The Wipeout Weekly - Surf Podcast

Before surfboards, there was bodysurfing—riding waves using nothing but your body as the planing surface. In this episode we explore what many Hawaiian watermen consider the purest form of wave riding, one that even Duke Kahanamoku reportedly preferred to board surfing.

In this episode we tackle one of the most confusing things in surfing forecasts: the difference between swell height and surf height. These two numbers get mixed up all the time—even though they're measured in completely different places. We explain what swell height actually represents out in the open ocean, how waves transform as they approach the coastline, and why the number you see in your surf forecasting app doesn't always match what's breaking at your local beach.

This week's Sunday Surf Poem is "In the Surf" by Australian poet, Agnes L. Storrie. Agness was a bit obsessed with the Wattle Day.

Why do surfers get brain freeze in cold water? In this episode, we talk about the infamous "ice cream headache" that can hit during winter surf sessions. Why it happens, why it feels like your forehead is splitting open, and why cold-water surfers keep paddling out anyway.

Bad things can happen in the ocean—but what if you don't know what's causing them? In this episode of Hey Zuz, I'm Confused, we tackle a surfer's mysterious rash and the surprisingly common culprits behind painful spots after a session—from board friction and wetsuit seams to skin conditions and plain old stress.

In Honolulu, a man recovering from gambling addiction is offering free surf lessons to strangers at Waikīkī through his First Wave Project. In California, surfer Scott Muir is walking again just five months after a devastating Oceanside accident that left him paralyzed, crediting the teens who rescued him with saving his life. And in Peru, a 3,500-year-old tradition of riding waves on reed boats called caballitos de totora may find new life through surf tourism.

Cory returned to surfing at 47 after decades away from the ocean. What started as a quiet wish on the beach at Linda Mar became something much bigger. In this episode, she shares how learning to surf again—through fear, cold water, long drives, and setbacks—pulled her out of a dark place and gave her a reason to keep going.

Surfers accumulate UV like it's a loyalty program. We romanticize being "salted" and "weathered," but melanoma doesn't care about aesthetics. In this episode, we talk about the uncomfortable truth about sun exposure in surfing—and why smearing sunscreen actually matters.

The first time I heard about "Velzy's Pig," I imagined a Malibu surfer walking a little fat pig on a leash. Turns out the pig that made Malibu famous wasn't an animal—it was a surfboard.

In the late 1950s, legendary shaper Dale Velzy created the Pig, one of the most influential longboard designs ever made. Funny-looking but revolutionary, it changed how surfers rode waves—and helped cement Malibu's place in surf history.

This week's Sunday Surf Poem is a slightly unhinged poem about obsession, ego, and waiting your whole life for "the perfect wave." We're reading The Perfect Wave by Shel Silverstein—a wild little tale of Dave McGunn