How to fund a pro surfing career in the 1980s? Sell stickers, Levi’s jeans, bicycles, whatever. Sleep in your board bag. Live on a diet of mushrooms and bread. World Champion Pauline Menczer got resourceful and hustled however it took to get her to the next stop of the tour.

“In the 80s and 90s, surf culture was toxic, especially towards women. Pauline was a dirt-poor, chronically ill teen from Bondi, who defied insults and intimidation to make a name for herself in the surfing world.

When Pauline's determination propelled her onto the pro tour, her battle for acceptance and equality didn't end there. The endemic sexism of the industry meant prize money for women was a pittance, while sponsors ignored her because she was gay and didn't have the stereotypical surfer girl look that male marketing managers were after. Despite these challenges, Pauline became the 1993 World Champion and played a key role in bringing greater equality to the sport.

Pauline recently penned a memoir called Surf Like a Woman. Through it we see clearly the unfairness of a sexist surf industry, and the rise of a modern surf shero who won the world title — and has made a life of sharing the gifts of a surfing despite physical, emotional and financial adversities.

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Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich

Sound Engineer: Ben Alexander

Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll

Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray

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When is surfing about more than just selfish wave hoggery?

Mozambique’s first professional surfer, Sung Min Cho, or ‘Mini’ for short, is writing a new story for surfing – he’s part of a burgeoning surf culture rising from the wake of three decades of armed conflict in the region.

In 2018, Mini co-counded Tofo surf club, Mozambique’s outpost of Surfers Not Street Children, which empowers street kids through surf coaching and mentorship. The effort has been funded in part by Pope Francis.

Mini is on a mission to earn representation for his country in the Olympics — and spoke to us passionately about his love of surfing – not just for himself, but as a tool to lift up others, especially kids -- and as a lens for Mozambiqucans to write and tell their own stories in their own words. Stories about a nation brimming with natural beauty, resilient people and very good surf.

photo credit: Alan Van Gysen

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Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich

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Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll

Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray

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Ever want to pack up normalcy and set sail over the horizon? What’s it really like to live at sea for a year and rarely be further than 35 feet from your new significant other?

Torren Martyn and Aiyana Powell talk us through the peaks and troughs of life aboard Calypte, a borrowed 35-foot sailing boat that they spent 12 months sailing 9,000-kilometres - from Pattaya in the Gulf of Thailand to Lombok, an Indonesian island east of Bali - a journey chronicled in their new independent film Calypte.

With little practical sailing experience, Torren and Aiyana learned as they went – how to be fisherfolk, navigators, meteorologists, and mechanics to take care of running repairs — and still found plenty of surf along the way.

Torren and Aiyana talk us through the happenstance of meeting, their time aboard Calypte – the trials of trust and communication at sea— and their newest adventure – starting a family together.

Photo credit: Ishka Folkwell

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Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich

Sound Engineer: Ben Alexander

Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll

Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray

Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast

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