Looking Sideways Action Sports Podcast

Full episodes info and Show Notes - www.wearelookingsideways.com Arthur Longo and Blake Paul 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. The first instalment was with Arthur and Blake, and as you’re going to hear it turned out so well that I decided to put it out as an episode of the podcast. What’s really interesting about this conversation are the insights into how two such stellar riders like Arthur and Blake approach a project like this. They pair are obviously both absolutely incredible snowboarders, but as became clear during our conversation, they have different, complementary approaches and it was fascinating finding out exactly what that looked like. Yep, a proper snowboard geek fest this one - well it has been a while - and, basically, a bit of an experiment to see how it would work doing a three-way chat over Skype. I reckon it turned out pretty well. Big thanks to Matt Georges and Vans for getting me involved, and to Arthur and Blake 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

Full episodes info and Show Notes - www.wearelookingsideways.com It can be funny how these episodes come together sometimes. You can spend months trying to arrange a meeting. Or you can randomly bump into somebody at the top of a backcountry run off the back of Niseko Annapurri, as happened with me and Lena in this case. It was the type of welcome coincidence that has characterised my friendship with Lena Stoffel over the last few months. So after our day in the backcountry, we arranged to sit down in Niseko the next day to record this episode. I was keen to speak to her about her life and career as a skier, snowboarder, surfer, photographer and film-maker. Like all pro athletes in this world, Lena is a traveller, and I admire the way she’s putting herself out there with her recent projects. It takes a certain of amount of creative courage to think beyond the usual trick porn and attempt to explore the cultural hinterlands of skiing, surfing and snowboarding, as Lena is. Her approach is now winning renown beyond the narrow horizons of our own little world. As you’ll hear, Lena is extremely humble, but as is so often the case, there’s a drive and creative ambition at work that is leading her onwards to ever more intriguing projects.I really enjoyed this one, recorded on a lovely, snowy, calm afternoon in Niseko. Hope you do too. 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 It’s the final episode from my Portland series, recorded during a breakneck week spent exploring the City of Roses with my various guests. And this episode, recorded with my very old friend Jonathan Weaver, is a fitting departure from the usual format. That’s because we recorded this episode during a very pleasant and leisurely drive around the Oregon coastline. I rode shotgun, grabbed the mics and spent an extremely enjoyable day riding around, checking the surf and having what is even for me a properly meandering conversation. And what a perfect format it was for exploring Jon’s inspirational and circuitous career through the industry. I actually gave Jon his first gig as a writer way back when I helped to run Whitelines, and he’s sure come a long, long way since then; ticking off stints as a snowboarder, team manager, and general industry mover and shaker at brands like Forum and Nike as his career has flourished. Listeners often ask how you begin get a career in the action sports industry, and this episode is a very good place to start. Above all, it’s the story of a brilliant life in snowboarding and beyond, powdered by passion and curiosity. I’m very proud to call Jon a close friend, and even more stoked to have him on the show for the episode. Hope you enjoy it. HUGE thanks to Travel Portland, Kex Portland, Hertz and Black Diamond PR for their help in pulling this entire trip 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 episodes info and Show Notes - www.wearelookingsideways.com Coffee x snowboarding special! Yep, for this episode I headed to Heart Roasters to speak to the great Wille Yli-Luoma. Back in the late 90s and early 00s, Wille was one of the most progressive snowboarders in the world. And, as a member of the celebrated Forum 8, he was a member of the one of the heaviest and most progressive teams in snowboarding history. Go and watch The Resistance to get some measure of how they defined freestyle snowboarding for a generation. Wille was a key part of that team and for a decade bestrode the snowboarding world like the backcountry freestyle colossus he was. As his career wound down, he turned his attention to a new venture, and set about establishing Heart Roasters - despite having zero experience in the coffee industry. Today, Heart is a Portland institution, and Wille’s rapidly expanding wholesale business means it is about to go global. So many layers to this conversation. Sure, it’s about coffee - geekily so. But it’s also about the choices an athlete has to make a critical point in their career, and how the same tools that worked in one area of life can also serve you just as well in other areas. As inspiring off the hill as he was on it at the height of his career, this is a brilliant, all encompassing conversation with a true snowboarding legend. The coffee wasn’t bad either....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.My guest for this episode of Type 2 is Hugo Tagholm, CEO of Surfers Against Sewage, the UK’s most beloved and certainly most successful marine conservation charity. Hugo and SAS are experts at taking their message beyond their own niche and energising the support of the wider community. I wanted to understand how they consistently mobilise this huge, engaged community to bring about the legislative action required to create tangible change. The other reason I wanted to speak to Hugo was to find out how he copes with the workload that comes with his position. Hugo has a ferocious work ethic, and a seemingly effortless ability to deliver comprehensively across multiple fronts. How does he do it? And what can we learn from his approach? It’s always a pleasure to see Hugo and I always really enjoy our conversations, whether the mic is on or not. This one is no different. Hope you enjoy it too. 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

Full episodes info and Show Notes - www.wearelookingsideways.comSkateboarding royalty alert! There’s really no other way to describe Bryce Kanights, one of skateboarding’s most legendary photographers.Bryce Kanights really has seen and shot it all. He came up as an original SF local, and honed his photographic talents while shooting his local punk and skate scene. From there, his career developed as skateboarding itself did, meaning he had a ringside seat for every notable development in skateboarding history.Think of an iconic image from skate history and chances are Bryce was behind the lens. Gonz at Alcatraz? Bryce. The iconic pic of Jake Phelps everyone ran when he passed? Bryce. The EMB heyday? Yep. Bryce again. Today, he lives in Portland, still shoots skating and is, as I discovered, absolutely fantastic company with a bottomless bag of anecdotes that could fill an entire season of the podcast, let alone one episode. It was a true pleasure to sit back, and hear a master tell tall tales from one incredible career. My thanks to Jen Sherowski for doing the intros, and for Bryce himself for taking the time to spend the afternoon with us.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 Christmas Special! Yep, it’s another festive hoedown with my friends Tim and Gendle! If you’re new to the show or unfamiliar with the boys and their work, allow me to introduce them: two of the biggest influences and most-loved presences in European snowboarding, whether as film-makers, presenters or snowboarders. Not that went over all that. Instead, we sat down for this two-hour plus mince pie and Secret Santa-fuelled yibble fest during which we ticked every festive box going. Booze? Tick. Secret Santa? Tick. A quiz everyone can play along with? Tick. We even ticked off another podcast trope as the boys turned the tables on me and asking me to answer a few questions myself. Yep, this is a totally frivolous, Yuletide-themed episode especially for your festive edification with two of my oldest friends - enjoy! 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 I’ve got my old friend Annie Fast on the show! I go back a long way with Annie. We’re both snowboarding industry lifers, who met almost twenty years ago. Because we had so much in common, being snowboarding and writing geeks, we got on straight away and become good friends. And we stayed in touch, occasionally working together and always encouraging each other. Which is why it was such a proud moment when Annie landed the plum writing job in the industry to become the first female editor of Transworld Snowboarding. She stewarded the title through what I think we’d all agree was the last golden age of Transworld - and I’m not just saying that because she started to commission me to write features and columns for Transworld.In this conversation, recorded in Portland in November 2019, we got together to look back at Annie’s glorious, glass-ceiling smashing career. We cover the way she broke into the industry, how she created her own voice and how she was at the forefront of the change between analogue and digital media. We also discussed the challenges that come with trying to balance motherhood with her career in such a male-dominated and patriarchal industry - an issue that is woefully undiscussed. It was a total pleasure seeing Annie again - hope you enjoy our conversation.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 John Rattray is one of the UK’s most successful and certainly best loved skateboarders. His is a success story that seemed to mirror the mid-to-late '90s expansion of UK skateboarding as a whole, as he made the journey from our shores to the States, and a breakout career as a pro on Zero.And yet away from the spotlight, John’s life was marked by a series of personal and professional crises that affected his mental health and led to bouts of depression and anxiety. Now John is bringing the singular energy and ferocious inquisitiveness that marked his skateboarding career to the conversation around mental health, depression and suicide. He’s doing so in two ways - by organising initiatives such as his online Why So Sad? Mission; and by talking honestly about his own experiences and what he’s learned from them, in that hope that it will help others and relax some of the taboos that surround the conversation around mental health. The result is a conversation as honest as any I’ve yet featured on the podcast, and defintiely among the most important. I’m grateful to John for trusting me to have this chat, and for approaching our exchange with such openness. 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.My guest for this episode of Type 2 is Dan Yates from Save Our RiversSave Our Rivers is an environmental organisation dedicated to protecting our wild rivers and national parks. For Dan, activism is intrinsically linked to his own love for wild places, sure. But what comes across from his story, and why I think it is so valuable, is the reality of everyday activism. Dan and his peers are fitting in their activism around their everyday lives, finding hugely effective ways to achieve their goals that don’t necessarily rely on direct action, and instead means a lot of hard, dedicated and often unglamorous work. There’s huge value in this because one of the themes that is gradually becoming clear as Type 2 evolves, and I speak to more people, is that for activism to really succeed it needs to be a combination of passion and pragmatism, which is something Dan and Save our Rivers epitomise. New episodes of Type 2 will be 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