The Surfer's Journal presents Soundings with Jamie Brisick

Born in 1953 and raised on the Gold Coast of Australia, Peter Townend, aka PT, started surfing in 1967, the spiraling barrels of Snapper Rocks, Kirra, and Burleigh Heads right in his backyard.
He rose up the ranks, placed highly in a string of Australian National Titles, and joined what was then a series of disparate pro contests around the world.
In 1976, the IPS was formed, the world tour was announced, and on retroactive points combined with the final Hawaii leg, PT became pro surfing's first world champion. That same year, he and fellow pro Ian Cairns founded the Bronzed Aussies—a group-slash-team aimed at promoting surfing as a serious sport along the lines of Formula One or tennis. PT was flamboyant, charismatic, and a believer in the pro surfing dream. He played a key role in what we now know of as the "Bustin' Down the Door" era.
In 1977, PT took a break from the pro tour to be the stunt double for the Jack Barlow character in Big Wednesday, directed by John Milius.
In 1979, he moved to Southern California and spent four years as executive director and National Team coach for the NSSA, working with Tom Curren, Brad Gerlach, Mike Parsons, and Mike Lambresi, among many other rising American surfers of the early '80s. He worked in advertising, editorial, and publishing for Surfing magazine. He worked as global brand manager for Rusty. He was a host for the cable TV show Wave Watch, and a commentator for Prime Network and ESPN. He was the first appointed National Coach for the Chinese National Surfing Team.
That's all to say PT has poured his life into surfing, and he's presently the Executive Director of the Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum.
In this episode of Soundings, Townend talks with Jamie Brisick about auditioning for Big Wednesday, winning the world title, the benefits of growing up at a pointbreak, Midget Farrelly, and living by his mother's words. 
Presented by Rainbow® Sandals

Produced by Jonathan Shifflett
Music by PazKa (Aska Matsumiya & Paz Lenchantin)
Become a TSJ member at surfersjournal.com

Born in 1963 in Honolulu, Mike Stewart is a nine-time bodyboarding world champion, and a one-time bodysurfing world champion. 
Stewart became the face of bodyboarding in the 1980s, earning more than $100K per year in contest earnings and sponsors' salaries. He was featured in a Surfer magazine profile in 1987—the first bodyboarder ever to receive that level of coverage in a surf mag. In 1991, Surfer ran a piece titled "Is Mike Stewart the Best Surfer in the World?"
So many firsts: Stewart was among the first to ride Teahupo'o in Tahiti in the late '80s. He was the first bodyboarder to ride 20-foot plus waves on the outer reefs of Oahu's North Shore. He was the first bodyboarder to ride Jaws, on Maui, in 1993.
Stewart brings a scientific take to his wave riding. In 1996, he spent seven days following a south swell, riding it first in Tahiti, then Hawaii, then California, and finally in Alaska.
Through it all, he's had something of a preternatural relationship with Pipeline, having won upwards of 15 bodyboarding events out there, and upwards of 20 bodysurfing events (Stewart himself has lost count).
In this episode of Soundings, Stewart talks with Jamie Brisick about devoting a lifetime to Pipeline, tube mechanics, working for Tom Morey, the form and function of bodysurfing, and shark encounters.
Presented by Rainbow® Sandals

Produced by Jonathan Shifflett
Music by PazKa (Aska Matsumiya & Paz Lenchantin)
Become a TSJ member at surfersjournal.com

Born in 1952, Jack Shipley moved from Maryland to Oahu by way of Ohio when he was nine years old. Soon after, he took a surf lesson from a Waikiki beach boy and knew right away where his life was headed.
Shipley worked at surf shops in his teens, first Hobie, then Surf Line Hawaii. In 1970, he and fellow Surf Line employee Gerry Lopez founded Lightning Bolt Surfboards, which would soon become the most recognized surfboard label in the world.
Lightning Bolt had the best shapers of the period: Bill Barnfield, Tom Parrish, Reno Abellira, Barry Kanaiapuni, Tom Nellis, and Tom Eberly. They also had the best surfers: Mark Richards, Rabbit Bartholomew, Shaun Tomson, Margo Oberg, Jeff Hakman, Rory Russell, and, of course, Lopez himself, who was pushing the boundaries in barrel riding at Pipeline.
Starting in 1978 and continuing for over 40 years, Jack was one of competitive surfing's most revered judges, traveling on the pro tour around the world, paying witness and making the call on some of surfing's most memorable performances. In short, he's seen it all.
Today, Shipley lives near Diamond Head, where he spoke with Jamie Brisick about Lightning Bolt's early days, the legacy of Gerry Lopez, watching surf history unfold in real time, and the qualities that define the greats.
Presented by Rainbow® Sandals

Produced by Jonathan Shifflett
Music by PazKa (Aska Matsumiya & Paz Lenchantin)
Become a TSJ member at surfersjournal.com

Born in 1971, Taylor Knox started surfing at age eight, riding the beach breaks of his local Oxnard, California. At 13, he and his family moved to North County San Diego, where his surfing thrived. But at 15, he had a major spinal surgery that put him in a body cast for six months. This mortality brush with his dreams may in some way account for the ferocity with which Knox surfs.
After a strong amateur run, he entered the pro ranks in 1993 alongside his Momentum Generation brethren. But while airs and reverses had entered the surf lexicon, Knox was a power surfer—all about deep rail carves. His run on the World Tour was a long one, from 1993 to 2011.
Knox retired from the world tour in 2012 at age 41. He's since thrown himself into a rigorous physical fitness routine. And he continues to do his trademark cutback.
In this episode of Soundings, Knox talks with Jamie Brisick about recovering from injury, the Momentum Generation, his competitive career, seeing lines and angles, his influences, bridging eras, surfing Todos Santos, and the making of his profile film Arc.
Presented by Rainbow® Sandals

Produced by Jonathan Shifflett
Music by PazKa (Aska Matsumiya & Paz Lenchantin)
Become a TSJ member at surfersjournal.com

Born in 1953, raised in Hawaii, Keone Downing started surfing at age five at Waikiki. He's won many surf contests, but his crowning achievement, undoubtedly, is winning the 1990 Eddie, on a board shaped by his father, the late George Downing, one of the founders of modern surfing, a big-wave pioneer, a design innovator, and a Waikiki beach boy.
Keone inherited his father's waterman ethos. A devoted outrigger canoe paddler, he and his team won five Molokai to Oahu races in the 1980s, and Keone was the 1988 World Canoe Surfing Champion.
Today, Keone and his sister, Kaiulu, run Downing Hawaii, the shop their father launched in 1968. Keone shapes, surfs, fathers, grandfathers. He's attuned to the ocean and conscious of surfing's roots, history, and spiritual leanings in a way that's palpable.
In this episode of Soundings, Keone talks with Jamie Brisick about his father, the birth of modern surfboard design and the influence of wartime innovations in aerodynamics, the values of teamwork, and surfing Waimea Bay.
Presented by Rainbow® Sandals

Produced by Jonathan Shifflett
Music by PazKa (Aska Matsumiya & Paz Lenchantin)
Become a TSJ member at surfersjournal.com