The “Bros” Myrick and Ray catch up with performance boating’s literal Iron Man, Dr. Michael Janssen, DO.
Not only is “Doc” one of the most esteemed spinal surgeons in the world and the official Medical Director of the offshore racing circuit, but his off-duty passions find him at expert levels of snowmoblling, hosting the annual Powerboaters Snowmobile Rally in Saratoga, Wyoming every January, preparing for more Iron Man cycling and swimming competitions, advanced SCUBA dive instructor, certified brewmaster and founder of Snowy Mountain Brewery, avid motorcycle and UTV rider, organizing annual expeditions with friends, speedboating super-enthusiast, and dedicated husband to wife, Sharon, and father to children Matt and Madison––who all happen to be doctors, as well.
All ‘Doc’ is missing, for now, is his superhero cape.
This is ‘Doc’ Janssen.
Myrick Coil is the driver for the National / World Champion M CON / Monster Energy Class 1 and Super Cat teams, and National / World Champion Performance Boat Center / FASS Diesel Fuel Systems Super Stock team, Speedboat Magazine Test Team Driver, and lead shop foreman at Performance Boat Center.
Ray Lee is the publisher of the national/international publication Speedboat Magazine, where nine high quality issues are printed each year with global distribution, and popular social media platforms on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
With all of the “bros” experience, knowledge, and friends and colleagues in the industry and sport, this podcast is sure to entertain, enthuse and educate the powerboating community.
Hello Ray Le with speed B magazine here with another episode of the boats and Bros podcast and we are here with my bro Myrick Coyle and the one and only Mr doc Jansen Mike Michael jansson of um Power boo Fame how are how are you doc I’m doing great tonight thanks for inviting
Me to uh join you guys thank you so much for joining us you your resum is as long as as can be um it’s so impressive and and just I spent the weekend with you out in Wyoming at your parabo rally in Sarasota Wyoming um so Saratoga not
Sarasota I keep saying that huh you said that the other day I was talking to you I was like you’re in Sarasota well I’m gonna be in Orlando and he’s like well wait wait wait wait wait Saratoga Saratoga yeah so doc tell us about the uh the powerboat rally that you host
There every year um there we host a snowmobile powerboat rally it’s um and it’s in Saratoga Wyoming it’s always the last weekend in January um and it’s really great it’s about three months or two two to three months after the Key West last boat race um and so we kind of right
After the holidays it’s a great opportunity for people that have a lot of powerboat experience to take that to what we call the snow Wheel track um we kind of believe very firmly that 32 degrees water turns to freedom and that freedom is about uh 350 miles of trails
That get you to the back country to ride a snowmobile as fast as you want or can control um and it’s similar to what my R experienced with the boat racing because the weather changes the surface surface every day the wind the temperature the snow it’s not even it’s not a flat
Surface um and it gives people an incredible experience to go out there either ride together ride at different levels and have a wonderful time and we do it over three days yeah how long yeah excuse me how long what how long have you been hosting this this event
This event we’ve been hosting for 10 years actually we started this particular event for power voters in 2014 um with the Year Mike fiori passed away and we started off as a fundraiser for some things with his family and from that it really grew um at one time it
Was strictly powerboat Racers and then then there’s number of people that come with poker runs and we’ll get a lot of participants that just want to come and hang out with the people they read about and watch at races all the time um that like a snowmobile um I do find it
Interesting that we get a lot of participants that are great boat racers they call us up they want the fastest snowmobile with the biggest turbo and everything and they’ve never once even seen snow before so it is an interesting challenge but that just goes along with their personality um and their experience with
Motorsports yeah yeah I’ve I’ve never been snow Ming so I cannot relate at all other than uh I’ve seen tons of pictures and I’ve always liked watching it when you guys are especially you doc when you’re in those fields and you can stand that thing up on its end and really
Carried across the top of the snow and everything like that that’s pretty neat well we’ve been inviting you for a number of years and and you’re race partner come come a few times but we’d love to have you next year I guarantee you’d have a great time it’s a
Familyfriendly place um the kids have natural Hot Springs swimming pool outside whether it’s snowing or whatever that’s all Hot Springs um but it’s very familyfriendly and they would have a great time also yeah I’ve I’ve known DOC for a long time Ray and I can remember
When he was buying this uh facility and was going through his uh Renovations and all that and it was uh pretty interesting to hear him say how I’m going to put a brewery in and it’s already got these Hot Springs with the teepees around all this and it uh I
Think even a golf course if I remember correctly in the summertime uh stream that goes through there pretty pretty neat deal for sure yeah we have fly fishing in the summer you’re correct a lot of people will come and stay for a few days before they go to Yellowstone
Or to just experience Wyoming um we also have at UTV trips uh throughout uh the Snowy Range um golf uh Spa micro Brewery um and some people just want to drive up there stay for two days sit in the hot springs drink beer and then they get in
Their car and move on to somewhere else perfect I mean the the the entire event was s so top-notch you know Doc and Billy moof were were kind enough to invite us up there toh to cover it and um you know a lot of power boo Racers
Were there uh like doc said coming off of Key West and it’s it was so cool to see how uh the the racers kind of blow off some steam away from the race cores uh and and the race uh waterways and such and so uh we get there and um the
First night was like hosted a five course Gourmet Chef inspired meal by your Chef uh I forget his name but uh Chef Ted Chef Ted yeah supremely talented every course had a uh accompanying cocktail with it and um everybody just got loose and had a good
Time um we got that’s the day we got there and Doc and uh some others were it was their I guess first day of um snowmobiling which was the Thursday and then uh it just rolled into the weekend from there yeah the F the first day we went
Out uh a lot of people were concerned they’re scared they haven’t seen it they see this fast Mountain um and uh they got a map um so we pair them up with people it’s called a guest guide um they can either go along or they don’t they
Can ride the trails they can ride the powder they can get an experience with different snowmobiles and then usually by the second day then they want to Adventure out on their own and be independent because when you take off from where we start and you ride up the
Mountain you may be 30 to 50 miles into what we call the back country um they’ll sell some phone service so everyone takes a lunch that was all prepared and they can sit up there in the field and have some lunch and uh and there’s a
Number of warming Huts up there if a storm came in they can sneak into build a fire stay warm for a while and uh and that Friday evening we had a costume that’s cool that was a sight to see yeah every year it’s a different theme and this year it was your favorite
Farm animal so people come up with some of the craziest things for farm animal you know I wanted to be a sheep and put a fence over my head but I ended up being a snake instead oh that’s funny yeah I could see some people being pretty creative I actually
Saw a few pictures I think I saw a rooster and then I saw a pig things like that pretty funny yeah Billy Clint came he had never been uh with snow out in the mountains before from the previous Twisted Metal race boat from Sarasota um we had the Batman team there um
Whm Randy swe’s team Billy Allen um Rusty Williams represented performance boat Center I mean I could just keep going down the list of people that come and we have a lot of people that leave their snowmobile there and come once or twice a year um Alex brat and and and we
Take care of their snow mobills for them we uh put them in storage we summarize them when the season’s over we carry them out to the mountain and so they’re always ready for them and we do that out of courtesy at no charge to take care of
Them and they love it so they can just show up yeah that’s cool I think Russ Rusty was uh telling me that he was on one of Billy moof sleds and he had offered it up to him so that was that was a pretty genuine little gift or uh very nice of
Him so turbo machines Doc is an amazing Rider I mean his his sled I think you said it goes up to like 120 miles an hour and uh he took us out on a private tour on Saturday and it was all we could do to uh to keep up with him and uh
Uh WN Hagen of kkj media and I went out there and uh it had been both of our first times ever been on uh snowmobile and uh we were definitely thrown into the deep end and forced to swim to keep up with Doc but he’s an amazing Rider
And he dug out a lot of people that were stuck including myself that’s great that’s a lot so I hope we can get you out there next year we will guarantee to show you a great time you bring your family you’ll have a wonderful time that’s awesome I appreciate it I know
How it is to be uh left by doc uh not not on purpose but just because his skill level and his machine but it was on a motorcycle and we went touring the West uh I actually I think we met I remember that yeah we went to we met in
Uh New Mexico somewhere and I caught up with the group and he had a Harley waiting there for me and then we went riding through uh redcliff canyons and through the Arches and uh all this fun stuff out west and uh ended up going through the uh what’s the cut outside of
Denver where you go through it was actually snowing on top of the hill that uh that tunnel uh Eisenhower Tunnel pass it was snowing up top I remember yeah yeah it was like the day we were started off the day and we’re in this you know the desert in this warm weather leaving
I think the Red Cliff Canyon that day and then we it was a long ride that day and then we went up through levelin passing it up in diver and hopping on a plane and uh they had a he had a guy in a with a truck following behind with a
Trailer in case anybody broke down and things like that because when the the group was as large as it was people do break down or crash or whatever it is you know and uh it was a lot of fun we went to the Four Corners uh where you
Can be in four states at once it was it was a memorable trip that’s for sure I forgot all about that I if I recall I had a gentleman that could only do two or three days on his bike and had to fly back to Germany and so I was able to
Recruit you to fly in pick up his motorcycle and join us the rest ofp that’s exactly right and you guys were on like sixspeed water cooled v-rods and I was in a five-speed Street Glide and I was wide open the whole time hence my story trying to stay with these guys
That were like uh I don’t know how fast they were going I think mine would go 105 like downhill they were going like 140 that’s a great we do a trip like that every year um and we get different people to join us with bikes some of them rent bikes um
Many times last few years and Roger neighbors who I think performance center takes care of his boats um he drives a support truck and trailer for us with his wife um and they bring all the tools all the liquor all the luggage and they’re always pulling up this big truck
That says Snowy Mountain Brewery and a trailer in the back and so we can always have an extra bike and fix everything and on that’s cool I remember some guys I think it was two brothers and they actually said well I’ve had enough we’re just going to put our bikes on the
Trailer we’re going to ride in the back of the truck anyway but yeah it was a nice option for him to to have at least yeah that was a fun time I remembered I forgot all about that one yeah yeah we go way back from uh when you had the
Naughty Marine right down the street yeah from where my home is at Lake of the Ozarks and uh I remember I coming to your wedding out there and uh it was it was amazing time yeah Terry actually uh gave me one of the greatest gifts uh I was actually
I don’t know broke I guess I should call it getting married and and uh Terry your brother came in and uh shot all the pictures for my wedding and just gave them to me and I I pull them up uh quite often it’s like very nice gift that
Terry gave me yeah that’s awesome yeah we weren’t too far away from each other no right down the street so speaking of Doc’s uh resume I mean he’s a super skilled snowmobile Rider an avid uh motorcycle rider uh Advanced diver scuba scuba instructor and Iron Man dock you’re doing cycling and and swimming
And you’re you’re just non-stop oh I decided it was time to get in a little better shape uh my daughter um which my Rick knows real well Madison both my kids became Physicians started uh doing these Iron Man um 703s and I was a fan um and I decided you know
Maybe I should try to get into this and start off with the relay which means you do one part of it and then do two parts of it and my goal this year is I have four events like that I’m doing a 100 mile Mississippi ride in May I’m doing
An Iron Man Iowa in June and then I’m going to Germany and doing 112 mile event in July and then I have two more in September and October so this year I’m I have a full-time nutritionist a full-time coach I try to get up every
Morning at 4:00 and ride my bike and get swimming in before I go to the are and I’ve really became addicted to it so it’s a good enjoyment that’s amazing that is cool uh I’ve always known you as being an early riser especially when your uh go fast boats are going up and
Down the lake about I don’t know sun right at sunup and everybody’s calling me and going hey you gotta quiet them boats down I go it’s not me but yeah go ahead some people sleep schedule is different than others I mean you know you know the law you when the sun comes
Up you can go ride yeah I I just it was one of the things I always remember like well I can tell docs down this weekend you know anyway but I I was thinking about when you’re talking about uh the these like you said Mississippi 110 mile or
Whatever is that on a bike is that is that what you’re talking about a bicycle it’s a road bike there are three kinds of bikes you got a mountain bike which probably wouldn’t be what you would do you have a road bike with the curved handlebars and then you have what’s
Called a TT bike or a time trial bike where you’re lean forward like this the whole time for more aerodynamic um and so you probably either ride a road bike or a TT bike uh the TT bike is not as comfortable but it’s much faster um and you use a
Different set of muscles when you’re forward more of your quadriceps than you would in the swimming part or the Running part so you try to position your body to use different muscles for different phases of the events yeah that’s sounds amazing you can get it
Down to for me at my age I can do the 56 miles and 2 hours 45 minutes to 3 hours um and and that’s you know carrying all your nutrition and that’s even like in Mexico where it can be 95 degrees wow yeah yeah you know that that
Reminded me I think I I think I remember this correctly didn’t you write drive a UTV like all the whole West Coast or something this summer or something I mean yeah what what Cape do you wear when you do all this stuff it’s like Superman I recruited I recruited a bunch
Of power boers and about half of them were at the event this weekend Ray um Jeremy tsha and um the dentist David Collins and a number of my friends and and Joel Bean um and we all flew into San Diego go um and we joined up with this company called off the grid
Expeditions and we rode these Canam side by sides and my wife joined me as a co-pilot from San Diego to Cabo San LCA 1700 miles down the Baja um and took did it in eight days we had two full-time mechanics in the back and at night they
Reminded me of my because I were all partying at a restaurant they’re changing Transmissions changeing Motors changeing gear cases and everything so that by morning everything was ready to go and they had two or three guys on the machine um fixing things or whatever busted just so that you could ride it
And the interesting thing is is that then they load him on semis and they hauled him all the way back from Cabo back to the United States when we stayed in a Cabo and then flew home most amazing eight day trip I’ve ever been on down a third world country in yeah
That’s I bet some good good stories I mean yeah you should try that I mean a lot of people always looking for a new adventure and and that that that fits one of the top Adventure that’s cool so Dr Mike Jansen uh one of the Premier spinal surgeons in the nation in the
World um tell us how you got into the medical field um I’ll make it brief I I grew up in De Moine Iowa um and I was working as a mechanic for my father he owned a London garden tractor business um and had a distributorship for Toro and
Wheelhorse um and I always had a desire to go to col college and I was the only one my family that ever had any desire to do that um and so I went to college for four years and studied Sciences um applied in went to medical school in
Kansas City that’s where I met my wife Sharon um we’ve been married for just under 40 years um and then after that I had a big interest of using my hands so in medicine you can decide whether you want to treat chronic disease you want
To be an ER physician you want to be um a general surgeon and an orthopedic surgery is probably where you use power tools on patients so that’s great um and you look at things and you see things that are broken and you figure out how
To fix them just like my does you look at and every one is different so I had this big Fascination to orthopedic surgery and Trauma where I did that for five years in Augusta Georgia and then I really wanted to specialize and so I subspecialized in spine surgery and
Trauma I lived in Switzerland for a short time and then my wife and I moved to Denver and we were going to stay for one year and then go to Kansas City and practice for the rest of our career and I love the Four Seasons in Colorado I like
Taking care of patients that are very active and like skiing and mountain biking and all that so we never left and I started a practice there um and now have about a dozen surgeons and Allied health professionals and there and I do around 400 to to 500
Surgeries a year um in managing patients and we also built a training facility in Denver um mri’s wife uh came and joined us for a time of her life trying to figure out what she was most interested in where we have surgeons that come from all over the world and can watch surgery
Transmit surgery they can work in a lab on cavers and practice new techniques and things and that’s all part of the facility that I built in Den well yeah it’s a beautiful facility too if you have everybody there and the the room that he’s talking about where
They do the teaching and everything is like a big feels like like a College auditorium or something like that with the stadium seating and everything it’s been a while since I’ve been there but it was neat yeah we can do surgery and talk live and have surgeons talking to
Us in China um I’ve been doing surgery there in our Surgery Center where there’s a hundred people talking to me live in Switzerland at a spine conference and they can see everything that I’m doing and talk to us live the only difference is the time zone so
Sometimes I got to get the patient to come in at 2: am so that it’s 10:00 a.m. in Europe and and do the surgery so it’s just a little tough to do those but it’s a great way to share knowledge and experience and for me in medicine
There’s two ways to make the better world a better place one is one patient at a time and two is transferring knowledge and experience to other surgeons so they can make a ripple effect wherever they live yeah I can remember you traveling to China quite a
Bit you for a nonprofit that where you were training people over there I think is that correct correct um I built this was a chairman of this nonprofit foundation in Switzerland in Davos where I’m going to the day after tomorrow and we have 255,000 surgeons worldwide um in
This foundation and the overall goal and it’s self-funded is to transfer knowledge to all over I’ve had over a hundred International Chinese surgeons come to Denver and spend time with us most of them are professors and very experienced and and they get operate with me they get to see patients we also
Take him snowmobil and do some motorcycling and other things to give them a cultural experience um but it it’s it’s a great thing and I’m there before covid I was there probably three or four times a year and now we’re just starting to travel back there
Again and Doc you had told me just this past weekend that out of all the uh extreme sports and and hobbies that you like to do surgery is still your your biggest passion absolutely it’s what you spend the most amount of time um becoming great at and you know I believe just
Like I think my Cel when he trained somebody you know I can TR give them a skill but you can’t give people a talent they have to develop it and not everybody develops it at the same time yeah which what what point did you think well obviously when you were in
College or when you decided that you were going to be a surgeon and then you can take this stuff that you learned being even even as simple as being a lwn more mechanic and being like like oh this is this is you know similar you
Know I got to fix this but I don’t get to shut it off I think you’ve told me that before I gota I got to work on it with it running uh but you know was it like you’re right at right in med school or you know years into it when you
Decide that you knew that you’re like man this is really clicking for me I understand it and I’m going to be good at this yeah I I that’s a great question I host a lot of medical students and they come to me like I don’t know what I
Want to do they’re halfway through medical school they have no idea what they want to do and I always tell them to spend time talking to their friends about their own personality and look into the mirror if their personality is they want to do a shift work and they
Want to put in 12 hours and go home maybe they’d be great in an ER if they want to work in a community and be experienced to do a whole lot of things but maybe not be an expert at them Family Medicine could be great for them
Um if they are the personality that wants to help people with chronic diseases smoking diab diabetes obesity but they never really cure anybody those are fields in internal medicine for me an Orthopedics you have to have the personality you look at something it’s broke I look at somebody walk in and
They got bow legs like Billy Allen has for a while someone can fix it okay and so or when someone has a broken tibia and a broken leg you can look at it mechanically say this will work and this won’t work so I think a lot of it has to
Do with your personality and your and your skill level and we hopefully drift people and if you do that then they’re gonna be satisfied throughout their career that’s cool that’s cool it it’s funny being the mind the mechanic mind that I am and you talking about these
Different types of even being a doctor you can relate that with different types of being a mechanic you know it’s just it’s just at a obviously at a whole different level but but very similar I mean if I my boat and my’s helped me with my boat many times
Different boats when you come in and look at it you know his mind is turning and he listens to it he listens for the vibration he’s looking the way that it feels and the customer stand there going what’s wrong with it what’s wrong with it what’s wrong with it well that’s the
Same thing when somebody comes in with me did you look at my MRI did you tell me what’s wrong with it and instead sometimes it’s a it’s a process because everybody’s a little bit different um and you can only give him your best advice and Myck and I joke because the
Only difference between what he does and I do is I have to work on the motor when it’s running and he can shut it off and work on it okay yeah and so we laugh about it that way yeah yeah I remember that conversation many times and there’s
So many people that and even day-to-day people that I know from around here at the lake that have met doc or you know boat Racers that you know you get talking oh yeah I know him and then I mine was from being a neighbor and being
A friend and being a colleague in boats and stuff like that and then they go oh yeah I went out to his uh spinal surgeon spinal surgery uh place and uh he fixed me and I was like really no kidding I was like that’s that’s that’s got to be
Uh rewarding rewarding that’s what I’m looking for yeah but even yourself I don’t want to tell them about your medical history that you were getting ready for a boat race at the shootout if I recall you couldn’t hardly walk remember well yeah yeah so that one was
One and he had actually looked at my MRI and found that they were overseeing something to where I had a herniated disc and it was coming out and it was pressing on my spinal cord and was making my left leg feel like there was water running down it so uh he had
Contacted the the the ER or the MRI the image reader and told them they screwed up and then they said okay well that at that point I was all about doc taking care of me so if medicine fixed it and we didn’t have to go in there and lob it
Off or whatever but uh do doc docs also helped me uh I think it was metor Ohio I couldn’t even hardly get in the boat and I had muscles in my back that were all tensed up and he was describing how it’s like a rope and a couple strands tighten
Up and then that’s why it’s doing it and he I felt like a uh professional athlete going in because he’s giving me shots in the rig before we go in for the boat race but it was uh it was extremely helpful it was one of the roughest races
I’d ever been in I was like man this is not good timing for me to be going in one of the roughest races I’ve ever been in and having a back issue but doc fixed me up well we try to keep you away from surgery and you’ve done well a couple
Times so that’s great yeah thank you well your pass passion is is so strong that you’ve also translation translated it into being the medical director for the offshore racing series um yes you know I um I decided I don’t know around 2019 or 20 right
Around before Co I at this phase of my life I I raced in ke West with Brian forehand and I was so sore for days after this long race I said it’s really not best in my interest but I like to help I knew enough about
Boats and the skate patches and the O2 rig by being a scuba instructor that I said I would would would love to offer my services and I do it as a volunteer to the race organizations um when I can go um and try to help work as a as a
Buffer between the producer and the dive team and be there to help support and and I really enjoy like when I’m in Key West I take all the divers out to do we talk about the plan what we’re going to do and I trust them 100% they’re incredible great great team at these
Play events and then my job is to hopefully be there um the minute they come out of the water and look at them in the eye and make a decision do they need to be treated do they need to go somewhere and if I make a decision
Because I know him that let’s watch this I don’t think you need to go to the hospital right now but if it changes they’ll call me up and I’ll come over to their condo and see them or whatever um and just be part of their team I tell
You tell you what it makes me feel way more comfortable knowing docs there at a race um just because of like he said he understands the boats and you know it’s his friends that he’s he’s thinking and making decisions for so what better what better way of doing it and obviously all
Of his uh his experience and credentials you know makes gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling also well even beyond that uh doc you told me that um you don’t accept any pay for for your services at the offshore races tell us why um a couple reasons
Number one I want to find a way to get back and I understand that races are a challenge between the producer collecting enough sponsor money and a variety of things um and for me I when I traveled around the world to teaching spine surgery it my wife realized it’s
My passion like a religion so she accepted me being gon and if I do this um and I pay my own way I book my own flights say take care of my own lodging and I go there for the whole weekend to help it it’s doing it the same thing and
I also you know in medicine we have uh medical litigation issues always and we all pay I pay a lot of money for medical malpractice insurance and even though I practice in m in Colorado have licenses in five other states I’m fortunate because my insurance carrier tells me
They will cover me 100% to do this work if I do it as a volunteer which is what I do around the world so for me that makes it a very simple I don’t really need the money that’s not why I do it but I do it a way to give back each
Year thank you very much for that yeah it’s amazing but before that you were also a national world champion offsh show racer for a number of years I raced in the three different boats they were all V bottoms I don’t have any experience in the catam I realized the at this phase
Of my life it’s probably not best for me I even um but I I did I raced with Brian forand um who at one time was in charge of Fountain and now runs his own company with marker 17 Marine I think we raced seven years and won five four or five
Times and it was a phenomenal uh passion for me I liked it um but the downsides weren’t as great as the upsides um only because I I I lived in Denver and at the end unlike Myrick and other teams when the races were over I had pieces parts
Of motors and drives and everything in Key West and everything would get shipped back to Lake of the Ozarks but I’d be in Colorado it’d be snowing I have no idea what’s going to go on with all this equipment and then’ be four or five months before I got back and that
Was always a little frustrating because I’m a very organized kind of person about that so we we found ways to overcome that but um I I don’t really see myself wanting to do that but as long as I have a medical license and and welcome at those events I I I’d rather
Do that for this space instead and many times I bring other doct with me last year in Key West I had that the Dr Kelly re has lives in Key West she’s a great ER physician highly respected it’s helped me a lot um and then I had two
Other doctors that were visiting me that I were training one from Singapore and another one and they both came to all help as part of the team yeah that’s cool they uh the process of uh what you’re talking about leaving Key West and then trying to get everything I
Mean it’s another month of work and I can remember being your neighbor and you buy in that building on top of the hill and then it would be like I got to come back I got to get on my propellers together I got to get all this and it it
Would basically fill up a barn and it did take a lot of time and you know a lot of money to to get all that done what always amazes me is teams like Myrick and other teams you know they’re always helping each other out at these
Races and events and they loan this and Loan this and they’re always so busy I don’t know how they keep track of what they loan to somebody and case people would come to me hey I loan you borrowed I borrowed this from you a year ago I
Forgot okay so I don’t remember but that’s just I don’t know how they keep track of all the different things I mean they’ll Harvest parts off their spare Motors now people yeah so they can continue to race and be out there yeah it is it’s a definitely a big family and
You always want to win with the most competition there that way you can you know say that you’re the best because if somebody isn’t there from something that you might have the part for you know it’s uh it’ be a sad deal but yep it’s uh I’ve always thought it was uh cool
With the the different variety of boats that you’ve owned I can remember uh when riding with you and the Stampede boat when it was open and I don’t remember I think it came with 600s and braavos and then you took it to 1075s and sixes uh if I’m correct
Yes and I think Bob Teague tested it then if I recall Bob Teague and Tomlinson were doing a lot of testing and Publications that time power yeah yeah and I think I ran like 144 145 M hour or something it was unusual for a V bottom okay and then I
Came up with a crazy idea I had operated on Reggie Fountain he came to Denver I fixed his back um and my it was funny because when he walks into the O the surgery hospital he’s all in black so Fountain and everything down his names
And my staff goes who is that guy you know they really didn’t right they thought it was Elvis Presley okay I mean that’s kind of the way it looked but he was such a gentleman and he had all the staff with VCR tapes plugging them into
The TV after surgery to tell him to watch you m it’s racist that’s anyway I went to him and I said I want to do something different I want to take this open canopy 42 foot pokerun boat cut the top off make it put a canopy on it and I
Want to race it in Key West he thought it was crazy um but that’s what we did we we did it and we raced it for a few years and it did great it raced a cat killer and I gave Benny Robinson a hard time this past weekend because I told
Him we beat him and he kept saying that he broke and I said doesn’t matter if you’re broke exactly okay um and then we sold it and went to Trinidad where a lot of those boats went the cat killer went there the global warmer boat um my the
Stampede boat a lot of those boats went to Trinidad for that great car break yeah Global warmer was that Dan Davy’s boat yes friend of yours that actually lived really close to you there at the lake yeah he just bought another closed canopy out our limits I can’t remember
Which one it was it was a 42 foot something I can’t remember he’s getting it painted and he was back into that scene again so that’s great that’s cool that’s cool so yeah we had that boat and then we Mike fii came to Brian and I and
Key West and wanted to build a 29 because remember he just came out with that shorter 29 MH and the problem we had with the Stampede boat is it was in a vbottom unlimited or extreme class well that the number of boats in that class went down and down and down
Because there was no budget right I me you could do anything no rules no budget so then I said if we really want to race let’s get into a class in vbottom that has the most number of boats and so that was a at one time it was called Super V
Light and then they went to Super V and superv extrem as they change power yeah and so Mike Fury build us this carbon fiber boat Brian and I and designed it and we ran it as a snowy Mount Brewer yeah um and then I also had uh the
Fountain one just like it it was a 29 called watch your back watch your back y we raced those two and one time we raced both of them at the same time in t West with a two- booat racing team I remember that I remember that I’ll tell you one
Quick funny story about that is that I was racing with uh another gentleman named Ryan and Brian forehand was racing the outer in the same race with a friend of mine named Mark tuck and um something happened to my throttleman and we he couldn’t race after the first day um it
Didn’t work out so we needed somebody so I called my daughter who was in college in Seattle and asked her to fly down to join our race team for Friday and Sunday and so she did and she jumped in the boat with Brian and Mark jumped in the
Boat with me and we raced two boats on the same RAC my wife kept calling me and says the announcers are wrong they keep saying my daughter Madison’s in the boat she’s in college in Seattle I never told her so until both race days were over
And then she finally figured it out yeah and then she probably went to ring your neck yeah exactly what would happen were youting that issue and and just not answering the question directly yeah I just kept saying I don’t know I don’t listen to the radio that’s what I
Said funny but she did fine and she had a great time at and then she flew back to college she was on a college soccer scholarship at the time she had fun doing it too both of my kids had a great time in the boat and uh you I learn a
Lot from writing with Myrick and and actually when Myrick was working for Dave Scott and and they both recognized I had this boat that went really fast and and I probably could use more experience they set it up that my boat got sent down to Miami if you recall and
John Tomlinson spent two days with my son and I just driving the boat giving us all the pearls that he could and Dave Scott and and Myrick set that whole program up and I’ll never forget it we became great friends and I learned a lot yeah I remember
That I mean as as a wonderful teacher as you are in that case you were a student what what was the biggest takeaway from that learning session that you got from Johnny how difficult it is for him to tell you what you should feel and be
Able to try to feel it yourself it’s similar to snow skiing someone that hasn’t skied on snow you should do this and do this and do this but you have to be able to feel it to understand that for him it was just natural I mean he’s
A very talented guy and it was incredibly natural um but it took a while to be able to get that feel when you adjusted the tabs or adjusted the drive and you could see how the boat behaved a little different I think it takes what they brag all the time is
Seat time you know um and uh that’s something that for me it took quite a while to get it myri works on boats all day he was building the boats on the naughty team that I think was Dave Scott and John Tomlinson and then sometimes I watched where he would go to
A race when they were running two turbo motor had two boats and doing different things or and and Myra could do all the testing and stuff and it’s just about field I guess and that’s the talent and the problem is in power boating you don’t have people can go if they have
The money BU as my rig knows any boat that goes as fast as they want with no experience and we would think that the limiting factor would be getting insurance so therefore they can’t without experience but that is a limiting factor you don’t need a Le a license today yeah yeah it’s very
Different it would be like extreme cars but you know a boat is a lot harder to handle than a car and and I could think of it being as like uh if you’re a pilot like of a helicopter and a lot of people go off of how many hours you’ve done it
Uh to like kind of Judge how good you are how many Landings or how many you know how many of this how many of that but you know in boating you don’t keep track of that so you really don’t know how experienced you are uh because there’s really
People people don’t log it the way they you know could possibly do it is that a problem for a lot of the customers that are buying new boats Myck that is it more difficult to get insurance if their experience is lower and how do they judge experience sometimes it’s
Just the number of years you’ve owned the boat theye that’s more experience you can buy boat put in a garage for two years and now you got experience yeah so that that is a problem right now it’s you know it’s they they base it off of boats that you’ve owned before and then
You know how many years have you owned a boat but most of the underwriters and most of the people that they’re giving this information to don’t have any clue on what they’re you know what they’re listening to you know you could they could tell them you know I have a uh 38
Scarab you know say it’s a 90s model and it has a th000 horsepower and they’re going to say oh you know no we decline that compared to you know an outboard cat that might have 300s which obviously if you do the weight to power ratio the outboard cat’s going to be much faster
But the person that’s getting uh writing the writing it doesn’t know how to judge it so that’s why you have to go to specialized uh you know like wiia or to wosen craft or to uh well I was think maybe uh I was wondering with the death
Of uh uh Rick Felson because he was uh I think I forget the name of his dollar was it dollar or anyway Hawk sorry Hawk racing uh Rick Felson was and he just passed away I wonder what the customers that were going to him if they’re going
To go to uh ex insurance or stuff like that because uh a lot of those uh you know race style you know it’s kind of like a Lloyds and London application it’s it’s a high risk and uh they they really don’t even ensure the boat when
It’s on the course they just ensure the boat and transport and liability and all that stuff so it’s a it’s it’s a slippery slope can can I ask a question M how do you when you at performance a customer has a boat issue and they want to go for a ride with you
How do you guarantee your safety when you’re getting in a boat with an unknown person that goes really really fast do you always do the driving and or run the controls so that you can control it I mean I can’t imagine you’d want to sit there and be an observer and watch them
Yeah so 90 90% of the time other than when I’m teaching somebody uh I’m in control of the boat and I’m trying to do do like you were describing trying to tell this person you know the variables that I’m trying to to watch when Direction how
Big was the boat we just passed you know what kind of boat we’re in to know uh the different things to tell them to make it where you know the boat is doing the right thing and is it at its Optimal Performance and at its safest attitude
So you know I guess my judgment as to be able to say whoa whoa whoa you’re not doing it right and you know most of the time it would just be like knock their hand back on the throttle or just alert them to say hey you don’t have to prove
Anything to me you know and I I feel outside of my comfort zone I’ve had to do it a few times uh it would be rare but I’m probably more of a wuss than most people are sitting in the passenger seat because I can feel what the boat’s
Doing and know what the person might be doing wrong so at that point I’m playing I Devil’s Advocate being like hey slow down we need to we need to regroup and you know most of the time when we’re selling a boat whether it’s one boat that we own which isn’t as often when
It’s a consignment boat we’re doing all the driving as a uh as a professional showing this person what the boat’s capable of and you know I’ll sit there with them right beside me in the passenger seat going do you want me to do anything else with the boat do you
Want me to go 30 miles an hour do you want me to go 100 miles an hour do you want me to go through turns you know that way they feel that they’re getting as much as they can experience as they can without actually having control of a
A brokered person say say for example your boat was for sale Doc and you’re like well I’ll let my drive it but I don’t I don’t want this guy that I don’t know driving it so that’s where you try to make the consign feel warm and fuzzy
Knowing that we’re just not going to hand the th the throttles or the steering wheel over to just anybody basically sure how important is it though if you say this boat runs 141 and they want to see it run that fast or I mean you could cut some of the fuel down
And you could do this yeah but I mean that they get tied to a number sometimes you know it’s it’s yeah I’ve told stories most of the time you know we’re like hey say that say that the number is 141 you know obviously it depends on what
Boat and 99% of the time they’re not going to get to experience that with me being uh in the boat with them when they’re buying it you know I I might have a video of it I might be able to go yeah with this propeller pitch with this
Slip factor with this RPM the boat is capable of that but due to the fact that you haven’t bought it you know and there’s in at risks and all this yeah we’re we’re not going to we’re not going to try that today so but you know if if
I if I will run them up to you know 120 125 and show them that it does that pretty easily because 140 M hour boat should do 120 125 fairly easy so at that point you know you can show them hey see how hard it pulled you know because a
Lot of the times in these boats when and you know doc once you get to that top speed the boat kind of starts doing the weird stuff under acceleration when it’s really loaded up and pulling it it’s a different animal it’s just that last 5% of the mile per hour that you’re looking
For that makes it a little hairier yeah I would assume it’s the same I mean even when I’m training for Iron Man most of the time we do our training at 80% of your maximum performance and maybe that’s some number to prevent injury most of the time I
Assum yeah yeah yeah prevent injury and you got maximize recovery I mean the athletes that are you know competing in the NFL they don’t go out and run sprints at the maximum all day long they train train train and then they have that ability to do that for recovery and
Probably it would be the same I assume you guys would probably say look we only take the boat to 85% a maximum and you can experience it and that’s it yeah yeah that makes sense well speaking of Doc’s boat doc tell us about your boat it’s beautiful
Outer Limits thanks um right now I have uh my from the longest I have a uh yellow Outer Limits close canopy boat um Mike Fury didn’t make many of the close canopy boats it has a 1350 1550 Motors in it um when I first acquired it um I
Liked the boat I watched it when it was being shown at the Miami Boat Show I think there was a Russian customer that had designed it with Mike Fury um and it had some Teague Motors in it and I converted it over um to the um Mercury
Power the 1350 1550 I’ve never knock on what even ran it on, 1550 power swich the keys but then you got yeah and then I got to change the fuel I don’t want to do all that you I just want to go ride the I have hard enough time finding time
To clean it because I’m very particular about making sure it’s clean and waxed all the time but it’s got air conditioning in it it’s got five seats it’s really dark inside so you can see out real well and every time I get in it
It gives me a great smile on my face for the thrust and the way it handles and the way it looks when it pulls in and for me it’s a piece of art I I love it I worry about it when it sits on my dock
Because I got to go clean the bugs off every day and I’m happy sometimes when it’s just sitting in my barn and then I can put it in and use it and take it out and I like taking and then I have a 38 center
Console a fountain that I had um and uh I I love that boat uh it’s the you know I had it in myle testify probably before center consoles became popular Lake of the ozar L people kept what is this it’s a fishing boat why do you bring a
Fishing boat and I go it’s the ultimate boat to Pile in people and go to a restaurant have a dinner go somewhere and socialize and it has three 300s on it and and it’s a great boat and then my father um passed away a year or so ago
In early 90s and he had two boats that he saved all of his money for a 72 and a 73 I believe Century cornado fiberglass boats that he bought at Lake of the Ozarks from this place that doesn’t exist anymore by dog days called linkx Landing um and I took over both boats
And it completely removed all the interior and had both Motors converted to fuel injection um and rebuilt both of them to make them look like they’re brand new and they’re 50 years old they just gorgeous I remember when your dad had them how gorgeous they were even at
That point too it was so cool watching your mom and dad uh let me think Betty and Harold and they you he always had these boats that he’s talking about are they’re enclosed uh to a certain am they have a windshield and they have a little
Top on him and I can always remember to have a little flag flying on the back and I’d watch him putt by the the shop all the time it it was always it was always a treat to watch Harold and Betty out in their boats and my dad would take
Her take her skiing and he made her skis in the bathtub he would never go by them he would soak the wood up because he was a carpenter bend the skis up like that put his own bindings on and pull her around the lake early in the morning
Before anybody got up and that was his big catch and he he passed away at 92 and my mom’s Betty’s still 93 and she’s doing pretty well wow that’s great the your dad was such a good dude I mean I I can remember his he’d come down he’d
Open up the trunk of his car and he’d have scrapbooks and he’d have everything and and he would hang out at the shop for hours talking to me then and then uh yeah it was it was just great having him around yeah he was a Korean War veteran
And Mar and the Marines and he loved to talk about you know his life and his experience and boats and he would sit around and even watching Myrick and say wow you should do it this way or you should do it this way on his golf cart
Yeah and he was a great mechanic and he could look at a problem and tell you what was wrong with him yeah he would he would even have all the uh X-rays of his back and show me all the work that you did to his back you know right there
We’re holding him up to the sun looking at looking at his back and all the screws and stuff that he had in it wow yeah he had bad problems and I reconstructed his back and put like 18 screws in his spine um and fixed it and
Straightened it up um and I treat him just like I did anyone else and um you know at times he didn’t think I was a great son because I was yelling at him to get going you know after surgery but uh I’ve been blessed I’ve surgically reconstructed my wife’s spine and my
Dad’s when and still have all his X-rays and when my dad passed away Myrick uh and and had it cremated I made them give me all the hardware back that I put in his spine so I still got wow that’s crazy I understand you used to give him
Quite a hard time when you were younger p in the envelope about about a golf cart and a radio station yeah you know at Lake of the Ozarks it’s a little um not as as it as may be out on the west coast in California so you guys still have that garage sale
On the radio you know where people can call in and sell things so yeah so I would call in and tell my dad’s stuff was for sale just so that people would it was free I said it’s free you just got to come pick up his golf cart and
All this and he’s sitting on the dock and got hundreds of phone calls because everybody was coming to try to get his stuff and he was so angry about it yeah that’s you know that’s what you do that’s the relationship that my’s gonna have with these kids you know and and
You build that over time and and that’s some very precious and all of us are very fortunate to have people both friends and family around us that we’ve all learned from yeah for sure uh I lost my my father two years ago and and I
Miss him every day so I know what you it’s hard yeah there’s just unanswered questions so w so while doc you and I were snowmobiling in Wyoming Myrick was getting inducted into the apba Hall of Champions for the third time with mcon racing and Monster Energy so congratulations bro congratulations yeah
Thank you very much I appreciate that I know that uh Tyler was there and Tyler was uh bumming because Tyler said that he had been out to your snowmobile rally before and that he wanted to go but he knew that uh this thing was coming up
And and all that so yep it was a it was a neat event and it’s always cool to to meet new people and especially uh in the apba it’s such a broad spectrum of people that are getting this Awards it might be uh a 10-year-old 12-year-old
Kid that runs a little J booat around with a 15 horse on the back you know that might have done 80 races this year or it’s unlimited Hydro uh you know like the old Miss Budweiser bow or it’s offshore racing so uh yeah I’m very very fortunate to be
Part of a team that’s uh getes these Accolade so thank you very much how many years you been shooting for that Myrick and what’s your next goal H well you know I I had never really shot for it but I’ve gotten it three years in a row
Uh one with Rusty in the performance boat Center uh fast diesel systems boat and then two with Tyler in the Supercat class uh and I don’t know it’d be neat to I I I was actually looking through the uh book the other day and I look at people’s names that I recognize like
Johnny tomlins and obvious was my mentor and he’s had it four times so I’d like to try to shoot for at least tying the Old Goat you know so anyway so who else was your mentors besides John Tomlinson do you think really helped you develop your talent in boat
Racing well you know try to take a little bit from everybody you know being around Brian forehand even talking about V bottoms and you uh because we spent a lot of time on talking on the phone uh and you know having conversations uh but probably Johnny Tomlinson Dave Scott uh Randy
Sism uh you know and then you got to think about all the Mecha mechanics uh Matt Patterson Steve Wallace you know all that really comes into play so those would probably right off the top be the the people that mattered the most to me uh whether they were teaching me how to
Keep a boat going or whether they’re telling me what I’m doing wrong and a lot of those guys are good at telling me what I’m doing wrong so uh you know it sometimes that helps you know if you have somebody that’s that’s quiet that really doesn’t tell you hey do it this
Way you know it takes a little bit longer to learn so uh I’m I’m good at being criticized and uh and can usually handle it so Bob teague’s also another good person that has taught me a lot about boats and being how to run a boat
Properly and be safe and all that stuff but yeah how about you doc who was uh who was your Mentor because you you’ve had to have learned a lot about boats well I think what really started my you know my father helped me early on just to be around boats I was very
Blessed and then I think it was the Turning Point as I mentioned earlier when you and Dave made that opportunity to introduce me to John Tomlinson and I took the track all the way down and spent time with him and his wife and went to dinner and since then he trusted
Me I took care of his mom’s neck and he and his wife’s spine problem and we kind of came into that family um and then when it really started with racing obviously it was with Brian beforehand um we had a LoveHate relationship I’ll be very upfront about it you know there
Are times when uh we really couldn’t get long in the boat you know but um he was a really uh charismatic guy that that knew how to feel boat he just didn’t have I don’t think the ability to transfer that knowledge to other people right away and that wasn’t something
That was in his DNA I think that’s changed dramatically um he runs incredibly successful business and can modify and develop people and he has a son now about five and so his mindsets changed a lot and I learned a lot from him but a lot of the same people you’ve
Talked to I I worked with Matt Patterson and and um and Steve both great mechanics at Lake of the ozar my would share ideas and talk to people bob te’s a guy I could call 24 hours a day regarding something and he calls me 24 hours a day regarding his medical
Problems and I help him out too so it goes both ways it really does but it’s an incredible organization of people I learned a lot from Bob Bull and Bob has helped me with so many things you know incredibly generous person when he had his shop and stuff if I ever needed it
Yeah and if I remember correctly you and Billy Allen have been friends for a long time and it was due to maybe vacationing at Lake of the Ozarks in mil Creek at a similar Campground or something like that actually goes back much further when he was about 12 he worked for me
When I was managing my father’s business in Iowa wow I didn’t know that LA and garden and so that’s where he became a lot of his mechanical skills he didn’t have a lot of things going on with his family and my dad took him under his
Wing and he became part like of our family I have a couple other brothers and so we became really close and employed him when he I think he made an announcement at the snowmill event maybe it was 11 or 12 he started working for me W um and we’ve been friends ever
Since then and and if he ever needed anything um I would do that but yeah all the way through he became a really good mechanic working for me when he was 11 or 12 I remember Ry the first the first time I ever met Billy was with you and
We took a ride in the Stampede boat and uh we actually had a drive failure way up the uh glaze arm but uh we had a long Idol and we really got to know each other on the way back through that long Idol the whole time but yeah yeah he
Told me he kept he came and helped me as a pit crew with Brian and I one year and he had a lot of experience in racing stock cars he was really great at racing stock cars and he kept say I’m GNA get in this boat racing and you hear that
All the time too myri I go yeah sure you’re gonna get in boat racing and Billy goes no I’m gonna do this I’m gonna do this and now you look at it I mean he has a house in De Moine that the entire house is built around his rids
Where the boat goes in the RV goes in and everything he walks out of his bedroom and he’s in his shop it’s part of his life and uh he’s very passionate about that yeah that’s cool is that why you you kind of Base uh like the snowmobile rally around parter and and
Other parties that you host at like the Oar around power boers is because they’ve been so in instrumental in your life yes and I think the more I offer for me that it’s an incredible experience to do what they do on the water what I can do
In the snow in the middle of nowhere whether they come from Florida North Carolina Missouri it is completely different as you just experienced first time in Wyoming yeah and once I turn them on to that they really get addicted and they remember it and then they think about it doesn’t interfere with their
Race schedule it’s a time they can all get together um the end of January is always worked well and it’s uh I think just a great opportunity to pull everybody together yeah for sure so that’s the seroga Hot Springs Resort in seroga Wyoming which also houses your snowy mountain brewery which
Is a brewery that you started and you got a degree in to learn how to do it properly yeah about uh in my I’ll tell you you know we had a very small Brewery up in Saratoga and I didn’t know a lot about beer except I enjoyed drinking it
You know like most people and so I told my wife I Saidi want to build a state-of-the-art brewery the best one most computerized sophisticated micro Brewery in Wyoming and she goes you don’t know enough about beer you can’t do this so I read a bunch of books and
She goes that’s not good enough so then I went back to school at reges University and found out that they offered a masters in brewing and it took a year and a half I was the oldest guy in the class of course I had to go back
To the lab and grow yeast and do all the chemical analysis and change the chemicals of water and do business plans and I finished uh the first one and then I said okay now I’m going to build this Brewery and we made it so it’s all computerized it’s made the company like
We my probably will say you know Mercury is one of the you know better Motor companies well the best in Brewery is called specific it’s out of Vancouver it’s the Cadillac Ferrari of all Brewery equipment and that once I put that all in it was easy to find a brewer now I
Have two and a half Brewers and we have a canning machine machine um and we have 23,000 customers a year coming to the town to drink beer and to soak in the hot springs so yes we can distribute it but I can’t even keep up with the people
To come to the resort we we have a hard enough time to can it to send it to other places besides within the state yeah yeah I I remember when you were first doing it you would bring The Growlers and uh I still have a few of
Those Growlers in my man my man cave to you know show off the snowy mountain brewery and all that yeah and some of the guys from the SE racing team Casey would come over all summer long and ask me to bring him three or four K kegs all the time
Because he put them on tap on his stock that’s cool yeah that’s awesome and I got a chance to taste most of your beers and they are delicious so U hats off you on those very well done well doc I want to thank you for joining us it’s been an hour that just
Flew by uh you just blew me away with all the stuff that you’re into and how how much you get into it and uh how passionate you are about everything and how you take everything to the nth degree on on everything that you do so thank you for all you do for offshore
Racing thank you do for everything you do for the industry you’re incredible you’re welcome and Myck don’t forget we tried to we taught you the basics of scuba diving too yeah yeah you went to K I went to co KL and he had a master diver there and I got to dive the
Wall I got to dive a wreck I’m I was telling that story just the other day I mean yeah it’s lots of uh great stories with Doc yeah so thank you very much I wish that all I I wish all of the powerboat Racers would get the basic
Certification and Diving so they don’t get scared in this dunker and they feel comfortable hanging upside down that would make L I made Brian forand do it because I rate it and I used to talk to John carbonell about it and he says well the one time we tried to push it we
Encouraged it in this super Boat International or SBI book they didn’t have people do it it’s not that difficult today you can do an online course first and then you do the the pool sessions in open water but it would make them feel so much more comfortable
That they’re okay to breathe they can get a clear regulator they can do things um and I take those for granted and once you learn as if you dive it it would be safer for everybody if they would take the time to do that I agree
100% yeah again thank you doc uh safe travels I know you’re heading off to Europe in a couple days and uh yeah just and then just goes on from there so um yeah he’s got a few he’s got a few miles under his belt yeah I know I can [Laughter]
Tell I’ll be in for about 10 days so nice this has been another episode WR some Bros podcast with Doc Jansen um incredible man thank you marick good seeing you congratulations on the Hall of Champions again doc thank you for an incredible weekend in Wyoming and please remember to subscribe like rate and
Share uh the boats and Bros podcast and we will see you on the next one thank you doc thank you thanks everybody this podcast is powered by speedboat magazine subscribe now at speedo.com for nine powerp packed current issues a year direct to your mailbox oh
