Did Psychedelics Enhance Outdoor Adventure? Jock Sutherland Has Unfinished Business at 77

What happens when you mix psychedelics with some of the most fearsome waves on Earth?
 What does it take to stay curious, joyful, and deeply alive—well into your 70s?

In this wide spanning conversation, legendary surfer Jock Sutherland joins Ageless Athlete to talk about the radical experiences, deep values, and spiritual practices that shaped his life—from surfing Pipeline in the 1960s to climbing mango trees and sharing fruit with neighbors at 77.

Raised off-grid on Oʻahu, Jock came of age paddling rivers, spearfishing, and spending summers with the “Hermit of Kalalau.” His mother, Audrey Sutherland—a pioneering solo paddler—raised him on a handwritten list of survival skills that included everything from “save someone drowning with available equipment” to “dance with any age.”

Jock opens up about:

• His early experiments with LSD, and why surfing while high never replaced the clarity of presence
• Why he left surfing at the height of his fame to join the Army
• The life lessons he learned from injury, reinvention, and working as a roofer for over 50 years
• How community, fruit bartering, and stretching classes help him age well
• And what it means to stay in love with movement, the ocean, and learning—at any age

This is a conversation about psychedelics, surfing, reinvention, and awe—but more than anything, it’s about how to live with wonder, even as the decades pass.

🔥 Topics & Timestamps

0:00 – The sourdough, marmalade, and mango trade that fuels Jock’s mornings
 5:00 – What it means to be the “one-man fruit distributor of Oʻahu”
 13:00 – Summers with the Hermit of Kalalau and Audrey Sutherland’s list of life skills
 22:00 – Surfing Pipeline: early fear, speed, and beauty
 30:00 – LSD, consciousness, and why surfing high didn’t last
 38:00 – Leaving pro surfing to join the Army
 48:00 – Rooftops, reinvention, and building a different kind of life
 58:00 – Staying active at 76: stretching, herbs, and still surfing
 1:05:00 – On legacy, parenting, and feeling unfinished
 1:10:00 – “Too old to start?” Jock’s answer
 1:14:00 – The billboard message he’d leave for Hawaiʻi

📚 References & Mentions

• Audrey Sutherland’s list of life skills: via The New Yorker
  
  
• Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard (Patagonia
  )
• Fierce Grace – Documentary on Ram Dass
• The Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championship
• Thai herbal supplements mentioned by Jock (no official site – listeners should research independently)

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