In honor of Women’s History Month, I’m diving into Jim Kempton’s incredible book, Women on Waves: A Cultural History of Surfing: From Ancient Goddesses and Hawaiian Queens to Malibu Movie Stars and Millennial Champions.

This book is dedicated to restoring women to their rightful place in the history of surfing. Because from the very beginning, women have been in the lineup.

Long before professional tours, sponsorship deals, or glossy magazine covers, women were riding waves in ancient Polynesia. They were part of the fabric of early beach communities in California. They pushed limits, challenged expectations, and carved out space in a culture that didn’t always make room for them.

Kempton lays out why this history matters, how these stories were sidelined, minimized, or erased, and why bringing them forward changes the way we understand surfing itself. We’ll go back to the roots, tracing women’s surfing to its origins and exploring how history slowly, and sometimes deliberately, shifted the spotlight away from them.

So in the spirit of Women’s History Month, paddle out with me as we begin rediscovering the women who were there all along and give their stories the space they’ve always deserved.

Today’s episode is a heavy one, in the best way. We’re diving into Chris Ahren's latest book Windansea: Life, Death, Resurrection. I’ve been chomping at the bit to crack this book open since the day it landed in my hands.

This book isn’t just about surfing, it’s about place, identity, loss, and what it means to come back from the edge. Windansea isn’t just a wave; it’s a proving ground. Ahrens takes us inside one of the most intense surf communities ever, and right from the jump, you can feel the weight of what that place represents: loyalty, danger, beauty, and consequences.

In these opening pages, we get the foundation of the whole story, where Windansea comes from, why it matters so much, and how it shaped the people who grew up in its shadow. People like Woody Brown, Carl Ekstrom, Mike Hynson, Pat Curren and the list goes on. This is where the myth meets real life.

So settle in, maybe picture the cliffs and the lineup at sunset, and let’s paddle out into Windansea: Life, Death, Resurrection.

Today I’ll be reading from a book I recently picked up titled The Way of the Surfer: Living It, 1935 to Tomorrow by our friend Drew Kampion.

The Way of the Surfer profiles thirteen incredible names from surf history: Woody Brown, John Severson, Dick Brewer, Nat Young, Billy Hamilton, Rolf Aurness, Gerry Lopez, Tom Curren, Lisa Anderson, Kelly Slater, and Titus Kinimaka.

Today’s story is titled “John Severson: Inventing Surf Culture,” all about the guy who created the bible of our sport Surfer Magazine. It tells the story of how one surfer with a camera helped shape the look, feel, and mythology of modern surfing. Let’s paddle out and see how surf culture was born and why Severson’s influence is still everywhere you look in surfing today.

If you’d like to help support the podcast, you can visit buymeacoffee.com/thesurferslibrary. Your support helps cover the platform fees that keep the show going each month.

Also, if you would like to sponsor the podcast or have any story ideas or feedback for the podcast please contact us on Instagram or at thesurferslibrary@gmail.com

This episode we revisit Matt Warshaw’s book Surfriders: In Search of the Perfect Wave and read a story called “Masters of the Universe”

In this story Warshaw takes us straight into the pressure cooker of professional surfing, where talent, ego, friendship, and fate all collide. We drop in at Pipeline in December of 1995, at the Chiemsee Pipeline Masters the final event of the season, held at the most dangerous and consequential wave on tour. The stage couldn’t be bigger: a semi-final heat that will decide the world title. On one side is Kelly Slater, already a prodigy, chasing another championship and redefining what high-performance surfing looks like. On the other is Rob Machado, smooth, stylish, and surfing with a looseness that seems almost out of place in a moment this tense.

If you’d like to help support the podcast, you can visit buymeacoffee.com/thesurferslibrary. Your support helps cover the platform fees that keep the show going each month, so any little bit truly helps.

Also, if you have any story ideas or feedback for the podcast please contact us on Instagram or at thesurferslibrary@gmail.com

Let’s paddle out.

This episode we dig into chapters 1, 2 and 3 of Corky Carroll's autobiography Not Done Yet.

From growing up in Southern California to chasing waves, contests, and a life shaped by the ocean, Corky’s early chapters set the foundation for one of surfing’s most influential figures. These opening pages are filled with ambition, humor, and the unmistakable voice of someone who helped turn surfing into a profession long before it was fashionable.

If you’d like to help support the podcast, you can visit buymeacoffee.com/thesurferslibrary.

Or, if you would like to sponsor the podcast or have any story ideas or feedback for the podcast please contact us on Instagram or at thesurferslibrary@gmail.com

This episode we are excited to read selected excerpts (chapters 8 & 9) from Phil Jarratt's incredible book Mr. Sunset: The Jeff Hakman Story. Jeff Hakman was born in California in 1948, and by the age of eight his father had already set him on a surfboard. Four years later, the family moved to Oahu, and a year after that at just thirteen Hakman paddled out at Waimea Bay for the first time. We pick up in 1965, Jeff is 17 and finds himself invited into history, competing at Sunset Beach in the inaugural Duke Kahanamoku Invitational. Paddle out with us and learn how Mr. Sunset arrived on the world surfing stage.

If you’d like to help support the podcast, you can visit buymeacoffee.com/thesurferslibrary. Your support helps cover the platform fees that keep the show going each month.

Also, if you would like to sponsor the podcast or have any story ideas or feedback for the podcast please contact us on Instagram or at thesurferslibrary@gmail.com

This episode we are reading Jamie Brisick's short story Young, Loud and Shameless from the book: The Eighties at Echo Beach. It captures the wild, neon-soaked, punk-influenced surf scene of early ’80s Orange County and dives into the youthful chaos of the Echo Beach crew, kids who surfed hard, partied harder, and defined an entire aesthetic of the 1980s surf world. It's nostalgic, fast, stylish, and slightly bittersweet showing how a tight knit group of teenagers shaped global surf culture.

If you’d like to help support the podcast, you can visit buymeacoffee.com/thesurferslibrary. Your support helps cover the platform fees that keep the show going each month so any little bit truly helps.

Also, if you would like to sponsor the podcast or have any story ideas or feedback for the podcast please contact us on Instagram or at thesurferslibrary@gmail.com

Let’s paddle out.

This episode we’re diving into one of the most powerful stories in modern surf history, the rise and tragic loss of big-wave icon Mark Foo. In Matt Warshaw’s story 'Death of a Legend', we trace Foo’s journey from a driven, stylish Hawaiian charger to one of the most recognizable names in big wave surfing. Foo wasn’t just talented; he was relentless, competitive, and completely committed to proving himself in the heaviest waves on the planet.

The story leads us to Mavericks in 1994, a cold, foggy, still-mysterious Northern California break. Warshaw takes us into the lineup that day, describing the conditions, the atmosphere, and the fatal wipeout that stunned the surf world and changed big wave surfing forever.

In the end, Warshaw looks at how Foo’s death transformed Mavericks into a global stage, and how it elevated Foo himself from a gifted professional to a larger than life legend. This story is part of a compilation of 32 stories in a book called The Big Drop edited by John Long. You can find this book currently at Amazon.com.

Just a quick reminder, if you’d like to help support the podcast, you can visit buymeacoffee.com/thesurferslibrary. Your support helps cover the platform fees that keep the show going each month so any little bit truly helps.

Also, if you would like to sponsor the podcast or have any story ideas or feedback for the podcast please contact us on Instagram or at thesurferslibrary@gmail.com

Let’s paddle out.