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There is a reason behind every event. No one hosts an event just for money. An outdoor event is supposed to be a place where you can connect with nature, with the people you love. If you want to host an athletic event, raise awareness for a cause, or build corporate kinship, partner with Chris Hollingsworth, the owner of Seven Seas Industries. Join your host Rick Saez as he talks to Chris on how they deliver on that while traveling and living in their 4 Wheel Camper Rig. Get started in the event industry by volunteering today and being part of something special.
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Hosting Events From The Comfort Of Your 4-Wheel Camper With Chris Hollingsworth
Welcome to episode 302 of the show with Four-Wheel Camper Ambassador and Seven Seas Industries Founder, Chris Hollingsworth. If you want to host an athletic event, build corporate kinship and raise money and awareness for your cause, anything is possible when you partner with Seven Seas Industries. He’s here to tell us all about how they deliver on that while traveling and living in their four-wheel camper rig. Welcome to the show, Chris.
Thanks. I’m happy to be here.
It’s good to have you on. How’s it going up there? You said you were making socks.
I’m making socks. We switched from a marketing event production company and now we needed a pivot since events with COVID were put on hold for a while. We launched a sock brand. We were fishing anglers on the side and I promised my sweet wife, “We’ll have three different species of bass and now we have over 60 different fish socks. We’ve got disc golf socks and all kinds of things. It’s lots of fun.
Not to dig too deep into that but where do you sell them?
We sell them all over. We have online. We own FishSoxUSA.com and Tee Box Sox. We’ve got websites. We supply different stores around the nation. We have a new Canadian distributor of disc golf socks and then we do a lot of marketing. Because of the event background in the outdoor industry, we make socks for other companies. H&H Fresh Fish in Santa Cruz has our socks. Also, Pescavore with their sustainable seafood. We’re making socks for them. Our socks are all over the place.
I’ve probably seen them somewhere before. How were you introduced to the outdoors?
Outdoors has been part of my life. Pretty much since the beginning. There were some books that caught my eye. I’ve always liked Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, the adventure idea. My dad took me on a trip. Instead of my eighth-grade graduation, we left and went to Oregon to go fishing, which was random. While all my friends were at school graduating, I went to Kmart and I bought a how to fly fish manual and a rod. I taught myself how to fly fish on the Deschutes River. My stepdad’s father managed a dock club that goes bass fishing. I got into skateboarding and became a semi-pro snowboarder. I never stopped playing and I’ve never grown up. That’s been a curse as well as something that’s blessed my life.
I hear you. I’m the same way from the get-go. It’s just outsiders. There’s no way I’d ever have a corporate job.
I make socks and I’m barefoot. I’m outside where we’re dirty, goofing off and doing something fun all day long. That’s the plan.
Tell us about Seven Seas Industries. What do you guys do?
We’re an event production company. A lot of the big non-profits we’ve worked with for the last many years some of the names would be like Susan G. Komen the Race For The Cure. We produced that race in six different cities. Leukemia & Lymphoma Walks and the Light The Night events that happened. We own the Sacramento Santa Run where everyone gets a Santa suit, milk and cookies at the finish line.
It was tons of fun. They’re always about these opportunities to do some philanthropy but at the same time, true sports endeavors. I’ve announced the Santa Cruz IRONMAN Half Marathon. My passion is the water, surfing and paddleboarding. At the Santa Cruz Paddlefest, they ride the waves at Steamer Lane. The longest flatwater paddle race was the first event we did. This is up at Lake Tahoe, the Ta-hoe Nalu.
We produce events from start to finish. We help with marketing promotion. We do a lot of the online stuff, behind the scenes, helping with registration and then we own event equipment. We show up, we have tents and sound systems. I get to announce the event at a lot of these places. It’s so much fun to see the athletes and their families come together. At the same time, if you can raise some money for a good cause, it’s icing on the cake.
You stay and learn in the hosting industry if you want to get involved.
It’s got to be fun and rewarding. How did you get started in that? You guys have all the equipment and everything. Somebody wants to do an event and has never done it before, they call you and say, “Let’s do this.”
The real story and this is the crazy part. I was a plumbing contractor/snowboarder and became a golf pro. I was teaching golf lessons to a gentleman who owned the San Jose International Triathlon. I came on as his co-race director. I was doing a lot of the marketing from understanding marketing, promotions and sponsorships as an athlete.
We started doing events together and from there we partnered and we started doing a ton of events all over California. We traveled all over the place. I’ve been up to Canada. I’ve worked with the gentleman that owned the Wine Country Runs before that was a thing. Destination races were big. We’d go all over Healdsburg and Napa. We’ve seen the event industry blossom and I was supportive of that, which is fantastic. I was teaching a guy how to play golf, lucked into this position then started my own event business and it went from there.
You probably don’t have to do much marketing either because you guys do such a good job. It’s got to be a lot of word-of-mouth referrals.
It was word-of-mouth and I personally never marketed or asked anyone for an event. We put on an event and somebody would call and say, “We have this event idea.” Marin County Triathlon is a good example. The gentleman that owned it started Sustainable Sports and had never done an event. We did the event for twelve years. The Marin County Triathlon and Marine County Half Marathon. We put on the June Lake Triathlon for about eight years.
We’re pretty much anything outside with the logistics. It’s the behind-the-scenes. I get the keys. I’m certified to collect trash in San Francisco. It’s all the random things that you wouldn’t think of being outside. We work with The Guardsmen down there and put on the Presidio 10. We coordinate closing the walk pass on the Golden Gate Bridge.
There are about six different jurisdictional agencies. You have to get permits with and then you can’t put a trash can without a recycling can and a composting container. All the little things behind the scenes. It’s cool and then we try to do our part. We’ve put on the greenest triathlon in the world. It was audited and we know how to offset trash and we bring in solar panels for the power needs. We’ve done some creative things over the years.
You must know all the crazy intricacies of the rules, regs and all the different cities and counties too. You must have some Bible for all that stuff.
That’s the nightmares. You stay and you learn in this industry if you want to get involved. You must have a notepad next to your bed because when you wake up and you’re like, “What’s the co-schedule of this section? Did I give the neighborhood notification letters out early enough?” All those little things. You got to take a little note and then go back to bed. It’s all good.
You must have crazy lists. What has been the most rewarding event for you?
It’s hard to pinpoint. From behind the scenes, when you’re standing on a stage and you’re interviewing a mother and she’s talking about whether it’s medicine or some treatment that’s happened with her child, that she truly feels has prolonged the life of their child. I don’t know if you can top that. That’s one of those things that like, as the person announcing you keep sunglasses handy.
One time, a gentleman came and he was doing the Santa Cruz Half Marathon with his wife and they got to the finish line and the finish line had about 200 yards of sand. The difference was is they were running together for the first time. The wife was going to do her first half marathon. They came over and talked to me the day before. There was a little glitch in it. He was in a wheelchair and I said, “I got you.” I ran over and grabbed this gentleman. I had him get on my back and I carried him across the finish line. Tell me to hold the tears back from that. There’s no chance.
Here I’m the announcer. They finish their first race together. I sat him down in a chair across the finish line and I’m like a crying little baby over there. Every event has a reason. There’s always somebody that’s doing the event whether it’s a paddleboard race, they’re doing it to honor their past relative or they’re fighting some disease or some reason. The emotional connection with all the people and all the reasons.
It’s so rewarding to see people that probably shouldn’t be out participating. It’s no disrespect to the professional athletes but I’m like, “This is easy for them. This is their job.” Not to give a discredit or disservice. It’s like, “I don’t care about you folks.” I always tease them on. We have a good rapport but the people that are doing these things for the first time are physically challenging like the Disabled Sports Eastern Sierra and the June Lake Triathlon.
It was Kathy Copeland. I live next door to her for a while out there.
When you have children that have no functioning use of their legs and they do the kids triathlon, that’s pretty remarkable. In all of it, it’s such an emotional connection to the outdoors that I have. It’s pretty remarkable.
Is there any event that’s posed some other ultra-unique challenges? All the recycle bins and things are pretty challenging.
I had to go to a certification class to collect trash so that I’m certified. That’s been unique. Every event has its own little glitch whether it’s a local neighborhood that doesn’t want you there. At the beginning of all the events when this happened, it was cool because we could put heads in beds and hotels in every city and it was great. There are so many events every weekend.
Now, you have to give the cause and reason of why you’re there. Understand, there are so many events we become a hindrance and a problem in the neighborhoods like traffic, closing roads and different things. For me, I don’t want to stop the public from having access to their park or for their family picnic. There’s a lot of that. It’s the communication and going to the public meetings and now there are two public hearings where you have to go and you present the event to get approval for it.
We play nice in the neighborhood and you got to do your part to make sure that it’s impactful. That’s always questioned. People they’ll call, “I want to do this event,” and it’s like, “Why? What’s the reason?” Honestly, if it’s about money, I tell everyone, “Just go do something else.” Being outdoors and connecting people to nature and doing things, it’s got to be more about connecting people and having that storyline. There are a lot of easier ways to make money events. That’s not the end game for that.
They can be used for great fundraisers but that’s when you ask people to donate money. That’s that piece. We have a saying we always use in events. It’s like, “Your entry fee gets us to the start line. Your donation gets us to the finish line.” The events cost so much to put on. At first, the police would help you out and they would show up and then now it’s like, “No. You’re paying sergeant fees for every officer out there.” It’s a pretty special thing to be involved in because, in the end, you’ve brought a community together. That’s civic pride and people that have this outdoor experience, they’re going to remember that forever. It’s pretty neat to be a part of that.
They’ve all got to be rewarding in some way because you do get to pull the community together and also, without disrupting people that don’t want to be involved. There are a lot of angles to it.
Pick and choose it. We’ve had inclement weather, nightmares and people. One was a triathlon at the ocean. One gentleman checked in and he decided to go back to his hotel room and he quit. He hung his wetsuit up in his hotel room and didn’t let us know. Coast guard comes out, we’re searching for his body for the next six hours and we finally got back to his hotel room, found a friend and saw that he had gone on a run. Thank you so much. Having those backup plans, inclement weather and understanding that a lot of things were not in control with and we have to do our part to have a plan of action. That’s what it comes up to. It’s being prepared.
You were an Assistant Golf Pro for a couple of years. How’d you get into that?
I can blame that on my father. Growing up being a skateboard punk and a snowboarder and he’s always like, “What are you going to do like a real man sport?” We played golf and teased him. I gave myself six weeks. I shot even par. I took the player’s ability test and got into the PGA and did it on a whim. I was taking a break as a plumbing contractor. I’ve had about six or seven lives. I say, I aged like a dog. I have six kids and am married. I do a lot of different things and so it was all of a sudden, I became a golf pro.
Luckily, the local golf course near my house was Winchester Country Club and it was rated the 13th best course in the nation the year it opened. I lucked into that as the Assistant Pro, there were no homes, nothing. We hung out and played golf a whole lot. I got through some training there. It was through one of the Disney executives and it was like, “We work while others play.” The whole program was called Above and Beyond. That helped me understand the event industry and witness the service. I started to be involved in tournament production and behind-the-scenes clinics. All these little things, being a daily service plumber, taking care of people’s needs and understanding that, putting on golf events, the ladies clinics and understanding the catering and the nice experience.
All of a sudden this guy comes up and I’m teaching him lessons and he’s like, “You should be my tournament director at my events.” I’m like, “What do you mean?” We started discussing and doing marketing. That’s how that evolution happened. I believe everything in life comes around for a reason. I was better educated and the similar thing with the socks. It was because of the background. I would host these events with expos of 25 to 30 different businesses that need to promote their business. That’s what the sock business is. I can find a reason why any business should have some socks. I can artistically like, “Check this out. We can do some neat plant socks with a visual presentation of their logo or their product.” It’s a crossover or the same stuff that I’ve always done.
A podcast needs socks.
You need some socks with your face in them. You’ve got the radio so now people will know who you are. We can put whatever you want on the socks. It’s all good.
Your entry fee gets event organizers to the starting line. Your donation gets them to the finish line.
You also work with the Four Wheel Campers. What do you do with those guys?
This was the whole cream of the crop. It all came together. It’s hard to call yourself a professional angler but we became professional anglers. We’re on Pro Staff with a bunch of people and we participate in kayak bass fishing events. I was announcing those. We were setting them up and driving to these events. The big events that we’re putting on, I have to sleep at the events.
Some I do security. I have a 28-foot box trailer. I always see all my friends at these paddle races and everyone else’s with sprinter vans. I was so jealous. It’s like they sleep in their sprinter van. They’re right at the event site. All the paddle boards as you wake up in the morning and I’d have to scramble from a hotel or somewhere or put your tent at the event site. Four Wheel Campers, my wife and I did a photoshoot with them and worked with them.
They have this new product it’s called the Project M. It clamps exactly like a normal camper shell. You still have the full use of your truck bed and it’s a pop-top that’s 6 feet and 7 inches and I’m 6’5″. Any camper I can stand up in is like a dream come true. On the back of my truck, under 500 pounds, I have an organic clean mattress in my truck. That’s up above the cab.
We work with Sage Sleep Organics. It’s a bedding company. I have a bed that’s as luxurious as my home bed and it’s onsite with me at all my events. I can sleep at the events. I can still use the truck to deliver water for the aid stations, chill around my kayak or tow the huge trailer. It’s been a dream come true. I can honestly say and we are always teasing like, “I need a side order of a sprinter van.” We didn’t know what we’re going to do because we’re driving around and I have to have this big 1-ton truck to tow the trailer. My camper through COVID, it’s been the most phenomenal thing for our family.
It’s going to be a comfortable place to crash too because it’s like home.
It’s home. My wife loves to decorate it. She’s awesome with these things. We’ve got twelve pillows in the camper and the bedding is all nice. We have a shag rug on the floor. During COVID when the restaurants are closed, I always tease, “You’re ruining the interior of your car. Your car smells so bad. I guarantee every person has French fries in the console.”
We would get food, hop in the back of the camper and top it up. We have a table back there. We’re like our on-road restaurant. It was crazy. I got six kids and our youngest is a little girl. No restrooms were open. We have a Luggable Loo. We have a bathroom in the back of the camper. At any point, anywhere at any time, I can pop my camper up and there are six clips. It’s three minutes and literally it’s spring-assisted with shocks. The camper top goes up.
At any parking lot, we’ve got a house. It’s home on wheels anywhere. Four Wheel Camper has been awesome. They custom-designed each unit directly for the vehicle it’s made for. Their sliding units are beyond incredible. They have somewhere you take the bed off your truck and so they replace it with a flat-bed and put the units on top of them. I teased my wife. I was ruined by Australian surf videos in the ’80s and early-’90s. They’re all outdoor traveling.
For years, we drove down into Baja and my wife on one of our trips of six years in a row, we were at a head-on collision in our one-time van. We were on the way to make this big van. Do the four-wheel-drive system in it, we got a big crash and we ran the van and continued to go with it. Her wrist was broken and my ribs were broken. The kids were all fine and we’re like, “What the heck? Let’s keep going to Baja.” With that mentality and wanting like a self-contained unit, this camper has been phenomenal for us. We absolutely love it.
I was out there, met Dan and took a tour of the place. They’re good quality too. He was telling me about some guy who rolled his rig and the camper saved his life because they kept them from crashing.
I guarantee it. It’s like an aircraft. A 1-inch aluminum inside of these things. It’s pretty bulletproof. They came out in 1972 and I swear across the street from my in-laws is one from probably 1972. It’s got the old corrugated walls on it and it’s still fine. They are pretty indestructible. For us, it’s been neat here in Northern California because we’ve had wildfires like crazy and we were under the evacuation order at one point and my friends were scrambling. They want to go on because we live in a community where you can’t park your trailer at your house. We live on a golf course and there’s a lake across the street, you fish out but it’s also nice to be here but you physically can’t store your travel trailers at your house.
My evacuation vehicle is ready 24/7 parked in front of my house. It’s those extra comforts to have this thing. We went on an RV trip and there’s something special about the family camping at whim wherever you want. Try to drive an RV and park it in the city. Even nowadays shopping and you’re parking like 3 or 4 blocks away. My truck parks anywhere and we literally have our RV on the back. It’s been so awesome. I can’t imagine life prior and now I’m forever like, “I can never be without one.”
How many people in Bishop have them? There must be fifteen of them here in Bishop.
I guarantee. The thing is as you talk to people, they never sell them. They keep them forever. I’m like, “I have to buy the same truck and transfer this first.” We’re loving this thing.
Do you take that around all your events?
In every event. It’s my rig. It has my fishing sponsors on the side of it and everybody sees me wherever I go. It’s funny now because having my wife, she’s a lot prettier than me. She has a lot more followers on Instagram. She’s pretty famous in the fishing world and so people start to see us and recognize us. We’ll get stopped at the gas station and I tell everyone like, “Let me know. I’ll show you this thing.”
I want people to have the same experiences. I think it’s part of that whole event lifestyle. If something works well in our family and I always tease, like having all the ingredients for a successful outdoor adventure, the Four Wheel Camper is such a necessity in my mind now. It’s got to be convenient or else it’s so hard to accomplish things because we all wear that badge of being busy and it’s hard to accomplish all the things we want.
Those of us that are active and do a lot of different things. There’s nothing worse than fussing with your equipment, whatever it is, your camper or your fly rod. If you’re messing with something, you’re not doing the activities.
I have friends because we rode motor cross for a while. It’s all these different things. When you got to load for a day to go play for a day and then come home and clean up for another day or two. You got 3 or 4 days of loading and cleaning and you got to mess around and have a good time for one. It’s like, “Forget that.” We try to keep our truck event and play ready. My kayak in my driveway is sticking out of the back. I have my tailgate down. It’s already in my truck at all times. I just drive it over and throw it in the lake.
What’s your experience been working with them? They seem like fantastic guys.
I’m talking to Dan and having him come out of. They had some staff come out on a road trip. We met him at a lake. We did a fun photoshoot with him. I went down and met Dan at the facility. All the workers are super cordial and great people like a true craftsman, which is you don’t need to watch them work. They love what they do. I went there to pick my unit up and you walk in and there’s like a waiting area. It’s a lounge. You’re hanging out. I can’t say enough nice things about them. I know that they have a waiting list. If somebody is wondering about it, it’s worth it. If you’re interested in these things, check them out. They have the coolest area that you can walk through all their different models inside and they may be sold out.
We’ll get on the list. That’s what Dan is telling me.
It’s incredible. Get on the list, go and find out. If they’re close to me, they can check out my rig because it’s fully customizable. Ours is basic like a utilitarian unit. It pops up, it’s got four windows. You can get some cross-flow ventilation. It’s so simple and then you can put whatever you want inside the back of it. You can build them out. They’ve got refrigerators, toilets, they’ve got stoves and they got everything you’d ever want in any RV and it literally is on the back of your pickup truck.
I was talking to Jonathan Siegrist, the climber, who’s also with Four Wheel Campers. He’s out camping all the time and he swapped out from the Subaru. He says, “The Subaru was great but I was living outside. In the camper. I don’t have to live outside when the weather’s bad. I can go live inside and still be outside.”
When you’re out, you truly take yourself out on the elements. I was a Scoutmaster for fifteen years with my older boys. When you’re out in the elements and you have to bring so much extra gear. You get inside the camper, you shut the door. I turn on my little portable heater. It’s embarrassing. You don’t want to tell anybody but it’s like your friends are camping at these fishing events and they’re freezing and the wind’s blowing and you’re like, “I hope you have a good night’s sleep,” and then you crawl inside your four-wheel camper and you’re like, “I’m going to watch some television real quick.”
I usually ask people what other outdoor activities they participate in. I should probably ask you what don’t you do. You do everything.
What I do would take too long. With the family, growing up through high school snowboarding, was a big activity. My high school sweetheart turned into my wife and she’s done everything right along with me. Having five older boys, our oldest started to raise Huskies and dog sleds. I’ve always been a fan of staying active with the kids.
We got into motocross. I was a whitewater kayaker and I’m super competitive about whatever I do. We had the golf. My wife grew up playing tennis. I played tennis in high school. Her dad was a tennis pro. We now shoot a lot of archery. It’s anything outside that we did serious rock climbing for a long time. As people mentioned things, it’s like when they asked me if I want to go do something, I say yes.
Having a 4-wheel camper is like having your evacuation vehicle ready 24/7 parked in front of your house.
My youngest son is into this golf. We’re like, “Let’s play disc golf.” We got heavily into disc golf that circumvented into this whole disc golf socks and supporting the local events. Because of my event background, we make the players pack socks for a lot of events and understand marketing. On Friday night, we have our weeklies at our local course and I go play with my son and we donate prizes for the winners. We love to be outside. We’re ambassadors for Puakea outriggers. We paddle outriggers a lot. I started bass fishing on paddleboards. I was fly fishing, turned into bass fishing. I was at a tournament in the Delta and one of the reps was there and he’s like, “They make kayaks. You can sit down and pedal with your feet. You don’t have to use a paddle.”
I went over and borrowed one and never gave it back. I’m like, “This is way easier than using a paddle.” We like to be outside. The honest answer is I would do anything that gets me outside with my family and having fun. The risk and reward, I love to surf. That’s one of my huge passions and I would prefer to ride waves that my daughter doesn’t want to ride. That’s this whole thing of the evolution of now having grandkids. I can’t find anything that’s better than fishing to do right next to a grandchild.
Me trying to fish is as hard or as competitive as I want. He can be using a bobber with some worms. We can be side by side having the best experience together and fishing’s afforded that opportunity. It’s one of those things that was full evolution. I will never stop doing any activity with the family and staying as active there. My goal is to stay healthy enough to be able to participate in the things my family likes to do.
Did you watch Wide World of Sports growing up?
Yeah. The ski jump guy backflipping.
The guy crashing in the Olympics. I think all of us that grew up in that era that watched that TV show do all the things because we got exposed to all the things on TV. “I want to go try that and do this.” We’re jumping on our bicycles, skateboards and stuff when we’re kids. I’m with you. It’s awesome.
It’s like you want to be an adrenaline junkie but it’s like this whole X Games era thing but it’s more than that. Whether it’s Marlin Perkins, a crocodile hunter or whatever you want to say, being outside and connected to other people as well as nature at the same time. If that was the Kool-Aid that I drank when I was young, I’ll drink it again.
It’s all the things. From fishing to cycling.
It’s fun to announce events because I can tease anybody. It’s like the 5 to 7-hour Chris’ comedy show. If somebody likes to pretend that they’re better or cooler because of the sport that they do, I don’t appreciate that. Even when you’re playing it in the NBA, you’ve played basketball your whole life and granted you make millions of dollars. The thing is you’re not any better at life than anyone else compared to a person throwing a frisbee in a park or having fun. Once people realize that, we can all appreciate what everyone’s doing and what they’ve developed a skill at. It’s about having a good time together.
That’s what it’s all about. Where’s your next adventure? What are you doing?
We’re making socks where there’s a national championship that’s going on. We’re sending some socks to our retailers. I want to get more serious about kayak bass fishing. What I’ve done with the events and I’ve got to take a hard look at where the events are going to go. Most of them still haven’t come back. We want to outfit the box trailer with our kayaks and then go on-site, be able to pre-fish camp and tell that whole story of what kayak bass fishing has become.
The reality is not everyone can go out and afford a $100,000 bass boat and you don’t need it whether you go bass fishing or you go out in the ocean. We love to dive. Unfortunately, California shut down the abalone diving on us but to go, to camp, direct it source some food and do those different things, there’s a whole narrative that can maybe tell that story. Try to broaden our social media outreach, dabble in YouTube a little but focus on some of the tournament series and see what we can do with some of the kayak bass fishing stuff.
I see a lot of YouTube stuff and TV stuff in your future. That’d be fun and very cool. Do you have any suggestions or advice for folks wanting to get into the event business?
Go and volunteer. That’s the honest side of it is we always struggle with trying to find good volunteers. Once you volunteer and I can tell you from an event owner and producer standpoint, if you’re good enough to get paid and I’m going to probably pay you, if you show up and give you a bunch of free schwag if you’re a valuable volunteer, you’re going to know if you like it.
If you like sleep, do not get in the event industry. If your idea is maybe going with a carnival, traveling around, putting up tents, cleaning up everybody’s trash and not being too mad that most people are earth pigs, that’s the tease. It’s this reality of going around and you meet so many different personalities. You have the type A super-focused athletes and the people that are there for their first time. Everyone’s out for a different reason.
If you can find an ability to see what’s common with people. The tagline of my business is making the world a better place one event at a time and that’s what you start to feel. If you’ve got a cause, there’s got to be an event for your cause. That’s the beauty is I got the opportunity to be involved in pretty much every cause out there. It’s like I’m sending some socks and they got a sponsorship package. It’s like Tuna and Tiaras. It’s an all-ladies tuna fishing event over in Maryland. This female empowerment, it’s been so fun to see the evolution of sports.
More women now participate in marathons than men. It’s like, “Women are ruling the world.” I love this thing. There’s the whole campaign of like, “Throw like a girl.” What does that mean? I’m so supportive of that to see women, youth and young ladies empowered. That’s why I like fishing as well. The fish don’t know what genders are on the other side of the line.
It’s like, “Let’s embrace what’s going on and find things.” If you’re a person that thinks they like the outdoors, they think they like sports, managing and organizing. You’re not afraid to pick up a whole bunch of trash when the day is done then the event business is something to take a look at. Volunteering is an answer. It’s an easy avenue to say, “I want to go and help.”
A lot of people recommend that for a lot of different things. You can test drive it, see if you like it and if you don’t, you can try the next thing. Keep volunteering until you find something you love.
Don’t be discouraged because you can go to an event that’s super unorganized and it can be a nightmare. You might get stuck doing a job that’s terrible. When you’re a volunteer, it’s like if you’re standing at an aid station, handing out cups of water and that seems boring but if you’re handing out cups of water and you’re having a good time and you’re cheering people on. There are so many ways to make life fun, no matter what job it is. If you’re that type of person that can find some joy, humor and splashing water on people as they run by then you should probably be involved in events because it can be a ton of fun.
Do you have any daily routines you use to keep her sanity? Do you meditate?
I have no sanity. That’s probably my daily routine. We still have two youngsters at the house. I tease because I have a son that is like Mr. Fitness and does his Taekwondo and all of this training. I sneak workout, I like to call it. I do have a little routine to at least try to stay in because I have a dad bod. I like to now call it the father figure. You got to stay flexible and pliable. Going in kayak fishing, we had a local Derby here the other day and I was fishing for five hours in the water pedaling nonstop in my kayak. If you’re out staying active, doing stuff and staying healthy, I don’t have a strict routine because our new business is still up in the air.
You don’t need one. It sounds like you get a lot of stuff and do what you do everyday. I don’t think you need a routine if your routine is the daily job that keeps you fit.
I’m a spazz. You can tell as we’re talking. I could talk all day. Generally, I’ll have a year set in and I’m making socks and I’m packaging up an order. I’m doing 4 or 5 things. At the same time, I’m keeping an eye on the wind. If the wind is changing, “Should I go across the street because there’s a little pond over there. The fishing gets good in the evening.”
It’s staying active. For me, I can’t sit still and stay idle. It’s one of those things. I get excited and when I get excited, I want to share that experience with other people. It’s like, “Come fishing.” It’s been fun being a Scoutmaster because now I have all these younger boys that I was working with it. They’re older now and they’ll still text me and send me pictures of the fish they catch. I think it’s part of that watching these outdoor sports shows.
When I see other people doing things some people say they get jealous and that’s the issue with this whole social media world and it truly can create problems. For some reason, I get inspired. Whether it’s, I’m jealous of the happiness they have there, I want to go and do that. I don’t know what it is but I see somebody with a nice fish from a river or something. I’m like, “What does it take to get there?” I liked the backend research of trying to accomplish that and truly putting in the work to make that same experience happen in my life.
I want to go do that. “How to do it?” “I’ll figure it out.” You’re pretty active. Do you have any favorite books or books you give as gifts?
I don’t. It’s weird because I think reading when I was a kid like the Island of the Blue Dolphins and the Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn. All these things created this life that I’ve always teased, “I’ll probably write a book when I’m older,” maybe when I physically can’t. I tease a lot of people because I love reading and I always would joke with my kids because my kids are so much smarter than me.
Do anything that will get you outside with your family, connected to other people and nature.
I have gone through school, done fantastic things, gone on to college and I would always tease him growing up like, “Why are you reading?” My wife is like, “What kind of parent are you?” I know it was this family joke. “Let’s go do something fun.” I always tease, “Live a life worth writing about.” I’m more of a person that buys a book to learn the skill to go dig an ice cave. I have these how-to books, survival books and things like that. I cherish those but more of a resource, not the entertainment because I’m too much of a spazz to sit.
My wife, when we travel, she always brings two magazines. She’s always said, “At some point, I hope you’re tired enough that I get to sit long enough to read a magazine.” Bless her heart. She’s put up with me for so long and that’s the reality. We always tease. Come home to rest from vacation is what we’ve always done. I always said, “You are burning the daylight. Let’s go. There’s stuff to do.” That’s life.
How about your favorite piece of outdoor gear for under $100?
A LifeStraw. That’s an easy answer. I’m a weird prepper and I first saw the LifeStraw. I was fly fishing with a buddy. We’re in the middle of this river and it was hot and he leaned over and just start to drink in through this weird thing out of the river. I was so mad at him because at the time I was like a germaphobe. He’s like, “Would you want to try it?”
I wanted to try it so bad and I think I might have tried it. Being prepared for disasters is always been the thing in mind and having water, you don’t live for very long without water. You got your company now in three days. You’re sheltered. I drink much water every day. I think everyone should have a LifeStraw in their car, in your dash and in your fishing gear. It is a bummer because in California, it is such a drought. You’re not always going to find water. Something like that to purify water, I think they’re $20. That is a no-brainer for me and if you don’t know what they are, check them out. I’m not even connected to them.
A lot of people have mentioned that.
It’s a necessity of having one of those things. I think I can have fun outside with a stick with a couple of my friends and my kids. We can find joy and stuff but I want to be able to survive and that LifeStraw is something I think is important.
As we wrap up is there anything else you want to say or ask of our readers?
I appreciate the opportunity to be on here. People connecting to the outside and the crazy world of what’s going on and then the worries about all the things, find something else to focus on. That’s the reality that we try to do all the time and it’s important to be talking about current things and political stuff and that’s all great. If you can tune that stuff out a little bit and focus on the world, nature and reasons to be together outside, it’s my salvation. It’s the way that we can find some sanity and together we can get on and have a good life.
How can people follow-up with you?
In social media, it is funky. We are called WishIWazFishin. I’m @MrWishIWazFishin. My wife is @MissWishIWazFishin. Our sock brands, we have @TeeBoxSoxUSA. We have @FishSoxUSA. Those are on social media. If you see us, message us. If you ever got questions whether it’s event-related, fishing-related or family-related. My wife is like the guru of health. She looks like a Barbie and is like a total naturopath. She is an amazing woman and stayed active. She kept up with the kids.
She’s an amazing healthy resource and is all Miss Organic and awesome. We’re balanced. She’s way more mellow and even-keeled than I am. As a connection in the relationship, we balanced each other out pretty well. Don’t hesitate to message us or connect with us. We’re always up to get outside and get after and have some fun.
It’s been a pleasure talking to you, Chris. Thanks for coming on. I hope to see you over here in Bishop sometime soon.
It sounds good. Thanks for having me.
Important Links:
- Seven Seas Industries
- FishSoxUSA.com
- Tee Box Sox
- Race For The Cure
- Light The Night
- Sage Sleep Organics
- The Guardsmen
- Disabled Sports Eastern Sierra
- Four Wheel Campers
- Island of the Blue Dolphins
- @MrWishIWazFishin – Instagram
- @MissWishIWazFishin – Instagram
- @TeeBoxSoxUSA – Instagram
- @FishSoxUSA – Instagram
About Chris Hollingsworth
Seven Seas Industries produces Susan G. Komen Events in San Francisco, Sacramento, and, Reno, we also produce the Leukemia Lymphoma Society Light The Night walks in Walnut Creek, and Santa Rosa. We are also privileged to produce the Marin Co. Triathlon and Half Marathon, Presidio 10, Guardsmen Tour, Run 4 PH at Stanford University, June Lake Triathlon, as well as offer support to Destination Races Half Marathons in Solvang, Napa, Healdsburg, Oregon, and Canada
Our passion with Standup Paddle Boarding has connected us with this new sport and we assist Surftech with the Jay Race and their race at Steamer Lane. We also produce the Tahoe Cups three events as well as Battle of the Bay and the Tahoe Nalu Paddle Festival. We own A Day At The Beach events and the Sacramento Santa Run. I personally now announce many of the events I produce and MC several Gala productions each year. Share your event dreams and goals with me and allow us to bring them to reality.
