Days on File with Jon Coen
[00:01:12] Tyler: Hello and welcome to the Swell Season Surf Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Brewer. Our guest on this episode is freelance content creator John Cohen from Long Beach Island. John has been a consummate champion of Northeast surfing for over 20 plus years. When the surf magazines were still in their heyday, You John would be the go to guy for anything in the Northeast happening.
[00:01:38] He always fought to get local events, surfers, and creatives to get the greater promotion and exposure when the West Coast would ignore us. John has lived his entire life in New Jersey. His storytelling through various mediums and maintains a sharp editorial pen. But god damn is this guy prolific.
[00:01:59] [00:02:00] Everything from marketing campaigns to video production, copywriting, event coordination, documentaries, and more, this guy has done it. Shoot, he even drove to Costa Rica in a van from New Jersey. He's written for numerous publications from endemic places like The Surfer's Journal, Huck Magazine, Surfer Magazine, and of course he's done ESPN and EXPN.
[00:02:24] He's also helped to produce a mini documentary called Beneath the Surface, focusing on the Long Beach Island region. He currently works as a freelancer with regular contributions to Jetty Surf clothing brand. He also does stuff for Vuori, Red Bull, and many more. He writes regularly about his local community and brings with him a deep knowledge of New Jersey surf history.
[00:02:47] I am super pumped to have John Coen on the show. John, welcome to Swell Season.
[00:02:53] That is the best intro I could ever, can I be on here weekly? Yeah, yeah. That feels great to hear that, man. Thanks [00:03:00]
[00:03:01] Tyler: I feel fantastic.
[00:03:02] I will sit in that tunnel traffic every week. Come up here and hear that. Well, you know what, just put that on repeat.
[00:03:08] You know,
[00:03:08] Tyler: I'll edit that part and then you can just put it on Spotify loop or something.
[00:03:13] Anytime I'm down on myself, I'm just playing
[00:03:15] Tyler: that. Dude. It's so awesome. First, like, thank you for making the trip all the way up to the studio from LBI. Like, I know it's not a easy drive, and it's not a short drive, or a cheap one, too.
[00:03:29] So it's very much appreciated.
[00:03:31] Uh, happy to be here. Thank you for having me. Sometimes you need to get off the rock a little bit. Yeah. You know, like, um, I saw our mutual friend Mark Tessy this morning. I'm What? So Tessy's gonna be I miss him. He's gonna be on the podcast. He's going to. Yeah, when? I'm waiting for it.
[00:03:49] Um, he was out here of course he lives in California now. And he was out unfortunately for a mutual friend's memorial yesterday, so we Celebrated the life of Captain [00:04:00] Dennis yesterday, say goodbye to him, and then, um, you know, I got a text from Mark this morning. He's like, are you around? So I got to talk to him, and it's funny because Mark now works for Vioray.
[00:04:09] Tell our
[00:04:10] Tyler: listeners who Mark Tessy is. Give a little background.
[00:04:13] Mark Tessy, I have known since the 70s. Wow. Okay, you can give, you can probably find his, um, His professional resume on, you know, Wikipedia. I probably wrote it, you know, back in the day. Um, but I'd rather tell you that Mark Tessie is the guy that.
[00:04:32] You know, maybe 20 years ago, I was surfing on 4th of July. I had, I was working in a restaurant at the time. I had done a day shift, waited tables, and I went down to Harvey Cedars and there was a little wave and I took out a groveler board. And every once in a while, this a little set would come through, maybe waist high.
[00:04:50] It was just breaking off the jetty and I was all by myself on 4th of July. And I'm like, man, this is just what a session. And as I take off on one wave, I hear, And [00:05:00] Mark Tessi and his buddy Brian Strehle are on the beach shooting bottle rockets at me while I'm surfing That's that's a much cooler story than to talk about how he has been the global art director at Reef and the global art director at Roxy and everything else that that guy has done.
[00:05:16] And Vuari does all the shoots and stuff. Yeah. Phenomenal, phenomenal photographer, artist, just incredible creative mind, but I did get to see him this morning. Um, I had surfed at sunrise and then he was like, Hey, did you surf this morning? So no
[00:05:29] Tyler: bottle rockets this morning? No bottle rockets.
[00:05:31] jon: He wasn't awake.
[00:05:32] He was, he's still on West coast time, but he was up pretty early and, uh, he, he was actually had stayed across the street from me and he, he walked over and we walked and we were sitting in the backyard this morning and we're joking because he had been home in July and I, you know, I see him, our kids hang out together.
[00:05:45] It's so cool to have him. And then he goes back. And it's like, goes to Southern California, and then he's in San Francisco, and then he's in the desert somewhere. Maybe he's in Europe, and he's all over the place, and I was like, you know, it's funny, Mark, like, since you left here, I'm like, you know where I've been?[00:06:00]
[00:06:00] I haven't been anywhere but here. Just the way, and it's not that I can't leave, it's just the way everything goes, having a kid, having all my work in the summer that's tied right to Long Beach Island. It just doesn't make sense to go anywhere. You know, we go to Asbury Park to see a show, that's a big night out.
[00:06:14] You know, this winter I was in, You know, Wyoming and then Barbados, uh, my girlfriend and I went to Costa Rica together. We took my kid out to Colorado snowboarding. We do a lot of trips in the off season, but in the summer it's just kinda like, I'm marketing for a restaurant. I'm working for Jetty. Doing, you know, volunteering at a bunch of events, writing for the sandpaper.
[00:06:32] I'm just there. And, you know, my house is two blocks from the beach. My office is two blocks from my house. And that's kind of our whole world, you know? I leave the island to bring my kid to soccer practice. That's, that's a big deal, going over the bridge.
[00:06:45] Tyler: Well, it speaks to, like, your dedication to your community, you know?
[00:06:49] Like, let me ask, like, like, did you ever have that urge to live outside of, of, uh, New Jersey and, and LBI
[00:06:58] particularly? The funny thing is I [00:07:00] didn't grow up on LBI. Yeah. I grew up in a town called Forkhead River, which is just a little bit north, right? So you're maybe 10, 12 miles from the bridge to LBI. Yeah.
[00:07:09] 10 12 miles from the bridge to seaside. We lived on the bay. There was just no bridge. Yeah. Occasionally in the summer somebody would take a boat across to Island Beach State Park and to us that was, that was like going to Indo. Yeah. As far as we were concerned, you know, we jumped off the boat and walked across the state park to That was like
[00:07:24] Tyler: going to Hemlocks for us on the boat too, you know, it was just like Fire Island and stuff.
[00:07:28] Just the coolest thing, but for
[00:07:30] the most part we didn't, you know, until we had a license we had no ride to the beach. So it was like, uh, I very specifically remember we would like play sports against, um, a team, a school that lived by the beach and the kids had surfboard racks on bikes and they could ride their bikes to the beach.
[00:07:45] And I was so jealous of that. And I just was like, man, someday I'm going to, I'm going to, you know, do that. And um, I was, I was fortunate that I bought a house in 2001 and I sold it when the market went up and was able to buy a small house and [00:08:00] rebuild it on the island and start a family there. And being there.
[00:08:04] It's, it's like magic, you know, like getting, waking up this morning and a lot of our summer was ruined because we had some local upwelling and just our water was freezing cold. It was
[00:08:17] Tyler: really cold this year. I remember texting you like, And saying like, oh yeah, it's like, I'm in board shorts, and you're like wearing boots and gloves.
[00:08:25] I didn't wear gloves, but there was definitely people who wore gloves. And there was days that I wore boots and a three mil, and I was cold. So we lost a lot of that, but like, I so look forward to riding my bike up the beach, what's up to my neighbors, and going and getting a session. If I get, I mean, this morning was a foot and a half.
[00:08:43] There was no swell. Just went out for a longboard, at sunrise, one buddy, water's warm. And I. Like, just from so many years of like trying to get there, you know, and then jobs that kept you from surfing when you want, you know, many years in the [00:09:00] service industry and stuff. Just to be able to do that and wake up in the morning and like, we got this cool little scene where it's like, you know, the old guy from our neighborhood who surfs and my family that surfs up there and the young kids and I feel very lucky that I connect with all of them.
[00:09:17] You know, and we're all, when we all get waves. You know, you see this guy and you compare notes with this guy and you drive past the coffee shop. It's, you know, and I come into my backyard and go through my gate and there's my dog put down the board, you know, everything in my backyard is blooming and the big silver maple tree and the outside shower and it's just like, that's to me, that's, you know, everything like there have been times when I was offered to like, you know, rip curl was like, do you want to go to Portugal and cover?
[00:09:47] And And I was like, well, I'm probably gonna get more weight. I, you know, I can look at the forecast and go, if I go to Portugal, the whole C, you're not surfing, the CT is in town . And that means that everyone [00:10:00] below the CT is just glomming on. No, nothing wrong with that, but like everyone in town is, has surf fever, so the contest is going on every break, there's people just fired up to surf.
[00:10:11] Yeah. I'm not getting waves. No, I'm not getting, so I'm like. No, that's all right. Like, I don't need to go to Brazil, you know, like, it's not like I have offers all the time. That was back when I was, you know, doing this more consistently. Um, but I'm just like, if I can get it at home, you know, like I, it's me and one guy in the morning, you know, and you, you know, everybody in the water and it's a, you have that.
[00:10:33] I always wanted to do that and be part of that local surf community. And it's just, it really is the coolest thing. Yeah.
[00:10:39] Tyler: You know, some people, like, they have to go through that whole alchemist story, where they have to travel around in order to discover home is where the treasure is, and it seems like you didn't, you just kind of skipped that, you didn't need that as much.
[00:10:52] I
[00:10:52] kind of did, and I think when I was on the podcast in 2019, we discussed, like, I went to school in Ocean City, I lived in Ocean City, Maryland, [00:11:00] I went to Salisbury, I lived in Ocean City, and I was like, You know, your whole life you think that New Jersey is just the armpit of the earth, right? You know, like everybody just makes a long island.
[00:11:09] Yeah, but like long New York kind of made jokes about New Jersey right and pop culture and You just think New Jersey. I gotta get out of here. I'm gonna go a little bit south. The water's gonna be warmer There's gonna be waves all the time There isn't there isn't and you realize that like and New Jersey's got kind of everything and you can You know Stay there, work your ass off, make money, and go and see wherever you want.
[00:11:31] Yeah. And that's kind of, you know, the pattern that I developed, um, in my 20s, just And there's a lot of people who do this. You just, you come back, and you put your head down, and you work your ass off. And it's a fantastic way to, you know, you make, bank all that money, enjoy the fall, which is the best time of year, and then after Christmas, you, you're taken off, and you're going and seeing the world, you know?
[00:11:51] Yeah.
[00:11:52] Tyler: Was this, like, calculated from a young age? Were you like, this is kind of what I want? Or was it something that just slowly [00:12:00] evolved into being? I think so.
[00:12:02] I guess not consciously, but yeah, this is it. You know, just to be able to have that short bike ride. You know, the fact that I have a short bike ride, and I occasionally get barreled two blocks from my own home, is like, That's amazing.
[00:12:18] I get waves all the time, but every once in a while you go out there in the fall or the winter and you get barreled in front of your own house. That's like, it's so, you know, especially today. I'm so grateful for that, you know?
[00:12:28] Tyler: It's funny, like it feels like LBI, I could be wrong, but like flies under the radar still of other beaches, beach towns in New Jersey that get, at least in the surf world, get more coverage, you know?
[00:12:42] And it feels like LBI is kind of like This thing that people talk about, they know about, but like, you rarely hear or see people going through. Exactly. It's a
[00:12:50] real pain in the ass to get to. And we don't have, you know, if you're south of us, you have the Atlantic City Expressway. It connects you right to Philly.
[00:12:58] Yeah. If you're north of [00:13:00] us, you have a train that takes you to New York.
[00:13:02] Tyler: Yeah.
[00:13:02] We don't have either one of those. Wow. There's no public transportation. Southern Ocean County has no public transportation. LBI, it's not like you drive from Belmar. To Spring Lake, to Avalon, to, you can drive along the beach road and check all those spots.
[00:13:18] Like, you go in LBI, you gotta get off the parkway and drive that 10 miles to check the surf. And that's just to check LBI. You know, you're not going north or south from there. You know, so it's kinda like, kinda skippable and just not that many people that live there. You know, the town of Manahawken is not a huge town where, you know, and then you get past that, it's the pines.
[00:13:40] It's the, you know, the Jersey Pines. So
[00:13:41] Tyler: do you, how are the
[00:13:43] crowds then, if you don't mind me asking? In the winter? Yeah. This is our, this is our issue. We've lost all our jetties to beach replenishment. Wow. Okay. So they've covered our jetties. Our, and I don't deny that, that those bigger dunes have probably saved us from having a few new inlets.
[00:13:58] Yeah. Which would be [00:14:00] pretty disastrous if that happened. However, cover the jetties, our sandbars are gone. can be awful. Like, that sand just runs wherever it wants. Listeners, this is deception, okay? I mean, you can take a real gamble coming to LBI, but like, it's not, you know, Atlantic City, huge jetties, Manasquan has that giant jetty.
[00:14:20] Like, you're gonna take, you're gonna come to LBI, there's always a drift. It's like a fucking river, you know? The wind blows, You have no protection from a jetty. You have no, you know, the sand doesn't set up. We have no structure anywhere. There's one spot on the south end, and there's sometimes at 18 miles, there's one spot breaking.
[00:14:41] Wow. You can drive the entire island everywhere, a long period swell, like the next two months that we're gonna get. Anything over a Category 1, Category 2 is likely closing out for 17 and a half miles. There's one spot. And all of New Jersey wants to go there and get a wave [00:15:00] there. Again, I'm probably not, even living there, I'm probably not gonna.
[00:15:04] And there's guys who live closer to it who don't want to see me there. You know, so, That's the hard part about it, you know, and it's like we do fly under the radar. We just do really well on short period wind swells, you know, and even some of those sometimes wind goes offshore at the wrong time, whatever.
[00:15:19] Uh, just seems like the patterns we've had in the last couple of years. It's a lot of Southwest wind, which you would think, Oh, it's Southwest. It's offshore. Not for you guys. Side shore, you know, we have the worst upwelling in New Jersey in the summer. Yeah. Um, like I said, that littoral drift, sometimes you'll just get a nor'easter that'll just destroy the sandbar.
[00:15:38] You get waves for a day or two, and then all your sandbars, there's a big gully right off the beach, and you're paddling 200 yards out to a sandbar, then you stand up and you're immediately back in the gully. Oh. It's just so frustrating.
[00:15:50] Tyler: I know those spots. We got them too. You know, it's like, Let me ask, when did that nourishment happen then?
[00:15:57] It
[00:15:57] started in 2006. [00:16:00] Wow. Right. And now they're, they keep doing, like, repairs to spots that, the hot spots.
[00:16:06] Tyler: How do you, how do you guys feel about that? How do the local population, how do the local surfers kind of feel about that? Pretty much everybody
[00:16:12] hates it. Yeah. You know, it creates, uh. Occasionally you'll get a break.
[00:16:16] Oh, the sand is set up, but there's nothing to hold it there You know the sandal set up in some kind of point It'll be good or it'll be a little bit of a novelty for a week and then it's gone, you know But overall our net it's been a net loss for our surf. They're not having jetties there for sure
[00:16:32] Tyler: Do you do you guys ever talk about trying to?
[00:16:36] Lobby or try to push for some some sort of you know extension of the jetties or, um, artificial reef maybe?
[00:16:45] I mean, artificial reef's tough. I just think about where the, where the wave, everything moves so much that if you built a reef, that reef could be under the dune at some point. It could be, seem like it's, you know, way on the outside at some point.
[00:16:59] It just seems like [00:17:00] such a tough thing to do. I have been told by some good people at the DEP that new jetties The cost now of getting new jetties would just be so unbelievable, you know, the millions and millions of dollars that it's just not, not feasible at this point. Um, but it is funny because, like, it's not just surfers that would like, you know, the fishing on, you know, the surf fishing is, has definitely been hurt by not having those, the jetties and not having, you know, smaller bait fish having structure and stuff like that.
[00:17:28] Um, I mean, everyone wants the jetties, but apparently it's just not, You know, but there is always money to keep rebuilding and protecting. There's
[00:17:36] Tyler: always money to keep pulling toxic sand offshore onto the beach. And again, I
[00:17:41] kind of get it, you know, like everybody's like, well, we have to do it to protect the rich homeowners.
[00:17:45] And it's like, well, once the rich homeowner's house goes in the drink, how long is it before a block and two and three blocks and your favorite surf shop and pizza place are underwater as well? So, I really wish they had a better, uh, You know, I have some really good friends at the Army Corps, you know, I wish they [00:18:00] had a better fucking system at this point, you know, 30 years in, but, you know, they're just, they're doing the same thing.
[00:18:07] I understand what it does and definitely put sand in the system. You know, I see where the sand will kind of come back after a storm and you see the sand on the outside.
[00:18:17] Tyler: It's interesting because like in Rockaway, you know, they built all these new jetties and then they dredged a ton of sand and they built also like seawalls and then they drilled, they piledrived like these 20 foot girders almost into the ground.
[00:18:33] Doug around, then they put steel, I mean, cement around it, then they put rocks in front and in back of it and then covered it with sand and then they were going to grow on it. And I'm like, curious to see how this all shakes out
[00:18:47] over time, and I'm surprised that they're doing any hard structure because I think I feel like they made a movement 20 years ago.
[00:18:53] They said no more hard structure because when wave action comes in, runs up something that's a hard, just [00:19:00] all that sand back out. So I'm assuming they're. They're going to have, keep that well maintained.
[00:19:06] Tyler: Yeah, yeah. Hopefully. I mean, the guy who developed it, designed it actually, the two guys who designed the jetties are surfers, and they secretly made it so that we would have waves.
[00:19:18] Well, look how
[00:19:18] many more breaks there are now. Oh my God. I mean, there's a thousand times as many surfers, but you can pick a couple jetties, right? Yeah.
[00:19:26] Tyler: So we were texting before. And I wanted to kind of dive into this, and this is funny because this has been like the summer of New Jersey on this podcast, I feel like, you know, we've had Danny DeMauro, Bill Roosevelt, Mike May, like all these people come on, and, um, it feels like to me as a New York surfer, Like, why does New Jersey surfing seem to have their shit more together than New York surfing?
[00:19:52] Like, you guys have a really active surf rider foundation, you have a New Jersey surfing hall of fame, uh, now [00:20:00] like a surf history scrapbook. Um, other New Jersey surf historians, you know, who are compiling stuff all the time. You got boardwriters clubs that, that you can get together. We're struggling to get that together and NSSA competitions, which we don't even have in New York.
[00:20:16] So, you know, how is it that one part of the U S armpit is less hairy than the other side? You know, that's my, my question. Yeah, we
[00:20:24] were. And I don't know that I have an answer. Does it just come down to, we have the shakers and movers because when you look at it, you New York surfing is, is a damn interesting, you know, Montauk is very different than Rockaway.
[00:20:40] You know, going in and out of Brooklyn is very different than the Hamptons. Yeah. I mean, and it's, they're, they're radically different. New Jersey surf towns are pretty much all kind of the same. I mean, Asbury Park used to be the ghetto by the sea. But now, You know, that's not anymore, you know, it's [00:21:00] not a gentrified, it's not as fun as it used to be.
[00:21:02] So it's not that much, you know, Asbury Park and Atlantic City look different. Yeah. You know, uh, but those towns are not that much different than every other town, you know, um, so you guys have incredible diversity and, you know, the tapestry of those communities are, are a lot different. You guys have more places you can camp on the beach and stuff like that.
[00:21:22] I'm just not really sure. I mean, we do have some incredible people. who really wanted to preserve the history. Mike May is just incredible. Can we talk about what a legend he is? Number one, sweetest guy. Yeah. Number two, he was an animal. Like Charger, Charger. Still is. Yeah. Kind of, you know? And the fact that he wants to, uh, go dig into this history.
[00:21:47] That like, did Mike May just uncover the fact that there was surfing in New Jersey before California? It's crazy. Pretty, pretty crazy.
[00:21:56] Tyler: And, and also with him and like Danny and all [00:22:00] the, you know, like they also discover, you know, the potential first surfer in continental U. S. was Bunker Spreckle's aunt, which is also like a crazy connective tissue there, which is unreal.
[00:22:13] You know, there's just so much, and then, and then Mike freaking uncovers, you know, uh, the Bruce Springsteen surfing photo, finally, that, that uh, we could, you know, we've been told about forever, you know, so it's like, it's kind of wild, like, yeah, you have these, you have a lot of dedicated people, for sure, I also think the fact of the matter is that you have all these beach towns, whereas I think Long Island, like, it's Rockways beach town, Long Beach is a beach town, and that's it, until Montauk, basically.
[00:22:47] Everything else is like a barrier island, where you don't really have towns along the surface. So Fire Island is
[00:22:52] just so exclusive that it's not, I'm just asking you, right? Yeah,
[00:22:55] Tyler: people don't live there really full time, year round. They just [00:23:00] go there to murder people. Yeah, well, they go there to murder people or, uh, you know, or they're, they're, they're gonna go have, uh, crazy, crazy sex or whatever, you know?
[00:23:09] Right, right, right.
[00:23:11] Hedonism
[00:23:11] Tyler: 4 out there in the
[00:23:13] middle of Long Island. I went to school with a lot of guys from Long Island. Yeah. And, uh, it was They're real people. I definitely, I, I Where
[00:23:22] Tyler: breed? Where's Finch's
[00:23:24] I was definitely drawn to these very real people from Long Island. Smittown, Smittown, Long Island.
[00:23:31] Well, it's,
[00:23:31] Tyler: it's like,
[00:23:32] uh, they're similar, like I said. We're, we're, we're distant cousins. There's no bullshit, you know? If they don't like you, they're a dick. And if they do, they're wonderful people. Actually, it was a Tommy Bunga I think I went to school with. Such a match. Yeah, and I kind of just knew him through people, but, you know, I remember his friends.
[00:23:49] It was Thomas. Yes. Thomas Bunga. It's
[00:23:52] Tyler: so funny, because like, I almost went to Salisbury also. It was on my list of like, what schools can I get into that are near the beach that I can surf? You made
[00:23:59] the right choice. Wherever [00:24:00] you went, you went to Flagler for a couple of years, so. Sounds like heaven on earth.
[00:24:04] Yeah. Sounds great.
[00:24:07] Tyler: I think, I think though with New York, it's, it's the fact that we don't have the beach towns as much. Uh, I think we have a big transient population of surfers, particularly in Rockaway where people are here for a few years and then they're gone, you know, and they get in, they ingrain themselves into the community and then they take off to go somewhere where there's better waves or they realize like, I can't, Raise my kid here in New York.
[00:24:33] It's too expensive or something. Yeah, I can
[00:24:35] absolutely see that,
[00:24:36] Tyler: you know I think there's Part of that like where you don't have a lot of the people staying where they grew up you have some But not not as much as new jersey, I think I think Jersey's probably a little bit easier to raise kids than parts of New York and Long Island, too.
[00:24:55] So I think there's something there. I was going to say, you guys have [00:25:00] funding, too? Like, I don't know, I feel like the surfers here don't want to fund things. Like, you're board riders. Like, it's expensive to run a board riders club. Like, we're trying to set it up in New York and it's like, oh, we have to raise 100, 000, you know, to do it.
[00:25:17] Because we need This, we need that, we need, uh, the insurance is crazy expensive, then you're gonna need a lawyer, you need an accountant, you need all these things, and then, like, It becomes like a big enterprise and and I know that like the board riders are well funded because of membership and Sponsorship.
[00:25:37] Yeah,
[00:25:37] get your you know, there's some great core shops that have been in New Jersey for a generation I know
[00:25:44] Tyler: I mean, well let I want to also kind of talk about that you're You're working with some people, uh, on this documentary called We're Still Here, or you're in it
[00:25:56] I was interviewed in it, and I gave, uh, Steve Potter, [00:26:00] who's a terrific young filmmaker Working
[00:26:01] Tyler: on getting that too, eventually.
[00:26:03] Yeah, I gave
[00:26:04] him, uh, a lot of, uh, a lot of footage and photos, which I kind of thought everyone was kind of giving him that footage and photos, you know? I just, it was just stuff that I kind of had around and wound up being relevant to the story, you know? I'm sure people have way more than I do. Um, but yeah, he did a really good job with it, and he really tells the story of the importance of the surf shop as an institution to surfing, and, uh, where that's, you know, what happens if those go away, you know, and the importance of supporting those shops, and those shops are keeping themselves relevant through things like board riders, you know, and they're doing a fantastic job of it.
[00:26:40] Tyler: And that's another thing, like, I feel like a lot of surf shops in New York have come and gone, and some have stayed, and then some have just, like You know, I could speak from experience. My father's shop even, like, it's just sometimes even like you try to be involved and it doesn't even pay off sometimes, too.
[00:26:56] It's really difficult. And again, like, we don't have Beachtown, so the shops [00:27:00]aren't, there aren't many shops close to the beach, you know, with year round business. Right. It's like, Long Beach you have a few, Rockway you have one or two shops, but they're, winter's really difficult, and then like, Montauk you have, but even that, like, has become, like, cyclical with those shops, there's nothing there that's been there for an insane amount of time, you know, like, those, some of them have disappeared over time too.
[00:27:28] Yeah, it's, it's interesting, like those shops in New Jersey, I feel like, make up the backbone of the culture.
[00:27:35] Yeah, and they see the value in, in supporting it, you know, and they, that's good for them, they're financially supporting it, and they're also doing what a surf shop did before the internet. Yeah. You know, the movie discusses this a lot, the, the surf shop used to be, A message board.
[00:27:51] Yeah. Right? You went in there to get, that's where you, you read surfer magazine for the culture of surfing at large, but then you [00:28:00] went into your surf shop to kind of catch the local towns version of it. Yeah. And meet people who do, you know, who could put you in the right direction, get you on the right board and stuff like that.
[00:28:11] Tyler: How do you, how, how is the health of the surf shops in New Jersey then now? Do you feel like they're, they're able to keep up? They seem to be
[00:28:18] doing pretty well. I think a lot of them have made a lot of. Obviously the ones that, where somebody bought the property three generations ago, they're at a pretty solid advantage, you know, um, they own that property, you know, um, and then by having so many different arms and being able to service.
[00:28:38] So many people, I mean, the surf lessons can be, you know, you can be, I know a lot of them were down on surf lessons in LBI this year because the water was so cold, but they made up for it by selling 10, 000 wetsuits, you know, um, but, you know, by being able to service, being able to tell the stories of the brands, right?
[00:28:56] Like when you walk in that surf shop, you need to be an experience that you can't [00:29:00] get On Amazon, right? You need to feel like you're not gonna get that experience watching it on YouTube. They have to have social media presence, but they've also become really good at being just complete outdoor outfitters.
[00:29:11] Like, anybody who needs anything, you know, we also, on the other side of our island, we have the biggest estuary in New Jersey, the Barnegat Bay, which has all these incredible tributaries. And it has fishing, clamming, crabbing, every kind of boating, every kind of, you know, wakeboarding. And like, You can get what you need for all of that stuff in the surf shop because they've been there and they're established in the community for 40, 50 years.
[00:29:33] Tyler: And those are also things that require some hand holding, I think. It's not something you can be like, right, this is the gear I need to get, you know? Like, it's somewhere where you'd want to talk to someone, like if you want to get Fishing gear, or certain camping gear even, or like spearfishing even, which I know is quite popular also in New Jersey, like those are things that are big investments, and you don't want to just buy blindly online, you [00:30:00] want to go somewhere to talk to someone.
[00:30:01] Right,
[00:30:02] and they're not so much, I mean a couple shops have done some spearfishing, and I just know this because my brother is like, The guy that people call, like he's the, when they're in New Jersey to go spearfishing and he can hold his breath for 10 minutes and fend off a shark and I can't even believe he does this shit, you know, it's like, it blows my mind that this is the guy that I shared a room with and beat up for the first, you know, 18 years of my life, but he's legitimately a badass, you know, um, But it's probably
[00:30:30] Tyler: badass because you beat up.
[00:30:31] I hope so. That's right. That's what I like to think You know
[00:30:34] a couple thousand games of one on one out in the street elbowing them in the mouth but um Yeah, like you know, like just drink wear. Yeah, you walk into a surf shop. The first thing you see is 13 water bottles 13 shelves worth of water bottles and towels and everything that you're going to need to be out there, you know Like a better towel than the bath towel or whatever it is and they you know, they do a good job at that
[00:30:59] Tyler: That's, [00:31:00] that's awesome.
[00:31:00] Uh, it, it feels like, yeah, like the shops there do a really good job of keeping pace with the change, you know, and then, but then you also have this incredible surf industry there. You have, you know, Hyperflex, you have Jetty, um, Solite, like there are, you know, legitimate surf brands that are actually, you know, Becoming quite big, you know, I mean hyperflex was incredible because they made a very smart Businesses decision at first not to spend money on marketing really and just get people really good affordable suits
[00:31:36] Now what that's like henderson wetsuits, right which is from new jersey originally.
[00:31:40] Yeah, they make up suit that, you know, anybody can get that suit and get out in the water, you know? Absolutely. But then you got Soulite, which
[00:31:48] Tyler: is like innovative.
[00:31:49] Jamie Must, do you have Jamie on here yet? No, not yet. There's a fascinating man. Really? I, inadvertently, I met that guy, like, my first trip to California, randomly had dinner with him one night at, [00:32:00] like, Hamburger Hoola's or something like that in Cardiff.
[00:32:03] And, like, he was the editor of, uh, I'm sorry, Snow. Snowboard Magazine at the time. And, um, you know, I was 19 and everybody to me was famous then. But, you know, he, uh, he helped develop the first heat molded boots. He was at Burton when that was done. He learned that technology and brought that over. And those boots are fantastic.
[00:32:23] They're really good. I mean, I'm a guy who trips on my boots daily. Like five out of ten times that I stand up and he has made a boot that's molded and nice and tight to your foot that I only fall on maybe three out of every ten times, you know,
[00:32:37] Tyler: it's crazy, right? Like, but it's like innovative. And then, like, I feel like New Jersey has like this whole, like a lot of people from New Jersey has gone on to run the surf industry, you know, that's
[00:32:50] the work ethic.
[00:32:51] Yeah, that's like. I mean, if we were gonna do, if we wanted to go travel, there was nobody, I don't know that, who's funding this stuff in the rest of the [00:33:00] world. But, we had to fund everything ourselves, you know, you, you just learned it. There was, we had, have very good, uh, mentors. Mm hmm. Of, uh, Older surfers who started businesses when we were young.
[00:33:14] Sometimes you worked for them, sometimes you just see them surfing, and you see how they bust their ass, and you see how they're in that business every single day of the summer, and they care about the quality, and they do a great, I mean, I do, uh, marketing for the Tide Table Group, and I just watch those people, and they're just so damn good at giving you a great experience when you go out to dinner, telling the history of the area, you know, talking about the culture of the area.
[00:33:36] You learn something when you go there. Great food, creative drinks. You know, good entertainment and they, they just keep drawing people in and you see how hard, that's surfers, you know, and you see how hard they work, travel in the winter, they see food and drinks that they want to bring back and they give to people on LBI and, you know, we've just always seen that and how hard you had to work and it was so counter to the California [00:34:00] aesthetic of it.
[00:34:01] Yeah, man, we just slept on the beach and everything was always cool. We slept on the beach for an hour after you worked bartending until 4 a. m. until the sun came up, you know, like you worked your ass off and it was, you know, it's, it's a place where you're taught that from a very young age and then You know, you go to, I've had friends that go to Hawaii and they start working in a restaurant, they're the manager in a month.
[00:34:22] Yeah. You know, people are like, you're at work every day? On time? You're a manager!
[00:34:27] Tyler: You know? Well, I think that, and that speaks to why, like, so many of them have gone on to run the surf industry. I imagine, like, I have this image of, like, certain California, you know, people who started a surf business and they got, like, a little bit of traction.
[00:34:42] Uh, but then like someone from Jersey comes in and looks at the books and like, What are you doing? We can't run a business like this, you know? Yeah. Who who are some of the people you would say are kind of like captains of industry that came from New Jersey that you'd you'd want to pay credit towards?
[00:34:57] Well I think
[00:34:58] didn't, like, you know, Peanuts. Vince [00:35:00] Tronick, who had owned a surf shop. He was in integral in getting like the first tr the first trunks that maybe Quicksilver made, like fell apart. Wow. And then they I may be getting the story wrong, but they developed it in Australia, maybe, and they got it to Vince, and Vince got it to California, and they finally made, and I don't remember exactly what brand it was, but they finally figured out how to make trunks that weren't gonna fall apart, you know?
[00:35:25] I mean, guys like, guys like Tessie, and there's so many people who are out there who are running, you know, the surf industry, um, and a lot of them have, you know, I moved on from the surf industry at this point. You know, there's no surf industry anymore. Yeah, it's kind of hurting and that's where Uh, I recently took a job at Jetty.
[00:35:43] Uh, it's just part time and i'm just helping them with some of their content. Um, but hard working the Owners, and the founders, and the guys who run the company still surf. And that's just not the case with these bigger brands [00:36:00] anymore. And this year they wanted to make this pivot to tell the story that we started this company 20, now it's 23 years ago.
[00:36:07] And I've known them the entire time, you know? Um, but I think that, The idea that they're still doing it. And, you know, when you look at some of the brands that are comparable, you know, the same price point that, that, that, that people group, these, maybe the shops group us in with these other brands, they were all started by someone who was in the industry, did well.
[00:36:32] Tyler: Yeah.
[00:36:33] Left. Got a bunch of investors. Yep. And then started a company with a great idea and great branding and great artwork and great designers. And they came out of the gate. Now there's been dozens of them that have failed. Yeah. But the ones that we're compared to, that's how they started. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:36:48] Sweating in a garage, literally screen printing the shirts. That's it, right there, you know, that's what they did for many years while they were bartending at night.
[00:36:58] Tyler: I was just gonna say, I [00:37:00] remember talking to Corey, you know, one of the founders, and like, you know, this is a while ago, and he's like, yeah, I still bartend at night to keep this thing going.
[00:37:10] And like, it's crazy, like, how much Energy they've put into it. Can you give our listeners a little like kind of breakdown of Jetty actually? I think it's really important because I think it's a it's such a good brand. The product is really good Everything's very well made. The aesthetic is wonderful.
[00:37:29] It's pure surf, but it appeals to a wider audience and it's not A sellout brand, you know?
[00:37:36] Definitely not a sellout brand, um, The tagline is draw your own line. Mm hmm. And what that means is, create the life that you want to live, it's not going to be handed to you. You have to figure it out, you know? If there's going to be waves on Tuesday, you still got to pay your rent.
[00:37:52] You better work on Sunday and extra on Monday to Get things done. So you're free to surf on Tuesday. If you want to take a snowboard trip, you want to [00:38:00] be able to run up to Vermont when there's, you have to have everything paid for. You're going to have to work extra hours in the summer so that you can do that and figure it out and figure out who your buddy is up in Vermont.
[00:38:10] That's maybe going to come stay with you in the summer, but you've got a place to stay in New England in the winter. And that's just figuring it out. And hard work, hard work ethic, and then they've got the Jetty Rock Foundation, which is the nonprofit, which is based on water quality initiatives and Basically the the community we're big believers in the community that is based around the water or the mountain Whatever that is and the way that people are connected by that You know, there could be somebody who you really have very little in common with but I drove over the beach I drove over the bridge today and I you know, I saw a bait ball And I'm going to tell you about it because we both are, you know, completely hyper focused on getting striped bass this, this month, you know, and, you know, we were last night, [00:39:00] surf came up a little bit last night before dark.
[00:39:02] I was just checking it. Let's check it in the morning. And the way that in those conversations in your community, uh, the way that those waterways and those things connect people, right? So, you know, Um, Jetty Rock does the water quality, but also helping people in the community when those people, somebody's house burns down, someone has cancer, they help the people who are specific to that, drawn around that waterway or whatever that body of water is.
[00:39:27] And then Storm, um, you know, helping people after storms. So that's, Jetty Rock is constantly raising money. We did a couple of incredible events this year that went off really well. Uh, I've volunteered at those events now for several years. 18 years. I love doing it. Uh, they have a, they have a beer that they do.
[00:39:46] Um, but at the end of the day, they do all
[00:39:49] Tyler: the events for the community. They do all the events,
[00:39:52] but at the end of the day, they're making a, it's, it's a great product made for surfing in our area and people around the country [00:40:00] gravitate to that. You know, and now people in California are even starting to see this very authentic, core, really good, you know, trunk, and, and it's four seasons that we have, you know, we have very long, cold winters that you need good flannels, good jackets, you know, and, and, but then you want a nice, colorful pair of trunks in the summer because the water's 70 degrees for a couple months, so that's it, but It, it feels like
[00:40:25] Tyler: they're, like In surfing, we've been marketed so much of escapism, you know, and run away, go travel, ditch all your roles and responsibilities, and like, probably not the right message.
[00:40:39] That sounds pretty good right now, Tyler. I gotta tell ya. I got a lot of fucking responsibilities. That sounds really, really good. But, but I like the fact that Jetty is like, kind of like, look, sort your shit out so that you can do these things, which is, I think, A great message, actually, and I think it's a healthy way.
[00:40:58] To approach surfing [00:41:00] because I think there's a lot of people who just totally disregard all their other Responsibilities to surf and then it screws up their life in so many ways sometimes like I always feel like surfing can be very Problematic for people right you got
[00:41:13] to take care of your shit You gotta take care of your shit, you gotta take care of your family, and then you're in a position to take care of your community.
[00:41:19] When you take care of your community, you're building the community that when you have kids, you want that community to help raise your kids. And that's very important to me in doing these events. And, so, I was writing for all these different newspapers, magazines 2000s. LBI was not the place that it is today, okay?
[00:41:39] Um, this has something to do with the time, but we're coming from Forkett River to surf. Our parents are bringing us over when it's a nice beach day. We're not going to the beach when there's waves. We're going to the beach when we can, and I'm grateful for the ride. Um, going to 7 Eleven, it's the same beach that I live at right now.
[00:41:55] I learned how to surf right there. That means a lot to me, right? But when we're coming over in the 80s, [00:42:00] Surfing's a different place, right? Different thing, right? Totally different. Uh, I think there was a lot, we would read Surfer Magazine cover to cover, you know, everything about it. And it was like, Groms get, Groms get hassled at the beach.
[00:42:09] Groms get abused. I mean, we would show up and we would be like, please hassle me! Yeah! Hassle me! They didn't give a shit. They did not want to see us there. They didn't hassle us. They didn't acknowledge us. I could have drowned. I could have fucking been eaten by a shark and drowned. Nobody would have cared in the 80s.
[00:42:24] That's just the reality. And those guys didn't really stick around, you know? Um, there was no, you know, we, me and my brother moved ourselves to the island and met people and just being cool to people and, you know, being cool in the water. Somebody needs a place to stay whatever it was, you know, and eventually you just become part of the part of the crew, you know The fact that my brother can hold his breath for 10 minutes helps him a lot and being part of the crew You know, I was writing a column Surf column so I got to know the surf shops and I got to know people and I think once I did it for a Couple years [00:43:00] they were like this isn't I'm not sensationalizing anything.
[00:43:03] I don't I don't You know, pretty much what I'm writing about. It's not just, it's not egotistical. I'm not writing about just myself. If I write a story about myself, it's a ridiculous, embarrassing story or something that, you know, when I was a teenager, some insane thing that just, you know, make people laugh.
[00:43:18] The anti
[00:43:18] Tyler: Chaz Smith. The anti well, you want a good one? I'm paddling
[00:43:23] out in a longboard contest the other day. We had our, um, annual Alliance for Living Ocean Longboard Classic. Yeah. First round. We're paddling out and we, this is our biggest day of the summer and you, when we, they had thought about letting guys ride modified long boards and maybe let us ride leashes and everybody shows up and they're like, no, we're, we're riding the classics and it's, I'm going to say it's four to five foot and that, and straight up and down, like short period, like hollow heavy, five foot head high and we're like, all right, we're just doing this.
[00:43:56] These boards have no rocker and everybody's like, this is what we're [00:44:00] doing. So I'm paddling out and. I'm just getting hammered, you know, flipping the I got my dad's 1966 Weber Performer single hatchet fin. Wow. And I'm just getting pounded on the way out. And I go through one wave and I come up and the seagull flies just over my head and shits on my board.
[00:44:17] And it bounces in my face. This is my heat. Did you win the heat? I did. There you go. It's good luck. I guess it was, but those are the stories that I want to tell in my column. It's not that I won the heat. Yeah. I want to tell the story of how Siegel, you know, Siegel just shit. I think for so many years, I've been able to do it because people are entertained by that kind of stuff.
[00:44:39] Right. Um, but, um, LBI was just not a friendly place coming into, even in through the nineties and into the two thousands, you know, Eighteen miles. Everybody had their spot. Nobody, everybody had their friends. Nobody wanted this happening. Um, and Jetty [00:45:00] came up with this idea for the Clam Jam. And it kind of came out of, because I was, um, you know, I was trying to, I was a freelancer.
[00:45:08] I was rubbing my nickels together. I was hustling. Anything I could get to write for the press of Atlantic City. To write a story about a surf contest for the Asbury Park Press. And then I'll write, About the same contest for surf line and maybe something else for surfing because I had to hustle You know, that was the only way I was gonna pay the bills and and meet people and keep doing what I was doing Yeah, and I was you know out there doing it But then it's like I'm in Ocean City and there's the surf rodeo and there's the Chip Miller contest and then there's the The Brendan Borak and the TJ Stockdale contest and the Asbury Park day at the beach and Manasquan has Big C day and they used to do the Manasquan longboard contest and then Seaside had the grudge match and all the grudge match qualifiers.
[00:45:45] Long Branch has got this going. Every one of those towns had this great community with intergenerational events where you could come and bring your kid and you knew the old guys were sitting up in the stand drinking beer judging up in the lifeguard stand and I was like, why doesn't [00:46:00] LBI have this? Like why are we all so rotten to each other?
[00:46:03] You know? And I kind of started talking about it, and Jeremy and I came up with the idea for the Clam Jam. Yeah. And what that is, is we divide everybody into two groups, older and younger, put everybody's name on a clam, and the, uh, one clam from each group gets picked. So you are Automatically randomly paired with somebody from another generation.
[00:46:24] So you automatically have to meet somebody from the other generation And then the next thing, you know, it's like i was surfing with uh that kid, you know, he's so and so's nephew He's all right, you know, and I met that kid. He was my partner He charges that kid, you know And then all of a sudden people start to get to know each other in the lineup and then once you start to know people it's just Makes things easier and it's the community that you want to live in and when you have a kid you're gonna know that Somebody's gonna keep their eye out for him and help him along
[00:46:50] Tyler: We should, we should install, uh, you know, name tags on wetsuits, kind of like Seinfeld.
[00:46:56] Possibly. You know, with that Seinfeld Listen, if you, we don't have enough time [00:47:00] if you want
[00:47:00] to talk about Seinfeld, because I'm here in New York, I could talk about it all day. I mean I could talk about It would be nice. We could do the airing of the grievances right here. It would be nice to walk down the street You want to do Feats of Strength, Tyler?
[00:47:10] Hi, Fred! We'll do Feats of Strength right now. Let's
[00:47:12] jon: go! Stop crying and fight your father! You're a real disappointment, let me tell you! Kruger! My son tells me you're a real moron!
[00:47:23] Tyler: I love it. Like, but I like, I do feel like that helps so much because it's so easy to dehumanize people in the water. And I always find like, if I just say hi, it all of a sudden Gets rid of that tension, you know, so I think that's, that's an incredible thing.
[00:47:38] It shouldn't
[00:47:38] be, you shouldn't be looking at people at what they're riding. You shouldn't be looking at people how old they are, what they're doing, unless they have one of those silly hats on. That, fuck that. Wait, which, which one? Which hat? Are we talking bucket hats? I just think, I'm okay with the bucket hat.
[00:47:52] I do think it's funny that, um, our water temperature in New York and New Jersey goes from 30? Yeah. To 75. [00:48:00] Longest, biggest, widest spring in the country. World where people surf. Yeah, our water went up 14 degrees in 24 hours the other day. 14 degrees It doesn't swing 14 degrees in Southern, California all year and yet They find reason to wear the most ridiculous shit in the water Like you 2 a spring suit, you know Like that's it and they will wear they will find the reason to wear everything that you can imagine They love to accessorize.
[00:48:26] Just easy
[00:48:27] Tyler: to make fun of. They love to accessorize. It's lovely. Although You So light did come out with a really cool. I saw a sergeant.
[00:48:33] Well, if
[00:48:36] Tyler: it makes you feel better, I'm wearing like the, the cheap version of the John, John, uh, rash guard with the hood on it, the white one. I look like, I look like a used condom.
[00:48:44] Now we're
[00:48:45] talking about skin cancer. I get it. I get it. You know, but you get it passed for skin cancer.
[00:48:50] Tyler: Well, when you get older too, you kind of just stop caring about how you look a little bit more. You're kind of like, I don't care. I need to do this because of functionality, right? As opposed [00:49:00] to looking good.
[00:49:00] Looking cool. Right. And, and I don't grow long hair anymore. So
[00:49:04] I bet you had a really efficacy, it's nice on the surf shop, your, you know, had some nice surf and ski shop, right? Yeah, yeah. You definitely had some nice hair.
[00:49:12] Tyler: I had some nice hair for a little bit. And then, uh, then it was just like. Let's just go.
[00:49:18] Let's
[00:49:18] Tyler: just get
[00:49:19] rid of
[00:49:19] Tyler: it. It's fine. It's
[00:49:20] totally cool. I mean, in our community now, you would be very well accepted. So the, the clam jam kind of set the tone after a couple of years and people were like, this is great. And, um, community would come down. It's, uh, after the season's over. So dogs are allowed on the beach and everyone's comes down on a Saturday and it's also kind of like a relief.
[00:49:41] All right. The season's over. The busy season's over. We're like, oh, this is, you know, we're back. It's not that we have a problem with the people that come, you know, they support our economy, but you know, you need, we're happy to see things quiet down again and everybody's having a good time, you know, you get solid surf returning again, and it really is a cool festival, and I think [00:50:00] building that community, uh, because then it was, it wasn't just that, you know, then Jetty, Jetty.
[00:50:06] Ran, started running the Coquina Jam two years later, and it, um, The money went toward David's Dream Believe Cancer Foundation. Every year, we raise about a hundred thousand dollars. That goes right to the, one contest, the Coquina Jam. Wow. Hundred thousand dollars, and then he gives it to people in our community that are struggling with cancer within a week.
[00:50:24] Wow. He's an amazing guy. Um, so, Not only, you know, we're helping the community, um, but then the Alliance for Living Oceans starts, a longboard classic, and then so and so starts a paddle race. And it was kind of all these things because I think for a long time we were just, you know, our powers that be, because we have five different governments on this 18 hour, 18 mile island, which it's insane.
[00:50:47] Um, the, the levels of politics and all that shit, but it was, it was just, no, we're not not allowed to do that. You're not allowed to do that. Now the township sets up a bar and you can drink on the beach. 15 years ago, you would have got shot for drinking on [00:51:00] the beach. Now they're encouraging you to buy a drink on the beach, but So, in creating all those events, you bring in this demographic, and these people are into this, these guys ride this, these guys come from here, all of a sudden people start to know each other.
[00:51:13] Mm hmm. Superstorm Sandy hits in 2012. Yeah. You immediately have a group ready to go jump into action. Community is already there. Everybody knows each other. So and so's house got flooded. His kid was my partner in the clam jam. We're going over there to gut his house and help him with whatever he needs.
[00:51:30] And that's been just a trademark of Jetty. And it's been incredible.
[00:51:35] Tyler: Do you think, like, part of the reason there was such a downfall in the surf industry is because they lost focus on the locals and the local communities around surfing? Like, I feel like, I feel like that, I feel like the way forward for a lot of brands now is almost hyper local.
[00:51:58] You know, and [00:52:00] focusing just on those communities that are near them instead of, you know, trying to be everything for everyone. And I feel like that's almost the way forward. And maybe, maybe it doesn't have to be like just that community, but regionally, you know? Right.
[00:52:14] Right. And I, I mean, we are selling.
[00:52:17] 750 Locations around the world who they're all in a community that relate to our story Yeah, if we can do a good job of telling it, right? I think just for a long time surf culture period was just so top down You know that the brands are like this is surf culture and this is you know Our ads run the magazine and that's the voice of surf culture.
[00:52:42] So whatever we say is surf culture That's what surf culture is, you know, and you lose that kids in the garage building weird stuff, right and you lose the Whatever this club starting over here and these guys doing this fun little creative stuff because that's the [00:53:00] heart of it, man That's like that's everything those little towns people being creative.
[00:53:04] I Have a maybe passive interest in the world tour You know, like the fact that it's, and I don't, I don't feel the need to, I, I, it's wild to me how much shit the WSL gets. Like, I don't follow sports. I don't know, does Major League Baseball get this much shit from their fans? Does, does the NFL get this much shit?
[00:53:25] Cause like, all I hear is how everybody hates everything that they do. And I, I'm indifferent. I'm just like, I care less once in a while. Tune in, you know, watch Chopu, watch Pipe, you get into a little bit of a storyline from this guy. But for the most part, also because I covered it for ESPN and they covered it like the NFL.
[00:53:41] Yeah. Um, on the other side of that, we didn't have surf advertisers, so we weren't beholden to anybody. We could say the truth about X Rider and not have to worry that they were, that this brand was going to pull their ad, right? We didn't have to run content because that's what they told us to run. And so they're kind of running the show.
[00:53:59] at [00:54:00] that point, and you're losing these little, these cool little hometown stories. And I think the surf media was run by people who did see that, but at the end of the day, who paid the, you know, who pays the bills, who keeps the lights on, right? And they just kind of dictated that for a long time. And I think, you know, to a degree, um, the internet kind of democratized things a little bit, like, uh, Um.
[00:54:21] I was just getting to this. So, you know, the photo of like. He fell into my trap. Perfect blue, you know, water trap. Yeah. Guy getting barreled in colorful trunks and in a, in a blue water, blue wave that everything was just perfect was like, that's, you know, that was, it's nice to look at. But guy in New Jersey in a dark black barrel and the winds blowing 150 miles offshore.
[00:54:47] So much more interesting. You know, and it's like. Yeah. When people say, that's interesting, and it goes around the internet, it doesn't, you know, the surf magazines have to pay attention to that, I think, and Well, what do you think of that? So,
[00:54:59] Tyler: like, I get, I, I [00:55:00] There's so many things I want to touch on here, but it's like, first, the democratization of surfing.
[00:55:07] Um, you know, we grew up kinda in a surfing monolith, I think, for, you know, it was probably like the 70s, 80s, and 90s. was surfing's kind of monolithic age, I would call it, where it was top down, magazines dictated what was what, what was cool, and we didn't have access to surfing anywhere else.
[00:55:29] Obviously, you and I weren't aware or around or aware in the 60s and 70s, but just the stories that I'm getting from the locals.
[00:55:35] Yeah. Like, what about, how many stories have you heard of guys in, like, 1970 taking their longboard and cutting it in half? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Really? Fucking cool. There's a book to be written just about that. Absolutely. Right? And I mean, yes, it was because they were seeing the magazines, but like people doing it themselves.
[00:55:51] Back then, a surf shop, they got boards from California and then they made a lot of the other stuff. The surf shop owner made the stuff, made skateboard wheels, right? Exactly. [00:56:00]Made fins. Yeah. Had a, had a resin mold and made that stuff. So maybe 80s. Yeah, I
[00:56:06] Tyler: would, I was going to say late seventies, you know, when like the, the industry started to build and like, You know, the magazines had like, you know, surfer surfing solidified themselves.
[00:56:16] And I'm going to say that in
[00:56:17] the 80s, surfing gained an awareness of itself. Like it, there was suddenly there was a surf history. And money. Yes. It was those, those, you know, gotcha was making a ton of money, but it was also like the surfer magazine show was very good in that they, they were the, I feel like that was the first time they examined the culture going back to the 50s and 60s.
[00:56:36] Right? Yeah. In the 70s when guys were still. You know, burning out, living in vans. They weren't examining the forties and fifties, right? They would laugh
[00:56:44] Tyler: at it, you know, like, uh, like in Big Wednesday, the scene where they're like, you know Don't fall over! Yeah, you know, exactly. So I think like, yeah, like 80s, 90s, early 2000s, very monolithic.
[00:56:57] Like, they could tell us What, what style [00:57:00] do we wear? Oh, baggy, baggy shorts are in, and glass slipper boards, you know, Slaters, you know, potato chip boards, and all that sort of stuff, and we had nowhere else to look other than that. ESPN, uh, Hot Summer Nights were the Hot, hot summer nights. VHS,
[00:57:17] man. Watched it a thousand times in January and February.
[00:57:20] Forkett River, New Jersey.
[00:57:21] Tyler: Best thing ever. And you had to like, stay up late, you know, a lot of the record
[00:57:26] it, and then you would record the sh they would play like beach volleyball after it. Yeah, exactly. I did not give a fuck about beach volleyball. No! But here I am watching it, because they're running on Hot Tuesday Night, right?
[00:57:36] Tyler: Exactly! It's like, just the hopes of getting a glimmer of surf. Right. And there's this whole thing. And then like 90s, you know, these companies go public and they start to get more money and they get so ambitious. I mean, you got the Quicksilver crossing, you got the Odyssey, you know, you got a freaking seaplane for Billabong and like, they're flush with cash.
[00:57:58] And, [00:58:00] but like the two thousands, things start to democratize. Video cameras become cheaper. I mean, New Jersey and New York, we got what, like this Eastern Lines, you know, and Surfer Magazine, where it was like East Coast Surfer,
[00:58:15] and it was like a two color pull out.
[00:58:18] Tyler: Yeah, right. Yeah. And like, we had that. And you would see maybe once in a while, a good wave from New Jersey, Eastern Surf would would give some coverage, you know, would give coverage, but it still didn't look like, you know, The stuff we see now and the stuff that's being documented today, you know, God, like now, like pro surfers have to come to New Jersey in the winter to get the shot, you know, it's so weird, like, and as a journalist and as a surf journalist, you know, someone who's covered surfing over the last 25 years.
[00:58:51] You know, what do, what do you make of that? What do you make, do you think it's a healthy thing for surfing that, that it's become democratized? Or do you think we are [00:59:00]missing, we're losing something by not having a monoculture of surfing?
[00:59:03] Um, I, I. I wonder if the monoculture is just gonna go from just being the, the brands to Instagram.
[00:59:15] Tyler: Yeah. You
[00:59:16] know, it's like if you're, I mean, if you're following 30 different people doing 30 different things and you're getting, you're seeing what's happening in your own town, that's really cool. But if you're just following, and, and frankly, um, I mean, New Jersey is kind of running the surf media right now.
[00:59:33] Okay, so you have the number two online surfing influencer in the world is Ben Gravey. Yeah. Right? Great story. Awesome guy. I'm gonna say probably the, a guy who has kept a pro surfing, uh, Just by making great content and being an all around excellent person is Rob Kelly Yeah, like at a national level. I think if you compared Rob's Impressions.
[00:59:59] [01:00:00] Yeah, he does it. He does a really good job Fantastic surfer
[01:00:03] Tyler: probably better than some people in the top, you know
[01:00:05] CT, right? And can go and enter a contest and and you know get a result whenever he wants and he gets to test all the new Wave pools, right? That's that's not bad And then Um, Stab. Yeah. Is, uh, Ciramella.
[01:00:23] Yeah. Right? Who's, I mean, phenomenal surfer. And Brendan Borak. Yeah. I'm sorry, uh, Brendan Buckley is from New Jersey as well. That's four guys. When I was, let's say, 30 years old, my job was to cover what was going on in New Jersey. Yeah. They were the guys. They were the teenagers at that time. Wow. So I was covering those guys, interviewing those guys, kind of follow them.
[01:00:45] Um, and to also the, the Matt Keenan, the Sam Hammer, the Andrew Gessler generation. And my job was, my role was almost like, um, If there was like a small city that had a newspaper back in the day and a minor league baseball [01:01:00] team, I was like the, the, the reporter that followed the minor league baseball team, right?
[01:01:04] And I was following these guys and they, you know, if I was interviewing them, it was good for them and good for their sponsors and stuff like that. But those guys are all the same age and they all came out of New Jersey and look at, they're kind of, It's very influential right now, right? They're, they're really, they do have a huge impression on the surf world at large.
[01:01:25] Tyler: Not to mention, I bet there's so many people who work within some of the companies, you know, whether it's design or art or creative direction, like, that are probably from New Jersey as well. Yeah, snow as well. Yeah, exactly, you know. It's um, Let me get, let me get your thoughts on this then. So, like, the amount of attention, the attention New Jersey has gotten over the last decade, I would say, with these big swells.
[01:01:50] I mean, Slater came and surfed a few years ago on a huge swell with Sam Hammer. You had I have a great story about that. Oh, go on.
[01:01:58] We can segue. It wasn't Let's segue. [01:02:00] It just wasn't, it's not that interesting. I was surfing in the neighborhood. Yeah. And it was Uh, Great Southwest, we went up there for Southwest Wind, surf was firing, and it was, it was a moderate crowd, we were getting waves, and then there was nobody there, and we just kept getting wave after wave, and we're like, where the f k, oh, and then you get back, you know, you get back in the car, and it was like, oh, Slater was in Spring Lake, you know, and it was funny, because I was in the city, I came to the Burton store that next week, because it was maybe November, and they were like, yeah.
[01:02:33] Launching the Olympics, the Snowboard Olympic, I was asked to cover. The, you know, the designer had come up with the new Olympic outfit that the snowboarders were gonna wear. So it was like, any opportunity, you know, come to the city, a little assignment. Yeah. Get dinner, and Slater walked in to talk to Jake Burton.
[01:02:50] And I was standing there. That's crazy. And then when they were done, Like, you know, I talked to Slater. I was like, did you get some goop? He's like, yeah. I'm like, I just want to thank you because everybody cleared out where I [01:03:00] was and it was just as good. He's like, you know, it really seemed like every single jet he was doing.
[01:03:04] I don't like it was but yeah But you were saying Slater comes to New Jersey,
[01:03:08] Tyler: but like all these people now like New Jersey has gotten so much attention for the waves And I'm one like do you feel any vindication because you've been covering it for so long? And, you know, like, and do you think, like, I don't know, like, I guess, like, uh, you know, yeah.
[01:03:26] Do you feel vindicated for that? And do you, how do you feel about your, your area
[01:03:31] getting that level of exposure? I think so. I think it's not the first time, right? Maybe? I don't know if it was 10 or 15 years ago, New Jersey had, you know, when dark fall came out. Yeah, well, it's been the last,
[01:03:42] Tyler: like, decade and a half, I would say.
[01:03:43] But maybe, maybe that
[01:03:44] was a peak, and maybe there was another, it was a little bit of a downturn. New England gets it sometimes, right? Everybody wants to go get that LaVecchia shot when the leaves return, which is awesome. Um, but I think we're, maybe we're experiencing that again. Like you said, that, you know, [01:04:00] the book, the research, that kind of stuff.
[01:04:02] Um, I do, I feel pretty, uh, Surfer Magazine is going to make a comeback. Yeah. And it will probably be one issue. One print issue with a very substantial digital presence. Um, it was bought and sold and bought and sold. Yeah. The arena group that has it now is pretty amazing. Sees something in it and they've hired Jake Howard.
[01:04:27] Yeah, who's great. Who's awesome. So when I did ESPN Uh, I actually hired Jake Howard as my boss It was great I hired him as my boss. Yeah, they asked me if I wanted a promotion And I was like, I don't really want like I got enough other stuff. This is a part time thing for me I'm not an ESPN sports guy.
[01:04:48] That's I don't see myself You That's not going to be my thing, you know, and they were like, I was like, is it okay if I just keep my job and keep doing what I'm doing? It was, it was actually in September in Long [01:05:00] Beach that I had this conversation with the, the manager. So he was like, yeah, but then we need to hire somebody.
[01:05:05] I'm like, Jake Howard just left surfer. So he gets to hold the Jake and has a couple of meetings and he's like, yeah, John said you might be. And so Jake comes on, he's my boss. I technically hired him. So, uh, Jake and I have, have a great relationship. He's been made the editor of Surfing, Surfer, and he's going to be using me for East Coast stuff.
[01:05:26] And, you know, he sees the value that just having this presence and the stuff that I've already done. So you're the new Kevin Welsh. The new Kevin Welsh. Man, my jokes can't compare to Kevin. Am I going to walk around the beach with fake poop now? Kevin Welsh, love that guy. Or are you going to make an energy surf movie now?
[01:05:45] Those were fantastic, man. They were the best. You saw the East Coast. You know, like the same time as Taylor Steele, right? It was like, same bands, but you saw stuff happening on the East Coast. You saw the hurricanes being covered. He did a great [01:06:00] job of that.
[01:06:00] Tyler: And the surfers in Hawaii, you know, who wouldn't get press otherwise.
[01:06:04] And you got to see, like, all the guys from Frank Walsh to Dean Randazzo, and like, all like, New York and New Jersey and East Coast surfers, you know, charging. That you They wouldn't cover him in the other movies, you know, in other, in the magazine. He
[01:06:19] knew that there would be a market for that on the East Coast.
[01:06:22] He did a great job. It was brilliant. What a fun guy, too. He really is. He's a blast.
[01:06:26] Tyler: So you're the new version of him. We'll
[01:06:28] see. We'll see.
[01:06:29] Tyler: I'm curious, though, then, like, what do you think, how do you think Surfer can position itself, you know, for the future because everything is so democratized, actually, and I feel like you've got things becoming hyper local.
[01:06:46] Swell Season is a podcast that tends to focus on New York surfing, and I, you're starting to see that in other parts of the world, even, like the UK has their surf podcast. Right. You know, you're seeing it more and more, and I'm like, how do you aggregate that, I [01:07:00] guess, into the magazine? Well,
[01:07:01] I think there are some magazines out there that are doing a very good job of telling, you know, they're very close to the inside of the sport.
[01:07:09] They're very close to the industry, they're very close to the WSL, and they're They're very good at telling that story. Yeah. But there's more stories out there and I think that's what Surfer's gonna do. We're gonna have those voices and I, I hope that we have those voices that we're talking about from the local communities and the things that they're doing and, you know, I just got to cover Interview Sid Abruzzi, um, I interviewed David Melphin on the, uh, the movie that he just made called Wade Into The Water, which was fantastic.
[01:07:39] Yes. Um, so, by giving these people a voice, but also, um, maybe, Making sure that they're valid voices first, you know, it's not just going to be someone who popped up and started surfing six months ago And suddenly has a brand and they're all over, you know, they're all over Instagram We don't need to you know, you got to put in the [01:08:00] time Yeah, and really have a good story or tell a good story or have the right product that you know We can be the voice for that person and I'm really looking forward to it.
[01:08:10] Um, I'm going to You try to do a little franchise series, uh, where we talk to surfers about their musical influences. Okay. So, um, I want to talk to a surfer and find out that one band that Or that one artist that they heard, and where they were, then they heard it. And what, where they were going, and what they were eating, and who they were with, who gave it to them.
[01:08:38] Did somebody give them a dubbed copy of this tape that they played? Was it a record? Excuse me. Was it streaming? Were they on a trip somewhere and someone started playing it and then they had to go see that band And they got it and that band got them into this. So I want to talk to the surfers about this and the first one I did was Cassia Meador.
[01:08:58] Nice. And Was [01:09:00] surfing
[01:09:00] Tyler: just down the
[01:09:01] beach. She was just here. We just we just talked about that last week that she was gonna be here with Pilgrim. She was here Thursday. Yeah, but You know, she talked about her experience with the Violent Femmes, you know? And it's like, she just wanted to talk about it. And I'm like, and how that band led her into this type of music.
[01:09:19] And the, you know, the cassettes that she had. And I don't want to give too much away. Yeah. But I want to make this a series. Brad Gerlach is lined up next. You know, I got to talk to the young guys. Got to talk to the young surfers as well. You know, maybe it was that part in a movie in that band that, who is that band?
[01:09:35] They had to look up that band. Go down the, the road of, of influence and I, uh, if that could be a recurring thing, that's, that's not just the results of the quarterfinals of this contest at Huntington. That's surf culture,
[01:09:50] Tyler: you know, that is, you know, the contests are not surf culture, you know, I mean, they're great, they're part of it, but they're not the be all end all, unlike many other [01:10:00] sports, you know, where it's, it's only competition.
[01:10:03] Surfing is, like, music is so integral, and like God, like, here, unsolicited story, you know, for me, it's Texas is the reason, and what next? Luke Egan Margo segment, you know, and that like set me off onto a whole indie rock You know, freakin thing in the late, late 90s, and now I'm like listening to everything from Get Up Kids to Knapsack and, you know, uh, Sunday Day Real Estate.
[01:10:31] You are talking
[01:10:32] my language. This is it. This is it, man. This is exactly what, what we want to talk about. That's exactly it. You know,
[01:10:38] Tyler: those are the things, you know, and like, God, surf movies had such an important, uh, play in that. And I'm curious, like, with the young guys, like, Do, do they watch surf movies and get music from that at all?
[01:10:51] Or do they just get it from streaming and you know, like I feel like we were influenced by the surf movies, the music, and that influenced our surf, [01:11:00] our musical taste. Right. Whereas I feel like it's the other way around. Almost like kids now will listen to music and apply that to surfing. They're not watching surfing and then like, oh this is my, it's okay.
[01:11:11] That's interesting. I haven't thought about that. Yeah. You know, like, I'm curious like if that's like how the kids now. Look at music and surfing as opposed to how we did
[01:11:20] it. I just had this great experience. I have a 12 year old who skateboards with a couple of kids who are a little bit older, right? And they're really into surfing and they're really into skating.
[01:11:30] They just want to surf and skate all day, every day. And, you know, I have weeknights. I'm like, I'll drive you guys to the skate park and I love it because I still want to skate, you know I'm going at half speed and I have a rule that you're not allowed to fall
[01:11:42] Tyler: Yeah,
[01:11:43] but like we're driving up to the skate park and they're talking about, you know, whatever boners and you know There's things that these kids talk about a little older than my son, right?
[01:11:52] Tyler: Yeah,
[01:11:52] and they're like they're like John You ever heard of the Bro Hymn? You ever, you ever listen to the Bro Hymn? Like,
[01:11:59] Tyler: how have I [01:12:00] not? I mean, I had to stop. I had to stop singing Pennywise
[01:12:04] at a certain point. Because it just felt like gym class. But, you know, you got into deeper music and stuff like that.
[01:12:12] But I'm like, yeah, we're listening to this. And you know, you guys want to listen to NoFX? You know, and it's just like, I'm gonna play and we listen to Wu Tang. And I'm just like, so excited that these kids are into that stuff. And they're not going to stay into it. They're going to find what's their generation.
[01:12:27] But right now I'm like, let's harness. And my kid wants nothing to do it. He's just like, man, but these kids are psyched. Well, I
[01:12:34] Tyler: feel like kids today look at music differently than we did. We identified, um, with music as a culture, and we identified ourselves with that, where I feel like kids say because streaming is so affordable, like you don't have to save up to buy an album, so you don't totally identify with that album, you could be into so many different types of music now and be much more open minded to it.
[01:12:59] And I don't
[01:12:59] think [01:13:00] you listen to an album. No, you don't listen to an album. It's a Playlist or a thing on, I don't have TikTok. I don't know how it works. I don't,
[01:13:07] Tyler: not TikTok, I don't either, but like, you know, the streaming is like, I love it because I get exposed to so much. I'm into so much more music than I ever was.
[01:13:16] As a kid, I was really into a certain style of music and identified with it. But now, it's like, oh, I'm listening to Tyla. I'm listening to some hip hop. I'm, oh, I mean, Drake is, I mean, not Drake, of course. Kendrick Lamar, sorry, is like, uh Don't
[01:13:33] get caught on the wrong side of that beef, man. You're gonna walk out of here and get shot.
[01:13:36] Come on, Tyler.
[01:13:39] Tyler: So like, that, you know, it's like, really cool. And I think kids today are much more open minded, actually, than we probably were.
[01:13:47] Yeah, yeah, I hope so. I'm not really I'm not really sure what they're, what they're doing. I don't have
[01:13:52] Tyler: kids, so I don't know. Yeah, yeah.
[01:13:53] Um, my kid likes whatever, uh, I don't.
[01:13:56] That's his thing. It's like, I listen to punk rock because it was [01:14:00] rebellious. Yeah. And he listens to everything else because it's rebellious. Yeah. You know? Um, there's been a couple of times I've caught him, you know, I, I think we heard him one time just bust out. We were listening to Jawbreak and Aaron go, one, two, three, four, who's punk, what's the score?
[01:14:15] And I turned around and he immediately was like, I don't really know the song. I don't know, you know, and then he'll never admit that he did that. Um, yeah, I mean, it's, it's definitely tough. You don't have a surf movie anymore where there's, and now I think, um, it's so easy to get, um, music that's okay. And rather than go through the rights, uh, nobody seems to go through the rights to get.
[01:14:39] Just to pay a couple of bucks to get a song from an independent label Which would be kind of cool if they did that They you know Because i've done some video stuff where I kind of have to use free music because that's what the budget is And when you go through some of those sites where they just aggregate it's awful.
[01:14:54] It's fucking god awful. There's some painful. It's terrible Yeah, and I feel like I'm, you know, the stuff I'm doing is [01:15:00] like, that's like for marketing, you know. They're not looking for a cutting edge song, but I get it, and then I'll be watching something else. I'll be like, that's the same song. We're all, we're all pulling from the same little pool.
[01:15:09] Well, it's the
[01:15:10] Tyler: proliferation of lo fi hip hop in, in every video. Yeah, yeah. I did
[01:15:15] get onto that, what is that, log raps? Oh, yeah, yeah, LogRaps LJ turned me on to that, and that's pretty cool, you know, and I remember, um, talking to, um, Joel Tudor. Yeah. When he was out here for, last time we talked, I think, and he was talking about his, how much he loved New York.
[01:15:35] He used to have a place in the city, and he was like, it was just 90s hip hop, man. I had friends out in New York who were into 90s hip hop, and I was drawn to it, and then I discovered the surf through that, and that was, that's a pretty cool thing.
[01:15:44] Tyler: Well, yeah, but it's interesting. Yeah. I feel like, and, and this is, I wanted to talk about this, because you are a music aficionado, especially when it comes to punk rock.
[01:15:55] And I'm curious, like, your thoughts on people who claim to be punk and [01:16:00] like punk, but then seem to disregard, like, a lot of the ethos of punk, and even some of their favorite punk band lyrics, they don't even realize what they're saying. Because I feel like, particularly in surfing, we have a lot of people who promote, like, oh, punk, and, but, Then they're like the total opposite of punk rock as people and politically, you know, yeah
[01:16:20] I mean if you're considered if you're politically conservative, that's your thing Yeah, but don't I don't understand how you can claim to like that religion.
[01:16:29] Yeah, you know if you're anti science I don't understand how you can listen to bad religion You know Scientists. Yeah scientists writing punk rock music. No effects. You know, I went to
[01:16:40] Tyler: the no effects show How was it? Oh my god, holy crap. It was awesome but My friend who got the tickets had us stand up front the whole time, so my planter's fasciitis was KILLING me afterwards.
[01:16:55] Yeah, just
[01:16:56] pushed into that Brooklyn barricade, man. And just standing there for four [01:17:00] hours straight. Oh, I bet.
[01:17:00] Tyler: I bet. Who op ed it? It was Murphy's Law and, ah, forgetting Was it crazy in the
[01:17:06] brains? No,
[01:17:08] Tyler: no, it was a, a guy, he's um, he was uh, no use for names, uh, brother of the lead singer. Okay, Tony Sly's brother.
[01:17:16] Yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. But um, but oh, it was amazing. But it, it's, it just makes me laugh, like when like, I see a Matt Biolis, who's somewhat, you know, politically conservative, you know. Quoting Black Flag and using punk ethos in their stuff, but you're
[01:17:30] like You read anything that anybody from Black Flag has written is writing now about politics, and it is not anything conservative.
[01:17:38] No. You know? It's just I mean, it's just so easy to be a conservative, because you don't ever have to find a answer to anything. Yeah. All you do is point at the problems, and you never have to come up with a solution. Right? And or say that the problems actually aren't problems. There's no such thing as racism.
[01:17:55] We're not changing we're not destroying the planet, you know? It's ridiculous. But, I [01:18:00] mean, yeah, um, punk rock's the music of rebellion, and it is absolutely, it's And when I hear people be like, I wish Rage Against the Machine would just do music. When did they get so political? Yeah, when did Rage Against the Machine get so fucking political?
[01:18:17] I mean, but if you're conservative, I guess you just kind of got to ignore the lyrics and just go and like, listen to the three chords because your other option is going to see the Kid Rock fucking tour. That's it. You're going to go see Kid Rock and Charlie Kirk. I mean, that's, that's a real good time, you know?
[01:18:33] I mean, I do notice a lot of conservatives really like Cali Reggae. Yeah. Cause it's like, hey, we can smoke weed and listen to this cool music without any of the music, the idea of the struggle that this music came from in Jamaica 50 years ago, you know? Sublime, man. Well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna I love Sublime.
[01:18:52] I love Sublime. I'm not dissing Sublime, but Sublime absolutely had a reverence Yeah. for that music. [01:19:00] Jamaica to London type of music, right? But they but they were like
[01:19:05] Tyler: this gateway drug for for so many surfers But then they didn't listen to the influence. They just like sublime. It stopped at sublime It didn't go beyond and seems
[01:19:15] like all the bands that were really influenced by them did not they're not listening to no, and I got I mean, I it's funny because uh, A writer at our local beach magazine.
[01:19:26] Yeah You Which is a amazing publication called the sandpaper and there just aren't too many beach magazines like this Left, you know a good weekly, you know, like even in the city. Yeah. No, we
[01:19:38] Tyler: don't have the village voice You don't have the village voice anymore and
[01:19:40] that was that was amazing, but we still have this it's run by owned by a family It's not owned by a corporation who's gonna go.
[01:19:46] This isn't making money this week. Cut it Yeah, you know, um, and I worked for those newspapers for a long time. Yeah, uh, but she interviewed me about because she's young and she's You Very smart. And she, you know, [01:20:00] recognizes the influence of Sublime on beach culture. Yeah. And she interviewed me as if I was interviewing someone from the 60s.
[01:20:06] You know what I'm saying? It was like, you were around in 1994. What was it like? And, you know, I listened to, you know, 40 Ounces to Freedom. Yeah. And it's like, Went back and listened to it, because after the self titled record came out, and every dude with a guitar started playing it at happy hour at every beat, started playing what I got, it was like, I'm done with Sublime, I don't need this anymore, I got enough other music, but.
[01:20:30] When you go back and you really listen to it, you're like, This is, this is some really good stuff. And they covered the Descendants, right? And there was references to Fishbone. And there's a 1974 Grateful Dead song that has a rap right in the middle of it and a hip hop beat. And they brought all of this amazing stuff together and, uh, I will always praise KRS One, you know, I know because the KRS One exactly right.
[01:20:54] And there's a song about Eazy E, right. And there is so much great and about the riots. [01:21:00] They
[01:21:00] Tyler: spoke truth about the riots. It wasn't about Rodney King. It was about being able to buy a police. And it's like. It's like, so funny how people just totally forget
[01:21:12] that stuff. They forgot that, and it's just like, now you just cocktail some weed and it's mellow music.
[01:21:18] Yeah. And it's, you know, you don't have to think about what's, what's beyond that, you know? Exactly. Exactly.
[01:21:24] Tyler: Um, gotta wrap it up here, but, uh, John, like, So what are you working on next? Is there any, any bigger project? And when, when's the, the, the anthology book of your writings coming out? I don't know if anyone's buying a book, you know?
[01:21:40] I don't, I just think it's Clearly they are. It's a
[01:21:43] tough thing. Rizzoli keeps doing these surf books, so Maybe, maybe. I mean, you got Hewlett on here. People are buying his book. There's nobody's going to buy a book for the next 10 years.
[01:21:52] Tyler: Well, it was interesting with Hewlett. We had him, you know, it was funny, like, I was asking him, like, who [01:22:00] Are we able to make a living anymore as a surf journalist?
[01:22:02] And he's like, at the peak, maybe 40 people were doing it. And now there's probably four. And I think you might be one of the four. Well, I just do. I'm not because
[01:22:12] so much of what I do is marketing. Yeah, but it's like all of it. It's part of what I do. And I'm very grateful that I have the opportunity to do that.
[01:22:22] Yeah, the book, if someone wants me to write the book, but for me, you know, Jetty wants to really remind the world that it was it's surfing from an area of the world that is a harsh place and that the rewards are hard to get. And, and we're going to do that. Yeah. Uh, I'm really excited that Surfer is coming back and you know, that was the Bible of the sport, man.
[01:22:44] My uncle got me,
[01:22:46] Tyler: he got me that
[01:22:46] subscription for Christmas every year. And I read Surfer Magazine. So to be coming back into it with Surfer Magazine and someone I love as much as Jake, that's a huge deal for me. Um, so that, you know, those are the things that are, that are on [01:23:00] the table right now, and frankly, September's coming.
[01:23:03] I don't want to do anything. I don't want to do shit. I'm gonna make a hard pitch. No, whatever it is, I don't want to do anything. I want to go surfing, and then I want to go striped bass fishing in November. You need to
[01:23:14] Tyler: do a
[01:23:14] surf podcast. We're going to Fest to see Hot Water Music.
[01:23:18] Tyler: You need to go, you need to podcast, man.
[01:23:20] Like, Jersey doesn't have a surf podcast. You, you should talk to Surfer. You've had
[01:23:25] everybody from New Jersey, right? They don't have any new stories. They're just back there eating pizza. I think, I think
[01:23:32] Tyler: you could do a well written podcast, a narrative podcast even, that could be short. Surfer magazine, Should, that's what Surfer should do, I think, personally, they should go out and aggregate all the podcasts that are out there and bring them under their banner and say, hey, we'll pay for your, you know, your, your maintenance of it, of the thing, you can do everything.
[01:23:56] You know, we'll cover the background. Jake, are you
[01:23:57] listening to his pitch right now? This is it. This is it. This is his pitch. You're gonna [01:24:00] send this to him, right? I'm in the elevator with Tyler right now. I'm pitching.
[01:24:02] Tyler: You do that, and then you can sell it as advertising on top of the digital ads and everything else.
[01:24:08] It would totally work, and it would focus on hyper niche stuff, and you can pull lots of stories from it that could go digitally, too.
[01:24:16] So the, what I think is interesting is that the, we talk about how our, you know, you can't have a video on Instagram that's longer than 25 seconds because nobody has the attention span, but for some reason they're going to listen to me and you yammer for 90 minutes.
[01:24:32] Like, what is that?
[01:24:33] Tyler: Because people drive. So that's what it is. People sit on the subway. Right. And they can't visually see it. Right. But they can hear it. Or they're cleaning the dishes. Or they're doing something around the house. A podcast is great for that. Okay. And I mean, David Lee Scales, you know, can do two hour podcasts with, God, like, you You know, some surfboard shaper who's probably pretty boring in my opinion, some of them, you know, but they're able to do it like, God, you can totally do [01:25:00] that.
[01:25:00] And I almost think like, it would be like how Eastern Surf, one of the best things about Eastern Surf was Is this the Eastern Surf, the pullout or the magazine?
[01:25:08] ESM. ESM. Mez. Yeah. Mez. Okay.
[01:25:11] Tyler: Well, the best things about that was you never knew if you were going to be in that magazine or not. Because it was so egalitarian.
[01:25:17] You could wind
[01:25:18] up in there. You could
[01:25:19] Tyler: always just be right place, right time. Tom Dugan would be great. And Mez would be touring up and down the Dugan's from New York, Mez is
[01:25:27] from New Jersey. Exactly. The Godfathers, right? Mez, I told, just talked to Mez last week. We bought a photo of him for In Legends. Yeah, for Jetty.
[01:25:34] Tyler: And like, those guys, like, but you always never knew. And that would be the allure of like, Surfer doing like, podcasts and stuff. You can always have these local people on that platform. Right. And you're like, oh, I
[01:25:47] know
[01:25:47] Tyler: that guy at least, or something. Relatable. Yeah. So does
[01:25:49] the rest of the world who isn't.
[01:25:51] In that community or demographic, are they interested in it? I think so. I look at,
[01:25:57] Tyler: I look at my demos. I got people [01:26:00] like in Eastern Europe listening to it. That's awesome. I have some people in Italy. I have some people in Russia I've had listen. Like, it's, it's interesting. And I think like David would, you know, David Scales of Surf Spunder would tell you the same thing.
[01:26:12] Like, you just get random people from all over. I have a huge community. Listening, following in the UK, my brother, you know, we do the surf history one too, he was in line at the wave in Bristol, the wave pool there, and someone recognized his voice and was like, are you Jamie from this? Are you Jamie? Yeah, you know, he's like
[01:26:34] That's really cool.
[01:26:35] So I see live he lives out there. Yeah,
[01:26:36] Tyler: he lives in London So it's like but that's what I think like we could you surfer could do something like that and make it a surfing thing for all That's my pitch. I
[01:26:45] like it.
[01:26:45] Tyler: I
[01:26:45] like yeah, yeah
[01:26:46] Tyler: bring you under that umbrella. I'll do that. I'm unemployed right now.
[01:26:50] Let's go for it You should be the I'm starting my own thing. You're starting your own business. Yeah, yeah. That's not
[01:26:55] unemployed, man. No, yeah. You're working more than most people if you're starting your own business, right?
[01:26:59] Tyler: True, [01:27:00] but you know, it's, you know, I'm not bringing in money yet, so. You will. You will.
[01:27:04] Well, John, man, like This is awesome. So freaking great to bro down with
[01:27:09] you. Come on down to the island, man. Come on down. I got to. One day Come down and enjoy the littoral drift and the no jetties and We will get you the best fucking closeouts of your life. Come up to Rockaway and come, come,
[01:27:23] Tyler: you do, come surf with me there with jetties and uh, the coup camouflage.
[01:27:27] You know, you think it's crowded, but no one knows what they're doing. The buoys, right? You can slip in there. Exactly. We,
[01:27:32] we do sometimes. I mean, because I feel like, We get these weather systems now that are nine day nor'easters, I don't ever remember that before. It's crazy. And it's like, well, I have nine days.
[01:27:42] Sometime in the next nine days I can probably find my way up to Long Beach. Yeah, after
[01:27:46] Tyler: the
[01:27:46] west winds, you come up for the north winds. Well, it's just that northeast that just, and we're just like, It's down there ruining our sandbars, right?
[01:27:55] Tyler: Cleaning ours up. Right. But man, uh, where can our listeners find you and get, [01:28:00] and get all on your writing and all your stuff?
[01:28:02] I mean,
[01:28:02] I'm at the Cohen No Insta. C O E N No Insta. That's my Instagram. Someone gave me that name a long time ago. I don't, and it's just stuck. So that one, I'll be doing stuff on Surfer Magazine. I write liquid lines for the sandpaper and, uh, just, uh, Jetty Life, man. Just check out all the stuff we're doing there.
[01:28:21] Tyler: Everyone, go check out Jetty Life. It's just great clothing, great quality, great company to support. Uh, if you want to support local, regional brand, that's one that would totally get behind. And, uh, go check out John's writing at The Sandpaper. He does a lot of great stuff on that. And, um, yeah, listeners, thank you for listening.
[01:28:41] And, uh, I gotta thank Joe here, our engineer. Give a quick shout out. And, uh, thank, uh, Rockefeller Center and the Newsstand Studio. And, of course Don't forget to like and subscribe and check out at Swell Season Surf Radio on Instagram or SwellSeasonSurfRadio. com. And uh, that's all for me and we'll check y'all down the [01:29:00] line.