The Reale Deal Show #95- Jacob Reeve

One of the most iconic rippers in the sport during the 90s and early 2000s, Santa Barbara’s Jacob Reeve had all the talent and skill to be a dominant figure on the world stage. But his sponsors had other ideas. Jacob tore the bag out of his local spots and together, helped cement the reputation of a group of riders north of Los Angeles as…to use a cliche…a force to be reckoned with.

Jacob talks about his bodyboarding days, including his first time pulling off an ARS, BEFORE Eppo introduced it to the world, and how he came up with the idea, and spans his more recent life as a business owner, father, husband and a man deeply committed to his faith.

Thanks for tuning in to the real deal show brought to you by ebodyboarding tocom and tribe boards ladies and gentlemen boys and girls of all ages J reel back at you with another episode of the real deal show and this is where I try to get indepth with some of the figures the

Personalities the famous and the infamous of the sport of bodyboarding and today have with you Jacob reev how are you Jacob I’m doing great thanks Jay dude you’re looking I’m I’m glad you’re here with me and you’re looking fit as a fiddle looking great you get got Suns

Out guns out the whole thing happening um it is it has been a long long time since you and I have spoken interacted probably more than 20 years I think I don’t know I can’t remember it’s been a while maybe like yeah might have been 15 or 20 years since we’ve spoken

We’ve interacted a little on the internet right through social media but um and I’ve seen the occasional picture um but likewise yes but for those of you who don’t know who Jacob reev is and by the way it is reev not Reeves no s on the end um Jacob is one

Of the legendary body boarders from the the Ventura California area Santa Barbara Ventura Corridor if you will now living in ohigh I believe am I right about that that’s right you got it right so right in between there and a little bit in land and Jacob for those of you

Who have been around this sport for a while was one of the top Riders of that era around the 90s early 2000s he appeared in many a bodyboarding video if you go back in your catalog you’ll see uh the likes of Jacob Teran ing apart those breaks up in that neck of the

Woods and on some trips I got uh the privilege of traveling with Jacob to New Zealand many years ago which I’ll pull up a photo of later when we get to that but um Jacob I mean let’s let’s start with the basics how old are you now uh

48 48 just a youngster Man compared to me so uh a spring chicken if you will and um you are married to Kimberly how many years now uh we just celebrated 27 years which is exactly pertinent here because that New Zealand trip you had just come back

From your honeymoon when we went on that trip I don’t know if you remember that but um I didn’t remember exactly when that was yep a little factoid so uh 27 years congratulations you have built an Empire a Reeve Empire up there by virtue of I believe six children am I correct on

That that’s correct very prolific Kimberly you poor thing just kidding man that is fantastic and what are the age ranges of the kids uh 23 to 12 wow that is a big age range now did I read correctly that you have two grandkids now we have two grand kids our

23 year old has two kids y wow Grandpa Jacob and Grandma Kimberly that’s awesome well let’s let’s go back a little bit Jacob before we get into what you’re doing now and talk about your bodyboarding life I mean did you grow up were you born and raised up there in

Ventura County or Santa Barbara County which which town were you from there I grew up in Santa Barbara okay so you were driving down to Ventura primarily to ride waves because I believe is that right because Santa Barbara’s pretty flat in the summer right yeah the summertime’s terrible in Santa Barbara

Uh at most places but I start I started really late I started I first time I really got a bodyboard I was 14 wow and and uh and and you know it’s pretty flat in Santa Barbara but we started going in the summer and by the time I you know

That summer my 14-year-old summer I just fell in love with it and so on my birthday in November I asked for a wet suit and uh and then I could you know bodyboard all winter long and then uh Phil harnsberger I met Phil harnsberger that first year at uh High School our

Freshman year and so we you know and and there was a couple other friends we started a little friend group that just love bodyboarding and there’s some Surfers in it too um but yeah we uh we just went around then we started hearing about the waves in Ventura so we started

Going down there um and Phil and I actually before I owned a car we bought a boat and we started boating up to the ranch Hollister Ranch not many people know about that place in the bodyboarding world but there’s about there’s a there’s two private ranches north of Santa Barbara about 40 minutes

Um and if you can get access there’s about 20 reefs that are just absolutely perfect it’s different than anywhere it’s similar to Indonesia uh like the texture of the water and the way the swell comes in but it’s glassy there like nowhere else because there’s these

Huge kelp beds and the winds are the trade winds are offshore there so it’s like this really special unique one-of a kind place and um so I kind of grew up going up there uh with Phil and a few others was John Kenny a part of that group like because he eventually started

Producing videos uh John lived in Ventura um but we I think he came with us one time I and we almost killed them um we miscalculate there’s there’s this Reef coo Reef that breaks like a mile out to sea but it’s like dead flat and

Then a set will come and it’ll be like 15 feet and it’ll break way further that out than you would ever imagin we thought we were out far enough on our little boat and um that’s the only time I think we brought him and a wave like a

15ot wave broke out so far out past our boat and Phil who was Dy who was captaining the boat at the time decided to turn off the motor so he could think about what to do which the worst and I just started screaming at him and we have all the

Camera gear and everything in the boat and um he made the right decision but we just barely went up the face that’s a vivid memor this one of my Vivid memories is almost capsizing in our little boat like a mile out to sea uh near Point conception well the ranch is

I mean it’s a legendary location everyone in surfing knows about it but you know you don’t hear much about bodyboarders going up there and of course now there’s a move to make the ranch public I’ve yeah been seeing you know various posts and information about

That but um so far it remains a private domain so you still have to launch a boat at gavota right and then or you know someone yeah it was it’s I have a funny story about that um when I was in high school when I was a senior I had an English

Teacher and um we we were supposed to write stuff and I’d write about surfing and the the English teacher pulled me aside one day and he said hey I noticed you uh you surf and I said sure and and he said you know I have a ranch parcel

And I have a daughter and I don’t have I’m not married or anything and I I go up there and I just after school every day I go up to the ranch at noon he he got off at noon and he’s like and I just

Sit there and watch the waves and I need someone to trade off uh surfing with me and watching my daughter would you be interested I said me me me and so he came to he got me out of school I he helped me ditch school at

Noon uh and the first time he picked me up I had a bodyboard and and body boards kind of weren’t allowed up there wow and he was so bummed when he picked me up but he took me up there and he’s like you just go first I’m gonna kind of hide

Out and pretend I’m not with you want to be associated with you because you had a body word that yeah but I went out and I took the scraps and um you know all the older Surfers up there uh they were really good in their day but they’ve all kind of gotten old

And so they kind of try and do the same thing and fall off every wave most of the time I don’t want to disrespect them but a lot of them that’s how they surf and um so I was just having the time of my life and he you know I had that’s

Right when I had invented the AR ARs and I was doing arses and he was just blown away so he started taking me all the time so that was like a gift because those waves are like a wave pool they break the exact same pretty much every

Wave and you can really Master you could decide what you’re going to do before you take the wave on all those waves it really improves your skills when you ride quality waves no no doubt about it but you buried the lead right there Jacob and what I mean by that is you

Just brushed over a very important point that I was going to bring up in this conversation and that was the statement that you made about inventing the ARs now there has been much debate over who who invented the AR ARS obviously Mike epon introduced it on a global scale

Because he was videoed and photographed and did it in contest but a lot of people say that Jacob reev another guy uh Alistair Taylor and there’s yet another guy in Australia his name eludes me right now all independently did that maneuver without knowledge of each other

So when was your first ARs and did you consciously do it or was in an accident well I I don’t remember the exact date and I will give full credit to those other guys I know Mike epon invented it too because I saw his the video of it um but everyone that knows

Me knows that I was doing them too around the same time and the time we can figure out when it was is um when uh the inside came out remember the inside that movie sure Scotty Carter yeah Carter yeah so in that movie Chad Barba uh gets a wave I think it’s either

That one or the other one that he did with the leftover footage I can’t remember but they came out at the same time and Chad barbar at Seal Beach does a roll but he kind of over rotates and he lands facing back toward the ocean

And the first time I saw that when I saw him do that I was like he should have just done a 360 out of that and then I thought I’m going to do that and I went to uh emwood the very next day and I

Tried I tried it on my first three waves the third wave I pulled one and then I started pulling them all the time wow so yeah all the locals at emwood like the Luchi brothers who used to body board like in the 80s I don’t know if you

Remember them I do Mike Luchi I don’t remember the other one yeah Mike uh just passed away actually super sad about two months ago um but they still go there buff and Steve are always at emwood and Mike was there for a while uh but he

Just passed away but all of them were in the parking lot and they are just you know there’s probably 20 guys all the Surfers just honking when I did my first one they all saw it was pretty amazing they’re so excited wow so yeah I mean

There’s been the same debate with the L Rollo you know way back in the beginning of the 80s m Stewart and Pat Caldwell each independently pulled it off Pat’s credited with inventing it but Mike says he was doing them in Kona unbeknownst uh to him that Pat was also

Doing them at Sandy Beach so yeah I think that happens a lot in the sport of bodyboarding guys independently do the same things and then they you know somebody gets credit for inventing it you know it’s I think that the Thruster surfboard there’s a similar story about

That but we won’t get into the s on that one I want to go back to your history so you you had this friend group and and Phil harnsberger and yourself at the core of that and you guys were Santa Barbara guys and you started going to Ventura because you know you had

Punchier wedger waves presumably right more consistent conditions particularly in the summer when did competition come into the fold for you uh I think I was 16 and the uh there was the um W is it the WCB West Coast body which eventually became the Bia yes yeah so

The West I I did the very last one of those that ever existed the West the WCB and it was at it was at Ventura Harbor at South Jetty and I ended up getting all the way to the final and I I got third in the final and um and I remember

Chris uh no uh uh oh what’s the guy um David kff oh yeah he was there and he was all hyped up and he’s like hey I want to sponsor you and he and he sent me two Challenger boards oh wow class and then yeah you

Riding up to that point what were you riding I was riding tubes um oh and Nells Velo was there and he gave me one of his boards uh he gave me a Nell’s Velo model board um there they all wanted a piece of Jacob they’re all giving me their stuff

But I I loved I appreciate it because I didn’t have any money and I was like just writing boards for like two years straight and creasing them all up yeah um so uh so yeah we I did that and then the very next WCB I sent my money in and

It like collapsed and I never got my money back it was before internet before you could so I was like okay and then we did the little CSA say the Christian Surfers contests that were mostly Surfers but we did um we did uh there was they allowed a

Little bodyboarding section out of that and it was so funny because um we met so me and Phil and Eric Elias and Eric ccll Pablo landre um Jad little and a handful of other people from Santa Barbara did those and then Brian stoker and uh I think it was Aaron

Pearson and and Randall Hamilton all from Pismo they were doing those too so we met them before Brian was doing uh no friends and Brian was a bodyboard and we’d compete against them and it was so funny it was like the Santa Barbara versus the Pismo guys uh but we all

Loved each other we had a great time together and um and then we started kind of you know connecting and and surfing together going to different places together so we would do those little contests it’d be like five people to 10 people enter the whole contest um but they’re all really

Talented people turns out sure well what’s interesting to me is that you were around during that no friends era um obviously guys you know one of the guys who started at Ross McBride was from generally from your area not obviously Santa Barbara but Camaro and

You would go to the base and ride waves with them how did somehow you not end up kind of getting folded into the no friends crew is it just because you know you had a different lifestyle than they did or what was it it just never happened um I think I think

Well I was friends with all those guys we it was kind of weird that we didn’t connect I know stoke always wanted to connect stoker was always you know so so happy to shoot and all that and uh he was always trying to get me included and

Everything um but I think a lot of the times that he would invite me I I would either couldn’t make it or I’d get skunked somehow um and then at one point the no friends one of the no friends guys the older guys asked me to ride for no friends and I

Was I was stoked but then when Fred booth and some of the other guys heard that they’re like hey what are you doing Jacob doesn’t fit the image and um and then they called they did it respectfully they they called me and they’re like hey I’m so sorry that he he

Did that obviously you don’t you know you’re not the same image as is what we’re trying to portray and you know we’re kind of like the the I don’t know the Lost sellout you know or not sellout uh the uh I I forgot what it was well

They’re trying to put more of an edge on the sport you know party at night and surf during the day that kind of thing and I was you know a pretty devout Christian and and and uh you know more more of just a athlete and and uh super

Happy about life yes understood so I didn’t have any offense I was just like yeah no worries if you’re going for that and we you know we’re all friends and everything there was no offense in any direction yeah it was just a a weird a

Weird thing so um so I think I think going on the trips I was always invited on their trips but um you know or I would have been you know Phil was and Phil and I shared so many similarities we were best friends all growing up

We’re still close and um so I don’t think that there was any kind of desire to exclude me in any of that stuff well they knew you could bring you know you could bring the heat out in the water you were a a super talented Rider they

Knew you would be launching it and so yeah it it would be behoove them to have you be a part of it and of course you were in many videos during that era obviously um I mentioned John mckin earlier you were in some his tapes you

I’m sure you had waves in some of the no friend series and various other videos during that time which people could probably search on YouTube and find clips of um but you uh I mean you were known like for charging giant waves for ripping in small waves so you had a

Really well-rounded repertoire in bodyboarding did you ever parlay that into like a full-time did you consider a full-time pro career was that ever on on on the cards for you or just you were already moving on with your life at that point well I was Pro um I was getting

Paid probably more than the vast majority of people uh wave Rebel and uh 360 Incorporated which ran wave Rebel Body Glove ion and a bunch of other stuff they had you know skateboard companies snowboard companies bodyboard they ran Doyle um so I worked for them

And I had a pretty good salary and photo incentive and travel fun and all that for at least five or six years six years um and uh but they had gme glme was like my traveling partner and they had a world champion in germe they had Brian

Weiss who was at the right when I started he was first in the US so they didn’t need a contest guy they just wanted a you know a video you know they wanted me to free surf fre surf surf and so it was I I I kind of wanted to do the uh

The world tour but they didn’t really support that too much so it made it really hard for me to do the world tour events I think I would have done pretty well in the world tour um you know given that the times that I did get to compete

I did pretty well against all the top guys did you enjoy competing I did I was I was really good I you know to this day I’ve won more than half of the contests I ever entered wow and that’s a pretty gnarly statistic given that there’s a lot of you know

There’s a lot of people in each contest that is that’s very impressive um and you know you said you had a travel fund obviously you got to travel um just to do a little sidebar here I’m going to do a quick uh oh I was going to do a quick

Screen share but um because this is a a call that you guys made to me I can’t but you and famously went to New Zealand together with a group of riders which include included Michael eleston and Vicky who my wife now of course and uh did I mention Nells Velo he was there

Peter gleon Vicky’s brother and we had Chris stro and that trip was uh unique in that we were probably the first group of pro body boers to ever go to New Zealand we rented RVs we had two of them we drove around the North Island you’ve

You had this rag do you remember sick on that trip you were horribly sick you had like a sinus infection and you had this rag that you never cleaned you blew your nose into it night and day and you kind of used it like a a weapon not a weapon

But sort of a a a threat if anyone got near you or tried to take your food or your beds and I Nels had some definite run-ins with the rag the snot rag was ubiquitous on that trip that that’s one of my greatest and most horrifying memories of that trip

And there do you remember do you remember when we were at Vicky’s place and I had that intestinal problem oh my gosh austr two minutes oh wow remember that we were at her field hockey game and I just oh my gosh wow farted for like a straight two minutes and I it

Wouldn’t stop I think I you were just like laughing right next to me I remember that I think I blocked that out and I and I pooped in my pants a bunch of times it was awful I love I I enjoyed going to was it night’s Beach yes I just

In the water and I could just diarrhea all that I wanted wow that’s impressive man that was like the only comfort that I had when we were over there is like night’s bee and I diarhea so poing in my pants so good that’s great so well you

Got you got to experience some parts of the world with that travel fund and make the most of it and at some point after you know those five years you were sponsored things came to an end right was it that wave Rebel was kind of like moving more into Mass market and away

From high-end boards and you just decided okay it’s time to hang up the swim fins kind of thing no uh I so we started having kids and you know my wife got pregnant with my oldest Lily and um I was in Indo we me and Phil decided to go to

Indonesia when she was pregnant and that was during those volatile elections when they were having riots and people were getting kidnapped and stuff and everyone’s saying don’t go to Indonesia uh it’s super dangerous and we thought this is perfect we’ll go to Indonesia and get empty waves so

We we plan this trip we designed this trip to go to Lakey Peak and Lakey pipe and periscopes on sumbawa and when we went there um we were driving in this taxi for like eight hours to get to the other side because the planes were broken and I don’t know what was going

On but it took us forever and finally the the taxi guy kept on telling us to hide in the back but it was like a 100 degrees and so stuffy and he had like four kids sitting on top of us plus all of our baggage wow

And I started getting so car sick that finally after I it must have been like six hours I said forget this I’m going to go up on the ceiling because go up on the roof of the van because the kids would climb up there to get a break

Every now and then climb out the window and climb so I did that and that the driver was yelling at me and I was like I don’t care this is like this is awful so I climbed up there and we start going through this town and the these guys see

Me up there and they all start yelling uh oh and pretty soon the whole town comes out and they’re they’re chasing the van and the guys the cab drivers yell not the cab but the van drivers yelling at me to get back in and pretty soon there’s like a hundred Indonesians

With like clubs and machetes and stuff chasing the van like they were GNA kill kill us no way it scared the crap out of me I like climbed back in and the taxi guy guy or the the the driver just floored it and they were probably they

Got like two feet from the C from the van they were like there’s like so many of them and then we drive probably 20 minutes and we pull up to our place oh no so they within walking range yeah they could get to us in an

Hour and so we pull up and we walk in well the place is probably empty uh oh I’m I’m losing the connection here technology gotta love it don’t get too far away from your [Laughter] Wi-Fi hold on I lost you where you said you just arrived at the place and now

You’re Frozen on my screen come on I’m dying to hear the end of this can you hear now yeah you’re kind of in and out of uh I heard you briefly now I got you back again okay so you arrived at the place and then what happened yeah so I

Arrive at uh we arrive at the place and we’re all like there’s I think like five of us on that trip and we’re all a little spook like we’re going to die I think you know we’re going to have to sword fight these Indonesians and

We uh so in the place is like there’s like a six foot wall with a glass pointing up on top of it the broken glass and there’s 12 huts and then a big huge twostory Hut in the middle and then Lakey Peak is right out in front and so

We get there and they tell us to put our stuff in so we put our stuff in and then this big huge Australian dude comes out and he’s like hey we’re gonna have a meeting in the big Hut all the Surfers that are here we need you to

Come right now so we throw our bags in there and we go go in there and there’s maybe a dozen Surfers and um and then there’s us five and there’s this big table and there’s two guns and like three Spears and like three machetes on the table been drafted into the sbaa

Army yeah it but it’s like this all these Aussies and like some Europeans and stuff and they’re like okay if we walk in and this big Australian Surfer guys like okay if they invade us tonight I’m going to have a gun and he’s going to have a gun who’s the best at swords

Here and I looked at it I’m Like You Gotta Be You gotta be kidding me I’m thinking my wife’s pregnant I’m never gonna see my baby and um and so I quietly everyone’s like fighting over who gets a sword and I pictured myself like sword fighting 100 Indonesian yeah Like a Pirate Man

And I’m like one I might be able to take two but I don’t think I could take 50 so you’re you’re envisioning yourself you know running some dudes through with the sword if you have to yeah and so so I’m I I start quietly like praying like God get me out of

This we haven’t even looked at the waves this is like first we’re right there and and like we’re like welcome to fighting sword deaths are you thinking we’re going to get a discount for sure right that’s what I’d be thinking it was already cheap it was like dirt cheap

Probably like $10 for the whole time um so I quietly I I I’m like praying going like God what do I do how do I get back to my already I’m like what what did I do this how do I get back to my baby

Yeah and um and I and I he I hear a voice like I hear God’s voice say those who live by the sword will die by the sword which is a scripture I didn’t know it at the time right and so I’m like okay I am not going to sword fight to I

Don’t want to kill anyone like I am not gonna kill someone I don’t want that on my conscience and I have a strategy I’m gonna just swim out into the ocean because I know in the ocean I I can beat probably all these Indonesian guys out in the ocean yeah they’re not

They’re not gonna come after you unless they have a boat yeah and I’ll just stay in the waves for for days and days I don’t care so um so anyway I I quietly sneak out of there and I just go sit in a hut and I’m I’m just kind of having a life-changing

Moment Like and the life-changing moment is like I don’t I wantan to I want to be a family man yeah and that’s a bigger priority than um surfing which was it wasn’t until that moment wow so you had an epiphany yeah the tip of a sword wow

Yes and so I made a commitment I said God if you get me out of this and bring me home I’ll give my life to you and um yeah and so I was scared yeah he wouldn’t be that’s crazy so um so yeah yeah the elections happened

And uh what happened is we we kept on like hearing like you know what you know we kept on checking like is there going to be are they going to come for us it was like you couldn’t sleep all night we had people watching every night to to

Alert everyone so no no one was getting good sleep we were surfing during the day people taking turns night shift turns staying up at night and um wow and then no one came and the election happened and we found out it’s going to be three months before they finished

Counting the votes to see if they like I don’t know why I don’t know what the reasoning was over there for the riots or for hating anyone but um so I got home after all that and um I was so thankful to be home and

I just said you know and I kept my my oath and um I didn’t know what I was supposed to do but shortly after that I I uh I didn’t become a pastor like right after that but um shortly after that that I started really pursuing God pursuing spirituality and

Um you know and and and my wife and I we really kind of gave our whole life over to our faith and um and then a Church formed around us Kyle migro was part of the church he was the worship leader and um for several years and uh that was amaz it

Was an amazing which just like Brian Barker the body he moved up and was part of that a bunch of bodyboarders it was like a fun party bodyboard church and the church is still alive to this day there’s a couple hundred people that are

A part of it I usually don’t go to it but um it’s still up there in Isa Vista wow so now I I know you’ve been super involved in fact that is pretty much your life now is being involved in your faith and writing books and things like

That talk about how those early days after you returned from Indo LED you to what you’re doing now and talk about what you do for a living now well um I was I was a pastor for a few years for I’d say uh five years and then um and what I

I didn’t do Church kind of how most people do church I I was not interested in the religious part of it but more of the developmental part of helping people and so we would we would set up communities um and there’d be community living for young people and we’d help

Mentor all those young people in real life scenarios like how to get jobs how to live together in harmony um and how to be a healthy human being and um and so oh that’s so loud motorcycle over there I couldn’t even hear it um now were you making a living doing

This somehow yeah so uh we we would find I would do other jobs too at the same time um if I needed to and and and the it was a nonprofit organization and I got sometimes a salary out of that sometimes not and um uh and and we had

All these different uh Community houses and so my family and whatever house we had was always ended up being a community house we’d let people stay with us and um and so hold on let me see really quick do you know what time it is uh I do it’s uh 5:06

PM okay I just have to be somewhere in a little bit so I have a meeting but anyway um we uh hold on quick my yeah we’re probably going to run out of time on the zoom pretty soon it’ll give me a five minute warning so yeah so I’m moving you

Towards that end point yeah so after that I always stayed bodyboarding and then um I started uh kind of a different type of ministry Santa Barbara House of Prayer and it was more of it’s not affiliated with the House of Prayer movement or anything um it was just an independent thing and it

Was more of kind of like a synagogue where where there’s classes and different organizations could rent the space and use it for whatever they wanted to do and so we were kind of a a hub of uh education and and um spirituality for in in Downtown Santa

Barbara and I ran that for four years and handed that off um and stayed bodyboarding I’ve stayed bodyboarding to this day I was I was out this morning and U my body isn’t my body isn’t very happy I have a broken rib broken hand I

Have to get surgery on Monday on my hand from cold water getting the board ripped out over and over again no way so and the broken rib is from that as well broken rib is from an invert at on big Wednesday back 30 years ago or something

And it stayed broken it’s in my my first rib right here under my shoulder blade and then I broke my thumb at pipe and my knuckles I punched the reef really hard and those are all still on ongoing injuries after all these years because you never let him heal yeah my my

Knuckles lock see that wow wow sometimes they lock where I can’t open them I have to like pry them open but um but yeah I punched the reefa pipe and you could see all my bones I can’t wow my Knuckles this was like you got thrashed on a wave and just driven

Into the reef and your your knuckles you know when it’s offshore and you can’t really see when you’re paddling into a big wave yes so I I thought this wave at pipe was perfect and I should have known because the too Perry would pulled off and so I just chucked around and air

Dropped into it I thought it was going to be a perfect West Bowl but it it was a West swell but it had a North coming into it so I just pulled into a giant closeout and there was no sand that day so I just ended up punching The Reef

Really hard yeah but anyway I started flipping houses after I I lost my voice and I felt like I had done my I had played the role that I was supposed to play for about a decade you know mentoring people and and all of that and I still I’m starting marriage counseling

Now we’ve done marriage counseling for 20 years and I’m just now starting I don’t even have my website up yet but I’m gonna start taking um clients clients and you’re trained in that field yeah well we we did it for 20 years and then I just finished the Gman method um

Which is a really it’s like the opposite of a spiritual approach it’s a very natural scientific approach and I want to be really well-rounded to be able to offer everything that I can and I’m I just want to pursue education and helping couples marriages are so hurting all over now there’s so

Many things that um come against marriage that it’s and it’s a tragedy because it really can be the most fulfilling thing that you have in life um or the most tragic and awful yeah we’ve all seen both sides yeah and so I want to I I feel like my wife and I have

Discovered through through trial and error a lot of secrets to um happy uh Union and um and also I’ve been trained in a lot of different things and we’ve we’ve I’ve probably done the marriages for about a hundred people wow man noble cause and this is all stuff that’s

That’s generates enough income to support six kids well now I suppose five since your oldest is well I I also flipped houses is and I I make tiny I have a tiny home business that I build custom tiny homes for really amazing custom tiny homes and um I wish I don’t

Know how to change the background but uh I have all these tiny homes around here um and I you know so I kind of do a whole mish mash of different things I Stay free so I can surf whenever I want and you hold on you built the tiny

Houses yourself like you yeah so I when I came so I I flipped a couple houses I came back I became a a general contractor I for about two years I I had a construction company was big for me I hated it we had about 30

Employees and did a lot of remodels and home additions and stuff and then I got out of that and I got licensed I’m a licensed RV manufacturer now so I I can license my own tiny homes to drive down the Street and um and so I could make you know I I can

Build anything uh I I know all the trades and and I love that for a while but now my body’s kind of like not wanting me to work with my body as much you’re feeling the effects of a physical life and obviously the bodyboarding at the core of that it’s

Starting at 48 years old you’re feeling it yes I think at 35 I started when did you start feeling it yeah probably honestly in my late 40s I I oh wow yeah I mean I was doing triathlons and ultramarathons and stuff all through that period till my early 50s and now

I’m 60 um and I’m still I still surf every single day but I noticed my lung capacity going down but everything else is good you know I didn’t produce crazy Maneuvers like you did though so everything else works I’m starting to slow down on the maneuver now I’m like

Don’t do it don’t do it whenever I’m like there’s a section I’m like don’t do it yeah you’re GNA hurt your neck or your back yeah I get it yeah I’m really active though I I go biking and I work all day and um I’ll I’ll go there’s a

Amazing swimming holes right here so I’ll cold Plunge in the winter and then swim in the summer and I’ll bike over there there’s a lot of hills and yes um I’m backpacking all the time or surfing straight yeah you keep moving man that’s you know I what I always tell people you

Got to keep moving cuz I’m sure you know plenty of guys that you’ve known for years they your age and they’re they’ve given up I’m too old for that man yeah never never give up never give up I agree man um well geez that’s so awesome

So you’ve written what five or six books there on Amazon right yeah I’ve written a bunch of books uh theological books one one book is uh not theological it’s more of like an experience that I had um like a a spiritual experience that I

Had and I tell the story of it and uh it’s kind of my like I guess the the Revelation I had that kind of opened me up to how would I put it um I think being genuine in my faith instead of having a vicarious religious faith I guess yeah I

Don’t know what to call it yeah so this is all at the core of your being for many many years now and it still obviously is a huge part of your life and now you’re you know you mentioned you’re getting into marriage counseling is that with Kimberly um I’m sure she’ll get pulled

Into some of them but she’s so busy right now she’s she’s a personal trainer and she has classes and she’s watching the grandkids a lot and then she’s managing some of our rentals and um so she’s really busy and and I’m either building or counseling or surfing or um managing businesses or

Whatever so we’re both man you are a busy guy with your hands and a lot of Pies there um yeah I I wouldn’t advise it but it’s working for us do you get in the water a lot or just when it’s good uh when it’s good for sure and my

One of my sons just is a surf turkey so he’s always wanting to go every chance so he keeps me going even when it’s bad it’s not so good and he has a whole little group of friends that are always wanting right to the beach so that’s

Great they they keep me going and is he a surfer or bodyboarder he does he does both does both now he mostly surfs but he’ll he’ll bodyboard if it’s good for it yeah that’s good so you still have five of your six kids at home or all of

Them are home right now that they all came back for Co oh okay two of them left to go to college and university and stuff and then Co hit right then and so they came right back and uh they you know they tried for like three months to do the

Online stuff and they’re like screw that we’re yeah we’re out of here so they all came back and so we’re a big happy family for a season which is amazing it’s really busy but it’s also you know it’s a season that we gota enjoy and um

And so we do it’s it’s really fun seeing all the kids interact with each other develop their relationships yeah and the grandkids are here too I made my daughter a tiny house and she lives in on the pro we have two acres in Ohio sweet yeah W you are a true Saint man

Not many dads would go yeah I love having all six of my kids and two of my grandkids living on the property with me most dads would be like get out do your own thing but no good for you man I’m glad you guys I get out if I

Need a break I get out yes that’s why you go surfing and work so much right you get a little break I got I get it um so Jacob I it sounds like every day is maybe a little different do you have a workout routine or anything that you do

Consistently every day or anything like that no um I’m I’m really healthy though I all I’ve just started for the first time in my life working out this last like 3 to six months and I’ll just do it twice a week usually and um my wife has her

Fitness stuff so um and she’s her parents are are her her parents are uh very very well educated in Alternative Health um okay in medicine um her dad taught her dad wrote a textbook called Alternative Health Medicine and he taught at University um alternate like non-western medicine

Great resource to have there oh man it’s amaz anytime anyone gets sick or gets injured we just call him and he’s like well try this you know whatever yeah so Kimberly’s picked up most of that knowledge now and so she’s um she’s just a wealth of information with with health and um

She’s you know amazing well as a personal trainer that’s I’m sure that’s a good thing to have in her arsenal of tools to keep people fit and healthy yeah no doubt about that so um so Jacob let’s as we wrap this up because I know

You have to go I have to go there’s so much more we could talk about but I have a couple quick bodyboarding related questions to Circle back to the okay core of the purpose of the real deal show we love to hear all the you know all the things you’ve been doing but

Bodyboarding wise let’s talk about your early influences who were your who were your influences when you started out of you know my favorite bodyboarder was Ben severon um I always was rooting for him against Mike Stewart I you know obviously Mike Stewart is amazing but Ben Severson I’d always be like come on

Ben you could do it in the early psaa tours um and then when G came on the scene I was amazed at gil his Ing and everything and then I got to be a good friend of his and we got to travel a bunch so y um that was great um so yeah

Those were I was I was like the second generation I think of kind of the second gen depending on how you count it but like kind of you and and Mike and Ben and Sasaki and and all those guys were the kind of the first generation and

Then I we came after you yes totally cool now what’s uh your favorite spot that you’ve ever ridden do you have a favorite spot no um I love my spots here okay name em outter Reef em outter reef is when it’s huge and low tide is I love

That wave um and then Jetty of course J they changed the South Jetty though at some point in the ’90s they added a little elbow to it and it changed the wave am I right this is in tur californ those of you listening or watching yeah

It blocked a lot of the swell from getting in but the good thing about that was there was these crazy locals local servers that would they’re on crack or something because they would either be pretty cool with us or they would like try and fight us and they’re like full

Grown men and we’re teenagers and so it was always like we’re always on edge whenever we went there and if they were out we couldn’t paddle out so we’d have to go out and get there ier than them and paddle out and then they’d have to paddle out on us

And then they you know they might snake us or yell at us or whatever but so when they built that outer Jetty all those guys like went to prison or something and uh I I actually I think they all did go to prison or they like overdosed wow because we never saw him

Again and then Jetty became the bodyboarders like me and Elias and Phil it’s a really it’s really really a a heavier wave like it feels like concrete when you land wow um people don’t realize that it’s like it’s a really challenging I love it because of how

Challenging it is hence all the injuries that you’re suffering now yeah most of my like Phil Phil harburger is still injured from like 10 years ago from surfing there he hurt his back there wow yeah I would see um you know I mean I

I’m the same as you I would you know now nowaday I go on waves and I see air sections or whatever and I’m like that’s if I hit this thing it’s going to hurt so much to land my neck or what I feel like our necks if you did

X-rays people from you know that have been bodyboarding for many decades it would look like we were in 50 rear Ender accidents right on the X-ray oh you you have Whiplash really bad you know what I mean I feel like um the neck and the back takes the brunt of the injuries on

On bodyboarders over time but some have defied the odds Jeff hubard classic example he’s your age 48 years old that guy’s like a rubber man right he can how did you do it I’m still there I still do stuff but not like that not like Jeff

Man I don’t know how I think is he slowing down at all he is not man you know I do commentary sometimes for the world tour and he he he won the uh frontone event a year and a half ago at 47 that’s amazing launching gigantic

Airs I mean he’s still doing it he’s hasn’t slowed down it’s crazy he’s an anomaly though I would have to say that yeah so well he figured out he’s rides those thin boards yes and he figured out how to land um I I’m like a big fan of

His he’s he’s one of my favorites but yeah he he stretches a lot you know he’s obviously keeps the flexibility alive which helps um what are you riding now Jacob tubes I love my tubes boards p tubes still still making me my custom boards and um I started with tu and I’m

Ending with tubes I’m so for Mark good know he’s he films me sometimes and he helps out at tubes and does a lot of the uh advertising and stuff um okay but Pat’s Pat’s still my guy what size board are you riding um I ride between 40 and

4 I just start little bigger and thinner and I’m chisling down the I we could talk uh oh you’re break you’re breaking up five years I used to make all my own boards and I learned a lot that stuff that we don’t even need on our body boards like the bottom

Ra and the tail is um you you could taper that down at the tail a lot and you’d have way quicker response times so like if you especially at the tail if you have it at the nose it tends to spray you in the face a

Little bit so you’d have to change your overall shape to get it to not do that but if you had like a 7030 at the nose going down to a n uh uh a 1090 at the tail it your response so so like as soon as you think like bottom turn to hit

You’d already be bottom turning instead of you have to take some time to make your bottom turn really slow so there’s a style you know there there’s there style points maybe um like Spencer Skipper use and Mike Stewart use a really big bottom rail and they’re they’re their writing

Is a lot more planned out than quick responsive small waves not even small wave works in Big Waves too to have a thin bottom rail but anyway interesting yeah i’ I’ve seen boards like that that had a very small bottom rail and a larger top rail it’s it’s an

Interesting concept you know I mean you see it in surfing um where surfboards taper and get very thin at the tail right there’s a reason for that so there is it makes sense it would apply on body boards just nobody’s manufactured a stockboard like like that but yeah

Interesting design concept for sure um yeah are you driving right now I am just around the corner pay attention to the yeah I love it man um any any final uh thoughts here Jacob as we wrap this up so you can get to where you’re going no I appreciate the time and um

Appreciate you Jay I’m always I’m always a big fan I’m actually I I don’t know why I see your wife’s stuff it might be your stuff on Facebook all the time and I’m always pressing the like button and I’m a big fan of your family you’ve done

Great thank you brother uh and obviously you have as well your story needed to be told and I’m sure there’s more to tell at a future time but um I’m glad you discovered my podcast I I the reason I contacted you was that there was a Facebook post and you said nobody’s

Really gotten the stories of body boarders and I said I have man this is like I’ve like 94 episodes of this show so hopefully you take a deep dive and look at some of the interviews I’ve already done there’s many more to come of course and uh yeah I will yeah and

And I wish you and Kimberly and all your family the best of luck and if you guys are up in the Santa Barbara ohigh Ventura area look out for this man all you got to do is look in the air above the wave and that’s probably where this

Guy is Jacob reev thanks for uh joining us today on the real deal show buddy yeah thank you Jay no worries so folks that’ll do it for the real deal show if you watched Us on YouTube give us the thumbs up subscribe to our YouTube Channel please and throw down some

Comments for Jacob if you listen on the audio podcast hope you enjoyed listening while you’re doing your workout or your drive or whatever the case may be and uh on behalf of Jacob reev and myself J reel folks as always we will see you you in the Surf