Deep Roots

"The day dream just became a reality"

Season 2 has arrived in true Damian Browne Fashion, with a story.

After three years of preparation, training and a lifetime goal. On April 9th Damian landed in Nepal to begin his latest adventure. To climb Mt Everest.

Listen in and follow Damian's footsteps live, as he takes you the listeners to the top of world's largest mountain.

Make sure to subscribe, so not miss an episode.

Watch and follow Damian as it happens on his instagram @Auldstock & @Deeprootspod

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The final chapter in an epic tale and to reflect the journey as a whole, it doesn't end without a challenge; How 2 fried satellite phones and a misplaced finishing procedure hand out nearly meant I 'missed' the island of Antigua

Day 63 :  50 miles from Antigua; No personal diary made in 48 hours; Risking losing all my video diaries; 14% battery life and a dead charging cable finally; Loving the experience but ready for Antigua. 

Closing: The reason behind not making a daily diary video on 62; Notes from 62; Did I speed up at the end?; The official waypoint from Atlantic campaigns is on land on my GPS?; First visual of Antigua was the light pollution around 35nm out and the first visual of land @20nm; "Is this island getting any closer???"; The terrifying sight of a long sea wall and waves crashing up its face as I approached from the West; A plan to stay safe and not risk the success of the expedition I have worked so hard to accomplish; A plan that nearly ends up with me 'missing' the island; Thankfully ABSAR got a visual on me; Turning due North and putting the hammer down for 20 hard minutes; Safety!; Manny & Gemma welcoming me to Antigua and guiding me home, plus a flotilla of local crafts; The confusion of not feeling like celebrating; Giving myself a moment to action my intuition; Accepting a flare from Manny and letting the emotion out; Officially crossed the Atlantic but you've still got another 15 minutes rowing to get the end; dodging super yachts; A pocket of green catches my eye as I scan the waiting crowd; Nearly falling back into the water after jumping off the boat; Dad to the rescue with a tissue and hug; Just wanting to get to my family; Hugs and tears; Words from my Mother; Beautiful moments with friends and family; Feeling like a circus monkey; The easy transition back to 'normal' life; The tradition of a cheese burger, fries and a beer, plus a fresh coconut from Ted Martin; Land legs and a ready family; "Surely it can't be that simple Doc?"; Not being able to use a knife and fork for about 1 week with my fingers; 4 months until they were normal; The week in Antigua spent with family and friends completing and fulfilling the project; Remember: Anyone can row an ocean. 

Videos: 

Day 63 :  https://youtu.be/a3445oTG_P0

Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/DamianBrowne

With gratitude, 

Damian

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In the last listener's questions episode, Damian answers questions on readjusting to life off the ocean and how quickly he put on weight again, when reality kicked in that he wasn't going to win and the importance of having a better understanding of the challenge before setting such goals versus having big aspirational goals; did he ever just shit himself in the dead of night; the issues around questioning everything over preparation and has he ever ended up injuring himself by pushing through the excuses his mind can make up. 

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A toilet analogy to explain the subconscious signalling of why everything starts to hurt at the end of a challenge/expedition

Day 59:  Arse sores back with vengeance due to wet days; Rowing without a perch for a bit; Everything starting to hurt; Signalling to "give up"; A wild night - Squalls and bombs hitting the cabin; Crazy painkiller induced dreams?

Intra days: A waterproof notebook and notes from each day; Day 59's precise takings; Surfing waves described and drinking directly for a 10L drum. 

Day 60 : Mounting conditions; A near capsize overnight and the ploy of using a "witches' hat" to help keep the boat straight. 

Intra days: Surrounded myself with people who knew a lot more about the ocean and ocean rowing then I did; Getting the drogue ready for an incoming storm; Huge booms vibrating the cabin throughout the night & a fist of painkillers concocting a very strange night of weird dreams; Rowing with the drogue on; The "nightmare" process of sending videos home with the BGAN; Was I being followed by an electric blue fish?

Day 61: A view of the drogue functioning the day after it served its purpose during a storm and a short tour of the boat. 

Closing:  Rowing one handed from 7.30am to 1pm; Losing two satellite phones in two days; Tasting sea salt 3 years later from the notebook; Documenting the journey and filling in some late arrivals to the details of the boat; A little story of the King of the Watermakers and my incompetence in learning by showing. 

Videos: 

Day 59:  https://youtu.be/HaZUZjoLHj0

Day 60:  https://youtu.be/XZW4lyPjvi4

Day 61:  https://youtu.be/aD405XaLTUo 

Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/DamianBrowne

With gratitude, 

Damian

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It's a long one! In this opening Damian explains why he finishes his episodes with the sentence, "Keep striving for more from yourself" and why he holds a philosophy/belief that "Life is a fight". 

Day 58 'Fight' :  An attempt to describe the journey; The monster that is the Atlantic; Howling, bubbling and grumbling away; An incredible challenge, the one I wanted; The harder it gets the more I relish the adversity; The difficulty in the consistent drone; Eating the big challenges up; A great life lesson; Adapt and overcome; A simplified existent of challenge, but one of intensity and regularity. 

Intra days: Embodying the philosophy and why I will always continue to challenge myself until the day I die. 

Day 58 : Great conditions = great day; 50NM!!!; Going to bed watching the GPS show 2.4 to 3kt; A lat strain on my righthand side; A late morning; A lost 'perch' to the great expanse; Under 250NM; Continuing to control the controllables and do the work; a 100-degree difference between the GPS and the compass and a kiss the say goodbye. 

Closing: Other times rowing one armed; The 5th Controllable - Decluttering and how that recently became clear where it sat in my 4 Controllables method, 3 years after first discovering it on the ocean. 

Cheers,

Damian

Videos: 

Day 58 'Fight' : https://youtu.be/w96L_8SEiik 

Day 58:  https://youtu.be/FTPg0JJPlP8 

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A synopsis of days 54 to 57, including a strange psychological phenomenon of having no pressure after the sleep of 53; conditions becoming "pretty crazy"; Perching falling, sores and fingers; letting a wave penetrate the beautiful dry cabin at 4am; The Compass versus the GPS; Deepening one's character through suffering and space; screening sat. phone calls; Worsening conditions; A crazy finish?; Sonic-booms and unseen squalls, A fist fight and some washing. 

Videos: 

Day 54:  https://youtu.be/-53nV_XgzqY

Day 55:  https://youtu.be/RyZrc2xGbxM

Day 56:  https://youtu.be/B2l6RIyBhcc 

Day 57:  https://youtu.be/E3o_bREOslM 

Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/DamianBrowne

With gratitude, 

Damian Browne 

Producer: Niall Killeney Taylor of baLORE Media

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Values & voids; A desire to be always better; Being an inconsistent rugby player due to lack of mental control; A huge output of energy over the last 5 years to fill in my void; A "body first" method of mental prep; Between stimulus & response you have the freedom to choose; 'Everybody has a plan until you're punched in the face' - Mike Tyson; Learning your mental game through lived physical experiences; 3 parts to my mental preparation; 1 "Internal" & 2 "External" elements to mental prep. for challenges.  

Day 53 (NGU):  Good conditions; Should be happy but battling my heart out; Outcome focused; The double whammy of steering & expectations; Affirmations with a lot of f@%ks; Emotional imagery = energy; "Never Give Up"; Find a way to keep going forward, even if it's by your finger nails.

Intra days: A real and raw experience captured; A philosophy I will endeavour to embody and message I will share when I feel applicable, A non-traditional use of affirmations; Reprogramming your subconscious with affirmations; Sets and reps to strengthen the mind; Peaking my mental prep. alongside my physical prep. leading into a challenge/expedition. State changers on Day 53; A 3-step process for Affirmations; One of my most valuable and used affirmations - "Nothing will stop me rowing the Atlantic"; Breaking my imagination patterning; The view from a small plane above my head; Feeling is emotion, emotion is energy; Linking a feeling to visualised imagery; Roaring defiance at the ocean through my affirmations; Struggles within my own affirmation practice and learning the skill of step 3; The inevitability of mental stress during extreme challenges; The support of affirmations to the other parts of my mental prep. 

Day 53: Feeling completely undeserving of my mileage; A 11 hours sleep & questioning did I give in a little bit?; Peeking my head out the cabin at 2am and deciding it was never happening, same at 6am and 8am; Boat "chugging" along all night; Thinking there's a book in this; Never admitting something is hard; New rashes, fingers in a bad way, however sores are now a minor irritation; Great to hear Ireland got a win to start their 6 nations; There's a part of me that loves the challenges of the hard days; "If it was easy everybody would do it"; A regrettable lack of documentation from the first few weeks; 343nm left. 

Closing: A weak attempt at writing the book; My love and respect for books; Writing my book when I'm ready and strong enough; A recommendation from a listener and their child to write a children's book about this row; Falling down around the parameters I set for myself and the importance of that to me; Not interested in easy & lazy, that side of Damian can "f&$k off". 

Videos: 

Day 53 'Never Give Up':  https://youtu.be/4jAN0pD-I1k

Day 53 (Full) :  https://youtu.be/mPDya2NmXbI 

Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/DamianBrowne

With gratitude, 

Damian Browne 

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A panel in NUIG and a TedX Talk in Switzerland; An important practice in my life; Self-imposed barriers & untruthful perceptions; Discovering "false walls" on the Atlantic; Disturbing one's conditioning; A healthy, educational practice that does my head in at times; Why? Why? Why?

Day 51:  A good day, 45NM; Rowing 12hrs a day now seems easy; My daily rowing, fuelling and sleeping structure; Regain some time lost from the Northerlies? Is the water heavier sometime??

Intra days: Calm and contemplative; A "false wall" of perception broken down through action; Possibility of missing Antigua; Crashed after 31 hours rowing in 40; Remembering the 4 Controllables; The behaviour of asking oneself the right questions; Questioning the feedback from the oars through my nervous system; Patience in building the information around one's perception. 

Day 52: Venting in the wind; "Unbelievably frustrating because I forget"; Cloud lines and tappers; Heartbreaking expectations; Conditions turned and no moon. 

Closing: The trade wind routes and their ideal conditions, hoped and wished for; 5 day weather forecasts and building expectations; "You don't have fucking steering Damian!"; Explaining "kicked out" while using your phone; The huge effort required get the boat back "on top of the waves" and the delicate place that brings you; the Nirvana of 90 mins flowing on top; 

Videos: 

Day 51 : https://youtu.be/TJ39AVVFEuM

Day 52:  https://youtu.be/naaeI90AJoM

Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/DamianBrowne

With gratitude, 

Damian

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In this episode Damian answer's listeners questions. Here's a favour of what you asked: 

Why was it not acceptable, even necessary to 'horse' 3 Mars Bars into yourself considering the energy demands of what you were doing every day?

Would love to hear more about your exact diet on the ocean?

How did you prepare for the loneliness of it all or was the physical and mental challenge so great that it took up all of your focus?

How did you approach sponsorship? 

Did you have a 'Wilson' or version of him that gave you comfort in the darker times?

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'Welcome to the real world'; Living in an avenue of life with, purpose, discomfort and lack of choice; Seeing the world differently because of the reality of a rugby life; Broadening my map of how I see the world; Grateful having walked in the gate of Galwegians RFC; Nervous system feedback at 11; Breaking conditioning & perceptions through the demands of professional rugby; My need for growth; I am an Explorer; The squeeze of external and internal pressures; My supports on and off the ocean; Justin Adkin's guidance and Ian Couch's suggestion. 

Day 48 :  A review of the last number of days; A visual of my perch; The holes of the perch are growing; Morale getting hit with the thoughts of what's ahead over the next 16 days; On a positive - over 2000NM rowed. 

Intra days: Can we achieve our full potential without embracing pain? Learning from the reality of pain; 'I hope this is as hard as it can possibly be?', my adventure hope; Expanding one's map of reality; "Does this sound sick?", A fantastic opportunity to learn and grow from. 

Day 49.1  : Feeling great after a swim and wash; Clipping some ridiculous toe nails; Scrubbing the sores; Savouring the experience and banking the memories; A flat calm day; 600NM from Antigua and people are worried about my approach to the island!!!; A very very special thing to do.  

Intra days: What a difference 24hrs can make; The power of clipping a few toenails; Questioning my own sincerity 3 years later; My multipurpose cloth; Gritting my teeth for 15 secs and getting stuck into the sores, with effect affects. 

Day 49 (Full) : 7 weeks done and dusted; Another milestone; Deciding to go straight West despite the conditions; Cranking out a few miles more than expected; 18-19 hours rowing in 24hrs bring up a big bruise in my hand; Going between naked rowing and shorts on; Best the sores have felt in 3 - 4 weeks; Spirits perked up. Days like these are numbered. 

Intra days: Remembering the crescendo 6 days beforehand; Rewiring how I perceive things through lived adversity; A remarkable turnaround that would never have been perceived if it hadn't been lived. High spirits continued.

Day 50: Contrast my experience with yours over the last 50 days; My 5 senses minimised; A life striped back; An exercise in suffering & a strangely beautiful thing to do; Completely different to what I was expecting; A very special place. 

Closing: Here we are on day 50 seeing the clear link between life of a professional rugby player, Purpose, Discomfort & Lack of Choice and exploration and extreme adventures.  

How you can support the show; My week on Patreon; & The return of Freezbrury

Videos: 

Day 48 : https://youtu.be/h9mcCdG5940 

Day 49.1 :  https://youtu.be/nQlrSDtM2EY 

Day 49 Full : https://youtu.be/QAU4fk-vxl4 

Day 50: https://youtu.be/tq8TCKiJdyE 

Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/DamianBrowne

With gratitude, 

Damian 

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