The loudest human-made sounds: Nuclear Bomb (224 dB), Rocket launch (204 dB). And clocking in at 260 underwater decibels is the seismic blast, part of a process for exploring for oil and gas in the ocean. Unlike bombs and rockets, however, seismic blasts "fire approximately every 10 seconds around the clock for months at a time." For eight years, Marine Biologist Annie Ford worked onboard seismic blasting vessels, and felt the relentless explosions and reverberations from her bed at night. She has since peddled away from the fossil fuel industry and  become one of its most creative whist ..read more

Are you investing in yourself and your curiosities? At 63, Sally Parkin sold her home to spend the better part of 2023 surfing in Australia with her family. Sally is known for "single handedly"  reviving  the 100 year old tradition of English surfing on wooden bodyboards. She first surfed one at age 5, and decades later, when her family's quiver started to break, she realised there was only one local maker of traditional boards remaining. She founded The Original Surfboard Company to both produce timber boards and to recover the lost art of English prone surfing.  Joined by s ..read more

Raised on a diet of deep ecology and the DIY spirit of her single mom, Pacha Light earned her first surfboard busking as a tween. She then forged her way into professional surfing as a teenager on Australia’s Gold Coast: signing a big endemic sponsor,  training every day, and making a name for herself as a competitor and surf model.  Until she couldn’t do it any longer. She felt she was not fully in alignment with her values. Still, along the way, Pacha found her storytelling voice, bringing depth and meaning to her surf travel by  weaving in local social and environmental proj ..read more

Have you ever felt like something was wrong, but you weren't quite sure how to name it? Tyler Wilde is a teacher and bodysurfer from southern California. In 2017, Tyler won the prestigious International Surf Festival bodysurfing contest and was later voted into the Gillis Beach Bodysurfing Association as one of their youngest members. As a physical education teacher, his goal is to help his students "feel more embodied." Tyler went through a lengthy bout with depression and anxiety, and like many of us, he struggled to pinpoint the underlying causes. Getting back to the ocean helped - he sa ..read more

A little fire can keep you warm; a big fire can burn your house down.  Two time ASP World Surfing Champion Tom Carroll speaks candidly about his struggles to harness the power that made him famous. From the highs of professional surfing to addiction and meditation, his large life is a study in harnessing and honing one's power in mind and body.  Few surfers ever perform a wholly memorable maneuver . Tom broke down that norm in 1991 when he threw down a turn under the heaving lip of Pipeline - "a move that was so beautiful and so grotesque" that it is still recalled as "one of the b ..read more

Many of us dream of laying roots in some balmy, wave-rich location far from where we sprouted - to grow food and let the ocean dictate the day. Few of us do it. Christian and Ka'ale Sea have spent the last 21 years together - surfing, diving, planting, growing a family. They have three daughters, all homeschooled on the remote West Coast of Sumba Island, Indonesia, where they own and operate Ngalung Kalla retreat.  Christian started life in the Atlantic, on the 48-foot wooden sailboat his father rebuilt. Launching from their homestead on St. Thomas, Christian chased waves in Fiji, Tahiti ..read more

Around 500,000 people were displaced by the 2018 earthquake that rocked the island of Lombok in Indonesia. It was estimated that 80% of all structures were levelled on the North of the island. At the time, Flora Christin Butarbutar, then in her early 20s, had taken up surfing on the Island of Bali. Originally from Sumatra, Flora was shaken by the need for help on the neighbouring island of Lombok. She put her budding surfing life aside, and harnessed her social media notoriety as Indonesia's first competitive female longboarder to garner aid for those in need on Lombok. She helped to build ar ..read more

Can a single wave really change your life? For Hawaiian waterwoman  Moana Jones Wong, one wave changed everything.  She shares about the fated, sparkling bomb at Pipeline that altered both her sense of self, and her surfing career.  Moana made history by winning the first ever Women’s Championship Tour event at Pipeline.  As a North Shore local, she cut her teeth in heavy water, earning her the title  “Queen of Pipe.” Moana was also the first to earn a bachelor’s degree in  Hawaiian and Indigenous Health and Healing. She co-stars in the Prime Video series  S ..read more

What do neoprene  wetsuits have to do with Cancer Alley ?  The global wetsuit industry is valued at around $2.8 Billion USD. "The vast majority of wetsuits on sale today are made of a synthetic rubber called Neoprene. Neoprene – the commercial name for chloroprene rubber – is the product of a toxic, carcinogenic chemical process. There is only one chloroprene plant in the US. It is owned by Japanese chemical company Denka and lies in the predominantly black, low income town of Reserve, Louisiana – in the heart of an area known as Cancer Alley. Rising from the site of a former plant ..read more

If you only had 10 healthy years left of life, would you choose to know it ? Big wave surfer Felicity Palmateer is known for her paddle-ins at Peahi, commentating WSL events, starring in Australian Survivor (twice) and holding the record for largest wave ever ridden by an Aussie woman. Parallel to her successful surfing career, Felicity has navigated tumultuous familial seas.  She talks us through losing her mum to early onset dementia in 2021  — her 50/50 chance of inheriting the gene mutation that causes it - and how grief and loss have inspired her over the ledge at some of the ..read more