Kyle Daniels
I know some people who have been put in a box by their peers — for better or worse — because of one overly domineering attribute that overshadows the rest. Then there are others. With them, you’re not quite sure what you’re getting. It’s a bit of a mixed bag, and right out of the gate, you sense it’s a more complex scenario.
The truth is, everyone has multiple facets to what makes them, well… them. But when you take the time to understand their story, things become far more interesting — and, at that, more relatable.
Kyle Daniels is someone I have the privilege to call a friend. Yet he has often left me scratching my head.
On the outside, he’s a buttoned-up, well-spoken, intelligent, polite, likable, middle-aged man, married with three beautiful children. He’s the kind of guy who, if you were standing behind him in a grocery store line, would let you go ahead because his shopping cart was full, and he noticed you were only holding a bunch of bananas. That kind of guy.
And if you looked in his cart, you’d probably see things like a loaf of sourdough, some kids’ snacks, diapers, water, dental floss, and maybe a pint of ice cream. Nothing outrageous.
For comparison, here’s what you won’t find in Kyle’s cart: Jack Daniels, Oreos, cigarettes, or a People magazine.
The last few times I saw Kyle, his shirt was tucked in, and he had polished shoes on. For context: he graduated with a degree in accounting, worked at a tax firm, and today is a successful real estate agent in the South Bay of Los Angeles.
Many know Kyle this way. Some know more….
A couple additional pieces of Kyle’s story…
he is the all-time winningest athlete in the iconic Catalina Classic paddle race dating back to 1955. The roster of participants have names like Greg Noll, Laird Hamilton, Tom Blake, Joe Bark, Jamie Mitchell, and others
LA County Lifeguard Captain
multiple ironman finisher
multiple marathon finisher
rode his bike the length of New Zealand
published in Outside magazine and the Surfers Journal
So how does an accounting degree put you in the middle of a 32-mile open ocean paddle race? And furthermore, how does it make you the most dominant athlete in the water? When I think of Poseidon, I don’t necessarily picture him holding a trident in one hand and a calculator in the other. But maybe I’m mistaken.
Over time, these questions began to come into focus for me.
Calculation. Anyone who’s going to be the best must be calculated — assessing the goal and backing into a plan, boiling it down to the most granular (and what I would sometimes consider mundane) daily rituals, habits, and practices that, in succession over time, result in the set outcome.
Curiosity. For Kyle, most of it seems to be an internal exploration more than anything. Accolades are nice — and at times he even admits to the quest for approval from his peers — but he’s found those to be fleeting. As soon as they show up, they’re gone. It’s more of a deep curiosity: an understanding of aptitude and where the boundaries reside.
But why?
Many go through life erring on the side of contentment and comfort. But Kyle opts for calculated curiosity in order to find the outer edges of self-exploration and success. Again — why? Most people are perfectly comfortable staying right where they are.
When I asked him the “why” behind it all, you could see he had to dig deep for the answer. I watched as he looked up into the sky, searching. After thoughtful contemplation, one word seemed to accidentally fall out of his mouth:
“Substance,” he said.
Pause. Let me quickly pull the definition of substance: the real physical matter of which a person or thing consists and which has a tangible, solid presence.
Substance.
Five, six, seven grueling hours in the ocean, on the bike, or propelled by a pair of running shoes — all coming down to “the search for the real physical matter by which a person has a solid presence,” also known as substance?
Maybe. But I think there’s more.
Could it be that the search for substance is not singularly limited to inward exploration, but could also be a search for something far greater than ourselves?
Ask any paddler and they will tell you: they have met this substance. It’s rare. But from time to time, the ocean has a funny way of revealing things that expand our aperture and remind us we are merely participating in something much, much larger happening all around us.
So I would contend that Kyle is not simply a really good paddler or a top-producing realtor. Could we reframe it and say maybe he is an avid seeker? A seeker of more. Desiring the transcendental substance of life.
To prove my hypothesis…
Time, age, and injuries have taken him off a paddleboard and forced an early retirement from the LA County Lifeguards. But new horizons and new adventures have taken the form of things like fatherhood, vocational reinvention, provision, and household leadership.
And what I’ve noticed is this: there is no separation between the six-time paddle champion and the now spit-shined, top-producing agent, husband, and father who lets you go ahead of him in line at the grocery store. He is still on the quest for more — but it has taken on a new shape. He embraces the hard, remains curious, and holds a laser focus on the adventure and joy that come with the substance of life.
And it should be said: this road is not easy. You get dirty. You get tired. Much of the time, it’s not very glamorous, and most people deliberately choose to avoid it altogether. But for the select few, when the race is over, they get to look back and stand tall — taller than the rest — because they chose to fight for life, in whatever form it may come.
Well done, Kyle. Keep going. There are more races worth winning.
