Looking Sideways: 10 Things
Here are ten things I thought were worth sharing this week.
1. My latest episode with the great Shaun Tomson, who helped to redefine surfing over the course of one of THE most influential careers of them all. He’s a world champ, an activist, author, entrepreneur, film-maker - the list goes on.
And yet, despite these incredible heights, Shaun’s life has also been marked by rare tragedy. The death of his beloved son Mathew in 1995 left him understandably bereft and seeking a new purpose in life. He found it with his Surfer’s Code, a deceptively simple self-development tool which uses surfing as a metaphor for life’s struggles, and which Shaun has subsequently used to help thousands of individuals and business find their own purpose.
Taken as a whole, Shaun’s story is remarkable on many levels, and in this conversation we spoke about this career in the context of the biggest themes of all - life, death, grief, recovery, and how surfing has the power to shape your life in ways it can take a lifetime to understand.
I’m very grateful to Shaun for taking the time to share his story with such openness and generosity. Hope you enjoy this episode. Listen to the episode by clicking here.
2. Tony Hawk was on Marc Maron - I found it a bit underwhelming tbh, and an example of when Maron’s ‘I do zero research’ approach doesn’t really work (Sample question: ‘did you used to get rides on cars with your skateboard?’). Still, it’s worth listening to for the last ten minutes when Maron tries to get a clearly uncomfortable Tony to open up about this personal life. Link above to listen.
3. My pal and friend of the podcast Jon Weaver has an interesting piece about remote working and the joy of travel over at the dB blog. Click here to read that one.
4. Congratulations to friend of the podcast CJ Mirra, who has composed the music to the new Apple TV WSL show Make or Break. Watch the trailer above and find it on Apple TV now. So stoked for CJ, who has worked hard for years to get to this point. You can also listen to my conversation with CJ here.
5. This expose of ‘fake pro cyclist’ Nick Clark, who was scuppered by a fraudulent Strava KOM, is a hell of a read (even if personally I found the breathlessly self-important/thirsty tone a bit off-putting). Click here to read it.
6. My pal Mikey Corker has been working on his Savage Waters project for years now. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a sneak peak and it’s a brilliant take on the surf travelogue/adventure genre. Watch the trailer above. I’ve also got Mikey on the show in a few weeks talking about the entire project.
7. Come and work with me! We’re hiring at my agency All Conditions Media (that’s some of the team during our recent Aviemore trip). More information here (scroll down). And I’m looking for somebody to help me on some podcast related social media and e-commerce bits as well. Drop me a line if that’s you.
8. Did Wynn Bruce set himself on fire outside the Supreme Court building in protest at the lack of action against climate change? This Washington Post article attempts to get the bottom of one of the most unsettling stories of recent weeks. Click here.
9. A few weeks later, I’m still thinking about Torstein’s semi-final line at Natural Selection AK. A true thing of progressive beauty; watch it above.
10. Finally - as usual, I’m keeping a record of the books I read and the songs I enjoy this year. I just updated this year’s 2022 Spotify playlist (listen above), and you can check the 2022 Reading-List-in-progress here.