How a Pararescueman Found Purpose After Leaving Special Ops with Matt Schollard

Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Picking up “The Perfect Storm” at a Blockbuster could forever change your life… Or at least it did for Matt.

Matt Schollard is a former special operations Pararescue team leader and lifelong action sport athlete.

As a water confidence coach, he is passionate about developing future special operations candidates, extreme athletes, and anyone curious about expanding their perceived limitations.

We talk about...

  • Pararescuemen: The people who show up to save Navy SEALs

  • The Air Force Pararescueman selection course: the hardest day of your life over and over again

  • Surviving Hell Week and fantasizing about quitting

  • Stories of how fear is contagious– but courage is, too

  • Joining the military with eyes on ocean rescue, but then 9/11 happened

  • The mental health impacts of compartmentalizing fear for so long

  • Upregulating and downregulating tools when experiencing post-traumatic stress

  • Hanging on to the identity of a job even when he knew he needed to step away

  • The big life pivot that came to Matt after bawling on a paddleboard in the ocean

  • The tool of humor as a way to cope with stress

  • Working with extreme athletes and non-extreme athletes around mindset and water confidence

  • The incredible Water Confidence Class at the Hood River Aquatic Center

PSST! If you like this episode, you’ll love these two:

Why Kayaker and Filmmaker Rush Sturges is Rethinking Work-Life Balance

How Pro Kitesurfer Jason Slezak Stopped Chasing Highs to Avoid His Past Trauma and Changed His Approach to Sports and Mental Health

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Music: The King of Sandwich Island by Shut-ins

Thank you to The Ruins, the best wedding venue in Oregon, for supporting the show.

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