When John Milius’s masterpiece, Big Wednesday, toured through Italy in the late 70’s, the local watermen responded by removing the mast and sails from their windsurf boards and birthing Italian surf culture. Fast forward to the early 80’s, and a nine year-old Emi Cataldi has a similar experience when a family windsurfing vacation is nearly ruined by a glassy windless day of one to two foot waves. At his fathers urging, Emi yanks the mast and sail off his board and never looked back. Emi discusses his surfing origins, extensive travel adventures with SurfExplore, and a harrowing kidnapping in Gabon that includes a threat to call Barack Obama! Enjoy!

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Kevin grabs an old central Florida friend for this episode, Erik Gunderson. They met in high school and began surfing together around 1986, mostly willed by Kevin’s successful attempt to befriend this Dean Moriarty-type character. Erik lived, surfed, partied, and worked harder than the rest, which set the stage for some good times, friendship, and plenty of Floridian surf stories. Enjoy.

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Shoulder season generally implies smaller, playful waves and a generally mellow vibe… In this episode, we chat with Eden Saul of Dead Kooks Surfboards about a different, more horrific meaning. Listen in as Eden recounts the unthinkable disaster in paradise…twice! We delve into his early days of shaping influences, his direct to consumer business model, and his global shaping/travel schedule. Enjoy.

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A self-taught filmmaker, Nathan Oldfield has always embraced surfing’s DIY culture—fixing dings at age 10 and shaping his own boards at 14. Photography and then video became his focus; he and friends would take turns, resisting the urge to leave the lens and paddle back out. Coupled with his teaching degree to pay the bills, making his evocative, beautiful films gave him an outlet to share his friends’ stories and surfing. In this episode, we chat with Nathan about his beginnings of falling in love with the ocean, and it’s surrounding imagery, the joys of passing on the stoke to his son, and the beauty of the everyday things in life. Enjoy. 

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If you’re one of the growing number of surfers enjoying your mid-length lately, you can and should thank Devon Howard for his contribution in creating one of the worlds best riding boards. We discuss his role in developing the Channel Islands Mid, his East Coast roots, and how some backyard farming funded his first ever barrel at Pipeline. Enjoy! 

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Sterling Spencer is the undisputed No. 1 surfer in the world, but he took time off his schedule to visit with us sincerely about his migration from early blogger to the very funny Instagram producer and personality that he is today. We discuss brain injuries, Jeremy Flores, Kelly Slater, being chosen as a subject for parody, and more. Enjoy.

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Shannon “Hopper” Eichstaedt has an addiction; it’s a healthy one. Big barrels provide the spike in adrenaline necessary to flood endorphins and face-numbing tingles…. We truly enjoyed capturing this super-stoked human to share some stories about his wild times with Andy Irons and many more memories throughout his career as a fully-accredited charger. Enjoy.

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Fernando Aguerre’s quest to bring surfing to the Olympic Games is a 27-year story. Jessica and Jay Johnson, co-directors and co-producers., took on this project to share this story of persistence, passion, and character. Please enjoy our discussion with the team behind the ISA’s successes and challenges to produce live broadcasting for all of these wonderful events. Next up, the Teahupo’o’s 2024 Olympic surfing competition...

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Ashton Goggans has figured out a way to report on a pastime and culture he loves, make documentary films, and create entertaining content for surf fans far and wide. His No Contest and No Contest: Off Tour series are inside looks at professional surfing that capture the sidelong views of tour life. His documentary, Andy Irons and the Radicals, captured the vibrant, chaotic early days of the three-time world champion in a way we want to remember AI. Enjoy.

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“Sending it” on a wave could be a good analogy for the outstanding feature film director Mikey Corker just finished. It’s called Savage Waters, and his DIY career leading up to this exemplary work of documenting adventure and exploration is personified by the tone and grit we hear in this interview. The patience required to time an unknown wave in the Savage Islands, sold to the boat captain in an 1891 treasure hunting book, is the stuff of well, movies…. Take a listen to Mikey's journey from grunt gigs to director to Savage Waters. 

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