Looking Sideways Action Sports Podcast

Full episode and Show Notes - www.wearelookingsideways.comI’m back with the great Mike Manzoori, a much-loved UK skateboarder who has quietly had one of the most influential careers in British skating. Mike has been renowned for the power and style of his skating since day one, and came up alongside peers like Curtis McCann and Simon Evans during an era of particular significance for UK skateboarding, documented by the great TLB through the pages of RaD magazine and through Mike’s own early experiments in film making. Later, he headed to the States and evolved into one of the most progressive and creative film-makers in skateboarding. It’s a career arc that perfect mirror the evolution of UK skateboarding as a while, and it means Mike has a brilliant perspective on the last three decades. I’ve been keen to chat to Mike for the show for years, and the result was a really lovely, engaging conversation with a properly humble and modest character. My thanks to Mike for taking the time to do it, and to Don Brown, Dan Adams and Wig Worland for their help pulling this episode together. Thanks to Matt Ward for the theme tune, and to my editor Fina Charleson. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Full episode and Show Notes - www.wearelookingsideways.comIt’s brave new era time this week as I finally relaxed my Skype ban to record this episode with Colin MacCleod. If you don’t know Colin, he’s a musician and surfer from the Western Isles in Scotland who has been quietly carving out one of the most successful careers in British guitar music in the last few years. I’m talking supporting-Robert-Plant/appearances-on-the-James-Corden-Show-in-the-States levels of success. He also seems, as I discovered during our conversation, to have that whole work/life balance thing completely dialled, working as he does as a crofter and a gillie when he’s not on tour with his band. My original plan with Colin was to head up to meet him in Lewis to record this episode, but with that not possible, I thought I’d get him on now to hear his story.And what a tale it is, delivered much like he delivers his music: with modesty, wit, compassion and honesty. Even better, Colin agreed to perform a song for me at the end of the interview, so stick around for that. My thanks to Colin for being such a great sport. Hope you enjoy the episode. Thanks to Matt Ward for the theme tune, and to my editor Fina Charleson. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Full episode and Show Notes - www.wearelookingsideways.comI’m a big fan of ‘lifer’ stories on the podcast. These are the guests who aren’t big name athletes or personalities, but who have quietly had the same amount of influence. Think of guests like Demi Taylor, Chris Cote or Phil Young. They’re people who have dedicated their lives to the activities they love, and in the process have ended up helping to create the culture we all benefit from. This week’s guest Steve England, long-term publisher of Carve magazine and founding member of Surfers Against Sewage, is another example. He’d never admit it himself, but it’s impossible to do justice to the absolutely integral role Steve has played in the UK surf industry for well over three decades now. Think of any significant development in British surfing and Steve England has been at the heart of it. No wonder no less an authority than Gabe Davis describes him as ‘the absolute heart and soul of UK surfing’. What’s especially brilliant about this is that it is all so clearly driven by Steve’s absolute passion for surfing and belief in its power to transform lives, something he expresses with great eloquence during our conversation. Then there’s the final layer to all this, which is the arc of Steve’s career itself. As he himself says: if he can do it, anybody can. Steve was somebody I’d wanted to get on the show for months and I’ll be honest it took me a while to convince him. I’m so glad that I did, as you’ll hear. Thanks to Matt Ward for the theme tune, and to my editor Fina Charleson. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Full episode and Show Notes - www.wearelookingsideways.comThe life of the professional athlete is truly an exalted one. There’s the travel. The free kit. The adulation. And the fact that you’re being paid to do what you love.Small wonder that so many professional athletes get swept along with it all, and start to believe their own hype. As I know from my experience of working in the industry for almost three decades, nothing is more common than the pro athlete who has made the fundamental mistake of thinking their current situation is permanent. It’s why characters like Mike Lay are such a breath of fresh air. Sure, he’s one of the finest longboarders the UK has ever produced, with a truly beautiful, considered style. But he’s also that rare thing: somebody who is amazingly good at riding a board, and also able to see far beyond the margins of our insular little world. You can see it in the writing he does for the various surf magazines he contributes to, and in the curiosity that seems to come naturally to him. As you’ll discover, he’s a creative, a dreamer, a reader, a writer and, above all, a thinker, as well as a surfer. These are the conversations I look forward to the most, the ones that take off into unexpected regions in the finest Looking Sideways tradition. I’m really grateful to Mike for going out of his way to make this conversation happen, and for approaching it in such a spirit of honesty and open-mindedness. Hope you enjoy it. Thanks to Matt Ward for the theme tune, and to my editor Fina Charleson. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Type 2 is a podcast from Looking Sideways in association with Patagonia that explores the intersection between the outdoors, action sports and activism.Chris Hines MBE is a surfer and activist best known for being one of the original driving forces behind Surfers Against Sewage. Today he enjoys a reputation as one of the most respected and most successful communicators in British environmentalism. As the founder and original Director of Surfers Against Sewage, Chris’s exploits and success are legendary. It is no exaggeration to say that Chris and his colleagues rewrote the rulebook of environmental activism across the UK and beyond, helping SAS achieve amazing success and changing the way such campaigns were run forever. A campaign such as Fight for The Bight for example, owes much to the trailblazing SAS approach that Chris helped to pioneer. Chris left SAS in 2000 and set up his Grain of Sand consultancy, helping organisations such as the Eden Project and The Wave in Bristol achieve their sustainability and environmental objectives. In short, Chris is a legendary figure, and I was excited to sit down with him for this conversation, recorded in March 2020 at his Porthtowan home. Of course we covered the key milestones of his career, including the early years Surfers Against Sewage, a story of great value for anybody with an interest in campaigning or changemaking.But on a deeper level, the conversation was a chance to get Chris’s unique perspective on our current situation - both in terms of what he’s learned from this past successes, and his hopes for the future. Personally, I found this to be a moving and profoundly positive exchange that left me with much to ponder, thanks to Chris’s unquenchable optimism, and his faith in our collective ability to solve the challenges we face. Hope you enjoy it. New episodes of Type 2 are released every four weeks through my Looking Sideways channel. Hear it by subscribing to Looking Sideways via ApplePodcasts, Spotify or any of the usual other podcast providers.Thanks to Ewan Wallace for the theme tune, and to my editor Fina Charleson. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Full episode and Show Notes - www.wearelookingsideways.comFor the second episode of my Cornish omnibus, I’ve got a beautiful tale for uncertain times: a lovely and heartwarming conversation with British surfer Gwyn Haslock. Chances are you won’t have heard of Gwyn. If that’s the case, I urge you to listen to this episode and discover her wonderful story.Kernow to the core, Gywn has a claim to be one of the UK’s original surfers and is certainly one of the first female surfers in the UK. Today, well into her 70s, she is one of the most loved and recognisable figures in the line-up; taking her pick from the north and south coast Cornish spots she’s been gracing with her presence for the best part of half a century. At the beginning of March 2020, I sat down with Gwyn to discuss her amazing surfing life. It’s a cockle-warming tale and a unique look at the early years of British and Cornish surfing from the perspective of somebody who’s been there since day one. Even better, her brilliantly blithe attitude to surfing is a welcome antidote to the amount of absolute rubbish that usually gets spoken about what is essentially a pretty simple pursuit. My thanks to Gwyn, Demi Taylor and the Watergate Bay Hotel for the help pulling this one today. Hope you enjoy it. Thanks to Matt Ward for the theme tune, and to my editor Fina Charleson. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Full episode and Show Notes - www.wearelookingsideways.comCould a wooden surfboard change your life? It wasn’t a question I was expecting to ask when I travelled down to Porthtowan to meet James Otter of Otter Surfboards for the first episode of my Cornish omnibus. I thought we’d be discussing the backstory of Otter Surfboards, finding out how James got into wooden surfboard shaping and design and delving into the history of this venerable practiseOf course, we did cover all that. But in the tradition of all the best Looking Sideways conversations, this chat took on a life of its own, and strayed into some wholly unexpected territory. Like how we humans have a preternatural connection to wood, something which fuels our innate creativity. And how the business model behind Otter evolved unexpectedly, the meaning of which deepens for James with every passing year. And, above all, how the simple act of building a wooden surfboard might just have the power to help you make sense of your life, as it has done for James and the countless others who have joined him in the act of creating their own wooden craft. My thanks to James and Mat Arney of Hailer Media for their hospitality and help, and to my friends at the Watergate Bay Hotel for hosting me during this trip. Thanks to Matt Ward for the theme tune, and to my editor Fina Charleson. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Full episodes info and Show Notes - www.wearelookingsideways.com Dan ‘Danmials’ Leidahl and Benny Urban special TRIPLE episode! This episode came about when my friend Matt Georges asked me to write the words for his latest book project with Vans - TRIPLE. The TRIPLE project saw Matt organise three shoots to represent the different sides of snowboarding - Arthur and Blake for backcountry, Rene Rinnekangas and Fridtjof Tischendorf for park, and Danimals and Benny Urban for street. Matt asked me to interview each duo for the book - naturally I thought I might as well record these chats and see if they were worth putting out as podcasts.So that’s what I did - I relaxed my ‘no Skype’ rule, sent the guys mics and arranged to chat with each of them about the whole thing. This second instalment is with Dan and Benny. Of the three styles of snowboarding featured in TRIPLE, street riding is the one with the closest kinship to skateboarding. There are moments of progressive, creative beauty that represent the culture being pushed forward in real time. These two friends are two of the best rail riders on the planet, and they were the perfect duo to explore the multi-faceted possibilities of street snowboarding for TRIPLE. They joined Matt and filmer Alex Pfeffel for a mid-season trip to Japan where they spent two weeks exploring the bust-heavy possibilities of Otaru-Hokkaido. During our conversation, we discussed the challenges involved with taking a mountain-based form into an occasionally hostile urban environment - shovelling snow in the dark, finding spots, dodging cops and getting shots.Big thanks to Matt Georges and Vans for getting me involved, and to Dan and Benny for being such good sports. Thanks to Matt Ward for the theme tune, and to my editor Fina Charleson. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

The importance of creative confidence has been a constant theme since I began the podcast in February 2017. Think of my conversations with Nick Jenson, Mickey Smith or Sachi Cunningham, to name just three where this topic has loomed large. From those conversations we learned that this bravery is required if you’re going to stick to your creative guns. We also learned that it is equally essential if you’re going to understand a crucial lesson: that the process of creating is the point, not some nebulous thought of ‘success’ or acceptance. And it is also critical if you’re going to accept and be comfortable with your own place in the artistic eco-system - and give yourself permission to enjoy the act of creativity in the long termThese are lessons CJ Mirra knows well, and are partly why he’s been able to develop such a singular and intriguing musical aesthetic. He’s best known for his collaborations with director and previous guest Chris McClean; notably Translate, their ‘pan-European surf odyssey / live / audio / visual experiment’ which they performed live for the first time at the 2019 London Surf Film Festival. But as I discovered when I went to visit him at his Leyton studio in February 2020, there’s much more to CJ than this. I very much enjoyed our chat about all things creative and musical, and I hope you do too. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Type 2 is a podcast from Looking Sideways in association with Patagonia that explores the intersection between the outdoors, action sports and activism.So far my Type 2 conversations have been with people aiming to inspire a movement of incremental change that - they hope - will add up to larger system change. People like Hugo from SAS, and Jake from Protect Our Winters. Today I’m speaking to photographer Christoph Jorda, a witness and storyteller who is using his talent and privileged position to document the real time effects of the crisis on our world today. By operating on the other side of the debate, he is bearing witness to the challenges faced by ordinary people and showing how the environments we take for granted are changing forever. Photojournalists like Christoph have always been an essential part of any movement for change. His documentary approach is essential because it injects emotion and humanity into a narrative that can often by characterised by nebulous facts and figures, or impossible-to-comprehend predictions.Christoph’s work documents in poignant, often harrowing detail the damage that is being done right now, making him a compelling voice in this entire debate. And in pursuing such fascinating and sometimes shocking photo stories around the world, he’s following in the lineage of the great photojournalists who’s work in turn inspired him. That’s exactly why I wanted to speak to him for the show, and what we discussed during this episode. Hope you enjoy it. New episodes of Type 2 are released every four weeks through my Looking Sideways channel. Hear it by subscribing to Looking Sideways via ApplePodcasts, Spotify, Podbean, OvercastFM or any of the usual other podcast providers.Thanks to Ewan Wallace for the theme tune, and to my editor Fina Charleson. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe