Miscellaneous
Type 2 is a podcast from Looking Sideways in association with Patagonia that explores the intersection between the outdoors, action sports and activism. I welcomed a legend onto the show this week - surfer and activist Dave Rastovich, one of the world’s most respected, stylish and talented surfers. On the water, Dave’s always been an innovator and leader, whether because of the career path he chose, the equipment he championed, or his pioneering activism. Indeed, Dave came to epitomise the very idea of surfer as activist, thanks to films like The Cove, and his involvement with various different campaigns, Today, Dave lives with his young family on a patch of land near Byron Bay in Australia, and it still a committed, articulate activist who continues to lend his heft to various local and national campaigns. As you might expect from somebody with such a high profile, his story is well told, so in this conversation I was interested in understanding where Dave is now, both in terms of his experience as an activist, and in light of the very real social and ecological collateral damage that they’ve been experiencing in Australia over the last couple of years. How has it changed his approach? What has he learned? And what lessons can we take from his experiences? As expected, the resulting conversation was great and I very much enjoyed this wide-ranging and passionate chat with one of surfing’s modern greats. Just a note on the sound - we recorded this one over Skype, so there is a little background noise. My thanks to Dave for being such a great sport. New episodes of Type 2 are released every four weeks through my Looking Sideways channel. Hear it by subscribing to Looking Sideways via ApplePodcasts, Spotify or any of the usual other podcast providers. Thanks to Ewan Wallace for the theme tune, and to my editor Fina Charleson.