Álvaro Vizcaíno: 48 Hours Between Life & Death | Fear, Survival & Acceptance | Tomorrow, Today

Tomorrow, Today

In this episode of Tomorrow, Today, host Shekhar Natarajan interviews surfer and entrepreneur Álvaro Vizcaíno about his harrowing near-death survival experience in Fuerteventura. After falling 50 meters

Key takeaways

• Álvaro Vizcaíno survived over 48 hours stranded on a remote Fuerteventura beach after falling off a cliff in September 2014, suffering a fractured pelvis and broken hand.
• He credits radical acceptance and gratitude for saving his life, explaining that surrendering to the situation rather than fighting it conserved his energy and allowed him to survive dehydration and hypothermia.

Main topics

• Near-death survival & resilience
• Radical acceptance vs. fighting fear

Notable quotes

"Acceptance and gratitude saved my life."

Conclusion

The episode offers a profound blueprint for navigating extreme adversi

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) When you have a plan, there's no plan B. That's dividing your energy. That's playing the game against you. There's no plan B with yourself. Speaker 1 (0:15) You're simply like at the mercy. I missed everything because that's like a highway right and if you hit something you're dead Speaker 3 (0:26) Acceptance and gratitude saved my life. Not only saved my life, I push the reset button Speaker 1 (0:39) If this actually calls your heart and if the answer is what do I have to lose, I just go do that. And I don't care. I don't care about the implication of what I'm doing. I just do it. Speaker 3 (0:53) I will do it with fear. It's not a question of... I've heard, no? Face your fears. Fight your fears. Life starts at the end of your fears. And I say, no way. Speaker 1 (1:33) Welcome to yet another episode of Tomorrow Today with Shekhar Natarajan. It's a great honor for me to have Alvaro Bitcayeno. He's a surfer. He's a survivor. He's an entrepreneur. And he's an amazing guy. That's it. Speaker 1 (1:56) And I'm really excited to talk to you, Alvaro, because I've been reading about you. I've seen your Netflix video. What an amazing story. And I could relate to some pieces of it. But I think your story is going to be super inspirational for a lot of people. A lot of people. And so I'm excited to have you on the podcast. And let's get started. Good. So tell me, before the life-changing event that you had, it kind of dates back to when you were a kid, okay? Speaker 1 (2:45) Where you were born? What was your life like? Did you have any angels in your life? Because I'm sure like there was something which is protecting you right from like when you were born. And who was that? And what was the whole upbringing like? You know, I just want you to kind of reflect on your early days of your life and kind of walk us through how it was and how it got shaped. Speaker 3 (3:10) Okay. I was born in Madrid here. Where I studied, raced, and I mean, I had a job in the commercial department of a big company. Years pass, an apartment, friends, hobbies. Speaker 3 (3:34) But you know, some mornings I woke up with the sensation of... Speaker 3 (3:43) Okay, but what's this all about? Okay, I wake up another week, another week, and... I knew I was lucky. I mean, I was happy with my life, but... Speaker 3 (3:57) Do you remember what happened back in 2008, 2009, the crisis? So everything... was kind of difficult. Still, I had my results, but some mornings was like, what's the sense of all this, no? And then you Speaker 2 (4:21) just continue Speaker 3 (4:22) with your life. Speaker 3 (4:24) And time passed. And I remember that day I received a call, my friend, Matias. And he asked me, hey, Alvaro, how are you doing? How is life going? and I told him and he asked me, hey man, why don't you come to the Canary Islands? We can start up a tech project, e-commerce for tourism. And so back in 2009, it was the early days, no? And I thought, well, a technological company in the Canary Islands. Well, he was living in Fuerteventura, which is an island. in the middle of the Atlantic, Sahara. Speaker 3 (5:19) It's a desert, volcanoes, beach, touristic place. And I thought, this is crazy, man. And the company. And there we were. So. That made no sense to me, but neither my mornings. So I thought, why not? I need to change. Speaker 3 (5:46) So I moved there. I moved there and well, there's something else. Speaker 3 (5:56) I'm a surfer. Living in Madrid, imagine how frustrating that was, no? I felt like a penguin in the middle of Sahara. Speaker 1 (6:10) It Speaker 3 (6:11) was crazy. Speaker 3 (6:14) And for Teventura, they call it the Hawaii of the Atlantic. Big waves. Speaker 3 (6:23) So I say, Speaker 2 (6:24) yeah, yeah, I'm Speaker 3 (6:27) traveling for surfing. I spend all my free time searching for waves, but I can live near the ocean now. So I moved there. We worked hard. We invested all our savings and much more. New life, new people. And after some time, I can say we did it. Then suddenly the numbers. thriving and one day we were like 16 people working all over the world not the technicians I mean and Wow I can say one day I had the life of my dreams. A house with a pool, a company, surfing every day. Speaker 3 (7:20) And that's it. That Speaker 1 (7:21) was the... the the first change in my life that's the first change of your life but like before that uh you know you were born in Madrid what are your parents like uh did you have siblings growing up were you like close to someone and did you feel like you know Did you feel like... something was always protecting you. Speaker 3 (7:48) Okay, so I have my parents, well, they both work in sports. Even my father was involved in... Speaker 3 (8:05) Well, he's been in the Olympic games. Speaker 3 (8:11) well, a life dedicated to sports. So he was really like a structure person. I mean, Speaker 3 (8:26) a doctor in biomechanics. That was the... Wow. He teach in the school, the university. So, and my mother is from Castilla, Castile in English, no? And in Castile, the people are kind of... There is no gray in the world. There's black or white. Nothing else in the middle. Do you believe in one God? Life is like this. They say hands to do a pack, not a treat. Okay, that's it. Speaker 2 (9:03) There's Speaker 3 (9:04) no middle ground. So I say that because I grew up in that ambient. Um... Little by little, I have to say, I discovered in the canneries, not before, in the canneries, it's an international place, no? I mean, they live like 23 nationalities in a small town where I live. So I met people from all over. Speaker 3 (9:42) I travel a lot to India and many other places and I discover some other realities in there. And near the ocean, I can say I discovered my spirituality. At the ocean? Speaker 1 (10:03) Yeah. Why do you say that? Did you feel calm or did you feel connected with the nature? Yesterday we had a Cereli, the one who actually climbed the mountain. Mount Everest. And she had this same thing. She was saying like, you know, when she was climbing the mountains, she could feel like one with the nature. She felt like comfortable. That happened to me inside the water. Speaker 2 (10:38) There I feel I am part and Speaker 3 (10:42) in this, in the visible, indivisible part of something. There's no, you cannot feel any border when you are in the water. You are made, well, this is theory. We are water, no? 70, 80%, I don't know. But when you are there, there's no frontier. There's no barrier. You are the same. element as the water. And somehow, I don't know why, it's how I imagine the universe now. When I meditate, I think I'm in the water because it's the sensation of being part of the same energy. There's no limit. You are... I don't know. There is not... you have no shape, you have no difference. Speaker 3 (11:38) So that's what I use when I want to feel part of something greater. Speaker 1 (11:47) And did you, did you, did, were you into spirituality already or like, I mean, before you went Speaker 3 (11:54) to B. Henry? Before that moment, no, I. Speaker 3 (12:00) I got in contact with some ideas. I practiced Reiki and I started meditation and yoga and so on. But not really, it was part of my life, but not really, I wasn't focused on that, no. Um, Speaker 3 (12:24) After my accident, something changed, really. Something changed, Speaker 2 (12:29) yeah. Speaker 1 (12:30) So tell me about the accident. Like what happened? How like I know you yeah Life-changing event for you 2014 Speaker 3 (12:44) September Early morning Sunday. I was in the south of the island for Teventura. I spent the night in hotel a client and I was driving back home Speaker 3 (13:03) Beautiful day. Hot. And I saw like an off-road track that gets into the dunes of the south of the island, an amazing natural park. And I said, wow, why going now back home? Look at this beautiful day. And I turned the wheels and drive. And I drove through that amazing dunes. It was an impulse. I don't know why I did that. Simply turn and... Speaker 3 (13:46) and discover that part of the island. Speaker 3 (13:52) I drove for some kilometers, stopped the car, and adieu. Speaker 3 (13:58) And the ocean was fantastic, no? And I thought, well, the surfboard is always the back. So I grabbed the board, drank some water and say, hey, let's try to find the way down to that beach of El Cofete. It's a wild beach of like 10 kilometers. a mountain cliff. So you have to find the way down, well, a mountain chain and then the cliffs that, you know, there's another 12 kilometers of dunes, cliffs, and then the mountain chain, no? And then the beach. So I had to find the way down the cliff. to get in the beach, you know, to discover the beach. And so I did. Speaker 3 (14:53) But I missed the track. I don't know. On the last dune, instead of walking this side, no, I walked on the front side. And I was walking, I lost my feet, I slipped, and I started sliding down the dune, like a ramp of sand. Speaker 3 (15:23) a trap, trying to grab something to stop the fall. and like 20 meters looking to the edge of that cliff now approaching and I could only stop. on the edge of that cliff, you know, hanging in the void, my fingers on the sand, losing centimeters. Speaker 3 (15:53) 50 meters. Speaker 2 (15:55) rocks down there Speaker 2 (15:58) Um. Then. Wow, Speaker 3 (16:02) then Speaker 2 (16:03) when I realized, Speaker 3 (16:04) oh man, you're going to fall down and you are dead. I'm going to fall down and... Speaker 3 (16:14) Uh... You're dead. Or if you... Speaker 3 (16:21) If you are Speaker 3 (16:24) By any chance survive, you will get severally injured, no? And that was the reality. Then in a second, no. Speaker 3 (16:35) So it's very curious because the first moment I say, no, no, this is not happening. No negation. Then I was angry with myself. What are you doing here? You're stupid. Speaker 2 (16:50) and then fear. panic Um. Have you ever Speaker 3 (16:56) felt this fear when your muscles become like stuff, butter, no? Speaker 3 (17:06) So the void was like that phantom not faking. me to the void and no energy and say no no Speaker 2 (17:17) no no Speaker 3 (17:17) no Speaker 3 (17:19) recover, recover, come on, stay calm. Speaker 3 (17:24) And I accept the situation very, it's kind of strange, no? If something happened, no? Change, then you don't want this to happen, then you get angry, so that's defensive, and then, because, fear. And after... Acceptance. Speaker 2 (17:45) Okay, this is it. And now what? Now you're done. Okay. Speaker 3 (17:53) But what is curious about acceptance is you stop fighting. When you stop fighting, you have no more answers. So you are open to... Seek new answers. Yeah, maybe. There's always a possibility. Always. Always a possibility. Yeah. So... That was strange because after acceptance I remained calm and then I heard that noise. The waves hitting the cliff down there. Speaker 3 (18:31) So something that surf has taught me is that the waves always come in sets. And the period of time between one wave and the other is exactly the same in a specific day. So I start counting the noise. 11. the noise again. Okay, again, 11. So the plan was, what if I jump on the count of 10 and maybe if I fall down like one second, if the wave is there covering the rocks, maybe I don't hit the rocks and I serve an opportunity. That was the plan. Speaker 3 (19:24) But this is nature. It's not a machine. Maybe the next set we're not sure of. Yeah, so it's... That was the plan. I said, I start counting one, two, three, ten. No, no, no, no, no. Next one, next one, one. But imagine Speaker 1 (19:45) the situation. Yeah, you're like crawling down. Speaker 3 (19:47) Crawling down. I say, come on, man. Come on, next one. And finally, he just left. I push myself hard, try to offer a side, not falling backwards, no? Speaker 3 (20:02) I don't remember the fall. but an impact. and chaos under the water and surprise wow I am alive Speaker 3 (20:15) And then I pull off adrenaline, I guess. I try to reach the surface. I move my body. And then I heard that crack. Speaker 3 (20:28) So painful that disconnect my mind, blackout. When I came back, I was in the water. I said, oh, what happened? So for a moment, like... Yeah, Speaker 1 (20:42) out. Yeah. Speaker 3 (20:44) And then back in. So the pain was horrible, it disconnected my mind. Speaker 3 (20:54) And then I realized something happened. I moved my feet and said, okay. I can move my feet, but I realized, so my pelvis, the hip, no? The pelvis does like this. So it was broken in three parts. So goodbye to this symmetry of my body. I broke my right hand as well. I said, okay, still wanna learn. Come on man, swim for your life, get out. Out the cliffs, swim to the beach, it's like 200 meters, you can do it. We, you train for this moment, no? Come on. Speaker 3 (21:40) But the reality was that after like 20 meters It was impossible. I need the body. Speaker 3 (21:53) Then it got worse. Speaker 3 (21:57) It was so painful that convulsions start. Speaker 3 (22:04) convulsions, pain, like waves of pain. And then my body start to get compressed and start screaming, trying to reach the surface. No, it was more like out and in, out and in. Speaker 3 (22:25) Swallowing water. Speaker 3 (22:27) And I did, well, I fought, I mean, I did what I could. was possible Speaker 2 (22:37) in this situation. I mean... Speaker 2 (22:42) I try. Speaker 2 (22:46) But there was a moment that I understood that it wasn't possible. Speaker 1 (22:54) you are not going to make it to make it. No. Speaker 3 (22:59) And then the surface was there like a meter. I'm going to die in a meter of water. Speaker 3 (23:09) But you know, when you are inside the water, water is here waiting for you to breathe and then... That's it. So I understood that if you try to move the... you will need to breathe and... Speaker 3 (23:28) So, strangely, I say, okay. I did something like this, I put my hand Speaker 3 (23:36) my heart and I say okay I understand what is going to happen Speaker 2 (23:42) now And I accept it. Thank you for my life. Something like that. Speaker 2 (23:52) on the strangest thing happened I Speaker 3 (23:57) Disappear I disappear in the darkness, in the void. I didn't close my eyes, but I disappear. Speaker 3 (24:11) I... Speaker 2 (24:13) I couldn't Speaker 3 (24:15) feel my body, the water, neither thinking, nothing. I wasn't there. But... And this is really, really curious. Speaker 3 (24:30) You know, when I got this blackout, I disappeared and come back like a chicken with no head, no boom, boom. But here, I wasn't there, but I felt myself floating in the void and the darkness. I could feel not... think, I could feel it, but I wasn't there. Speaker 3 (24:59) And I was inside the darkness or I don't know what. Speaker 2 (25:05) And I felt. Speaker 2 (25:11) Lonely and I felt devoid. Absolute void. Speaker 2 (25:25) After some time, I Speaker 3 (25:27) don't know how much time, maybe a second, maybe some minutes. Speaker 3 (25:33) I simply I could see again I was floating in the one on the surface Speaker 2 (25:42) I was floating I could see again. I Speaker 2 (25:50) you know, took my head out Speaker 3 (25:52) of the water. Speaker 3 (25:55) I felt energy again, full of energy. You know, before I was compressed in... Speaker 3 (26:04) Yeah, like I was heavy. My body was in a collapse. And then when I woke up, I was floating and relaxed. Speaker 3 (26:16) The same man wore that. Speaker 3 (26:19) why I'm here. Why I'm here. Speaker 3 (26:24) So I understood. You have a chance. Come on. Come on, instead of fighting. Let go. Find a current. Understand the situation. And reach Speaker 2 (26:42) the shore, but little by little. Speaker 2 (26:46) And so I did. and I could finally get Speaker 3 (26:51) to the beach. And I was crawling and that was so painful to crawl there. Speaker 3 (27:00) Happy to be there.