Looking Sideways: 10 Things
Here are this week's ten things I thought were worth sharing.
1. I’ve had two episodes out in the last week. First up - my chat with Neil Macdonald (aka Science Versus Life), a journalist, archivist and curator. Neil is the skate polymath who, through his Science Versus Life Instagram account and forthcoming book, is attempting to preserve and present the entire pre-digital history of British skateboarding. Loved my chat with Neil - click here to listen.
Secondly, my conversation with US snowboarding legend Pat Bridges (pictured by Owen, above), in which we went deep down ye olde snowboarding rabbit hole. I recorded this one halfway through our stint at commentators at the Jackson Hole leg of Natural Selection. Pat is as close to a definition of a snowboarding lifer as you’re going to get, as his work as publisher of Slush testifies. He continues to fight the good fight, and be outrageously entertaining company while he’s at it. Click here to listen to this one.
2. Last week I was fortunate enough to take part in one of Lesley McKenna and Hannah Bailey’s Wandering Workshops up in Aviemore, a really accessible and friendly ski-touring and backcountry workshop that was the best laugh I’ve had on snow in yonks. I also found a patch of powder - not bad for Scotland in April. Click here to find out more about Wandering Workshops, and here to read a slightly longer Instagram post about the whole thing.
3. I’m almost loath to draw anybody’s attention to Mark Oblow’s car-crash appearance on The Nine Club which has rightly drawn the biggest backlash in the show’s history. There are plenty of takes doing the rounds, but I found this by Anthony Pappalardo to be the most thoughtful and interesting. Click here to read it.
4. After that, a much needed timeline cleanser from friend-of-the-podcast Torren Martyn. Enough said.
5. On a similar note, the final instalment of this year’s Natural Selection from AK just landed, and it’s a true milestone in competitive snowboarding. Watch the full show above.
6. If you ask me, Jack Monroe is a proper British national treasure. This piece, in which she demolishes the old ‘you can feed a family of four on a bag of pasta a week’ canard that always does the rounds whenever there’s a cost of living crisis in the UK, is a must-read. Click here.
7. I also really enjoyed this Huck piece about how gentrification is changing the skate scene in Folkestone. Click here to read it.
8. My friends from Pleasure Magazine asked me to write a column on what snowboarding culture means in 2022. I placed a thoughtful hand-on-chin and did just that. To read this and everything else in a stellar new issue (just how great is that cover?), order your copy here.
9. Another plug for my friend Jamie Brisick’s brilliant Surfer’s Journal podcast Soundings. Listen to the latest episode above, and click here for the archive.
10. Congratulations to friend-of-the-podcast Steve England, who alongside six other surfers has been honoured by the Royale Humane Society for their efforts in saving the life of surfer Johnathan Davies following an accident at Chapel Porth in May 2020. Click here to read more, and here to listen to my episode with Steve, one of the British scene’s most legendary and humble figures.