Split Peak Soup
Split Peak Soup
Podcast Description
**** Neal, fill this out with your word skills ****
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast centers on themes related to surfing culture and personal anecdotes, covering topics such as professional surfing dynamics, mentorship, the emerging surfers from places like Santa Cruz, technological advancements like wave pools, and personal experiences related to fatherhood.
Welcome to Split Peak Soup Podcast! I’m your host, Neal Kearney. I feel very blessed to have been born and raised here in Santa Cruz, California. Santa Cruz is a hotbed for talented individuals, including, but not limited to: professional surfers and skaters, master surfboard shapers, internationally renowned artists, expert musicians, boundary pushing intellectual thinkers, and out-of-this-world explorers of consciousness.
Working as a professional journalist for the past twenty-plus years, I’ve had the opportunity to sit down with these extraordinary humans and in-depth and insightful chats. While these discussions have helped inform many written pieces that I’m proud of, I oftentimes felt that I was leaving a lot of meat left on the bone, as the few quotes I’d incorporate into my writing oftentimes seemed to strip my interviewees of their own authentic voices.
Luckily, we are entering a brave new world, where the podcast has risen as a popular form of storytelling and media consumption. From Joe Rogan to Conan O’Brien, podcasters have officially taken over. And now, I’m joining the fray. The Split Peak Soup Podcast is my way of using my skills as a story-teller to offer long format conversations with those whose stories deserve to be told.
So, what are you waiting for? Pull up a cozy chair, grab a napkin and your favorite spoon, and get ready to dig into another savory serving of Split Peak Soup!
For many Santa Cruz surfers, the giant, perilous waves that break at Mavericks, located off Pillar Point in Half Moon Bay, hold a certain charm. Every Winter, the break produces waves that regularly reach the heights of large buildings, that, when ridden successfully, provide a shot of adrenaline unrivaled in any other aspect of the sport. The qualities required to be a successful Mavericks surfer include, but are not limited to: superhuman strength and balance, a healthy set of lungs, and, of course, the ability to stay calm under extreme duress.
When forty-four year-old Santa Cruz local Ryan Augenstein reached his late teens, it became apparent that, not only did he posses these qualities in spades, but that he had the determination and grit needed to test his skills at the hallowed break located just an hours drive up the coast.
So, at the young age of eighteen, Augenstein began the slow process of familiarizing himself with the iconic big-wave arena. After a handful of seasons paying his dues, the toe-headed Pleasure Point regular-foot found himself quickly ascending the ranks of big-wave hellions who descended upon the break every time it bared his fangs.
This led to a number of respectable showings, including a 3rd place overall finish, at the yearly Mavericks Invitational events—events that brought the best big-wave athletes from around the world together for a day of heavy water spills and thrills. Fast forward twenty years, and the soft-spoken charger is still at it, routinely sending it on any swell that awakens the break from its slumber.
Not only is Augentstein an accomplished Mavericks surfer, he’s also a standout in the smaller stuff. On any given swell, he can be found out at Pleasure Point, slicing, dicing, and weaving his way through wave after wave, drawing upon seemingly endless reserves of energy. In between swells, he supports himself as an instructor at Surf School Santa Cruz, sharing his passion for surfing with newbies of all ages.
In this episode of the Split Peak Soup Podcast, I was able to ask Augenstein about his introduction to and approach to surfing Mavericks, his experience competing there against the world’s best big wave surfers, falling in love, the ups and downs of being a sponsored professional surfer, and how he deals with violent wipeouts, both physically and mentally.
In the process, I gained insight into the mind of a soft-spoken charger who just clearly loves to surf.
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