Looking Sideways Action Sports Podcast

HUGE thanks for Db for kicking off my new HKC Discount Club with a whopping 15% off for Looking Sideways listeners and readers. Use my Db Journey discount code LOOKINGSIDEWAYS at checkout for 15% off. I’ve been really enjoying the recent online ‘Creative Exchanges’ I’ve been doing with my friends at Db Journey. They’re such a brilliant idea that I’m not surprised they’re going down so well. The premise is really simple - Db gather together some of their ambassadors and creatives to form a loose panel to discuss that week’s topic. We then extend the invite to people on our mailing lists, jump on a Google Meet link, and see where the discussion ends up. Our February subject was a pretty hot topic right now - what does ‘responsible travel’ mean? The resulting chat was about the ethics of travel in the age of the climate emergency, sure, but we also covered plenty of other themes - the ethics of travel today, the 90s-to-pre pandemic ‘Golden Age’ of travel, and what the future of travel looks like. For this discussion, I was joined by panellists Kepa Acero, Timothy Myers, Alex Aubry and Db Journey’s Jon, Marcus and Tin, as well as over 100 passionate and smart people who proved there’s a huge appetite for this type of debate and knowledge-sharing. We discussed our own experiences, took questions, and generally engaged in a really fascinating and wide-ranging debate on this fascinating topic. Big up the Db Journey team for the brilliant idea and for getting me involved, to the panelists for their thought-provoking insights, and to everybody for participating. PLUS! We’re are doing a LIVE Creative Exchange in London in June! Keep an eye out for more details on this one, and if you enjoyed this chat then, please do share or leave me a comment: HKC Discount Club is kicking off - click here for exclusive discounts from my partner brands such as Finisterre, Db, Goodrays. Albion and Vivobarefoot. Coming soon - Stance and The Wave! To find our more about what I do, you can sign up as a subscriber to my Substack newsletter here. There's a brilliant community and much more than just the podcasts. Or you can follow me on Instagram here. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lookingsideways.substack.com/subscribe

When Freddie Meadows finally surfed RÁN, it signified more than the biggest wave ever surfed in Scandinavia. It was also the fulfilment of a lifelong ambition; the endgame of a ten-year search; and the symbolic culmination of Freddie’s singular career as a surfer of proud Scandinavian and Swedish heritage thus far. No wonder he named it after the Norse goddess of the sea. But then, the long, thoughtful and myth-strewn trip that led to RÁN is emblematic of Freddie’s wider path through professional surfing. I’ve been following him for years, and have always been fascinated by the way he has looked east instead of west - eschewing the classic professional surf career for something much more original and unique. It’s an approach that comes through in everything he does, from the particular brands he chooses to work with, to the particular aesthetic that always embellishes the work he puts out. And it’s why our thoughtful, involved conversation for Looking Sideways covers so much more ground than the usual pro surfer chat. We discuss what RÁN means to Freddie, of course, now he’s had time to digest the experience. But we also covered plenty of the classic Looking Sideways themes: our place in nature, the important of honesty when it comes to creativity and a fulfilling life, and why you need determination and vision to follow your own path. -- PLUS! HKC Discount Club is kicking off - click here for exclusive discounts from my partner brands such as Finisterre, Db, Goodrays. Albion and Vivobarefoot. Coming soon - Stance and The Wave! To find our more about what I do, you can sign up as a subscriber to my Substack newsletter here. There's a brilliant community and much more than just the podcasts. Or you can follow me on Instagram here. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lookingsideways.substack.com/subscribe

Why is direct action important? Why is there such apathy as our democratic right to protest is being removed? How can the outdoor community and industry enact a more impactful and effective type of protest and activism? All topics I discussed with snowboarder, activist and campaigner for Just Stop Oil Calum Macintyre. You might not know Calum, but he has a vital story to tell about how our democratic right to protest is carefully being steadily and stealthily dismantled in the age of the climate emergency, and I implore you to listen to what he has to say. I first met Calum in Lofoten back in 2019 on a Patagonia activist camp. We became friends and stayed in touch, and since then I’ve watched with great interest as Calum has become more and more immersed in the world of direct action. It was Calum who wrote my most popular ever guest blog - last year’s thought-provoking 5 Reasons Why Our Community Does Not Engage, in which he was politely yet forcefully critical of the outdoor and action sports community’s approach to protest and activism. We’ve spent much time over the last year discussing these ideas, which has helped inform and shape my own thinking as I’ve been working on The Announcement, my forthcoming podcast documentary series about Yvon Chouinard’s September 2022 decision to give away Patagonia. Calum’s participation in this movement has also given him a minor role in a wider, much more important story - the way that climate protest is being weaponised by a government intent on criminalising protest for their own nakedly political ends. Which was why, in March 2024, after Calum successfully defended himself in court after being arrested for taking part in a slow march for Just Stop Oil, I decided to ask him to come on the podcast to discuss these topics. This is a vital conversation about the climate crisis, the notion of protest, effective activism, and how the climate emergency is being weaponised as part of the culture wars. It’s also about how Calum has found a little untouched snowboarding paradise in one of Europe’s last wildernesses, which might make you want pack up and head for the hills. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lookingsideways.substack.com/subscribe

HUGE thanks for Db for kicking off my new HKC Discount Club with a whopping 15% off for Looking Sideways listeners and readers. Use my Db Journey discount code LOOKINGSIDEWAYS at checkout for 15% off, or this link to have it added at checkout I’ve been really enjoying the recent online ‘Creative Exchanges’ I’ve been doing with my friends at Db Journey. They’re such a brilliant idea that I’m not surprised they’ve had such a great take up. The premise is really simple - Db gather together some of their ambassadors and creatives to form a loose panel to discuss that week’s topic. We then extend the invite to people on our mailing lists, jump on a Google Meet link, and see where we end up. The most recent was about a topic close to my heart - how to pitch ideas, and how to make sure you’re being paid the right rate, rather than be fobbed off with the old ‘it’ll be great exposure/networking’ nonsense. As I’ve long maintained, any company, brand or outlet event who says they can’t afford to pay speakers or contributors properly is either being disingenuous or has a problem with their business model. For this discussion, I was joined by panellists Caley Vanular and Db’s Jon and Marcus, as well as over 100 passionate and smart people who proved there’s a huge appetite for this type of debate and knowledge-sharing. We discussed our own experiences, took questions, and generally engaged in a really fascinating and wide-ranging debate on this thorniest of issues. Big up the Db team for the brilliant idea and for getting me involved, to Caley for her amazing insights, and to everybody for participating. We’re talking about doing a couple of these live over the coming months - if you enjoyed it, please do share or leave me a comment This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lookingsideways.substack.com/subscribe

HKC Club has launched! Click here for exclusive discounts from some of my partner brands such as Db Journey and Goodrays. Eric Blehm is a journalist and author who has had one of the most interesting and quietly-influential careers in snowboarding. As one of the original and most high-profile American snowboard journalists, he certainly had an influence on my own career. His work at Transworld Snowboarding, in particular, where he combined a none-more-geeky passion for snowboarding with an insatiable curiosity about the wider world, inspired me to think it might be a path that I could also follow. Eric’s storytelling talent meant he soon outgrew our little world, and these days he’s an acclaimed none-fiction writer in the Krakauer/Grann mould. But with his latest book, The Darkest White, he’s returned to his sideways roots to tell one of the most important stories of all - the life and death of Craig Kelly. I have no hesitation in saying that The Darkest White is the best book ever written about snowboarding. It is a subtly structured and truly brilliant piece of work that, like all the best none-fiction, is about much more than its ostensible subject matter. Of course, it a lovingly and respectfully put together biography of Craig, Eric’s friend and mentor who clearly had a huge personal impact on his life. But it is also the grown-up history of snowboarding we’ve been crying out for, which sheds new light on the key phases of our culture’s development. And it is also a dispassionate, forensic and at times enraging (for me, anyway) look at what actually happened to Craig, and which cast the entire sorry episode in a completely new light. Myself and Eric have plenty of mutual friends and have known of each other for years. But this is the first time we’d actually connected, which made this one a real pleasure. This one covers a lot: the books, of course, but also Eric’s own remarkable career. Hope you enjoy our conversation. Buy The Darkest White here. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lookingsideways.substack.com/subscribe

This week’s guest, Matt Olsen, is the Founding Director of Explore Corps, the non-profit that founded Gaza Surf Club back in 2008. Although he described himself as ‘just some dude from Washington’ in a recent Inertia interview, Matt’s roots in Gaza and Israel go back to his childhood, when his Dad was stationed in Israel while working as a diplomat. He’s been visiting Gaza since he was a surf-mad teen, and has been intimately involved with the Israeli and Gazan surf communities ever since. As such has a really nuanced understanding of the relationship between these two communities, as well as the roots of the historical and current conflict. He has also been involved in the region through his work in development, diplomacy and ‘cross-cultural communication’, as the Explore Corps website puts it, and as a multi-track negotiator. All of which means he is extremely well-placed for a discussion on the current situation in Gaza and Israel. What follows is am extremely broad and wide-ranging conversation about the roots of the current and wider conflict, the history of the Gazan and Israeli surf communities, and Matt’s own role in this ongoing story. I approached this conversation with an open mind. I also disagreed with some of Matt’s views and statements, and agreed with others. Nevertheless, I learned a lot, and now feel more able to form my own view of the situation, which was really the point of the entire exercise, and what I hope listeners also get out of it. I’m very grateful to Matt for taking the time to participate in our conversation, and for answering my questions so thoughtfully. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lookingsideways.substack.com/subscribe

If you’ve been following Looking Sideways for a while, you’ll know that I’ve covered the conversation around chloroprene rubber and Yulex extensively over the last year or so - through my conversation with Big Sea documentary film-makers Chris Nelson and Lewis Arnold (below), for example, as well as blogs such as this one. If you aren’t yet aware of the connection between neoprene and higher rates of cancer among one hugely impacted Louisiana community, find out more by clicking those links. It’s through those conversations that I first made contact with Liz Bui, CEO of Yulex, the natural rubber alternative to neoprene and so-called limestone neoprene, which is touted by Yulex and partner brands such as Patagonia and Finisterre as a natural alternative to these materials and is, according to Yulex ‘proven equal or better when compared to neoprene in all applications’. So when my pals at Finisterre invited me to host a live q&a with Liz and Yulex founder Jeff Martin at Finisterre’s London store in February 2024, I was in. Particularly because, whenever this conversation comes up among surfers, you always hear the same (to put it politely) received wisdom about Yulex. It’s too expensive. It’s not flexible enough. It’s just as bad for the environment as neoprene. (And that’s just some from some of the surf industry’s trade bodies). Here was an opportunity to put these very questions to Liz and Jeff in person, as well as find out more about the basics of the Yulex process, while also exploring some of this issue’s more contentious talking points. So that’s what I did, and the result was a fascinating, insightful and revealing conversation with two people who understand this topic, with all its nuances, intimately. Huge thanks to my Finisterre family for getting me involved, and to Liz and Jeff for answering everything with such clarity and transparency. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lookingsideways.substack.com/subscribe

It's a return visit for friend-of-the-show Thomas Campbell this week, who is, as I said last year, ‘one of surfing and skateboarding’s most important influences thanks to classic films such as The Seedling, and a singular aesthetic and approach that has an outsized influence on what it means to be creative in our world’. I think it’s fair to say myself and Thomas got on pretty well first time around, and we’ve stayed in touch over the months. This redux episode came about after I asked him if he’d be up for taking part on one of my Open Threads, in which guests (such as the great Jeremy Jones, here) answer questions from listeners and readers. Thomas was up for it, but asked if we could just do it as another conversation. Which I thought was a great idea, and is exactly what we did. The result was yet another brilliantly entertaining, discursive chat about life, art, surfing, music, creativity and the rest of the good stuff. As it was originally supposed to be a written piece, you can find the transcription for the entire episode here as well. Huge thanks to everybody who contributed questions for this one. I’d love to know what everybody thinks of this new format - let me know by either leaving a comment on my Insta or Substack 🤙 This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lookingsideways.substack.com/subscribe

Photographer Skin Phillips, this week’s guest, has had one of the most extraordinary careers in British skateboarding. Completely self-taught, and driven by a thirst for knowledge and a desire to experience life behind the borders of his hometown of Swansea, Skin came up in the late 80s and early 90s. Initially published in RaD and mentored by the great Tim Leighton-Boyce, he soon followed in footsteps of Bod Boyle, Steve Douglas and Don Brown by heading to the States, where he embarked upon a truly remarkable career in the US industry. He was a staff photographer at Transworld, and eventually ended up running the entire thing during that institution’s undoubted heyday. Later, he took a role as team manager at adidas Skateboarding. An amazing CV -but this brief overview really doesn’t do justice to Skin’s outsized influence on global skate culture during this period. He shot with absolutely everybody - and I mean everybody - and has the tales and respect that go with such an outsized CV, as a quick look at the comments of any his recent Instagram posts will demonstrate. So far, so legendary, and if you checked out Skin’s Nine Club chat from the other year, you’re probably familiar with that part of his story. What hasn’t been so well documented is the way things changed quickly for Skin after he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Finding himself unable to stay in the States, he returned home to Swansea where he’s spent the intervening years coping with the new realities of his life. I went to see Skin in Swansea early in January 2024. We cover the history, sure. But we also cover plenty of themes that aren’t discussed too frequently in the skate, surf and snow industries: how quickly his career in the industry unravelled, and how he’s coped with such an abrupt change of circumstances, with all the mental challenges this has entailed. This is a tale about the challenges of dealing with a diagnosis that changes your life overnight, when there’s no safety net in place, and you’re left to work it out. It’s also about the last thirty years of the UK, and the political manoeuvring that has wrought such havoc during that time, as epitomised by Skin’s South Wales home turf. And it’s about British working class culture, and how things such as skateboarding, football, music and art are the light in the darkness. It’s an important one, this. Big thanks to Skin for this poignant and powerful conversation (and to listener Marc Evans for the help setting it up). This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lookingsideways.substack.com/subscribe

Ah, Christmas. A time of friends, family and tradition - which in Looking Sideways world means the much loved Festive Special with my close pals and stalwart podcast supporters Tim and Gendle! Yep, we’re back once again with our very own addition to the Christmas canon -even if, this year, we managed not to get blind drunk while recording this one. Apart from that, it was the usual story - our highlights of the year, our hopes for 2024, the usual quiz (spoiler alert: I lost yet again), and a freewheeling catch for our annual Yuletide review. As ever, wherever you’re listening to this, grab a festive drink and a mince pie, don the Santa hat, and join us as we wax festive for a couple of hours. I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy another brilliant Looking Sideways year, so huge thanks for listening and supporting what I do. I’ll be back refreshed, rested and ready to go once again in 2024 - in the meantime, have a brilliant break 🎄 This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lookingsideways.substack.com/subscribe

The roadshow continues! Following my recent Roundtable live, recorded at the Kendal Mountain Festival, I’m back with yet another special panel discussion, this one recorded live at the London Surf Film Festival in November 2023. I was lucky enough to be official media partner for this year’s festival, part of which was hosting this special workshop with four brilliant film-makers and creatives: Rebecca Coley, director of the brilliant Point of Change, which scooped Best British Film; Maddie Meddings, director of Yama, which won Best International Short; Chris Nelson, writer and producer of The Big Sea; and Owen Tozer, my creative right hand man and director of the beautiful, unsettling Blood Type Plastic. A word of warning: there’s a LOT of background noise in this one. But I hope you can bear with me, because there’s some proper gold in here from these four - film-making, storytelling, creativity, and all the other good stuff that makes the Looking Sideways world go round. They’re all at different points in their careers, each with very distinct style and approaches, which is what I think gave this chat such depth and resonance. MASSIVE thanks to Chris and Demi at the London Surf Film for getting me involved, to the panellists for being such good sports, and to the audience for being so engaged and up for it. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lookingsideways.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to an extra-special episode of Roundtable, free for all subscribers, and a collaboration with my pal and podcasting peer Matt Pycroft of the brilliant Adventure Podcast, recorded live in front of an audience at the 2023 Kendal Mountain Festival. This conversation came about when Kendal founder and friend of the show Steve Scott asked myself and Matt to pull together a panel for a discussion on the topic of The Power of Storytelling - New Perspectives. We invited our pals Adam Rajah, Soraya Abdel-Hadi and Roundtable regular Lauren MacCallum to join us, and this conversation is the result. In this episode, we discussed, among other things, the following topics: - Vulnerability in storytelling. - How do we take climate storytelling out of the echo chamber? - Is longform dying? This one was really special. I’m really grateful to Steve and Matt for being such great collaborators; to Adam, Lauren and Soraya for their trust and openness; and to the audience for being so engaged and receptive to this format and conversation. Let’s do it again! As usual, I’d love to hear what you think about this episode. And make sure you follow Matt and his brilliant podcast. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lookingsideways.substack.com/subscribe

If you follow what I do at all closely, whether through my newsletter or my podcast, you’ll know that ‘how we talk about activism and the climate’ has been a bit of a preoccupation for me these last few months. I’m loosely connected to what you might call the wider activism movement, which has become a proper industry these days. And much of it leaves me cold. From my slightly remote perspective, it seems to be an echo chamber full of impenetrable language, where activism tends to be cast as a personal journey or - worse - a nakedly commercial business opportunity: as opposed to a genuine attempt to invoke change that will benefit everybody, and not just those that trade in the same wonky jargon. Fumblingly exploring these ideas is why I’ve published stories by Calum McIntyre and Lesley McKenna this year, why I am careful about which events I attend and which causes I personally lend my name to, and why I was so keen to speak to Gavin Fernie-Jones for this episode of the podcast. You probably haven’t heard of Gavin. But for me, this is one of the most insightful and important conversations I’ve hosted this year. Gav lives in the French Alps, and originally his story was a well worn one - Brit skier moves to the mountains, embraces the seasonaire lifestyle, and ends up staying put. And yet, over the last few years, Gavin has been slowly but surely changing his life in response to the climate crisis he can see unfolding around him, and impacting his local environment and community. He’s quit the lucrative, ski season job that enabled him to work a mere few months a year; started a local grassroots community group called Re-Action; embraced a slower, more purposeful life; and has begun actively living as a ‘citizen’ rather than a consumer. Why is this important? Because change is coming, and mountain communities like Gavin’s will be at the forefront of this change. Personally, I also feel that the type of ‘activism’ that Gav and his Re-Action peers are engaged in - local, grassroots, community-based, circular, symbolic, and undeniably impactful - is the type of quietly revolutionary approach that has the power to drive real change. Where the work has an impact on real people, is forward-thinking and inclusive, and will actually help real communities address the challenges they’re going to face. So that’s why I asked Gavin to come on the podcast, and why I really implore you to check out this episode. Inevitably, because Gav is just an ordinary bloke rather than a massive name, these episodes tend to get much less traction. But I’m hoping that if you do give this a listen, it’ll give you as much food for though as it did me. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lookingsideways.substack.com/subscribe

I go back 25 years with these Adam Gendle and Johno Verity, my guests this week. We met back in the late 90s through snowboarding. But looking back, making things and creativity were equally as important. Music and writing in my case; film-making and art for Gend and Johno. I’ve had a ringside seat as they’ve developed as artists and film-makers over the last two-and-a-half decades, so to see them have a hit on their hands with their new film Here, Hold My Kid, which they’ve just made with Jackie Paaso and Elyse Saugstad, is a really proud moment. Here, Hold My Kid has a lot of interesting things to say about motherhood, parenthood, and the different ways men and women are treated in the industry. It’s funny, too. And it’s also a really great combination of the pair’s talents, as well as the culmination of all the ideas, dreams, occasional dead-ends, and risks that go into the average creative career. With all that in mind, it was such a treat to sit down with Johno and Gend to discuss the new film and all of the above. Hope you enjoy our conversation This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lookingsideways.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit lookingsideways.substack.com Paid subscribers! This episode comes with an extra 15 minute bonus section with me and Ray so make sure you have your paid podcast feed set-up. Free subscribers! Don’t worry! You’ll still be able to listen to the main interview with me and Ray (that’s the ‘free preview’), but to hear the bonus chat about Ray’s music and next record, and HKC, you'll need to upgrade to paid. Just where do you start with a legend like Ray Barbee? After all, this skate, photography and music legend, who happens to be one of the most influential skateboarders ever, has probably been interviewed thousands of times during the course of his career. Perhaps it helped that our mutual friends Thomas Campbell and Don Brown did the intros, because I’m happy to report that Ray bought into the spirit of the podcast whole-heartedly, completely happy to ‘windbag’ about any topic that crossed our path. The resulting chinwag covers a lot of ground in the classic LS fashion: everything from how faith helped Ray cope with the intense fame he experienced early in his career, to his memories of THAT 1995 Radlands comp at which he came second to Tom Penny. Even better, it is hallmarked by the wisdom, humour, generosity and candour for which Ray is legendary. We had such a laugh having this chat that I kept the tape running once the ‘main’ conversation was over, and am including this extra 15 minutes on Ray’s next record, his approach to music, and why the beat is the pulse of all things, as an extra section exclusively for paid subscribers. Free subscribers, of course, can still hear the bulk of the chat as per usual.

Welcome to the latest in an irregular series of bonus episodes of the Looking Sideways Action Sports podcast. No fuss, no fanfare, just a non-traditional episode banged out every now and again when this opportunity comes up. This episode you’re about to listen to is the full live chat with Schoph, Andrew Cotton, Helena Long, Marcus Chapman from Tour de Test Valley and Simon Gunning, CEO of CALM, which I hosted at the Vans store in London at the beginning of September 2023. This was an event organised by my old pal Marcus to raise funds for CALM in memory of our much-loved and much-missed friend Nelson Pratt, who took his own life back in 2012. This year, Marcus and the family decided to take year off organising the Tour de Test Valley proper, so this event was a way of celebrating Nelly, bringing a load of his friends together, and of course continuing to raise awareness of this important issue. I personally lost another close friend to suicide this year, something which has made me more determined than ever to speak about this issue. It was a lovely evening. Bittersweet, as usual, but another fitting tribute to Nelly, and a great impromptu gathering of his tribe. I’m really grateful to Helena, Schoph and Cotty for trusting me to ask them some pretty sensitive questions. Anyway, I’m releasing it as a bonus episode - these are usually paywalled and exclusively for paid subscribers, but give the topic here I thought I’d get it out there for everybody to hear. Ride on Nelly. We miss you brother X This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lookingsideways.substack.com/subscribe

The average professional surf, skate or snow career tends to follow a pretty set path. Five-to-ten years at the top, usually from the mid-teens to late-twenties, before time, injuries, and the shifting vagaries of the industry draw things to a close, and the rider heads off back into obscurity. Any pro hoping for a career longer than this simple arc better find another string to their bow quickly, ideally something marketable alongside the actual board-riding ability, which kicks in as their actual ‘riding’ career draws to a close. Then there’s Cliff Kapono. Somebody who has done things the opposite way round and, as a result, has surely carved out one of the most unique careers in surfing. As Cliff explains, he realised at young age that talent wouldn’t be enough - especially when your peers are surfers like Clay Marzo. Instead, he focussed on science as much as surfing, using academia and his intellectual smarts as a way of surfing more. Today, this unlikely route has propelled Cliff to the top of the surf industry - supremely respected as a surfer by his peers, while also having an increasingly important voice on some of the topics that also impact wider surfing and surf culture, such as climate change and colonialism. Perhaps it’s because Cliff’s route to the top has been so unusual that has such a reflective and insightful unique take on surfing, the surf industry, and the way we as surfers interact with our environment and the history that has impacted us in countless ways, whether we realise it or not. I’ve wanted to chat to Cliff for a while, and this conversation didn’t disappoint. Hope you enjoy it. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lookingsideways.substack.com/subscribe

Looking Sideways is proudly ad-free and reader and listener supported. Thanks to all my paid subscribers, who help keep the podcast and newsletter free for everybody. To support Looking Sideways with a free or paid subscription, sign up via www.lookingsideways.substack.com It’s been a long time coming - five years since I first contacted him - but in July 2023 I finally caught up with artist, director and all-round creative legend Thomas Campbell for this Looking Sideways conversation. And I’m happy to say that this conversation was everything I hoped it would be, and much more. Sure, Campbell - much as he would balk at such talk - is one of surfing and skateboarding’s most important influences thanks to classic films such as The Seedling, and a singular aesthetic and approach that has an outsized influence on what it means to be creative in our world Thomas is a true omnivorous polymath, as happy to experiment with sewing or his record label as he making era-defining surf flicks, and for whom the act of ’sitting in the chair’ is the point of it all. But as I discovered, he’s also a thoughtful and generous conversationalist, and our chat covers music, life, art everything in between. This is already one of my favourite ever LS chats, in which one of most successful and engaging influences delves right into his process and motivation, and displays the charm, curiosity, and appetite for life that is such a feature of his work. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lookingsideways.substack.com/subscribe

When legendary surf writer Matt George got in touch asking if he could come on the show to chat about his new book In Deep, I was all in. In Deep is a hand-picked collection of Matt’s era-defining surf writing that spans well over 30 years. But, as I discovered during our conversation, for Matt it symbolises much more than this. It’s a flag-in-the-ground moment to memorialise a passing moment in surf culture, as the analogue age represented by Matt himself and the culture and writers he so venerates, is superseded by a new primarily artificial and digital culture defined by clicks, views and, latterly, AI. No wonder at one point in our conversation he refers to the collection as his ‘cave paintings’, in what I assume is a very deliberate image. Matt lives in Bali, and in early August 2023 we hopped online to record this conversation. The resulting chat encompasses many favourite Looking Sideways themes, whether creativity, working processes, literary influences or the importance of the recognising your place in the environment when it comes to the surfing experience. Above all, Matt is a consummate story-teller and a shameless surf romantic. He’s lived life on a vast scale, has sought out equally big experiences, and has documented the lot during one of THE essential surf writing careers. It makes In Deep a real time capsule, and this conversation is a wonderfully digressive, occasionally self-aggrandising and always entertaining rove through Matt’s life and times and the modern history of surfing itself. Buckle up! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lookingsideways.substack.com/subscribe

I’m on quite a run at the moment when it comes to chatting to wise, inspiring and talented women, and this ace chat with my pal Gilly Macarthur continues this sequence in fine style. Gilly is a snowboarder, swimmer, open water swim coach, climber, event organiser, speaker - you get the picture. Basically, she’s a proper force of nature, a proper catalyst and peerless communicator who gets stuck right in whatever she’s doing. Plus, she raised the bar for all past and future LS guests by bringing me along a book as a present, which obviously made my day. And, as I’ve known for a while now, she’s also brilliant company, as I rediscovered in June 2023 when we met up in Brighton at the amazing new Sea Lanes to record this episode. I must say, for me this was proper ‘If Carlsberg did podcast set-ups’ (hat tip Mat Pycroft) occasion. We met at the height of the heatwave, and just had a lovely morning: swim, coffee, beach, good food, and this brilliant conversation. Even for me, this one went all over the place; which makes it a perfect podcast conversation, to my mind. Obviously we covered Gilly’s life and career, but we also followed all manner of tangents in a sprawling, multi-layered chat that I enjoyed immensely. Thanks for being such a great sport Gilly, and humouring my incessant Smiths-related gags. Hope you enjoy this episode. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lookingsideways.substack.com/subscribe