“The biggest problem was it kept happening. My wife had to travel with me for years.”

A terrific new entrant into the surf podcast arena is Soundings, hosted by Jamie Brisick, the thirty-year veteran surf journalist from Malibu, California. 

Brisick is the author, among many other titles, of the surf hunk to showgirl book, Becoming Westerly, which tells the story of Peter Drouyn’s overnight gender switcharoo. 

Part thriller, part melodrama, all page-turner. To be and not to be is the result.

Lately, Brisick has become the voice of the Surfer’s Journal podcast, Soundings. His silky baritone vibrates like muted thunder, the sound coming from so deep in his throat its hard not be shivered with excitement. 

Episode four is with Dane Reynolds, the thirty-six-year-old father of three, filmmaker, vlogger and former world number four surfer from Bakersfield in California.

Many topics are covered. Reynolds talks slowly, as if stiffed on a one-hundred dollar bag of coke. Brisick deftly leads the conversation. 

The interview gets good when Reynolds dips into the anxiety he felt when he was on the tour in his mid-twenties, as well as his fear of winning a surf event.

“Twenty-six is a weird transitional part of your life,” Reynolds says. “That year was learning to be an adult and being a professional surfer doesn’t teach you to be an adult. I was putting too much pressure on myself to do the best surfing I’ve ever done and, basically, wearing myself thin and it unknowingly spilled over during a heat with Gabriel Medina… during the heat I was in a complete panic…as anyone who has had a panic attack knows, I thought I was dying. When I got out I ran to the car, called my girlfriend, she was at a wedding, and said I think I’m dying. I was driving to the hospital and she talked me out of it. She’d had experiences like that before, and then I just passed out.”

Reynolds tells Briz, “The biggest problem was it kept happening. I was in Mexico and it happened again. I was going into a grocery store in town and it happened again. Suddenly, I couldn’t go outside. Courtney (Reynolds’ wife) couldn’t have people over. I locked myself into the house for months. There was no ending for months. I went to lots of therapy, had medication but, even then, my wife had to travel with me for years.”

Brisick says to Reynolds he imagined a day when Reynolds won a contest ‘cause he figured it would have a transformative effect, maybe give him the drive to chase title. 

“I don’t think that was ever in the cards,” says Reynolds, “mostly because I had a weird thing. I was scared of winning a contest. I didn’t want to know how it felt. I didn’t want to get carried up the beach. I wanted to get there, but then I’d blow it and get second. Not on purpose. It was a weird mental block.” 

Essential listening.

"It could take years."

Any California surfer worth her salt is certainly aware of Hollister Ranch. The 14,000 acre parcel of pristine land, hovering just north of tony Santa Barbara, is owned by a handful of fat-cats and long been closed to the public. That same surfer, though, is likely enterprising and has likely been on a boat once, or twice, tasting those forbidden-esque waves, knowing how fine they are.

Mmmmmm.

Well, two years ago, California’s Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that was supposed to open that stretch of coastline to poverty-stricken beach lovers, surfers, who both couldn’t afford million dollar real-estate nor boats and there was much rejoicing in various Hoovervilles and French Laundries.

But the über rich don’t just lie down like that, now, do they and The Hollister Ranch Owners Association got together to declare that public access “threatens to eliminate the ranch’s right to privacy and will upend the longtime conservation efforts, destroying a host of constitutional rights in the process.”

Lawsuits, legal wrangling, hullabaloo and now an April 1st deadline for completion of coastal access is set to be blown right through, being replaced by a “full programmatic environmental impact report” that could take years.

Sarah Christie, legislative director for the California Coastal Commission explained how this would all be a great thing during a meeting earlier this week. “This additional analysis will not only increase the public’s confidence that access won’t harm sensitive resources, it will enable the commission to better withstand legal challenges in the likely event that program approval is litigated.”

Sen. Monique Limón, a Democrat from Santa Barbara, was made sad by the delay and declared, “The original intent of my bill was to ensure a balance between equitable access and protections for the environment. This was always the intent: to balance public access while protecting our environment.”

The 1% will likely use the delay to plot more shenanigans, possibly building that wall.

Dark days.

More as the story develops.

Welcome to paradise...

First came the Hawaiian vacation and Instagram caption, quickly removed, heavily suggesting that universally adored actor-surfer Jonah Hill and his girlfriend-not-fiancée, Sarah Brady, would soon be moving, permanently, to the islands. Then came the sale of Hill’s “windowless monolith” located in the famed Malibu Colony, a slice of real estate that instantly made the Academy Award darling heir to Miki Dora’s throne. Now, news has just broken that the Wolf of Wall Street star is unloading his $11 million New York loft in further preparation for that sweet kama’aina discount life.

Per The New York Post:

Jonah Hill is the latest in a fleet of celebrities to say goodbye to New York City.

The actor, 38, has put his Manhattan loft up for sale for almost $11 million — $1.83 million more than he paid for it in 2015, The Post can report.

Initially buying the Noho neighborhood pad to upgrade from his previous 2,000-square-foot loft in Soho, the four-bedroom, four-bathroom 3,280-square-foot residence hit the market last week.

The official move to sell the Big Apple pad comes after the “Don’t Look Up” actor has been spending most of his days in the Hawaiian Island of Kauai with girlfriend, Sarah Brady. The two have been linked since August.

The loft is located in a pre-war building and features three bedrooms, exposed brick barrel vaulted ceilings and “the most advanced smart home technology.”

Very cool but cooler still is the discount Hill and Brady will be receiving at Hawaii’s many Foodland locations seeing they will, officially, be kama’aina or “residents.” But can I be honest with you? Confess a great sin that I have been carrying for many years? During my various weeks long stays on Oahu, working on Welcome to Paradise, Now Go to Hell, Who is JOB (the film) etc. I regularly used Jamie O’Brien’s “kama’aina card” at Foodland even though I had no intention of a permanent move.

Shameful.

I’m assuming now that I’ve admitted, the State of Hawaii will seek to prosecute me to the fullest extent of the law but I will accept my punishment with a bowed head for I deserve the wrath.

I’m sorry.