Finding Substance with Kyle Daniels
I know some people who have been put in a box by their peers, for better or worse, due to an overly domineering attribute that outweighs the rest. Then there are others. You’re not quite sure what you’re getting. It’s a bit of a mixed bag and right out of the gate you understand it’s a bit more of a complex scenario. The truth is everyone has multiple facets to what makes them, well them. But when you take the time to understand their story, things become far more interesting and at that, relatable.
Kyle Daniels I have the privilege to call a friend. Yet, he has often times left me scratching my head. On the outside a buttoned up, well spoken, intelligent, polite, likable, middle aged male who is married with 3 beautiful children. He’s the kind of guy if you were standing behind him in a grocery store line, he’d let you go in front of him because his shopping cart was full and he noticed you were only holding some bananas. That kind of guy. And if you were to look in his cart you would see things like a loaf of sourdough, some kids snacks, diapers, water, dental floss and maybe a pint of ice cream. Nothing outrageous. For comparison purposes, things you won’t find in Kyle’s cart - Jack Daniels, oreos, cigarettes, or a People magazine. The last few times I saw Kyle his shirt was tucked in and he had some polished shoes on and for context he graduated with a degree in accounting, worked for a tax firm and today is a successful real estate agent in the South Bay of Los Angeles.
Many know Kyle this way. Some know more….
A couple additional pieces of Kyle’s story…
he is the all-time winningest athlete in the iconic Catalina Classic paddle race dating back to 1955. The roster of participants have names like Greg Noll, Laird Hamilton, Tom Blake, Joe Bark, Jamie Mitchell, and others
LA County Lifeguard Captain
multiple ironman finisher
multiple marathon finisher
rode his bike the length of New Zealand
published in Outside magazine and the Surfers Journal
So how does an accounting degree put you in the middle of a 32 mile open ocean paddle race? And furthermore how does it make you become the most dominant athlete in the water? When I think of Poseidon I don’t necessarily picture him holding a trident in one hand and a calculator in the other. But maybe I’m mistaken.
Over time these questions began to come in to focus for me.
Calculation. Anyone who is going to be the best, must be calculated. Assessing the goal and backing in to a plan, that gets boiled down in to the most granular and what I would consider at times mundane, daily rituals, habits, practices that in succession, over time, result in the set outcome.
Curiosity - most of it for Kyle seems to be an internal exploration if anything. Accolades are nice and at times he even admits to the quest for approval from his peers, but he’s found those to be fleeting. As soon as they show up, they’re gone. It’s more of a deep curiosity. An understanding of aptitude and where the boundaries reside. But why? Many go through life erring on the side of contentment and comfort. But Kyle opts for calculated curiosity in order to find the outer edges of self exploration and success. But why?? Many and most are perfectly comfortable right here. When I asked him the ‘why’ behind it all, you could see he had to dig deep for the answer. I watched as he looked up in to the sky searching. After thoughtful contemplation one word seemed to have accidentally fell out of his mouth….
“Substance”, he said.
Pause. Let me quickly pull the definition of substance: the real physical matter of which a person or thing consists and which has a tangible, solid presence.
Substance.
5,6, 7 grueling hours in the ocean, on the bike, or propelled by a pair of running shoes, all comes down to….”the search for the real physical matter by which a person has a solid presence”, also known as “substance”?
Maybe. But I think there’s more.
Could it be that the search for substance is not singularly limited to an inward exploration, but could we make the argument that it can also be a search for something far greater than ourselves?
You ask any paddler and they will tell you, they have met this substance. It’s rare. But from time to time the ocean has a funny way of revealing things that expand our aperture and remind us of how we are merely participating in something much, much larger that is happening all around us.
And so I would be the one to contend that Kyle is not limited to simply a really good paddler, or a top producing realtor. Could we reframe it to say maybe he is an avid seeker? A seeker of more. Desiring the transcendental substance of life.
To prove my hypothesis….
Time, age and injuries have taken him off a paddle board and forced an early retirement from the LA County Lifeguards, but new horizons and new adventures have taken the form of things like: fatherhood, vocational reinvention, provision and household patriarch. And what I’ve noticed is there is no separation between the 6-time paddle champion and the now spit-shined, top-producing agent, husband and father that lets you go in front of him in line at the grocery store. He is still is on the quest for more, but it takes on a new shape. He embraces the hard, remains curious and holds a laser focus on the adventure and joy that comes with the substance of life. And it should be said this road is not easy. You get dirty. You get tired. Much of the time it’s not very glamorous and most people deliberately choose to avoid it all together. But for the select few, when the race is over they get to look back and are able to stand tall. Taller than the rest because they chose to fight for life in whatever form that may come.
Well done Kyle. Keep going. There’s more races worth winning.
