Daymond John is Gone Fishin'

The Shark Tank star, FUBU founder, and best-selling author says he has refocused his energy on his family, friends, and health. If only he weren't still tirelessly working every angle.

- By Kevin J. Ryan. Photography by Joel Barhamand

Daymond Hohn hooksalive squid onto a fishing line and casts into the Pacific. It’s early in Los Angeles. His sunglasses reflect the last remnants of the morning fog. Fishing has been one of John’s favorite pastimes since he was a kid, something he still makes time for while juggling Shark Tank appearances, investing in startups, and running the apparel brand FUBU, which he created as a young hustler in Queens, New York, back in the 90s.

Holding the rod with one hand, he flashes the face of his Apple Watch. His Sleep app reveals that he slept for three hours and seven minutes last night—a decent amount, he says, but less than his preferred four hours. I didn’t sleep much longer, but I’m exhausted to the point of nausea while he’s wide awake. The colorful line graph illustrating his sleep cycle shows he was restless for the second half of the night. He’s convinced that if he’d hit the gym when he got back to his hotel at midnight, he would’ve slept more soundly.

The California coastline rises and falls through the haze while John reels in a fish, then another, and then another, most of them too small to keep. As the morning sun emerges and beats down on us, I log my first and only catch of the day—and start to feel hot saliva forming in my mouth. While the captain unhooks my fish, I move to the far side of the boat and throw up my breakfast into the ocean. John doesn’t see this, but when I sit next to him a few minutes later, glistening with cold sweat, he takes a look at me. You good?”

I tell him what just happened, and he bursts out laughing. We’re putting you through the ringer,” he says. Welcome to the life!”