HUGE thanks for Db for kicking off my new HKC Discount Club with a whopping 15% off for Looking Sideways listeners and readers. Use my Db Journey discount code LOOKINGSIDEWAYS at checkout for 15% off.

I’ve been really enjoying the recent online ‘Creative Exchanges’ I’ve been doing with my friends at Db Journey. They’re such a brilliant idea that I’m not surprised they’re going down so well.

The premise is really simple - Db gather together some of their ambassadors and creatives to form a loose panel to discuss that week’s topic. We then extend the invite to people on our mailing lists, jump on a Google Meet link, and see where the discussion ends up.

Our February subject was a pretty hot topic right now - what does ‘responsible travel’ mean?

The resulting chat was about the ethics of travel in the age of the climate emergency, sure, but we also covered plenty of other themes - the ethics of travel today, the 90s-to-pre pandemic ‘Golden Age’ of travel, and what the future of travel looks like.

For this discussion, I was joined by panellists Kepa Acero, Timothy Myers, Alex Aubry and Db Journey’s Jon, Marcus and Tin, as well as over 100 passionate and smart people who proved there’s a huge appetite for this type of debate and knowledge-sharing. We discussed our own experiences, took questions, and generally engaged in a really fascinating and wide-ranging debate on this fascinating topic.

Big up the Db Journey team for the brilliant idea and for getting me involved, to the panelists for their thought-provoking insights, and to everybody for participating.

PLUS! We’re are doing a LIVE Creative Exchange in London in June! Keep an eye out for more details on this one, and if you enjoyed this chat then, please do share or leave me a comment:

HKC Discount Club is kicking off - click here for exclusive discounts from my partner brands such as Finisterre, Db, Goodrays. Albion and Vivobarefoot. Coming soon - Stance and The Wave!

To find our 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.

Or you can follow me on Instagram here.

When Freddie Meadows finally surfed RÁN, it signified more than the biggest wave ever surfed in Scandinavia.

It was also the fulfilment of a lifelong ambition; the endgame of a ten-year search; and the symbolic culmination of Freddie’s singular career as a surfer of proud Scandinavian and Swedish heritage thus far.

No wonder he named it after the Norse goddess of the sea.

But then, the long, thoughtful and myth-strewn trip that led to RÁN is emblematic of Freddie’s wider path through professional surfing.

I’ve been following him for years, and have always been fascinated by the way he has looked east instead of west - eschewing the classic professional surf career for something much more original and unique.

It’s an approach that comes through in everything he does, from the particular brands he chooses to work with, to the particular aesthetic that always embellishes the work he puts out.

And it’s why our thoughtful, involved conversation for Looking Sideways covers so much more ground than the usual pro surfer chat.

We discuss what RÁN means to Freddie, of course, now he’s had time to digest the experience.

But we also covered plenty of the classic Looking Sideways themes: our place in nature, the important of honesty when it comes to creativity and a fulfilling life, and why you need determination and vision to follow your own path.

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PLUS! HKC Discount Club is kicking off - click here for exclusive discounts from my partner brands such as Finisterre, Db, Goodrays. Albion and Vivobarefoot. Coming soon - Stance and The Wave!

To find our 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.

Or you can follow me on Instagram here.

Why is direct action important? Why is there such apathy as our democratic right to protest is being removed? How can the outdoor community and industry enact a more impactful and effective type of protest and activism?

All topics I discussed with snowboarder, activist and campaigner for Just Stop Oil Calum Macintyre. You might not know Calum, but he has a vital story to tell about how our democratic right to protest is carefully being steadily and stealthily dismantled in the age of the climate emergency, and I implore you to listen to what he has to say.

I first met Calum in Lofoten back in 2019 on a Patagonia activist camp. We became friends and stayed in touch, and since then I’ve watched with great interest as Calum has become more and more immersed in the world of direct action.

It was Calum who wrote my most popular ever guest blog - last year’s thought-provoking 5 Reasons Why Our Community Does Not Engage, in which he was politely yet forcefully critical of the outdoor and action sports community’s approach to protest and activism.

We’ve spent much time over the last year discussing these ideas, which has helped inform and shape my own thinking as I’ve been working on The Announcement, my forthcoming podcast documentary series about Yvon Chouinard’s September 2022 decision to give away Patagonia.

Calum’s participation in this movement has also given him a minor role in a wider, much more important story - the way that climate protest is being weaponised by a government intent on criminalising protest for their own nakedly political ends.

Which was why, in March 2024, after Calum successfully defended himself in court after being arrested for taking part in a slow march for Just Stop Oil, I decided to ask him to come on the podcast to discuss these topics.

This is a vital conversation about the climate crisis, the notion of protest, effective activism, and how the climate emergency is being weaponised as part of the culture wars. It’s also about how Calum has found a little untouched snowboarding paradise in one of Europe’s last wildernesses, which might make you want pack up and head for the hills.