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134: Ben Mondy/Get A Dog Up Ya

Mondy and his sidekick Paul Evans, Nazare, March 2020. Photo: Tozer

Auspicious occasion alert! Yep, I conducted my first face-to-face interview since way back in March. Even more excitingly, it was a guest who also happens to be a really close friend of mine – the great Ben Mondy. 

Mondy is a surf writer, journalist and lifer par excellence of the Australian surf industry genus. He was a staffer at Tracks for years, and over the course of his career has written about surfing for absolutely everybody with caustic wit, high intelligence and a keenly developed bullshit radar that makes him essential reading and has got him into plenty of trouble over the years. i

Today, he works primarily with the WSL and Wavelength – and is still getting into trouble, as we discussed during our chat. 

OK I’ll give him this one. Photo: Swilly

These days, Benno lives down the road from me in Tunbridge Wells, and is so surf starved that he’s even started turning up at the Hot Pipes for a sneaky session with me when the tides, sludge and wind aligns. 

So it was one fateful August day that the forecast looked good, the sun came out and we found ourselves sitting in a car overlooking the Hot Pipes recording this episode. As you might expect given that a) it was the first in person one for months and b) it was with one of my oldest mates, spirits were high. Hope you enjoy the episode. 

Listen here:

Connect with Ben

Show Notes

  • The new local
  • Ben’s Covid-19
  • Last minute Méribel trip
  • How Ben started writing
  • The early years of writing and travel
  • Tracks
  • Rod Cunthorpe
  • Stanwell Park – and The Predator
  • After Ben met Matt
  • The Bournemouth Reef review
  • The Reubyn Ash story
  • Ben’s move to France
  • Getting deported from the UK
  • Surfing today
  • Localism
  • The impact of wave pools on surf culture
  • The latest
  • Big wave surfing at Nazare
  • Ben’s favorite spot to surf
  • RedBull surf trip

People Mentioned

  • Shaun Doherty
  • Paul Evans
  • Sarah Mondy
  • Eddie the Predator
  • Mick Fanning
  • Ronnie Blakey
  • Matt Griggs
  • Ben Skinner
  • Reubyn Ash
  • James Stentiford
  • Jamie Brisick
  • Andrew Cotty
  • Pete Mel
  • Travis Rice
  • Jamie O’Brien
  • Ian Walsh

Places Mentioned

  • The shitpipes
  • London
  • Méribel, France
  • Morocco
  • Spain
  • Portugal
  • Newcastle, UK
  • Bali
  • Australia
  • Indonesia
  • Edinburgh
  • Jersey
  • Sweden
  • Hawaii
  • Sydney
  • Pedang
  • Bournemouth
  • Bristol
  • Nazare
  • Fiji

Companies/Brands Mentioned:

  • Mitsubishi
  • White Lines
  • Tracks
  • All Conditions Media
  • Billabong
  • Youtube
  • WSL
  • Wavelength
  • Whatsapp
  • H & M
  • Primark
  • Redbull