Tren Long: [00:00:00] I grew up, like, doing swiftwater rescues just because I was always paddling. So like I did my first fatality recovery when I was 13, uh, 'cause a la- a girl was stuck on a rock and nobody else could get to her. And I was like, "Well, I'll go get to her."
Riley: Today I've got Tren Long on here. Tren's a superstar in the jujitsu world, at least around my, my school. We, uh, we all think of Tren very fondly. Um, known him for a bunch of years. Um, haven't had a, a super close relationship, not for any other reason than proximity, but, um, s- still look at this [00:01:00] guy as, as kind of a jujitsu mentor and just a, uh, just an overall kind of a guy.
And so Tren, I wanna welcome you to the show, man. I sure appreciate you coming on.
Tren Long: Yeah, no, I'm glad to be here. Thanks for having me
Riley: Yeah. You may not have known I think all those things of you, but I do, dude.
Tren Long: I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Jiu-jitsu's the family that never goes away. It's always there.
Riley: Yeah.
Tren Long: Yeah
Riley: It's a pretty awesome thing. Yep. And so, so Trent is where... got your black belt what year?
Tren Long: I don't know. Um, uh, honestly, I, I, I, uh, n- I don't know. Um, 2013, 2014
Riley: That's what I was thinking, somewhere in that
Tren Long: Yeah, I think so
Riley: You were one of, if not the first of Keiths, weren't
Tren Long: I was the first, yeah.
Riley: Yeah. Yeah. So again, super big honor to be talking to Trent today. We're, um... I, I said he's a go-getter, right? And Trent's done kind of a little of [00:02:00] everything and, and that's really why I wanted to have you on, man, because you, you've kind of run the gamut from your family is- owns the Cascade Raft and Kayak, right? And then you ran a, kind of the, one of the most well-known jujitsu tournaments here in
Tren Long: Yeah.
Riley: and then sold that
Tren Long: Yep
Riley: outfit who's really taken that a different direction, but a great
Tren Long: A great direction
Riley: uh, were on a previous episode. So, and then, man, you were an Olympic kayaker and, and just an athlete in that regard.
So again, lots of accolades here. And so the, uh, the fit in what we've got going on here for this podcast is just perfect, man. So, um, so do this for me. Introduce yourself, who you are, where you grew up, what life was like as a kid
Tren Long: Yeah. So, um, my name is Trent Long. Uh, I live in Horseshoe Bend, Idaho. Um, I was born in Sacramento, California. Uh, moved out to [00:03:00] Idaho when I was, uh, nine, I think. Um, grew up in a water-based family. So, uh, when I was very young, uh, we got into, to kayaking, uh, at a time where kids didn't necessarily kayak. Uh, my dad got child protective services called on him more than once, uh, when we were kids just because kids simply didn't do it.
So none of the equipment fit, and we'd be paddling these ginormous boats. My mom used to make our life jackets, and we just had this terrible old ghetto equipment. And when I was nine, my dad really wanted to move up onto the Payette River. Um, we had come here for vacations, uh, before because the North Fork of the Payette is like a world-renowned piece of whitewater.
So my dad has always been a bit of an adventurer, and so he really wanted to come up and run it, and we absolutely fell in love with the area. So essentially, my parents sort of fire sold. We owned restaurants. My, my dad was a restaurateur, and so they fire sold the restaurants in California. We moved to Idaho.[00:04:00]
The, the family story is when we moved to Idaho, we had like 50 bucks to the family name. So if you can remember back in the day when Stinker dogs were three for a buck, when I moved to Idaho, we had Stinker dogs like every other day for dinner.
Riley: And you could refill your mug for
Tren Long: Exactly. Yeah, and it was the best too because my dad would be like, "You could put any toppings you want on it.
Like just pile on the toppings." And so I felt very, uh, very, uh, enabled there. So, uh, I essentially grew up, uh, in Idaho, uh, rafting on the Payette River. Um, we started going to South America to Chile around that same time. So I went to Chile the first time when I was 10, and, uh, got introduced in a unique way in that, you know, back in, back in the day, Chile was still pretty rural and there wasn't a lot of communications in or out.
So I'm a 10-year-old kid that goes on this big long plane flight for the first time. We arrive in Chile, we drive, and it gets late. Wake up the next day at the house, and my [00:05:00] dad's getting ready to go and I say, "Oh, where are we going?" And he goes, "Well, you're not going anywhere. I'm going to work. You're staying here with this Chilean family."
Spoke no Spanish. They spoke no English. And he left me in this tiny little village of like 80 people for three weeks, um, just with a random family that he knew, and that was like my introduction to Spanish and to like the Chilean culture. So spent a lot of time there growing up. Got into whitewater kayaking, started doing slalom racing.
Um, I competed in slalom all through my teenage years, and then when I was about 20, I wanted to pursue the family business and sort of start a family. When I quit racing, that's actually when I started getting into jits. And so they sorta... I, I love to compete. I'm like, "I'll compete with you at anything you wanna try."
And so, uh, jujitsu really felt that, filled that void for me. I'd always wanted to do it, and I remember when Keith opened the school, um, [00:06:00] I was in Mexico at the time teaching surfing and, uh, I saw it on the internet and I'm like, "The first thing I can do when I get home is I'm gonna go there." And I was, I think, the second student through the door, and then it stuck ever since then.
So as I retired from competition myself, I started coaching, um, particularly with my kids and my nephew. Um, and so I got, I got really into coaching specifically for kayak cross. It's, uh... Well, I'm sure you may have seen it, but essentially, you know, you go down in kayaks, but you go down with three other people, so groups of four go down at a time.
You have to go around obstacles and do the course itself. But it's one of those things where, uh, combat is sort of encouraged, like contact is totally fine. So it's like they took the two things I was good at, was combative sports and kayaking, and then put them together. And so as an athlete, I had a lot of success.
Um, I came out of retirement for the 2016 Olympics, um, and then I was com- I competed basically from [00:07:00] 2014 through 2021. Uh, once Tokyo didn't happen, then that was sort of my, my swan song and, and I was out And after that, just pu- piled into coaching. Uh, got to work with a lot of great athletes. Uh, one of my athletes that I worked with, uh, brought home gold in, uh, Paris, which was, was really amazing.
I got to go be out there right before the Olympics. I had to coach remotely for it, but I was there for the week build up, got to see the stands, got to... It was my first-- I'd always been, like in 2016, I was an alternate. 2021, it didn't go well. So I'd always almost been there, and shoot, even to go as a coach was just awe-inspiring.
It was such an amazing experience. And, uh, yeah. So split my time between six months in Australia, six months in Idaho. In Idaho, run the raft company. In Australia, I coach full-time and do as much jits as I can
Riley: Are you still training down there?[00:08:00]
Tren Long: Yeah. Yeah. I've got a great gym actually. Um, there's a really, really friendly, it's a Gracie Barra gym, like right down the street. And I went in because I just wanted to find a place to train. Like, it's one of my favorite thing of all the times I've traveled throughout my life, which has been extensive.
I've always trained jujitsu everywhere I go. So I've trained jujitsu in Europe, in South America, Central America, North America, Mexico, Canada. Like anywhere I went, I always trained, and so it was just out of a habit. And so when I got to, when we were in Penrith where we live, I was looking up gyms, and I called around just to chat with the instructors because, I mean, so much of jujitsu is you find the gym that sort of fits with you and what you're trying to do.
And I talked to the head instructor and he said, "Oh," like I was, "I'm a black belt." He goes, "Oh, who do you train under?" I'm like, "Uh, Keith Owen and Pedro Sauer." And he's like, "You just named my two favorite people to watch on YouTube." And so, yeah, and it was like, it was, it was serendipitous. It was perfect. So that's sort [00:09:00] of my home in jits down in Oz.
Um, and then obviously I still train at Keith Owen's place here in Idaho whenever I can, which is never enough.
Riley: Yeah. It's never enough. I'm just putting that word in, so that's a request to get your butt down there and come, come beat me up.
Tren Long: Any, if I get off of work before eight o'clock, I'm the first guy down there. Especially, like my kids, my youngest, Isaac, is getting in, and my oldest, Merle, who was on your show, he's a, he's a big strapping young lad and he's like a typical 20-something blue belt. And so my youngest son is a lot more spindly, and so I'm building him to beat Merle.
Like, that's my plan. It's like, so it's, yeah, so it's all like, like spider guard. And so from his get, like all of my kids grew up doing jujitsu and, um, like my biggest push, especially through tournaments and competition, is I'd always put my kids like up weight, up skill, just so they got comfortable with the idea of competing.
And I wanted to build their relationship with [00:10:00] competition being the joy of competing, not, "Oh, I win, I do good. I lose, I do bad." If we go out and we have fun, we learn something, then that's a good competition. So all my kids always sort of fought up, and so they've done jujitsu their whole life, they just don't like realize it.
And so now that my oldest is 15, he's now become- he's gonna be one of those really annoying 17-year-old kids that's like, "Wait a minute. Now I'm, I'm tapping to something. I don't know what." So it's a lot of fun.
Riley: I love it, man. We, we've got a few of those down at the, at the
Tren Long: Yeah.
Riley: always a
Tren Long: Yeah.
Riley: you get those little dudes that'll catch
Tren Long: Mm-hmm. Wait, what did you do?
Riley: Love it. it. So Trent, when... You're, so you're growing up and you're, you're traveling all over the world, and you're, you're kayaking, and you're getting protective services called on you. That's a kick, man, 'cause I, I wouldn't have thought that, but there's always someone who wants to butt into somebody else's business, right?
Tren Long: And to be fair to them at the time, like, it was a, like I was one of like five kids that was kayaking in the country. Like it just, you, nobody did it. And [00:11:00] so, you know, we s- uh, so it was not crazy like somebody butting in, it's just somebody thought what my dad was doing was incredibly unsafe. And so, and so yeah, child- we got to the takeout and, uh, Child Protective Services were there.
And my dad's like, "What are we doing?" They're like, "Are you okay?" I'm like, "What do you, what do you mean am I okay? This is like the happiest place I am." So yeah, exactly.
Riley: Yeah. Well, so, so you go from there where it's recreational and you guys are playing around. Is that ... These Had they started the actual raft and kayak company at that point?
Tren Long: Yeah, so we moved up to Idaho in 1989, and a guy had already started the rafting company, Cascade Raft, in 1985. And then my dad started the kayak school with the original owner of Cascade Raft. But within a couple of years, the guy that owned Cascade Raft, he wanted-- he didn't wanna do it anymore, so my dad, uh, sort of just absorbed the whole company.
And so I started as a safety [00:12:00] kayaker when I was 12, 'cause I was a pretty big kid. So I'd go down with all the trips in my kayak and save people when they fell out. Did that until I was 18, then started guiding and guided my face off. And over time, as we grew up, I'm the youngest of three brothers, we're all still involved in the company.
So as we grew up, my parents sort of took a further and further seat back, and we all sort of fell into, like, our natural leadership within the, within the company.
Riley: Okay. So I'm really interested in this whole, the family dynamic there, right? Because sometimes that can be very turbulent, but you just said something, the, the phrase you used is, is fall into your own leadership. Is that... Describe that to me, man, 'cause that, it sounds like you guys, and correct me if I'm wrong, but found your, your sweet spot, and you've all taken your roles according to that.
Is that what you're saying?
Tren Long: Yeah, I mean, to a certain extent, it's always moving and evolving. So, you know, uh, we all are sort of in charge of different, [00:13:00] like, departments. So my oldest brother is sort of in charge of operations. Um, I have a propensity for emergency management, and so I do all of our, like, river rescue, all of our medical stuff.
And so, like, if something goes wrong, that's my job. And I teach all of our swiftwater rescue, all of our wilderness first aid, and I do a lot of our guide training. So I'm sorta like-- I mean, I don't actually do anything. I just, like, fix problems all day, um, unless I'm teaching. Uh, but yeah, we all sort of found our own space within the environment where we could sorta coexist and work towards the common goal, which was the success of the family business.
Riley: So when you're, when you're talking about these roles, every business owner struggles with this, right? Where, how do you define them and are they written? Are they, are they... Is it-- Are people staying in their own lane is what I'm kinda, kinda getting at there
Tren Long: Um, for the most part, like we're pretty good at fighting 'cause we've-- I mean, I grew up the [00:14:00] youngest of three brothers, and we're two years apart, so in our family everything is a race. Everything, you know, we, we've been butting heads our whole lives, and so we're pretty good at it. Um, to be honest with you, uh, so we all shockingly married women who wanted to be involved in the rafting company as well.
So
Riley: Hmm
Tren Long: biggest, uh, jump or challenge over the years has been understanding not only... 'Cause I know what my role is with my brothers and I know my role in the company, but then bringing in three women who don't know each other, and i- with the exception of one, had never been in the outdoor industry. That took a lot of time and, you know, we did some stuff really well, we did some stuff really poorly.
Um, but we're all still here doing the same thing. Um, and I think because we were so close in ages, it helped a lot. Um, but even now, you know, our kids are different ages, so my eldest brother's youngest kid just graduated college, where my youngest kid is still [00:15:00] in high school. So even now we're still, I guess, renegotiating what our vision is for the company and how we all fit into that vision.
So there's a little bit of like taking the reins, but there's also a big chunk of understanding you gotta let the reins go and, uh, you know, try to find where you can fit in the global view to move the company forward.
Riley: So when you're having these, these, uh, these meetings where you're talking about the future and who's gonna take what roles, what do those look like, man? 'Cause I, I, I've been present in those before in similar things where sometimes they go fairly well, but sometimes they
Tren Long: Yeah, no, we've had plenty of those. Um, so what we do really, really well is work really hard. Like, that's-- Like, if I were to think of my redeeming quality as a person, I am capable of working really hard. I'm not afraid to work, and I'm [00:16:00] always willing to do it. So when we are working in the summer, we have no problems.
It's easy because everybody is physically working. It's in the off-season that things tend, can be a little bit more challenging. And the hardest part to reconcile for us is understanding that our needs are changing as the company grows. And so, like myself, for example, um, coaching is becoming a really big part of my life.
Uh, my goal is to coach my son and nephew in the Olympics, and I think I can do a better job than anybody else can, and I think I can get more out of them. And so, you know, I'm not only coaching, which I love to do, but I'm also coaching my children and my nephew, who is, is essentially my child, towards their goals as well.
And so I've, over the last two years, have recognized, like, this is my priority. And so with that, I'm letting more [00:17:00] reins go specifically at the raft company because my priorities are changing a little bit. And we're still, honestly, we're still working it out. I mean, it's not-- We've had some hard years. Uh, we-- My, my middle brother's wife died from COVID, and that was a pretty big deal.
Uh, she was a year older than me. Um, and so we lost her in, in 2021, and that, the two years after that was really, we all came together because of the, you know, the shared trauma. But, you know, navigating without her, you know, my middle brother's priorities changed that day completely because now he's a single father.
Um, my priorities changed because I wanna support his kids as much as I can. And so we're still honestly trying to sort of work through the details to get there. Um, and we're doing a decent enough job. We've had some good years. We've had some hard years because we do work a lot. You know, we do 12, [00:18:00] 14-hour days for 95 days in a row.
So, um, y- by the time you get to the end of the season, you're, you're physically exhausted to the point where we have to be very mindful that we don't do or say or behave in a way that we can't sort of unwind. Um, but it's, it's a very fluid thing. Like, we're always looking outwards, and I try to make a really big point of looking inwards for, for me to make sure that I'm being the person that I want me to be, as opposed to being the person that I, that I think I am.
Like, I, I always try to hold myself to that standard of, of doing what's right, regardless of the consequences. Or not of the consequences, regardless of the circumstances, right? One of my favorite, like, ideas is that we We don't let circumstance de- uh, define our commitment to doing what's right. So my commitment to doing what's right happens no matter what the circumstances are.
I, I don't let those change me working towards what, what that goal is.[00:19:00]
Riley: Man. So when you're-- Obviously, the time that you spend away from the business starts to impact, you know, revenues and, and earnings and all those kind of things.
Tren Long: For sure.
Riley: have to happen, right?
Tren Long: Yeah
Riley: um, especially with family, when you guys are, are talking about, "Hey, Tren, you're gonna be spending this much more time overseas doing something unrelated to the business," do those conversations look like, you know, and those, those changing roles and changing wages?
Tren Long: Um, so the approach that we've taken at it specifically towards the last few years is the understanding that my input to the company is different than everybody else's. So for me, I do all of our wild med instruction, all of our swiftwater rescue instruction. So I've been on the water, on the water, in the water every day since March 31st.
And back-to-back classes, I think I'm at like 800 students. Uh, so I, I work every [00:20:00] day, uh, before everybody else does. So my big season, um, is over in five days. Like my heavy season has, has changed, and we sort of recognize that as a group. Like I pointed out, you know, I ran the numbers of just work hours, right?
If I worked a regular 90-- We have the history to suggest if I work 90 days in my old role in the raft company, it's this many hours. But I have gotten so busy with our wild med and swiftwater rescue programs that that time just moved forward. And so I also do all of our web development, all of our search engine optimization, all of that stuff.
So for me, it's a year-round endeavor. So I'm, you know, I'm logging 20 or 30 hours a week every week, regardless of the season. And then in season, it ramps up to however many hours are available that week of light.
Riley: Yeah. So what's... That brings a whole nother [00:21:00] subject matter of those, when you s- switch roles, right? You're wearing these two hats of the, the IT... Or not IT, but the marketing guy,
Tren Long: Mm-hmm.
Riley: And then your, uh, web development, all that kind of stuff. But then you're physically in the water. You said you've been in the water every day, right?
So you have to change those hats, man, do you have... I know sometimes for me that's difficult 'cause I, my, my official title would be CEO, right? And then we, we joke that that's chief everything officer. And, uh, sometimes switching those hats, man, I'll go from selling, making cold calls, making sales calls, to crap, man, packing boxes or, you know, in the case of my other company, crawling underneath a truck and changing oil. Haven't done that in a few years, but sometimes, man, switching that gear mentally is, it's rough. It's a, it's a, it's a challenge just to, to go, "Okay, I'm finished with this thing, but I gotta start a whole new, a whole new job."
[00:22:00]
Tren Long: Oh, I know. I'm, I'm so bad at it. Like, I, uh, uh, at, at this point I'm still figuring that out. So, um, you know, growing up we didn't have a ton of money. Like, when I was a kid, you know, we literally had like $50 to my family name when we moved to [00:23:00] Idaho. So we've never been without, I've never been hungry, but like I've eaten out of trash cans before when necessary.
Um- And so I'm into opportunity. So like, uh, uh, if I were to list out all of my other jobs, I do a fulfillment for a Czech kayak brand. I import kayaks from Europe and resell them. Um, I am a corporate travel agent for two different corporations on top of everything else I do for my-- And so I'm actually trying to divest myself of responsibility because I, I found...
Oh yeah, and I'm building a house. I forgot about that. Been building a house for the last three years in Idaho. Um, and so it's, uh, I've actually, I recognized, you know, I'm coming home from like, uh, last summer, I would get home from work at 7:00 or 8:00 at night, and then I'd go site the house until it got dark, and then I'd go in and go sleep, and then I wake up at 6:00.
I go coach the kids from 6:00 to 7:00, and then go to work from 7:00 [00:24:00] until 7:00, and then come site the house. And I recognized that A, it physically wasn't a great plan, but I, I wasn't being the father that I wanted to be. I wasn't being the husband that I wanted to be. And my propensity to take on opportunities had sort of gotten me to a place where I was doing everything at once.
And I sort of recognized, you know, I, y- I can't do it. I'm not physically capable. I don't have the bandwidth for it. And so I actually have tried to take a step back in some of my other projects because for, for us, you know, I've gotta work to make money so that we can live. And my wife and I made it a really big, uh, one of our big priorities is our kids' future and letting them have the opportunity to pursue what they wanna pursue.
And in this case, it's largely athletics, but, um, my daughter is super smart kid that's into biology and has graduated at 16 with an associate's in biology. And [00:25:00] I'm, like, convincing her to take a gap year because there's no reason to go finish college when you're 19 because, like, don't start your life too soon.
Enjoy it. And so I sort of recognized that I wasn't being the person that I wanted to be, and I'm trying to, to reel it back. On the daily in and out, it's all about lists, baby. I've got my list every morning, and I just have, like, three lists, one for each of the things that I'm actively working on. And when I have time, I peg it out.
But I've started to do a lot better job about, like, compartmentalizing my time, um, and not taking one thing to the other. Um, I can't remember where I heard it, but it was like, you know, you've got 24 hours a day, so if you spend 15 hours thinking about the thing that you left eight hours ago, like if you let your work come home, then you're letting that dominate your existence.
And, um I don't want that. I-- my kids are almost out of the house. I, I'd love-- I wanna hang out with my [00:26:00] wife. I wanna, you know, live a normal life too. And so, uh, that part I struggle with, to be honest with you. I, I wish I had a,
Riley: Yeah
Tren Long: uh, a codex that could unlock how to not get overburdened, but, uh, for me, it's, uh, like the end is in sight at, at some point, you know, once we get through like the LA cycle, things slow down for a couple of years and someday I'll finish my house and I've started to close down and shutter some of the other businesses that I do just because, um, I wanna be present
Riley: Yeah. Yeah, sometimes it's easy... When you know you're capable of getting a lot done, it's easy to take on too much
Tren Long: Oh yeah, 100%. And that's my problem is I'm a, like I always tell people, I'm a big dumb animal, and you just put something in front of me. Special skills include lifting heavy things and moving them, whether I like it or not. And I, I took that a little bit too far, I think. And, you know, like trying to build a house by yourself is not a great [00:27:00] idea when you also have the other jobs and the other, other jobs and everything like that.
Riley: Yeah, that can stretch it out a ways, can't
Tren Long: Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm.
Riley: list seems to be never-ending,
Tren Long: Yes. Hey, everybody's got a door, not everybody has a doorknob. That's, that's how I put it. Like, the house is, is almost done. We all have doors, but we don't have-- Not everybody's got a doorknob yet
Riley: So about that, right? 'Cause you have had this, this house project going on quite a while. You said three
Tren Long: Yeah
Riley: And you find that having that thing hanging there is, affects you, knowing that that,
Tren Long: Yeah.
Riley: is still there?
Tren Long: Yep. It, it, it has become my hobby. And, uh, in hindsight, I wouldn't do it again. Uh, I wouldn't do it all myself. Like, the only thing we subbed out was framing and putting on the roof shingles, and then everything else I've done or done with help from friends. And it's, uh... I mean, my problem, [00:28:00] my hard part is, is that, you know, I don't come from a ton of money, and so, like, I fully believe in sweat equity and the opportunity give-- Like, you're given this opportunity, and if you can leverage that opportunity, then you can make things better.
Um, and so that's my goal, but I gotta find a, gotta find a balance to not take every opportunity that comes my way.
Riley: Yeah. No, that, that is a balance too, right? 'Cause sometimes it's like, would I, would I be freer and more creative in the other ventures if I just had someone else do this part of the house? You know, the sub, sub, sub that certain
Tren Long: Mm-hmm.
Riley: that might be. You know, you mentioned siding, right?
There's a, there's a, a certain level of skill there that now you have to research and, and learn on your own, where a sub would already know that, right? They've been doing it for
Tren Long: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I started on that side of the house. That side of the house doesn't look great by the time-- And I intentionally did that so that the [00:29:00] back of the house is where I started. And like, I'd grown up doing construction, so the, I mean, I didn't just come at it fresh. Um, the, the rafting company that we own, um, when we were growing up, like when I was 14, 15, my dad would bring in a contractor to do, like, jobs, because when we-- when my dad bought the property, it was two trailers and this dingy old building.
It was terrible. It was gross. And over the years, we've developed an amazing piece of property, and so my dad would hire, you know, a contractor that wanted to learn how to kayak. He'd say, "All right, I'll trade you kayak lessons. You come in and work, and you teach, you know, I'll give you labor. I'll give you good labor," you know, teenage boys.
And so I learned construction that way. Um, yeah. So I, I'm not like a total newbie. Like I've done heaps of construction, but, you know, siding a-- especially here, like siding concrete siding in the middle of summer when it's 100 degrees outside after you work all day, before you go work again, was not, was not my finest hour.[00:30:00]
Riley: Yeah.
Tren Long: Yeah.
Riley: Yeah, that's a, that's a heck of a schedule you're pulling there, man,
Tren Long: Oh yeah. Yeah
Riley: Well, let's, let's switch gears here a little bit. I, I... Still, still regarding the family business there, mentioned the swiftwater rescue, right? Is that something you do for your, your guides, or are you training, like, um, emergency services
Tren Long: Emergency services. So I, I do all of our guide training, but, um, I started-- So I grew up, like, doing swiftwater rescues just because I was always paddling. So like I did my first fatality recovery when I was 13, uh, 'cause a la- a girl was stuck on a rock and nobody else could get to her. And I was like, "Well, I'll go get to her."
And I go because of-- I just grew up being on the water so much, and so I sort of organically just started doing that. Like when I grew up-- As I grew up, I was a safety kayaker for all of our raft trips, so I was always sort of in that space. And then [00:31:00] mid-20s or so, I started like teaching formally, and since then it's been a big part of-- I mean, uh, honestly, it's a big part of my identity.
It's a big part of what I do. Um, so I've been lucky enough to teach like all across the US. I've teached, I've taught a ton in Australia, a ton in South America. I've taught a good chunk in Europe. Um, so when I, when I'm teaching, uh, like right now I've got the Ada County Sheriff's dive team for three days, and then, uh, n- in two weeks I've got 15 firefighters from Ghana that are flying to America to do a 12-day like swiftwater, floodwater workshop with me.
And so, um, I, I teach mostly departments, but I also teach like private recreational paddlers as well as doing all of our in-house training.
Riley: Man. And do, it sounds like you keep that kind of bundled up into one area of the year, one time of the
Tren Long: Yeah, yeah. Everybody wants to do it in the spring. So, uh, we typically start [00:32:00] essentially the US team selections for slalom kayaking is typically sometime in March. So as soon as selections are done, then I go straight into rescue instruction until essentially now until World Cup start, World Championships start, and then that sort of dries up organically because everybody wants to get it done before this, the summer starts.
And then I do the, the coaching thing either virtually or in person, and then just do operations and before I head back to Australia in the end of September.
Riley: Yeah, that's a pretty cool thing, 'cause when you're, you're talking about business, right? We-- If, if you were to ask me as an outsider about Cascade River & Kayak, I would think it was purely just a tourist thing. You're taking people up the river and floating them down, man. You're just shuttling them up and floating them down and, and it, it is that, but you guys have expanded that to these other customer bases, right?
So [00:33:00] the government organizations that are, that are part of this, and it sounds like some private individuals you said that were... that take that type of training. it's a, it's a, it's a different product offering, but a, an adjacent product offering, right?
Tren Long: Exactly
Riley: talk about that a little bit. How did you guys de- do you go about determining what makes sense in your, in your
Tren Long: So for us, we were just filling a void, right? So like I was doing, a lot of this stuff got triggered just from us filling the voids we need for ourselves. So, you know, swiftwater rescue, for example, our guides needed a certification, and it was something I was already doing anyways, and I had good contacts in the industry.
So then I became an instructor and started teaching our guides and working to make extra money in the off-season by going to teach for other companies across wherever I could get work. Um, same thing happened with like our medical services. So it struck me, I can't remember when, um, but we didn't have anybody on staff [00:34:00] that could handle the medical side of things in an emergency.
And so I got my advanced EMT and started being sort of the, the school nurse, if you will, at the raft company. But then I also started volunteering with the volunteer ambulance. So, um, like I'm a part of Horseshoe Bend Volunteer Ambulance, which gets me a lovely wake-up call every couple of nights at 1:00 or 2:00 AM when somebody needs a ride to the hospital.
So, um, but it, it, the, we filled the void that we had sort of generated ourselves. So instead of outsourcing something, I mean, it's the same way I learned search engine optimization, website design is we put out the website to a bid way back in the day and it was like 20 grand, and we're like, "Uh, we can't pay 20 grand."
I'm like, "Well, I'll learn how to program websites." And then spent six months learning how to program websites and started doing web development. That turned into SEO, that turned into marketing. And so it's mostly us just filling the voids that are created within our company without [00:35:00] outsourcing it just for the sake of the budget.
Riley: So, no, that's, uh, that's fascinating though because you're... Something people I think get really hung up on is the, the idea that education only happens inside the walls of a, of a facility, a, a college or a high school or a wh- whatever, you know? But dude, the entrepreneurial side of you is amazing to me because that's just like, "Oh, I'll just go learn it." Because the, the resources are there, right?
Tren Long: 100%. 100%.
Riley: Yeah
Tren Long: I mean, I, I, uh, I love to learn, right? Uh, like when I was a kid, like learning has always been fun for me. I graduated from high school when I was 15, um, because it was easy and I got it done. And, uh, I went to college and I stopped going to college because I got to the point where I wasn't learning anything.
I was-- I got into the academia side of the upper-level classes, and it's like this professor just wants me to regurgitate what he thinks or I won't pass. [00:36:00] I don't need this for my job, right? I already have a job. I run a raft company. And so I retired from college because it-- I wasn't, I didn't feel like I was learning.
And I, I get the point of college and I, I understand like, you know, my kids are going to school for, for nursing or whatever, but it, it's funny 'cause in our family, you, you don't go to college to find yourself. Like it's, uh, to me with my, like my daughter or my youngest son is we have encouraged them to explore options and other opportunities.
And whether that be, you know, doing trade school, whether that being, uh, pursuing a cer-certifications to get them towards their goal. Uh, like even while we were building the house, uh, every kid had to pick a thing that they wanted to learn how to do. So like my daughter, for whatever reason, wanted to learn how to do electrical work.
So she and I pulled every wire. So if you need an outlet fixed or you need somebody to [00:37:00] pull wire, my, my 17-year-old daughter is one hell of an electrician, uh, because that was, to me, like, because if I had tools growing up, it allowed me to be able to work. Um, and so each one of my kids learned how to do something.
One knows how to paint, one knows how to do, uh, drywall, one knows how to do electrical. And that was just a part-- It was a dad requirement of them growing up. And so, um, we value education, but we recognize that education comes from a lot of different places.
Riley: Oh, that's incredible.
Tren Long: Yep
Riley: man. So ch- changing, changing subject here The Olympics, man. So Most of us just wonder how in the crap you ever even... What, what's the pathway to get there? You know, you... I
Tren Long: It's hard.
Riley: idea.
Tren Long: Yeah, so l- I mean, I can speak to my sport. Uh, every sport is drastically different, and the more time I spend in sport, the [00:38:00] more I recognize that. But essentially, I started slalom kayaking when I was a kid because I was good at kayaking, but I didn't have the head space to kayak in harder rapids.
And so I was a 12-year-old or a 10-year-old kid that was really good at kayaking, but my-- It wasn't safe for me to do harder whitewater because I was a 10-year-old kid. I wasn't big enough. So my dad got us into slalom racing, and it was-- that sort of fed the fire for competition for me. And so it's just, it, it's a pursuit.
Um, in, in slalom kayaking, what we do, you know, the elite level is h- is tough. I mean, it's the, the uber elite Olympic... Once you get to that level, it's everything you do. Um, and it takes, uh, just a crazy amount of dedication and longevity and passion and, you know, the ability to work really hard towards a goal.
Um, and I think the one thing that I did really well, I think, with my kids is they, uh, I've always tried to ingrain in them the idea that, [00:39:00] like, you have to enjoy the process. If you don't love training, if you don't love going to the gym, if you don't love the hours that we put in, then this isn't worth it.
Because, uh, to quote Brandon Sanderson, "Journey before destination." Like, the goal being, you know, we need to enjoy what we're doing. If we're not enjoying this process, then we're in the wrong sport. Because if everything you are building up for is this one tiny little goal and you don't like what gets you to that goal, if that goal doesn't happen, which it doesn't happen for 99.99% of the universe, then you will be a failure because you'll think you're a failure because you failed.
But if you enjoy the process, you enjoy the challenge, you enjoy the opportunity to compete at a high level, then win or lose, a part of the process was fulfilling, and then there's no failure. Um, but the, the headspace and like the super Olympic-y stuff is, it's really fun. I mean, I'm, I'm a nerd. [00:40:00] Like at, at my base level, I'm a super big nerd.
And so, uh, over the past four or five years especially, I've moved so heavily not just into the performance, the technical side, but the understanding of, yeah, of performance, of headspace, of mental preparation, and like how all this stuff ties together. And it, it's crazy. I mean, if you look at, at what these guys do, is this-- It's what you do.
It's, it's your, your, your identity, it's your being, because the only way to get to that level is to be that committed. Um, if you have any, if you've got any weaknesses or any distractions, then it will keep you from that goal. And it's, it's hard, especially with younger athletes, right? Uh, when my son was-- My oldest son was 16.
Uh, we're from the US, but we live half the year in Australia. Um, and I, with my son, I had to have the talk with him if he wanted to change nationalities to Australia and represent Australia instead of the US. Because if he goes to Australia, because of the [00:41:00] support structure, he'll have a career. If he stays in the US, he can race and it's gonna be fun, and he'll make the US team, and he can go to World Cups and go to the World Championships and maybe, you know, he's the flash in the pan and does really, really well.
But if he wants to make a career in the sport, he's gonna have to make sacrifices, and one of those is we had to change, he had to change nationalities. He had to become Australian, and he has to be committed to the program in Australia. You know, even with like his, his dating life is, is impacted, right?
Because who wants to date a kid that's gone six months out of the year? And then when he's there, he's training eight hours a day and he's exhausted when he gets home. And like- It's-- He has to make-- The, the athlete has to make that sacrifice and understanding. And if they don't have that, uh, that capability, then ultimately they're stuck because, you know, when you get to the Olympics, everybody's amazing.
It's who can put it together that, that [00:42:00] moment of that day, and it becomes, uh, I say it's performance art. Like once you get to that level, once you get to the top of the pipe, it's no longer technical, it's a, it's about performance. And if you're capable of that performance art, if you did all the work to get there, it's can you be the best at this moment of the day, right?
Your start time is 11:58 in the morning. At 11:58 on Tuesday, can you be the best person in the world? It's not, can I be the best person in the world in training? It's not, can I be the best person in the world, you know, later because, "Oh, I, I almost had it." It's can you put it together in that moment of time?
And, and to me, that's what's fascinating. As a coach, like I love the headspace stuff because it's a really fun interaction between coach and athlete. Like when I, I have some athletes that I work with quite a bit, and there's a bit of a level of trust, right? You gotta h- you gotta buy in. They gotta buy into me, I gotta buy into them, and they have to trust me when [00:43:00] I say to them at the start, like, "You're the best in the world.
We're gonna go out and we're gonna win this." They have to believe it. Um, I-- the, the-- one of my favorite, uh, podcasts, the, uh, the, the Radio Lab, they did a thing on performance and they said, "What is common between all these athletes that do like the 100-meter dash," right? The 100-meter dash, the numbers are so tight, like what makes somebody stand out?
And what they found is it was the ability of self-deception. It was the ability to lie to yourself and absolutely believe it. And to me, that concept has stuck with me the whole time in that you need to believe you're the best right now. You need to. If you don't fully believe it, when you get to that upper level, when you get to the Olympics, when you get to world champs, like if you don't believe it, it'll show up.
And,
Riley: Mm-hmm.
Tren Long: the part of the process, especially with younger athletes, is growing that self-belief so that when they get into [00:44:00] the fire, they, they're like, "I'm a fireman. It's go time. I'm ready for this."
Riley: But you, you mentioned a couple things there, and one of them that really stood out was that, um, you've got to love what you do every day because you're gonna do it every day, all day. That's gonna become your identity. And, and it's a parallel that I see... We always make fun of blue belts quitting in jujitsu,
Tren Long: Yep
Riley: And it's, it's just kind of a funny little thing in the, in the jujitsu world that we tease about, but it's kind of true, and it's... I think sometimes guys who stick and the gals who stick, it out for that 10, 12 years till they get their black belt, they just love being there.
Tren Long: 100%.
Riley: belts, belts, who cares?
Like, we just like being there, and it's, uh, the belt's cool. We always, we like it, but at the same time, the reward isn't... They're not showing up there to work out. They're not showing up there to do hard things. They're showing up there 'cause it's fun, those are the ones who tend to go through, and I, I, I think, and you tell [00:45:00] me what, what your thoughts are on this, but there's almost this, um... It's just not as hard for them. It's not a grind. They enjoy the, they just enjoy the process, and I, I found that at some point that clicked with me, where I was just like, "I'm just having fun with this thing. I'm just doing it 'cause I like it." And, and then one day the black belt showed up
Tren Long: Mm-hmm.
[00:46:00]
Tren Long: I, I think jujitsu is the most fascinating tool for self-introspection that exists. Like, I have spent I don't know how many year... Well, no, I know how many years. I've spent 22 years on the mats, and I've watched so many people come through, and I've watched so many different personality types. And what I love about jujitsu is that it makes you have to be honest with yourself.
Like, I'm not the best at this. I'm not the strongest. I'm not the fastest. And that's okay. This is still fun. Like, and that's like the blue belt blues is, "Oh, I got all belted up. I'm a blue belt. I should beat everybody." And then a wrestler with two stripes on his white belt kicks your butt and you're like, "Oh, wait a minute.
My whole self-identity was based off of this thing that around my butt or around my waist." And then you have to, you have to, like, recognize that and say, "Yeah, you're right. My identity is based off that. Is that what I want my identity to be based off of? Or am I okay with the idea of somebody smashing me?"
Right? Oh, [00:47:00] they're bigger and stronger. That's why they won. Like, yeah, no, they, they, they, they won. They beat you. They smashed you. They were able to control you. And I love watching that progress because, you know, white belts come in and at first, you know, everything is a fight to the death, and then they get some skills and they become a blue belt.
But then that's just the beginning of the journey. And that's what I've loved. I mean, I've had so many, uh, amazing... I, I don't wanna use the term revelation 'cause it's so cliché, but, like, honestly, like, uh, when I was getting ready for, for one of my... I was-- My wife has the greatest pep talks in the whole universe because I, I was getting ready for a fight, and I did a couple of MMA fights, and I loved doing it, but I was, I was cutting weight and my, somebody had punched me really hard in the face, and so my jaw hurt.
And I was being just a cranky, like, angry guy. And my wife goes [00:48:00] What did you think was gonna happen? You're fighting people. If you're not okay being in pain, then what are you doing? You're wasting my time, you're wasting the kids' time. Like, w- w- man up, Lebauch." And it was like, and I was already like, I couldn't chew, and I was hungry, and I was tired, and I'm like, "You are absolutely right."
Like, I signed up for this, and if I can't accept that, then I, I need to be okay with that, but I also need to recognize that the person that I am is the one that's saying I'm not okay with this. And it was awesome. It was like, she's given me two pep talks in my life that were, that I still think about fondly because it was such just like a eye-opening revelation of like, yeah, I get to choose the type of person I wanna be right now.
And it doesn't mean I have to win, it just means I gotta show up and be willing to do what I said I was willing to do. And so that's the beauty of jujitsu is it's sorta that same thing every day. Like, you get [00:49:00] smashed, you get smashed. I am a black belt and I lose to people, and that's great. I love it when I lose to people because that's me getting to learn.
Somebody, you know, crushes me and beats me, thumbs up. How did that work? Let's try that again. Like, let's go do this some more so that I can better understand my inefficiencies. But I think that that place to be is, it takes a while to get there and it's a hard for a lot of people to do. But I think that's why jujitsu, once you get hooked, like you're hooked for life.
Like once you make that jump to where you recognize like, oh yeah, great, what are you gonna do to me that nobody else has already done? Once you're okay with that, it sticks with you forever, and then jujitsu never leaves your life. I mean, I, I don't train nearly enough, but I know jujitsu will always be here and I'll always go back to it.
Even if, you know, I don't roll for two years, I'll go to class and I will get smashed and I will love every second of it because jujitsu is always there for you that way.
Riley: Well, so that's probably not exclusive to that, right? When you're, [00:50:00] when you're out there paddling on the water, there's, there's some addiction there too, right? There's that same, like, familiarity. There's that same love for it. And just like jujitsu, that varies day to day, right? Some days are better than
Tren Long: But I think jujitsu does...
Riley: gonna bring that out, right?
Tren Long: Yeah, but I think jujitsu does something unique because it's man versus man, right? If we look at, like, your typical types of conversation, man versus self, man versus nature, man versus man. When we're talking about man versus man, for whatever reason, at our base core, that's important.
It isn't-- And I don't, and maybe I'm being, what do they call it? Toxic masculinity or whatever, and maybe that's, it's a, it's a bad thing. But to me, like, at our base, I think there's something there, you know? It's like, why do you get so mad when somebody drives erratically and passes you and drives like an idiot?
Like, you go from zero to 100 because it's man versus man. And I think the same thing in jujitsu, and I think that's why it so exposes. 'Cause when it's man versus nature, you're like, "Oh yeah, the, I mean, the, the [00:51:00] nature won this time," but it's nature. It always wins. Where man versus man, you sort of take that excuse out.
Man versus self, you say, "Oh yeah, I'll do better next time. I'll beat me next time." And that's an easy loss to take. But when it's man versus man, when it's somebody your weight, your size, your skill, and they beat you, you gotta cop to it. But if you do, that enables a level of comfort that I don't think you can get any other way.
I mean, I know for all the times that I've been in physical altercations outside of jujitsu or even in MMA, even in jujitsu, I don't care. Like nobody in a street fight's gonna do anything worse that's not already been done to me. And so it's not that I would wanna get in a street fight, but when I've been in altercations, I, I, I didn't, it didn't, I don't care.
It doesn't bother me. Like, we, I've done this before, and I've recognized that, yeah, like, if I need to defend myself, I'll defend myself. I'm not suggesting we all go get out in street fights. But I also will protect my family. I'll protect [00:52:00] myself if I need to, and I'm totally fine with it. It doesn't bother me at all.
But I think that bit gets unlocked once you spend enough time in a sport that is man versus man. When you spend enough time in a combative sport that is as, um, realistic, I guess you could say, as like jujitsu. But it could be the same thing for MMA, Muay Thai, like any of the combative sports where you really go for it.
I think it unlocks potential in you that applies not just to the sport you do, but, like, across the board. Um, starting jujitsu, without a doubt, is one of the most enabling things that I've done in my life
Riley: Yeah. That's very well articulated, my friend. I love it. love it. So let's talk about this entrepreneurship. You, you had this stint where you founded and grew the Northwest Submission Challenge, that's a, that's a grappling event for the listeners who don't know. It's, it's, uh, submission, submission jujitsu. [00:53:00] Um, when you ran it and, and you built it up as a tournament, right? It was the, the traditional tournament where there was eight mats going at once, or 10 mats. Can't remember how many you had, but, um, I imagine that was different at different events, but
Tren Long: Yeah. We started with one.
Riley: was... It, it started with
Tren Long: Yeah. Yeah
Riley: built up.
Well, talk about that, because I think that's a thing where, again, you've got this established business with your family. You're either fresh out of or right in that zone of competing
Tren Long: Yep. Fresh out.
Riley: level, now you're starting up this new venture. So now you've pivoted again, right? So, um, yes, it's adjacent to the jujitsu you've been doing for a while, but man, this is a new venture, and you're going into this thing, Trent, without the knowledge of what obstacles lie
Tren Long: No clue what I was doing. No clue at all. So, uh, when I was coming up, like I started competing [00:54:00] 'cause I love to compete, so I started competing when I was a wel- white belt. I competed all the way through black belt. Um, and I-- we would travel to tournaments, and it was a thing. We would get eight guys in the sweaty van, and we'd drive down all night to Vegas for Grappler's Quest or drive out for Naga or whatever the, the tournaments were.
And we were doing this as every chance we could, but it was like, "Why are we driving 12 hours? We're driving 12 hours." And I finally, when I was a blue belt, I was like, "You know what? Let's just do one," because there's a, there's an appetite for it. People are... I mean, I look at my own group of, um, uh, teammates, and eight of us, 10 of us travel every chance we get 12 hours and pay hundreds of dollars in registration fees.
And so my goal was just to make a tournament using what I knew of the service industry and knew, using what I knew as being a competitor to make it the best experience that I could for the, for the competitor. Um, I, [00:55:00] uh, I... The goal was never to make money. The goal was never to do anything other than give the opportunity for other people to do something that I wish I had the opportunity for when I was coming up.
And it just grew. We just, we were lucky. Um, we had a really good set of support. Uh, Jeff Bourgeois from, uh, from Liberty Events out in Washington, uh, like two years in, he came out to be a ref, and he was a huge help just being able to commiserate with somebody else who's got the same thing going on. And, you know, it was the high tide rises all boats sort of thing.
And so I had a l- I was lucky that I had contacts with a couple of really, really helpful people that helped me sort of steer it towards what it became. And our last year, I think we had 400 athletes, so 400 actual people signed up. We were able to raise enough money that we allowed all kids under 18 to go for free.
Um, because to me, I did it one year because I had a couple of parents [00:56:00] like write me like, "Hey, is there any discount you can give? We really wanna send our kid, but we can't afford it." I said, "Yes. There, you got the discount." Um, but then that sort of triggered something, and I started offering it. I'd offer five or 10 scholarships, and then finally I was like, "Is there a way that we can just do this for free?"
We won't make any money on the tournament, but that's okay because to me it was more important for the community and the kids to have the opportunity to compete because I recognized, to me as a father and as a jujitsu dad, that that was important for my kids. And so I didn't... I wanted to do whatever I could to make that opportunity available for everybody else.
So yeah, by the time it was done, it was a, it was a big tournament. It was great.
Riley: So I competed in that tournament in 2015. '15? I think it was '15. What was your last year? What was the last year you owned it?
Tren Long: I'm so bad at years because I, I don't have winter. So I go from summer to [00:57:00] summer to summer, and so there's no like last winter. Um, I honestly have no idea. Uh, probably 20-- around 2015, 2015 or 2016, because when I started, when I was full bore training for-- that was one of the reasons is with my training schedule, I couldn't afford the time needed to do it.
So it had to have been right around then, 2015, 2016. I can look on my T-shirts in my closet and find, find the last one
Riley: That's awesome, man. I think it's so cool to see that, see that pivot. So, so when you got in there, what things did you run into that really were unexpected?
Tren Long: Um, one year the, um, they tried to regulate it like an MMA fight. So the Idaho Athletic Commission, uh, three weeks before a tournament in 2012, I think, they said, "Okay, uh, we're gonna regulate this, [00:58:00] so you need to have two grand for promoter fee. We need blood work on every competitor. Every competitor needs to have a fight license, which costs $250."
And I'm like, "What is this?" And so we actually had to cancel the spring tournament, and then I went on a rampage, six months politicking to be like, "This is ridiculous. Like, this is the most outrageous thing you've ever done." The solution wound up being is I formed the Idaho Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation, which was a nonprofit that then was the certifying body that was insured, that then became the regulatory body.
So I sort of figured out a workaround. So the Idaho Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation then became essentially like... Because there was no state, uh, com- there was no state, uh, company that, that was overseeing the sport. There was no international one either, because the IBJJF I'm sure would've wanted heaps of money for me to run a tournament under their name.
So I just stole the initials and made the [00:59:00] Idaho Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation, and that allowed me to work around. So that was one thing that I, I would've never expected. Um, the- other than that, because we sort of organically grew every year, um, it went pretty smooth. Like, I, like I grew up in the service industry, right?
So I mean, I grew up working in outdoor recreation, and so I had a good idea of the level of customer service that I wanted to provide. And to me, the goal was to make it as, uh, make the best tournament I could for the athletes. So good refs, good times, like a predictable tournament. So we like, oh, we were one of the first...
I think we were the first tournament, at least in Idaho, and I think the Northwest, to publish our brackets before. So you would know, because nobody would ever publish brackets, so you wouldn't know if you only had two people in your bracket. And I hated that because we'd travel to Vegas, and then you'd have one guy in your bracket who was from the gym across from Boise.
So it's like I drove to [01:00:00] Vegas and I paid 200 bucks for a registration, and I'm competing against a guy that I could go to open mat at his place and we could compete. And so we started, so we started publishing the athlete list so that people had an idea of how many people were there, and it just grew and grew.
I think our biggest bracket one year in white belt was like 48 people. It was nuts
Riley: Man, y- you just breezed right through a couple of things there that are kinda blowing my mind here a little bit that I, I want business owners to really listen to there. So one of them, you had mentioned back with the kayak company is, um, filling voids, right? You, you found these areas where there was just...
something was needed, so you created the curriculum of the swift water rescue, right? Well, now you get into this situation with the, the athletic commission, and you're just like, "Well, I'm just gonna create a competitor then that can oversee this sport,"
Tren Long: Yeah.
Riley: That didn't have any oversight to begin
Tren Long: Yeah
Riley: uh, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation [01:01:00] comes up. Um, this, it's, it's cracking me up because I... is exactly what we have to deal with in business, right? You're gonna run into some crap, and it's gonna hit you unexpected, and you've gotta come up with a solution. Now, your solutions are, they're super creative, and they, um, but they were necessary, right? And so you, you started this other organization that was adjacent to what you were trying to do,
Tren Long: Correct.
Riley: then it becomes a complement,
Tren Long: Yeah
Riley: not a separate subject matter. It's not another venture. It's very adjacent to and very complementary to. And that's the thing I want people to hear, man, is the... You have to stick with where you're at, and it has to make sense if you're gonna put the effort into it. So one was, one was making the other possible and vice versa,
Tren Long: Yeah
Riley: two things. fascinating, man. You, you really got my wheels turning.
Tren Long: No, I mean, it's like even doing the, the federation, we set up a nonprofit. [01:02:00] So we set up a 501[c][3], and everybody's like, "Oh, that'll cost you thousands of dollars." And so I went on the internet, and I'm like, how do you set up a 501[c][3]? It costs $200. You have to make a corporation, articles of incorpor- Like, uh, I have found in, at least in my life, a- and maybe it's just the way my brain is wired, but like there's always a solution.
You just have to be willing to, to find it and then figure out a way to execute it. So like with the Idaho Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation, I went from knowing nothing about nonprofits and nothing about like business structure to having to learn how to create a nonprofit, how to have business structure, who to bring in on the board of directors and do this whole thing.
And every... Like a lot of people were like, "Well, that's, that's too expensive. You can't do it. It'll cost you too much." And, uh, you know, it's like the trust but verify, right? Like, I heard what they said. I didn't ignore it and say like, "Well, no, you don't know what you're talking about." I listened and I said, "All right, I'm gonna take that on, uh, but I'm [01:03:00] gonna see if there's another way around it."
And I think for me, that's largely been, uh, that's been a big help, um, and has allowed me to sort of pivot and create, uh, the, the circumstances that I need to hopefully make something successful.
Riley: Man, so, uh, two or three episodes before yours airs, my daughter's is gonna air, and she's in the middle right now of... She's, she just did her second annual, uh, fiddle competition.
Tren Long: sick
Riley: And so it's right along the lines of it's, it r- There's so many similarities between that and a jujitsu comp that
Tren Long: Yeah.
Riley: it's ridiculous.
And some of the stuff you're saying is the same conversation she's having about, you know, you have to file a nonprofit. And she's like, "Well, I hear what you're saying, but I'm gonna stick my toe in the water and see if that's
Tren Long: For sure.
Riley: out, no, that's not true at
Tren Long: Yeah, exactly.
Riley: know? She...
Tren Long: Yeah. No, it happens all the time, and I, and I think if you're willing [01:04:00] to, like, pursue it, you know, I, uh, I taught myself how to do web design back... Like, I can literally learned how to code HTML because I needed to. So I said, "All right, let's do this." And it took time and it took energy, but to me that, uh, that ability to absorb skills and the willingness to do so, I think is something that's enabled me to continue to pursue my passions as I have
Riley: Yeah. No, it's so cool. My-- I don't know if you know this, but I, I own a mobile oil change
Tren Long: Yeah.
Riley: besides SALT Electrolytes, and when we started that, it was a very similar thing. We got into it, and I realized pretty quickly that I, I was gonna have to sell customers every single time if I didn't come up with some way to keep track of all the vehicles I was servicing. And so I did the same as you as I went and sat down and, and got my head in some code and learned how to...
Tren Long: Yep
Riley: a software that tracks every vehicle that we work
Tren Long: [01:05:00] Mm-hmm.
Riley: and is very scalable and, and it reminds us when everything's due. So we get this report every month with just hundreds of vehicles saying it needs this, it needs this, it needs this, and, and there we go.
We just call the customer and say, "Hey, man, it's r- it's time for a
Tren Long: That's right.
Riley: or another oil change,"
Tren Long: That's right. Yeah, no, that's how it goes. I mean, that's how you... No, but like I, I, it's just, it's just being willing, I guess. I don't know. I mean, that's the, it's the one, uh, common trait that I've always tried to pursue is just, you know, being willing to, to do the next thing and to be willing to, to adapt, change, and grow as an individual.
The more I know, the more I don't know.
Riley: man. There you go. We take that right back to
Tren Long: Yeah, exactly. 100%.
Riley: I, love it. All right, man, this is gonna be a complete pivot on subject
Tren Long: I'm ready
Riley: Again, something I'm really curious about. So you're, you're out there in Australia, you are coaching your son, okay? So [01:06:00] that's a touchy relationship with most fathers and sons. I wanna know that's been. You know, is it something that you guys have had challenges with or,
Tren Long: Yeah
Riley: has that just been silk- silky smooth?
Tren Long: No, no, no. It's been challenging across the board. Um, and it's, and actually less about my son and it's more about all of the people I coach. Because I started with my son, and so I had this preconceived notion as a coach, like, this is how it works. Because of my experience with him, this is how it works.
And then I started coaching my daughter. Totally different everything. And, like, I had to take such a big step back and understand that, that, you know, it's, uh, Coach Wooden, you haven't taught until they've learned, right? I mean, it's, it's, that's like the premise is that I have to understand how this connection is made, and I have to understand that it's different for every one of my athletes, and I have to understand that, you know, I always tell [01:07:00] people, especially if I start coaching a new person, it's like dating.
Like, you don't know if I'm full of crap, I don't know if you're full of crap, but we're gonna figure out who's full of crap and where we're full of crap, 'cause we gotta find this middle ground where we can connect and then we can grow something together. Um, and, and with my, with my son we've had-- It's, it's largely been pretty good.
It's hard as the dad sometimes because Dad wants to cry with him and, and be disappointed when he has disappointments. Um, but the coach has to find the right words to say to the athlete so that they understand what happened and how to push through. And so I think, uh, particularly w- with my kids as I coach them, where I've struggled the most is being there through disappointments because I can't be a dad and say everything's gonna be okay.
I have to be a dad, but I also have to be a coach and say, [01:08:00] "Everything's gonna be okay, but this is, this is, you know, this is what we learn. This is..." A- and it's, it's just a really weird relationship. I can remember, uh, when, uh, my son, in the 20... What was it? Two years ago in the Junior World Championships. It was his last year as a under 18 competitor, and he would've won.
He should've won. He was without a doubt the best kid out there, but he got a bad fault. So the, uh, judge thought he didn't go around a gate. I thought he went around the gate. He thought we went around the gate. I looked at the video, he went around the gate, but you can't overturn the judge's rule. And so part of me wants to be the dad and say, "They screwed you.
You are the victim here, and you should be mad." But the coach says, like, if we take a victim mentality as an athlete, then we're not gonna learn from this. What did we learn from this? We learned that this judge called this wrong. How do we make sure this doesn't happen again? 'Cause I was pissed. I [01:09:00] was ready to go drag people out of the booth and start wailing on them.
But that's what the dad wanted to do, but the coach had to, like, bring it back and use that as a learning opportunity. And so sometimes I can't emotionally connect with my kids the same way as I could if I was just the dad. But I also try really hard to, like, when we're at home, be the dad, and when we're coaching, be the coach.
And I try not to let those overlap because especially, like, when I-- I, 'cause I get, uh, I sometimes get frustrated with them as, as athletes, um, because they're not doing their part. But then on the drive home with them, sort of have to cut that off and then move on so that-- Because it's important for me as their father that they don't have those, those two things have to be separate.
Coach dad and, and dad dad have to be two different things. And so it, it has taken a, a [01:10:00] lot of, uh, time, I've taken a lot of time to try to make sure that I'm always being, um, present and relative to the moment. And, like, sometimes that means I sit in the car for 20 minutes after we get home and just shake, just going, "Well, 'cause you're so mad."
And they know when I'm sitting in the car that I'm just taking my quiet time. I'll be inside in a little bit. Um, but it's something that, uh, that I've tried to navigate. M- uh, my wife is a really good influence because, you know, she's always reminding me that I've gotta coach the individual, but I also have to parent the individual, and that those are two separate things.
And, um, I mean, I'm just lucky, like, uh, one of the other Australian coaches, uh, is the mother of two Australian athletes. So Jessica Fox is probably the most awarded kayak athlete that's ever lived. Um, and her little sister is the one that won the gold medal in Paris. And [01:11:00] so as the nerdy guy that I am, and I love to learn, I followed Myriam around because she's this little tiny French lady that's just as fierce as anybody you'll ever meet.
And I followed her around for months, and I just listened to her, and I just listened to see, because she coaches her kids the same way. And, like, you can always tell when it's going off because she's French and al- so all the girls speak French. So when, like, Myriam and Jess are yelling at each other in French, you know, like, ooh, it's going down.
They're yelling in French. It's go time. But I was lucky to have really good role models that I was able to avail myself to, to use sort of their lessons to help me sort of guide through what I'm doing.
Riley: You know, in, in my company when my, my wife worked with me for a while in the mobile oil change company, and when we were in team meetings where we had the two of us and then employees there, um, she would never call [01:12:00] me sweetheart or honey
Tren Long: Yeah
Riley: of things. I had her call me by my first name just like everyone else
Tren Long: Yeah
Riley: And we were pretty strategic about that because I didn't want that, those roles
Tren Long: Mm-hmm.
Riley: like you were talking about. I, uh... Yeah, I'm really curious about how that, that coaching goes because I, I, I coach my sons in jujitsu, right? so we're not, they're not competitive or anything, but it's still that, that role comes up sometimes. And for the most part, I'll let the other guys coach them 'cause I don't, I don't want them getting those, those roles crossed. But every once in a while, man, they're, they're coming to me for questions and, and it's, it's something I've really kind of had a hard time keeping separate, you know? When we're, when we're going on the drives home, I don't harp on them for if
Tren Long: Yeah, yeah, for sure
[01:13:00] [01:14:00]
Tren Long: What I, what I found with the relationship when the father bit breaks in the most, it's, uh, I'm really big with all my athletes of being a good athlete. And I'm-- And I try to just make it very specific for them. I say, especially when the kids were like teen, mid, early teens, where they're starting to know everything, "A good athlete tries as hard as they can, a good athlete listens and tries to understand, and a good athlete asks good questions.
If you do those three things, you will be a great athlete. If you take-- If they come to practice every time and they do those three things, then we will always be successful. Even if we're not doing well, we'll always be successful." And I notice every time, especially with, uh, as my kids got better, every time we butt heads as athlete and coach, it's because we were missing one of those three things.
They weren't listening, they weren't trying, or they weren't asking good questions. [01:15:00] And I, and I remind them of that. As the dad, I say, "Were you a good athlete today?" Because I'll, I'll kick them. I've kicked my kids out of workout so many times because it's, if you're not there, I'm not there. So I, I literally, uh, with, with Merle especially, he's way better now, but when he was 15, 16, I would kick him out of a workout a couple times a week because it's like, "You're not doing your part.
I'm here doing my part. You're not doing your part as an athlete." And I think that allowed us to create the difference relationship because my expectation of him was not to be my son, and I didn't get mad at him for being a total toolbox. I was frustrated with him because he was being a bad athlete. And as a parent and as a father of athletes, that's what's important to me, is if you're gonna pursue this, you're gonna be a good athlete.
I don't care if you do the move right. If you try your hardest and you try to understand what I'm saying, and then you ask good questions about it, we'll get through whatever this is. And each of my kids has had a different challenge that has [01:16:00] tested that theory, and every time I come back to these basics and it allows us to sort of work our way through it.
But, uh, it just takes time, and we have to-- Like, that's my goal, is to build good athletes first when they're younger so that then they can be coachable. Because, uh, like with Merle, he's no longer-- I don't coach him in slalom anymore. I only coach him in kayak cross. And so he's got a whole nother coach, and my goal was to hand off a pretty good athlete, and an athlete being not somebody who's physically capable, but an athlete is somebody that does those three things every time in practice to the next person.
And I can see a huge difference in his behavior and understanding of what's asked of him within the organization because of it. I, I compare him to the other kids his age and even the kids, the, the, the senior athletes that are a little bit ahead of him in the trajectory, and I see that lacking. And w- I see with him, he has a whole different [01:17:00] interaction even with the program because of it.
Riley: Yeah. Man, I think that's super cool that you're, you've learned how to navigate that 'cause I, it, it's just, it's such a challenge, and to do it at that level that you guys are doing it at is, it's really impressive to me.
Tren Long: It's fun.
Riley: I wanna switch gears again
Tren Long: I'm ready
Riley: we're, we're about an hour and 15 minutes into this thing, and I wanna, I wanna begin the, the landing here, if you will,
Tren Long: Sounds good
Riley: and with some questions, Tren, that are a little lighter for the most part, uh, that are more about you and, and Tren's opinions and, and, and your personality.
So can we, can we go
Tren Long: I'm ready. Hit me
Riley: Oh, all right, man. So the name of this podcast is the Go Earn Your Salt podcast. It's the tagline of our, our supplement, and, you know, it's, we, we love the phrase around here, but when you hear that term, go earn your salt, what does it mean to you?
Tren Long: To me, it means go do your work. Like show up, do your best, [01:18:00] and be prepared. Um, yeah, I actually love it. It's my favorite. Like, "Go earn your SALT" is, is the perfect slogan simply because I think in the athletic, if, if we have athletic endeavors, but across the board just in life, that, that, that premise, uh, being ready to go out there and do your part, do your job, I think is huge.
I'm-- It, it's fantastic. Yeah. So to me, that means specifically, like show up prepared and be ready to work
Riley: Mm-hmm. Trent, outside of, uh, whitewater sports, jiu-jitsu, what's your favorite pastime?
Tren Long: I mean, I like history and traveling and smoking meats. I'm a 40-year-old man. Isn't that what we all have to do?
Riley: Oh, dude.
Tren Long: Um, I love to travel. I'm, I'm a, I'm a total history nerd, so, uh, one of my favorite things in my lifestyle is we get to travel a ton, and I love to travel. Um, [01:19:00] and I always love to try to, as best I can, understand how the places we go fit into the history of our, of people.
Um, and it's endlessly fascinating to me. I've, uh, I've gone through so many time period, you know, specifics, um, but also just, like across the board, like traveling in Europe I love, but like we spent some time in Africa going to like the real history of history, but then inter-juxtapose that on the British Empire, uh, you know, thr- taking over the world and juxtapose that on their current struggles and strifes.
To, like, to me the whole thing is fascinating. I love, uh, the travel and I love understanding the interaction with history that every place has. Um, one of my favorite places in Italy is this little tiny, uh, it was a little airbed, uh, bed and breakfast that I used to stay at for coaching, and it was built in 1108.[01:20:00]
And so you're staying in this little tiny, like, cave room. But just to think that, like, people have crossed this threshold since 1108, it just, it, it, it just-- I could sit there for hours and just... And I, I don't know, it's not like you're absorbing history, but just understanding your place in time and realizing, you know, we're so lucky that so much of this stuff is accessible and so much of this stuff we can see and so much of the stuff we can experience that to me, like, that's the, the such an amazing gift that we get just through modern travel and, and history and, and being able to access, you know, through the internet.
You know, we drive around and we say, "Oh, what's that castle? Quick, Viva." And, and like, my daughter's my nerdy just like me, and so I'm like, "Go find out everything you can. This is where we are." And then we'll spend four hours reading every history bit we can about this random castle that we drove by, and then we stop and have lunch and then move on with our day, [01:21:00] and it's, it's the best.
Riley: That sounds so cool. That's, that's one of the things I wanna do is go see castles. I've been over there and I'd love to
Tren Long: Travel is the one thing that, that you will always have that nobody can ever take. Like it's, uh, I don't know what got-- I think just because I've been nomadic since I was a kid, like getting to grow up in like rural Chile and being able to see such a huge difference. Like with our kids growing up, it was really important for us for them to have a global perspective as opposed to like high school is important.
High school is not important. Like prom is not important. And if you expose them to everything, it makes everything much more relative. And so, yeah, I, I, I-- The one thing that I'll never second guess is our, our choice of commitment to traveling with our kids
Riley: Trent, what is, uh, something [01:22:00] quirky about you that people don't know?
Tren Long: I mean, I already said it, but I'm a ginormous nerd. Like sci-fi nerd. I read everything I can, and I've always been a nerd. I don't know what came from it, but, um, I am a huge nerd and, and like I go way down rabbit holes. So I'll pick a thing and then I'll spend a year just living that thing and then be like, "Okay, I'm good there.
We'll move on to the next thing." So super big nerd, love sci-fi
Riley: have any nerdy collections?
Tren Long: So I, uh, can't afford collections, but I can afford Audible books. And so my Audible library, like I got into Audible way-- 'cause I used to listen to books on tape, that's how old I am, then books on CD. And when Audible came out, it like blew my mind. So I think I've had an Audible account for like 22 years, like since it opened, since they started is when I started.
So, um, that's my collection, is my Audible book collection. If you ever need a recommendation, I got plenty.
Riley: You got it, huh?
Tren Long: [01:23:00] Yeah.
Riley: Trenton, what's your, uh, your favorite naughty food?
Tren Long: Pizza and ice cream
Riley: Mm.
Tren Long: could eat pizza and ice cream all day, every day.
Riley: Thick or thin crust?
Tren Long: Uh, it just depends on where we are. Like, I, the, I'm-- And the best part is I'm not a snob, and so I'll eat, like, any pizza, and I'm always willing to try a new pizza even if it's terrible. So I go thick, I go thin, just depends on where we are.
But like, I, and my kids were the same way, as now we're like, "Hmm, I really like the makeup of this crust." The g- I-- So when I was, uh, growing up in Chile, I, like, lived at a pizza parlor. So I was down there, and there was a pizza parlor, and the guy was Argentine. So Argentinians make the best dough in the universe.
Italians make really good stuff, too. French makes great everything. However, Argentine pastries are ridiculous. And so I spent so much time there that the, the chef, the owner, like, brought me into the fold [01:24:00] of, like, the exact how, where he sources all of his, uh, all the parts for the dough. The flour comes from here, and everything comes...
And so, um, I just like good crust. I don't care how thick it is
Riley: There's a, there's a little restaurant here in Boise called Tango's, and
Tren Long: Yeah. Oh, yes. Holy crap, get yourself a good Argentine empanada and it will change your life.
Riley: Yeah,
Tren Long: Yeah. Oh, yes, they are.
Riley: you have a nickname?
Tren Long: Um, yes, Nick... Well, so my name means train in Spanish.
Riley: Okay
Tren Long: growing up, like, they'd be like, "." They're like, "Tren?" I'm like, "Yeah." They're like, "." And
I'm like, "Yes."
Riley: Yeah
Tren Long: So, uh, Train has been one of my Spa- one of my names, and then my other nickname is, uh, Headacus. Um, if you're ever watching So I Married an Axe Murderer, when he goes, "Head, pants, now!" Uh, I have a ginormous head. All my kids have had ginormous heads, and so, [01:25:00] uh, it's from that. It's the head, pants, now thing that, uh, that's my other nickname.
Riley: Hedicus,
Tren Long: Headacus, that's right.
Riley: Oh, that's great. What's the, uh, the scariest moment of your life
Tren Long: Oh, I'm gonna cry. Um, we, uh, were in, uh, Chile during a 8.6 earthquake, and, uh, it was 90 seconds, and my wife was pregnant with my youngest. My daughter was very young and my son was bigger. Uh, uh, piled them in a bathtub and waited to die, 'cause we were just waiting for everything to crumble. It was an extremely long one.
And, uh, we didn't die, but I can distinctly remember just waiting for everything to go black. I had all my kids and family, uh, underneath me
Riley: Man, you, [01:26:00] 8.6 is big, dude. I
Tren Long: It's
Riley: sometimes realize, like, it's not slightly bigger than a 7.9. It's like
Tren Long: No.
Riley: bigger,
Tren Long: Yeah, it's, it...
Riley: that's the word.
Tren Long: Yeah. Yeah. It was, uh, it was terrifying. I, uh, I, I, that was it. Uh, I thought we were dying. Um, and the best part is where we lived, we lived at the base of a volcano. And I remembered watching the Discovery Channel, and they're like, "Oh, often volcanoes erupt," and it's an active volcano. Like, you can see the caldera burning red at night.
And so
Riley: Oh,
Tren Long: I remember thinking like, oh, after, uh, earthquakes, volcanoes erupt. So as soon as it stopped, we all chucked outside and got in the van because we were right in one of the lava run outs of the volcano. So then we drive an hour away, and then you sit around like, "Well, so how long did it say on the Discovery Channel until the volcano's normally erupt?"
And so it was wild. It was, uh, it was, I think it was 2008. I, like I said, I'm [01:27:00] terrible with years, but the last really big, uh, earthquake that happened in Chile, we were there for... We got actually stuck there because everything shut down. Aftershocks were happening all the time. Uh, actually got to go do a lot of...
Because we were able to, uh, every, like, every so often you could get like an email out. So we were actually able to raise a bunch of money from all of our rich American friends and then go buy, like... Because in Chile it's super rural where we live, and essentially you have the Pan American Highway that runs down the length of Chile.
Chile's 110 miles wide, 2,600 miles long. And so because the access is so hard, there were whole towns that nobody had heard from. So it's like, oh, 'cause, uh, I work a lot with fire departments, so we went down to the fire department. We said, "Hey, how can we help?" And they're like, you know, "The government is trying to stage, uh, aid to all these places, but here's these lists of towns that nobody's even heard from."
And so we would [01:28:00] drive to the one shop that still had food, and we would load up the trailer with food. We'd get every sleeping bag, everything we could find, and then drive to these towns and then try to help with the aid. And it was, uh, a wonderful, terrible, I'd never wanna do it again because it was so gut-wrenching.
Uh, but it was an amazing opportunity that we had just to leverage people that we could get money into to go to help other people Would not recommend big earthquakes. I'm over, like, I've been in earthquakes, I've been in tornadoes. I'm over natural disasters. I'm like, "No more natural disasters." I want none more because it was, uh...
I, I understood a lot more about looting after that, uh, after that episode. If you ever watch real looting, the first thing that happens is, is milk and diapers. 'Cause it was getting, like, we were 10 days without any communications, and they shut down the grocery stores. Grocery stores started running out of food.[01:29:00]
Everybody was starting to run out of food, no gas. We were lucky that we had water because we had a well, and the electrical service would come on for a couple hours a day. But, like, sitting there, it's like, if it comes to it, we need to go get stuff. Like I had a better appreciation. I mean, it's like I'm obviously not condoning looting, but, like, it was the f- I understood it.
Like, uh, at this point, I will do
what I gotta do for my family to, to eat and, like, no violence obviously or nothing. But, like, I under- It's funny 'cause now every time you see a looting, you always watch, I always watch the first guys out, and it's always diapers and milk. 'Cause that's what, like, a normal person, I consider myself a relatively normal person, I'm perfectly willing if that's what it takes to support for my family.
But luckily enough it didn't come to that.
Riley: Yeah, unfortunately a lot of looting we see in the US is big screen
Tren Long: Big screen TVs. Yeah, see, that's not, that's not need looting. That's not, that's not the okayed looting.
Riley: the same
Tren Long: No.
Riley: Yeah.[01:30:00]
Tren Long: No
Riley: Um, your life, what, what can you, what do you think of as the most valuable learning experience you've had?
Tren Long: I don't know. Um, let me think. That's a good one. Well, I think the, the as simple as it is, I think that the most valuable learning, the most valuable thing I've learned is that, is the ability to understand a perspective that doesn't match my own and recognize the value in it. Um,
Riley: Hmm.
Tren Long: uh, the ability for me to, you know, disagree with somebody but also recognize the value in what they are saying and what they're seeing, and appreciate that value without it overlapping my own is probably the most important, like, life lesson I think that, that, that I have.
Off the cuff.
Riley: said, [01:31:00] um, the best advice you've ever received
Tren Long: You only make money when you buy houses
Riley: Keep going
Tren Long: That was it. He said, "You make money when you buy houses. You don't make money when you sell houses." And so a buddy of mine is really s- if you think about it, you only make money when you buy the house,
Riley: think about it, the more sense it's making here, but
Tren Long: right? But
Riley: sure, I
Tren Long: no, no, no, no, that's it. Like, if it's not the right decision, it's not the right decision. If it's, uh, you can't quantify the decision you make now with an effect that you think is gonna happen down the road.
And specifically, when the, a buddy of mine told me that, and he's a super genius guy, he was talking about the real estate market, and he's like, "You only make money when you buy houses." And I didn't understand it, and I thought about it forever, but the more I thought about it, I'm like, "Well, crap, that's just true generally."
Like, if I make a decision for myself and my family, it's gotta be the right decision for n- [01:32:00] for now. It can't be I'm gonna do this because of this. Like, the right decision is gonna be the right decision, and I need to figure out what that is now, not what I think it's gonna be
Riley: so
Tren Long: the road.
Riley: it's saying that not to bet on some pie in the sky future potential, but it's like make it be profitable now
Tren Long: Exactly. Make the right decisions now. Like, make sure that you are taking the time to ensure that you're making the best decision you can right now. Because you don't make money when you sell the house, you'll only make money when you buy it
Riley: Oh, that's good
Tren Long: Right? And it's so overwhelmingly simple. He said that to me and I'm like, "I don't get that."
But then I-- like, he explained it again and I thought about it. I'm like, "Shoot, that's like a life lesson right there. That's not even like real estate words. That's holy crap."
Riley: Oh my gosh. Yeah, 'cause that, that, it's not just a single subject matter there, is it? That,
Tren Long: Pick, pick a thing
Riley: beyond. Yeah. who, [01:33:00] who has influenced you the most in your life?
Tren Long: Oh, my wife, my parents, and my pastor. Yeah. Pretty safe bet there
Riley: Yeah, you've, uh, you've mentioned your wife a couple times, man. Sounds like
Tren Long: She's awesome.
Riley: lady
Tren Long: She's got one heck of a job. I'm not kidding. I am, I am not the easiest person to, uh, be saddled to, but, uh, I, uh, I am lucky that I found her and she made one really bad life decision. It only takes one really bad life decision and you'll wind up being with me
Riley: You were a good salesman, huh?
Tren Long: Yeah, exactly. Or she's just really bad at making decisions, one of the two
Riley: All right. So you've got this giant Aud- Audible collection, right? What, what's the, what's your favorite book of all time, something everyone should read?
Tren Long: Oh, what's my favorite book of all time or one that everybody should read?
Riley: Well, if they're two [01:34:00] different ones, man, hit them both. I'm, I'm, I'm game
Tren Long: Um Oh, see, you're putting me on the spot. There's so many. Um, can I go favorite author of all time?
Riley: Sure
Tren Long: Okay, I'm gonna give you two favorite authors of all time. Uh, Robert Ludlum and Brandon Sanderson, two of my favorite authors forever. Um, uh,
Riley: did the Bourne series,
Tren Long: yep, I grew up with it. So when, like I was a teenager reading, I was sort of a nerdy kid in school, so I would just go read at lunch behind the gymnasium, and so I'd read all the, his stuff.
Um, the book everybody should read, I, I, I, I think the title is, uh, The Gift of the World, and it's a really tiny, short book. Um I'm pretty sure it's The Gift of the World. The Gift to the World. But I read it every year, and it's like 90 pages long.
Riley: that one?
Tren Long: Uh, I'd have to look it up. It's some weird name. [01:35:00] It's like a self...
It, it's in the self-help aisle, but it doesn't read that way, and it's just... I love reading the book. It's just such a cool story, and it's a cool way that, that, uh, really important information is shared. So, The Gift to the World, I think. And it's a, it's a weird, like... I can't remember the guy's name. But you'll find it.
I can go get it for you and bring it out here. I think I left my copy in Australia, 'cause that's where I read it. But yeah, it's a classic.
Riley: That's
Tren Long: Yep.
Riley: That's cool. Um, tell me this, man. What's, what's next for you? Where are you, where are you going from here?
Tren Long: Uh, the goal being to get the coaching thing and get my son and nephew to LA 2028. Um, they compete for different nationalities so they can both go to the Olympics together, and that's the big push until, until then
Riley: Are they... told me, I can't remember. Are they both in Australia?
Tren Long: No, so Kyler lives with us in Australia a lot, so my nephew's named [01:36:00] Kyler. A big part of the reason that we, that Merle defected to Australia was only one boat goes to the Olympics. So they compete in the same division, so they would have to compete against each other to get the Olympic spot. And I'm sure that they would do it gallantly and would be great about it, but by moving, by Merle moving to Australia, they can both go to the Olympics for their individual countries and then compete against each other in the Olympics, which then is good for everybody
Riley: Oh, that would be so cool. Get
Tren Long: cool.
Riley: there.
Tren Long: Oh man, can't wait
Riley: All right, man. Trent, where can you be found on the social media?
Tren Long: Um, uh, my in, uh, Facebook just Trent Long and I forget my name of my Instagram. It's World's Most Exclusive Kayak Cross Coach, so it's like W-M-E-C-T
Riley: Okay.
Tren Long: Yeah. I think.
Riley: it and we'll post it
Tren Long: There we go
Riley: yeah, I love it. love it so [01:37:00] people can keep up with you. But Tran, I appreciate you coming on here, man. We covered a lot of ground. You, uh, it's not lost on me the amount of time you set aside for this, so I, I really appreciate it, man
Tren Long: Happy to jump in. Thanks for having me
Riley: All right, my friend. Go earn your salt
Tren Long: All right, will do. Thanks.