Dave Wood

I mean, I live right by the ocean, and so...

Always been in and around the ocean, and that sort of growing up got me into surf lifesaving.

I did the paid lifeguarding here in New Zealand, which is 16 weeks over summer, working in the busiest beach in New Zealand, PR Beach, running a team of 12 people.

When I look back, man, I was like 19, and I had so much autonomy in that job to make decisions around how we manage the beach and how to run a team, which, you know, 19 years old, you're kind of just like...

I've made it.

You haven't made the mistakes yet.

Yeah.

To be able to have the insight to, look, basically like in that job, I learned heaps about human behavior.

I learned heaps about being calm under pressure because you're having to like, you know, rescue people and it can be a pretty full on job.

And I did a, I got a lifeguard exchange from New Zealand over to Cornwall.

to do the lifeguarding over there on the coast of Cornwall, which is an incredible spot.

And I did that for six years, and I made enough money doing that.

Their season runs for six months to travel for the rest of the year, and I got addicted to traveling then.

It was just like...

I grew up listening to my old man's stories about travel, which was all about hardship.

He traveled through the Middle East in a time you just didn't do that.

So my mindset around traveling was right, right.

When you travel, you really put yourself out there and you challenge yourself.

And so you got into all sorts of weird and wonderful situations in my travels, but...

I brought those experiences back to New Zealand with me.