 Life is about constant evolution. Always better today than we were yesterday. Welcome to another easy day was yesterday. I'm your host Scott Williams. And today we are out in the field, you can probably hear behind me the motor of one of our razors as it travels across the sand here on the famed obstacle course at Buds. And with me is our so as program manager, Andrew Dow. Hey Scott, thanks for having me. Yeah, hey, it's a pleasure to be out here, get some sunshine and watch the physical evolution that's going on. Tell us a little bit about where we are in the so as evolution today. Okay, so we are, as you mentioned at the obstacle course here at NAB Coronado. It is day three of so as assessment week. And right now we are doing one of the evolutions called IBS O-Course. All the candidates are broken up into boat crews. And for this specific evolution, the objective is to navigate your IBS boat, the same boats they use in Buds through each obstacle that's on the O-Course. Granted, we're not doing some of the high ones because it's not meaningful or doesn't have really a purpose to try to get an IBS boat over a 30 foot cargo net. So we're looking, we haven't broken up right now into three groups and they're starting to navigate. So they start at, they got the parallel bars and the objective of each one of these is we're looking at how they're critical thinking, how the boat crew leader is he stepping, is he or she stepping up? Are they working as a team? Are they communicating? And how they're navigating through each obstacle. They have assessors watching their every move, seeing if they're talking about it, see who's not talking, see who's trying to be a leader and seeing the ones who are kind of hiding behind their fellow candidates. You know, the obstacle course is hard enough on any given day and now they've got a boat to get through these obstacles. So I'm assuming this is not a timed evolution. Well, actually it is a timed evolution. There's an end time, but we, they don't know how long they have. There is a set time, like when we'll stop it because we can't do this all day. But their job, their objective is to get through the obstacle as fast as possible. But here's the kicker, the boat cannot touch the ground. So as soon as they, right, there's three stations because it's a big obstacle course. So we have three groups going simultaneously. As soon as they pick the boat up to put it on their heads, it cannot touch the ground. They can low carry it. They can, you know, shoulder carry it. They can full arm extend it, but it cannot touch the ground once they begin their section of the O-Course. Now I'm watching a boat crew that's trying to low crawl under the wire that we have set up. And they are attempting to put the boat on top as they try to crawl through. Is this a winning strategy? So there are a lot of ask questions to their assessor who's watching them and making sure they're being safe. They're allowed to ask questions. However, the assessor has the right to not answer it or to tell them to figure it out. The one obstacle you're talking about, the low crawl, which with the barbed wire, which isn't barbed wire, by the way. That technique I would probably not suggest doing. You know, I mean, they're trying to backwards low crawl with the boat holding it up. I mean, that's one way to do it, but that's probably not the most efficient way to do it. Without, you know, given all the answers here, there's probably a faster way to do it. Maybe send guys through, because each individual has to complete the obstacle before the boat crew can move on. So they have to get the boat across, then each one has to complete the obstacle. The low crawl one, the way they're doing it is one way you can do it. May not be the best, but it's definitely not the worst. So as a boat crew, it's your objective to figure it out as a team, communicate, try out each ideas and find the way that works best. But back to what I was saying was each individual has to complete the obstacle as well. And if they fail to complete the obstacle three times, they earn a punishment. And that punishment is for right now, it's 20 pushups. If the boat hits the ground, the entire boat crew needs to earn some punishment. And that's most likely gonna be hitting the surf because it's very warm out today and one of the big concerns is heat. So we're constantly keeping them hydrated. We're constantly making them hit the surf, not as punishment, more like as keep cool. I noticed a lot of these guys had the sudden block slathered all over their faces because it is a pretty clear day out here and very pleasant by ordinary standards. But what they're going through now is not what we would ordinarily call pleasant. Certainly the obstacle course is a physical test, but today it looks like it's very much a mental test. Oh, totally. We have, like this one isn't a physically demanding. I mean, there is physical exertion happening while they're going over. As you can see, they're doing one technique over the weaver. That's, you gotta be in sync as a team getting through that obstacle. And you can probably hear it in the background. One of the persons taking charge and getting cadence so that they get through smoothly, quickly and safely. And that was perfect for them. But honestly, the biggest exertion they'll have today is the sun beating down on them. So we definitely enforced them to keep the sun block on them full time because we don't want some guy losing his opportunity to potentially become a seal officer because he got a heat casualty and got really bad sunburn and wasn't able to perform. Now, just taking a step back and looking at this overall process, this particular so as evolution. We've already seen a significant number of trites and we're only in day two of the physical week. This is day two of physical evolutions. And honestly, the morning session these candidates went through was pretty tough. They had to do a lot of running with weight and a long endurance course this morning. So these guys are feeling it. And we're only at mid day of day two. So these guys are, one of the things that is really we're looking at is the grit, how tough these individuals are. And they're constantly going, going, going and constantly refueling by eating and drinking. But we wanna see them move past their comfort zone, right? Cause that's something we're assessing. We wanna see them reach a point where they thought they could never reach before and still be able to perform and communicate. Cause these are our future officers of the teams, men and women. So we wanna make sure that we're selecting the right ones to go to Bud's. And they're gonna be really tired at the end of the day today. Tomorrow's gonna be a very demanding day, but it ends early because come Thursday, Thursday early, early morning, they're gonna start their continuous 36 hour or more evolution until the finish line. You know, I think a lot of people think that Bud's is the hardest thing that the SEALs are ever going to do. And then after that, it's, you know, you just go on deployment and you shoot bad guys. I've heard a lot of SEALs come back and say, Bud's was really hard. Deployment was even harder. And if I hadn't learned those lessons in Bud's about how to just push through the pain and the fatigue, I wouldn't have made it through deployment. That's a great point. Just from my experience, looking back, Bud's was challenging and had his challenges, but I think it was more mental than physical challenges because you wanted to perform at your best. You wanted to make sure you're always doing what you're supposed to be doing and still trying to, you know, be the fastest runner, fastest swimmer and still lead your men and women. You did learn a lot. The things you've learned at Bud's helped you do better in deployment, but there's things in deployments that you couldn't prepare for. And these are things that because you were mentally challenged in Bud's, your brain was, you know, your mental capacity was just so much stronger come deployment. So when you were faced with challenges, you were able to overcome them. But however, deployment is still challenging because you got all these other things, you know, some guys and gals have spouses at home. They have kids at home. They don't know what's going on. And it's hard for them to not think about these things when they're on deployment, but it's, it's, they need to try to block that out when they're doing life or death situation things. And, you know, they're learning a lot of these little things while they're here at SOAS and then when they eventually move on to Bud's. So Bud's is challenging, but it's preparing you for what's coming next. Now look at this evolution here where they're getting ready to attempt the balance logs. And we should point out that this isn't just like the balance beam you'd see in a high school gymnasium where it's stationary. These are actually logs that are set down low, you know, they're no more than probably a foot or so off the ground, but they are sort of free standing, if you will. And in other words, when you walk on them, they rotate. Like they can move back and forth, the side to side. And that's what throws the balance off. It's not just about walking across a narrow space. It's about the rotation of the log. And, you know, we can see some of the candidates having a difficulty with that. Now they're gonna try to move a boat across these balance logs. And that is really hard. So this is really a critical thinking exercise. Absolutely. So the logs without a boat is challenging. I mean, going through Bud's many years ago, the balance logs was always one of the number one things that got Bud's students, this and the rope swing. It was just, you're trying to do the obstacle course as fast as possible, right? Because you're always trying to beat your old time. If not, you pay a price, right? And you're trying to always do better. And now, like the balance logs, there is no real friction. Those things, the slightest left shift of weight or right shift of weight, those things are spinning. So, I mean, there's a million ways to do it, but it's just, okay, find that balance, get through it. Now we're adding a boat. Something candidates should look at is, yeah, okay, we require them to each complete the obstacle and then get the boat through. Sometimes what I would recommend is probably getting the boat through first and then start sending guys through. Just because one, it's probably easier with a boat because it's more weight dispersed. But this one section, this is still section one that we're looking at over here, is probably the hardest and most likely these guys will not finish because it's just, okay, here we see another boat crew and they're going through the vaults, which is a series of five logs set about roughly waist high that you have to just vault over and go to the next one. And each one of these guys is going over the vaults, which are relatively easy, but they're also trying to muscle that boat over the obstacle as well. And it looks like they're succeeding. So that one, that one's relatively easy because you can just rest the boat on top of the logs, but let me just let the viewers know that these boats are 200 pounds. And of course, there's going to be sand in it, so you'll get an excess of 10, 20 pounds inside there. And then when they get to the water, it's even worse. But it is crucial to do well, in this entire evolution of SOAS, it's teamwork. I mean, we're looking at communication, critical thinking, but teamwork is the biggest hurdle that sometimes guys, you get guys and gals who don't agree on certain things and it shows. As you can see, we just finished. So each boat crew, wow, every boat crew got through that one. That's impressive. Usually we have some boat crews that can't get through the balance logs or specifically on the section three with the tower line, the rope slide for life. Of course, they're not doing the high rope, they're doing the low rope. But now we got candidates running around. Right now, they just finished with their time, but they're getting hydrating. Cause like I said, hydration is so important here for them to perform well. So Andrew, after today, they're going to go on and they're going to do more evolutions. And how many hours per day would you say that they're active? So Monday, and so candidates arrive on Saturday, check in and then on Sunday, they do a PST. That's the first thing they do. Then they'll do some class work. And then Mondays when it starts, they usually start about 5 a.m. and they'll go until about eight, nine o'clock at night. They'll get three meals a day, hour breaks, plenty of time to stretch and drink, but they're doing this Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday's a shorter day. So they'll finish around 6 p.m. And then it's a mystery. I can't really tell the viewers what's going to happen Thursday, Friday, but let's just say it's non-stop for a little bit of time. Yeah, I can only imagine that the challenges are getting harder and harder each day. Absolutely. So, I mean, this is the second block this summer. We're seeing, we've lost quite a few candidates already, just them realizing that hey, this is not what I want to do anymore or they weren't physically prepared. And it's really challenging, specifically for the OCS and ROTC guys who don't really have experience maybe making a visit here or having the facilities at their location to kind of be a little kid again. Cause this is like a big kid's playground. That's how we look at it. And just unfortunately, on ROTC and OCS don't have that. Naval Academy has some things like this with a confidence course and the Marine Corps obstacle course. So they have opportunities to work their upper body, lower body in conjunction, working as a team. But we've seen a lot of candidates just realizing that hey, this isn't for me or I wasn't prepared and they'll try to prepare and come back next year. I know we've talked about this in previous episodes, but just looking at it out here today as these guys are navigating these obstacles, the strength that's required, the coordination that's required and the endurance, what would you say is probably the best thing they could do physically to get ready for a day like this? So without getting too into the weeds, the biggest thing candidates can do before coming to SOA as in general, make sure you're in running shape and make sure you've ran in boots on some sort of soft ground. Doesn't have to be sand, but it can't just be running on concrete or hard surfaces all the time. Everything you do at SOA as everything you do at Buds is on some sort of uneven, soft ground. So just conditioning your lower body to be used to that type of environment to perform in is very important before showing up. I mean, you have the other things, you should be strong. You know, on the Sealswik website, they have the PST calculator. They're able to, you should be always going back there. If you can't do the math yourself, it's set up perfectly to input your scores. They should always be reviewing on their PST scores to see how they're performing because PST isn't everything, but it gives you a good indicator of where you're at physically. You know, upper body is huge at SOA as in Buds, but SOA is lower body. I mean, you're gonna be, everywhere you go, you're running. Everywhere, every evolution you're gonna be doing, you're gonna be lifting something, either over your head or on your back. So you're constantly working. So full body workouts, not heavy weight, more like lightweight high reps, and just constantly it's, you're conditioning for a marathon, vice conditioning for a sprint. I know when I've talked to the guys at PrEP that they stress the importance of next strength and ankle strength and stability because these are things that guys don't often think about, but with that boat on your head, that 200 pound boat, your neck is gonna be tested and running on that uneven ground, but running on those uneven surfaces, you know, ankles can get turned and this kind of thing. And the swimming with fins really helps a lot with that. But I think the candidates who are best prepared seem to have worked on those things, not just the big muscles and the endurance, but also those stabilizing parts of their body. Absolutely. So here's a lot of injuries in first phase where we see is shin splints or knee pains. It's just like you said, it's a small muscle and bones that aren't conditioned, aren't used to the soft surfaces that I highly recommend you condition before you get here because you'll be at such an advantage because if you're healthy going through buds, going through psoas, I mean, you got to leg up on anyone else. Strong ankle support, right? Cause like we said, you're running everywhere, you're jumping, climbing, we're watching guys conduct the obstacle called the dirty name, which is two uneven logs. And if you don't have that core strength, you're not gonna be able to jump across, get your body over it and then swing over and land. It's, if you're not careful and not mentally there, I mean, this can be very dangerous, but we have staff everywhere watching this. We have constant eyes on each individual candidate. And I mean, these, these instructors have been doing it for years, the buds have been going on for years. So we know all everything that can happen and what will happen and how to action if something happens. So. Yeah. And of course the corpsman is always out here too. Right. Whenever we do these evolutions. So if somebody does get injured, then he's Johnny on the spot to take a look at it and assess it and see what it needs. Bud's medical handles a lot of, of these, you know, injuries like the shin splints and the occasional, you know, stingray. Surprisingly, that's been a culprit for injuries. Yeah. You know, just students hit the surf and those stingray stingers go right their boots. And they're just a huge population right here on the Pacific on the Silver Strand or outside our base. So it's very weird that when you see a guy come to medical and it happens so often that I got stung by a stingray. You kind of laugh, but it's pretty painful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I see one group we've got that's attempting to navigate the dirty name and they've just about got the boat all the way over. The dirty name, the first log is about six feet high, I'd say, and the second one is about 10 feet high and it's about what, maybe eight or nine feet away. So you got to jump up on the first log, then jump over to the higher log, get over it, and then drop down. And they've managed to get the boat over. Yeah, they did. They navigated the right way. That one group right there, they're communicating. There's not just one person barking orders or commands. It looks like they're working good as a team. Now, our second group over here is working on the low wall. And we say low wall, but that wall is what? 12 feet. 12 feet, yeah. So you got to jump up, grab it, pull yourself up, and then go over. And now it looks like two of them are stationing themselves up there on top to take the front painter line of the boat and hold onto it while the others hold up the other end and they're gonna have to get over and then they're gonna have to work it down on the other side in the opposite fashion. Yep. And like, yeah, those boats are heavy. So I hope they don't leave one guy on the other side because 200 pounds coming from high elevation. Some go way even more. Exactly. But yeah, that's a good technique that they're doing right now. Having guys on both sides of the wall working together, they're communicating, moving through while the guy on top is help navigating the boat over. Now, here's a fascinating thing. We've got a third group that is working on, what is the name of this obstacle again? The slide for life. Yeah, that's right. Slide for life, which is basically, there's two levels of ropes, parallel ropes. One comes from 30 feet up and the other one's at about six feet up. Candidates are not doing the high one because it's just one, you can't get a boat up there. And two, the lower one's actually harder because there's no gravity pulling you down. So it's all upper body and leg work to get across the rope. So they have to navigate the boat across the lines to the end. And of course, if you can see what we're seeing is that there's slack in the line. So once they get past the halfway point, it's all uphill. So they're trying to get a boat up the hill and they're struggling a little bit, but the hard part coming right now is getting it over the last cross beam. They got it all the way across the ropes. They're talking through it right now, but this is gonna be interesting to see how they get it over. There's a couple ways to do it. I mean, that's one way to do it, but it's... Yeah, it looks like they're gonna turn it and try to take the front across without it falling between the two ropes and hitting the ground. So again, it's problem-solving. Yep, critical thinking, yep. So they're being assessed on a scale of one to five. Each individual is being assessed on their critical thinking skills, communication, and teamwork. Well, Andrew, after we finish up this week, what's next for them? So this is SOAS Block Two. They'll finish this week on Friday and then they'll move into Exposure Interview Week. Well, they'll conduct their community interviews with a SEAL officer and a senior SEAL enlisted. And then from there, it's the following Friday, they head home and wait. Wait to find out if they've been chosen. If they're selected to go to Buds and potentially become SEAL officers. And that'll happen in September. Well, that's amazing. It's been great to be out here today and just take a look and see what's going on during the physical week of SOAS. And we wish these candidates luck and hope that they're able to make it to the grinder one day and then try even harder things to get that pin. Andrew, thanks for joining me today. I appreciate it. This is the third segment of four for our SOAS series. We hope you have enjoyed today's episode and we look forward to the next one when we can talk about what happens after this week and we get to selections. I'm Scott Williams. This was the only easy day, it was yesterday. Andrew, thank you very much. Thanks again.