Waterpeople Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Did sailing have more to do with early human locomotion than the wheel? Hanneke Boon, head of James Wharram Designs, suggests that may be so. 

Born in the Netherlands, Hanneke grew up in a sailing family. She was building and sailing Polynesian Catamarans at the age of fourteen and joined the James Wharram team at the age of 20.

A gifted artist / graphic designer / craftworker, she became James Wharram's co-designer. For half a century, all Wharram Designs have been marked with her signature.

According to Yachting World, “Despite this unique pencil stroke, she has remained in the shadow of Wharram’s mythology for 50 years. Since 1970, Boon has drawn the majority of the construction plans by hand. They’re works of art and the best way to imagine yourself aboard a Wharram. Without her, JW Designs would not be what it is.” 

Of the Polynesian double canoe inspired designs - once called ‘dangerous and eccentric,’ James Wharram said:

“A philosophic attitude behind the Wharram designs is that 'urban man' can, with a little financial saving and some handcraft work, create an object of beauty. This object of beauty can then, for a period of hours, days, weeks or months, carry him/her out of the urban world into a natural never-never land; the seas and oceans; to a time when the world was young; when Mankind was directly and intimately interacting with the beauty and power of nature. There are hundreds/thousands of Wharram builders or, as I prefer to call them, "Sea People", who have done or are now doing that!" 

Hanneke has built, or taken part in building, more than sixteen Wharram designs, including developing many prototypes and the 63ft Spirit of Gaia - and is an expert epoxy worker.

She talked us through the simple joys of life at sea, the central role that sailing has played in human evolution and the near death revelation that set her a new course. 

Send us a text

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Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich

Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander

Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll

Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander

Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast

...

Get monthly musings and behind the scenes content from the podcast by subscribing to our newsletter.

You'll get water-centric reading and listening recommendations, questions worth asking, and ways to take action for the wellbeing of Planet Ocean delivered straight to your inbox.

You can stream every Waterpeople episode from your desk.

Over the last half century, Bob McTavish has shaped thousands of custom surfboards. 

Always an innovator in surfboard design and technology, Bob pioneered cutting edge changes to the basic concept of a surfboard. 

In 1965,  he started tinkering with rail and bottom design to maximise performance. This was part of the movement that would become known as the shortboard revolution, in which Bob’s role was pivotal, but only part of his ongoing contribution to the evolution of the surfboard.

Now in his eighth decade, Bob continues to push the limits of surfboard design across the full range of wave-riding vehicles, including the shape that we focus on in this conversation – the 10 foot plus glider.  

After 5 years dormant, Bob brought his objective surf contest concept - The McTavish Trim -  to our local surf festival with three rules:

Rule #1 - Board must be 10ft+
Rule #2 - Furthest up the beach wins -- must hit the sand (paddle around the very wide  buoy) 
Rule #3 - Must stay on your feet

Surfing is full of old men who calcify and only speak of the good 'ole days.   Bob is not one of those guys -- he's still full of wonder and has made a career out of his wave riding curiosity.

We were lucky enough to sit down with Bob in front of a live audience at the 2024 Byron Bay Surf Festival in the parking lot of the McTavish factory - to talk all things glider, the surf/life balance, and how he has stayed perpetually stoked. 

Send us a text

...

Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich

Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander

Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll

Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander

Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast

...

Get monthly musings and behind the scenes content from the podcast by subscribing to our newsletter.

You'll get water-centric reading and listening recommendations, questions worth asking, and ways to take action for the wellbeing of Planet Ocean delivered straight to your inbox.

You can stream every Waterpeople episode from your desk.

Ever want to pack up normalcy and set sail over the horizon? What’s it really like to live at sea for a year and rarely be further than 35 feet from your new significant other?

Torren Martyn and Aiyana Powell talk us through the peaks and troughs of life aboard Calypte, a borrowed 35-foot sailing boat that they spent 12 months sailing 9,000-kilometres - from Pattaya in the Gulf of Thailand to Lombok, an Indonesian island east of Bali -  a journey chronicled in their new independent film Calypte. 

With little practical sailing experience, Torren and Aiyana learned as they went – how to be fisherfolk, navigators, meteorologists, and mechanics to take care of running repairs — and still found plenty of surf along the way. 

Torren and Aiyana talk us through the happenstance of meeting, their time aboard Calypte – the trials of trust and communication at sea— and their newest adventure – starting a family together.

Photo credit: Ishka Folkwell

Send us a text

...

Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich

Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander

Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll

Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander

Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast

...

Get monthly musings and behind the scenes content from the podcast by subscribing to our newsletter.

You'll get water-centric reading and listening recommendations, questions worth asking, and ways to take action for the wellbeing of Planet Ocean delivered straight to your inbox.

You can stream every Waterpeople episode from your desk.

Legendary waterman Mark Healey lost three friends to heavy water situations through the course of the early 2000s. He speaks candidly about the ways these experiences rewired his process of risk assessment, while maintaining his relationship with the water and his career as a professional risk taker: chasing big waves, free diving, spearfishing, shark tagging, bow hunting, and working as a Hollywood stuntman. 

Mark also shares about relying on instincts in heavy situations, the importance of being able to override the fear response through preparation, and asking the tough questions of yourself about the 'whys' of decision-making. Mark’s yogic approach to confronting discomfort inspires us to keep facing our self-built boundaries. He reminds us that without challenge, there is no growth.

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 The Waterpeople Podcast is a gathering for our global ocean community to dive into the critical conversations of our culture through storytelling. We sit with some of the most adept waterpeople on the planet to explore common themes of aquatic lives lived well: ecology, adventure, community, activism, science, egalitarianism, inclusivity, meaningful play.  And surfing, of course.

Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich 

Sound Engineer: Shannon Sol Carroll 

Music by Band of Frequencies. Available via www.lowpressureproductions.com and on Spotify.  

Join the conversation: Waterpeoplepodcast.com

@Waterpeoplepodcast 



Photo Credit: Unknown (Please Reach out if you took this photograph)

Send us a text

...

Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich

Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander

Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll

Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander

Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast

...

Get monthly musings and behind the scenes content from the podcast by subscribing to our newsletter.

You'll get water-centric reading and listening recommendations, questions worth asking, and ways to take action for the wellbeing of Planet Ocean delivered straight to your inbox.

You can stream every Waterpeople episode from your desk.

At the height of her competitive spearfishing career, Kimi Werner began battling with inner demons that turned the once-solace of the ocean into a cacophony of self-criticism. Kimi’s is a story about attaining dreams, losing love, wrestling with dissatisfaction and, ultimately, finding love again in the deep.  

Our conversation dives into reckoning with fear, flipping your instincts in heavy water situations, and the beauty of knowing where your food comes from. 

 Kimi Werner is a former U.S. National Champion spearfisher, a freediver, and chef. 

 …

 The Waterpeople Podcast is a gathering for our global ocean community to dive into the critical conversations of our culture through storytelling. We sit with some of the most adept waterpeople on the planet to explore common themes of aquatic lives lived well: ecology, community, activism, science, egalitarianism, inclusivity, meaningful play.

Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich 

Sound Engineer: Shannon Sol Carroll 

Join the conversation: Waterpeoplepodcast.com

@Waterpeoplepodcast 

Photo Credit: Chase Pellerin

Send us a text

...

Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich

Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander

Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll

Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander

Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast

...

Get monthly musings and behind the scenes content from the podcast by subscribing to our newsletter.

You'll get water-centric reading and listening recommendations, questions worth asking, and ways to take action for the wellbeing of Planet Ocean delivered straight to your inbox.

You can stream every Waterpeople episode from your desk.

On The Waterpeople Podcast, we're delving deep into the intricacies of how the world's most adept waterpeople make lives of great meaning through meaningful play. In this episode Lauren L. Hill and Dave Rastovich elucidate the the 'whys' of making the podcast, reveal about their highlights from Season One, and welcome you to their watery world. 

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 The Waterpeople Podcast is a gathering for our global ocean community to dive into the critical conversations of our culture through storytelling. We sit with some of the most adept waterpeople on the planet to explore common themes of aquatic lives lived well: ecology, community, activism, science, egalitarianism, inclusivity, meaningful play.

Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich 

Sound Engineer: Shannon Sol Carroll 

Join the conversation: Waterpeoplepodcast.com

@Waterpeoplepodcast 

Send us a text

...

Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich

Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander

Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll

Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander

Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast

...

Get monthly musings and behind the scenes content from the podcast by subscribing to our newsletter.

You'll get water-centric reading and listening recommendations, questions worth asking, and ways to take action for the wellbeing of Planet Ocean delivered straight to your inbox.

You can stream every Waterpeople episode from your desk.

Stories of triumph, challenge and the sea, brought to you live from Byron Bay Surf Festival. Listen as five brave waterfolk share their real and raw stories of overcoming or being overcome: finding surfing later in life, realising purpose after a life changing injury, living with cancer, searching for an unknown family member, wrestling with the death of a parent – and finding the dark humour.  The ocean buoyed them amidst some of the most tumultuous experiences of their lives. With live musical performances by Dusty Boots Music & Felipe Baldomir. 
...
 The Waterpeople Podcast is a gathering for our global ocean community to dive into the critical conversations of our culture through storytelling. We sit with some of the most adept waterpeople on the planet to explore common themes of aquatic lives lived well: ecology, community, activism, science, egalitarianism, inclusivity, meaningful play.

Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich 

Sound Engineer: Shannon Sol Carroll 

Join the conversation: Waterpeoplepodcast.com

@Waterpeoplepodcast 

Send us a text

...

Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich

Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander

Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll

Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander

Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast

...

Get monthly musings and behind the scenes content from the podcast by subscribing to our newsletter.

You'll get water-centric reading and listening recommendations, questions worth asking, and ways to take action for the wellbeing of Planet Ocean delivered straight to your inbox.

You can stream every Waterpeople episode from your desk.

The loudest human-made sounds: Nuclear Bomb (224 dB), Rocket launch (204 dB). And clocking in at 260 underwater decibels is the seismic blast, part of a process for exploring for oil and gas in the ocean. Unlike bombs and rockets, however, seismic blasts "fire approximately every 10 seconds around the clock for months at a time."

For eight years, Marine Biologist Annie Ford worked onboard seismic blasting vessels, and felt the relentless explosions and reverberations from her bed at night. She has since peddled away from the fossil fuel industry and  become one of its most creative whistleblowers.

Annie is a mountain biking  world record holder and has spent time surfing and sailing around the world, including multiple expeditions to Antarctica.

Today, Annie is the National Campaign Manager for the Surfrider Foundation Australia, where she is currently working to halt the largest marine seismic blasting project ever proposed. It is slated to take place off the coast of her home island of Lutruwita (Tasmania) – and will emit some of the loudest human made noises ever created – to the detriment of an entire ecosystem.

We caught up with Annie as she completed a 4,000 km bike ride (that about 2,500 miles) to talk about endurance, optimism, changing careers, and her entwined commitment to kindness, climate action and adventure.

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To get a download of the seismic blasting audio file to share at your community event, school, or tense family gathering, please send us an email: waterpeoplepodcast@gmail.com

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Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich

Sound Engineer: Ben Alexander

Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll

Additional music by Dave & Ben

Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast 

...

Photo Credit: Rod Drury 

Send us a text

...

Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich

Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander

Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll

Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander

Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast

...

Get monthly musings and behind the scenes content from the podcast by subscribing to our newsletter.

You'll get water-centric reading and listening recommendations, questions worth asking, and ways to take action for the wellbeing of Planet Ocean delivered straight to your inbox.

You can stream every Waterpeople episode from your desk.

Are you investing in yourself and your curiosities? At 63, Sally Parkin sold her home to spend the better part of 2023 surfing in Australia with her family.

Sally is known for "single handedly"  reviving  the 100 year old tradition of English surfing on wooden bodyboards. She first surfed one at age 5, and decades later, when her family's quiver started to break, she realised there was only one local maker of traditional boards remaining.

She founded The Original Surfboard Company to both produce timber boards and to recover the lost art of English prone surfing. 

Joined by surf historian and shaper extraordinaire Tom Wegener, we met up with Sally on her tour of Australia, and she talked us through the logistics of reviving a nearly-lost art, researching the great novelist Agatha Christie's surfing adventures, and the joys of adaptive bottom contours. 

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Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich

Sound Engineer: Ben Alexander

Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll

Additional music by Dave & Ben

Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast 

...


Photo Credit: Celia Galpin

Send us a text

...

Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich

Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander

Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll

Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander

Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast

...

Get monthly musings and behind the scenes content from the podcast by subscribing to our newsletter.

You'll get water-centric reading and listening recommendations, questions worth asking, and ways to take action for the wellbeing of Planet Ocean delivered straight to your inbox.

You can stream every Waterpeople episode from your desk.

Injuries are mostly out of our control. But recovery offers many choices. Will we allow the scar tissue to stiffen or soften us?

Stu Nettle is the editor of Swellnet, one of Australia's leading independent surf media and forecasting sites, where he has written about board design, surf industry happenings, surf science, and coastal geology since 2008. 

Stu is a lifelong surfer but late-comer to surf media. He “had many unrelated life chapters, business failures, social experiments, and surf adventures before he ever got a word published.” 

We first encountered Stu’s work amongst the lively pages of Kurangabaa, an academic – leaning surf journal he helped to found and run in the early 2000s. It was a trove of thoughtful essays, along with poetry, fiction and interviews – and part of a larger, exciting, indepedent DIY surf culture of that time. 

We wanted to know: what kind of life has shaped the voice and perspective of one of Australia's most prolific surf journalists?  

Stu talks us through the Sunset Beach hold down that changed him, the value of knowing our history,  gender politics at Swellnet and the the future(s) of surf media.

…

Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich

Sound Engineer: Ben Alexander

Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll

Additional music by Dave & Ben

Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast 

Send us a text

...

Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich

Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander

Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll

Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander

Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast

...

Get monthly musings and behind the scenes content from the podcast by subscribing to our newsletter.

You'll get water-centric reading and listening recommendations, questions worth asking, and ways to take action for the wellbeing of Planet Ocean delivered straight to your inbox.

You can stream every Waterpeople episode from your desk.