Looking Sideways Action Sports Podcast

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

Full episodes info and Show Notes - www.wearelookingsideways.com It's the first episode of my special Portland omnibus - and I kicked things off with this conversation with the great Mark Lewman, recorded at Nemo HQ in Portland.Lewman has had one of those circuitous, intensely creative career path that action sports culture often throws up. We’re dealing with creative royalty, a man who’s resume includes stints steering era-defining titles such as Freestylin’, Homeboy, Sassy, Dirt, Grand Royal and Big Brother. Along the way he worked on Jackass, collaborated with his friend Spike Jonze and ghostwrote Mat Hoffman’s autobiography.He then switched codes, went brand-side and works today as one of the honchos at Nemo Design, delivering ground-breaking campaigns
for some of the biggest companies in action sports. As you might expect from that CV, Lewman has a wealth of anecdotes and experience, and I had a blast during this conversation. As ever with these episodes, this is the story of how somebody carved out a unique career in the industry, and had a riot doing it. Right up my strasse, then.My thanks to Lewman and everyone at Nemo for being such great sports for this one, and to Travel Portland, Kex Portland, Hertz and Black Diamond PR for their help in pulling this one 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 Phil Young has had one of those varied and fascinating careers I’ve documented a lot on the Looking Sideways podcast. He’ll be familiar to listeners of a certain age as the presenter of a much-loved mid-90s TV show called Board Stupid, which unbelievable as it sounds now, was a primetime TV show totally dedicated to snowboarding.From there, Phil used that experience and the most bulging contact book in UK action sports to carve a career as one of UK skating and snowboarding’s great unseen influences, working with brands to shape the way our cultures have been seen in the mainstream, and doing it with great subtlety and sympathy. Today, he is bringing his considerable insight and experience to bear on one of our industry’s great unspoken issues - the lack of diversity that characterises our cultures at all levels. Phil’s a man of principles and opinions, and there are plenty of layers and themes to this wide-ranging 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 My guest this week is Alex Knost: surfer, musician and photographer and definitely one of the most polarising figures in modern surfing. He’s a stylist who is renowned for his highly individual approach to wave-riding and life in general. For some, he’s the arty-farty epitome of hipster surfing who is all style and no substance.To others, he’s a genuine original who has managed the miraculous feat of achieving a totally original and cohesive style at this late stage in surfing’s development. Wherever you stand, he’s one of the most enigmatic and interesting presences in modern surfing. Alex was in town for the London Surf Film Festival where he was promoting his film Tan Madonna, so I headed up town to sit down with him to see if I could get to the bottom of the Knost conundrum. See what you reckon. 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 My guest this week is visionary film-maker and photographer Chris McClean, recorded at the London Surf Film Festival in October 2019, where Chris won the Viewer’s Choice Award for his latest feature Translate. The film also had its premiere at the event, a performance that saw the soundtrack performed live by a band featuring composer CJ Mirra and Lee-Ann Curren. Its the type of typically forward-thinking endeavour that characterises Chris’s work. Like most I first heard of Chris’s work through the films such as Edges of Sanity, Uncommon Ideals and Atlantic Diversions; and the classy marketing projects he worked on for Finisterre. They were projects which explored particular corners of surf culture and displayed a unique aesthetic, perhaps influenced by his background in the north wast. I then watched in admiration as he joined forces with some of his other talented friends to launch the magazine Backwash, the beautiful annual periodical that explores similar cultural territory to Chris’s films. He’s one of those single-minded, focussed creatives that UK board sports culture tends to throw up: totally happy to plough his own cultural furrow and wait for the world to catch up with him. Which, I’m happy to report, it finally is. That’s why I wanted to chat to him for the show, and I’m glad I did because it’s a lovely one this. Here is, me and Chris McClean - 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