[0:03]Right, my name's Kyle Ginis. I was born December 20th, 1983. Born in Vancouver, uh grew up in Surrey. Uh, where do I start? I grew up in Surrey. Uh I just want to share my story with everybody. Cause I know we all go through challenges and have problems and I hope by sharing mine, I can kind of inspire and help others get through theirs. Uh grew up in Surrey, I guess, I came up with you can just say in not the high class areas. Uh, I grew up in Birdlands on Landsdown Drive, with my older sister, a brother, and my mom and dad. My parents split up on us young. I guess for me that was my first tragedy. Uh, when my mom left I was always told she was shopping. So for years I thought my mom was shopping. Until one day they realized she wasn't shopping. That's funny. Uh, so for me, I guess that was my first realization of what's about to come. My dad was a trucker so he was never around. So we were raised by my older sister mostly, she was 13 years older. Um, and where do I start?
[1:18]Through my life it's been a lot of tragedies. I've seen a lot of stuff. Um, when it came to my mom mostly, I saw my mom deal with shitty people, shitty men. And for me that was something that was just not okay. One thing my dad always stuck in us as a value was to stick up and protect mainly your family and friends. So whenever I saw my mom have a hard time, made me want to change it. So I did whatever I could, help my mom. I remember at 15 I was introduced to crime. So I got into basically dealing with drugs at a young age about 15. I remember working at my first house, and I remember shortly into being involved in that lifestyle, I had a customer come to the door and they were of my age. So within 15 to 17 all this. And I remember just no way was I selling this person drugs. I felt like that one could have been me, man, on the other side of that door, right? Like for me it was like weird. I was I understood the value of it. I guess like in a building stuff, like I said, I always worked at getting ahead. Like I wanted it for a cause. I wasn't doing it because I loved the lifestyle or I wanted to give people drugs. So when a young kid came and I denied him, it created a conflict obviously for me, because I wasn't doing what I was supposed to do by selling somebody else's drugs. So I refused to give. I just for me, it's a personal thing. Like I said, I don't think it's right like that. That transition my life into like a different aspect and area. I had to get away from selling it like that. I couldn't sell to people. During that time, when I did that, I ended up getting my first charge also. In that same time frame for a PPT, which is processing for purpose of trafficking. From there, I guess, uh, I got into actually fighting. Fighting was my next page. Growing up with an older brother and stuff was picked on a lot. And I was told to learn how to use my hands at a young, young age. So I started boxing at 13 at Queensborough Park, New Westminister. Yeah, it was old school gym, old school guy that used to teach us fighting there. And yeah, you would go in there and you'd have to fight. Yeah, you got to fight man. That was funny. That was a good experience. So I did that for two years. And, uh, and I guess when I got out of that, and then skip forward again to back when 15 after that charge. Uh, my next step was fighting for money. So I got into backyard fights. My brother would set up with the older guys. I was about, I guess maybe 17, 18 at the time and yeah, I got my first big fight was for 10,000 bucks. Yeah, guy had 5,000 bucks in his motorbike. My brother would put up the money from me. Yeah. That's what we call them afterwards. That was funny. Yeah. Unfortunately with the wealth I was creating back then, I was young mentality. I was way too into jewelry and fancy cars and being in the limelight. I always wanted to be out with everybody, be in the scene, be downtown, be at the clubs. Yeah, not the best, I don't think. I wish I would have had my mentality now that I had back then. And that lifestyle led me up. I thought I was doing amazing and doing crazy good. 2007 open my eyes. I was on my way to Cancun, Mexico, for vacation. I landed in Cancun Airport. Just to find out at the doors of the plane, there was an international warrant for my arrest for conspiracy to import and export drugs in America. So basically from Cancun, they pulled me on a flight to New York. I landed at JFK Airport, which was one of the most embarrassing moments. They basically landed in the middle of time or tarmack, had the whole airport closed down and we were like surrounded by like, I don't even know how many cops and like, the little cop tanks and stuff. Like, for me it was crazy because they knew they boarded me on a plane, no weapons, no nothing and they made this crazy scene. Long story short, I got took down to uh Brooklyn, uh With Jef, uh what's it called, um, Brooklyn FTC, basically, it's like a, they're a holding center for pre-trial. So same thing. So when I ended up transferring to New York to Seattle, that's where I did my trial. Um, same in Seattle, man. It was same like the mentality in jail is so crazy. It's just like, nuts. And then from Seattle, I lost my trial, I was given 13 years, went down to Lompoc, California. And, uh, same thing there, it was 2400 of us, I think, roughly on the yard. 2400 guys on the one yard. And, uh, yeah, you walk into the food hall and you walk in, man, you look, you see, it's whites, blacks, Mexicans, Islanders, and islanders just anybody from an island. And, uh, yeah, you do time for real down there. It's, the population is such a high population of lifers. So, I mean, it's, you know, you got to do your time like a real person, man. It's respectful. Like, one thing you're going to learn from that place is respect. I mean, you respect each other. It's not something, it's not a joke, it's not a game and you take that with you. I think you take that with you everywhere. So, when I left, way more respect people than I had before I went to jail. You mean, if you want jail, it's probably, that's probably a little ass. Honestly, arrogant little shithead, right?
[6:35]So I was released from prison on parole, February, uh, March 1st, 2015. And then I was diagnosed, my first problem getting out of jail was cancer of March, February 1st, 2016. Their main scan found that I had tumors were congested in my chest is where the main artery, main area was. Con that's why I was creating problems with my breathing, because I had such big tumors in there. Right when I got diagnosed, the first person that I called was my dad. And, uh, and yeah, I can't talk about that. So when I found out I had the cancer, basically I told myself that fuck. You mean, like, I won't let myself get depressed. Immediately I told myself, don't get down on it, man. Just don't look at it as a end point or a fail point. Look at it as just another stepping stone. I've been through so much. You mean? Ain't stopping now, is basically I told myself. Like forget it. So basically, I got ready. I just basically set myself up and got ready for when my treatment started, because I knew it was going to be hell. Um, basically I trained up through my whole thing. I was actually that was going to be the first time I was going to do a show, was right when I was diagnosed with cancer. I was actually just starting a prep to do, get on stage cause I just figured it was something I should do. I've been into training my whole life. So I figured, why not? And then I figured, hey, why not one more stepping stone, right? And then yeah, sure enough we were on a good track. Everything was getting healthy. You know, we were getting back on track and, uh Then, of course, one more tragedy. What else happens in Kyle's life? I was out for dinner at, uh, Brown's Social House in Langley with some friends. And one person you thought was a friend and then getting set up. Some people were trying to set up a robbery on me. So I remember finishing dinner, paying the bill, going outside, putting my friend in the car and then standing outside my car and waiting for my friends to come home. My one buddy comes out and he's smoking a cigarette. And as he comes out of the restaurant, I look at him as he's coming out, I said, dude, what are you doing with the cigarette, man? Those things are gonna fucking kill you. And I shit you not, as soon as I said those words, man, all you can hear was bang, bang. And the first one felt like a punch to my back. Boom. I felt like I took a shot to my left side. Boom. And just the sounds, I was like, holy fuck, I just got shot. Boom, boom, boom, boom, four more. Boom, boom, boom, back, back, back, leg, leg. Boom, I fell down to the ground. And then you can just hear the commotion. I wasn't, I was wide awake. I was sitting on my ass. I felt like I totally left, lost left side of my body. And I just remember sitting there, and then I heard two more shots. And I just remember telling myself, gotta get up, man. Get up, get up. I got up. And I got up and I felt like I lost my left leg. I had tunnel vision. I could see straight ahead me, I could see Brown's restaurant, man. And I could hear everything going on around me, but I, I couldn't see nothing else. And I just knew I had to get to the door. And I was just like pounding the window. Everybody was looking at me like, staring at me in disbelief. And I'm pounding on the door, because it's exit door were open. So I was like, open the door. Um, thankfully my friend came out of the car, run up to the window. And then they opened the door when they got there, and I just laid on the bench. As soon as I went to the door, it was like a flat bench. So I laid on that. Boom. I laid on that with my back. And that's where the holes were. So they're saying that I guess, luckily that I was so big and I put enough compression on there, that it actually helped for the time I was waiting for the ambulance. And I remember laying there, man. Everybody's just over me and crowding me and everybody's trying to get in my face and like, we'll save your life. And I just remember pushing everybody away, pushing everybody away. My friend's standing there, and I just remember everything was just so slow and calm and like, no pain. And then reality kicked in because all of a sudden I couldn't breathe. I just remember looking over and just telling my telling my family I love them, man. Like this one, that's it. I said, I'm done, man. I'm sorry. Like, those were my exact words, right? I'm done. I'm sorry. Tell my family I love them, man. Fuck, this is it for me. Who came awake the next morning, man? You mean, 10 hours later. Kyle's awake. And sure enough, they got me calmed down, they got one of my family members in, so I can see them, brought me down to like, just kind of calm me down mode. And I just remember looking around and like, looking around going, holy fuck, I'm alive, man. And then the following year, I said with my final tragedy, which was the passing of my father. When my dad passed, I promised him one thing, I'd take care of my brother and my sister. And for me as a person, I deal with loss or bad, I like, kind of two sides. I mean, either a positive person, I can move forward, or I got a, or I'm a like bad tempered. So like I only know those kind of sides and diversity. I'm not really like a gym path. And so when I lost my dad, I definitely found myself in a negative head space because I was just like, holy shit, I've gone through so much and I've pushed through everything. And now I've lost my main support. And right at the time, actually, the day after I met Lisa. And she actually pulled me out of it and kind of picked me back up. And brought me back to life, man. We went back and just like, you know, focused on totally different things. She helped me bring me out of the negative, where I knew I was going into. And we, uh, and then we started a company. So we started Iron Athletics clothing gear. I've always obviously been into like fitness and the healthy lifestyle. My, my main thing was I always wanted to open a gym. But that was just like a lot more planning. We need a lot more things, and so we decided to start up with clothing first. She loves clothing, I'm always down for new gear, so figured why not? Start off with that, and then from there we'll meet people and branch off and grow into every other aspect we want to. So, what I can say is, I mean, through diversity, it's a mentality thing, man. It's how we all deal with it, how we all look at it, and, and what we come through on the other side. I've been through a lot of stuff, crazy things. I mean, I'm glad I can share some of them with you. And I've been through, you know, sad things with the family, losses, life. But everything I know I've had to push through, and I've had to do it for myself. The rest of my family, my partner, my loved ones. And basically I just want to say through any diversity and through anything in our life, no matter how bad we think it is, we can always get through it. If we just let ourselves know we can. Um, and now here we are, growing. It's a lot more things to come. I just want to say 2020 is going to be a crazy year in a positive way. And I hope that I can basically reach out, touch, help anybody impossible get through anything they're going through. If it's negative or anything. Or if it's positive and helping more positively push through that. It doesn't matter what it is, just know you can always get through it.
