We Shouldn't Be Friends

We’re abject pro surfing fans over here, and when something like what’s about to happen in Fiji comes along, there’s no way we’re letting it just slide by. The WSL’s ten best surfers, vibing each other and themselves into one of the world’s best surf zones, with a world title on the line? One way or another, pretty much everyone’s eyes are gonna be on this madness, so we’re putting together a spec...

Surf-lit is a wobbly field at the best of times, mostly because the writer tries to turn surfing into something it sorta isn’t. Something kooky your daughter’s doing on her summer hols (“Gidget”)? Psycho B-Grade movie cheese (“Point Break”, “The Surfer”)? Scary death metaphor (“The Dogs Of Winter”)? Erin Hortle is a glorious exception to this dismal rule. Erin is one of Australian literature’s ris...

Presenting yourself in public is not as easy as it seems. When you’re simultaneously presenting as a manic super-frother, a cool headed CT analyst, a party-time ringmaster and  a semi rock star, it could easily turn pretty pear-shaped. Yet Vaughan Blakey contains multitudes, and there’s a very calm and considered person in the centre of this Swellian/mag editor/film producer/extraordinary Australi...

The first week of August was fantastic wherever you looked. Indonesia, Tahiti, south shore Hawaii, and the whole east coast of Australia — where wasn’t pumping. But what happened next left us feeling vaguely ick. These amazing surf zones were mined mercilessly for clicks: single-ride superwaves dumped endlessly on top of each other across social media, till it felt like you’d seen too much of some...

“The Big Sea” is one of the surf culture’s films of the year. It’s won awards, most recently at the Noosa Film Festival, for its harrowing portrayal of the toll taken on a Black community in Louisiana, USA, by a nearby petrochemical factory that makes the base ingredient for neoprene. “Cancer Alley”, it’s called. The implication that surfing is somehow connected to Cancer Alley is clear: according...

In this episode, Hannah and Nick go super-nerd on the WSL CT’s big-hitting Teahupo’o event. This is the last straight up CT of 2025, and nothing is quite as it seems! While the top women seem to have sorted out who’s who, they face an extremely dangerous wildcard in Vahine Fierro. And on the other side of the gender gap, things are all over the shop. At least eight surfers are in the hunt for the...

It’s a difficult situation, for sure. You’re the only world professional surfing champ from your country in HISTORY, and a kid 30 years your junior is not super far from a shot at the title. No wonder Shaun Tomson weeps when Jordy Smith loses a heat! But that’s far from the only thing on the mind of this legendary king of tube riding. While our last guest, MR, cuts blanks for a living, fellow ‘70s...

We asked the great Mark Richards to join us because it suddenly struck us: here’s someone who won four world titles in a row with no coaching, no diet advice, no personal strength trainer, and a bunch of self-shaped twin-fins. How many might he have won with all of that?? But there’s so much more to MR than coaching or any of that stuff. In this, his very first podcast appearance, the humble and c...

A Special Live Podcast from Seas The Day “Hey mate, I’m a 66 year old woman and I’m struggling! And you’re taking my wave!” Here’s how the fantastic Toni Sawyer describes calling an errant hassler to account recently on a small day at Cabarita, NSW. Toni is part of one of Australia surfing’s great generations — think Pam Burridge, Pauline Menczer, Jodie Cooper — and she’s been finding her place in...

One of the great surfing lives recently came to an end with the passing of Hawaii’s Clyde Aikau. On the eve of his memorial paddle-out ceremony at Waikiki next week, Nick and Hannah recall their encounters with the amazing, larger-than-life Clyde, and his astonishing efforts over many years to share the legacy of his brother Eddie with the world, through the Eddie Aikau Invitational, the greatest...

Seas The Day is the world’s warmest surf festival. Which is weird since it happens on winter solstice weekend. It should be freezing! But it won’t be, because Seas The Day’s purpose is not aligned with cold. On June 21-22 at Kingscliff, NSW, it draws together some of surfing’s smartest and most involved women for two days of inspiration, stoke and fun. But how do things like Seas The Day fit into...

Of the world’s many pro surfing tragics, few are as tragic as your unlikely hosts. Maybe that’s why we’re so tweaked by the WSL’s much-surfed yet little understood Challenger Series, where 14 year old supergrommets, old school ex-superstars, and dozens of hopeful nationalities do battle in search of the CT limelight. What little surfing society is this, and how come it’s just been given a ticket t...

Learning about each other in the surf is the basis of our wacky friendship. It’s why this poddy even exists! But conversations about the lineup often seem so basic — let’s face it, is there anything more tedious than complaining about crowds? There’s a lot more going on out there. In this fantastic and very challenging episode, Nick and Hannah talk with brilliant surfer/academic Dr Rebecca Olive,...

After 10 days at Burleigh Heads, Nick and Hannah stagger back home with their heads full of WSL gossip. But what’s actually happening at the sport’s pointy end, what calls are being made and who’s making ‘em? We enlist one of pro surfing’s happiest back room operators, Christian Bessera of the surfers’ organisation WPS, to explore how the surfers make it all work the way they want.

In this very special episode, we head north to the land of right-hand pointbreaks, the southern Gold Coast, and ask four fantastic guests to explain for us what makes it home. Recorded live at the Coolangatta Sands with Jay Phillips, Dean Morrison, Sally Paxton and Jesse Starling. First of a series from Australia’s great surf towns, supported by Flotsam Festival and Surfing World magazine.

When a huge easterly gale forms off New Zealand and points shotgun-like at the whole NSW coast, Nick talks it up like a wildman while Hannah gets ready to shoot her brains out. But Tom’s stolen the jetski! What happens next?

Professional surfing has been around for almost 50 years! It’s like Nick and Hannah’s middle sibling. Here we explore one of surfing’s most divisive yet inescapable subjects, and answer a vital question: why is Hannah such a fan?

Complete with jet-ski and little brother Tom, Hannah and Nick hurtle northward to meet the mighty Tropical Cyclone Alfred head-on, and end up with minor bruising and special guests, Lilliana Bowrey and Clint Kimmins!

Hannah and Nick met-cute through of all things, surf media! Here we invite our very first guest, the legendary surf journo Sean Doherty, to help us understand just what it is we all got ourselves involved with.

This wacky friendship didn’t just fall out of the sky. Hannah and Nick take a look at surfing’s past, at the times when they could have been friends — and the times when they definitely couldn’t.