Founder and CEO of O2 Hydration Dave Colina has met some wonderful folks in his time. However none like Brian Chontosh.
- The 2 met on the 2017 CrossFit Video games when Colina’s O2 Hydration sales space was located throughout the best way from the CrossFit seminar sales space, the place Chontosh was a workers member.
Chontosh, or “Tosh,” left an indelible mark on Colina instantly.
- Colina recalled: “The seminar workers would come over each morning whereas we had been establishing, and Tosh would seize some O2 for the day. He would at all times convey probably the most constructive vibes. He would come over and provides all people a excessive 5 with a giant smile on his face…and man, that man has the crispest excessive fives.”
However Tosh was far more than the man who gave crisp high-fives.
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Some Background
Tosh enlisted within the Marine Corps in 1993, changing into an infantry officer in 2000. Just a few of his deployments over his 20 years of service included Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Assured Response in Liberia, and Phantom Fury.
He has been awarded the Navy Cross, the nation’s second-highest award for valor in fight, along with many different medals.
Tosh was launched to CrossFit from the wellspring.
- “I met [CrossFit founder Greg Glassman] in 2000 at a seminar on the Marine Corps base,” Tosh advised the Morning Chalk Up in an interview. “I did pretty properly on the seminar, and Greg wished me to remain in contact with him. He was gathering quite a lot of army guys to be part of CrossFit, and he wished to place me in contact with Nicole Carroll to assist dial in my diet.”
Shortly after, at a seminar in Pittsburgh, Tosh met Carroll, the longtime Co-Director of CrossFit Schooling and Coaching and at present Chief Model Officer for CrossFit.
- They stayed in contact by way of e-mail, with Carroll sharing her diet information with Tosh and Tosh sharing his management expertise along with her. The connection blossomed, and the 2 ultimately married.
It’s simple to think about transitioning from the army to teaching can be a pure development, however this was not the case for Tosh.
Tosh advised us that studying in regards to the CrossFit methodology “simply elevated my very own health credibility within the army and helped me be extra deadly as an infantry officer and with the boys.”
He paused.
- “I didn’t understand on the time that I used to be really utilizing health as a coping mechanism,” he stated. “I used to be abusing and overdosing on health to run away from shit that I ought to have been coping with constructively.”
Tosh was so busy as a seminar workers member, operating his management enterprise, and creating his relationship with Carroll that he was unaware of how a lot he was struggling to course of a number of the issues he skilled whereas on energetic obligation.
A Germ of an Thought
Tosh started to interrupt down, confused about what was taking place and why he couldn’t management the result. To make issues even worse, he received the information that his radio operator from Fallujah had killed himself.
It broke him.
- “It began making sense to me; I had to do that belief fall and hope I’d get caught,” he stated. “And I received caught. I used to be surrounded by lovely, fantastic individuals who love me and care about me, and so they caught me.”
Understanding that not all veterans have the assist system that he does, Tosh determined to do one thing about it.
- Utilizing cash from his management enterprise, he started organizing small occasions for veterans. However there was solely a lot he might do alone.
Invoice Henniger, founder and proprietor of Rogue, has at all times been an in depth good friend and a mentor, so Tosh introduced the thought to him.
- “Invoice advised me it wasn’t sustainable to do it out of my very own pocket,” Tosh stated. “He advised me I might achieve this far more, so he mentored me for the higher a part of a yr to assist me begin a nonprofit.”
It took quite a lot of studying, analysis, and trial and error, but it surely slowly got here collectively. Early on, Tosh merely introduced a handful of veterans collectively at his home in Colorado to spend high quality time collectively simply to speak. Tosh led the veterans as they shared their journeys, and he tried to attach them with sources and other ways of considering.
It grew.
Constructing the Large Fish Basis
Tosh began bringing in professionals so as to add completely different ability units and views to the conversations. He additionally introduced in audio system who addressed the psychological problems with veterans to assist them start to reframe.
It was important for Tosh to usher in companies that veterans wouldn’t normally have entry to.
“I had the luxurious of getting access to some extremely gifted folks, and I began asking if they’d thoughts coming to the home and sharing this with 15 veterans one weekend,” Tosh stated.
- He continued: “I wished to share the community and sources I had the luxurious of getting access to with folks that will by no means, usually ever have entry to it. I wished to share my journey and the issues I used to be utilizing in real-time to study, develop, and get out of this darkness that I used to be standing in once I didn’t even understand I used to be standing in it.”
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The group, now referred to as the Large Fish Basis, has grown yearly, with Tosh creating new applications or concepts.
He would get suggestions from everybody who participated — veterans, spouses, kids, and extra — and tweak accordingly.
Tosh began to consider what these audiences had in widespread and realized that arranging belongings and sources to deal with what these folks had would result in a greater consequence than treating every part as distinctive and specialised.
The consistency of this philosophy grew to become the core idea of Large Fish.
- Tosh described the way it all linked: “My management philosophy, type, and my perception about being a human being is that you simply solely must have one playbook. With that one playbook, you possibly can play on the battlefield, the ball area, the boardroom, and the breakfast desk.”
Tosh believes that if folks designed their lives round one constant playbook, they’d succeed extra simply in all areas. That is just like what he realized way back within the CrossFit seminars.
- “Plenty of the place I’ve arrived at is taking Greg’s methodology with CrossFit and taking it out of the health and physiology world into psychological, management, and relationship,” he stated.
Rising as People
Constructing on that singular playbook, Tosh focuses on connection, progress, and repair with the Large Fish Basis and the veteran group.
- “They’re the issues that allowed me to get by way of my shit,” he defined, “the connection to anyone else that I valued and trusted. If you come to one in all our occasions, one of many essential objectives is that you’ll discover your self in an atmosphere the place you’re protected, unjudged, and cherished.”
With that assure, then the work could be finished.
At any Large Fish Basis occasion, Tosh and his crew problem veterans to think about their scenario from a unique perspective. They create in specialised audio system from varied fields to share their information.
Tosh needs the veterans to be excited to develop as people:
- “I need them to place their gloves on, not their palms out. There’s an entitlement narrative on this planet nowadays, and nobody owes anybody something. Simply put your gloves on and work,” he stated.
In late March, the Large Fish Basis will host its second annual Veteran Plus One occasion and workshop on the JL Bar Ranch and Resort in Sonora, TX.
The occasion’s focus is for a veteran to convey somebody from their quick assist community — partner, baby, companion, and many others. — to expertise all of what the Large Fish Basis has to supply. Having it’s a plus-one occasion was very important to Tosh.
- Tosh described the significance: “When you attend with a cherished one, then whenever you depart, you’ve had an intimate second along with your assist community that you simply’re going to return house with and keep in touch with. When you had come to that occasion by your self, whenever you went house, one thing can be misplaced in translation whenever you would attempt to clarify it to your beloved.”
This occasion will give attention to aligning values, harnessing the expansion energy of traumatic experiences, and working towards mindfulness. Members will even get pleasure from lodging, meals, visitor audio system, and extra.
Tosh and his crew shoulder the price, and the veterans are solely answerable for journey to the ranch. Functions for the occasion are being accepted now by way of February 15. The occasion is capped at 65 individuals.
The Large Fish Neighborhood Problem
For the final 5 years, Tosh has finished an annual problem and fundraiser at his house. With a much bigger group annually, he equates its really feel to the unique CrossFit Video games in Aromas.
- “We usher in some veterans, pair them with celebrities in our area, and do a 30-hour problem,” Tosh stated. “This problem is to place folks right into a bodily and psychological area in order that they begin to present up.”
The folks taking over the problem are surrounded by spectators and volunteers who cheer them on, simply as a assist system can be current for veterans in every day life.
Notable figures within the health area, like James Hobart and Miranda Alcaraz, have beforehand participated, and Tosh is cautious who he consists of.
- “I need those that I do know are lovely and healthful,” he stated. “If you convey a veteran in and also you join them with a civilian counterpart, you create a bond, and so they get to see that we’re actually not completely different.”
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In an effort to “recreate that form of theme and atmosphere in areas internationally,” as Tosh described, this yr Large Fish has launched the group problem.
- “The number-one aim is to seize a veteran and do that companion exercise collectively. Two folks achieve one thing particular after they do one thing exhausting with one another, and there’s an intimacy that simply can’t be artificially created. You simply must set the atmosphere and let it occur.”
The Large Fish Basis is just not asking for donations to take part. Tosh simply needs to earn extra identify recognition for the inspiration so extra folks could make use of his companies.
He believes Large Fish is there for a selected group of Veterans who’ve been beforehand underserved.
- “Within the panorama of veteran service organizations, lots of them give attention to acute care. I name that occasion horizon – we’re both near having a catastrophic scenario, or we’re in disaster, proper? And that’s nice, however there are only a few organizations within the preventative upkeep area like us.”
The 45-minute exercise within the Neighborhood Problem will function a reminder that health isn’t just about bodily well being – it’s about constructing group and striving in the direction of one thing higher than your self.
And the identify of the group, Large Fish? It was Tosh’s name signal when he was on energetic obligation.
He will get emotional when he tells the story:
- “I used to inform the boys on a regular basis, there’s two sorts of fish within the sea: large fish and little fish,” he stated. “Guess what occurs to the little fish — they get eaten, so you might want to be a giant fish. Meaning you need to be match, quick, sturdy, good, disciplined, a very good motherfucker, dependable, reliable, and trustworthy.”
Be the massive fish.
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Featured picture: @bigfish_foundation / Instagram
