Little late today. Kiddos started school, which is kind of wild considering it’s not even mid-August yet.

This email has been a couple months in the making (behind the scenes), so we’re pumped on it. See below.

Here’s what’s on tap today:

Let’s get into it.

If you’re new here, welcome. Happy to have ya!

My neighbor shared a post with me the other day (thx Mike).

The gist was this…a dad of seven is too busy feeding kids, driving places, wiping things down and generally surviving to sit around thinking about the state of civilization. Meanwhile, civilization is quite literally growing up in his house.

The guy who reposted it added something I liked: it’s not really about having kids versus not having kids. It’s about having skin in the game. Building something from nothing.

That feels pretty spot-on for dad life.

We’re all in it. Raising actual humans. Making a thousand decisions along the way and hoping a decent percentage of them are right.

And somewhere between all of the noise, chaos, stress, etc., these little people are becoming bigger people who will eventually head out into the world on their own.

We probably don't need to overthink it much more than that. We’ve got skin in the game.

Alright guys. We’re running it back. This past May, 25 dads came to Charleston. We surfed, worked out, hung out, and left feeling like we were onto something.

So, we’re doing it again, but this time we’re heading to Austin, Texas from October 15–17. Our friends at Huckberry are even getting behind this one.

We got all the details on the site, but here’s the basic idea:

Show up Thursday early evening. Wrap Saturday around noon. Get a couple days to move, eat well, hear from some interesting people, and hang with a bunch of dads who are probably in the same boat as you.

And yes, you can still be home Saturday night for bath and bedtime if you need to keep the peace.

You do not need to be in peak shape for this. Seriously. If you can walk and handle sweating a little, you’ll be fine.

The activities are part of it, but they’re not really the point. The best stuff from Charleston happened in the in-between moments. Sitting around after a workout. Grabbing food. Talking to another dad who’s going through the same stuff.

Robert Huffman, who came to the first one, put it better than we probably could:

“I showed up having zero expectations and no idea who else would attend, but turns out we were all in the same boat. Just a bunch of dads, hungry for adventure and community. I still talk to the guys I met here and the highlights of the event weren’t even on the agenda.”

That’s it right there. A quick reset. A chance to fill your cup. A good city. Cool spaces. A bunch of solid dads. Some movement. Some stories. Some tacos and more.

Early bird tickets are live for a limited time, and we are capping this experience, so make sure you snag your ticket.

You can also save a couple bucks if you bring a dad friend. If you have any immediate questions, reply to this email and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

[ Learn more here ]

PS: if you need us to email your spouse and explain why this is a good idea, we’ll do it.

A couple random facts you probably don’t need to know… but might come in handy the next time you're standing around at a kid’s birthday party making awkward conversation with another dad you barely know.

Just picked this bad boy up last weekend and I’m kicking myself for not buying one sooner. The EGO edger gave me the cleanest lines I’ve had to date, has plenty of power, and the battery just keeps going. Weirdly satisfying to use, too.

[ Get it here ]

Last week we talked about a few protein bars that are basically candy bars wearing gym clothes.

So here are six we’d actually feel pretty good about grabbing:

RXBAR and Rise keep things pretty simple, ALOHA is a solid plant-based option, Transparent Labs gives you a little more protein, and EPIC is the move if you’d rather have something savory.

Lineage packs 20g of grass-fed protein and is the priciest on the list.

None are perfect, and some are pricier than others, but ingredient-wise they’re a lot easier to get behind than most of what’s sitting in the protein bar aisle.

Prices are approximate and ingredients/nutrition can vary by flavor and change over time.