Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 1012 is a conversation with kayak fishing tournament angler Dustin Nichols, returning five years after his first appearance with the story of a 192 BPM caffeine scare at age 51, a 50-pound weight drop, a flatland BMX comeback at 54, and his unfiltered take on forward-facing sonar in tournament kayak fishing.
Listen now: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube · Press play in the player above to watch.
Dustin Nichols is a Texas-based kayak fishing tournament angler and former Jackson Kayak team rider and team manager who helped develop the Gnar kayak during his seven years with the brand. He now works with TG Kudu Kayaks, a 40-year-old multi-brand kayak dealer in San Marcos, Texas, and continues to fish redfish and bass tournaments along the Gulf Coast. He is also a returning flatland BMX rider, a former AFA contest circuit competitor in the 1980s, and the host of the Crossroads Flatland Jam in Victoria, Texas.
At age 51, Dustin stacked energy drinks, pre-workout, and coffee on the same morning before going fishing and pushed his heart rate to 192 BPM. He drove himself to the ER and was monitored overnight. In the episode he walks through exactly how that morning unfolded and how the scare became the trigger for a 50-pound weight loss and a complete reset of his daily stimulant use.
After dropping 50 pounds in the wake of his caffeine scare, Dustin returned to flatland BMX — a sport he last competed in on the AFA contest circuit in the 1980s. At 54 he is riding tricks he had not attempted since his late teens, and he built the Crossroads Flatland Jam from scratch in Victoria, Texas as a feeder event to the Space City Jam in Houston.
He uses it. Dustin scopes big speckled trout on glide baits with forward-facing sonar and uses it to target redfish that are sitting on structure such as rock jetties and bulkheads. He pairs it with side imaging on the kayak. He does not run it every trip, but if he is fishing a tournament he uses every tool he can.
The Crossroads Flatland Jam is a flatland BMX event Dustin organizes in Victoria, Texas, the week before the Space City Jam in Houston. He arranges the riding spot, the pavilion, an older pro for the PA system, 3D-printed trophies, and the brand sponsors he pulled in himself.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 1012 with Dustin Nichols is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and iHeartRadio. The video version is embedded at the top of this page.
Dustin and I first sat down five years ago, when he was deep into the Jackson Kayak years and helping develop the Gnar. What got me to bring him back was that almost nothing about his life looks the same now. He is at a different company. He is in different physical shape. He has a kayak fishing kid he is training up. He restarted a sport he had walked away from before some of his current sponsors were born. I have always paid attention to people who restart things in their fifties, and Dustin's version of that story is one I wanted on tape.
Press play in the YouTube player at the top of this page to hear the whole arc in his own words.
Dustin walks through that morning in detail — what he drank, in what order, what he was about to do, and what he felt when his heart climbed past 180 and kept going. He drove himself to the emergency room. He tells the part about pulling into the parking lot better than I can. What is more interesting to me is what he did the next morning, and the morning after that. Worth hearing in his own words.
Most of the people I know who lose fifty pounds at fifty-one are doing it with a coach, a program, or a prescription. Dustin did it differently, and the way he describes the inflection point — the moment he decided the change was permanent — is the part of this conversation I keep replaying. He gets specific about food, sleep, and what he stopped drinking. Scroll back up and watch the YouTube player above for the full breakdown.
This is the kayak-fishing-tournament debate of the year and Dustin does not dodge it. He uses sonar. He explains exactly when he turns it on, what he is targeting, and how he pairs it with side imaging from a tiny boat. He also draws a line that surprised me — a line about which fish he will and will not scope. Listen to that section of the episode.
I have run events. Dustin built one from nothing. He picked the spot. He found an older pro to run the PA. He 3D-printed the trophies. He cold-emailed sponsors until he had a real list. He walks through how a guy with a full-time job, a fishing tournament schedule, and a kid does that — and why the Space City Jam in Houston the next week shaped everything about how he organized his own event. Press play in the YouTube player above.
Dustin had not been on a flatland BMX bike since the AFA contest days in the 1980s. He gets honest about the first session back — what came back fast, what did not come back at all, and what he had to relearn at 54 that he did not have to think about at 19. If you have ever walked away from a sport and wondered about going back, this is the section to listen to.
Listen to the full conversation: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · or watch in the YouTube player at the top of this page.
What I take away from talking to Dustin again is that the second half of life is where the interesting decisions happen. He is doing harder things at 54 than at 49. He is in better shape. He runs a small event he believes in. He is helping a kid get into kayak fishing. And he is doing it without making a big deal out of any of it.
The caffeine scare is the story everybody is going to lead with. The story I want listeners to hear is the one underneath that — what changes when you decide to take a piece of your life back at an age when most people are quietly giving things up.
Press play in the player above, or grab Episode 1012 on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Jackson Kayak · TG Kudu Kayaks · Crossroads Flatland Jam · Space City Jam · AFA (American Freestyle Association) · San Marcos, Texas · Victoria, Texas · Gulf Coast tournament series
Dustin Nichols is a Texas-based kayak fishing tournament angler and former Jackson Kayak team rider and team manager who helped develop the Gnar kayak during his seven years with the brand. He now works with TG Kudu Kayaks, a 40-year-old multi-brand kayak dealer in San Marcos, Texas, and continues to fish redfish and bass tournaments around the Gulf Coast and Texas. He is also a returning flatland BMX rider, a former AFA contest circuit competitor in the 1980s, and the host of the Crossroads Flatland Jam in Victoria, Texas.
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