Hello, welcome back to the show.

We're in the last three weeks of this podcast series centered on Kauai.

Kauai has a rich surf history, but there's also an aura of mystery.

And in surf media, this has always been perpetuated intentionally, with the idea that

it's a special place and there's no real way to convey the experience of Kauai, through

photos or videos or stories.

And rather than selfishly exploit that and regurgitate a version that perhaps only 5%

represents the splendor of the place, maybe we just leave this one alone.

Maybe we let the people who live there enjoy it and keep a lower profile.

Us tourists will come and visit when possible, but maybe not boast about it and certainly not photograph and publish it the way that we would if we visited the North Shore of Oahu.

Knowing this, I felt a real lack of confidence going there to conduct this series of interviews. There was an

a list of these mythic figures that, of course, I would love to have conversations with,

but I really didn't think that I'd get the opportunity to pull it off. Most of them live

fairly private lives. Who knows if they listen to a podcast? They probably have no idea who I am and what my

intentions are. Most of them don't maintain social media presence. So my other method of cold

messaging potential guests is kind of moot. Amazingly, once I got on Island, a small series of

serendipitous events transpired, some of which

they were simple harvesting of previous seeds that I had planted.

San Diego board builder Josh Hall happened to be there at the same time, and he introduced

me to his friend Jimmy Rodello, who is a local, who's lived there his whole life.

He's also, thankfully, a longtime podcast listener and fan. So he understood the value of these

podcast conversations, and he also knew who would be a good fit for the podcast and willing to engage

...