Pauline Menczer: The Uncensored Underdog

Pauline Menczer: The Uncensored Underdog

Author: Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich - surf stories & ocean adventures June 9, 2024 Duration: 1:25:06
How to fund a pro surfing career in the 1980s? Sell stickers, Levi’s jeans, bicycles, whatever. Sleep in your board bag. Live on a diet of mushrooms and bread. World Champion Pauline Menczer got resourceful and hustled however it took to get her to the next stop of the tour. “In the 80s and 90s, surf culture was toxic, especially towards women. Pauline was a dirt-poor, chronically ill teen from Bondi, who defied insults and intimidation to make a name for herself in the surfing wo...

There’s a particular kind of life shaped by time spent in and around the ocean, one that blends saltwater with a deeper perspective. Hosted by lifelong surfers and storytellers Lauren L. Hill and Dave Rastovich, the Waterpeople Podcast explores exactly that. Each conversation is less an interview and more a shared dive with guides who know the water intimately-from scientists and activists to adventurers and artists. You’ll hear firsthand accounts that stretch beyond simple adventure tales, touching on how a connection to the sea informs everything from ecological stewardship and community building to the pure, playful joy of a wave. This podcast serves as a meeting point for a far-flung tribe, weaving together themes of inclusivity, humour, and what it means to live thoughtfully along the coast. It’s about the stories that emerge when people are truly at home in the aquatic world, offering listeners a sense of place and connection within a global ocean community. Tune in for genuine, meandering talks that feel like sitting around after a long day in the swell, where the topics are as vast and shifting as the sea itself.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

Waterpeople Podcast
Podcast Episodes
Nathan Oldfield: Breathing Room [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:11:53
Nathan Oldfield has journeyed into the depths of grief, and back, to make surf films brimming with reverence for the extraordinary beauty of life. He has crafted six award winning films, most recently The Heart & The Sea…
Bonus: Guided Meditation with Nathan Oldfield [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 15:00
Following on from our full length episode, Nathan Oldfield shares about his decade-long relationship with practicing and teaching meditation, and talks us through a short guided meditation that he offers to school childr…
Andy Ridley: Crowd Power [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:00
Most conservation organisations mirror corporations in structure, operation, and strategy. But has that been effective? Andy Ridley, founder of Earth Hour and Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef, doesn't think so. He's as…
Karina Petroni: Gumption [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:28:52
What happens when you lose it all? After a successful, 14 year professional surfing career, Karina Petroni discovered that all of her earnings and assets had suspiciously vaporised. Karina was born and raised in the Pana…
Gwyn Haslock: First Lady [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:22
Gwyn Haslock has nearly 6 decades of surfing under her belt. She was born in Cornwall in 1945, and is renowned as one of the UK’s original surfers. Gwyn holds many competitive surfing accolades, including multiple Britis…
Chelsea Woody: Cultivating Kinship [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:21:27
For many, 2020 was the worst. Chelsea Woody, a neuroscience nurse who moonlights as a Vans surf ambassador, is clear that it was “the worst year of her life.” After getting COVID from work, and subsequently experiencing…
Jack Johnson: Time, Dreams & The Heart [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:45
In Greek myth, staring at the monster Medusa would turn mortals to stone; one needed a mirror to take the edge off. Surfer, filmmaker and musician Jack Johnson reckons music and art can play a similar role in reflecting…
Kshisya Tachanskaya: Gifting Good Days [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:40
What if your homeland was suddenly the target of foreign attacks ? What would you do? Ukrainian Kshisya Tachanskaya fled with her two children, a few belongings, reluctantly kissed her husband farewell, and drove for a f…
Tom Wegener: The Artisan's Way [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:23:06
Unlike golf clubs and tennis racquets, surfboards are still largely made by local artisans. But, what sets the surfboard making industry apart from parallel industries? Why do local shapers still make boards? Master shap…
Tom Wegener: Part 2 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:30
Part Two of our meandering conversation with master shaper Tom Wegener talking the nitty gritty of board construction, how he almost got the call to be in The Endless Summer II, experimenting with ancient techniques in t…