Vesla has made today's show possible and in an act of reciprocity I'd encourage you to consider Visla for any of your holiday textile gifting.

From swimsuits to outerwear, Visla can style out your entire family.

Of course you could check it all out on Visla.com, but I would suggest going into your local surf shop to touch and feel it all there. Support local. I'm a fan of Visla's flannels, but they also have t-shirts that are made from recycled cotton and plastic bottles. They have hats, beanies, backpacks, swim fins, a lot of add-ons for anybody in your family who you need to gift for.

If you don't have access to Vsla through a local retailer, they're actually including a 5-liter dry bag with any purchase of $100 or more while supplies last in the U.S.

On Visla.com.

The promo code to get that is free five.

It's the number five, so free and the number five.

And of course, Visla.com is also where you can grab Nat Young's new book, Church of the Open Sky,

as he and I discussed in episode 296 of this show.

So thanks to Vistla for the support.

On to today's show.

Thank you. Welcome to the 300th episode of Surf Splendor.

Between spit and the grit, I think we're probably much closer to 500 podcast episodes produced,

but this is officially number 300 of Surf Splendor, which of course is crazy, started in July of 2013.

And there's really no better way to commemorate this occasion than by featuring Dick Metz as our illustrious guest. It's hard to even imagine what surfing would be

today without Dick Metz, and he's a name that you really don't hear in surf media that often.

But saying that surfing would be

entirely different without him is not hyperbole at all. It's true for a number of reasons, but

perhaps most acutely because when Dick returned from a three-year Odyssey around the world in

1961, he regaled his good friend Bruce Brown with photos and stories of waves.

He gifted Bruce contacts like John Whitmore in South Africa, all of which became the blueprint

for Bruce Brown's film, The Endless Summer.

...