Looking Sideways: 10 Things
Ten things worth sharing to enliven your Friday.
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1. I’ve spent the week in Gozo having a lovely time walking around this beautiful island with my Mum and sister, and sampling some amazing open water swim spots. I’ve also been inspired by hanging out with a load of 70 and 80 year-olds who are still out here having the time of their lives.
2. TIt’s official - this week’s Open Thread with Hugo Tagholm is my favourite ever.
Hugo shared his wisdom and insights so generously, and the resulting thread is a priceless repositiory of insights into activism, climate crisis, sustainability and environmentalism from one of the sharpest and most experienced minds in the game.
Thanks also to Danner Boots for this week’s prize for paid subscribers. If you haven’t dipped into the thread yet, grab a brew and click here.
3. The final AK leg of this season’s Natural Selection goes live on April 26th and, if the teaser is anything to go by, this one will be appointment viewing.
4. Loved this story by Dan Milner, about mountain biking on the trail of wolves in Italy’s Aosta Valley
5. Important listening, this, from my friends at Swell Season. It’s a really thoughtful conversation about trans inclusion in surfing, and I highly recommend it.
6. I really enjoyed Keith Malloy’s latest for Yeti, a really sweet and affectionate look at the life and times of musician and film-maker Scott Ballew.
7. If, like me, you loved A Land For Everyone, you’ll also enjoy The Ice Mile, film-maker Rachel Sarah’s latest. Click here to watch (£, but we should be paying to support the work of independent creatives like Rachel IMHO, hence why I’m sharing it).
8. Just another lovely trademark piece of surf exploration by friend-of-the-pod Kepa Acero.
9. Substack CEO Chris Best went on the Decoder podcast to discuss the launch of Notes. It’s fair to say it didn’t go too well.
10. A week in and I’m still ambivalent about Notes. In fact, I posted a Note about it. I’m finding the incongruity between the ‘this place is like the best cocktail party ever!’ tone of Substsck affiliates, and the experiences (inevitably) of some women I follow to be a tad jarring, to say the least.
They did just include a tab so you can see activity by your subscribers thought so if you’re dipping a toe in tag me in so we can say hello.
Really enjoyed Dan Milners article. The debate around wolves seems to be universal across the alps. Here in the Three Valleys there has been a few alleged wolf attacks on domestic animals and dogs. Personally, I think it is amazing that we have wolves in the region. A couple of years ago there was a flurry of sightings. We came across three on the road between Meribel and La Tania. Later that week there was a kill made on the Indians piste above 1650. Since then there has been far fewer, and rumours that they were moved on.