Stay ConnectedSurf stories, ocean adventures + the aquatic experiences that shape us.
Listen with Lauren L. Hill and Dave Rastovich as they gather stories, insights and useful skills from some of the most outstanding waterfolk on the planet.
Waterpeople is where our global ocean community dives into the facets of watery lives lived well: ecology, adventure, community, activism, science, egalitarianism, inclusivity, meaningful play, a sense of humour. And, surfing, of course.
Copyright: ℗ & © 2019 Waterpeople Podcast
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 projects wherever she went. Her three part Women of the Sea series dove into the rich aquatic cultures adjacent to surfing in Japan and South Korea.
Now in her early 20s, Pacha talks us through what led her to say “thanks, but no thanks” to her long-time surfing sponsor. She shares about the search for belonging after her father’s passing, vying for a spot in the Olympics, and “understanding that we are called to be a part of the Earth protecting itself.”
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Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich
Sound Engineer: Ben Alexander
Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll
Additional music by Dave & Ben
Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast
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Photo Credit: Unknown (If you took this photo please reach out)
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Co-Hosts + Production: Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich
Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander
Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll
Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander
Closing track: 'Sunseekers' by Andysixstring
Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast
...
Thanks to our generous sponsors this season:
Patagonia Australia: in business to save our home planet
Ngalung Kalla Eco Retreat: surf adventure paradise
The Sunglass Fix: give your favourite sunglasses new life
Sodii: hydration for salty humans
...
Subscribe to our newsletter for BTS stories from making the podcast, and the books, films and music we’re currently into. Written by us + free to read.
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 says that "bodysurfing saved his life."
But it was supporting one of his students through their own reckoning with embodiment, and their gender transition, that helped Tyler to understand that he, too, was a trans person. He learned a new language that helped to unlock some of what he was feeling and helped him to finally envisage a healthy future for himself, as his true self.
Tyler's story is documented in the film Gender Outlaw (watch it here), which chronicles the role bodysurfing played in his gender transition.
He talked us through bodysurfing binaries, finding his community in an unexpected place, the joy of love, and bringing kindness and compassion to complex conversations.
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Tyler's recommended resources for gender inclusionary insights, support and education:
@translifeline is a peer support and crisis hotline for the trans community
@trevorproject is a suicide prevention hotline for the LGBTQ+ community
@pinkmantaray Schuyler is a wonderful resource for people who are trying to learn more about trans people and specifically trans athletes
@alokvmenon - love their educational work
...
Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich
Sound Engineer: Ben Alexander
Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll
Additional music by Dave & Ben
Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast
Photo Credit: Gender Outlaw
...
Co-Hosts + Production: Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich
Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander
Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll
Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander
Closing track: 'Sunseekers' by Andysixstring
Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast
...
Thanks to our generous sponsors this season:
Patagonia Australia: in business to save our home planet
Ngalung Kalla Eco Retreat: surf adventure paradise
The Sunglass Fix: give your favourite sunglasses new life
Sodii: hydration for salty humans
...
Subscribe to our newsletter for BTS stories from making the podcast, and the books, films and music we’re currently into. Written by us + free to read.
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 boldest moves ever pulled in pro surfing.
Tom excelled competitively on the World Championship Tour for 14 years, finishing in the top 5 nine times, winning 26 events and earning surfing’s first million-dollar sponsorship contract. As a three-time Pipe Masters Champion, Tom is often considered the performance bridge between Gerry Lopez and Kelly Slater.
Today, Tom is recognized as a teacher of meditation and wellness. He spoke with us about his sobriety, the "sharing wave" competition format, fathering while on meth, learning to listen and the absurd list of injuries he has endured as an elite athlete.
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Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich
Sound Engineer: Ben Alexander
Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll
Additional music by Dave & Ben
Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast
Photo Credit: Quicksilver
...
Co-Hosts + Production: Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich
Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander
Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll
Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander
Closing track: 'Sunseekers' by Andysixstring
Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast
...
Thanks to our generous sponsors this season:
Patagonia Australia: in business to save our home planet
Ngalung Kalla Eco Retreat: surf adventure paradise
The Sunglass Fix: give your favourite sunglasses new life
Sodii: hydration for salty humans
...
Subscribe to our newsletter for BTS stories from making the podcast, and the books, films and music we’re currently into. Written by us + free to read.
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, New Zealand, Hawaii and Australia before settling on the Big Island of Hawai’i, where he earned a degree in Marine Science and eventually worked up the nerve to ask out Ka'ale.
Bree Ka'alemalu Sea - Ka'ale for short - is a surfer and dive instructor who was homeschooled on the wild Puna Coast of the Big Island. In her late teens, she took off to explore the wider world spending time elsewhere in Polynesia, Thailand, India, Nepal and Indonesia. She eventually settled back on the Big Island where she studied Hawaiian culture and, together with Christian, nurtured a rustic homestead and put permaculture principles to practice in the jungle.
They spent ten years as the in-house waterman and woman at one of the best hotels in the world before packing up their truck to camp on the land that is now Ngalung Kalla Retreat. Over the past decade they’ve established flourishing food gardens to help feed visiting adventurers, and have built a collection of cliff-top Sumbanese guest houses to share.
Together, they've had many beginnings, most initiated by their commitment to the water. Listen in to hear about their experiments in systems thinking, remote parenting, and building spaces that keep us present.
…
Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich
Sound Engineer: Ben Alexander
Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll
Additional music by Dave & Ben
Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast
...
Co-Hosts + Production: Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich
Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander
Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll
Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander
Closing track: 'Sunseekers' by Andysixstring
Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast
...
Thanks to our generous sponsors this season:
Patagonia Australia: in business to save our home planet
Ngalung Kalla Eco Retreat: surf adventure paradise
The Sunglass Fix: give your favourite sunglasses new life
Sodii: hydration for salty humans
...
Subscribe to our newsletter for BTS stories from making the podcast, and the books, films and music we’re currently into. Written by us + free to read.
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 around 200 family homes there.
Perhaps because of her late start to watery life, Flora has become a leading light of surfing in Indonesia - and beyond. She hosts Flora Retreats in Bali.
We sat down with Flora in Bali and she talked us through the challenges of growing up in Sumatra, quitting her stable job to travel, finding surfing in her 20s, and her kampung life on Java, where she loves to give her homegrown vegetables to the neighbours.
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Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich
Sound Engineer: Ben Alexander
Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll
Additional music by Dave & Ben
Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast
Photo Credit: Roxy
...
Co-Hosts + Production: Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich
Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander
Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll
Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander
Closing track: 'Sunseekers' by Andysixstring
Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast
...
Thanks to our generous sponsors this season:
Patagonia Australia: in business to save our home planet
Ngalung Kalla Eco Retreat: surf adventure paradise
The Sunglass Fix: give your favourite sunglasses new life
Sodii: hydration for salty humans
...
Subscribe to our newsletter for BTS stories from making the podcast, and the books, films and music we’re currently into. Written by us + free to read.
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 Surf Girls Hawai’i, which follows the next generation of Native Hawaiian female surfers as they navigate competitive surfing.
Moana also talks us through traditional Hawaiian concepts of health and well-being, wave riding as a healing modality, and outgrowing her dreams of surfing Pipe like a guy.
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Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich
Sound Engineer: Ben Alexander
Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll
Additional music by Dave & Ben
Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast
Photo Credit: WSL/Brent Bielmann
...
Co-Hosts + Production: Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich
Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander
Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll
Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander
Closing track: 'Sunseekers' by Andysixstring
Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast
...
Thanks to our generous sponsors this season:
Patagonia Australia: in business to save our home planet
Ngalung Kalla Eco Retreat: surf adventure paradise
The Sunglass Fix: give your favourite sunglasses new life
Sodii: hydration for salty humans
...
Subscribe to our newsletter for BTS stories from making the podcast, and the books, films and music we’re currently into. Written by us + free to read.
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 plantation, the Denka chloroprene plant casts a long shadow over St John’s Parish.
No home in the community around the plant has been untouched by cancer. It has the highest cancer risk in the USA – 50 TIMES the national average. The EPA acknowledges the high cancer risk is due to chloroprene emissions from the plant."
In their forthcoming film The Big Sea, Lewis Arnold and Chris Nelson take us to Cancer Alley in Louisiana to hear from local activists who have spent decades fighting for the health and safety of their community.
The Big Sea is an exploration of the toxic nature of wetsuits, the true human cost of Neoprene production and surfing’s links to Cancer Alley.
Learn more: TheBigSea.org
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Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich
Sound Engineer: Ben Alexander
Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll
Additional music by Dave & Ben
Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast
Photo Credit: Adriana Lozano
...
Co-Hosts + Production: Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich
Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander
Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll
Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander
Closing track: 'Sunseekers' by Andysixstring
Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast
...
Thanks to our generous sponsors this season:
Patagonia Australia: in business to save our home planet
Ngalung Kalla Eco Retreat: surf adventure paradise
The Sunglass Fix: give your favourite sunglasses new life
Sodii: hydration for salty humans
...
Subscribe to our newsletter for BTS stories from making the podcast, and the books, films and music we’re currently into. Written by us + free to read.
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 worlds tallest and heaviest waves.
Tune in to hear about Flick’s time playing Survivor, the state of inclusivity in surfing, why she transitioned from pursuing the Tour to chasing heavy water, and her recent marriage to a childhood friend.
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Felicity is an ambassador for Dementia Australia, whose work your can learn about here.
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Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich
Sound Engineer: Ben Alexander
Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll
Additional music by Dave & Ben
Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast
…
Photo Credit: Giulia Ávila
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Co-Hosts + Production: Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich
Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander
Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll
Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander
Closing track: 'Sunseekers' by Andysixstring
Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast
...
Thanks to our generous sponsors this season:
Patagonia Australia: in business to save our home planet
Ngalung Kalla Eco Retreat: surf adventure paradise
The Sunglass Fix: give your favourite sunglasses new life
Sodii: hydration for salty humans
...
Subscribe to our newsletter for BTS stories from making the podcast, and the books, films and music we’re currently into. Written by us + free to read.
“Each of us occupies a singular ecological niche in the web of life that is uniquely ours, and when we restore ourselves to health and vitality, we contribute to the health and vitality of our entire planet.” Such is the philosophy of psychiatrist and surfer Dr. Elizabeth Nguyen.
Dr. Nguyen specialises in cross cultural psychiatry, the intersection of spirituality and mental health, and the healing power of water. She coined the term ‘human ecological restoration’ to describe the work she does to help her patients “clear out” psychological debris from trauma, both personal and ancestral.
Elizabeth was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her parents were refugees from Vietnam, who arrived in Honolulu in 1975, at the end of the Vietnam War
Dr. Nguyen recently released her first novel Aloha Vietnam.
We caught up with Elizabeth remotely to talk about her insightful book and her medical practice, specifically the practice of prescribing water as medicine.
…
Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich
Sound Engineer: Ben Alexander
Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll
Additional music by Dave & Ben
Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast
…
...
Co-Hosts + Production: Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich
Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander
Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll
Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander
Closing track: 'Sunseekers' by Andysixstring
Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast
...
Thanks to our generous sponsors this season:
Patagonia Australia: in business to save our home planet
Ngalung Kalla Eco Retreat: surf adventure paradise
The Sunglass Fix: give your favourite sunglasses new life
Sodii: hydration for salty humans
...
Subscribe to our newsletter for BTS stories from making the podcast, and the books, films and music we’re currently into. Written by us + free to read.
With gender norms up in the air, what does it mean to be a dad today? For Chris Del Moro, it means showing up for it all - good, bad, and messy - and maintaining stability for his family.
Chris is an artist, surfer and devoted father to his two boys. He shares about the pivotal experiences with his own fathers and mentors that shaped him into the steadfast man he is today.
Chris spent more than a decade as a professional freesurfer, featured in movies including "Sliding Liberia, "The Present” and the biographical Bella Vitaby Jason Baffa, which explores his Italian heritage and the blossoming culture of Italian surfing. Chris has also worked closely with environmental organisations, like Surfers for Cetaceans, combining art and activism to help protect wild species and spaces.
Chris is now the co-owner of Baghsu Jewels, with his wife Madgi, and is the Creative Director for Drifter Surf in Bali.
At the time of recording, they’ve been traveling the Southern Hemisphere for nearly a year with their two boys Marley and Bodhi, aged 7 and 4. We caught up with Chris during the 3-month leg of their Australian adventure.
Chris talks us through why he said ‘no’ to professional surfing, growing up amongst LA’s South Bay legacy of watermen, the rite of passage of life guarding, the deeper purpose that activism brought to his surfing and art, and cultivating the under appreciated virtues of service, responsibility and staying centered - so that we can bring our best selves to our families.
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Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich
Sound Engineer: Ben Alexander
Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll
Additional music by Dave & Ben
Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast
...
Photo Credit: Unknown (If you took this photo please reach out)
...
Co-Hosts + Production: Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich
Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander
Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll
Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander
Closing track: 'Sunseekers' by Andysixstring
Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast
...
Thanks to our generous sponsors this season:
Patagonia Australia: in business to save our home planet
Ngalung Kalla Eco Retreat: surf adventure paradise
The Sunglass Fix: give your favourite sunglasses new life
Sodii: hydration for salty humans
...
Subscribe to our newsletter for BTS stories from making the podcast, and the books, films and music we’re currently into. Written by us + free to read.
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