Looking Sideways
Looking Sideways Action Sports Podcast
Episode 241: Jordy Smith - Jordy's Game
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Episode 241: Jordy Smith - Jordy's Game

The South African legend on 'the best job in the world', which period of his career he's enjoyed the most, and the WSL in Abu Dhabi.
Jordy at The Wave, Bristol, October 2024. Photo: me

As anybody who’s watched your typical softball chat-show conversation will be aware, interviews with people at a certain level of fame and renown, such as this week’s guest Jordy Smith, tend to unfold in one of two ways.


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There’s the filtered, on-message, and generally uninteresting stuff we’ve all heard countless times before.

And then, very rarely, there’s what happened here: which is a really an insightful and frequently hilarious chat that certainly captures the personality of one of surfing’s modern greats, as well as the experience of life on the modern tour.


Photo: Gabriella Zagni

Jordy was in town (at the Wave, specifically) to take part in the regular O’Neill Rookie Rippers event, so I headed over to grab him for an hour to record this chat.

As soon as Jordy clocked the Looking Sideways approach, he was straight into it, and what followed was a quick fire and super enjoyable romp through his life and times as one of African surfing’s modern greats.

Let me know what you thought about this conversation

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Coming on Wednesday, exclusively for my Insights community.

The Big Sea writer and producer Chris Nelson on the creative lessons he’s learned during the five years this project has been in gestation.

The challenges of funding an independent documentary.

The distribution question.

How to stay focussed amid outside criticism.

How to track a constantly evolving story.

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Looking Sideways
Looking Sideways Action Sports Podcast
Presented by Matt Barr, Looking Sideways is a podcast about the best stories in skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, and other related endeavours.