Waterpeople Podcast

When is surfing about more than just selfish wave hoggery? 

Mozambique’s first professional surfer, Sung Min Cho, or ‘Mini’ for short, is writing a new story for surfing – he’s part of a burgeoning surf culture rising from the wake of three decades of armed conflict in the region.

 In 2018, Mini  co-counded Tofo surf club, Mozambique’s outpost of Surfers Not Street Children, which empowers street kids through surf coaching and mentor...

Ever want to pack up normalcy and set sail over the horizon? What’s it really like to live at sea for a year and rarely be further than 35 feet from your new significant other?

Torren Martyn and Aiyana Powell talk us through the peaks and troughs of life aboard Calypte, a borrowed 35-foot sailing boat that they spent 12 months sailing 9,000-kilometres - from Pattaya in the Gulf of Thailand to Lombok, an Indonesian island east of Bal...

The loudest human-made sounds: Nuclear Bomb (224 dB), Rocket launch (204 dB). And clocking in at 260 underwater decibels is the seismic blast, part of a process for exploring for oil and gas in the ocean. Unlike bombs and rockets, however, seismic blasts "fire approximately every 10 seconds around the clock for months at a time."

For eight years, Marine Biologist Annie Ford worked onboard seismic blasting vessel...

Are you investing in yourself and your curiosities? At 63, Sally Parkin sold her home to spend the better part of 2023 surfing in Australia with her family.

Sally is known for "single handedly"  reviving  the 100 year old tradition of English surfing on wooden bodyboards. She first surfed one at age 5, and decades later, when her family's quiver started to break, she realised there was only one local maker ...

Injuries are mostly out of our control. But recovery offers many choices. Will we allow the scar tissue to stiffen or soften us?

Stu Nettle is the editor of Swellnet, one of Australia's leading independent surf media and forecasting sites, where he has written about board design, surf industry happenings, surf science, and coastal geology since 2008. 

Stu is a lifelong surfer but late-comer to surf media. He...

Raised on a diet of deep ecology and the DIY spirit of her single mom, Pacha Light earned her first surfboard busking as a tween. She then forged her way into professional surfing as a teenager on Australia’s Gold Coast: signing a big endemic sponsor,  training every day, and making a name for herself as a competitor and surf model. 

Until she couldn’t do it any longer. She felt she was not fully in alignment with her values.
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Have you ever felt like something was wrong, but you weren't quite sure how to name it?

Tyler Wilde is a teacher and bodysurfer from southern California. In 2017, Tyler won the prestigious International Surf Festival bodysurfing contest and was later voted into the Gillis Beach Bodysurfing Association as one of their youngest members.

As a physical education teacher, his goal is to help his students "f...

A little fire can keep you warm; a big fire can burn your house down. 

Two time ASP World Surfing Champion Tom Carroll speaks candidly about his struggles to harness the power that made him famous. From the highs of professional surfing to addiction and meditation, his large life is a study in harnessing and honing one's power in mind and body. 

Few surfers ever perform a wholly memorable maneuver . Tom bro...

Many of us dream of laying roots in some balmy, wave-rich location far from where we sprouted - to grow food and let the ocean dictate the day. Few of us do it.

Christian and Ka'ale Sea have spent the last 21 years together - surfing, diving, planting, growing a family. They have three daughters, all homeschooled on the remote West Coast of Sumba Island, Indonesia, where they own and operate Ngalung Kalla retreat. 

Chr...

Around 500,000 people were displaced by the 2018 earthquake that rocked the island of Lombok in Indonesia. It was estimated that 80% of all structures were levelled on the North of the island.

At the time, Flora Christin Butarbutar, then in her early 20s, had taken up surfing on the Island of Bali. Originally from Sumatra, Flora was shaken by the need for help on the neighbouring island of Lombok. She put her budding surf...

Can a single wave really change your life? For Hawaiian waterwoman  Moana Jones Wong, one wave changed everything.  She shares about the fated, sparkling bomb at Pipeline that altered both her sense of self, and her surfing career. 

Moana made history by winning the first ever Women’s Championship Tour event at Pipeline.  As a North Shore local, she cut her teeth in heavy water, earning her the title  “Queen of Pipe.”

Moana...

What do neoprene  wetsuits have to do with Cancer Alley ? 

The global wetsuit industry is valued at around $2.8 Billion USD.

"The vast majority of wetsuits on sale today are made of a synthetic rubber called Neoprene. Neoprene – the commercial name for chloroprene rubber – is the product of a toxic, carcinogenic chemical process.

There is only one chloroprene plant in the US. It is owned by Japanese chemical c...

If you only had 10 healthy years left of life, would you choose to know it ?

Big wave surfer Felicity Palmateer is known for her paddle-ins at Peahi, commentating WSL events, starring in Australian Survivor (twice) and holding the record for largest wave ever ridden by an Aussie woman.

Parallel to her successful surfing career, Felicity has navigated tumultuous familial seas.  She talks us through losing her mum t...

“Each of us occupies a singular ecological niche in the web of life that is uniquely ours, and when we restore ourselves to health and vitality, we contribute to the health and vitality of our entire planet.” Such is the philosophy of psychiatrist and surfer Dr. Elizabeth Nguyen.

Dr. Nguyen specialises in cross cultural psychiatry, the intersection of spirituality and mental health, and the healing power of water. She coi...

With gender norms up in the air, what does it mean to be a dad today? For Chris Del Moro, it means showing up for it all - good, bad, and messy -  and maintaining stability for his family. 

Chris is an artist, surfer and devoted father to his two boys. He shares about the pivotal experiences with his own fathers and mentors that shaped him into the steadfast man he is today. 

Chris spent more than a decade as a professional...

When was the last time you refused to take 'no' for an answer ? Belen Alvarez Kimble shares about the life-changing instance when she pushed against cultural norms and expectations to lay down her life's path. 

Belen occupied one of the very few positions as a professional freesurfer through the early 2000s and worked with surf brands as an ambassador for unifying women’s surfing around the globe. She stands amongst t...

What's possible in the eighth decade of life?  Rusty Miller will be 80 this year - and he's still rocking off at Lennox Point and taking off on the best set waves. 

Born in Southern Californian, Rusty was the 1965 United States Surfing Champion. He moved to Byron Bay Australia in 1970, where he has since lived, surfed, taught, and written about surfing -- and been an integral member of the community. 

Rusty was am...

Welcome back for the 5th Season of The Waterpeople Podcast.

Listen in as Dave and Lauren turn the mic on one another and get set for 16 fresh episodes of ocean-centric storytelling.

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Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich

Sound Engineer: Ben Alexander

Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll

Additional music by Dave & Ben

Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast 

Send us a Tex...

Is your mouth open or closed right now ? There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: we take air in, let it out, and repeat 25,000 times a day. But most of us have forgotten how to do it properly.

Journalist, aquanaut, surfer and author James Nestor's latest book BREATH: the New Science of a Lost Art  explores the million-year-long history of how the human species has lost the ability...