Habits and Hustle
Episode 423: Jason Chambers: Below Deck's Captain on Navigating Fame, Fatherhood, and Luxury Yachts
Tue, 11 Feb 2025
Curious about the real life of a yacht captain on the hit TV show Below Deck? In this episode of the Habits and Hustle podcast, I talk with Captain Jason Chambers as he provides a behind-the-scenes look at filming Below Deck. We discuss a range of topics from his early days as a professional rugby player to working his way up in the yachting industry. We also dive into how Jason balances fatherhood with his career and the unique experiences his daughter has had growing up in Bali and the Philippines. Tune in because he shares his strategies for maintaining physical and mental health despite a demanding lifestyle, including yoga, meditation, and wellness routines. Jason Chambers is the breakout star of Bravo's hit reality show Below Deck, where he serves as the luxury yacht's captain. With over 20 years of experience in the industry, Jason brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to his role on the show. Off-screen, he dedicates his time to education charities in Bali and the Philippines, inspired by his experiences as a father to his 10-year-old daughter. When he's not navigating the high seas or filming for the show, Jason focuses on maintaining his health and mindfulness through practices like yoga and meditation. What We Discuss: (01:00) Captain Jason Chambers (14:11) Below Deck Down Under (19:25) Reality TV Captain's Life (32:51) Fatherhood and Reality TV Captaining (40:40) From Mechanic to Charity Work (48:05) Parenting and Values Through Giving …and more! Thank you to our sponsors: Therasage: Head over to therasage.com and use code Be Bold for 15% off TruNiagen: Head over to truniagen.com and use code HUSTLE20 to get $20 off any purchase over $100. Magic Mind: Head over to www.magicmind.com/jen and use code Jen at checkout. Air Doctor: Go to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code HUSTLE for up to $300 off and a 3-year warranty on air purifiers. Bio.me: Link to daily prebiotic fiber here, code Jennifer20 for 20% off. Momentous: Shop this link and use code Jen for 20% off Find more from Jen: Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagement Find more from Captain Jason Chambers: Instagram: @captainjchambers Website: captainslounge.life
Chapter 1: Who is Captain Jason Chambers from Below Deck?
We have a very special and different guest today on the podcast. We have Captain Jason Chambers. He is the captain of the ship on Below Deck, which is a massive hit on Bravo. Most of you guys probably watch it. I think I'm probably the only person who doesn't watch the show. right? Like I met just, just kind of like give you some like background.
I met Jason yesterday in the green room at California live. I was doing a segment on parenting and raising, you know, resilient children. And Jason was in, uh, the green room and I figured why not get him on my podcast, even though in full transparency, I've never watched the show, but like, I do know it is a very popular show. So anyway, thank you for being here.
You're welcome. You're welcome. Well, I have a little 10 year old daughter, so your segment yesterday when we met was very poignant.
Oh, I love that. So that's, yeah. So basically I was like doing the segment and then Jason pulls out his phone and showed me all these amazing cute pictures of his daughter who loves to climb trees. And basically what we, I think we bonded on the fact that tech like on the West or in the West, you know, Western civilization, the U S people are just stuck on their phones and on social media and,
And basically being bored or playing outside has become null and void. And so when you said to me about your daughter, how she's like the antithesis, like living and growing up in Bali, which we'll get into, is completely different. There's no such thing as that type of lifestyle.
Yeah. I met her mother in Spain. She's from Australia. She was a chef on boats. And I always had a dream of building a place to replicate a super yacht on land. You know, we do hospitality, like a resort style thing where we could actually provide some health and wellness, but also give that special five-star service.
Is that what you do on the boat? Because you can tell me about that.
That's what we do on boats. Well, that's what we do on boats. We have luxury yachts where hospitality really, I'm just a concierge really for anyone's needs. I drive a big boat around and provide wealthy people for anything they want from me.
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Chapter 2: What is the reality of being a captain on Below Deck?
This case, I want to get all into what you do also with the charity, with your daughter. But let's start from the beginning. Okay, so you're a captain on this boat. And so how long were you a captain before you became a captain on this big show?
So this is our third season coming out, which has been, what, about four years it's been done. So I was a captain for about 20 years prior to that. So I've been captain for 20 years, and then the show's been going for four.
So wasn't there, okay, now you're gonna see how completely, I'm gonna sound like a complete idiot. I remember looking at, watching commercials and there was a man who had like a beard and he had a gray hair. He looked like he was like much older as the captain. Was that like a different show?
Bravo have gone off into a few other franchises, franchises. We have sailing, we have Mediterranean. We did have adventure and we have down under. So Captain Lee was the original. Okay. And, um, he's, um, he's just, uh, hung the boots up a couple of years ago, actually. So we still have a few other captains, Captain Sandy, um, for the Mediterranean. Great female captain.
That's really, um, you know, setting a good example for, um, for females out there and striving in this industry. Uh, and, um, Captain Glenn, who's sailing and Captain Kerry, which is taken over from
How many versions of the show is there?
There's been five. We're down to a couple now. But we did have Adventure, but that didn't last too long. But Sailing's been a stable mark, which is a sailboat, 50 meters or 170 foot. And then Sandy, Captain Sandy, who's in the Mediterranean. And then we have one in the Caribbean and down under. So the guests get to see, it's kind of a bit of a fun, travel, reality, real, unstructured program.
Okay. But so it kind of, it's kind of like the Real Housewives basically, right? Like, well, no, only because it was a popular show. And so then they did, you know, Housewives of Beverly Hills, Housewives of Orange County, Housewives of New Jersey and like, and they, and on and on and on.
Yeah, there's that aspect that the audience get to see a different location as well, like the Caribbean to the Mediterranean to Down Under. So it's not just about the dynamics of the crew trying to actually do a real job in a pressure cooker environment and see what actually unfolds.
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Chapter 3: How does filming Below Deck differ from traditional yachting?
They pay. You have to pay to get on. So just to sum it up to make it easy, a boat our size would be anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000 a week to rent. Right, to rent, yeah. We actually – and you might do eight charters in a season from, say, May to September or from December to May. And eight charters is a pretty busy charter season.
And you might do a week, have a rest, week, have a rest, week, week. And in between that, the crew will let loose, relax, get set up for the next one and go again. We actually do nine charters in six weeks.
Wow.
So we're doing nine charters in six weeks. We're not doing eight charters in six months. And not only that, I turn up to the boat. I don't know the boat. Never driven the boat. The crew turn up. I very rarely know 80% of the crew. I might know a few return crew. Then the food turns up and all the provisions turn up and the next day the guests turn up and it goes straight for six weeks.
Not only that, after each charter, the crew go out, they relax, they celebrate their tips they've just got. They have a little bit too much sometimes or they hook up with someone or a bit of romance comes or a bit of argument or a little bit of argy-bargy, a bit of... Bit of misogynism comes out, egos come out, you know, it develops. And people say, well, that's not real. Well, you know what?
It's actually about two years of yachting shrunk into nine weeks. So it actually does happen, but we get to see it over a short period of time due to the environment that that's filmed in.
Okay. I've got so many questions now. Okay. So you said so much stuff. Okay. So doesn't Bravo just pick people to be on the boat?
The casting actually picked the crew, the crew, experienced crew. They actually apply for it, obviously. Right. I don't get to pick them.
Right, so these are all people who actually do this job legitimately.
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Chapter 4: What are the unique challenges of parenting while captaining a yacht?
So what kind of tips do you guys get?
$20,000?
$20,000. For charters, how long, you said?
For three days.
For three days. So we do nine of them. So we walk out with, say, $200,000 tip after nine weeks, and we split that between the 10 crew.
Oh, you have to split everything. Everything goes into a pot. Yeah. Okay. And so are the, so the people that are, I guess the guests of the boat, instead of paying 300,000 or whatever, they're paying 70 or 80 and they're picked by Bravo.
Yeah, but look, a lot of guests want to be on the show and want to travel and enjoy the – I'd want to be a guest on it, yeah. Look, bring your A-game, complain about the crew, make it hard for us, and that's all you have to do to be a guest.
So I was going to say, so the more difficult the guest is, I guess the better the show is for –
We want guests to actually be engaged, be authentic, but also be active, but also be honest as well. We want to be critiqued. And as a captain, I want to be critiqued as well. Like I would like to, I'd like my chef to be under the microscope. I want my stewardesses and the service to be under the microscope. It's better for us.
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Chapter 5: How did Jason Chambers transition from rugby to yachting?
It's better for the show, but, um, it's better than it's better for us to actually, uh, to learn from and get better. So these ups and downs that go are real. And look, there's not a boat out there that charters that doesn't have a bad guess that actually is really hard and that's fine. That makes us better.
How do they fit? Like, how do you guys all sleep on the boat? Like the whole crew and the get, how many bedrooms are on these boats?
So every charter boat can have only maximum of 12 guests. Okay. So it doesn't matter how much, how big Jeff Bezos boat is or whatever. It's, they can only have 12 guests. Otherwise you're moving into a passenger liner, which is a different realm.
So 12 guests.
So 12 guests. And then the crew, we have about 10 to 12, 13, 13 crew.
And where do you, like, are you guys sleeping, like, are you guys triple bunking?
Yeah, yeah. Sometimes double bunking. Not the captain. He's got his own. But the crew always double or triple bunk. And then that's below deck. And that's why it's called below deck. All the adventure goes on below deck.
Right. So it's not really about the guests on the show.
No, I would say probably 10% of it's about the guests, 20% of it's about the location and the activities. And the drama between them. And I think a good 70% of it then is about the crew and how they actually perform and get on.
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Chapter 6: What wellness routines does Jason Chambers follow?
He's probably gone through the other side now.
Oh, yeah, exactly. So how do you even become a captain on the show? Did you get the audition?
I was in Papua New Guinea working for an American family there, which I wish I could tell you because they actually did some great work while we were there with some villages and stuff and rebuilding hospitals anyway. You were? Yeah, we had a great opportunity.
That has nothing to do with being a captain of a boat?
Yeah, I was on a boat. They didn't turn up because of some political issues here. They just didn't want to be seen on their boat. They're a very big family here in America. Anyway, so I was working on that boat. What boat? Can you tell me? I can't. I'm not going to say. So they're very low key. And we dropped it.
I remember dropping an anchor once and I had to go ashore with the helicopter pilot to find the chief to talk about whether I could anchor it in his bay. And we had a bag of, we had a bucket of nails, some flour, some tarpaulins and some tools to give as a present. And we found this old deserted hospital and it still gets used with like 60 people.
They average a month with paddle and pass on canoes.
Oh, wow.
Babies being born, no lights, no running water, absolutely horrendous conditions. So we went back and we got all the engineers off the boat. We went up there. We looked at everything. We came back again. We fitted out running water. We fixed their pipes. We put new plumbing in. We put new pumps in. We put LED lights in and everything. Oh, wow.
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Chapter 7: How does Jason Chambers balance fame and personal life?
No, never. No, no. So I'm a fish out of water. So if you ever see any of the promos of me coming out of the water with my shirt off and everything, that is not me.
I was going to say that, you know, I saw it yesterday in the green room because they were promoing me coming up next or whatever. And so they promoed both of us, I guess. And you were wearing this like wet t-shirt or something coming out of the boat. And they were like, oh, the sexiest man on Bravo, which is a whole other thing. So how did you get this whole sexiest man on React? No comment.
No comment. You have to tell me. Well, I don't want to be derogatory. You have to be. I haven't got much. Well, no.
No, no, no, no, no. Jason, you're on this podcast. You have to tell me.
I think it's an untitled one. It's untitled.
Well, who called you this? Is it just some name that you, like the Bravo executives decided to call you?
I don't know where it's come from.
Or is it all the women who are constantly asking about you or like?
Yeah, possibly.
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