Looking Sideways Action Sports Podcast

Use SIDEWAVES10 for 10% off anything from session at The Wave in Bristol!--Regulars who’ve been following Looking Sideways at all closely for the last two years will be familiar with the name Chris Nelson. Alongside Demi Taylor and Lewis Arnold, he’s one of the triumvirate of creative talents behind the brilliant Big Sea, which I’ve been championing since I saw the first cut back in November 2022. But I actually go way, way back with Chris. To the mid-1990s, in fact, when we were both young journalistic tyros from either side of the Pennines, keen to forge creative careers based around our respective passions of surfing and snowboarding. In many ways, our careers have followed similar trajectories. And one of the things I’ve always admired about Chris in the decades I’ve known him is the strong sense of editorial and moral integrity that has always been such a clear hallmark of his work.Whether it’s the early years as a start-up publisher inspired by terrace fanzine culture, the hugely influential Footprint books that redefined surf travel for a generation, his trailblazing work as one of the co-founders of the London Surf Film Festival, or the four-year mission to bring The Big Sea from idea to the big screen, this thread has guided his work since the beginning. Chris has been an influence on my own work and approach since we became friends back in the mid-1990s, and the release of The Big Sea seemed like the perfect occasion to sit down and cast a reflective eye on his unique career. --To find out more about what I do, you can sign up as a subscriber to my Substack newsletter here. There's a brilliant community and much more than just the podcasts. 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

Use my Intersport discount code LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for huge savings on ski and snowboard rental this winter. --One of the odd things about podcasting (at least the way I do it, anyway) is when a episode you’re convinced is one of the best, most enjoyable conversations you’ve ever had doesn’t get the pick up it deserves.That was very definitely the case with my autumn 2022 conversation with legendary ski film-maker Greg Stump. Which is why, four years later, I am re-running it so that recent subscribers to Looking Sideways can listen to my conversation with one of the most quietly influential figures in action sports. I’m going to come right out and say it: Greg Stump is as influential a guest as I’ve yet had on the show. Now, if you’re unfamiliar with Greg’s oeuvre (and in recent years his achievements have been shamefully overlooked) this might seem like a fairly wild claim. But when you consider the success of an era-defining smash like his film The Blizzard of Aaahhs, and look seriously at the lasting impact of his work, who can really doubt it? Greg, a skier, snowboarder and film-maker, first came to prominence with low-key ski film hits such as Maltese Flamingo and A Fistful of Moguls. But the success of 1998’s Blizzard changed everything. Here was a genuine pop cultural crossover success that redefined the ski film for a new generation, gave snowboarding a new platform, saw stars Glen Plake and Scott Schmidt appear on The Today Show, and set the ‘extreme’ agenda that still resonates to this day. On a personal level, Greg certainly changed my life. My first viewing of Blizzard as a skate and snow-obsessed Mancunian teenager in 1990 introduced me to a new world, where dirtbag skiers and snowboarders chased the snow in beguiling sounding-locations such as Telluride, Squaw Valley and Chamonix. For me, it was as exotic as the smooth Californian pavements I wished I could skate, and it put me on the path I am still following to this day. All of which goes some way to explain why, when I sat down to speak with Greg, excitement levels were high - on both sides of the Zoom call. After all, it isn’t often you get to chat to a legit hero and tell them what an impact their work had on your life. The resulting conversation was a riot - funny, warm, extravagant and shamelessly vain - a little like those films that changed so many lives. Hope you enjoy this one as much as I did. --To find out more about what I do, you can sign up as a subscriber to my Substack newsletter here. There's a brilliant community and much more than just the podcasts. 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

Use SIDEWAVES10 for 10% off anything from session at The Wave in Bristol!--As anybody who’s watched your typical softball chat-show conversation will be aware, interviews with people at a certain level of fame and renown, such as this week’s guest Jordy Smith, tend to unfold in one of two ways. There’s the filtered, on-message, and generally uninteresting stuff we’ve all heard countless times before. And then, very rarely, there’s what happened here: which is a really an insightful and frequently hilarious chat that certainly captures the personality of one of surfing’s modern greats, as well as the experience of life on the modern tour. Jordy was in town (at the Wave, specifically) to take part in the regular O’Neill Rookie Rippers event, so I headed over to grab him for an hour to record this chat. As soon as Jordy clocked the Looking Sideways approach, he was straight into it, and what followed was a quick fire and super enjoyable romp through his life and times as one of African surfing’s modern greats. --To find out more about what I do, you can sign up as a subscriber to my Substack newsletter here. There's a brilliant community and much more than just the podcasts. 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

Use SIDEWAVES10 for 10% off anything from session at The Wave in Bristol!--What a treat to welcome the great Jamie Brisick back for his third Looking Sideways appearance. The occasion? The release of The Life and Death of Westerly Windina, his brilliant documentary collaboration with Australian director Alan White about the life and times of Peter Drouyn and Westerly Windina. But also, a welcome chance to catch up with one of surfing’s sharpest, brightest minds. My friendship with Jamie has been one of the great pleasures of this whole Looking Sideways business. As has been watching his career continue to blossom in the years since his first appearance on the show.His Soundings podcast, for example, produced in conjunction with The Surfer’s Journal, is six seasons in and rightly beloved around the world. And his journalism continues to hoik the bar higher with every passing year. Jamie has also been a very generous cheerleader for my own work, acting as a welcome sounding board as I’ve worked on The Announcement, and encouraging me in all my own weird little creative endeavours. So it was that we caught up one evening in October to catch up, compare notes, and discuss the Westerly project, Soundings and The Announcement in detail. What follows is a digressive, self-indulgent catch up in the finest Looking Sideways tradition. I enjoyed it immensely, and I hope you do to. --To find out more about what I do, you can sign up as a subscriber to my Substack newsletter here. There's a brilliant community and much more than just the podcasts. 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