WEBVTT - 9 Essential Facts You (Probably) Need to Know about... Surfing! 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:06.519 You're listening to part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:12.399 and iHeartRadio. Guess what Will? 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:13.200 What's that Mango? 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:16.000 So one of the great things about working from home 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:18.520 is that you can slip away from a stressful day 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:21.480 or big meetings and get a little exercise. I know 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:24.360 you like to run. I like to play tennis when 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:26.239 I can get away. But I was wondering about people 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:29.240 who relax by doing more extreme sports. Like if you 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:30.880 want to go surfing in the middle of the day 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:33.000 and hit the waves, but then get on a zoom 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:35.080 right after, how do you do that without looking like 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:38.519 a mess? So I was doing some research and I 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:42.120 think I found an answer with this Japanese wetsuit. It's 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:46.040 a one hundred percent waterproof bodysuit that also doubles as 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:46.920 a business suit. 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:49.720 So does it actually look like a business suit or 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:52.040 is it just like a regular wetsuit with some sort 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:53.840 of jacket on top or something like that. 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:56.560 It's like a regular two piece suit and it's got 0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:59.800 a button up shirt, except everything is super stretchy. It's 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:02.240 to repell in. I've actually got a picture for you. 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:04.000 I'm gonna click it over and send it to you. 0:01:04.040 --> 0:01:04.400 Right now. 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:07.800 That is actually pretty awesome. It actually looks pretty sick. 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:09.480 I mean the pants look a little tighter than you 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:11.720 typically want them. I know you like your tight. I 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:14.160 like them, yeah, but otherwise honestly not bad. 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:17.360 Yeah. And even the accessories or waterproof, so you can 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:20.679 go for a waterproof necktie or a waterproof bow tie, 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:23.600 because we deserve nice things and it is nice to 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:24.160 have options. 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:26.160 It's true. I actually think this would be one case 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:28.600 where I would go with the bow tie, because yeah, 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:30.399 you don't want the like necktie slaping you in the 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:33.240 face as you're going through this. But I'm curious to know, like, 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:35.840 how did this business, you know, like these formal wetsuits 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:36.240 come about. 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:39.600 Apparently it's a collaboration between Quicksilver in Japan and this 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:42.720 Tokyo based ad firm, and the goal was to figure 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:45.400 out a way to get former surfers back into the sport. 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:49.200 Surfing is hugely popular in Japan, but ninety percent of 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:51.639 young surfers give it up once they get day jobs. 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:54.880 So the hope was that if salarymen can have some 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:56.880 way that they can get in the ocean but then 0:01:56.920 --> 0:01:59.400 get to the office right after, sort of like from 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:02.960 the board to the boardroom, they can slip surfing back 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:04.080 into their lives. 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:05.120 And has this worked? 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:05.520 No? 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:07.480 Okay, all right, well it. 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:09.880 Is a much better gimmick than it is officeware. But 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:12.440 stumbling into this outfit made me think about how much 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:15.040 I've always wanted to do a surfing episode, even though 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:17.560 I am not a surfer. I thought we should get 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:19.959 one out before the summer is done. So why don't 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:21.640 we grab our boards and dive in? 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:45.120 All right, Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:47.280 I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:49.679 good friend mangesh Hot Ticketer and on the other side 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:52.880 of my computer screen hanging ten on his ironing board. 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:55.640 He's got creative here, Mango. That's our friend and super 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:59.120 producer Dylan Fagan. And for any concern listeners out there, 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:01.160 and I know you're off concern with the stunts that 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:03.960 Dylan is pulling, you should know that the ironing board 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:06.720 is not extended. It's flat on the floor and he's 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:08.840 balancing on top of it. I think he wants to 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:11.480 be protective of, you know, his his dainty ankles. This 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:14.680 is a fun fact about super producer Dylan. Very concerned 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:17.800 about it, So, Mango, this topic has kind of been 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:20.000 sitting in the queue for a long time for us, 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:22.480 and I'm curious, why have you been wanting to do 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:23.680 a show on surfing? 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:27.120 You know, I'm not exactly sure. I think it's because 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:29.360 surfing is one of those things I want to do 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:32.800 so badly. You know, it is so beautiful and calming, 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:36.640 and I love watching people surf. But also I'm absolutely 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:39.320 never going to do it. You know. Actually this last year, 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:41.400 my friend got married in Hawaii and I'd never been, 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:44.080 and there was an afternoon where we caught up on 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:47.840 a beach and we just watched people surf for like hours, 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:51.600 and it was mesmerizing. And it's just unbelievable how long 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:53.000 people can go for it, and they really know how 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:55.560 to surf. It's stunning. I agree, But what's stopping you 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:59.400 from trying? Well, I am not a great swimmer. I 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:01.160 don't see a lot of surfing and Floa. I actually 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:03.080 knew that. I just wanted you to have to say that. 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:06.920 But also it just feels so dangerous. I mean, it 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:10.400 is maybe irrational, but I read this surf memoir. It's 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:12.760 called Barbarian Days and it's by William Finn again, this 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:16.200 New Yorker writer, and it's beautiful, but there's this scene 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:19.040 where the author goes to some remote place near Fiji 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:22.279 and the ocean is in this area and it's filled 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:26.160 with super venomous water snakes. But because the waves are 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:29.760 so good, he just keeps surfing. And you know, between 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:33.440 water snakes and sharks and the way his skin tears 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:36.239 up on coral, I just think I'll stick to tennis. 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:37.640 Yeah, but I. 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:40.600 Still do like facts about surfing, and I'm curious where 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:41.440 you want to start today. 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:43.760 Actually, before we jump into that, I'm not trying to 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:46.560 delay us anymore from surfing, but it made me think 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:48.840 about this. Have you actually seen these photos of Swiss 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:51.800 people commuting home from work by floating on the Rhine? 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:54.520 If you see these, it is unbelievable. Like those images 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:56.880 were all over TikTok this summer and it kind of 0:04:56.880 --> 0:04:57.480 looks magical. 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:00.279 It really does. So I guess in Basil, Switzerland, they've 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:03.360 got these little cabins for changing and their showers along 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:06.240 the route, and basically commuters will strip down, throw their 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:09.520 belongings in these waterproof floating bags. They're shaped like fish, 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:12.400 and then they just float home much as this. Yeah, 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:15.240 it's so cool and it feels like such a nice 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:17.960 way to end every summer workday. Think about this if 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:20.160 every day instead of going and getting on the train 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:22.799 or whatever we're doing to get home, to be able 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:25.080 to do that. And that's just an aside, but I 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:27.440 thought it was worth sharing here. But why don't we 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:30.480 start by talking about some of the early accounts of surfing. 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:31.960 I know, we like to go back to the very 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:34.760 beginning on so many of these things. But the first 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:38.280 European riding about surfing comes from a man named Charles Clerk. 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:40.840 He served as a ship's officer on one of Captain 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:44.080 Cook's voyages through the Pacific. This was back in seventeen 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:46.520 seventy eight, and Cook and his crew became the first 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:50.120 known Europeans to visit the Hawaiian Islands, so they were 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:54.119 basically the first outsiders to witness surfing. So he writes 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:57.159 about this in his journal, and Clerk recounted watching these 0:05:57.200 --> 0:06:00.320 islanders mount boards that were six to eight feet so 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:02.839 actually along the lines of what you would see today 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:05.800 two feet wide, and he says, quote, in the shape 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:08.719 of one of our bone paper cutters, you know, bone 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:09.680 paper cutters, right. 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:13.080 I also can't imagine how wild it must have been 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:17.280 to see people just on these like planks, just cruising 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:18.760 past you. It feels insane. 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:21.279 Yeah, that's pretty cool. And so he wrote, they basically 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:23.480 get on these boards and then quote go round the 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:25.919 best going boats we had in the space of a 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:29.440 very few minutes. So he was definitely impressed. But my 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:32.600 favorite account of surfing comes about one hundred years later, 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:35.040 Mark Twain writes about the phenomenon. 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:36.920 Mark Twain went to Hawaii. 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:39.920 He did, He did go to Hawaiian So he writes 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:43.359 about this and his travel memoir called Roughing It. And 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:45.920 he also did a bunch of correspondents for the Sacramento 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:49.719 Union when he traveled through Hawaii and wrote about everything 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:53.960 from missionaries to sugar operations to local lore. But what's 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:58.160 funny is that he documents surfing and calls it surf bathing. 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:00.960 And here's how he describes it. He says, quote, at 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:03.800 the right moment, the native would fling his board upon 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:07.360 its foamy crest and himself upon the board, and here 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:10.400 he would come whizzing by like a bombshell. It did 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:13.200 not seem that a lightning express train could shoot along 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:16.120 at a more hair lifting speed, so it's pretty cool 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:17.920 to watch. I think he might have been exaggerating just 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:20.840 a tiny bit. But what's even better is that Twain 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:23.240 actually gives surfing a tries, so he was a little 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:25.640 more brave than the two of us. And he goes 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:29.480 on to write, I tried surf bathing once subsequently, but 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:32.280 made a failure of it. I got the board placed 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:34.560 right and at the right moment, too, but I missed 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:37.640 the connection myself. The board struck the shore in three 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:40.800 quarters of a second without any cargo, and I struck 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:43.440 the bottom at about the same time with a couple 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:46.520 of barrels of water in me. None but natives ever 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:50.400 master the art of surf bathing thoroughly. Pretty great story there. 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:53.040 Well, I feel like surf bathing makes it sound like 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:55.720 a gentler sport does, so it feels like you should 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:59.520 do that every day. I know you're a much better 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:02.080 swimmer than I am because your your grandma was like 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:03.120 an Olympic swimmer, right. 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:06.320 She might have claimed that she was an Olympic swimmer, 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:08.640 but she did teach us alt to swim, Thanks mamma. 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:12.160 So I had no idea that Mark Twain wrote any 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:14.360 of this stuff. And I actually just read James. Have 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:17.160 you heard the book? I'm actually about halfway through it. 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:20.720 It is fantastic book. Good and honestly like reading about 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:23.160 Huck Finn from Jim's perspective made me want to go 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:26.080 back and read more Mark Dwain, and I actually feel 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:28.200 like now I've got to start with this travel bit more. 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:30.080 Yeah. By the way, as a side note, you know 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:34.240 who recommended James. One of our fantastic podcasters, Danny Shapiro, 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:37.320 does Family Secrets. I always asked her what books are 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:39.480 you obsessing over? And it was that book. 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:42.120 Sorry for the yeah, I love it for over. My 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:44.199 next fact, I want to talk about how surfing started 0:08:44.320 --> 0:08:48.000 as an equal opportunity family activity. And this goes back 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:51.319 to its inception. So surfing and Hawaii and other Polynesian 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:54.640 islands was a communal activity and it's really wonderful. So 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:58.240 like men, women, children, like people of every social class 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:01.720 did this. And in fact, the oldest known surfboard belonged 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:04.520 to a woman. It dates back to the sixteen hundreds 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:06.560 and it was found in the burial cave of a 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:08.800 princess on the Big Island of Hawaii. 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:12.520 I feel like whenever you hear about surf history in America, 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:15.719 it usually starts with that surf legend, Duke something or 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:18.360 other bringing it to the mainland in the early nineteen hundreds. 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:20.640 It was definitely not a story with a woman. 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:23.800 Yeah. So the truth is that Hawaii's surf culture was 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:26.480 derailed for a period in the nineteenth century thanks to 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:30.600 American missionaries. They disapproved of just about every aspect of surfing, 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:32.600 from the mixed gender nature of it to the fact 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:35.160 that you had to be nearly naked to do it well. 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:38.720 So the sport kind of fell by the wayside in Hawaii, 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:41.920 especially among women. But that started to change at the 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:44.679 turn of the century when Californians were introduced to the 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:49.520 sport by male Hawaiian surfers, and that includes Duke Anamuku, 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:53.680 who I know I'm butchering that we're talking about. But 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:57.960 that said, female surfers never went away completely. And around 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:00.320 the same time that surfing made its American day, And 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:03.920 so this is in the eighteen nineties, Hawaii's princess was 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:06.760 busy demonstrating the sport in England, and she did it 0:10:06.800 --> 0:10:10.440 in this grand fashion. She surfed the English Channel. There's 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:12.600 a document at the British Surfing Museum that has a 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:16.160 great description of it, and it says, quote, the tall 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:19.360 foreign dignitaries stood erect on a thin board with her 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:22.520 hair blowing in the wind as she rode the Chili waters. 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:25.040 It was such an impressive sight that some of the 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:28.280 British nobility to decide to take up surfing, and before 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:30.560 you knew it, the sport had this foothold on a 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:31.400 whole new continent. 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:34.440 That's amazing. Actually, you know, in my research I found 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:37.240 some of the early pictures of the brit surfing or 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:39.920 surf riding as they used to call it, and they 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:44.520 used coffin lids instead of surfboards because they just weren't 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:47.280 proper boards available. It's so crazy to see what people 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:49.120 used to surf on. Look at this photo here, like 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:51.880 you can see these are just pulled straight from They're 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:54.240 either pulled straight from a coffin or they are lids 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:57.160 that have not yet been put on a coffin lids. 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:00.880 Maybe that's what it is. But anyways, speaking of female surfers, 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:04.040 did you know that in the sixties TV surfer Gidget 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:05.800 was based on a real person. 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:10.160 I love that you're bringing up gidget like anyone remembers. 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:13.480 Yeah, buddy remembers Gidget in the time before we were alive. 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:16.080 Yeah, I think you're gonna have to explain it. 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:19.200 Well, obviously she's not a household name anymore. But in 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:22.720 the late nineteen fifties and early sixties, Gidget was the 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:26.000 most famous surfer of them all. Sandra d played her 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:28.960 in the nineteen fifty nine movie, and then other actresses 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:31.440 took over for the role and the sequels, you know, 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:34.640 sequels like Gidget Goes Hawaiian and Gidget Goes to Rome, 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:37.560 so you know, the usual classics. But then in the 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:41.040 mid sixties, Gidget got a TV spinoff starring Sally Field. 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:43.560 So we are talking about like pretty big actresses here, 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:46.679 which very occasionally used to air on TV when when 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:47.280 I was a kid. 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:51.960 Yeah, I actually vaguely, vaguely remember that. And you know, 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:54.400 I'm guessing this was during the height of the surf craze, 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:56.640 when the beach Boys had all those songs on the air. 0:11:56.800 --> 0:11:59.280 Yeah, I mean, Gidget was the first of those Hollywood 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:01.560 beach party films that you think of that were so 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:04.680 huge in the nineteen sixties. But one thing that set 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:07.600 Gidget apart is that the character was actually based on 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:10.400 a real surfer. Her name was Kathy Kohner and in 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:13.160 nineteen fifty six, she was a fifteen year old girl 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:16.440 growing up in the suburbs of Malibu. So that summer 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:19.360 she learned to surf by trading peanut butter sandwiches to 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:22.880 local surfers in exchange of using their surfboards. 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:23.520 Is not cool. 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:24.760 I love how creative that is. 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:27.240 That's amazing. And I love that like a peanut butter 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:29.800 sandwich can get your ride on a surfboard. Though, that's 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:30.360 so great. 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:32.720 I love a peanut butter sandwich like I would totally 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:35.079 trade my board for one. So by the end of 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:37.320 the summer she was hooked and kept telling her dad 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:39.720 about it, and at one point Kathy told them she 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:43.079 wanted to write a book about her surfing experiences, but 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:46.040 her dad, being a writer himself, offered to write it 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:48.880 for her. So a year later, the first of five 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:52.719 Ya novels about a surfed crazed girl named Gidget hit 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:56.200 the shelves and it quickly became this national bestseller and 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:58.600 within no time they sold the film rights. 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:02.280 It's so cool, that's fun. But if a real name's Kathy, 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:04.160 why does she get named Gidget. 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:07.800 Well, apparently that's the nickname that those older Malibu surfers 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:10.880 gave her. It's a combination of girl and midget, which 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:13.720 of course is problematic today. But some of the other 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:17.480 characters in the book had better nicknames, like Gidget's longtime 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:20.600 love interest was named moon Doggie, which I think is 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:23.560 actually pretty cool and maybe problematic for other reasons. Haven't 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:26.240 thought about it yet, but on account of his fondness 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:29.120 for surfing by moonlight, which I think is kind of cool. 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:32.240 Well, you know, I just assumed gidget was a surf 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:34.360 term because there's so many of those that, you know, 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:37.400 you have no idea what they mean, and I thought 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:39.440 it would be fun, actually if I gave you a 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:42.480 bit of a surf vocabulary quiz, just in case the 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:45.120 next time you meet a surfer and your Google Translate 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:48.600 doesn't work, you know, you actually have some surfing vocabulary 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:49.040 to lean on. 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:50.040 Right, let's do it. 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:52.599 So the first one is doggy door. Do you know 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:54.160 what a doggy door is? To a surfer? 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:56.800 Use it in a sentence? 0:13:57.880 --> 0:13:59.800 I thought he was a goner, but then he found 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:00.600 that doggy door. 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:04.880 Okay, I'm guessing it's a little like a little gap 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:05.839 in the wave or something like. 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:09.200 Yeah, exactly, So a doggy door is a small exit 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:11.200 hole of surfer finds to get out of the barrel 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:13.760 of a wave. All right, so one for one? All right? 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:15.120 How about a gremmy? 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:19.240 I have no idea, give it to me in another sentence? 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:21.880 Sure, I won my game of scrabble by using the 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:24.880 word remy. That is, that is not helpful at all. 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:26.800 So what is a gremmy? 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:29.520 I guess? I also have said a grammy is almost 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:30.440 the same as a grommet. 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:34.160 Okay, that have been helpful. Not still not figure it out. 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:37.320 A grommet is a young surfer, and amy is an 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:41.400 inexperienced surfer of any age. So you'd rather be called 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:44.080 a grommet than a grammy, I guess. But neither is 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:47.560 a term of endearment, right. How about a kahuna? 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:51.400 Uh? I feel like you hear the phrase big kahooner. 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:53.440 You obviously hear the phrase bic kohoon a lot, and 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:57.640 it's it's always around like Polynesian culture. So maybe this 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:00.400 is a village chief or something like that. 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:03.080 Yeah, it's pretty close, okay. A kahuna is apparently a 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:05.680 wizard or a magician, and it can also be a 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:07.720 wise man or a shaman. So you can see how 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:10.520 a kahuna becomes kind of a wizard of surfing on 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:13.360 the waves. Yeah. So, and the last one I'm going 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:15.520 to give you what is a mushburger? 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:18.920 Well, I know, when you finish surfing or playing in 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:22.000 the water or anything like that, you're definitely very hungry. 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:26.320 So would this be like the sandwiches and chow that 0:15:26.360 --> 0:15:29.280 you scarf down after riding the waves and they're may 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:31.560 be all wet from the ocean or sandy. I don't know. 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:32.240 I'm trying here. 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:35.600 I love that idea. I do feel like Mushburgers would 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:38.480 be a great name for a franchise. But a mushburger 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:40.600 is actually a slow and fat wave. 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:43.080 Okay, yeah, I get that, that makes sense. 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:45.320 I like the name. So anyway, now that you know 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:56.600 all the surf slang, why don't we take a quick break. 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:03.040 Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're sharing some 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:06.280 of our favorite facts about the fine art of surfing 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:08.880 and will I think it's your turn to go next? 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:11.840 All right, Well, you felt like my my facts about 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:14.720 gidget were a little dated, and so I'm going to 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:17.360 dip into some pop culture that a few more people 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:21.040 have heard of, and it's a little show called SpongeBob SquarePants. 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:22.760 Not familiar. Not familiar? 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:27.760 Okay, fact, Yeah, that's pretty great. This does remind me, 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:30.080 as a side note, about the time where you told 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:33.080 me that you were introduced to Hall and Oates, when 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:36.200 you were literally introduced to Hall and Oates at that event, 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:39.240 and I was like, how did this happen? How are 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:42.440 we here? And you were not familiar with their body 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:44.240 of works. Sorry to call you out. 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:46.360 Here, but it just wasn't. 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:51.400 That's pretty well. I didn't realize that the SpongeBob creator, 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:56.920 Stephen Hillenberg, was actually a lifelong surfer and a marine biologist. 0:16:57.000 --> 0:16:59.960 And this comes from a friend of his named Biddle Doo, 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:01.960 who wrote a piece about him in The New Yorker. 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:05.679 But apparently when Hillenburg wasn't surfing, he was beachcombing and 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:09.840 sketching shells and sea life. Anyway, Duke tells this story 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:12.040 that he and Hillenburg and a group of friends all 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:15.000 used to go to these camping beach trips and they 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:17.040 would go once a year on these trips, and one 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:20.680 year they were at this bonfire in Baja and Hillenburg 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:23.560 passes around his journal with an idea that he has. 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:26.800 Now apparently by this time, he's already made an educational 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:29.680 comic book about sea life. He's won awards for this, 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:33.560 he's done grad school and animation, won awards for that too, 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:36.480 and so he's on this path to doing something with 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:39.879 marine life and animation. But he opens his book and 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:42.719 tells everyone he's going to write a cartoon about a 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:45.200 sea sponge, and nobody gets it, right, I mean, you 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:48.240 can imagine how people are, like, okay, and you know, 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:52.000 obviously a sea sponge is like this lifeless, inanimate blob 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:54.199 of a thing, and they're like, really a sponge, Like 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:56.040 is this really what you're going to do? And he 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:59.520 tries to tell them that that's actually the gag, that 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:01.920 it's going to be about a kitchen sponge who lives 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:04.399 in a tide pool and has all these other funny 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:08.000 sea creature friends, but no one can see it. And 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:10.359 while they all assume he's going to be successful, they 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:12.280 just don't think this is the idea. 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:14.240 I mean, it is funny to think of, right, like 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:16.440 the idea that someone told me they were going to 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:18.360 make a cartoon about a sponge like, there's no way 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:19.320 I think that's gonna be. 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:23.840 I mean, it's it's genius now, but I totally agree. Anyway, 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:26.199 you cut to a few decades later and SpongeBob is 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:29.320 the biggest cartoon on earth, but even the people at 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:33.440 Nickelodeon don't quite understand success. And when the author goes 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:36.600 to reunite with Hilenburg, he wants to ask him how 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:40.360 is it that a sponge managed to capture all these kids' hearts? 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:44.320 But Hillenburg at this time actually has als and he 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:47.000 doesn't surf anymore, and he can barely get words out, 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:50.160 but he's, you know, still surprisingly sunny, and he still 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:53.320 goes to the office every day. So Duke goes with him. 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:56.120 And when Duke talks to one of Hillenburg's co writers 0:18:56.440 --> 0:18:59.639 about what makes the show so captivating, this is what 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:03.840 he says. He says, SpongeBob is not cool, he's not aspirational. 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:06.240 He just wants to go to work and be happy. 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:09.159