was just going to ask him like,

Could you see a schooner actually on Lake Pondere in your future? No, don’t drive that shit from Florida. Let’s go. 100 feet long. No big deal. Sail training on a schooner. That would be awesome. Yeah, no, I know. Well, I mean, like getting this huge because, you know, a lot of people are really intimidated to start that thing. They’re like a little bit curious about, right? I wouldn’t even know where to start. Like, you know what I mean? So to have that as a stepping stone to like, okay, here’s the basics.

Dogsmile Adventures (01:04:17.998)
Now I see it. It’s not so intimidating. Maybe I can go do it on my own now. Like that, that’s huge. Like I keep bringing it back to Jitsu. I apologize. But it’s the same thing. Like getting somebody in the door the first time is the hardest thing to do. And then it’s like, okay, now we can, it’s not so scary, right? You know, you know where you’re getting into. So man, that’s freaking cool, dude. And you can build them sales. Do you do sales? You do sales. I don’t do sales. There’s a local guy here that does sales though. And don’t say the name. I’m, I’m.

promoting you right now. So that’s just kidding. There’s always someone to come along and help though. Yeah. I mean, there’s always encouragement. Right. It sounds like a great community. I mean, Eric’s you’re tied into it here and like doing your thing and you crazy man bought a boat. Wife’s mad at you about it. I don’t think she’s too mad. I think she just realizes that I’m like, I am like a drunk, you know, like I should know better. We know how this goes, like repeating the same insanity over and over again and expecting different results. Yeah.

Yeah, but you got the book. You got the book. Got the book. Yeah. It was actually the financial discussion that led her to agree with me. Finally. Did I tell you how I convinced her with that? Yeah. So I measured out how much hourly time I spent taking care of other people’s boats. Conservatively, it was like $30 ,000 in the last seven years or so. And I was like, I could get a really nice boat for a lot less than that. Yeah. I don’t think she bought it.

But you know, it was effective, I guess. Did you put your boat in yet? Not yet. This coming weekend, I think. This weekend, OK. Yeah. Excited for you. I hope that works out. Yeah. Well, no kinks. There’ll be a kink. Yeah. There’s always a kink. At least you know what’s coming, right? And you can prepare for it. The insanity would be as if I thought there wouldn’t be any. That would be the insanity. I think that’s been my problem a lot in life, is that I expect things to go perfectly, and then I get frustrated when they don’t, right? Yeah. I need to just embrace the fact that everything is chaos. That’s just what it is.

That’s the beauty of boats, especially sailboats. The old adage is that the powerboat captain will tell you about all the places that he’s been on his boat, and the sailboat captain will tell you about all the things that happened to him in between the places he’s been on his boat. And it’s the truth. You can’t just point at it and go there. And any boat, no disrespect to the.

Dogsmile Adventures (01:06:43.438)
to the motorboat, I motorboat a lot, but the sailboat is just different and it’s so engaging and you’re trying to figure out and work with the weather and it’s not if something breaks, it’s when, you know, and then that’s where the trip starts, though. That’s where it’s like, all right, you know, remember that, we don’t sit down and be like, remember that trip where like, everything went well? Everything went well? And the answer is no, I don’t remember it. It’s not that there aren’t trips where everything goes well.

But the one will remember is like, man, dude, you remember that? And, and that’s the, you know, you know, wise man once said that the definition of adventure is an uncertain outcome, right? It’s not a real adventure until you’re not sure. And, and that comes on sailboats frequently. This is a good lesson for me. Cause I’m, I’m often like, I’m destination driven, right? It’s like, I gotta get there. Like, that’s the goal, but you miss all the, all the good shit in the middle, right?

We’re not good shit. When the sailboat goes so slow that you’ve got to embrace the in between because it’s going to be most of the day to get there. So you just like, that’s what we’re doing. Yeah. So cool. And it’s always good to be able to sit out in the weather all the time too. Like there’s no huddling down inside and chilling out like you’re in it, you know, embracing the weather. Yeah. You have a cabin on that thing.

Yeah, the 105 cabin is minimal. Like you can’t stand up in it. And so we had a pad and kneel at the stove and sink and there’s no, there’s a little head, but no door on it. And so it’s, you know, it’s pretty intimate conditions down there. But it was built for like an overnighter or perhaps a weekend. We lived online for three months. It can be done. Close friends. Yep. Yep. But it’s just enough. Yeah. And.

Yeah, I also have a minimalist by nature. I don’t like a bunch of things and extras. And so that thing’s more than accommodating, especially for here. Yeah. I would have gathered that you’d be that type of person for sure. I could see that. You’re going to run a charity and ethically, you’re probably not going to have a lot of stuff. Yeah. man. So well, I…

Dogsmile Adventures (01:09:03.758)
I want to come sailing now. You guys just got me all excited about sailing. Easily remedied. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe, maybe I can come up and make a, make a video all of them up there and put that out to absolutely. The drone out cool drone pictures up there. That’d be cool. Yeah. I mean, baby, especially, but anywhere on Lake Pendere, I mean, it’s just, you know, it’s, it’s so beautiful. you know, every season I leave for a while and I come back and it’s just like, wow, look at this place. We get to spend our time. Yep.

It’s just tremendous. And that’s, I think one of the roots of why it helps people feel so much better is it just has this like, you can’t help but feel small when you get out there. And as we know, like the, like that’s a root of, of a, of a spiritual being is like, there is something bigger than me. And as sooner, the sooner we accept that, I don’t care what you call it or when you give it your attention, but.

The sooner we buy into that there is something bigger than us, the better.

Dude, I think on that note, gentlemen, it’s been over an hour. We didn’t even get into the race to Alaska. That’s another next time. Next time. John, thank you. You’re an exceptional human being. I’m just going to go ahead and say that, Eric, I tell you that like three times a week. So I’m not going to tell you that right now, but usually you do it as you’re choking me to unconsciousness. So that’ll be fantastic. I’ll look forward to that. That is how I show love. Okay. We actually, we cuddle and

At the 6 a class, often between Seth and Matt Paso, like I’ll opt in here just as I’m about ready to pass out and go to sleep. I’ll hear them whisper in my ear, I love you. It’s a little creepy, honestly. Yeah, a little bit. A little beard whiskers ticking in your ear. Nothing weird about that at all. Thanks for having us on. It was fun times. That was really fun. That’s a great story. Yeah, I look forward to helping spread the love on what you’re doing, dude, because I think it’s fantastic. I think, you know.

Dogsmile Adventures (01:11:04.046)
That’s what I love about North Idaho. I just keep meeting cool people. There’s so many. There’s a lot of really cool people here. So freaking cool. Yeah. Well, thank you again, brother. Thank you, Eric. Nice to meet you. Eric, always a pleasure. I’ll see you on tomorrow. Monday. What day is it? yeah. Wednesday. Wow. Tomorrow. Let’s go. All right. Catch you next time. See ya.