Is Spring Water The Ultimate Medicine? with Chris Sanborn(EP #85)

Mason: (00:00)

Chris, thanks for being here, brother.

 

Chris Sanborn: (00:02)

Thanks for having me.

 

Mason: (00:04)

Absolute pleasure. Interesting. It's one I've known, heard you talking about water for a few years now. I think it was from the moment of inception of your company, which is A Live Water, because since you started, that's the water that I've been having, because I've been on a trip to L.A. at least once a year for the last five years.

 

Mason: (00:32)

So, I've been advocating that the water that you're bringing down from the sweet, sweet springs. So, it's good to connect. This is the first time we've chatted. Part of the water series here at SuperFeast that we're doing, because I forget.

 

Mason: (00:49)

We've got a lot of new people jumping on the health sovereignty train here. Even though I've been talking about spring water for 10 years, I'm sure it's the same for you, it's always good to give everyone a little bit of the refreshing dunk of the head into that fresh, effervescent spring water, so that they can get re-inspired.

 

Chris Sanborn: (01:07)

I love that.

 

Mason: (01:07)

No. It's what I drink. I know it's what you drink.

 

Chris Sanborn: (01:11)

It's what a lot of people, most people don't drink. So, we've still got a lot of room to spread awareness.

 

Mason: (01:23)

Tell me about this. It seems like a crazy idea. I actually had a similar idea, back before I started SuperFeast nearly 10 years ago, of going, "Maybe I'll bring a raw water to the market." I remember Vital was trying to do it at the time, not really getting much success. Then I looked at the logistics and I was like, "I'm just not going to be able to do it."

 

Mason: (01:47)

But you've done it, then. You've nailed it, as well. Can you tell me about what it's been like so far, from the inception of your idea? Tell us what your company actually does, and tell us what that's been like, bringing it to this point where it's rolling.

 

Chris Sanborn: (02:04)

It's been a lot of fun. Owning your own business is a roller coaster, especially when you're doing something that's really different, and changing the game.

 

Chris Sanborn: (02:21)

Like you said, no one else was really doing the raw water thing when we started, and still, no one else is, to this day. Reusable glass, it's not a simple thing. It's not as simple as just packing water in a single-use plastic bottle and shipping it out the door. There's a lot of moving pieces.

 

Chris Sanborn: (02:44)

So, yeah. I started maybe five years ago, just going to the mountain and collecting water, fresh from the spring. It just felt so amazing. There's certain foods, and there's certain superfoods that, there's rare ones, where you feel it right away. You're like, "Whoa, that's powerful." Nothing, for me, was as powerful as drinking fresh spring water, just feeling more energy, more peacefulness.

 

Chris Sanborn: (03:22)

So naturally, I just wanted to share that with more people, since all the spring water available on the market is processed. So, at the time, it was, unless you were driving three hours to the spring, there was no way you could get that in Southern California. Other places, it's prevalent. There's springs that are close, especially Southern California.

 

Chris Sanborn: (03:49)

Yeah, we started going out to the spring. It was a lot of fun, getting to go out to the mountains. I think there's something really beautiful that happens when you start to have that connection with water that our ancestors had, to see where it's coming out of the Earth, and tasting it fresh like that. You're in nature. You start to become aware of other things.

 

Chris Sanborn: (04:16)

A lot of times, you go to a spring and there's watercress there that you can forage, berries. Whatever it is, it's kind of a good intro into foraging.

 

Chris Sanborn: (04:26)

So, it's been a journey. We've evolved a lot. We've had the recent rebranding. About six months ago, I took over the Find-A-Spring project. So, that's been really exciting. We've totally transformed that side and added a lot of new features. You can upload test results now.

 

Mason: (04:55)

Sweet.

 

Chris Sanborn: (04:55)

You can ... Yeah, you can leave ratings, comments, photos, videos. You can have favourite springs, a lot more features. Which feels really good, to know that all the purchases that anyone's making for water delivery or a glass, are going towards supporting that global project of bringing more awareness and utility to the importance of having access to fresh, living spring water. So, yeah. It's exciting.

 

Mason: (05:30)

Dude, that's so good for everyone. I think, again, it's been about nine years that I've been recommending that people go to findaspring.com. I'm really excited.

 

Mason: (05:40)

Daniel Vitalis, he's been on the podcast before. He did such great work in that entropic element, to give people, basically, this is a database and rating system, guys, for wild springs, spring water, hot springs, cold springs, mostly for drinking water purposes.

 

Mason: (06:02)

It's definitely helped me. As I've traveled around, I've found springs in the middle of Sydney, middle of Auckland, found springs going up and down the coast there, on the West Coast of America. As well, in the Blue Mountains, here in Sydney, for example, or out in the Dandenongs if you're in Melbourne. You go and find a spring. The spring's there and it tells you. More and more, you'll see people commenting on the etiquette there of the spring, and how to make sure it's respected and honoured.

 

Mason: (06:36)

It's a beautiful community because going and collecting spring water, as you said, it's something that does connect us to the literal way that we've been drinking water for the entire time we've been here on this Earth. All of a sudden, it starts pressing on this industrialised, colonised mind, where people are paranoid about drinking a non-municipal source of water, or a non-processed water.

 

Mason: (07:05)

Which goes to show, we're in a fundamental disconnect. The fact that you're providing clean water from Alive Water, and then also access via Find A Spring, where people can actually be. And the water's tested, as well, for contamination. We're trying to make this accessible.

 

Mason: (07:22)

Can you talk about, first of all, what processed water is, and why that is something to be aware of? Also, in that sense, what you've found as the biggest benefit from people coming back to Alive, living water, as well as what the biggest hurdles are for people decolonizing away from processed and municipal water supplies?

 

Mason: (07:47)

Three questions I threw at you there. Feel free to come back and answer it any way you want.

 

Chris Sanborn: (07:55)

All right, yeah. I might need a reminder if I miss any.

 

Chris Sanborn: (08:01)

Thank God for Daniel Vitalis and Leighton Anderson creating Find A Spring about 10, 11 years ago. That was the first resource I used to go find the spring that we started the water delivery service from. He also educated me on the difference between processed spring water and raw spring water.

 

Chris Sanborn: (08:35)

Basically, every water delivery company, every spring water delivery company, certainly in the United States, what they're doing is, they're using ozone gas and/or ultraviolet light to sterilise and take out all of the life in the water, that could potentially go green. Because there are living microalgae in there that are healthy for us. They're what we're biologically adapted to thrive from. But obviously, it's not going to be very good for your bottom line, for shelf stability, if you have to not keep your water in a hot warehouse, hot trucks, all these things.

 

Chris Sanborn: (09:25)

So, we had a lot of issues with that in the beginning, with the water turning green really quick. That's why we decided to move to this system where the water goes into refrigerated trucks, and then refrigerated storage before it's delivered. It's usually fine in peoples' homes, unrefrigerated, for up to a month, as long as it stays in a cool, dark place.

 

Chris Sanborn: (09:49)

But at least in that way, people know they're getting their water as fresh as it would be coming right off the spring. Then, of course, it's not in these trucks and warehouses that are over 100 degrees in the summer.

 

Chris Sanborn: (10:06)

It's just wild. When you look at the gambit of, most people, they're lucky if they're drinking processed spring water. It's like, "What's the next best thing?" There's a lot of these ultra-purists, that there's this notion that things are dirty in Western culture.

 

Chris Sanborn: (10:31)

There's all these germs. We've got to wash our hands. Especially recently, a lot of fear with, "Oh make sure you wear a mask, and hand sanitizer, and social distancing," and all this stuff goes back to fear, people living in fear.

 

Chris Sanborn: (10:49)

With water, specifically. It's like, "Oh the earth is screwed. Everything is polluted, so let's just filter tap water." Which, good luck getting out fluoride. That's really hard to get out. Even if you do, then you just have this lifeless, dead substance that has no minerals, so it's actually going to strip minerals out of your body, drinking ultra-purified water.

 

Chris Sanborn: (11:20)

Then there's the ultra-alkaline, 9, 10, 11 PH, which is really not good for us. Basically what happens then is, is especially if you have a healthy, more balanced diet, you're drinking, a lot of people are drinking this super high alkaline, which is actually diluting their stomach acids, and making it harder to process food.

 

Chris Sanborn: (11:51)

There's a lot of miseducation out there, a lot of ways to go.

 

Mason: (11:56)

Out of curiosity, and our crew listening, most of them would have heard us, I think talk about that. Every now and then I have a rant about alkaline water. What alkalinity, acidity is your spring water coming out at?

 

Chris Sanborn: (12:15)

It's different. I think you mean for the water delivery service that I have?

 

Mason: (12:22)

Yeah, sorry. For the water delivery, yeah.

 

Chris Sanborn: (12:22)

Yeah. Actually, I live been in Kauai, so we go and we collect our own water here.

 

Chris Sanborn: (12:28)

But for Opal Springs, which is the water delivery service for, that services the majority of California, it comes out at eight, which is naturally alkaline. Then it actually slowly starts the drop towards neutral.

 

Mason: (12:51)

Right.

 

Chris Sanborn: (12:52)

Which is interesting. I think it just speaks to the fact that water is in this constant state of change. I think it's wrong to try and make it sterile and make it this pH. It's dynamic. It's water.

 

Mason: (13:20)

Yeah it [crosstalk 00:13:21]

 

Chris Sanborn: (13:20)

That being said, most springs are around the neutral level. There are some amazing springs that are slightly acidic, like 6, 6.5 alkalinity. I don't think there's any, there's no problems with those springs. Looking at what is the difference between the good spring and a bad spring, obviously, the number one thing is Industrial Age contamination. Which is a tough one unless it's a primary water source, which has never been on the surface before.

 

Chris Sanborn: (14:04)

A lot of times, there might be a little bit of radioactive fallout, and potentially other things. But at the same time, we're breathing air with radioactive fallout. We're eating food with the rain. So, it's all perspective.

 

Chris Sanborn: (14:21)

For me, going back to what I really look at for a good spring is very little to no levels of pollution, good minerals. You want to have a balance. There's some minerals, like calcium. You can have, like a mountain valley water, for example, their calcium is way too high, because it's hot spring water.

 

Chris Sanborn: (14:45)

You boil it in a pot, and it gets all calcified, and white, and scaly. It's not the best. A little bit of calcium is good. Then, magnesium, potassium, all of these things that are in a good natural spring water, in their pure form without having to have it synthetically extracted from some vitamin source or whatever.

 

Chris Sanborn: (15:17)

I think really, the amazing thing that natural spring water has, one is the natural microbes are probiotics and prebiotics that aren't really found in other foods. That's huge. That, alone, to just be drinking that source of health for our guts.

 

Chris Sanborn: (15:42)

But then the other thing is silica, which a lot of people are deficient in, which is the skin, hair, and nails mineral. Most good spring water has lots of good silica in it.

 

Mason: (15:57)

That's always my favourite spring water, when you're getting high silica.

 

Chris Sanborn: (16:02)

Yeah. What's really cool is, some spring waters with high silica, you can actually see. If it's sitting for a while, you'll actually see rainbow crystals floating in the water.

 

Mason: (16:16)

Awesome. Dude, so magic.

 

Mason: (16:20)

For Alive Water, can you tell me about the source of that spring water?

 

Chris Sanborn: (16:27)

Yeah.

 

Mason: (16:28)

Also, just that big distinction you've made there. We've had a few building biologists, I don't know if you have them in America, but it's someone who comes and makes sure you realise that your home is like a layer of skin, and talking about biodiversity in the home, and obviously, how important are biodiversity of bacteria within the large intestine is. Likewise, in the home, and how it's a terrible idea to sterilise.

 

Mason: (17:02)

What you're saying there, it's a nuanced conversation. Biodiversity in your water is what we've evolved with. If we're going to start somewhere with foundations of health, let's stick to what has worked for a long time, and keeping it within a bandwidth of, we know that this is healthy, and just how much I think this is why it hasn't happened, a business like yours hasn't happened in Australia. I've had friends who have tried.

 

Mason: (17:25)

It's the effort, and energy, and love you need to put into refrigerating, keeping that water at a spring water temperature, from that point where it comes out of the Earth, all the way to when it gets delivered, which always amazes me.

 

Mason: (17:43)

I'll shut up soon so that you can get on to telling us about your spring. I get messages, I think every fortnight from [inaudible 00:17:51], saying, "Would you like spring water this week?" I'm like, "I'm still over." I don't write back, but I'm not unsubscribing because it's so satisfying for me when I'm like, "Yes, here's my new address. Here's the Airbnb. Here's the instructions. I'm arriving Thursday. It would be amazing if you could get it to me Thursday. Friday, all right."

 

Mason: (18:09)

Sure enough, it turns up. My six big vessels with sacred geometric etched glass. Of which I've taken one back to Australia, FYI That was a fun trip.

 

Chris Sanborn: (18:22)

Good for you. That's the great thing about our glass is, we want to make it available everywhere, so people can go to their own springs. Wherever you are, some places might be longer than others, but typically, there's something good close by. Sometimes you've got to stock up. If it's a bigger trip, stock up for a while.

 

Chris Sanborn: (18:52)

That water comes from Opal Springs in central Oregon. It's kind of like the High Desert up there, and then 800 feet, at the base of this canyon, it's just gushing out of this lava tube, 108,000 gallons per minute, with these little fire agates that look like opals. That's why it's called Opal Spring.

 

Chris Sanborn: (19:21)

Consistent 54 degrees Fahrenheit and that water is what I, I am almost positive it's a primary water source, which is actually a fairly new idea. It's been very thoroughly scientifically proven within the last decade that the Earth either has these huge bodies of water below the crust that are even bigger, more water than all the oceans. Or there's actually a chemical reaction that's happening, that results in water gushing up out of these tubes.

 

Chris Sanborn: (20:06)

I love this idea and this fact because what that does is, it gives us the hope that the Earth has a self-cleansing process. If we can just start to appreciate water more, and not putting horrible chemicals into the water supply, and the plastics. That's a whole conversation in and of itself, just the horrible things that happen just from people, with cleaning supplies, and washing their cars, and the dye industry, and on, and on, and on.

 

Chris Sanborn: (20:51)

But I think the Earth can really regenerate itself. That gives me a lot of hope.

 

Mason: (21:00)

Me, too. Very well said.

 

Mason: (21:03)

The water, when it comes out, would you mind just taking me through? I'm so curious, what your process is, in harvesting; how you're harvesting, what you're harvesting in, what the process is, the time limit on taking it from there to a facility, how you're keeping it refrigerating, how soon from when you decant into your glass bottles to it being delivered, so on and so forth?

 

Chris Sanborn: (21:33)

Yeah. Good question.

 

Chris Sanborn: (21:36)

The spring itself has a cement encasement over the spring head. That's where we pipe from, to make sure, obviously, we don't want any chance for dirt, or animals, or whatever it may be, to get in there. It gets collected at the covered spring head. Then, for Opal Springs, it's actually pumped up. It's pumped 800 feet up this cliffside, with hydroelectric power, that's also produced from the nearby stream that the spring feeds into.

 

Chris Sanborn: (22:25)

It's really cool. The way they do it there is actually not only renewable energy, but it also leaves a path for the salmon to continue their upstream journey, which I love. So, it gets pumped up. Then it goes into the triple washed, triple rinsed glass jugs, our two and a half gallon glass jugs. It goes directly into the jugs, gets the cap on it.

 

Chris Sanborn: (23:02)

Then it goes into the plastic racks, which keep it safe from the glass shattering. Then it goes into a refrigerated truck. That's typically within a day, two days max, of it being bottled. Goes into a refrigerated 18 wheeler. The 18 wheeler goes to either our cold storage in San Francisco, or Los Angeles.

 

Chris Sanborn: (23:33)

Then we pick it up from cold storage. Typically every morning, we'll pick up the deliveries from the day. Then, that goes to peoples' homes or businesses. Then we collect the empties to start the process all over again.

 

Mason: (23:51)

When did you see, I'm sure you've had waves when you see adoption occurring. Originally, it would have just been the die hards and early adopters of spring water, all of a sudden taking advantage of this really cool service.

 

Mason: (24:11)

But I get the feeling now you've been seeing more of a mass adoption as this is getting more normalised. It's always a good sign when raw water gets demonised in places like Forbes, and The Young Turks, and that kind of things, which that slander campaign happened three years ago.

 

Chris Sanborn: (24:31)

Yeah. There was definitely a few millions invested in a slander campaign against my business and me, personally. That's how you know you're doing something right.

 

Chris Sanborn: (24:44)

You look at cryptocurrency, which is something I'd love to talk about, if you're into it. It's just interesting how you see the same smear campaigns. Not the same, obviously, because they're very different things. But it's like, here's this technology that gives everyone financial freedom and abundance, and the media just wants to talk about how it's a big scam.

 

Chris Sanborn: (25:12)

So, to answer your question, this last year actually, we've almost, not doubled in size, but we've grown 50% in size with no marketing. Which is just, it's amazing. I feel super blessed. Our customers are just so stoked, and they all feel the difference so much that they want to tell their friends. People feel it immediately.

 

Chris Sanborn: (25:42)

I think even more so recently, we've had a lot of new business, just from people, "Oh, dang. Our health is really important. We might die if we don't take care of ourselves." That's ultimately the most important thing, is to not play into the fear, and all the stuff we shouldn't be doing, but more into the stuff that we just need to do to stay really healthy, like exercising, and sunlight, and local, fresh, organic foods.

 

Mason: (26:21)

Yeah, I imagine lockdown did that for a lot of people. It was like it really split down the line of those that were like, "Cool. I'm taking it into my hands. I'm not just going to pander to my own intrinsic fear," And they started getting into action around their health. I imagine that would have been a tipping point for a lot of people, where you can bypass a lot of more colonial narrative around the way you should live, and just helps people cut through that, the propaganda, and come back to what matters. When it comes down to it, hydration, the water you drink, what's more fundamental? I imagine that helped a lot of people get over that little fear hurdle.

 

Mason: (27:05)

Then, on the other side of that, you're talking about some of the benefits. I think it's something I forget to talk about because it's been over a decade, for me, exclusively pretty much, 98%, 99% drinking spring water. So, I kind of forget-

 

Chris Sanborn: (27:21)

Yeah, and you're hanging out with all your friends that drink spring water, too. You're like, "Wait. Everyone knows, right?" No way, no one, hardly anyone knows.

 

Mason: (27:33)

Hardly anyone. We're lucky, here. We've got a guy over the border in Queensland, that's got a good spring on his property. He harvests that day, and then comes over and delivers to you. But still, he's-

 

Chris Sanborn: (27:49)

Oh, cool.

 

Mason: (27:49)

Yeah. I do talk to him about it all the time, about, why don't you create a water that's not for drinking, that's for the plants and for the animals?

 

Chris Sanborn: (28:00)

Oh, right.

 

Mason: (28:02)

Because he's got that minimum regulation. In Australia, it's illegal to drink. For drinking water, it's a minimum UV.

 

Chris Sanborn: (28:08)

Right.

 

Mason: (28:08)

But I go and collect spring water when I want, but it's too good. We've got two of those barrels here at SuperFeast. At least our crew, they're collecting spring water that's been two days out of the Earth. It's better than nothing.

 

Mason: (28:25)

But when you get onto that real, living spring water, you were saying a lot of people get onto it and then notice these benefits. What do you find is the most consistent benefit, just from getting onto spring water that you guys are delivering?

 

Chris Sanborn: (28:44)

Sorry. My lawn guys came today, so I didn't hear the last part of what you just said.

 

Mason: (28:51)

Yeah, that's all good. Say hello for me.

 

Mason: (28:56)

I was just saying, when people get onto spring water, what are the common benefits? I forget to talk about the benefits and what I feel, especially in that immediate phase. So, what are those big and consistent ones, that people are feeding back to you from the Alive Water that they're getting onto?

 

Chris Sanborn: (29:16)

It's interesting. I think when people start to drink living spring water, one of two things happens, or both things happen at different times.

 

Chris Sanborn: (29:25)

One, their bodies are like, "Oh, my God! I can't get enough of this water," and they drink so much, because their bodies are ... There are so many people that are chronically dehydrated. The other thing that will also start to happen with some people is they're like, "Wow, I hardly need any water compared to what I was drinking before," because this water has so much good stuff in it that our bodies actually really thrive from. So, both of those things can happen.

 

Chris Sanborn: (30:02)

Even just the taste; the taste is one thing that's an immediate thing people can feel. I've heard all sorts of stuff on what people had cured, from drinking real spring water; skin conditions, liver problems, all sorts of stuff.

 

Chris Sanborn: (30:24)

I think at the fundamental level, it's like you're nourishing all yourselves more, so you're going to have more energy. You're going to probably need less food, because you're actually getting a lot of your sustenance from water. There are so many different things that it can benefit; everything, really. We're mostly water, so it's hard to pinpoint exactly one thing instead of just making a wider generalisation.

 

Mason: (31:02)

I think for me, the realisation, as you said, you're mostly water. It's involved in every function of the body. Every bit of solid Jing matter within our body is watery. So, just enabling, giving your body a clean medium that, as you said, it's coming out in a natural ratio.

 

Mason: (31:28)

People don't realise when we say processed water, people are like, "What filter should I use?" Just so you know, I get people on the podcast so that I'm not that annoying person that's just like, "I don't know," because I don't know. I don't care. Personally, I don't care. I'm trying to care a little bit more, because I'm investing in filters for my parents, and some friends who can't get access to spring water in a main city.

 

Chris Sanborn: (31:58)

Yeah. Yeah, it's true. There's people who live in the middle of New York that just don't have financial resources to even be able to afford a vehicle to go out and harvest.

 

Chris Sanborn: (32:12)

I'd be curious to know what you typically recommend. I do like the Berkey filters. I used to use those before, just because they say they filter out fluoride and keep in the minerals. I mean who knows, really? But yeah, it's a tough one.

 

Mason: (32:33)

Berkey? How do you spell Berkey?

 

Chris Sanborn: (32:37)

B-E-R-K-E-Y.

 

Mason: (32:42)

Okay. I think I know the one you're talking about. That's not the chambered one with the little black mineralizing rocks with the white spots in it in the bottom, is it?

 

Chris Sanborn: (32:52)

No.

 

Mason: (32:53)

Okay. I'll have a look at it. I think Berkey's, I've got another mate in L.A., and I'm pretty sure that's what he uses, as well, but I will confirm. Because that's the other thing I'm trying to ask everyone on the water series. If you had to pick a filter, what are you picking, and what's the rationale behind it?

 

Mason: (33:09)

That's probably, I'm more of a fan of something that's just trying to clear out as much of that positive charged industrial crap while maintaining some of the integrity of the water. I understand the going [inaudible 00:33:26] water, and completely stripping it, and then adding it back in.

 

Mason: (33:30)

But there's something about that deconstruction and then trying to put together that recipe of what makes a water alive. There's a lot of assumption there, to think you're going to be able to do what the Earth does, to put a water in together.

 

Chris Sanborn: (33:45)

Yeah, playing God.

 

Mason: (33:47)

Yeah. It's a good option. I'll drink it. I'm not as hardcore as I used to be and just, "No! If it's not spring water, I'll just dry fast for a day."

 

Chris Sanborn: (34:04)

I'm curious to hear. What do you do for your water right now?

 

Mason: (34:11)

We've got, as I said, Tony from Wild Oasis is a good resource there, as that backup. Then I'm lucky enough to have a friend who lives up in the Byron, Hinterland. They have 200 acres up there. They've got a spring coming out of that dormant volcano, coming out of that volcanic soil, really beautiful high vibe spring. They've got that plumb in their house and feeding into the dams. It's a really beautiful spot.

 

Mason: (34:47)

That place, it means a lot to me. They're family. That's where conceived my daughter. The waters there, they literally formed my daughter and formed me.

 

Chris Sanborn: (35:00)

Wow!

 

Mason: (35:03)

Yeah. So, it's one of those ones, it's private property. So people listening, please don't ask me for access to that.

 

Mason: (35:12)

You definitely need to ask around, because it is around everywhere you're at. You go and talk to the old people, they'll generally know where a spring is. That's what we're doing at the moment, and then just doing the best we can with a whole house water filter. Which I'll share in another podcast [crosstalk 00:35:30]

 

Chris Sanborn: (35:29)

That's [crosstalk 00:35:30] because that's the one thing that I found. I've been on a hunt for shower filters for years. I've probably bought, I don't know, a dozen different shower filters. I've tested them all. I've tested them before and after. I actually paid for lab tests. Do these actually work, even a little bit?

 

Chris Sanborn: (35:59)

It's been shocking to see that the shower filters, the ones I've found anyway, haven't really done much. Yeah, if you're filtering in chlorine and fluoride, and God knows what else. If you're in a city, a lot of times it’s recycled water.

 

Chris Sanborn: (36:22)

That's getting in your skin. So, the whole house water system is clutch.

 

Mason: (36:28)

Yeah. To be honest, I try and not shower, and just go and jump in the ocean. But it gets to a point where sometimes I just don't want salt water on my body.

 

Chris Sanborn: (36:38)

Yeah.

 

Mason: (36:41)

As I've gotten a little bit older, it's something you were saying about, you don't need as much water when you're drinking spring water. There's a couple of books that talk about, like the indigenous mob here talking about living in the desert, and then having "whities" go and live with them, and saying, "You guys are not sustainable with the way you drink water. You drink far too much water. You don't need that. You don't actually need that much."

 

Mason: (37:12)

I feel it comes down to, if you're walking in the rhythms of the land, and your inherent seasons, and where you come from, stress rolls off the body. When you're not stressed, you're not needing as many resources.

 

Chris Sanborn: (37:25)

Yeah, makes sense.

 

Mason: (37:28)

Yeah, definitely what you're saying. When you get onto a good spring water source, naturally you're not going to need to drink as much, because you are going to take a significant amount of stress off your body because you're on a real, living, good source of water, that's high in minerals and it's doing its job. Because it's in harmony with the Earth, it's nourished us in a species in that way, for a long time. So, there's something recognisable there.

 

Mason: (37:54)

But then, for me, I've noticed as I've got a toddler, business is cruising. I've had to spend more times indoors. Stress has increased, stuff going on with family. My water intake goes up. It's simply not as effective, so I feel like that's a good distinction for everyone to remember.

 

Mason: (38:19)

So, in that sense, even in that, that's why maybe sometimes I won't just leave myself salt water on my skin to dry me out and preserve me.

 

Chris Sanborn: (38:30)

Right.

 

Mason: (38:32)

If I'm up at the farm, at my mate's farm, a water permaculture farm. You know, you jump into the creek. You jump into the spring water. It's the best ever.

 

Chris Sanborn: (38:41)

Yeah, that's for sure.

 

Mason: (38:44)

Sometimes I like, I've got a spa at home. I'm going to move, doing that kind of thing, I like to soak in the winter. So, the filter I've got, I just went and asked, when I was living in Sydney, the people at the water shop. I knew a couple of those guys in Cammeray, there.

 

Mason: (39:00)

So, I just called them up and asked where they were at. They said the best they had was the Aragon. Looking into it, I've got another friend who really likes that one as well, who I think is onto it. So, the Aragon, I got the 20 inch by 4.5 inch. I think it's a triple chamber scenario, but I know people will ask me about that.

 

Mason: (39:24)

Then there's a Vortex upcoming, as well, which I'll talk about at another time.

 

Chris Sanborn: (39:27)

Wow, that sounds great.

 

Mason: (39:29)

Yeah. My friends just [crosstalk 00:39:31]

 

Chris Sanborn: (39:32)

Do they do fluoride in Australia?

 

Mason: (39:35)

We live in one of the only municipal councils where they don't do fluoride. I think [crosstalk 00:39:41]

 

Chris Sanborn: (39:40)

Oh, nice!

 

Mason: (39:42)

It's the Byron Shire. I believe it's Gladstone, just north of Brisbane that are the only ones that aren't doing it. Very lucky, but we have high chlorine where we are.

 

Mason: (39:52)

So, yeah. We went and got our water tested by a building biologist. Then I sent that to the water shop people. They just helped me match what filter's going to be appropriate. Because obviously, I don't need to opt for something that's going to be specifically designed to get the fluoride out.

 

Chris Sanborn: (40:11)

Right.

 

Mason: (40:11)

So huge.

 

Chris Sanborn: (40:15)

That's cool. That's really cool. [crosstalk 00:40:20]

 

Mason: (40:20)

Yeah. I'm getting the Phion filter. I think it's by Haydo from Native Water. He's a Kangen guy, which I don't like Kangen, but I like him.

 

Chris Sanborn: (40:41)

There's a few people that I love that are on the same train.

 

Mason: (40:45)

Yeah.

 

Chris Sanborn: (40:46)

I appreciate that.

 

Mason: (40:47)

Let's not let opinions on water filters divide us.

 

Mason: (40:52)

But him at Native Water, @native_water on Instagram, he's ordering me in a Phion structuring device, with a bit of clear tubing on either side, so you can see what the water's looking like that comes out of the whole house filter, what it looks like going into this Phion, and then how it's coming out structured. So, that's the next little upgrade we've got.

 

Mason: (41:14)

Guys, I'm not a purist anymore. It's like, I'd like to be on top of it.

 

Chris Sanborn: (41:20)

I feel you, bro. I feel you. Sometimes I'll be out, and I'm hungry, and I want some fish tacos. I'm like, "Oh, God. What kind of oil are they frying it in? What kind of pan?" You know what, fuck it. [crosstalk 00:41:38] Every once in a while, you've got to live your life.

 

Mason: (41:41)

Dude, I'm reading-

 

Chris Sanborn: (41:42)

I won't eat farm raised, I'll tell you that. [crosstalk 00:41:47]

 

Mason: (41:46)

What won't you eat?

 

Chris Sanborn: (41:49)

Farm raised, like farm raised fish.

 

Mason: (41:52)

You've got to draw a line somewhere.

 

Chris Sanborn: (41:55)

Yeah. Yeah.

 

Mason: (41:58)

I'm reading-

 

Chris Sanborn: (41:59)

But being flexible is good.

 

Mason: (42:00)

Yeah. I don't know. I'm reading Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain at the moment. It's been a while since I've tuned into his work. I'm just like, "Dude, that heart based, potentially in excess going towards gluttony, but just the pure enjoyment of love, and a story around food, is something that's often void, in the purest health scene that comes from logic.

 

Mason: (42:24)

It immediately comes from an instinct need to get healthy, and then it comes down to logic, and morality. What you lose, generally in the long-term, is this activation of your senses and the romance. Which is something that I'm reading Bourdain's book, going, "Yeah, that's what was void for so many years, the freedom to just go and enjoy." Just go and enjoy life in general. Like you said, just go and have the fish tacos.

 

Mason: (42:54)

Dude, anything else? Feel free to throw in whatever you want to throw in about Bitcoin, as well, because it's been a while since anyone's mentioned Bitcoin on the podcast, I don't even know where it's at.

 

Chris Sanborn: (43:07)

Today, I'll tell you where it's at. One Bitcoin equals $12,500 US. It's the highest today for the year, on a bit of what we call a bull run, where the price is escalating quite quickly. I'm quite happy that my investment has been paying off.

 

Chris Sanborn: (43:32)

It's interesting. I think the allure with Bitcoin, crypto, the initial lore is, "Oh, cool." We can all actually have money that appreciates in value, instead of depreciates like fiat, government backed currency. Especially right now, they're just printing it out of thin air. It's backed by nothing.

 

Chris Sanborn: (43:55)

So, what does that mean? It means, next year, $1 is going to be worth 90 cents of what it is today. Every year, it's appreciation. It's what happens. The value of money, of fiat backed currency, it just drops every year.

 

Chris Sanborn: (44:21)

Whereas Bitcoin, there's only 21,000,000. It's actually a truly scarce resource. It's not like gold where, sure, gold's great, but there's the idea that what happens if we find a huge pool of gold, maybe on Earth, maybe on a meteor. There's actually meteor mining companies that are in existence right now, that will be launching within the next few years. So, what happens when that gold supply, what happens if it gets 100x? Then gold, gold's not worth so much anymore.

 

Chris Sanborn: (45:04)

Granted, gold is a great store of value. The thing with gold, too, precious metals, they do have industrial applications. There's things that they can actually be used for in real world, that have real value. But as a store of value ... Going back to crypto.

 

Chris Sanborn: (45:25)

So, cryptocurrencies as a store of value, are so far superior than fiat. If I wanted to send you $10,000 in Australia, what would I do? How would I do that? I'd probably have to go to my bank, send you a wire, they charge a fee. Your bank's going to charge a fee. It's going to take a few days to get to you. We've got to figure out the currency conversion rate.

 

Mason: (45:58)

Do you lock it in previously, or do you go for the current exchange rate? All that, paying for that fee.

 

Chris Sanborn: (46:07)

Yeah. So, say I wanted to send you $10,000 in Bitcoin. I can literally do it in 15 to 30 seconds. What's your Bitcoin address?

 

Chris Sanborn: (46:17)

Now, there's even, for example, you could send me money to C Sanborn.cyrpto, You could literally send me $10,000 in Bitcoin. I'll get the money within a few minutes, and we'll pay maybe 50 cents to $1 to the network, for the fee.

 

Chris Sanborn: (46:37)

When you just think about all of these things; that there's actually a finite supply, it's faster, and I don't need approval from anyone. I don't need approval from my bank. You don't need approval. It's our money. No one's in control of it.

 

Chris Sanborn: (46:56)

All of these factors, and the other thing is, it's trickle down economics. All of these stimulus packages that are happening now, the public's getting a little bit of that money, but the majority of it's going to the corporations and the banks. Then the public gets a little bit that trickles down after that, whatever's left over.

 

Chris Sanborn: (47:19)

It's just not fair. It's not the future of money. There's a reason that the Bitcoin price is on a bull run right now; all the cryptos, not just Bitcoin. Bitcoin's great. I actually really like Ethereum, because it's faster. There's a few different ones that I'm a big fan of.

 

Chris Sanborn: (47:51)

It's really cool that recently, the big thing this year that's really changed the game, and this is why I'm confident in having most of my savings in crypto. Because I don't think there's going to be a drop in price like before. That's a big thing for people, "Oh, but it's so risky."

 

Chris Sanborn: (48:11)

Well, it is. It is. I'm not going to sit here and pretend like it's not. But I don't think the price is going back down, because of what's happened this year is decentralised finance, or de-fi, for short. Now, this is the idea that we can all be bank less. I can actually loan you money, and you can pay me the interest instead of a bank, by basically holding these cryptocurrencies as collateral. If you don't pay me back, then I just keep your Bitcoin, or Ethereum, or whatever it is.

 

Chris Sanborn: (48:55)

But then, obviously, you don't want to do that. You want to pay me back with low interest, because it's through two people, or bigger. There's these big de-fi platforms, where there's big pools of resources. So, it just makes sense. It's like, "Why are we paying the banks all this interest for these loans, when we can just bank each other?"

 

Chris Sanborn: (49:20)

So, that's where the game changer is happening this year. More companies are starting to accept crypto. You can buy our glass on our website, anywhere in the world. You can pay with Bitcoin, Ethereum, whatever it may be. We accept it. There's big, big businesses now that are starting to accept Bitcoin. Microsoft is one example. Horrible company; I don't think I have any Microsoft products.

 

Chris Sanborn: (49:55)

Just one example of some of the bigger corporations that are, they know they can't-

 

Mason: (50:04)

Can't fight it?

 

Chris Sanborn: (50:04)

... That it's the most valuable resource now. There's more and more big financial players that are starting to wake up to the fact that it's the future of finance. It's fun. It's a fun thing to be investing in. I wake up every day, and it's like, "Oh, wow. I made a few hundred dollars while I slept," usually.

 

Mason: (50:30)

The highs and lows. The highs and lows. You've got to keep your long-term. I think it was three years ago we started accepting Bitcoin on SuperFeast. It was good. It was pretty clunky, so I just for the mental health of my bookkeeper, I just took it off back then. It's getting to a point, if everyone starts demanding it, I can get that, straight back up there.

 

Mason: (50:59)

It's always, you reminded me, it's been a while that I tuned into the conversation.

 

Mason: (51:05)

You remind what is really exciting there is the decentralisation and the return to sovereignty. I know there's always going to be, the parasites will come to see how they can use it to control people, of course. It's going to happen, no matter what.

 

Chris Sanborn: (51:24)

There are centralised cryptocurrencies now, as well. XRP is one. It's the number three cryptocurrency, but it's not decentralised. So, you've got to watch out. Not all cryptocurrencies are created the same.

 

Chris Sanborn: (51:50)

But that being said, there's still a lot of advantages to centralised cryptocurrencies over others; just that it's faster, it's permission-less. Now, who benefits from that network? That's a handful of people, which isn't very cool. That's not the way of the future.

 

Chris Sanborn: (52:13)

The cool thing that's happening now is, there's a new model of actually confirming that a block has, what's called, there's block chain technology. It's basically these blocks that, every block is a verification of who the new owners of these currencies are.

 

Chris Sanborn: (52:39)

So that's how it moves. It moves in these block chains, with all the data from who owns it. It used to be, and it still is, for Bitcoin, it's proof of work. Did you prove that you have the most recent data with all the correct owners? Okay, yeah. That's proof of work.

 

Chris Sanborn: (53:00)

Now what's happening is proof of stake. So actually, now what happens is, you have money in the network that you use for staking. So, you're actually, it's proof of stake, so actually, I'm making the network stronger and more secure by having my money in a proof of stake network. Now I'm actually gaining money just from having money in this cryptocurrency.

 

Chris Sanborn: (53:26)

So, instead of the miners getting paid, now we're getting paid just for having money in these different cryptocurrencies. It's a game changer.

 

Mason: (53:40)

That makes sense. If it's a people led currency, it relies on individuals, not on institution. If you're someone that has stake, and you having stake, and that being taken and shown within the block chain, and shown to be evident that it's up to date, then you are contributing to the increasing value of the currency.

 

Mason: (54:04)

Therefore, you're going to get a little bit of a kick back, rather than that going back to a centralised place. Yeah, I think that makes sense. Did I capture that?

 

Chris Sanborn: (54:12)

Yeah, totally. Totally.

 

Chris Sanborn: (54:14)

All of these things are coming online right now. I think a lot of people look at it and they're like, "Oh, man! I should have gotten Bitcoin when it was $10, $100." It's like, Bitcoin's, sure it's at the highest it's been this year. The highest it's ever been is $20,000.

 

Chris Sanborn: (54:38)

So, a lot of people look at it and they're like, "Oh, man. I missed it. I missed that magic window." But it's like, if there's only 21,000,000 Bitcoin, and the future of money, a lot of people speculate Bitcoin could easily go up to $100,000 a Bitcoin.

 

Chris Sanborn: (54:58)

So, I think now's probably the best time than ever to invest. Like I said, there's more and more companies that do accept it. The companies that do accept it, it's easier now than ever to accept it. You can integrate, even on Shopify, you can integrate, I have, we'll use Coinbase.

 

Mason: (55:20)

That's what I was thinking, as well.

 

Chris Sanborn: (55:24)

Yeah. They made it a lot easier. I actually like crypto.com a lot more than Coinbase. The other thing with that, that's a game changer. I have a debit card with them, which I convert all my crypto into fiat. So, whenever I want to, I went to yoga this morning. I paid for my yoga with my Visa card. I converted it from Bitcoin.

 

Chris Sanborn: (55:48)

So, it's a real world application. Why am I going to have money in fiat, when I could just have it in Bitcoin, that's accruing interest, decentralised. And I get 3% back on everything I spend on that card. It's just like, "What?"

 

Mason: (56:05)

Yeah. I think it's getting to the point, I think it's the initial shock and awe of it where everyone was, "This is too good to be true." Then went [crosstalk 00:56:16] big waves. Then there was that big dip, which everyone says is a crash, which I definitely don't know.

 

Mason: (56:24)

But you look over, as you do investments, you look over a 30 year period. It's most likely a dip rather than a crash. But the bubble burst. Okay, so it did. It's probably got many bubbles in its life.

 

Mason: (56:36)

But it's probably getting to that point where I realise I'm not an investor. I'm not someone that should be following the advice in terms of finance. But it always does make sense that, just like we were saying, if you want diversity with what's living in your water, and you want diversity with what's living in your gut, and what's living in your home, you diversify how you're investing, rather than that narrative.

 

Mason: (57:01)

Some people just like to go completely into stock, or completely into Bitcoin, or Ethereum, or whatever it is. But it's [crosstalk 00:57:08]

 

Chris Sanborn: (57:08)

Like your thing, it is good, diversify. You don't have to go all in.

 

Mason: (57:14)

That's probably a nice, easy way to go in. I have got a bad bunch of friends [inaudible 00:57:20] for a little bit was just like, "Right, it's all over here now." It's like, "Okay, let's not drink all the Kool Aid at once if you don't completely understand it."

 

Chris Sanborn: (57:30)

Totally. Totally. It's easy to get carried away, when you see all of your money going up. It's definitely good to keep a level head. I hold gold. I do hold cash, of course.

 

Mason: (57:47)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

 

Chris Sanborn: (57:50)

I hold a lot of crypto, mostly crypto. [crosstalk 00:57:53]

 

Mason: (57:53)

And a lot of water.

 

Chris Sanborn: (57:56)

A lot of water, and that's more valuable than anything.

 

Mason: (58:00)

I value that. The conversations, that can be so grounded. Returning a bit of that freedom to humans, the concept of sovereignty. Sovereignty's not, you're sovereign or you're not. It's a resonance. It's a quality.

 

Mason: (58:19)

So, if there's things that help you regain that quality of sovereignty, will you feel pretty free? Good. Let's explore it. It happens. That's what happens with the water.

 

Mason: (58:28)

So, dude, I'll let you go. I'm sure you've got to go and pay the gardener.

 

Chris Sanborn: (58:35)

Actually, I've just got to pee.

 

Mason: (58:39)

Well, let's wrap it up.

 

Mason: (58:41)

So, Alive Water is the company if you're on, is it just West Coast still, or are you expanding?

 

Chris Sanborn: (58:48)

Just West Coast for water delivery. We ship everywhere on the planet for glass. It's expensive for most places outside of the country right now, but we're working on that, to have more fulfilment centres in the near future.

 

Chris Sanborn: (59:06)

Of course, findaspring.com is global. Log in. Check your local spring and contribute to the community. There's a lot of ways you can do that leave a review, leave a comment, provide a water test. If you're really gung ho, maybe you could find a spring, if there's not one in your area that's not on the map, and pipe it. You'll be a hero in your community, for things like that.

 

Mason: (59:45)

Absolutely. That is hero. That's God status in the community, if you're that person, and as well with the testing. I'm glad you guys have taken it over, because it's been a great resource, but it did need some new life breathed into it.

 

Mason: (01:00:03)

So, that's really exciting for me, because it ensures that I'm going to continue to recommend it. Findaspring.com. Some of you listening have been following along for 10 years, and hearing us recommend that site for 10 years.

 

Mason: (01:00:18)

It's nice when something has longevity. That's what your body's going to have if you get onto good water. So, go get spring water if you're on the East Coast. You were just talking about shipping the empty glass around the world, not the water. Right?

 

Chris Sanborn: (01:00:30)

Correct, yeah. We pride ourselves in having the absolute best glass for collecting, storing, and drinking spring water, the whole thing.

 

Mason: (01:00:45)

Because we've all, I've been there, collecting water, and then all of a sudden, you're driving back, and it just shatters on you. The glass explodes.

 

Chris Sanborn: (01:00:56)

Oh, yeah.

 

Mason: (01:00:59)

My little barina.

 

Chris Sanborn: (01:00:59)

We've come a long way with our design product, with our design process. We've got a lot of good stuff that's live now, and a lot of good stuff that's coming. So, stay tuned for the evolution.

 

Mason: (01:01:13)

Is it Alive Water, what's the website?

 

Chris Sanborn: (01:01:16)

Findaspring.com and alivewaters.com

 

Mason: (01:01:22)

Alivewaters.com and I'm assuming @alivewaters on Instagram? It's a good Instagram. Find A Spring's a good Instagram, as well. I actually did realise that it was starting getting used again, that Find A Spring Instagram. So, that's really inspiring.

 

Mason: (01:01:33)

Thanks so much.

 

Chris Sanborn: (01:01:34)

We haven't made the official relaunch yet, but we're getting there. We're getting things to where they need to be, so it's exciting.

 

Mason: (01:01:45)

Sweet. So good, man. Thanks so much for coming on. It's been awesome.

 

Chris Sanborn: (01:01:49)

Yeah, thanks for having me. Thanks for the great work you do. It was great to chat with you.

 

Mason: (01:01:56)

Likewise. Tell Maria I will probably be getting another delivery next year. Who knows what's going to happen in this crazy world?

 

Chris Sanborn: (01:02:02)

Yeah. Hopefully, we can do more travelling again soon.

 

Mason: (01:02:06)

Yeah. Sweet, bro. Catch you.

 

Chris Sanborn: (01:02:08)

All right. Aloha.