(Transcript) Chasing Gains with Paxton Biggs

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[00:00:45] Gabriel: Howdy folks and welcome back to another episode of the chaser chat podcast. I am Gabriel Harber and I’m joined today by fellow weightlifter Paxton Biggs. How’s it going man? 

[00:00:55] Paxton: Pretty good. How are you? 

[00:00:57] Gabriel: I’ll tell you what, I’d be doing a lot better if I had a kick ass weightlifting last name like yours. Even your first name, Paxton Biggs, just sounds like a competition powerlifter. 

[00:01:08] Paxton: I guess Biggs definitely fits that. I don’t know about Paxton. 

[00:01:13] Gabriel: But then you got the, I guess you have the the twister connection there. You just got an all around kick ass name. 

[00:01:18] Paxton: The Bill Paxton connection. That’s surprisingly . No one can pronounce my name. Whenever I tell people my name, maybe it’s because I talk softly or something, people always say Peyton or Braxton. So I just usually say, yeah, for real. I usually just say Bill Paxton and people seem to get that rest in peace to the goat.

[00:01:39] Gabriel: Absolutely. Absolutely. Before we get into all the storm chasing talk, just because I don’t get a chance to converse with many fellow weightlifters outside of my own local gym, how’s everything going for you on that front? Because you have been pretty public chronicling your successes, some of your struggles all along the way.

[00:01:59] Paxton: Yeah, maybe we could just do a full podcast on that. Yeah, it’s been good. Let’s see. I started pretty much lifting for I would say the first time since high school, maybe like early college, I was lifting a little bit, but I didn’t really know what I was doing. I actually started watching like hundreds of hours of YouTube videos.

[00:02:20] Trying to figure out like how to lift optimally and what to eat and everything about a year ago. And I’d just been super out of shape for 10 years. So I’ve probably been cutting fat for like almost the entire year, like I was doing a recomp phase early building muscle Losing fat and then did like a hard cut over the summer lost about 12 pounds of fat And then I planned on just bulking through the winter But I didn’t really like where I was at body fat percentage wise so I’m actually two weeks into another cut.

[00:02:56] And then I’m doing, I’m not perma cutting. I’m just going to bulk for six to 10 months once I get down to about 15 percent body fat. So that’s how it’s going right now. It’s going well. 

[00:03:06] Gabriel: I am definitely in admiration of you because I am one of those, and I’m sure you’ve heard about them, power lifters who started off bulking because we wanted to gain muscle and then just decided, you know what, this bulking part’s fun. I’m just going to keep doing that part. I’m not going to do the cut part anymore. 

[00:03:22] Paxton: Yeah, dude, I will say okay, so I’ve never lifted in a surplus until about a month ago, like pretty much this entire year. My lifting has been in some sort of a deficit or like right around maintenance calories, and I lifted in like a 500 to 700 calorie surplus for about six weeks and I gained like a couple pounds of fat, but the lifts were just exploding. It’s every week it’s so much fun going up. It’s, I get it. It’s so much fun. I think I went up like on squat bench, deadlift, like everything. I went up to 30 pounds of weight and reps went up like crazy just in six weeks time. So I get it. It’s a lot of fun. 

[00:04:06] Gabriel: Yeah. People don’t realize how sensitive your body is to such a narrow calorie range, like being in a 200 calorie deficit versus a 300 calorie surplus. It makes a, it seems like a small amount of calories, but it makes a huge difference when you get into the gym with what your body has to work with.

[00:04:22] Paxton: It’s insane. Like the, and about six to seven weeks in on a cut, I will say like brain fog is unbearable. Like I’m not like functioning through my life. I’m just on autopilot. But like in a surplus, you’re just like, I’m like giggling in the gym and I’m having a good time. I get it.

[00:04:42] The only reason I’m even getting down to fat 15 percent is because like I have a goal that I want to see my abs at some point. I’ve never seen my abs. So I guess we’ll see. 

[00:04:52] Gabriel: Yeah. And like they say, abs are 100 percent the kitchen. So you, you have to, unfortunately, if you want to see your abs, you’re going to have to go into some sort of caloric deficit and you’re going to have to just tough it out until you get there. There’s no way around it. 

[00:05:06] Paxton: I heard a quote the other day, and we’re just going to end up talking about weightlifting this whole podcast I heard a quote the other day that abs are made in the gym and revealed in the kitchen. And I was like, okay, that’s a little better than the old adage. But yeah, it’s true. 

[00:05:22] Gabriel: Yeah. And you know what, that’s actually, that is far more accurate than what I said. You’re right. Because I go to the gym and So I’ll do exercises, decline, sit ups, wheel rollouts, starfish crunches, that sort of stuff. And I’m a bigger guy. I’m a, I’m in the heavyweight category for powerlifting 100%.

[00:05:39] And so I’ll do all these exercises though. And sometimes I’ll get people that are amazed that I can do it. There’s wow, someone your size, like so nimble, you can do all these things. And I’m just like, yeah, like at one hand it’s like a compliment, but at the other hand, it’s yeah, I know what you’re saying. It would be nice if I could, actually see my abs someday. Cause I’ve worked so hard for them. 

[00:05:58] Dude, if you cut like it’s crazy. I bet if you cut like I don’t know what your body fat percentage is But I bet even you at What are you at now? Do you know? 

[00:06:06] Gabriel: Yeah. 335. 

[00:06:08] Paxton: Yeah. What’s your body fat percentage? Do you know it? 

[00:06:10] Gabriel: I don’t know off the top of my head. I would guess it somewhere in like the 31, 32, 33 range, which is pretty typical for powerlifting if you’re in the heavyweight class. 

[00:06:20] Paxton: I gotcha, man. I feel like you would look insane even at 25 percent like. I’m sure you look great now and everything. I’d like Aw, thank you, baby. But, yeah, but it’s, yeah. 25 percent would probably look freaky on you. 

[00:06:35] Gabriel: Yeah, a good comp that I’ve always rolled with is Eddie Hall. Are you familiar with him? Yeah. Yeah. So he’s the same height as me, six foot three. And you look at sort of the ups and downs of his career and what he’s done.

[00:06:48] So he, I think he got up to like almost 400 pounds when he was looking to set the world record for deadlifting. And then he, has cut down significantly and he’s still at I think between 25 and 30 percent body fat percentage, but you can actually see like the first couple rows of his abs.

[00:07:05] Now with the size that he’s at and it just looks absolutely monstrous. So I’m inclined to agree with you probably if I could get down to 25, 26, 27, and you could actually see some of those abs start to come in, it would be pretty awesome. At some point maybe I’ll take the dive, but it’s just, I’ve started it before, but it’s just you start doing it, you go to the gym and all of a sudden you put up like three less reps than you were doing the week before. And you’re just like, Oh my God. 

[00:07:27] Paxton: Yeah it’s, yeah, I started. I started with a more aggressive cut this time because I started real slow on my one this summer. And then towards the end I was like now I have to ramp it up, but I’m just so fatigued and like diet exhausted that I like can’t ramp it up more to lose like those last extra few pounds.

[00:07:48] So yeah, diving in really strong this time. I’ve lost reps like almost immediately just because I’ve lost three pounds in the past 12 days. So it’s. And it’s like mostly fat. So it’s really technical, I guess we’re here to talk about 

[00:08:04] Gabriel: Yeah. It’s good when the guest is the one that has to get the host back on track. You always know that’s the mark of professionalism. So yes, we will. We will say sorry to everyone for forcing you to listen to all that weightlifting and jazz at the beginning of the podcast, but we are of course here to talk about storm chasing. Paxton, you are a big time storm chaser, somebody who I spoke with over the summer and the spring with some of the chaser recap episodes.

[00:08:30] And I told you then I wanted to get you on for a full length interview. It’s taken a few months, but here we are. So let’s go ahead and start back as far as you’d like to go and just let people know how you became interested in the weather. 

[00:08:40] Paxton: I think, and this sounds like so cliche, but I think it was Twister. Like when I was a kid, I tried to narrow it down like before then, just to be cool. I remember being terrified of weather when I was like mega young, like maybe five, six years old. And then Twister came out and I was like, okay, now I’m obsessed with this. And I was always the kid that.

[00:09:02] I would watch like my family members wanted to watch like cartoons, like my siblings and stuff. And I wanted to watch the Weather Channel all the time. And then just growing up, I remember Hurricane Katrina hitting and that was like a big point of me getting even more into it. And like understanding like, oh, there’s resources online that I can track this stuff with.

[00:09:27] And then started to, I don’t know, just kind of other priorities growing up through high school and stuff. But then once I got into college, going to OU I think it was the Moore tornado in 2013 that kind of revitalized my passion for it. And so that following year, I went out in June and this is a funny, ironic story, but I didn’t really.

[00:09:52] Know what I was doing in 2014. And I just, I was diving into what resources were out there and just full disclosure, I was SPC chasing. And the one thing that I saw was like active period coming up in mid June in 2014. And everyone probably thinks Oh, no way, you chased Pilger for your first chase?

[00:10:16] No. What I did was, I saw the first decent day, and I drove up there in my little shitbox Corolla. My my 98 Corolla with 150,000 miles on it. And chased on June 14th, two days before Pilger. And I did see a tornado on my first legitimate chase. It was like a nighttime, brief tornado.

[00:10:42] Pretty cool. I was excited. And then two days later, Pilger happened. And Coleridge happened the day after that. And then the Alpena, South Dakota. Tornado happened after that. So I felt very accomplished and very proud of my first tornado. But if I would have waited two days later, I potentially could have seen Pilger for my first tornado.

[00:11:02] So that’s when it all started. And yeah, I’ve been doing it since then. So here we are now.

[00:11:08] Gabriel: Are you familiar with the term nominative determinism? 

[00:11:12] Paxton: I don’t think I’ve ever heard that phrase in my life. 

[00:11:15] Gabriel: I hadn’t either, so don’t worry. It’s just something I picked up a little while back because I was interested in this concept. It literally means name driven outcome, and since your first name is Paxton, I’m wondering if you watching Twister and getting into storm chasing was just inevitable because of that connection. 

[00:11:32] Paxton: I never really thought of it like that, but yeah, it’s possible, I don’t really know where this Interest comes from it’s like developing a fandom for a football team or something. You don’t really know you have some sort of emotional and like geographical connection to it and then it gets like the flame gets stoked over the years that’s the only way that I can imagine it because my passion for weather and things like that has dwindled some through stints of my life, and then gone crazy through some stints of my life where I can’t do anything but it. Yeah, I don’t, I really don’t know. It could be, just because he’s Bill Paxton. 

[00:12:11] Gabriel: Now, when you first started Storm Chasing, Did you have any desire to get into the professional meteorology industry? Or were you thinking of trying to maybe make storm chasing a career? Or was it just something that you saw as a hobby that you were super interested in?

[00:12:27] Paxton: So yes to both of those. So when I first started at OU, My degree that I declared was meteorology and about after a semester of that, I was like, okay, I have a 3. 0 and then I started to get into some tougher classes and I got super lazy at school and just about flunked out. So I was like, okay, I need to change to something a little more my speed and I ended up getting a degree in GIS.

[00:12:56] Long story short, that’s what I work in now. But yeah, meteorology was probably not going to fit. And retrospectively looking back now. I’m glad I didn’t become a meteorologist because it seems like the times where you want to be chasing the most is the times when meteorologists are like the busiest.

[00:13:14] Yeah, I’m actually glad that didn’t happen. And then when I first got into storm chasing, still not even knowing what I was doing, I was convinced I was just going to run a tour van and I was going to be one of those storm chasing tour guides, charging. $3, 000 a seat to a bunch of people to come chase with me.

[00:13:35] But then, seeing the reputation of those guys and like getting more into it, it really just became something where I was like, I think this is just better as a hobby. Like it’s something I can do, because of where I’m located, like anywhere between eight to 12 times a year, I can go chase in my backyard or maybe just right down the road, a couple of States over.

[00:13:55] Yeah. It just, It became where it’s like I hunt for deer. It’s like that, like in the springs, I storm chase in the fall I hunt. So it’s just a hobby. 

[00:14:05] Gabriel: Are you friends with Rosie Vortex on Twitter? 

[00:14:08] Paxton: I think so. Yeah. 

[00:14:10] Gabriel: Okay. Cause she posts a lot about hunting as well. So I’m just wondering if you two have ever interacted.

[00:14:13] Paxton: Oh, nice. No I think we follow each other. I haven’t really interacted with her much, though. 

[00:14:20] Gabriel: Yeah, she’s a good friend of mine. You might want to check out her Twitter page at some point. She posts a ton about hunting. It seems like as soon as fall hits, she’s out every single day posting some kind of content about hunting.

[00:14:30] And it’s funny, actually, because, and I’m sorry if you’re one of the people out there who gets offended by hunting. Everyone’s allowed to have their opinions or whatever. But it’s funny because she posts about hunting and there’s invariably some people who, take offense to it, especially if she takes a picture of herself next to the game that she just killed.

[00:14:47] Paxton: Yeah. People don’t like it. And I understand. I posted something last year. I, Got a really nice buck last year and I was proud of it, because I hunted really hard for it And I posted on twitter and my twitter account got temporarily suspended until I took down the photo. Yeah, so someone like reported it and got me suspended on twitter.

[00:15:06] So Like I get it people don’t like it. It’s fine. I have I feel like people have cognitive dissonance to the idea that they’ll eat a cheeseburger but at the same time really hate it. 

[00:15:18] Gabriel: Where does your food come from, people? How do you think it gets on the table? It’s just too and again not to disparage anyone for having their own opinions.

[00:15:25] That’s fine if you have your opinions and you’re not imposing them on others. But consider this. If you’re a vegetarian, how many animals die and how many ecosystems are completely destroyed by farming? People don’t think about that. But, you there’s not an animal left on that land by the time the harvest is done that’s either not been killed or displaced.

[00:15:43] Paxton: Sure. Yeah, and I think any form of consumption, whether it’s like eating or like natural resource harvesting for like transportation, anything like that, is gonna involve some sort of death. I get where people are coming from, but, It’s just a passion I have so 

[00:16:01] Gabriel: Anyways, I didn’t mean to put you front and center into an ethical conversation about hunting. I just like to go off on a little tributaries with the guests that I think are interesting. And I’ve always found that argument a little bit surreal that people make, but back to storm chasing. And so you decided that you weren’t going to be a. Meteorologist by trade. You ended up eventually coming to be very happy with that decision.

[00:16:22] Kind of a little Bob Ross, a happy little accident that you ended up not in that career field. So you said you get to go out about eight to 12 times per year. Is that just because your schedule is limited by the job that you have? Or do you have a certain radius that you like to stay within? I know you mentioned backyard chasing.

[00:16:38] Paxton: Yeah, I think when I was younger I could handle the super long road trips and I was like any money I had I was willing to spend and even money I didn’t have I charged up credit cards driving all over the country of course. I know there’s people out there listening right now that they’re like shit yeah, I still got to pay off my credit card from chasing from this past year so yeah, I feel like I chased a lot more when I was younger.

[00:17:04] And again, as priorities shift and change you shift and change how quote unquote passionate about it you are. Yeah. But yeah, like I’m very picky now with what I chase and I’m very picky also about like how far I’ll drive. I don’t necessarily have a set radius. If something looks incredible, I’ll drive to South Dakota, but.

[00:17:30] Yeah I’m picking and choosing my spots and usually only about eight to 12 I’ve actually, I log all my chases. So only about eight to 12 chases really even interest me year to year. There are some that I wish I could have chased or something, but then most of the time I just look at the distance and I’m like, I can’t. My entire weekend’s gonna be gone, and maybe I’ll have to take a day off work, so it’s not even worth it. 

[00:17:55] Gabriel: I like the point that you’re making about chasing responsibly, and I’m gonna push back on one thing that you said, because you characterized it as not as passionate, and I think that’s kinda bullshit, because I don’t think I don’t think being responsible should be a determiner of how passionate you are.

[00:18:10] And I, I know there are a lot of people who, whether through joking, or hyperbole, or whatever the case may be, they’ll frame it that way, the never stop chasing mentality. But, I think that in terms of sustainability, because if you look at one of the main differences between humans and animals, it’s that we can actually plan for the future, we understand that it’s not just the gratifying of our current self that matters, it’s how satisfied and, happy and content are we going to be into the future.

[00:18:33] I’d rather see, somebody who is able to say 8 to 12 is what I can handle in terms of what I’m interested in. How much money I’m going to spend. How much wear and tear I’m going to put on my body. Cause those long drives where you’re, going through the night. They take a toll on you as you get older.

[00:18:45] And then, chasing 8 to 12 setups comfortably without major strain on your life. For 10, 20, 30 years into the future. I think that can oftentimes be a much better decision than the instant gratification of, draining your bank account and destroying your body and just going to hell and back. So you can chase a 2 percent that’s 10 hours away. 

[00:19:04] Paxtron: That’s a good way of putting it is it’s not necessarily that the passion isn’t there, because I think you could ask just about anyone in the chasing community, if there was a teleportation device, we would jump in it and then be at the base of the meso at any given time, but it’s really it’s about like resource guarding and like, how many resources am I willing to allocate to this 2 percent day or this 5 percent day?

[00:19:30] And you cannot chase them all. Like no matter what anyone tells you, like even Reed Timmer is missing days out there. So that’s a good, that’s a good point. Good rewording I would say. 

[00:19:40] Gabriel: Now, let’s get into a controversial topic that you mentioned specifically that you would like to discuss I’m not gonna spoil it for you. I think you know what I mean. So by that laugh, you definitely know what I mean I’m just gonna hand you the floor and I’ll just piggyback off of wherever you want to go. 

[00:19:57] Paxton: Okay, I have a take that I have been consistently ridiculed for on Twitter and I don’t want to come off as a victim in this saying oh, I’ve been ridiculed like Woe is me, right?

[00:20:13] Because I’ll stand by this take any day anytime and I’m happy to flesh it out especially on a long form like this where I can say my piece because right every time I try to right every time I try and discuss it on Twitter. I just give up because there’s a wall of immovable people on this topic. And I can’t really say what I want to say.

[00:20:35] So I think to an extent I will, I’ll, there are caveats to this, but if you are hit by a visible tornado, like a highly visible tornado, you should not be chasing anymore. And let me dive into that further. There are obviously exceptions, right? So , if you’re chasing an HP storm, or I need to flesh out more with the exceptions are because.

[00:21:05] Gabriel: Maybe like you’re under the meso, nothing has actually touched down yet. And then things start to spin up around where you are. You wouldn’t really say that person drove into a tornado. They were just, where the actual tornadogenesis was taking place. 

[00:21:18] Paxton: Perhaps that would be a caveat. Sure. So here’s where I narrow it down. I think if you are ever impacted by a tornado, in any context, no matter what, you got too close.

[00:21:34] Is that an agreeable thing to say? 

[00:21:36] Gabriel: Okay, yeah, I’ve got some questions about that, but yeah, I think to establish as a baseline, yeah. 

[00:21:42] Paxton: By purely the definition of getting hit by a tornado, you were too close. That’s the concept of being hit by a tornado. Now, the circumstances that led you to being hit by that tornado is what I’m criticizing.

[00:21:57] So obviously there are extenuating circumstances. Like I’ve said one of the ones that comes to mind is the El Reno tornado. And everyone always points to that one, the 2013 El Reno tornado, very famous. The one that killed Tim Samaras at Paul Samaras and Carl Young, I think they are. And everyone points to that one is those guys were the the innovators in the field.

[00:22:22] They were the smartest guys. So if they can’t do it, then nobody should be doing it. And I would counter that with saying that they were doing something that not every chaser is doing. They’re putting things in the direct path of a tornado. And I’ve even heard from people that have been chasing for a long time that they were getting a little too close even for long time chaser’s comfort, but they were very knowledgeable and things like that.

[00:22:46] And I think inversely, you could say the other way around that if it can happen to those guys, maybe you should have a safer distance. Because if a guy who’s been chasing for 20 plus years and has been up close and personal with, potentially hundreds of tornadoes can get killed in the field by an erratically moving largest tornado of all time.

[00:23:10] Gabriel: And the way it expanded to, it went from a relatively confined tornado to just exploded into two and a half miles wide in a very short period of time. 

[00:23:19] Paxton: Exactly. I have the inverse argument that if it can shappen to him, maybe it’s all the more justification that people need to stay further back.

[00:23:29] And I’m not saying you can’t get close to tornadoes. Like I’ve been. within 50 yards of tornadoes before. Like I’ve felt the wind of a ghost train. Like I understand how exhilarating and exciting it can be. However, I will say that I kept a very safe and comfortable distance, until I was about five years in.

[00:23:53] And it, to be totally honest, it was out of fear for my own life. I feel like I had a decent respect for the movement of tornadoes and what was at stake. And I also didn’t have a live streaming set up or anything relying on me getting too close, which I think is another criticism. I think people right now are caught up on getting the absolute best shot they can get for their live viewers or for their YouTube video, and they’re more focused on that than their own situational awareness. And they’re more focused on that, then potentially learning what storms can do and how quickly they can change and move.

[00:24:33] And I think a lot of these guys that are getting hit by tornadoes are fairly young and I feel like I don’t see a lot of these veteran chasers getting hit by tornadoes. It seems like it’s only guys who are within the first five years of their chasing career. And I will say 100 percent within the first five years of mine, I made some really stupid, dumb calls, like distracted driving.

[00:24:58] Like just not positioned correctly. And I got lucky that a tornado didn’t drop right on top of me and flip my car, a thousand yards or something. But I think that’s my criticism. That’s my point is that people need to have a safer distance. And I think if you’re in that first five years of chasing and you get hit by a tornado.

[00:25:23] It might be time to hang it up. And I say that as someone who made their own bad decisions chasing tornadoes in those first five years. Fleshing out this conversation more I don’t think I’ve ever talked about this to another person and had the conversation, it’s just mainly been on Twitter.

[00:25:43] Gabriel: Which is a horrible place to try to flesh out something that is nuanced and intricate. You’re bound to leave feeling frustrated because nuance and intricacy, detail, that is the exact antithesis of what Twitter is all about. 

[00:25:56] Paxton: Yeah, of course. I don’t think I don’t necessarily think I’ve ever been able to get my point across. Obviously, everything I said right now, I think if a lot of people heard what I just said apart from the last part where I said, I think you should hang it up. I think they would agree with me that people are getting too close. People are focused on things other than chasing and they’re making bad decisions.

[00:26:17] I’m criticizing all the positions that put you in that place. If you are ever hit by a tornado, other than Mike Morgan telling everyone to drive south and there’s a three hour traffic line coming out of Oklahoma City, if you’re ever hit by a tornado. Chasing is an elective thing. You do not have to chase.

[00:26:37] It is an elective hobby that we all do and you can always stay a little further behind. You do not need to be within 100 feet of a tornado. And that is the only way you get hit by one is if you break that threshold and you get very close. 

[00:26:55] Gabriel: But Paxton, it’s a lot more fun to do it that way. 

[00:26:59] Paxton: I will say that it is a lot of fun to be very close to a tornado. I don’t know why, and it’s very confusing as to why it’s such an enjoyable thing. It’s just exhilarating, but do you have a response to that? I’d love to get your take on what I just said. 

[00:27:17] Gabriel: Yeah, so are you familiar with that meme, there are two wolves inside of you? 

[00:27:22] Paxton: Yeah. 

[00:27:23] Gabriel: Okay, so there are two wolves inside of me on this one.

[00:27:27] On one hand, on the practical, serious concern for the safety of others, I’m with you 100%. I think that anytime you put yourself into a perilous situation, especially if you put others that are in the vehicle with you into that situation as well, you should absolutely be taking some time for introspection before you rush headlong back into that situation again.

[00:27:50] Totally fine there. But there’s another side of me, Paxton, that is, I’m, I guess the best way I could describe it is if we are using the D& D alignment chart. I am a chaotic neutral. I’m not really particularly concerned about whether it’s good or evil. I just like chaotic things. 

[00:28:05] And there’s nothing more chaotic and wonderful than the footage I get from somebody getting just steamrolled by a tornado and screaming at the top of their lungs in their car. I’ll be the first one to admit I enjoy it. I know a lot of people out there have to send their sympathies and say, Oh my God, I’m glad you’re okay. But I think all of us on the inside enjoy it just a little bit, like seeing the most extreme things that the world has to offer.

[00:28:26] So my counterpoint on various Drama Reports has been I’m actually perfectly fine with it. If people want to assume the risk to their own lives, take it into their hands and give us the highest quality, amazing footage to view possible. I think there should be a rule though, that if you put yourself into that sort of situation, because like you said, it’s elective.

[00:28:44] And I’ve actually made this exact point, so I think your point is spot on. You don’t have to do it, therefore nobody else should be obligated to come out and save your ass when you get into trouble. Whether you’re an extreme rock climber who falls off the face of a cliff, or a person who wants to go deep sea diving, or a person who wants to chase a tornado.

[00:29:04] If you get rolled and you’re injured or something, I feel like that’s got to be on you. Because that’s the point where you do something just spectacularly dangerous. And you choose to do it just because you think it’s going to be fun. I don’t think anybody else should bear the responsibility for putting themselves in harm’s way, or for having resources tied up, like after a tornado, when other people could be getting helped.

[00:29:25] So I guess a good way to put it would be, like, if you get rolled by a tornado you should just accept that you’re going to be the last one getting helped. And if that means you, bleed out in a field because you were storm chasing, then you bleed out in a field. 

[00:29:35] Paxton: Yeah I would agree with that is at the same time, it’s there is going to be a burden on the local resources to rescue that idiot who got too close to a tornado in an elective storm chase whenever those resources could be used to potentially saving other lives.

[00:29:53] So I get it. I get the chaotic neutral take that it’s yeah I don’t necessarily want to go cave-diving where they have like rock above and below them and they’re like shimmying on their bellies, but it comes up on my TikTok feed all the time and I like cringe at it, but it’s still on my feed because. 

[00:30:11] Gabriel: I was going to say, yeah, I was going to say the algorithm knows what you want.

[00:30:15] Paxton: I just want. I just want every storm chaser to know that’s hit by a tornado or gets too close like that. In the same way that I would want every cave diver like that to know that if you die, do not expect sympathy. Because, like genuinely, because you are doing an elective thing that you do not have to do that is potentially taking away resources from a community in need.

[00:30:41] So sounds like super fucking harsh, like I know, but at the same time I think if you get hit by a visible tornado and you’re , being dumb about it and then you’re pretty blase once you do get hit by it and you don’t really make changes or you just post it to your YouTube with a title that says I got hit by a tornado lol.

[00:31:05] It’s like, when you get hit again by a tornado, like when the next one hits you, I don’t want us to put storm spots on the spotter map for your initials. I’m sorry you do not deserve that in that case, like you are just being a reckless asshole. 

[00:31:23] Gabriel: Just to put a cherry on top of this conversation Before we talk about a few of your favorite storm chases I’ll give an anecdote. So back in the day my daughter. She’s 14 now This is back when she was much younger psych six seven years ago. She used to be in love I think was it the movie Soul Surfer with the girl who lost her arm to a shark Yeah, I think so right so she would be like, dad Isn’t it so inspiring like what she’s overcoming everything?

[00:31:49] I was like, she knew there were sharks in the water Like, I’m glad she’s back out there surfing again, that’s awesome, good for her. But the inspiring story to me is the person that has some major challenge or difficulty that was in no way something that they did to themselves, and then they come back from it.

[00:32:03] Like, when you get in the water where there’s sharks, you know there’s a risk. I’m not saying I hope you get bit, but if you do get bit, are we all supposed to just pretend like that wasn’t a potential thing that was gonna happen? I don’t know. That’s just,, that shows you where my mind is. There’s probably some of you who are listening at home right now just saying that I’m the biggest asshole in the world.

[00:32:20] That’s perfectly fine, but I think you, you made your point very well on that. I’m inclined to agree with you from the humanistic side of things. But like I said, there’s another wolf inside of me. Who has a different opinion as well and those two are always in conflict and you know what I’m okay with that. 

[00:32:35] So let’s go ahead and move on to some of your favorite storm chases to close out the podcast. Just give me one or two that really stick out in your mind over the course of your career as you look back 

[00:32:47] Paxton: People were posting on Twitter the other day that they were listing like their top eight tornadoes or top eight chases and it made me think about that , so I have these at top of mind already. Dodge City in 2016 is like probably hands down the best one. 

[00:33:03] That was still when I was like figuring things out though, so I didn’t get like mega close that day So That one was good, but it probably would’ve been way better if I was a little more experienced. 

[00:33:14] Gabriel: Real quick before you move on to the other one, what stands out to you about that day? Do you remember any of the feelings that were going through your mind or any details about what the chase was like? I just, so when I see a tornado, especially one like. That I know looks pretty awesome. I get like super hot and flustered and my sheart is like racing.

[00:33:36] So I just remember being like. Insanely hot the whole time. Like I was also sunburned cause I was waiting for initiation all day. But I just remember being very hot that day and being like, how was how are there still tornadoes happening? Like it was like 12, 13 in which we’re not going to get into the. We could have a whole podcast. 

[00:33:57] Gabriel: No I won’t listen to this and I’m not gonna pull you, I’m not gonna pull you into that conversation, but I will say this. It’s, that’s adorable. You have a crush on a tornado, basically. 

[00:34:04] Paxton: Yeah, I guess so. They just get me all hot and bothered. , but yeah, it was. It was mainly just kind of disbelief because that was year three at that point.

[00:34:14] So I was I didn’t even know that could happen. I would say number two was probably That year as well. Just I guess it was two weeks earlier was the Wynnewood-Katie-Sulphur tornadoes. 

[00:34:27] Gabriel: Oh, another crazy unreal one. 

[00:34:29] Paxton: Yeah, I was in Moore at my house. And I hadn’t even really looked at the SPC that much that day. I was in a finals week and I was doing my capstone project and I had finished up a little early on the work I needed to do that day. And I looked down and I saw backed Southeast surface winds with the whole 500 millibar setup. And I was like, I might give it a shot. And as the storm was going up, I headed South on 35 and caught it.

[00:34:59] As the tornado was like that first tornado in Wynnewood, as it was essentially touching down. So that one was awesome. And then watched it wedge out through Sulphur 2016 was so good. I sound like such an old head, but 2016 was such a good year. 

[00:35:16] Gabriel: Two things come to mind when you talk about that one. The first one is, I think that was one of the first tornado chase videos that really caused me to fall in love with tornadoes. I forget whose footage it was. It might have been the Tornado Trackers footage, but I’m not a hundred percent certain. But I just the footage of that tornado how defined it was and how you could see the violent motion at the ground and you have these people that were following along with it as it went and that those videos just really like really cemented my passion for storm chasing.

[00:35:46] Paxton: I think that other than the Ashby, Minnesota one that EF4 that hit a couple of years back, I think in 2020, that one that those guys got 10 feet from, I think the Katie-Wynnewood tornado is probably the best tornado footage on youtube other than the Ashby one. That violent motion is insane let’s see the next one I saw Honey Grove in Honey Grove, Texas.

[00:36:17] I saw an amazing tornado. It’s actually on my YouTube channel. Back in 2020. It was April 24th Oh and two days before that, I saw the 2020 Springer tornado of that little little low pressure system, like in Southern Oklahoma. Yeah. It was Springer ,Durant 

[00:36:39] Pecos Hank got really good video of that one, like up close, or it was the one a little further south than that. Those are like top four probably. And then there’s one I got, there was a good stretch in 2019. May 22nd, specifically near Seminole. That was one I got like maybe a hundred yards from, and that was actually one of those situations where I was like under the meso and it developed almost on top of me.

[00:37:10] So like in that situation, I was actually fairly close to being hit, but I was in a good position that I could be really close to that one without being in any danger. So those are probably top five. 

[00:37:22] Gabriel: That’ll be the real test, right? Of If you’re willing to stick to your convictions or not, if someday you do get hit by a tornado and is it like, is it a situation where if it’s just like a little bit of inflow winds hit you?

[00:37:34] Or does it have to be like front and center on you? Will you stop storm chasing? I don’t know. 

[00:37:38] Paxton: Yeah that’s something I said on Twitter too, is that watch me get hit with a little bit of inflow wind and then everyone wants me to stop chasing. But if I genuinely, if I genuinely get hit by a tornado and survive that would be it for me. A hundred percent. I’m way too afraid to just be like, oh, it’s fine now, I’ll just keep chasing how I have been chasing. 

[00:38:02] At the very least I’m taking a very long hiatus and I may just never get back into it if that’s the case. But I don’t, I genuinely don’t know how someone gets rolled in their car and then is next week, there’s another good setup. I guess I’ll just take this rental out and go chase it. That is fucking insane to me. 

[00:38:22] Gabriel: I think that is a great place for us to leave our conversation. Paxton, before I let you go, could you tell people where they could find you on social media? 

[00:38:30] Paxton: Yeah, mainly just Twitter. I don’t really post on YouTube unless it’s just like an amazing capture I get. So just Twitter, just PaxBiggs. Everyone who’s listening to this probably knows of me, I would assume. Not that the hubris is too high.

[00:38:45] Gabriel: I was going to say, we got a little bit of Ron burgundy going on. I’m a big deal. 

[00:38:50] Paxton: I feel like anyone on Twitter that’s going to hear this might already follow me or I followed them. So I’m sure they already know. 

[00:38:58] Gabriel: Yeah it’s a pretty tight knit community. So that’s always, I think a pretty reasonable assumption. Paxton, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast here today. Been a really fun conversation and I’m always thrilled when we can pack multiple hot takes into one discussion.

[00:39:11] Paxton: Yeah, no problem, man. Good talking to you. All right. Bye. 

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