Style of Sport with Claudia Lebenthal

Style of Sport with Claudia Lebenthal

[00:00:00] The Swell Season Podcast is recorded by the Newsstand Studio at Rockefeller Center in the heart of Manhattan and is distributed by the Swell Season Surf Radio Network.

Tyler: [00:01:00] Hello and welcome to the Swell Season Surf podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Brewer.

Our guest today is someone who's ridden the tides of both the media world and open ocean Claudia Leventhal. Claudia is a force of visual storytelling with a career that reads like a greatest hits of editorial design. She's been behind the creative lens at Allure Self and women's sports and fitness, bringing iconic photography and style to the forefront of how we see sports and fashion.

She was also executive creative director at Trunk Archive, curating images from some of the most sought after celebrity and fashion photographers in the world. But her passion for sport isn't just on the [00:02:00] page, it's personal. She's a lifelong athlete, a three time NYC marathon finisher, an avid skier paddle boarder, and someone who can recall every sneaker she's ever owned with archival precision.

She's the founder and editor of Style of SP style of sport, a brilliant digital platform that celebrates the crossroads where athletics meets art, culture, and fashion. Basically, where your sweaty gear turns stylish and your training montage gets a soundtrack. And now Claudia's turned her sharp eye and deep love of surf into a new book, surfer Stories, a gorgeous and intimate collection that pairs 12 of the world's greatest surfers with 12 storytellers to get them.

Think Kelly Slater through the words of Sean Thompson, REL Sun via Karen Rinaldi Laird Hamilton, seen by Sam George. These aren't just surf bios, they're love letters, [00:03:00] confessionals and deep dives into what makes a surfer legendary. Claudia Lal is our guest on swell season surf radio. Welcome to the show, Claudia.

Claudia: Thank you so much. I mean, what an introduction. I'm humbled and and thrilled by that.

Tyler: Well, this is a beautiful book. It's stunning. Uh, the stories are really fun and really enjoyable, but I, I kind of wanna go back first for you. Where did you grow up? Exactly what part?

Claudia: I grew up in New York City. What part?

Not too far, um, upper East Side. Then we moved Upper West, and, uh, I've been here my whole life starting with the, you know, Earl through the seventies, eighties, nineties, and keep, keep going.

Tyler: Where, where were your parents athletes? Were they very physical at all? No. How, where did this come from for you then?

I, it, it

Claudia: was just genetic. I was born with it. I was obsessed with, with balls. Like catch them, throw them, hit them, kick them anything. I just

Tyler: insert inappropriate joke. I, [00:04:00] I'm refraining

Claudia: I was a child then. I don't even know what you're talking about.

Tyler: Balls. Balls. I

Claudia: just love the balls. What can I tell you?

Tyler: I love these sweaty, these, these salty balls feel like we're, have we,

Claudia: we are in the SNLs building right now.

Yes, it

Tyler: is kind of like that. And it is a great, great skill. I love these sweaty balls.

Claudia: Yeah, sweaty balls. I've always loved sweaty balls.

Tyler: Were you, was there a certain discipline of sport that you focused on at a young age or was there, was you, were you just active in everything, especially like New York City growing up, like outdoor space is limited.

Claudia: Yeah, so it was really indoor, indoor sports. As I say, it was anything with the ball. So yeah. You know, volleyball, basketball, tennis, softball, um, just playing on all the teams and, uh. You know, through high school and, and actually in college I played softball Really? And, and took a water polo. So I got a whole new sport.

Whoa, really?

Tyler: When I went to

Claudia: college. Yeah.

Tyler: Yeah. How was that actually?

Claudia: Well, that was pretty incredible. So water polo's

Tyler: kind of gnarly

Claudia: [00:05:00] water polo's kind of gnarly. So I'm from New York City. Yeah. And I went to Stanford. I went out west and I took water polo as a, as a PE class. Yeah. There was a PE requirement and I was like, well, this is a really cool sport.

And they had a club team. Mm-hmm. As, as was women's softball club sports. So I was, I was really good at softball in high school. Get to this new playing ground and, um, not, yeah, it's a whole other level, but. I was on the, the team, which is now an NNC two, a division one winning both softball and WA and water polo.

And so I'm considered an alumni of these. Wow. Yeah, I know. So it's, but we did kind of start the program, but yeah, water polo is just really fun for me 'cause I loved swimming and I loved throwing and it was just a whole new, it was a whole new ball, a whole new game. You could bring your

Tyler: New York attitude to the water out there in the west coast, just like shove people under water.

It's pretty brutal though. It is

Claudia: brutal. And they don't even need my west coast, my East Coast dad thing. They got [00:06:00] plenty of, of bru brutality under the water themselves. I was like the nice one. I'm like, please.

Tyler: Well, it's interesting, like, so water polo is like a great transition though into. Water sports in general.

And like if you weren't someone who swam a lot or had a lot of interaction in the water, like I, I know a lot of surfers who took up water polo and that, uh, complimented their surfing, but also the surfing complimented that in many, many different ways, you know, and I was curious, like, did that just lay, that found work a foundation for like.

Enjoying the ocean, enjoying the water? Or was that something that happened more later in your life?

Claudia: Well, it's kind of a combination. So yes, we grew up in New York City, but we would go to Fire Island mm-hmm. In the summer,

Tyler: which, which one? Which, uh,

Claudia: we went to Seaview that, that area. Um, and I always loved the ocean.

Yeah. I always loved waves and little kid, there's pictures of me fearlessly just diving into waves. So I always loved it. I didn't have [00:07:00] exposure to surfing then. Mm-hmm. I didn't know any surfers know any surfed, so there was none of that. But I had this love of the ocean from my earliest, earliest memories.

Tyler: Now, in one of your other podcasts you mentioned you used to love to go to Herman's Sports Stores.

Claudia: Oh my God,

Tyler: my childhood. Totally. I used to go to the Walt Whitman Mall one on Long Island though, so Oh, well,

Claudia: Herman's on 42nd Street. I mean, there were not a lot of. I love a sporting goods store. Yeah. And this was before Paragon.

Yeah. And it was just a mecca. You know, I just lo a little tomboy, just loved sporting goods stores. And I will tell you a funny story of wanting a pair of Adidas Yes. Adidas countries, as I, as I referenced every sneaker I've ever had. Yes, I know. That's, so the Adidas, Adidas kind of has, it's the green stripe.

Mm-hmm. And it had the sole that went up the back. Ah, and they did not have them in my size. Some reason my parents let me buy like three sizes too

Tyler: big.

Claudia: The Adidas [00:08:00] country that I wore around. I mean, I can, I can, as I say, I remember all my sneakers. I remember that one very well.

Tyler: Where did this infatuation with sneakers come from?

Claudia: I, again, I don't really know. I mean, it started with like, I even loved my kids when I was a little kid and, and really remembering the difference between. The blue canvas heads. Yeah. That had the rubber toe. Mm-hmm. I liked the boys ones that, that the, that were round as opposed to pointy. Yeah. Like the women's, the girls ones were pointy.

I didn't like the pointy, I liked the rounded with the rubber toe. Yeah. And how that, that canvas would get all faded and, and yeah. It just, whatever sneaker became sort of. Popular. It was on my radar. It just came on my radar. So yeah, all the kids and the, I'm trying to think. The kids champion, that was a big one for a while.

So you were

Tyler: like sneakerhead before It was a term I was sneakerhead

Claudia: before it. Yeah. It was a term. I remember when Nike first came out, like the first Nike Cortez. Wow. That I had that, and then they did the first [00:09:00] waffle and I had that like, like all of them. Now it's kind of overwhelming. Yeah. Like it's not, it's not the same at all.

And I'm definitely not a sneakerhead anymore. Now what do I have on? Oh, these are actually pretty cute.

Tyler: Oh, what do we

Claudia: got there? My SWC, it's an Australian company.

Tyler: Oh, lovely.

Claudia: I've been wearing a lot of surf inspired, obviously sneakers right down. I've

Tyler: had to, I've had to suck it up and get very cushiony shoes for plantar fasciitis, so,

Claudia: well, I had back surgery six months ago, so Yeah.

What

Tyler: happened exactly? Oh,

Claudia: just wear and tear over the years. And what'd they

Tyler: have to do?

Claudia: Uh, they shaved off some pieces of my spine as

Tyler: you do,

Claudia: as you do, and they said it would only take six weeks to recover. So I launched surfer stories seven weeks later. No way. You know, we're talking six months. Yeah. Wow.

And lemme tell you, adrenaline man, that is a good drug. It's a hell of a drug that, I mean. You feel nothing, you're buzzing. And then on the other side of it, you crash. Oh, yeah. [00:10:00] And you sleep. So I just was like, okay. I, I'd be going to van going like, like, I'm a junkie or something going, come on man. Let, let's get going.

What's the next one? Let's the next one. Let's go. Let's go. Let,

Tyler: so I'm curious then, like, how did surfing enter your life? Because you've, you've, like, at the magazines, I'm sure you had a lot of exposure to it, but when did it become like the thing you were like, oh, this is, this is it, this is what I've been kind of searching for.

Claudia: Yeah. Well, it's sort of what happens to everybody when they catch that wave for the first necessarily time.

Tyler: Not necessarily, not necessarily. Oh, there are some, some people who just, nah. Oh, well you have that

Claudia: feeling and it's like, I gotta, I gotta get that again. But it really, I didn't surf until. I was at Women's Sports and Fitness.

Yeah. It was then sports were women. Um, we were doing a lot, my, my beat there 'cause I was the visual projects editor. Yeah. And my job there was to come up with visually driven stories and I found those all in the world of action sports. Yeah. Surf skates, [00:11:00] snowboarding, because there was so much style. Yeah.

And you know, the athletes weren't wearing uniforms. They were wearing cool street clothes that they'd wear the rest of the day.

Tyler: This is like mid early nineties. This is mid nineties. This is mid nineties. You know, so this is, this is the, the, you know, just post, uh, you know, like MTV sports and like kind of the just pre X games, like kind of that time period.

Yeah, exactly. In fact, I

Claudia: went to the first Winter X Games with, um. Three. Three. The, that I was friends with at the time. So I remember those up at, at, at, uh, big Bear Strap. Uh, it was the first Winter X was at Big Bear. Big Bear. And they had some weird events in

Tyler: Yes. Like it

Claudia: wasn't like what it is now.

Mountain

Tyler: biking, slalom, mountain biking on snow. Missy and

Claudia: her whole crew. Oh yeah, yeah. With the, with the tires that had like, with the spikes on them. Yeah. Spikes.

Tyler: That shit was gnarly.

Claudia: Yeah. Those people were crazy. They were crazy. They were crazy. But, but, um, so my surf it, we were doing a story, it was when Roxy Yes.

You may remember Roxy had just [00:12:00] launched. Yeah. Um, and the Roxy Girls. And that that brand was launched around Lisa Anderson. Yep. The time, four time World Champion Greatest. Kind of

Tyler: a big deal.

Claudia: Kind of a big deal. Who I actually, I'll, I'll digress for a second, saying I'm really bummed that no one wrote about her.

And I, as I write in my introduction, what the

Tyler: fuck

Claudia: if I had been asked to write a story, I gave her a lot of love. And, you know, I would've, I would've written about Lisa, but um,

Tyler: maybe you just need to do a proper book, another book on her, you know? Yeah,

Claudia: yeah, yeah. But anyway, so that had just launched and so it was a style component and I was doing these shoots with them.

We were at Santa No Fre, and I was watching them and, and, uh, I said just Randy Hills, who was the head of, head of right, he's like the man, the man who I credit with my obsession because he really indoctrinated me into the whole culture of surfing.

Tyler: Well, this is what I wanted to get into. Well, I'll do, but

Claudia: I'll just tell you my quick first, surfing was taking his board out.

Santa Nore, I'd watched thems. I'm just like, [00:13:00] okay. And you know, cha, I'm sort of good at channeling, like not knowing any better. Yeah. And just thinking, oh, I'm just watch this. And so, and so that was the, the first wave and they were all clapping on shore, you know, like, what, what'd you do? But, but yeah. Um, that now we can, you can ask the next question.

So, yeah,

Tyler: like, I mean, so listeners, if you're not familiar, like Randy Hild was the guy who, who basically started Roxy. But this guy has an incredible grasp of surf history. Uh, definitely. Especially from like a product standpoint. I think he's got this incredible, uh, library of surfboards and memorabilia.

That's just like anything, you know, if you want anything, like, you can ask him probably, and you'll know where to find it at least. But he's got this great grasp of it, and he, he built the Roxy brand basically. I mean, Lisa was the inspiration. But he was the behind the scenes, which is fascinating, but he's someone who [00:14:00] I think is this fascinating character in surfing who actually like, really needs to have a book written about him.

Like, oh, I think because this guy is responsible for how many women surfing probably. Oh,

Claudia: yeah.

Tyler: And, and, uh, what a way to learn about surfing. Well, and he, like, he must have mythologized it in such a way for you,

Claudia: but he really took, so Roxy was doing the, the Quicksilver, their contest. Yeah. And he would invite me to the Roxy House Yeah.

As an editor. Mm-hmm. Um, during that, during the season. And he would take me everywhere. He'd be like, Claude, we're gonna go into Honolulu. I'm gonna take you to all the Hawaiian shirt. Which for me, I was like, what's a Hawaiian? You know? I knew it was like, but it was like, yeah. I didn't realize the history.

Yeah. And how special these were. He, he, I think that Eddie went one year. Mm-hmm. So he took me to that cont, you know, I got to see the, the opening ceremony of that and, and understand who Eddie AAU was. That I'm some, that's someone else. I'm also really bummed it's not in the book. [00:15:00] Um, and he took me, and I'll never forget it, and she is in the book.

Yeah. He took me to Menehune, to the Menehune surf contest. Mm-hmm. Put on by S sun.

Tyler: The S sun,

Claudia: the rails sun. He took me to Makaha where that con and he said, you know, this is a different part of Oahu. This is not like white Kiki. Is this, this is kind of gnarly. Yeah. It's a, it's a different world over here.

And he said, I'm gonna introduce you to real son. He told me about her legend. He told me, you know, she's this pioneer. She's had breast cancer, but you would never, so he introduces me Wow. To her and she gave me this hug that maybe if you wanna give, I will never forget. The power of that hug to this day, and understanding in that moment what aloha meant, what that true gift of love.

And Jerry Lopez has told me it's like aloha means club shaking

Tyler: skin here.

Claudia: Yeah. And when I say to people, you know, I actually met S Sun there when I told Karen Aldi. Yeah. Who wanted to write about [00:16:00] Rel Sun for very personal reasons. Yeah. But I remember Rel was in the throes of breast cancer. You would never know.

It her, her warmth that she exuded and joy, she didn't know who I was. I was anybody. And it was just like

Tyler: this

Claudia: beautiful

Tyler: embrace. It's interesting, like when you meet certain people that just like I, I describe it as like Dalai Lama aura, you know, like, uh, there's like, or is Hawaiians called that mana, you know?

Mm-hmm. Just, I, she always seemed, I unfortunately only saw her in passing at a trade show when I was young, you know? But I was just like, even then as a young boy, he was just like, oh my gosh. Like. The, you know, like she just transcended so much and was such a powerful influence and still is. Yes. Which is so mind, mind blowing, you know?

Claudia: Yes. And the fact that we get to carry on this story and that it's told so personally. Yeah. And I did not know that Karen Ranaldi, who wrote it, had had breast cancer, so I didn't know that until the piece came in.

Tyler: [00:17:00] Spoiler alert listener. Well, sorry. No, I mean, it's, I say it, it's not, it's in introduction, so it's not a,

Claudia: it's not, but it, um, yeah, this is, you know, I used their, their, the stories are all very different and some are very personal.

Yeah. And this is one. And she want, and I was so happy because like the last one assigned and it was just like, please, somewhere right about rel please somewhere. And she said. Can I write about Rel? And I was like, yes, thank you. Thank you. And you know, the story comes in and she's telling the story of Rel Yes.

Her surfing, but also what a pioneer she was in women's health. Yeah. And she's telling it through her own lens of rel was this beacon to me. Mm-hmm. As I was going through my own process with breast cancer Yeah. Of I will surf again and telling these wonderful stories. And it's, it's, it's such a powerful, powerful story.

Tyler: I love that because reading it, it's like, I've always felt like surfing is, should just be the vehicle never should be the real story. [00:18:00] And what I loved about that story is surfing was this little vehicle for a much bigger story of women's support, awareness of breast cancer, but also supporting each other and supporting health.

Like it's really, um, I really enjoyed that, about that story, that story. I, I actually enjoyed. One of the most. Yes, yes. Because it's, it's again, like I always, I sometimes cringe when things are just too much about surfing, you know? Yeah.

Claudia: And yeah. And I didn't wanna do a book like that. Yeah. Yeah. Because I'm not a hardcore surf.

I like surfing and it's fun, but I wanted to make this a book that anybody

Tyler: Exactly.

Claudia: Would enjoy. Just, and as you say, surfing, being the vehicle

Tyler: to tell those stories. Exactly. And that's what I loved about that one particularly. 'cause it was so personal and so, uh, connected to the author Yes. In a way that, you know, some of the other stories, there's, there's personal relationships.

Yeah. With all, but that is the beauty because she's doesn't have a personal relationship with this person. She couldn't go [00:19:00] and interview them. She couldn't, you know, all the other people in the story, the, the authors either had a connection or were able to connect with them. And they here probably the strongest, I think, story is that because, and she couldn't access rl, she can only access, you know, articles from H three O magazine or, and friends of hers and friends that, that were around her.

And yeah. But at the same time, like, I feel like she totally got these spirit, the completely, but also she read between the lines there, there she talks about re's failed relationships. Mm-hmm. And, you know, why did you know, picking the, I don't wanna say picking the wrong people mm-hmm. Picking the right people for the right time maybe.

Mm-hmm. You know, like, I don't want to put that on there and negative in any way, but it is, it was very interesting how she pointed that out too. And that one of the things we, we, we tend to do is idolize too much also. Mm-hmm. And it's good to, I'm glad that she showed this human aspect of her. Yes.

Claudia: Yes. And again, [00:20:00] that relates to her own life.

She'd gone through relate. And I'm not saying it, it's not in the book, you know, relationship, her own failed relationship. So they really share. So much, um, are really such kindred spirits,

Tyler: seriously,

Claudia: that it's very, very powerful story.

Tyler: Did you hear back from like re's daughter or her family about this?

Claudia: I haven't, you know, I should ask Karen.

Tyler: Yeah.

Claudia: If she has, um,

Tyler: because I know her daughter is on active online, on social media and, um, they have the foundation. Oh, I should make sure, I should

Claudia: make sure to send her a copy. That's a good idea. Thank you. Because

Tyler: I think like they would totally love that.

Claudia: Oh, I would, yeah. I will totally do that. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you for that. No, yeah, no, I was

Tyler: just like, it's, it, I think it's always nice when you get a surprise about someone that maybe you cared about that passed away and then just randomly you get this little like Yeah. Something you're like, oh my God. Wow. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And just, I think that'd be beautiful.

Claudia: I I will absolutely do it. Thank you for that.

Tyler: What, um, so the question then, it has to be asked, and [00:21:00] I'm sure you've answered this many times, but the, the process of picking the authors. How, how long was your original list? How much of it was cut down by your choice and how many was cut down by them not answering, like, I'm just curious about how this process came about.

Claudia: Well, it's interesting because you referenced my visual background. Mm-hmm. I, I've been a creative director of photo director, you know, I got a list of photographers. Yeah. I can, you know, easy breezy writers. I didn't know that many. Mm-hmm. So my publisher had published many, so she helped me too. But it was really like, okay, let's, let's start with who I know.

Yeah. That I think would be interesting. And yes, I did have a list, um, and I'll many on the list as you said. Yeah. Like, either said no or went un unanswered. Like I wanted some, you know, what did Ask said I wanted Josh Brolin. I wanted Matthew McConn, like a, so I wanted, and you know, CAA doesn't know from me and yeah, [00:22:00] didn't hear back, but I, I did say, and then I'll talk about like the order.

It came to, it's so organic. Mm-hmm. Because as, as I've said, the writers that are in the book are not the originals. Yeah. They're not who I planned and yet they Who, who picked the surfers? Yeah. They created this completely organic, very diverse. Yeah. I didn't set out to create a book on diversity in surfing, but it is, you have black, white, gay, straight.

Yeah. Old, young. And that was how the writers happened. But my, my, my first one, it's kind of a funny story. Um, Sean Thompson, who I knew as a writer. Yeah. I had actually, although I'd never met him. Mm-hmm. I knew who he was in the seven growing up. It was out in East Hampton. And he'd come, he was friends with some other friends, Rick Hera,

Tyler: muon, you know, and, uh, he would go out there and surf and, uh, I have a great story about that.

So he was great friends

Claudia: with the, the military family.

Tyler: Yes.

Claudia: And so Binky was a [00:23:00] big surfer. Mm-hmm. And we were all part Doug's friends, all the lifeguards and everything. So I knew this guy Sean Thompson was coming. Yeah. And was it Georgica Beach? And I was like, I, it was amazing. So anyway, I get his number. I don't know how, I just, oh, actually this is a great story.

Yeah. I had his email because,

Tyler: because you were on another email list.

Claudia: Because when I first started doing style of sport, yeah. I got this email saying, hi, my name is Sean Thompson. You might not know who I am. I was a surfer. I have this book of the, you know, like he wanted me to cover and. I was like, is someone punking me?

Someone must be punking me. This can't really be Sean Thompson. So sure enough. It was him. I did this big feature. I got to, so that's when I first met. And so when I was got to do this, I, I said, yeah, come on Sean, will

Tyler: you, let's go.

Claudia: Do you wanna do it? And you may recall, well you won't. I recall I met you.

But it's funny, I've seen him since and he's like, [00:24:00] he likes to talk about it. He's like, you know, that day and his beautiful, I can't really do his accent. It's so beautiful.

Tyler: Yeah.

Claudia: It's a bit of

Tyler: the South African accent. It's lovely.

Claudia: Yeah. I can't, I'm not gonna B

Tyler: Good luck. Good luck. Good luck, Rick.

Claudia: Yeah, he's beautiful.

But he's likes to talk about that day at Georgia Co. Which is not known. Yeah. So he is like, you know, binki said, come, and I couldn't believe how epic the conditions were. It was like, must have been. It's like, well that must've been that for you. Yeah. Because they knew you were coming.

Tyler: Well, he, you know, he was out there with like Ricky Rassmuson.

He told this great story once to me when I did an interview where. Um, he basically goes, like, goes in the car with Ricky Rasmussen, who, I don't know if you're familiar with, he was like, no, New York. He was like the best surfer in New York in the seventies and like broke ground, like charged pipeline.

Probably one of the best surfers at that time at Pipeline. Wow. And was in gland. He was out from out east and like, you know, surf Georgia and he ruled out there. Wow. And so he, I must

Claudia: have met him.

Tyler: Yeah, well, [00:25:00] he's dead now. Oh, he, he died, but back in the day, he died in like 88 I think, or maybe a little bit earlier where he, the name's familiar with that.

He was, uh, shot dead in a drug deal, gone wrong uptown. Oh. Uh, but that's besides the point. But they went on, like Sean told me, like this whole crazy story out. They went, basically Ricky had to go pick up drugs and shit, and he's in the car and Sean's like super clean cut too, you know, and just

Claudia: Yep.

Tyler: Had to like, sit there.

Claudia: He had a similar experience with his, with his cousin? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, well, Michael, yes. Wow.

Tyler: Yes, I mean. The, the, I mean, did you ever have an interaction with Michael Thompson? No.

Claudia: No,

Tyler: what I mean 'cause he was head of Gotcha and style. Yeah. That was like, he was at the forefront of stuff. No, I

Claudia: never knew. I mean, I, I remember the Gotcha brand and again, that was part of my allure.

My, my, my interest in surfing world was this style.

Tyler: That's the whole thing. You know,

Claudia: all these brands, quick silver hang 10 Gotcha. Billabong. Gotcha. Billabong,

Tyler: all of them. Volcom such.

Claudia: Yeah. I mean it has such a history of style.

Tyler: Well, I'm curious then, [00:26:00] like how did the fashion world, like sports fashion, world view surfing?

Because I, it's obviously changed a lot, you know, over the years. And I remember like surfers used to brag about how all their styles would get ripped off by the fashion runways, you know, and all this stuff. And then it became like kind of aspirational, I feel like, and I'm curious like, coming from that side of things, how did people view surfing surf culture?

Was it like, oh, this is great, this will be something cool kids will like, or.

Claudia: Well, it's funny, you know, we were just talking about the famous pictures of Sports Illustrated pictures Yeah. Of a, of a model. Yes. You know, being held by a bunch of famous surfers. Yes. You know, as she lies on the board, sexy on the board, you know, and I don't really remember, but the actual sport Yeah.

You know, surfers being featured in fashion. Yes. The guys, and I will say it, um, Bruce Weber very famous. Yes. The fashion, he was obsessed with the, with the Fletchers. Yeah. [00:27:00] And, and, but they were real life style. Yeah. You know, they had so much else going on. But yeah. So he embraced their personality and their a but really like the rock and roll.

I think he probably shot Kelly and Yeah. Um, he would bring in others. But, um, you know, style wise. It, it, I don't know how much, when I was start, you know, when I was starting, I don't know how much it, it was, it was really a, a, a fashion mm-hmm. Thing. I think that's changed a lot. Yeah. Um, I think, you know, starting with Cynthia Rowley designing, you know, really sexy Yeah.

Fashion wetsuits, but hey, she's a surfer. Yeah. She's a real deal. So. Absolutely. Um, and then when all athleisure and now athletes have become icons and Yeah. And, and surfing does have so much style, um, that, that, yeah. It, it has been, it has been embraced. And you'll see these, you know, I look at the run for style sport.

I look at the runway collections. Yeah. Every, every single season. And I'll see like, all right, I see the board [00:28:00] short influence, you know, I can recognize the tie or the, or the, you know, surf, skate shoe, you know, sneaker or,

Tyler: well, God, like going around with Randy Hil, you would've learned so much too. Well, I did.

Claudia: Yeah.

Tyler: Like what? That must have been fun comp shopping with him. You know, it was so

Claudia: much, it was so much fun. And just all these places he'd take me to and watching the evolution of that brand and, and, um, those board shorts, that whole first Roxy collection, and then all those girls and then all the Roxy girls.

Yes. And it was a really iconic group. Veronica Kay, Daisy Shane. Yes. Um, oh, I'm blanking. La la Lee. Yeah.

Tyler: Kiss Maddo as well. Yes. You know, who's still going strong, who's still,

Claudia: she's great. And, um, he was also producing these books. They were doing these brand books, yes. That were very much the kind of books we were doing at Women's Sports Fit Fitness, you know, just great lifestyle.

But with surfers, I, and I still actually have every single. One of them. Yes. Shut up. Which are like my prize gold [00:29:00] prize possession that it was originally, I think it was, um, Jeff Hornberger that was shooting them. But then he got Dewey Nicks, who was very well known fashion photographer mm-hmm. To shoot all the stuff.

Wow. And so Dewey really took, you know, surf culture and it wasn't like doing high fashion, but he gave it a fashion elevated point of view. And that's why I think that brand kind of took off. 'cause it wasn't what you were seeing, it still had the authenticity. Mm-hmm. Because they were still shooting surfers and the clothing still had an authenticity, but it had a little extra something, something that,

Tyler: well, the surf brands would all use the surf photographers for fashion photos, which was just like, no.

I mean, art Brewer would, you could argue, was pretty freaking amazing as a, as a proper. Like fashion photographer as well, but that was it. Like all the other guys. Yeah. Kind of were a little out of their depth in some ways and made do, and then to get it in the hands of someone. Yeah. Who really knows, like Absolutely.

Yeah. That would elevate it all. Yeah, totally. [00:30:00]

Claudia: But then, you know, r would also mix it. So you would have horn bakers. Yeah. Underwater stuff with Dewey's beach stuff and, and it, so it worked. He gotta

Tyler: grease the palms of all the people in the industry. It do. But it, it's funny 'cause then it made Warren

Claudia: Baker's pictures look kind of more fashionable.

Totally. Because his pictures were so colorful and had great, um, elevated it. Um, yeah. So it was, it was all in the same vein. It all worked together beautifully. Well,

Tyler: he must have been stoked to be featured with, you know, these other incredible photographers too, I'm sure. But I

Claudia: think there's a mutual respect.

Totally. You know, I think really mutual respect.

Tyler: So, so picking some of these authors then, I mean, when you came to them then, did you have, like, I want you to pick. Was there a criteria for them to pick anyone or did you, or were you just like, just pick anyone you want?

Claudia: Well, it's funny, so I originally had a list

Tyler: Yeah.

Claudia: Of like 25 people

Tyler: Yeah. Or

Claudia: so, sort of obvious. Yeah. You know, 'cause I'm not that indoc. Yes. I've done a book on serve, but I'm not that indoctrinated. Yeah. But I'm such a passionate fan and observer. Yeah. [00:31:00] So I knew who I knew and, but really it was like, I'm not gonna assign. Someone to a surfer and, and yeah.

When there's so many, and it, it was completely every single surfer I, a writer that I approached said, starting with Sean, who was the first one, he said, well, I wanna write about Kelly. I, I, Kelly Slater. I want first did. I was like, you got it. Because I understood like, that's like Jack Nicholas wanting to write about Tiger Woods.

Yeah. You know, it just was this the great of one generation. Mm-hmm. Giving their point of view and lens to the great of the next. So that was amazing. And then Sam George said, he was my second one, I think, said, well, I have a great story that I want to tell about Laird that's never been told. Uh, I said, done.

Um, but every single writer Yeah. Without hesitation said, I wanna write this surfer. I wanna tell that story. Mm-hmm. [00:32:00] And so, which was great because. I didn't want, I didn't wanna pick if you, I want, it was like, who do you wanna write about? Because I knew every writer, whether they were a pro surfer or just had a connection to surfing or just loved it.

It, you know, wanted to, I wanted to make it something they wanted to do. Yeah. It's not like I was paying them tons of money, Uhhuh and I like, well. Who do you wanna write about? And everybody, and I remember, um, Holly Peterson, who's a great writer. Yeah. Uh, bestselling author. Funny, funny, funny writer. I

Tyler: really love, loved her writing style.

Her style story is great. Her story is great, is phenomenal. And it, and her style is huge. So funny is very, oh, it's hysterical. But she also punches you in the stomach

Claudia: with some hardcore stuff as it goes on. But she's like, I really wanna write about Wing Nut. And Wing Nut wasn't on my list. I knew him. And Yeah.

You know, and I, she goes, is it okay? I was like, yeah, it's totally okay. And then that's, it's a perfect person. It was a perfect person. And it's such a funny story. And again, it's, they're [00:33:00] all my favorites. I don't have a favorite, but yeah, that's one where it starts with this, her, her, her signature, humorous style.

Yes. And then goes and just wallops you and you don't see it coming.

Tyler: She refuses the paddle into waves. I love

Claudia: that.

Tyler: Which is hilarious. And so. Like goes against the grain of everything, core surf inside me and does not care, and does not care of fuck. And their

Claudia: dialogue of, he's like, you understand, like this is the whole point.

Like the cat. She's like, yeah, no, that's not the point for me, the point is the surfing part and just, you know,

Tyler: she's got tickets to the Slater Wave pool. I bet.

Claudia: I'm sure. I wonder she'd gotten there. I'm sure she'd love it. Yeah. But she's g she's hysterical. And that was, that piece was beautiful. Well, again, like

Tyler: it was interesting like tho hers and, you know, the Rauls Sun, what I loved about them was they were more about the author in some ways than the actual surfer.

It was just their connection to the surfer again, which I, [00:34:00] I kind of enjoy more almost. Yeah. You know, like, and part me, 'cause like, I'm a, I'm a surf nerd and I grew up like a, like in New York where we have shit waves, so I have to read magazines over and over again. So I'm a sponge when it came to it. So a lot of the ones that were like.

Written by surfers about a surfer I enjoyed, but I also was like, yeah, I knew this kind about this person. You know? Yeah. Yeah. But then those ones were just like personal. I love that. And that, to me, those sung to me more than anything, and I was just like, this is. This is what I love about this book.

Claudia: That Well, thank you.

'cause that those were the stories that were important to me. And even any of the other ones, they're there be some personal Yes.

Tyler: Selima and, and Mikey February. That's, that's another really

Claudia: powerful personal story that it's about Absolutely. So much more than surfing. That's about racism. It's about discrim, it's about apartheid Exactly.

And his connection. Yeah. To Mikey and his father. You know, he is talked about his father, Hugh Masala, who was, who was exiled from South Africa. And the fact that a [00:35:00] Mikey February, a black surfer from South Africa exists Yeah. Is a phenomenon in itself. When you think of during apartheid, blacks were not allowed in the water.

Yeah. Solema is growing up surfing with pictures of white surfers mm-hmm. On his wall. And he opens the piece saying, when I was growing up, there was no one who looked like me with a black, you know, fade top Afro. And, and you know, I, this white surfer, that white surfer. Mm-hmm. So his, his reverence. For Mikey and then, and then his disdain and, and painting the picture of what apartheid was again, through a personal lens.

Yeah. Is so powerful. Exactly. It's so powerful.

Tyler: And that's what I think, that's when surfing surf stories shine the best. Thank you. You know, it really is when those personal struggles, those personal issues, they're, they're reflected in it. It's not about the surfing, but the surfing's almost like the medicine in some ways of those things.

Those are the things that I think listeners, you're gonna [00:36:00] love when you buy this book. Thank you.

Claudia: Thank you. And again, that was the book I set out to, to create. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I wanted this to resonate. Beyond the surf community. I always use my sister as a, as a gauge. It's a, you know, if I do something that, 'cause she's not a, not an athlete.

Yeah. But something where she, she's gonna like it. Mm-hmm. Then I know, okay. I hit the, I hit the right note, you know, and what I love it. She, she's, she's

Tyler: actually like your target audience almost. She is. I

Claudia: mean, I know like, I can get the surfers. Yeah. I pretty much, but it's like, how can I, we're easy, well not easy, but how can I get people, and I do this with style sport as well.

How can I make people who are not interested in the topic Yeah. What hook can I find? Mm-hmm. That they're gonna go, oh, this is really cool. Oh wow. What a, what a story. So that was, um, yeah. 'cause that's my background too. I didn't grow up surfing. I love it. Yeah. Um, but I grew up in New York City and in a different world, so, well, I think it's.[00:37:00]

Tyler: It, it's really important to have, um, an outside perspective. And it's interesting, like you talk about it with David Scales on his podcast, which I I loved also, by the way. Thank you. And, and listeners go listen to that one too. Dave's a good friend. Um, but it's, um, he talks about how outside people like a hundred foot waves you guys were talking about, you know, the HBO special, which is phenomenal, but it's made by outsiders and you need those outsiders almost to give you perspective.

Um, it's funny, like my, my wife doesn't surf. She's pretty much not impressed by it anyway. Like when I first started dating her, I was like, look at me surfing, you know, and thought my surfing would impress her or my, you know, my, my, uh, involvement in surfing would impress her. And she's so not impressed at all.

And when I meet like a famous surfer, I'm a total like fan fanboy and she puts me in my place and is like. [00:38:00] What's the big deal? It's Kelly Slater. He's like five foot seven. Jesus, come on. You know, like, I thought he was taller, you know? Oh my God. Brings it down. A not, but that's what you need from an outside perspective.

Yeah. Because we can get caught up in the hero worships. Mm-hmm. So easily. And so like platform, putting them on a pedestal.

Claudia: Yeah. Well it's interesting you reference 104 'cause that's another show that my sister is obsessed with. Yeah. Obsessed with. So it's like, okay. They, that show has done something. Yeah.

That has hooked a completely different audience. And it's something I did interview Garrett. Yeah. Um, a few weeks ago out in, uh, Montauk. What a character. What a character. But it, it's, it's outsiders. But his wife is, is the creative force behind that. And he really, she really said, and I'll send you this little video that I did, you know, she said, we're gonna have one wave where they make it, one where they wipe out.

It's not gonna be wave after wave or people are gonna turn

Tyler: Yes.

Claudia: The channel and drama. And they figured out, yeah. The drama. They figured it out. She's her brains. She, she, she, and [00:39:00] he will admit

Tyler: that. No, I mean, like, dude, he's incredible. Like, and I love his story in the book too, which is, which is really enjoyable too.

Uh, you know, his whole evolution basically, you know, from, from a kid and trying to make it and keeps paddling as the name of the story is Yes.

Claudia: Written by Jerry Lopez, you

Tyler: know, which is, is so cool. And, you know, but that, that was, she, she's outside of surfing in, in many ways. Right, right. And came from this outside perspective.

And then the filmmakers, Chris Miller, you know, like yes. The, the, those guys outside perspective, but they know drama. Yes. And they know humans. Yes. And that's the whole key is, that's the whole key, you know, and the same with your book. It's the, the human aspect. Um, you know, watching a hundred foot waves and you're just like.

Jesus. These motherfuckers are selfish as fuck. They'd have families and they're putting all this stuff away. I know, but they're showing that, which in the surfing world, they wouldn't. Right. They would sweep that under the rug. Right. They wouldn't want to [00:40:00] show the selfish side. They don't wanna show the, the honesty.

They want to keep it looking good. Yeah. A lot of the times. Yeah.

Claudia: And that's just gonna make, 'cause it's, it starts really being about Garrett and, and you know, him pioneering that wave. Yeah. There's obviously two other critical Yeah. Sort, uh, Kadi and um. I'm blanking on his other buddy who, who Yeah. That are his partners.

Tyler: Well, you have a, um, uh, why is my name my brain going blank all of a sudden? Oh, anyway. Yeah.

Claudia: Anyway, but then, so there's, but then the next season they're so smart. It's like, okay, now we're gonna bring in other branch. So it's branch off

Tyler: DuPont and everyone like that, you know? Totally. Yeah.

Claudia: And then, and then this season's been really interesting with what Garrett's been going through, health, health wise, and, and, um,

Tyler: and just and more to come also kind of pull back, you know?

Yeah. And, and so it's

Claudia: very human. Like you feel that, you feel that

Tyler: these are all questions we deal with in life. Yeah. It's like we're all like, do I pursue this passion of mine at the expense of everything else around me? [00:41:00] You know, and that's like such a tension and such a dramatic tension that you could just watch.

Yeah. Or, or read in the books even, right? Yeah. Like, it's all in that too. It's that, that tension of sometimes chasing a passion and, you know. Being responsible.

Claudia: Right, right. And I think, you know, Garrett has this beautiful family. Yeah. And he's really become this family man. And, and you know, you're not gonna sacrifice that.

I think it's been, this is not really written, but also somewhat in La Laird, same thing. Yeah. You know, it became a father and yes, he's still serving big waves, but it's not that wave, that oppu wave. No, no. That put him on that cover where it was definitely a. Whatever's gonna happen here is gonna happen here.

Now he just gets to beat the

Tyler: shit outta rich guys at their camp layered, you know,

Claudia: torture, which is very fun. I've been to, oh my God, you get to get to be in there once Gabby too. I mean, it's, it's their, it's their world. You get to be them for three days. It's great. That sounds scary. It's really fun. No, it's, it's funny.

[00:42:00] It's not, it's, they, they're, they really make it doable and inviting and like, I'm

Tyler: imagining like cracked raw eggs in a glass and like, that's not that hard.

Claudia: It's not, I mean, you can't, it can, you know, that's if you go into the kitchen, but No, no, no. They're, they're, I have been introduced to so many interest interesting people on those.

Oh God. Yeah. I can't even imagine of those. Uh, yeah.

Tyler: But the, it's, uh, Lopez is another character who. For him. He made all the, like, yes, he had failures, but at the same time he kind of made these great swerves at the right moment and he was able to play this balance of being responsible while chasing the passion.

You know, he, but he, he didn't, it feels like he didn't sacrifice his home life or his, his family right. In pursuit of surfing. Like he knew when to kind of pull back Yeah. In some ways.

Claudia: Well, he, yeah. I think he does have this innate sense of, of timing. His, his, the [00:43:00] story is called the Nine Lives of Jerry Lopez, and he does have these catlike instincts.

Tyler: Seriously pulls out a lightning bolt just before it collapses, just before it collapses and walks away with money. Yeah. You know, like buys the pipeline house at dirt cheap and then like can sell that a great price like moves to from the North shore as it's kind of fallen into some issues and all that to, you know, bend Oregon, you know, just.

Yeah. Constantly on the crest. Yeah. You know, riding the wave, not missing it, reading it perfectly.

Claudia: Yeah. I think that's just innate. He does have an innate, innate talent there.

Tyler: I'm, I'm curious, like you have been involved with a lot of sports and active lifestyle for a while and have had the pleasure of meeting a lot of personalities, I imagine.

Um, what do you think the difference is between surfers and some of the other activities and those who have participated in those ACT activities? What's the difference between them, do you think? What, what makes the surfers and surfing [00:44:00] different than some of the other activities that you have pursued or covered?

Claudia: Well, I think what's really fascinating about surfing is, is the, the surface is moving. Yes. You know, it's not like skiing, it's not like snowboarding. It's not like skateboarding where you are doing your sport on a, so, a, a a A stationary. A stationary surface. Yeah. So there's that element to it, just catching a wave itself.

But then there's also this nature. Mm-hmm. The magnificence of nature and, and seeing, I'd sort of write my lead and my introduction, seeing a wave rise up, cresting into a wave. You know, watching as a surfer barrels that, you know, this man, woman, and the ocean. Yeah. There's something So power. 'cause the ocean is so massive.

Yes. And yet there are these people that paddle out in NRA or paddle out even in pi, wherever it is. Yeah. Just plowing through it. Fearlessly or, or making it look effortless. [00:45:00] Yeah. And so I think we get mesmerized by just the sheer, I mean, look, you could go to and just watch the waves break, but then when you see what these surfers are doing on the, that are different, there's no same wave.

Yeah. There's not, no wave is ever the same. So I think it's, it's that, it's that combination of nature and sport and, and having to catch a wave. Mm-hmm. Catch the surface that you're going to do your activity on, perform your sport on was.

Tyler: Now do you think there's a difference with like surfers and how they behave than some of the other athletes you've had to interact with?

Is there a difference in their behaviors or is there some sort of common theme that you, or personality trait that you've found in a lot of your surfers or surfing subjects?

Claudia: Um, I think, you know, there's, I think, you know, they sort of take for, I guess all great athletes take for granted to, [00:46:00] to a certain extent, like how good they are.

Yeah. Um, but I'll tell you a funny story. I, when I was at Women's Sports and Fitness, and it was as in the heyday of action sports and there's really, it was called Extreme Sports and actually did a book in 2006 St. St. Stoke. Stoke. Yes, exactly. And so I'd gotten to know all these different action sport athletes and I remember I had a di we did a dinner 'cause we'd done a shoot, actually, this is a great story.

We'd done a shoot where Harry Potter had come out and the, I don't remember, had read those books, the Game of Quidditch. Mm-hmm. And so I recreate, recreated the game of quidditch. With action sport athletes. No way. So Missy JoVE, um, oh, Vivian, I can't think of her name. She was a skydiver, Julie f It was all, everyone playing, you know, being the team member that made sense with their sport.

And so we had a tea, a dinner, and I remember every single one of them, the skateboarder, the skier, the [00:47:00] snowboarder mm-hmm. You know, and all extreme athletes saying, no, what you do is crazy. No, what you do is crazy. What they all thought, what the other one did was nuts. Like, they would just never do that.

And in a way of like, I'm too scared to do that. So I just think in the action sports genre, there seems to be a connection there that is different from, you know, ba, you know, basketball player or tennis player. Yeah. Um, it's, they're just different kinds of sports and cultures. And, and

Tyler: did you find, like in the process of this book.

Uh, did you find any universal themes or things that kept coming up with, uh, with the stories?

Claudia: Yeah. And it's, it's wonderful. I, I refer to that. I said, you, you, so the first one is keep paddling. Yeah. Which you, which you referenced. Yeah. And Jerry Lopez sort of sets it up. He said, surfing is a metaphor for life.

Mm-hmm. You know, keep paddling. You, you gotta keep, you gotta keep going. And, you know, that comes up a couple [00:48:00] times. And then this other one, he also talks and he's the first one. And then a few people reference back to when you wipe out and you're getting held down by massive sets, you gotta relax under pressure.

Mm-hmm. This is, Holly Peterson talks about it. Um, Cala Kenley talks about it, of this, you know, in the scariest moments when you're panicking. Can't do it. Yeah. You just can't do it. So I think those kind of life lessons of relax under pressure, go with the flow. Mm-hmm. Just keep paddling. I think these.

These kind of themes that come through the book that again, transcend the sport. Yeah. They're just metaphors for life. And, um, I thought those was, those were really beautiful. And it, and it's funny because I think I might have referenced this in the, in the introduction, um, where, you know, the book evolved.

Yeah. It sort of created itself in a way the writers chose the surfers. Yeah. And you know, they, it became this book about diversity. [00:49:00] Yeah. Which I didn't set out to do. I'm not that pc. I guess I probably should have, but I'm glad I didn't because it would never have come together.

Tyler: This woke surf book, this woke, I said,

Claudia: I'm gonna do a woke surf book.

The other thing that I didn't expect. Yeah. That somehow in telling these stories, it tells there's an arc of surf history. So what I didn't know would happen and it, I planned it again. So it sort, we know the contest culture, which then involves like a Tom Curran saying, I don't want take part in that. You know, to the search app, to free skiing, you know, and then it comes back at the end to Sean, right.

About Kelly. Yeah. And the creativity he's found in competition. Mm-hmm. You know, so it's like there were all the guys who were competing in contests. Then there was like, no, we're revolting against that contest mentality. Mm-hmm. And, and surfing. And then Kelly the goat who's like, I have both. I can compete and find that same cre, that same expression.

Tyler: Well, it's interesting 'cause you, [00:50:00] you know, like you have, yeah. You have this wide cross section of surfers, of well-known surfers. You're gonna get. A good portion of surf history. Yeah. You know, you, 'cause so many of them were standout figures or represented a generation or a time period. And so you just defacto get surf history in that book.

Yeah. Basically. Yeah. Which is really cool.

Claudia: It totally, and there was like a funny thing that happened where, um, I can't remember what story it talks about searching for Tom Kern. I guess it must have been Chris's with Chris. Yeah. Chris's and then, you know, rip Curl coming up with this, uh, uh, the search campaign with Derek Hein.

Which campaign? Which Derek Hein, which in the Brissett piece Yeah. Was just like, okay, thank you for putting that piece of the puzzle together for me. I, because I'm Googling, I'm trying to find out who the fuck is

Tyler: this Derrick Kind and search. Well, Derek, I

Claudia: knew because of, of this piece and you know, there were a couple surfers I.

I had never heard of. Yeah. I didn't know Derek h Hind. Yeah. And I didn't [00:51:00] know Mikey February.

Tyler: Yeah.

Claudia: And so, you know, again, I was like, yeah, write about them.

Tyler: You're so lucky. You get to discover them. To discover them after, after we've, we've all known about them. You get that? I, I discover initial excitement again.

I got to discover

Claudia: them. And, and

Tyler: Derek is like,

Claudia: what a character.

Tyler: He stayed with me a few times here in New York. Oh really? Yeah, I was, it's funny. Last night I was going through an old hard drive and I found all this footage of him when I took him to this secret spot that I can't talk about. Oh. And Long Island.

And he's riding Finless and just flying and what a fascinating character. And I was so pleased to see Baric cover him and cover his evolution from losing his eye in the, you know, surf contest in Durban, which. In itself could have been a whole fucking story. By the way. It is a story. Oh

Claudia: yeah.

Tyler: You know, listeners, if you're not familiar, Derek, he Look it up, busted Eye or, or read the, or read the book.

Read the book. Read the book. 'cause [00:52:00] he, you know, was in a heat board slingshots back into his eye with fit, you know, from the leash. And this is when we had stretchy leashes that would have like the rebound. You know, of like springs, spring coils and fucking hit him in his eye and instead of going into the beach, he goes, paddles out, intimidates his competitor, sits on him, won't let him catch another wave and wins the heat while his eyes, he's like eye

Claudia: falling outta its socket.

Tyler: The best story though is when he is in the hospital and he forms this relationship with a nurse and it's like this whole thing that Derek told me. It's hilarious.

Claudia: Well, there you go. But yeah, Jamie has one anecdote after, because seriously, because Derek was Jamie's coach.

Tyler: Yes.

Claudia: And then there's this, well, I don't wanna give it away, but where, where he goes to, like, he becomes a Derek, decides to compete in a contest and cool some, and it's, it's just so funny.

I don't want to give away too. It's so good entertaining. And then my other faab, and again I'm not gonna repeat it on air, but [00:53:00] a girlfriend who leaves something in the toilet for him, which she brings back to their bed. Because he finds it so endearing. It's, it's just one of the funniest most.

Tyler: It's so good.

Claudia: I love that. Ja. I actually read that at Phil, that passage. I was like, so good. Like, okay, I'm gonna just gonna read my favorite book.

Tyler: Oh, Ja. Jamie is a, is a loved figure here in New York. Loved

Claudia: and beautiful writer. Yeah. And great human being. Great photographer too. Great photographer. He, um, yeah, I met him during the, again, during this whole, I had first met him during the whole women's, my Roxy era.

Yeah. I met him, I met SMA then for the first time, um, just in passing. I didn't know them super well, but yeah, I had Jamie's book. I I found it the other, I was, I was like, Jamie, oh my God, I have this, um, we approach our martinis with

Tyler: such high expectations.

Claudia: Yes, I have it. It's my ion. My favorite line in that book

Tyler: is Brazil beaches begin and end with the ass.

That's how he opens the book. And it's like, whoa.

Claudia: Well, I did a whole butt story when I was at in [00:54:00] Brazil. Do you tell when I was, when I was at Women's Sports and Fitness? Because as part of the whole action, there was a whole, the whole body buring. Yeah. Boarding circuit was huge. Oh. It

Tyler: was all about getting, they were all Brazilians.

Yeah.

Claudia: And of course, Brazil is known for the, for the butt is the culture of the thong. Yes. The Brazilian, but the Brazilian butt. And so it was in an era where. For Conde Nast was really trying to involve women's, which it went from a, a women's sports magazine. Yeah. Which they couldn't package with allure and vo it just, and, and keep it authentic.

Yeah. So it kept getting more and more fitness. And I'd wanted to do the story on these Brazilian, but then, and I was like, well, we could make it into a fitness story. We could make it into how I get a great butt. And so that's what that story ended up being. And actually Brian Beman shot that story. Wow.

And I'll never, he was stoked. He was stoked. And it was, I'll never forget they invited us and they're all named Claudia Claud. I'm Claudia, they're all named Claudia. Claudia. This Claudia, not Claudia. I was like, oh, we're all, [00:55:00] and I'll never forget being at a party. He was sitting on a chair and one of them was here and she was just shaking, uh, to the music and him.

I remember his face. Like it was like, you having fun? You having fun shooting with me? You enjoying this, this job here? You enjoying this? Are you enjoying this job? This? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tyler: Remember we own the film. Okay. We own the film that we gave you. You, you can't take that home with you. He is not

Claudia: like doing anything.

What's so funny, 'cause it wasn't like, you know, he is like, normally I have two, a two week window to shoot things. I was like, yeah, this is Conde Nas. We're going for three days and you're gonna shoot some pictures.

Tyler: Let me ask you, was there anything you learned about surfing through this book that, that you didn't know before?

Claudia: Oh wow. Um, I think just really the, the history of it and, and how it all came together. You know, I knew bits of it, but it, it really brought, brought it all together under, under one book and just really about some of the surfers that I didn't know [00:56:00] about. Yeah. That, that. Transcend the sport. You know, I didn't know the Mikey February story and the apartheid.

I mean, obviously I knew the apartheid story. Yeah, yeah. But I didn't know, like, oh, that's the region Sean, the most famous South African surfer is white. Yeah. You know, why, why are, and it wasn't until Solema tells that story, it's like, oh my God. Yeah. And he, he, I can't, he has a way of the, the, this description of the apartheid regime as this, so brutal.

Brutal. Yeah. Um, and it's, it's, yeah, because they were not allowed in Jefferies Bay.

Tyler: Yeah. The most, couldn't surf any of the good spots. Couldn't surf. Yeah. You know, and, and, and also God help you if a white person paddled out to a black beach where waves were good, then everyone had to move out of the way.

They couldn't even surf there either.

Claudia: Yeah.

Tyler: You know, it's, um, yeah. I mean, those are the stories though, right? That are, yeah. So I think

Claudia: those surfers, I didn't. No, that were not on my list. Uh, like [00:57:00] Derrick Hind Yes. That are some of my favorite or, you know, wing that I knew from the movie.

Tyler: But you wouldn't.

Claudia: But I didn't. Yeah. I didn't know anything else about him.

Tyler: He's someone who's parlayed his personality into a living, basically. Yeah. Which is amazing. Like, yeah. And he doesn't even have to be on TV for it either. He just guides people surfing and they pay him to just hang out, which is,

Claudia: yeah. He's got a good clientele.

So. Awesome. My author being one of them. It's like, you can afford it. Let's go.

Tyler: Well, what I loved about that story, uh, this Holly's story. Yeah. Um, she mentions a good friend of mine who is one of her instructors, Java Bailey.

Claudia: Oh.

Tyler: Which was really good. Out in the Hamptons. In the Hamptons. Yeah, yeah,

Claudia: yeah.

That's her first for it. Yeah. Wasn't that her first? Yeah, her The kids are with the kids, yeah. Yeah. With the kids. And she hadn't, and she thinks they're out too far. And she starts. Oh, I'm just gonna furiously paddle and getting, you know, pummeled and this guy

Tyler: pushes, brings her out

Claudia: and then pushes her onto a wave.

And that's history. I was reading that

Tyler: and she [00:58:00] mentioned that. I was like, oh, Ava Bailey. That's my, my boy. That's funny. We, I grew up surfing contests with him and his, his brother Bruce. You know, it was like, I love it. I was reading this. I was like, oh, there are all these people in connections. I was enjoying us, you know?

I was like, oh, this is gonna be really fun. There's Anna Mankey. Oh my God. Yeah, I'm friends with her. And I was like, can't wait to bring that up with Claudia. You know? I

Claudia: know. Fantastic. Anna, who shot the most incredible pictures of Tom, that's actually a great story of that whole coming together. So Chris Shifflett.

I got to you because my publisher, he'd written a blurb mm-hmm. For another book at the publishing

Tyler: house. Yeah, yeah.

Claudia: And she said, well, maybe we could get Chris Shifflet. Yeah. I was like, well, that, because I wanted to mix. I wanted like, so Rockstar Hollywood. Yeah. I wanted surf journalists, but like some, like on outside.

Yeah, exactly.

Tyler: Foo Fighters are like, you know, foo Fighters huge. Like,

Claudia: that's gonna, that's gonna be good. Kinda

Tyler: of a big deal. And then also most of their band is like big surfers. Yeah. You know? Yeah. I mean, they were, they were all like heavily influenced by surfing.

Claudia: Yeah. So I get to [00:59:00] him and he, he said, I said, well, I really wanna write about Tom Curran.

I said, okay. Do you know him? No. Okay. So how hard can that be to get Tom Curran?

Little did I know. Tom Curran, the most elusive, notorious, yeah. This

Tyler: is by the way, where I bring ance against Jim Kemp. No, not Jim Kempton, but Matt Warshaw who says that Lopez is the last mysterious man in surfing. No, Lopez was like, easy, easy cur. I

Claudia: interviewed him. Lopez is like, okay, like I write this on.

Okay.

Tyler: Kern is elusive. So

Claudia: it was, and Jamie, Jamie really helped me. Yeah. Sort of my ambassador for, he's like, okay, I can't give you his email, but I will, I will if you write it. And it was the same with Solema. Yeah. He said, if you write it, I will forward it to them. Yeah. Thankfully both came, came back to me and, and so I [01:00:00] write this, I actually didn't speak with Tom themselves, his agent.

Yeah. And um, he said, okay. And so. I said, you and we're talking about it and he, he's like, you know, you may, they could meet, they could go surfing together. And so not only did I get Chris, Tom, yeah, but I got Tom to take Chris surfing. So

Tyler: yeah, that, that's free. Free concert tickets right there.

Claudia: Challenge. I will take your challenge

Tyler: and, and see you.

Claudia: I will see you and raise it. Raise it. And not only that, there will be incredible pictures by one of the great fashion photographers, surf fashion, who will document this Yes. For you. And you will have this incredible memory of the day

Tyler: of Yo Chris o see some concert tickets.

Claudia: I think so, yeah. He owes you some concert tickets, you to putting on your west suit, getting a car, like all those.

I as in, those are the kind of pictures, just like photo editor wise, I love those snappy moments, you know? Yes. They're thousand good surf [01:01:00] shops, but, but walking down the beach, putting your leashes on because it lends itself to just. Great visuals.

Tyler: Yeah. The funny thing is that was the easy part, the hard part is interviewing Tom Kern.

Claudia: Yes. Well, it's, I, I can't

Tyler: imagine what the editing was like on that.

Claudia: Well, actually it's an interesting story. So Tom, Chris had said, okay, I'll just record 'cause he has a podcast. Yeah. So he sends me the, the recording, he set up literally what we look right now in Tom's house. And, and, uh, he hands me the. The thing said, okay.

Uh, and it was 10,000 words. And it's funny 'cause I only listen to parts of it. Yeah. On a head. And I was like, oh wow, that is woo. That is, you know, it's, he won, he gets to the point that it takes him,

Tyler: it starts at 10,000 words. But if you hit on the, uh, get rid, remove all the ums, ahs and does, you know, all the extras extra, it's now 5,000 words.

Claudia: So, so not quite. So I get it down to 5,000 words now. There's a lot there and there's a [01:02:00] lot of Santa Barbara, like, because Chris grew up, they both grew up in Santa Barbara, of course. You know, so there's a lot of that. And, and I was thinking, I'm gonna take a lot of that out because if you didn't, you know, it's kind of

Tyler: insider.

It's

Claudia: insider, yeah. And, and, um, so I, you know, my edit and anyone whose edit were like, this is great. So I sent it to Chris. I don't hear, I don't hear, I don't hear. And then. We're getting down to. And he said, I'm sorry, but I'm, I'm not happy with this edit and I don't know when I'm gonna be able to get to this.

And this is, we're getting down to the wire here. And I said, okay, okay. I mean, I don't care. Do it, you know, do it however you, you know, you know, this whole time. So I will say my hook, and I'm a smart photo editor and I knew how epic these pictures were. And so I said, this is all through an agent, not through him.

Yeah. Who's, who's wonderful. And I, so I said, I sent those pictures that are in the [01:03:00] book and there's more of them too. Yeah. And I said. This would really be a shame if we couldn't publish these pictures. Yeah. Because they're really special. Neither one of them seen them. Nice. I knew it. I mean, there are things that I just know like, yeah.

And so came back and I knew what my deadline for the book was. My deadline was mid-January, but I'd given everyone I'd given the first deadline of September. Knowing won't happen. It's the rule of all editors. And so, sure enough, and my publisher had said, look, if it comes in after January, it's okay. Like we all wanted.

Yeah. Yeah. Wanted it. And so Sure enough, January 14th,

Tyler: long night, huh?

Claudia: Comes in and it was great. It was exactly how and great. Yeah. I, you know, I didn't wanna be the really, the one to chop it in half. Yeah. You know, but it was like, okay, I'll, I'll do what I think. And, um, so yeah, so it ran, the pictures are great.

He's really happy. He's been amazing about the book. Unfortunately, he, his house was, um, [01:04:00] destroyed in the, in the, in the Palisades. So he's has, you know, his focus. That was literally when the book came out. So yeah, his

Tyler: focus has been on the, been on that. But

Claudia: he's been really supportive and, and once he sort of came up for Air, did a beautiful post and it's been wonderful.

Tyler: But yeah. Kern's not an easy interview. Yeah. I've, I've, I've done it. Luckily I had, uh, this guy, Sonny Miller there, who Oh, okay. Filmed all the search stuff. Did. Yeah. And so luckily it was a live, live q and a with Kern and Sonny, which was like. No offense, you're up there. But that was peak of all surf interviews for me.

And luckily I had Sonny there to like ease Kern. 'cause he can be really quiet and shy. Yeah. And it's like really hard to like get him to open up. Yeah. You know, I mean he

Claudia: does. And when you read it on the page, 'cause I listened, it just takes him while to get

Tyler: there.

Claudia: It takes him while to, but but it was easier to see it on a page Yeah.

Than when you tried to listen to it. It was like, oh, oh my God. But then, you know, just little bit, it's, you know, [01:05:00] taking out bits of there, you know, that okay. That, that chopped out a bunch of words.

Tyler: It's, it's so funny is like the whole surf magazines used to always be like, oh, they would joke about how bad of an interview Kern was because it was always like, ums, uhs and lots of Yeah.

Well the

Claudia: nice thing about it being in print, you can get rid of the ums and the ums. Totally. And I think it, it's a, it's a great, it's awesome. And it really gives his story. You know, he's, he's, he's my favorite. He's, he's incredible. And I didn't that, you know, that's another example. I didn't understand his importance.

Yeah. I knew who he was, but I didn't understand his as an American surfer. Oh. In putting California, he on the map, like that was all pipe. It was not that. It was not that. Santa Barbara is not thateveryone

Tyler: surfs today the way they do because of Kern. Yeah. You know, uh, it doesn't matter if you were a fan of his or not.

Tom Keran influenced your surfing regardless of whether you like it or not. Yeah. He was the, you know, he combined, you know, a bunch of surfing [01:06:00] styles to make it this very functional, beautiful, effortless look. And Yeah. Not like, and the fact, and the fact that he's a recluse

Claudia: Yes. And

Tyler: really untouchable in a way.

Has always created that mystique. So it makes, leaves you wanting more. Always. Yeah. And the fact that he's bare barely on social media is even better. I know. So you don't, the mystique isn't ever ruined. Yeah. Which is phenomenal.

Claudia: And he was a kid in his, he was a teenager. Yeah.

Tyler: Yeah.

Claudia: When he was,

Tyler: and his father was, you know, absent.

Yes. Yes. He just father of famous alcoholic and famous

Claudia: surfer.

Tyler: Yeah.

Claudia: And shaper, I think

Tyler: Shaper. Big wave surfer. Yeah. Uh, you know, who kind of was absent for a lot of his growing up. Yeah. And he was also like real hardcore Christian for a while. Yes. With his mom was very, yeah. Very, very much into that. Yeah.

So it's like, hi. His story, still waiting on the biography book to one day come out for him.

Claudia: Well, Chris, Chris, Chris got a little bit of that that last, it's like, it says, well, I think we should do a book. And it's like, okay,

Tyler: we should totally do a book. Yeah. My God. [01:07:00] Like,

Claudia: well, Jimmy Medico did that beautiful book of pictures.

That, that was another one of my indoctrinations. I love Jimmy and I'm what a, what a

Tyler: phenomenal person.

Claudia: What a phenomenal, phenomenal person I am actually. So I've done a story. So I knew I can only use one or two pictures. Yeah. Um, and I, it only had sent me that, that book and I had it and I was like, oh my God, look at these pictures.

Look at like, fucking hell, this is good. And look, look, gonna talk about style. Like those rip curl wetsuits from the eighties, the colors and, you know, not these bla boring black. I was like, I'm obsessed with the rep Curl wetsuits. So good. And, um, so I said, oh, I'm gonna do a story on this book, on on style sport and I can use a lot of pictures.

And I interviewed him and he told me, it's actually one of the pictures that's in the book where he had created a limited edition mm-hmm. Of Prince and there were four of them. So yes. One of the frames. And I was like, oh, I really wanna, I should get one of these, you know, we're talking about. And then it was like, I don't know, I, it's hard for me to buy a photograph if I haven't really [01:08:00] seen it.

Mm-hmm. So I kind of put it on hold. The story comes out and he, he loved it and he said, okay, I have an idea. What if you write the, because he was relaunching his website. Yeah. He said, what if you write the bio for my website and I'll trade you, I'll give you that picture. I was like, okay, I really got the better deal.

Tyler: I ordered that picture. I think I know what one you talking about too, the black

Claudia: and whites. The four, the 4 4 4

Tyler: sequence of Kern

Claudia: and one of the sequences in is in the book. It's the, the spread in the book. Yeah. I

Tyler: bought that for my brother for his birthday, so Oh, well

Claudia: that's a good present. That's

Tyler: a good gift.

Right? That was,

Claudia: I love bartering. I think that's a baring is fun. I was like, sure,

Tyler: yeah, bartering works and

Claudia: I'd already kind of written it. I'd written the piece so it was like, okay. That was so Thank you Jimmy Medico, you know, much I appreciate and I appreciate him. He's, he's been a wonderful supporter and absolutely loves the book and just been great.

Tyler: He's so cool. He's, he's so cool. He's so cool. He's actually, I loved having him on the show and like what I love about him is also like that he [01:09:00] left surfing. Moved back to Texas.

Claudia: Yeah.

Tyler: Works in a, an adjacent industry that I do, which is like gift and novelty and fun. And he does like a lot of like accessories for colleges and stuff like that.

And I didn't even realize that. Yeah. He did like graph design for all these like novelty, like he is kind of gift the items and worked in that whole industry, which is really good. So I was able to connect with him on that level, which was so fun, like Oh yeah. Fascinating, fascinating person. Yeah.

Claudia: But he really, it was his lens.

Yeah. That really created Tom Kern. Like he was capturing him and his greatness.

Tyler: They call it the halcyon years of Santa Barbara, you know?

Claudia: Yeah. And I learned so much about that. And, and, but you know, Sam

Tyler: George has got great stories too.

Claudia: Oh yeah. 'cause he grew up. Yeah,

Tyler: he used to drive him around all the time too.

Oh wow. Take him to contests, you know, when he was young. Oh yeah.

Claudia: Great. And the whole channel islands all that. Yeah. So all, all these things that I knew about got a lot of blanks. Got filled in

Tyler: that. That [01:10:00] must have been really fun then. Really, really fun. Like, like filling in all the like, kind of the gaps, you know?

Yeah. Like a new

Claudia: I'd seen channel lines to see everyone has a channel line on board. Yeah. I didn't know the history

Tyler: of that. Yeah. And then it's like, and again,

Claudia: they, how integral that was with Tom Current.

Tyler: Yeah. It, yeah, it's, it's, it's really, uh, you know, like what I, this is something I wanted to talk to you about was like.

I feel like surfing lends itself really well to mythology. Mm. You know, I more so than many other sports, and I was wondering if you found that to be the case as well.

Claudia: I, I think absolutely. And I think for the same reason I was sort of saying it's like man against nature, woman against nature. It's, it does give it, uh, mythological proportions when you see a gigantic wave as big as a, you know, a bill.

I'm looking out here in New York City, like as big as a five story building and a surfer on it. It's, it's heroic, it's mythological. Yeah. It seems absolutely impossible, um, as you watch it go and it's like, is it gonna close out? [01:11:00] And so I think Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.

Tyler: It's like, you know, you, you, you know, not only that, like, especially the surfers of, you know, pa the past like Sean Thompson years and, and before and even after like even Bris like.

The travel aspect, the, the, the fact that there wasn't a pro tour when Sean Thompson started, you know, there were, it wasn't a thing as pro surfers, but they made it happen. Yeah. They willed it to happen. Yeah. And all these people, like, I just think like surfing to me, uh, is a really great activity for like, to, to make biblical almost.

Yes. Well then it does have

Claudia: a great history. Yeah. You think, like, you know, it started in Polynesia, you, you know, the ancient Hawaiians and then Duke and, you know, sort of the evolution of mm-hmm. The North Shore, and you just, there's so many characters,

Tyler: characters along the

Claudia: way.

Tyler: Personalities, no rules, really to keep you confined.

Yeah. You know, in the sense like you can, you know, you, you always could ride whatever you [01:12:00] wanted. Yeah. You could try whatever board or design, like, there's just so many little aspects to it that Yes, yes. That live and then photography

Claudia: does that is documented. I mean, that was totally, that was really my.

First obsession was, was the photography.

Tyler: Well, the photography with surfing. What I love about it, love about the past photography. Now with, now I love surf photography still, but it's like it left so much to the imagination, you know? 'cause you would get someone, and, and especially like in the, you know, the seventies, eighties, you didn't really get sequences like, you know, cameras didn't shoot that fast.

And so you would, you just get them in that one perfect point. And then you had to imagine what happened after. Yeah. You know, and it would lead so much, it for much

Claudia: more interesting photograph. And then these surfers liked Jimmy.

Tyler: Yeah.

Claudia: That has a point of view.

Tyler: Yes.

Claudia: You know, it's not just someone standing on the beach with the, with the motor drive.

Yeah. You know, like you see and they're interchangeable, uh, pictures. It's one who's like, [01:13:00] I'm gonna get in the water and I'm gonna frame this from a really unique perspective.

Tyler: Yeah. What do you think then? Of like the future of sports photography in a video world. You know, like is there still a place and what do you think it looks like in the future?

Claudia: I don't know what it looks like in the future, but I think there are still artists.

Tyler: Yeah.

Claudia: And I think there are still artists that want to capture something in a way that's different from how everybody else is capturing it. Yeah. You know, there, there's a a, it's a subject matter that has so much. Yeah. And so it, it's, it's really creatively it's like, wow, what can I, what can I do with this?

So I think there are those photographers and, and you know, the beauty of it, although actually I, I was about to say like, you are participate in the sport. There's an incredible photographer, Joni Sternbach.

Tyler: Oh yes. Tin type. Yeah. The tin types. I love her tin type stuff. She does not surf No. At all. But she has, but she became obsessed obsession about it.

Yeah.

Claudia: And has [01:14:00] shot everybody with these tins, which are deger types, like or original cameras below almost everyone.

Tyler: I'm kidding.

Claudia: I'm kidding. I'm sure she'll get to you. Sure. She'll get to you. Um, but yeah, so, you know, that's someone who's not, but has found such visual interest in the sport. Mm-hmm. It's athletes and has kept, kept shooting them.

I mean, she's

Tyler: what I love, love about her. She shoots regular people too. You know, it's not just well-known surfers. It's like the everyday surfer too. Yeah. Which I, I really appreciate, you know? Yeah. I think that's like, what's cool is to get the cross section

Claudia: Yes.

Tyler: You know, which I think is a lot of fun.

Claudia: Yeah.

Tyler: Um, all right. I'm gonna, I wanna finish up this one question.

Claudia: Okay.

Tyler: It's very, very, very important.

Claudia: Okay.

Tyler: If this book had a soundtrack, what three songs would be on it?

Claudia: Oh gosh. I wish it would've given me a heads up on that.

Tyler: We can pick one. You can pick one. [01:15:00]

Claudia: Well, I don't wanna be too cliched with like

Tyler: cliche it up.

Come on. This is okay. You

Claudia: know, I'm trying to think what, I've been po you know, when I've been doing Instagram posts, they tend to be sort of vibey. Mm-hmm. You know, like chill vibey, you know, not a particular song, but a sound. I don't wanna do like the wa down. No, no. But if you can sort of take that and give it a sort of Brazilian Mm.

Now we're talking. I like that. You know? So just make it a little sexier. Yeah. A little more chill. Chill South. Chill. Brazil. Yeah. With a little bit of the wander. Was it the wanders? Who, who had that? Dang, I won. Wander. Wander

Tyler: like that.

Claudia: No, it was like dumb. Whatever that but, but give it like a funkier, slower, sexy vibe.

Tyler: I'd love that. Yeah. I think that would be cool for this book. Yeah. Also. When are you, when are you making this into a TV show? Well,

Claudia: I'm working on it. Uh, it's the dream. So listeners, [01:16:00] you're interested, let's, let's talk, let's talk.

Tyler: I mean, I have a great

Claudia: teaser video.

Tyler: Oh, really?

Claudia: Yes. That, um, I can't post it or like, maybe I could ask.

Uh, Jim Kempton. So we did this event at the California Surf Museum. Nice. It kicked off the West Coast tour, and I had six of the surfer writers there. I had a major cast and you know the, the California Surf Mu Houses, it's the library for all these surf films. Yes. So we had access. I have a friend who's an incredible editor.

We put together this two minute presentation. Everyone's in it. Yeah. All archive footage and. It's an incredible little teaser, which I can send to you. I can't post it because they don't have the licensing rights to the fair enough to the, to the images footage. But it was like Jim said to me, you know what, what's in the museum?

What, what Lives in the museum? Stays in the museum. I'm trying to, we're doing this incredible event at the Rivian Theater. I'm, I'm hoping we can, I [01:17:00] sort of asked him to see if we could at least show it there, but it's, it's great. It's a, it has everybody in it, their highlights, and it's quick and fun. My, I, I narrate the, the, the, uh, the, the teaser.

And it definitely gives you a little taste of what the video, what the doctor series could be. What you think this would look

Tyler: like if we made it into a show. What do you, what's out there that you would like it to kind of resemble at least, or concept wise? I'm curious.

Claudia: Well, I had this idea and I don't know, I'm, you know, I don't know if that's the best idea.

So I did, um, there is an audio book. Yeah. And. In the dream world, you would've had every writer Yeah. Read it. Yeah. Read their story. Totally. I read the introduction. Yeah. My own introduction. And as we were doing that thought, wouldn't it be great if it was 12 part or, or, you know, however many parts. Yeah.

And you had them, you know, narrow, but then you fill in mm-hmm. Fill in the stories, you know, fill in the blanks, make these, this written word come to life mm-hmm. On screen with their narration and [01:18:00] with their point of view, and you pull in more. But that's, that's sort of a basic, uh, you know, concept. I, I would, you know, I want someone who, this is what they do.

Like, if I was like, okay, I've got an idea. What if we did it this way? And actually, a friend of mine who's a, has a great production company. Mm-hmm. She, she's like, okay, I've got some ideas. She's a, a big music fan. I told her about the, the SMA story. Mm-hmm. And she has the book and the connection to Hugh and Apartheid.

And, and she's really like, she's like, okay, I think that's where we start. So she's,

Tyler: yeah. That would be.

Claudia: And I just love that. She's like, that's where I would wanna start. That's so, it's like, great, great. You know, I would, I would

Tyler: start with that. I would, I would totally start with the Rel Sun. Mm-hmm. Like those, those would be the two.

I would kick it off because Yeah. There and then maybe the Laird. Yeah. Story for the action and excitement Yeah. You know, of that day in that wave that they cover in it. Yeah. Which listeners, like, basically the, the Laird story is about his mo millennium wave. They [01:19:00] talk about. Uh, but it's, it's so good the background.

It's behind the scenes, the leading up to it. Yeah.

Claudia: When sa when Laird comes into Sam George's office and announces what he's going to do, and Sam basically saying, you're

Tyler: crazy.

Claudia: Good luck, buddy. And then, you know, fast forward to the film coming in. Yeah. In the old days when it was with a loop and him looking down at the Chromes, looking up and going, oh my God.

Oh my God. And that was the cover. That was the

Tyler: cover. Incredible. Those would be the three I would, I would totally start with that would

Claudia: draw people in. Yeah. I think you're, I think you're right, but it's, it's

Tyler: like, I think it's. I think it would lend itself really well to that. I honestly think you could do multiple volumes of this.

Would

Claudia: love to,

Tyler: you know, you gotta get your Lisa Anderson fix in. I

Claudia: gotta get, and I'm, I'm really, so the Eddie AAU is not Yeah. Is not in. He's another one of my You talk about mythological.

Tyler: Yeah.

Claudia: That to me is the, the pinnacle

Tyler: of that. Tom Carroll would be a [01:20:00] really good

Claudia: one. Tom Carroll too.

Tyler: You know, and like, you know what would be interesting is to get some non well-known surfers who have Sure.

Crazy ass stories, you know. Sure. People who may be known in the surf world, but not outside of it. Yeah. Yeah. 'cause there are, there are crazy stories. And actually, you know what I'm gonna have to do is I'm gonna send you, uh, I'll, I'll do some, some scanning of some surf magazines through my collection.

Claudia: Oh, I'd love that.

Tyler: There's this one. Issue. It's from 1993. It's called Myth Lies and Rumors Issue. And it's all the different, like these really short, like stories of different, like random shit that happened in surfing that's like kind of myth, kind of legend stories, almost like hearsay stuff that's really fun. Oh, that's fun and really playful.

And like they talk about Mark Richards in Japan being chased outta the water by a shark. And you know, and like the mystique of Tom Kern just surfing [01:21:00] and there's no waves. It's dead flat and all of a sudden this perfect wave comes and kern ca is, it gets a barrel. It's just like all these little like.

Kind of fits in with this Yeah. That you, you can draw inspiration from.

Claudia: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, it's really about the writer that wants to tell it. Yeah. It's, maybe you'll have to write So

Tyler: Uhoh uhoh pressure's on serious. Yeah. Well I did go to school for creative nonfiction writing, so. Well, there you go. I could do it.

We're ready.

Claudia: We're ready.

Tyler: Well, um, Claudia, this has been so much fun, Tyler.

Claudia: Thank you. I've

Tyler: like totally indulged and nerded out. I don't know if you could tell, it was a little like jumping outta my seat a little.

Claudia: I love it. Thank you. I'm always happy I'm the same. So happy to share the great stories that are told and I learned and, you know, along the way.

It's been wonderful.

Tyler: So now shame. Shameless plug. Where can we find you? Where can we find the book? Uh, just, just let it all out. Yeah. All the links, all the whatever. So

Claudia: Amazon, that's probably the, the easiest place to get it. Although if you DM me, I'm style of sport. Mm-hmm. I will send, I will sign it. You know, just say, [01:22:00] Hey, awesome.

So d at style of sport DM me. I'll send you a book. And, uh, say Here, sign it. Sign it to me. There we go.

Tyler: Like, wait, which camera do I look into? That one right there. There we go.

Claudia: There we go. Great picture of, of Sean Thompson. Age 14 on the cover. And again, you know that book is like, keep it by your bed. Keep it on your coffee table.

It's, it's made for both.

Tyler: Oh, I love it. You know. And where can they find you? On, on, on social media? What you at Style of sport. Style of sport. At style of sport. Listeners, go find me. Get yourself a copy of this book. Get yourself stoked. It's got a. A little bit of everything for everyone, which is what's so appealing about this book.

You're gonna find something you love in it, uh, go buy it. And um, of course, gotta give a quick shout out to Joe here, our engineer keeping us sound good, Joe And, uh, obviously Rockefeller Center for hosting us here at the Newsstand studio. And, uh, of course go check out, uh, swell seasoned Surfer Radio on [01:23:00] Instagram.

You can go to our website, swell season surfer radio.com and uh, don't forget to hit like, and subscribe and all those fun things and we will check you all down the line. You

Claudia: Thanks Tyler.