Looking Sideways: 10 Things
This week's ten things I thought were worth sharing.
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It’s now six months since I turned on paid subscriptions for Looking Sideways. I wrote extensively about why I did this here: So I thought I’d write a quick post reflecting on the experience, while also explaining how you can win up to a YEAR’S paid subscription for free, merely by sharing your favourite pos…
1. ICYMI - I just introduced rewards for people who want to earn a free paid subscription by helping spread the LS word by forwarding a few of their favourite episodes and blogs to friends.
It is ridiculously straightforward - the short version: share any favourite blog or episode five times and if your chosen pals sign up free or paid you’ll get three months paid subscription free. Find out more by reading the blog above, and get started by clicking the link below:
2. Big thanks to friend-of-the-show (and International Women’s Podcast Awards organiser) Naomi Mellor for choosing me as one of her favourite podcasts in this recent bit in industry magazine/website PodPod.
3. It’s taken months, but somebody from the surf industry has finally gone on the record on the claims made in The Big Sea, in the form of this interview with SIMA President Vipe Desai. Granted, as Vipe himself admits, he hasn't actually seen the film, which makes his response a tad unconvincing, but at least there’s some engagement with the issues raised. Read Ben Mondy’s interview with Desai here.
4 Dreamers, the latest from Nick Jenson and Isle Skateboards, is more creative British skate greatness.
5. Confession: I’ve never actually listened to an episode of The Bombhole. However, like everybody in the industry, my interest has been piqued by Chris Grenier’s video explanation as to why Ethan Fortier recently vacated the co-host chair, and E-Stone’s intriguingly off-brief response (above). It doesn't particularly feel like this one is going to have a happy ending.
6. This latest release from The Smile, Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood’s latest project, is ridiculously good.
7. Was Jonah Hill just clearly setting his boundaries when he told his ex-partner she couldn’t “surf with men”, “post pictures of [herself] with a bathing suit” or “have friendships with women who are in unstable places”? Or was he ‘weaponising therapy speak’ as a form of coercive control? This Dazed piece digs in.
8. Truly awful news about Mikala Jones. Not much more else to say really 🙏
9. New podcast alert! Red Bull have clearly thrown a load of cash at Rob Warner and Eliot Jackson’s new podcast Just Ride. Be interesting to see how it develops from here. Watch now.
10. On the one hand, this story about crows and magpies using anti-bird spikes to build their nests is kinda cool in an ‘orca-attacking-yachts’ way. On the other hand, there’s obviously something completely awful about crows and magpies using anti-bird spikes to build their nests. Find out more.
I've enjoyed the bombhole since it started (the ones with e-stone are better than the ones without imo)...any reason you haven't watched/listened? There's many great conversations over there.
Questions, questions, questions.I would be interested to know which wetsuit manufacturers are members of SIMA. Is this organisation speaking on behalf of most of the well known brands or just a few? Many brands seem to use Yamamoto neoprene. What do we know of their safety record and environmental credentials?