Waterpeople Podcast

Rites of passage, once central to marking life’s transitions, have faded in modernity. As we navigate rising anxiety, social fragmentation, and a world where technology permeates nearly all aspects of our shared human experience, what role could a revival of rites of passage play in reclaiming our resilience and our capacity for social cohesion?

Dr Arne Rubinstein is the CEO and Founder of the Rites of Passage Institute. His goal is...

What moves you through the world? In the most literal sense, it's the same answer for all of us: muscle. 

In On Muscle, Bonnie Tsui brings her signature blend of science, culture, immersive reporting, and personal narrative to examine not just what muscles are - but what they mean to us. 

Bonnie attended Harvard University, where she rowed crew, snowboarded, and studied American literature. She came to surfing in her late 20s af...

How much has your homebreak shaped you - your life, livelihood, the person you've become? 

The quirkiness of Dylan Graves'  Puerto Rican homebreak shaped a lifelong obsession, and subsequent career in chasing, riding, and documenting Weird Waves around the globe. Tidal bores, standing waves, wedges, glacial calving swells; Dylan's Youtube channel shares an astonishing diversity of wavelengths. 

While the focus of Dylan...

Besides being a professor of chemistry, Dr. Sarah Gerhardt was the first woman to ride one of the world’s most feared waves, Mavericks in icy Northern California. She is a mother of two and acknowledged as the first female tow-in surfer. 

 Amidst a tumultuous childhood, Sarah found stability in an unexpected place: The Periodic Table of Elements. Sarah learned to surf in the late '80s at Pismo Beach, California. In time, surfin...

When was the last time you followed a spark of curiosity all the way to some distant shoreline?

Kiana Weltzien's ocean adventures began in 2016 when she left her real estate career in Miami for a year of travel. Along the way, she met a mentor and moved onto his boat; a replica Polynesian double-canoe. She sensed that this was her new way of life.

In 2018, Kiana acquired her own boat, Mara Noka, a modern Polynesian do...

What's lost when we hand over skills or experiences to technology ? 

We sat down with localisation pioneer Helena Norberg-Hodge to learn more about the waves of radical economic and social changes she has experienced first hand. 

In 1975, as a student of linguistics amongst the glacial melt of the Himalayas, Helena witnessed the rapid erosion of traditional culture that followed the introduction of Western ideas and economics to...

How do we make magic boards last longer?

Gary McNeill and Dave have been experimenting with alternative, non-petrochemical materials for the last decade. The front runner in their experiments? Flax cloth, for board strength and durability.

Stab recently ran The Electric Acid Surfboard Test, to explore the validity of their flax tinkerings.

This episode features the flax master himself, shaper Gary McNe...

How do you better a culture?  How do we better surf culture?

Dr. Krista Comer is a scholar of American literature and cultural politics. She has written widely about women and surfing as a way "to build bridges between university and community, or subcultural knowledges. Because we need each other to understand the worlds we inhabit, and to make better worlds. I need bridges to stay true to who I am, my own historie...

Many professional athletes struggle to transition from their sport-as-career. The highs are often out of reach for pedestrian life - especially for pro surfers who spend their years in whirlwinds of hedonistic wave chasing.

For Puerto Rican tube connoisseur Otto Flores, the key to transition was community.

After many national titles and a spell on the World Qualify Series, Otto veered away from competitive surfi...

Called the "most underrated sports person in Australia" and the "greatest Bells surfer of all time”  Gail Couper has been both: at the centre and the sideline of surf culture and sport for the better part of her 77 years. She's seen a lot change, and helped to lay the foundation for Aussie surf culture as we know it today.

Gail is a five-time national champion, and 10-time winner of the prestigious Bel...

How many kids from Tennessee end up devoting their life to the world's heaviest waves? At least one. That's Lane Davey: Pipe Disciple, PhD, journalist and college lecturer at UH Mānoa. 

Lane has dedicated much of her adult life to being present in the line-up at Pipeline – she was long the lone woman amongst the sword fight. We trace her unlikely trajectory from growing up in Tennessee, to breakdancing, and surfing some of...

We’re getting tangential. This episode is part of a three episode slip slide behind the scenes of a project that Dave’s been working on for the better part of 2024: The Electric Acid Surfboard test. 

It's a series that explores “alternative” surfboard design. Basically, iconic surfers on left-field, experimental surf craft. 

Our very own aquatic wombat, renowned question repeater, one David Rastovich, is this year’s te...

Who modelled kindness for you? Who showed you how to be kind and curious in the face of difference?

Before he was a Fulbright Scholar, Jamie Brisick surfed on the ASP world tour from 1986 to 1991, and has since documented surf culture extensively.

His writings and photographs have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Guardian. 

Jamie hosts the podcast Soundings and is the author of several books, including...

Longevity in any career begs for reinvention. With more than a decade at the pro surfing game, Josie Prendergast has been navigating new waters in her career - by taking the reins on her own storytelling. 

Born in Siargao and raised in both Australia and the Philippines, Josie is a standout surfer on any craft – from 10+ gliders to fishes – and she’s expert at nasal navigation on heavy logs. 

We caught up with Josie for her...

Did sailing have more to do with early human locomotion than the wheel? Hanneke Boon, head of James Wharram Designs, suggests that may be so. 

Born in the Netherlands, Hanneke grew up in a sailing family. She was building and sailing Polynesian Catamarans at the age of fourteen and joined the James Wharram team at the age of 20.

A gifted artist / graphic designer / craftworker, she became James Wharram's co-designer. ...

Over the last half century, Bob McTavish has shaped thousands of custom surfboards. 

Always an innovator in surfboard design and technology, Bob pioneered cutting edge changes to the basic concept of a surfboard. 

In 1965,  he started tinkering with rail and bottom design to maximise performance. This was part of the movement that would become known as the shortboard revolution, in which Bob’s role was pivotal, but only pa...

Did you feel safe in your childhood home? If not, were you able to leave, or did you have to stay? 

Ruby Southwell hit the road, travelling solo for years, searching for guidance. What she found was a deep and clear inner well - and a renewed love for riding waves. 

At age 22, Ruby moved to Indonesia’s remote Mentawai Islands, where she surf guided, taught herself how to tube ride, and lived offgrid with a local family for ...

What's the most challenging experience you've faced? Did it ultimately hinder or heighten your self-clarity?

Brett Burcher is a heavy water specialist - a slab hunter who chases the thickest waves to some of the most far flung locations. He was given an irrevocable invitation to learn to lay down, be still and breathe when he hit the reef and suffered a spinal cord injury in remote South Australia.

We ...

As a follow up to our episode with heavy water specialist Brett Burcher we wanted to share a couple of breathwork practices that Brett found most practical in his own life - whether he’s dealing with insomnia, or about to drop into a bomb set wave.

This is a levelling breath practice— not an upper or downer -- just a way to reconnect with a gentle balanced breath state. 

Send us a text

...

Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dav...