Hawaiian stylist Gerry Lopez couldn’t make a takeoff during his first time surfing Pipe in 1963 at age 13. Today, at 74, he is still widely known as Mr. Pipeline, after having devoted most of his life to the infamous patch of reef. His approach is the expression of a life lived in pursuit of stillness, mindfulness, and regard for the natural world. Sixty years after that inaugural and fateful session at “The Pipeline,” Lopez sits down to talk with show host Jamie Brisick about the importance of having a meditative state of mind in and out of the water, the moment Pipeline clicked for him, why he doesn’t remember many of his waves, the relationship between yoga and surfing, and pathways to a higher consciousness. 

Listen to a roll call of and reflection on some of the most interesting people in surfing—including Gerry Lopez, Lisa Andersen, Selema Masakela, the late Ashley Bickerton, Chris Malloy, Takuji Masuda, Michael Scott Moore, Jock Sutherland, Thomas Campbell, Brad Gerlach, Keala Kennelly, and John John Florence—as host Jamie Brisick previews his guests ahead of the launch of Season 04 of Soundings, presented by The Surfer’s Journal. 

On stepping off the world tour, grief, finding solace in competitive surfing, and dealing with the aftermath of his near-shark attack at J-Bay.

On purism and art making, punk, surf culture, misheard song lyrics, art world disenchantment, what keeps him going as an artist, and Black Flag. 

On the Gidget enterprise, surfing Malibu in the 1950s, feminism, Malibu’s cachet among the Hollywood intelligentsia, the beach, and boys.

The South African on Cape Town’s surf landscape, stepping away from competition, his film endeavors, and finding the freedom to be oneself.

The ’88 world champ on anarchy, his childhood at Whale Beach, hitch-hiking, method-acting as an athlete, and being disciplined in the pursuit of your dreams.

The California native on the Malibu parking lot scene, the Noosa wave that changed her life, harmonic resonance, walking away from her fifteen-year Roxy sponsorship, Malibu’s perfect wave, her surfing influences, and the lessons she learned from Donald Takayama.

Outdoorsman, self-taught blacksmith, and Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard never wanted to be a businessman. Rather, it was from his desire to innovate, change the status quo, and protect the environment that Patagonia was born. A craftsman to the core, Chouinard started applying industrial design principles to making outdoor-clothing as a blacksmith shortly after high school. His recent decision to transfer all of Patagonia’s voting stock to the Patagonia Purpose Trust and all of the company’s excess profits to the Holdfast Collective, a non-profit devoted to addressing climate change, sets a precedent for a new form of capitalism in America—one that considers quality and social impact over excess and consumption. Chouinard sits down with Jamie Brisick to talk about the value of problem solving using principles of industrial science, environmentalism, what inspired his game-changing business decision, invention versus innovation, what marketing means to him, and his heroes.

For loggers, jiu-jitsu practitioners, and the international surfing community at large, the name Tudor rings loudly. The youngest surfer to ever win an ASP event, Joel Tudor has gone on to win world titles in 1998, 2004, and 2021. His foray into jiu-jitsu began during a hiatus from competitive surfing after the birth of his son, Tosh. He quickly progressed in the sport with a characteristically nimble athleticism and began winning competitions world-wide. A father, surfer, and fighter, the San Diego native sits down with Jamie Brisick to talk about the nature of performance in competitive surfing and jiu-jitsu alike, why he first gravitated toward logs instead of thrusters, making a name for himself in Hawaii, and his new surfboard factory.