The Inertia Podcast

Jess McMillan is the Senior Events and Partnerships Manager at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. She created the Kings and Queens of Corbet's, where ski and snowboard athletes gather to charge Corbet's Couloir, one of the most famous lines in North America. Jess has lived an amazing life and is uniquely qualified to run a high-caliber event like Kings and Queens, having won a Freeskiing world title herself during her professional career. We talk about the event's incredibly-unique concept, sponsorship pressure, the stress of protecting athletes on contest day and the pure joy when a world-class event goes off in a world-class town.

This week's podcast had a little more immediacy to it. Just a week or so after I sat down with with Kohl Christensen, he suffered a scary brain injury at Pipe after impacting his head on a closeout barrel. Thankfully, following surgery in Honolulu, he'll be able to make a complete recovery. It was kind of crazy that he was talking me through the conditions as he assesses them before deciding to go out. I just happened to catch him on a night he was watching the sunset with his daughter and close friends.

Mark Cunningham has lived a charmed life. He is without a doubt the most recognizable (and talented) bodysurfer in the world thanks to films like Sprout, A Brokedown Melody, and Come Hell or High Water. But he's a surf fan, too, and a fan of surfing culture. A retired North Shore lifeguard, at 64, he's seen so many changes in the surfing world and I really wanted to extract all that wisdom from him for listeners. I sat down with Mark for a wide-ranging interview after he got out of the water following an unruly session at Pipeline.

Jamie O'Brien is his own media outlet. During the course of his career, aside from attaining most every goal he's set out to achieve, like winning the Pipe Masters and owning a home overlooking his favorite wave, he's also become a prolific creator of content. As he puts it, he's cracked the code.

While huge corporate entities have worked at building brands around the Banzai Pipeline, Jamie, who grew up on the sand there, was able to elbow his way in with the big boys, creating as authentic a brand as any of them. Yet his surf story is a juxtaposition: his background is as "core" as it gets but his vlog reaches an audience that spans well beyond surfing.

I visited Jamie at his house overlooking the most famous wave in the world (it was a lot more clean and orderly than you'd imagine) where we talked about Jamie's show going independent, how much he loves creating videos and what core actually means in the modern world of surf.

Ben Gravy is one fine human. And he's representing the surfing experience as well as anyone. Not without fault or a higher-than-thou ethos, but with an openness tough to find these days. He's willing to let all the warts, and bumps, and bruises be laid out for the public to see – making a living by being as real as possible. "I'm working on being a professional human," he says. We talked about his 50 states mission, how he combatted alcoholism and the movie being made about his life (stay tuned).

Billy Kemper is the best big wave surfer in the world right now when it comes to riding Jaws. He's dedicated his life to charging Peahi and holds the place sacred. And he's basically used it to overcome serious adversity in his life: he lost his mother last year to cancer. He spoke with us about the focus he's put on competing and his family and how that's helped him through the grieving process. He also gave us a download of his favorite surfers.

Today, we're having One Beer With Nate and Ivan Florence. John John Florence and Nate have both been profiled heavily in the media. But Ivan, just as talented but slightly more reserved, has flown a bit under the radar. That's why it was so nice to get to know him with his brother sitting next to him. The brothers talk about the worst injuries the brothers have had, John John's quick comeback from ACL surgery and Ivan's new movie.