Mad Surf Stories podcast

Johanna Brebner is a go-getter. A Kiwi living in Australia, she felt she had some unfinished business with her homeland, and dreamed up the idea of riding the length of the country with her surfboard. She pitched the idea of filming it to Need Essentials who, to their credit, responded with a resounding 'why not?' Five weeks later, she was in Invercargill (Google map it!) purchasing a bike...

Part 2. In this episode we rejoin South African surfer Brett Archibald whose Mentawais surf trip with the boys went horribly wrong when he fell overboard in the throngs of a bout of food poisoning.  At this point in the story he’s exhausted, dehydrated and he’s delirious to the point where he thinks he can grab a shark and hang on while it it swims him to safety! Keep listening to find out where i...

It all started so well. Brett Archibald was on a Ments trip with his buddies and was looking forward to barrels and Bintangs, but when he ate a dodgy calzone pizza and ended up with food poisoning, the sh*t hit the fan in the most insane way. Buckle up! Got a Mad Surf Story? Get in touch - james@dragonbrothersbooks.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/madsurfstories/James Russell's surf nov...

Daniel Poole’s life can be divided into ‘before’ and ‘after’. He has devoted his career to helping those facing natural disasters, and it all started when he faced one himself.  What began as an idyllic surfing adventure quickly spiralled into a fight for survival as a tsunami struck on Boxing Day 2004. Yep. That tsunami.  Daniel tells his incredibly heavy story with heart and love, and in it we h...

Dr Will Allen was a trainee doctor in Dunedin, a small city in the South Island of New Zealand, when he and his fellow students decided to surf a remote beach south of the city. What should have been an enjoyable morning in fun waves turned into a rescue ordeal that had both joyous and tragic consequences.  Will is a thoughtful and interesting speaker, and his experience that day has shaped the co...

In Part 2 of Elliot Foote's Mad Surf Story, we rejoin the shipwrecked crew floating in the straight between Nias and the Banyak Islands of Indonesia. Night is fast approaching, but they've spotted an island. The fastest paddler amongst them, Elliot makes the difficult decision to go it alone. Lock in, because this story only gets crazier! Ngā mihi for the chat, Elliot! If you have a Mad Surf Story...

Part 1: It was the trip of a lifetime, but not in the way Elliot Foote expected. Turning 30, and wanting to celebrate, Elliot headed for Indonesia with his girlfriend and ten of his mates.  Bingtangs, barrels, and banter: the trip was everything he’d dreamed of. Until, that is, it wasn’t. They decided to catch a ferry for the Banyak Islands, and that’s when things started to go awry.  Like most Au...

Steve Bew ley is a happy-go-lucky Aussie, with a thirst for adventure. When his brother moved to Panama, and Steve paid him a visit, he discovered the magical coastlines – and pumping surf – of Central America. Spat out of a nuggety little tube into the channel while surfing one of his favourite waves, life couldn’t have been much sweeter. But that’s precisely when the sh*t hit the fan. Steve tell...

Back in 2009, Chris Nel had managed to save a bit of cash, and decided to splash out on a surf trip to Samoa. He had a couple of weeks of blissful, stress-free lazing, punctuated with great surfs on the local reef break.  The day before he was due to go back home to New Zealand, the sh*t well and truly hit the fan, but rather than deal out a spoiler here, I’ll let Chris tell you in his own sweet t...

Sam Judd – the co-founder of beach cleaning/tree planting charity Sustainable Coastlines – had concluded his university studies in Chile when he decided that instead of going home to New Zealand, he’d take a side trip to the Galapagos Islands to go surfing.  Let’s just say sh*t turned to custard, of a variety that proved to be formative for Sam, in more ways than one. Mr Judd knows how to spin a y...

Erwann Lagabrielle, a shark scientist living in the tropical paradise of Reunion Island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, decided to go for a morning surf at the most well-known break on the island.  Sounds dreamy, right? Trouble was, due to a large number of bull shark attacks on the island over the preceding years, surfing was illegal.  Safe to say things went sideways rapidly.  Erwann is a gre...