The Surfer’s Journal presents Soundings with Jamie Brisick

Award-winning author and The New Yorker staff writer William Finnegan came to surfing early while growing up between Hawaii and Southern California. He helped bring surf writing, as a genre, to the literary fore in 1992 with the publication of his two-part essay “Playing Doc’s Games” in The New Yorker, which chronicled both his and “Doc” Renneker’s pursuits at Ocean Beach, San Francisco. His 2015 memoir, Barbarian Days, which documented his surfing life, won the Pulitzer Prize. Beyond the surf, Finnegan has devoted much of his career to conflict reporting in regions ranging from Mexico to parts of Asia. In this episode, Finnegan talks with show host Jamie Brisick about the modern marriage of surfing and intellectualism, the importance of asking questions, writing, curiosity, outing himself as a surfer in the context of his career, Bali’s dystopian reality, the dissemination of surf culture, and how his experience as a teacher in South Africa during apartheid shaped him as a writer.

A core member of the Momentum Generation and an 11-year veteran of the world tour, Shane Dorian is best known for his big-wave accomplishments over the past 20 years. Born and raised on the Big Island of Hawaii, Dorian received his big-wave education under Brock Little, Todd Chesser, and others after relocating to the North Shore as a teenager. Today, with multiple XXL Awards under his belt and a bag full of some of the most defining rides in history, Dorian has proven a trailblazer in the big-wave realm, helping to consistently redefine what’s possible via one’s own paddle power. In this episode, Dorian sits down with show host Jamie Brisick to talk about swell tracking, risk assessment, the surfing time warp, decision making in critical moments, family, bowhunting, overcoming self-doubt, and the virtue of patience.

Hailing from the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, freesurfer Jaleesa Vincent leads a life deeply immersed in explorative practices of self-expression and connection with nature. If she isn’t hunting for waves, she’s playing music, painting, cooking, writing poetry, and experimenting with taxidermy. Over the past few years, her output has helped define a new generation of paradigmatic Renaissance surfers in Australia through unbending fidelity to play, creativity, and staying true to oneself—in the water and out of it. In this episode, Vincent talks with show host Jamie Brisick about her robust creative sentiment, the importance of losing yourself in the things you love, rediscovering her inner child, tap dancing, her recent injury, rustic living, Indonesia, touring with her band, and cultivating her sense of what it means to be a woman.

Born and raised in Central California, Nate Tyler eschewed the world of competitive surfing in favor of pursuing the path less trodden as a teenager, building a free surfing career defined by a steadfast dedication to filming, traveling, and artistic exploration. His profile rose through the aughts and 2010’s, due in no small part to his performances in some of the most cult-classic surf films of the era: Creepy Fingers (2006), BS! (2009), Year Zero (2011), Strange Rumblings in Shangri La (2014), and Psychic Migrations (2015), among others. Alongside surfing, Tyler has cultivated an art practice, producing kinetic sculptures that interrogate the relationship between materiality and movement. In this episode, Tyler sits down with Jamie Brisick to talk about life and love off-the-grid, the California crowd factor, surfing in the elements, the Central Coast, how fatherhood has changed him, and the importance of stepping away from the world you know.

A preeminent figure in surf filmmaking, Jack McCoy started surfing when his family moved from Los Angeles to Hawaii in 1954. In the 1970s, he began experimenting with film and photography and, in 1976, released his first film, Tubular Swells, produced and directed with Australian photographer Dick Hoole. What followed was a four-decade run filming, directing, and producing classics of the surf genre—including Storm Riders (1982), Kong’s Island (1983), Bunyip Dreaming (1990), The Green Iguana (1992), Sabotaj (1998), The Occumentary (1999), Blue Horizon (2004), Free as a Dog (2006), and A Deeper Shade of Blue (2012)—defined via McCoy’s unparalleled water cinematography. In this episode, host Jamie Brisick talks to McCoy about the evolution of surf filmmaking, capturing emotion, mindsurfing his way through hepatitis, traveling, music, and working with a Beatle. Jack and Mark Occhilupo are hitting the east coast of Australia this May to celebrate the 25th anniversaries of The Occumentary and Occy’s 1999 World Title. Jack has remastered the film and it’ll be shown on the big screen for the first time ever. You can purchase tickets at jackmccoy.com.

A three-time Maverick’s champion and a central figure in Santa Cruz’s explosion onto surfing’s main stage in the late ’90s and early ’00s, Darryl Virostko learned to ride big, heavy surf as a kid at Steamer Lane. His introduction to Maverick’s, the wave that defined his career, came when it was still considered a myth in surfing circles. His fast success and notoriety within surfing, and the big-wave community especially, engendered a degree of risk-taking, adrenaline-chasing behavior that eventually pushed Virostko into addiction. Clean since 2008, Virostko is now an advocate for the sober community, providing support for people with addiction through his rehabilitation program, FleaHab. In this episode, show host Jamie Brisick travels to Virostko’s home in Santa Cruz to talk about how Maverick’s changed the big-wave landscape, the power of commitment, lessons learned from his youth, getting clean, death and love, and surfing with range.

Born in Japan to a mother with a profound passion for classical music and a father whose singing and guitar resounded throughout her early childhood, Aska Matsumiya was playing music before she could talk. Allured by her family’s player piano as a child, she became a proficient classical pianist by age 3. But after a move to Orange County, California, at 12, Matsuyima was introduced to the haywire world of punk rock. Matsumiya played in punk bands until her early twenties, when she began experimenting with writing her own songs and scoring clips for friends in the fashion industry. Since then, she’s composed over 20 films and television soundtracks for directors like Julia Hart and Spike Jonze, networks like HBO, major brands like Audi, as well as collaborated with prolific composers such as Ryuichi Sakamoto. In this episode, Matsumiya and show host Jamie Brisick discuss her creative process, composing for film and television versus the self, her proudest pieces, working with others, her musical inspirations, and the similarities between surfing and making music.

The mastermind behind large-scale production of the surfboard blank, Gordon “Grubby” Clark’s pioneering of polyurethane foam in constructing the modern surfboard enabled the progression of surfing as a culture. Enthralled by materials from a young age, Clark received a combined degree in math and physics from Pomona College before working as a glasser at Hobie Surfboards and as an apprentice to Tom Blake, inventor of the surfboard fin, while splitting time between Hawaii and California. When demand for foam boards proliferated across Southern California in the late 1950s, Clark was quick to employ his background toward industrializing and streamlining the production of polyurethane foam blanks, becoming the defining blank maker from the early ’60s until Clark Foam’s sudden and shocking closure in 2005. Since then, “Grubby” has lived and worked on a sprawling cattle ranch in Oregon, which is where host Jamie Brisick sat down and talked with Clark about the adaptation of modern surfboard design, the intricacies of foam and fiberglass, the value of an education in science, the emergence of computer programming, the shortboard revolution, and why he closed shop.

A molecular scientist with a PhD in marine conservation and sustainability from UC San Diego, Cliff Kapono devotes himself to putting his two greatest passions—science and surfing—into productive conversation. For Kapono, a Native Hawaiian from the Big Island, surfing necessitates meaningful, intimate care for one’s environment and is a practice deeply embedded in the familial and social histories that informed his upbringing. Kapono currently serves as an ambassador for the Save the Waves Coalition, a nonprofit that protects surf ecosystems globally, and his environmental activism and study range from microbiome dynamics to coral health. In this episode, Kapono talks with show host Jamie Brisick about surfing as a means of combating trauma, finding one’s identity, sublime connection, high-performance surf zones, commodification of the sacred, the nuances of inclusivity, and growing up in Hawaii.

Steve Olson honed his skateboarding expertise sneaking into swimming pools across Southern California while growing up in the 1970s. His skating was wedded to a surf-centric childhood at a time when the crossover between the two was at its height. Olson earned a sponsorship by Santa Cruz Skateboards in 1979 and quickly became notorious for introducing a punk rock aesthetic and cool defiance to the skate scene. He’s also lived outside of surf-skate norms as an actor, artist, musician, and father, blending all those interests into a singular personality. In this episode, Olson sits down with Jamie Brisick to talk about their first encounters, his contemporary art practice, the art of trespassing, the surf-skate connection, cat-and-mouse thrills, his greatest moments on a skateboard, extreme individualism, and the memories that have stuck with him.

From one of surfing’s most accomplished and recognizable families, Coco Ho was raised in the thick of the surf universe on the North Shore of Oahu. As a kid, she quickly gained notoriety as a high-performance surfer in her own right, winning multiple junior titles before eventually joining the Championship Tour while still a teenager, where she posted solid results and year-end rankings for over a decade. Since letting go of competition, she’s gone on to design women’s wear collections, put on twin-fin clinics, and started her female-centric board brand, while continuing to chase waves. In this episode, Ho and show host Jamie Brisick sit down to talk about her serendipitous thrust into competitive surfing, competing against her brother, friendship, winter on the North Shore, the inevitable overlap between passion and selfishness, functionality, confidence, and her biggest inspirations.

Dubbed “The Animal,” Nat Young has spent nearly 60 years as one of surfing’s most influential and esteemed figures. At the forefront of surfing’s stylistic evolution during the 1960s, Young’s victory at the 1966 World Championships in San Diego on his self-shaped “Magic Sam” helped cement Australia’s place as a budding progenitor of high-performance surfing. In the decades since, he’s maintained iconic status both in surf culture and in his native country, while writing numerous books, making films documenting the era of transformation he helped usher in, traveling the globe to both surfing and non-surfing locales, and continuing to surf—at a masterful level on all manner of craft—at the world-class points near his home. In this episode, Young talks with show host Jamie Brisick about his long and celebrated career, his biggest influences, and the translation of style across generations.

Two-time world champion John John Florence looms large in surfing’s landscape. The eldest of three brothers, Florence grew up on the North Shore, where his mom took the family to the beach every day after school. He quickly made a name for himself as a kid, inching his way from bodyboarding the shorebreak to sitting center peak in the lineup at Pipe. His knowledge, talent, and skillset extends beyond the jersey—even beyond the surf, marked recently by his extended trips sailing the open ocean. A paradigm of the waterman’s tradition, Florence sits down with show host Jamie Brisick in this episode to talk about the trajectory of his career, staying wholesome, his biggest inspirations, self-optimization, his proudest moments, his complicated relationship to competition, family, synchronicity, and what the future holds.

Keala Kennelly grew up on Kauai in a geodesic dome built by her parents and began surfing at the age of five, a contemporary of the Irons brothers. Through the 1990s and early aughts, she was consistently ranked top ten on the World Tour and was the first woman to tow Teahupoo. She has since pursued successful careers in both acting and music. Kennelly’s life has been also defined by her pushing both physical and social limitations, from her fighting for women’s representation in heavy surf to her coming out during a time when that meant detrimental ramifications to her surfing career. In this episode, Kennelly talks with show host Jamie Brisick about being an early advocate for the LGBTQ+ surfing community, what it meant to be one of the few women in the lineup, how the attitudes have changed, losing her sponsors, giving up her spot on tour to work as an actress for David Milch, fighting for equal pay, and her invite to the Eddie, and her DJ career.

His father an olympic diver from Hungary, his mother a professional water skier, Brad Gerlach drew inspiration and drive from his parents’ athletic accomplishments and competitive mentality. He gripped professional surfing by the horns in 1985, when, as a rookie on the tour, he took out the tour’s major players to emerge victorious at that year’s Stubby’s Pro. Victories continued to color Gerlach’s early career, culminating in his finishing second in the world in 1991. He eventually grew disillusioned with competitive surfing and focused his efforts on big-wave surfing and chasing swells around the globe, where he saw more fruitful possibilities for personal growth, self-expression, and freedom. He’s also worked as an actor, teacher, founder, and coach. In this episode, Gerlach sits down with show host Jamie Brisick to talk about the road to realizing one’s dreams, unlocking potential, his proudest year, Wave Ki and his fitness philosophy, and fame.

Surfer, artist, and filmmaker Thomas Campbell’s unique perspective was informed by upbringing in Dana Point, California, his background as a skateboarder, and his experience serving as editor of Skateboarder magazine in the 1990s. His films The Seedling (1999), Sprout (2004), and The Present (2009), which function loosely as a trilogy, aestheticize surfing on the basis of its inherent capacity for playfulness, beauty, and style, standing in contrast to a society increasingly dominated by industry and consumption. Today, Campbell continues to work as a practicing filmmaker, artist, and producer, and is currently preparing for an upcoming solo exhibition at Utah Museum of Contemporary Art. In this episode, Campbell sits down with show host Jamie Brisick to talk about the divergent cultural possibilities between surfing and skating, the importance of having a strong work ethic, being driven by curiosity, the surfing industrial complex, and finding creativity in quietude.

One of the shortboard revolution’s seminal figures and a Pipeline pioneer, Jock Sutherland hails from a family of watermen: His mother swam the northern coast of the island of Molokai, a journey which she later detailed in her 1978 book, Paddling My Own. His father, a World War II navy officer, was a seasoned kayaker, fisherman, and surfer. Sutherland and his family moved to Hawaii from Long Beach, California in 1952, where he learned to surf on one of his father’s old planks. He began riding for Greg Noll as a teenager, and went on to place second at both the 1965 Makaha International Junior Surfing Championships and the Ocean Beach World Contest in 1966. In 1967, he won the Duke Invitational. In 1969, he won Surfer magazine’s Surfer of the Year award. In 1970, he left surfing to join the US Army at the height of Vietnam. At 74, surfing remains an integral part of Sutherland’s day to day life. In this episode of Soundings, Sutherland sits down with show host Jamie Brisick to talk about turning points in surfing’s evolution, living with Jeff Hakman in Maui, the psychedelic resurgence, why he enlisted in the Army, being incarcerated for drug smuggling, myth-busting, and Waimea’s mechanics.

Journalist and author Michael Scott Moore’s interest in piracy emerged from research conducted for his first novel, 2010’s Sweetness and Blood, which traces the history and spread of surfing from pre-colonial Hawaii to the rest of the world. His interest in the issue spiked when a trial of ten Somali pirates began in Germany in 2010—the first time in 400 years that pirates had appeared in a European court. As the trial ran on, Moore became set on researching piracy outside the confines of a western judicial system, leading him to travel to Somalia in 2011, funded by a crisis reporting grant provided by the Pulitzer Foundation. In January of 2012, he was taken hostage by a local pirate group in Galkayo, and remained captive for more than two years. In this episode, Moore talks with show host Jamie Brisick about the devolution of hope into fatalism, the importance of remembering trauma, stoicism, his memoir The Desert and the Sea (2018), and learning to live with what you have.

From Kamakura, Japan, Takuji Masuda has been a progenitor of surf culture since the 1980s. After traveling the surfing world and competing professionally with the Oxbow Longboard team, whose members included Joel Tudor, Duane Desoto, and others, Masuda pursued an interest in storytelling and cultural production. In the 1990s, through his reverence of surf and skate magazines and inspiration from the booming technological innovations of the era, he established his own magazine, Super X Media, published in English, Japanese, and French, influential as a cross-cultural hub for the surf-skate industry. Masuda more recently pursued filmmaking, including his documentary 2016 film Bunker77. In this episode, he sits down with show host Jamie Brisick to talk about how surfing allows you to design a lifestyle that reflects who you are, the fashion industry, art and culture in Los Angeles, Pipeline, what drew him to the Bunker Spreckels story, and the joy of making friends through surfing.

The oldest of three brothers, all with prodigious surfing talent, Chris Malloy grew up riding waves between Point Conception and Point Mugu, where he learned how to navigate its competitive lineups. By the early 1990s, he was a core member of the Momentum Generation. An injury, however, forced him into the role of observer and ignited a career in filmmaking, resulting in projects like Thicker Than Water (2000), The September Sessions (2002), A Brokedown Melody (2004), One Track Mind (2008), 180 Degrees South (2010), and The Fisherman’s Son (2015). He’s also done work for brands like Ford and Chevy and Dodge, currently serves as a Patagonia Ambassador, and operates a working ranch not far from where he grew up. In this episode, Malloy sits down with show host Jamie Brisick to talk about his surf odyssey and the highlights of his career, California, the dichotomy between being a bubble-gum pro and traveling missionary, longevity, the importance of immersing oneself in one’s environment, Indo trips with Tom Carroll and Kelly Slater, and maintaining a sense of play in life.