The Surfer’s Journal presents Soundings with Jamie Brisick

A preeminent figure in surf filmmaking, Jack McCoy started surfing when his family moved from Los Angeles to Hawaii in 1954. In the 1970s, he began experimenting with film and photography and, in 1976, released his first film, Tubular Swells, produced and directed with Australian photographer Dick Hoole. What followed was a four-decade run filming, directing, and producing classics of the surf genre—including Storm Riders (1982), Kong’s Island (1983), Bunyip Dreaming (1990), The Green Iguana (1992), Sabotaj (1998), The Occumentary (1999), Blue Horizon (2004), Free as a Dog (2006), and A Deeper Shade of Blue (2012)—defined via McCoy’s unparalleled water cinematography. In this episode, host Jamie Brisick talks to McCoy about the evolution of surf filmmaking, capturing emotion, mindsurfing his way through hepatitis, traveling, music, and working with a Beatle. Jack and Mark Occhilupo are hitting the east coast of Australia this May to celebrate the 25th anniversaries of The Occumentary and Occy’s 1999 World Title. Jack has remastered the film and it’ll be shown on the big screen for the first time ever. You can purchase tickets at jackmccoy.com.

A three-time Maverick’s champion and a central figure in Santa Cruz’s explosion onto surfing’s main stage in the late ’90s and early ’00s, Darryl Virostko learned to ride big, heavy surf as a kid at Steamer Lane. His introduction to Maverick’s, the wave that defined his career, came when it was still considered a myth in surfing circles. His fast success and notoriety within surfing, and the big-wave community especially, engendered a degree of risk-taking, adrenaline-chasing behavior that eventually pushed Virostko into addiction. Clean since 2008, Virostko is now an advocate for the sober community, providing support for people with addiction through his rehabilitation program, FleaHab. In this episode, show host Jamie Brisick travels to Virostko’s home in Santa Cruz to talk about how Maverick’s changed the big-wave landscape, the power of commitment, lessons learned from his youth, getting clean, death and love, and surfing with range.

Born in Japan to a mother with a profound passion for classical music and a father whose singing and guitar resounded throughout her early childhood, Aska Matsumiya was playing music before she could talk. Allured by her family’s player piano as a child, she became a proficient classical pianist by age 3. But after a move to Orange County, California, at 12, Matsuyima was introduced to the haywire world of punk rock. Matsumiya played in punk bands until her early twenties, when she began experimenting with writing her own songs and scoring clips for friends in the fashion industry. Since then, she’s composed over 20 films and television soundtracks for directors like Julia Hart and Spike Jonze, networks like HBO, major brands like Audi, as well as collaborated with prolific composers such as Ryuichi Sakamoto. In this episode, Matsumiya and show host Jamie Brisick discuss her creative process, composing for film and television versus the self, her proudest pieces, working with others, her musical inspirations, and the similarities between surfing and making music.

The mastermind behind large-scale production of the surfboard blank, Gordon “Grubby” Clark’s pioneering of polyurethane foam in constructing the modern surfboard enabled the progression of surfing as a culture. Enthralled by materials from a young age, Clark received a combined degree in math and physics from Pomona College before working as a glasser at Hobie Surfboards and as an apprentice to Tom Blake, inventor of the surfboard fin, while splitting time between Hawaii and California. When demand for foam boards proliferated across Southern California in the late 1950s, Clark was quick to employ his background toward industrializing and streamlining the production of polyurethane foam blanks, becoming the defining blank maker from the early ’60s until Clark Foam’s sudden and shocking closure in 2005. Since then, “Grubby” has lived and worked on a sprawling cattle ranch in Oregon, which is where host Jamie Brisick sat down and talked with Clark about the adaptation of modern surfboard design, the intricacies of foam and fiberglass, the value of an education in science, the emergence of computer programming, the shortboard revolution, and why he closed shop.

A molecular scientist with a PhD in marine conservation and sustainability from UC San Diego, Cliff Kapono devotes himself to putting his two greatest passions—science and surfing—into productive conversation. For Kapono, a Native Hawaiian from the Big Island, surfing necessitates meaningful, intimate care for one’s environment and is a practice deeply embedded in the familial and social histories that informed his upbringing. Kapono currently serves as an ambassador for the Save the Waves Coalition, a nonprofit that protects surf ecosystems globally, and his environmental activism and study range from microbiome dynamics to coral health. In this episode, Kapono talks with show host Jamie Brisick about surfing as a means of combating trauma, finding one’s identity, sublime connection, high-performance surf zones, commodification of the sacred, the nuances of inclusivity, and growing up in Hawaii.

Steve Olson honed his skateboarding expertise sneaking into swimming pools across Southern California while growing up in the 1970s. His skating was wedded to a surf-centric childhood at a time when the crossover between the two was at its height. Olson earned a sponsorship by Santa Cruz Skateboards in 1979 and quickly became notorious for introducing a punk rock aesthetic and cool defiance to the skate scene. He’s also lived outside of surf-skate norms as an actor, artist, musician, and father, blending all those interests into a singular personality. In this episode, Olson sits down with Jamie Brisick to talk about their first encounters, his contemporary art practice, the art of trespassing, the surf-skate connection, cat-and-mouse thrills, his greatest moments on a skateboard, extreme individualism, and the memories that have stuck with him.

From one of surfing’s most accomplished and recognizable families, Coco Ho  was raised in the thick of the surf universe on the North Shore of Oahu. As a kid, she quickly gained notoriety as a high-performance surfer in her own right, winning multiple junior titles before eventually joining the Championship Tour while still a teenager, where she posted solid results and year-end rankings for over a decade. Since letting go of competition, she’s gone on to design women’s wear collections, put on twin-fin clinics, and started her female-centric board brand, while continuing to chase waves. In this episode, Ho and show host Jamie Brisick sit down to talk about her serendipitous thrust into competitive surfing, competing against her brother, friendship, winter on the North Shore, the inevitable overlap between passion and selfishness, functionality, confidence, and her biggest inspirations. 

Dubbed “The Animal,” Nat Young has spent nearly 60 years as one of surfing’s most influential and esteemed figures. At the forefront of surfing’s stylistic evolution during the 1960s, Young’s victory at the 1966 World Championships in San Diego on his self-shaped “Magic Sam” helped cement Australia’s place as a budding progenitor of high-performance surfing. In the decades since, he’s maintained iconic status both in surf culture and in his native country, while writing numerous books, making films documenting the era of transformation he helped usher in, traveling the globe to both surfing and non-surfing locales, and continuing to surf—at a masterful level on all manner of craft—at the world-class points near his home. In this episode, Young talks with show host Jamie Brisick about his long and celebrated career, his biggest influences, and the translation of style across generations. 

Two-time world champion surfer John John Florence discusses his career trajectory, sailing adventures, inspirations, self-optimization, proudest moments, family, and the future. They also explore their interests in photography, the influence of surf movies, the rewards of pursuing a business venture after surfing, and the deep connection with nature and the ocean.

Keala Kennelly grew up on Kauai in a geodesic dome built by her parents and began surfing at the age of five, a contemporary of the Irons brothers. Through the 1990s and early aughts, she was consistently ranked top ten on the World Tour and was the first woman to tow Teahupoo. She has since pursued successful careers in both acting and music. Kennelly’s life has been also defined by her pushing both physical and social limitations, from her fighting for women’s representation in heavy surf to her coming out during a time when that meant detrimental ramifications to her surfing career. In this episode, Kennelly talks with show host Jamie Brisick about being an early advocate for the LGBTQ+ surfing community, what it meant to be one of the few women in the lineup, how the attitudes have changed, losing her sponsors, giving up her spot on tour to work as an actress for David Milch, fighting for equal pay, and her invite to the Eddie, and her DJ career.