Speaker 1: You're listening to part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
Speaker 1: and iHeartRadio. Guess what Will?
Speaker 2: What's that Mango?
Speaker 1: So one of the great things about working from home
Speaker 1: is that you can slip away from a stressful day
Speaker 1: or big meetings and get a little exercise. I know
Speaker 1: you like to run. I like to play tennis when
Speaker 1: I can get away. But I was wondering about people
Speaker 1: who relax by doing more extreme sports. Like if you
Speaker 1: want to go surfing in the middle of the day
Speaker 1: and hit the waves, but then get on a zoom
Speaker 1: right after, how do you do that without looking like
Speaker 1: a mess? So I was doing some research and I
Speaker 1: think I found an answer with this Japanese wetsuit. It's
Speaker 1: a one hundred percent waterproof bodysuit that also doubles as
Speaker 1: a business suit.
Speaker 2: So does it actually look like a business suit or
Speaker 2: is it just like a regular wetsuit with some sort
Speaker 2: of jacket on top or something like that.
Speaker 1: It's like a regular two piece suit and it's got
Speaker 1: a button up shirt, except everything is super stretchy. It's
Speaker 1: to repell in. I've actually got a picture for you.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna click it over and send it to you.
Speaker 1: Right now.
Speaker 2: That is actually pretty awesome. It actually looks pretty sick.
Speaker 2: I mean the pants look a little tighter than you
Speaker 2: typically want them. I know you like your tight. I
Speaker 2: like them, yeah, but otherwise honestly not bad.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And even the accessories or waterproof, so you can
Speaker 1: go for a waterproof necktie or a waterproof bow tie,
Speaker 1: because we deserve nice things and it is nice to
Speaker 1: have options.
Speaker 2: It's true. I actually think this would be one case
Speaker 2: where I would go with the bow tie, because yeah,
Speaker 2: you don't want the like necktie slaping you in the
Speaker 2: face as you're going through this. But I'm curious to know, like,
Speaker 2: how did this business, you know, like these formal wetsuits
Speaker 2: come about.
Speaker 1: Apparently it's a collaboration between Quicksilver in Japan and this
Speaker 1: Tokyo based ad firm, and the goal was to figure
Speaker 1: out a way to get former surfers back into the sport.
Speaker 1: Surfing is hugely popular in Japan, but ninety percent of
Speaker 1: young surfers give it up once they get day jobs.
Speaker 1: So the hope was that if salarymen can have some
Speaker 1: way that they can get in the ocean but then
Speaker 1: get to the office right after, sort of like from
Speaker 1: the board to the boardroom, they can slip surfing back
Speaker 1: into their lives.
Speaker 2: And has this worked?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, well it.
Speaker 1: Is a much better gimmick than it is officeware. But
Speaker 1: stumbling into this outfit made me think about how much
Speaker 1: I've always wanted to do a surfing episode, even though
Speaker 1: I am not a surfer. I thought we should get
Speaker 1: one out before the summer is done. So why don't
Speaker 1: we grab our boards and dive in?
Speaker 2: All right, Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius.
Speaker 2: I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my
Speaker 2: good friend mangesh Hot Ticketer and on the other side
Speaker 2: of my computer screen hanging ten on his ironing board.
Speaker 2: He's got creative here, Mango. That's our friend and super
Speaker 2: producer Dylan Fagan. And for any concern listeners out there,
Speaker 2: and I know you're off concern with the stunts that
Speaker 2: Dylan is pulling, you should know that the ironing board
Speaker 2: is not extended. It's flat on the floor and he's
Speaker 2: balancing on top of it. I think he wants to
Speaker 2: be protective of, you know, his his dainty ankles. This
Speaker 2: is a fun fact about super producer Dylan. Very concerned
Speaker 2: about it, So, Mango, this topic has kind of been
Speaker 2: sitting in the queue for a long time for us,
Speaker 2: and I'm curious, why have you been wanting to do
Speaker 2: a show on surfing?
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not exactly sure. I think it's because
Speaker 1: surfing is one of those things I want to do
Speaker 1: so badly. You know, it is so beautiful and calming,
Speaker 1: and I love watching people surf. But also I'm absolutely
Speaker 1: never going to do it. You know. Actually this last year,
Speaker 1: my friend got married in Hawaii and I'd never been,
Speaker 1: and there was an afternoon where we caught up on
Speaker 1: a beach and we just watched people surf for like hours,
Speaker 1: and it was mesmerizing. And it's just unbelievable how long
Speaker 1: people can go for it, and they really know how
Speaker 1: to surf. It's stunning. I agree, But what's stopping you
Speaker 1: from trying? Well, I am not a great swimmer. I
Speaker 1: don't see a lot of surfing and Floa. I actually
Speaker 1: knew that. I just wanted you to have to say that.
Speaker 1: But also it just feels so dangerous. I mean, it
Speaker 1: is maybe irrational, but I read this surf memoir. It's
Speaker 1: called Barbarian Days and it's by William Finn again, this
Speaker 1: New Yorker writer, and it's beautiful, but there's this scene
Speaker 1: where the author goes to some remote place near Fiji
Speaker 1: and the ocean is in this area and it's filled
Speaker 1: with super venomous water snakes. But because the waves are
Speaker 1: so good, he just keeps surfing. And you know, between
Speaker 1: water snakes and sharks and the way his skin tears
Speaker 1: up on coral, I just think I'll stick to tennis.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I.
Speaker 1: Still do like facts about surfing, and I'm curious where
Speaker 1: you want to start today.
Speaker 2: Actually, before we jump into that, I'm not trying to
Speaker 2: delay us anymore from surfing, but it made me think
Speaker 2: about this. Have you actually seen these photos of Swiss
Speaker 2: people commuting home from work by floating on the Rhine?
Speaker 1: If you see these, it is unbelievable. Like those images
Speaker 1: were all over TikTok this summer and it kind of
Speaker 1: looks magical.
Speaker 2: It really does. So I guess in Basil, Switzerland, they've
Speaker 2: got these little cabins for changing and their showers along
Speaker 2: the route, and basically commuters will strip down, throw their
Speaker 2: belongings in these waterproof floating bags. They're shaped like fish,
Speaker 2: and then they just float home much as this. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's so cool and it feels like such a nice
Speaker 2: way to end every summer workday. Think about this if
Speaker 2: every day instead of going and getting on the train
Speaker 2: or whatever we're doing to get home, to be able
Speaker 2: to do that. And that's just an aside, but I
Speaker 2: thought it was worth sharing here. But why don't we
Speaker 2: start by talking about some of the early accounts of surfing.
Speaker 2: I know, we like to go back to the very
Speaker 2: beginning on so many of these things. But the first
Speaker 2: European riding about surfing comes from a man named Charles Clerk.
Speaker 2: He served as a ship's officer on one of Captain
Speaker 2: Cook's voyages through the Pacific. This was back in seventeen
Speaker 2: seventy eight, and Cook and his crew became the first
Speaker 2: known Europeans to visit the Hawaiian Islands, so they were
Speaker 2: basically the first outsiders to witness surfing. So he writes
Speaker 2: about this in his journal, and Clerk recounted watching these
Speaker 2: islanders mount boards that were six to eight feet so
Speaker 2: actually along the lines of what you would see today
Speaker 2: two feet wide, and he says, quote, in the shape
Speaker 2: of one of our bone paper cutters, you know, bone
Speaker 2: paper cutters, right.
Speaker 1: I also can't imagine how wild it must have been
Speaker 1: to see people just on these like planks, just cruising
Speaker 1: past you. It feels insane.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's pretty cool. And so he wrote, they basically
Speaker 2: get on these boards and then quote go round the
Speaker 2: best going boats we had in the space of a
Speaker 2: very few minutes. So he was definitely impressed. But my
Speaker 2: favorite account of surfing comes about one hundred years later,
Speaker 2: Mark Twain writes about the phenomenon.
Speaker 1: Mark Twain went to Hawaii.
Speaker 2: He did, He did go to Hawaiian So he writes
Speaker 2: about this and his travel memoir called Roughing It. And
Speaker 2: he also did a bunch of correspondents for the Sacramento
Speaker 2: Union when he traveled through Hawaii and wrote about everything
Speaker 2: from missionaries to sugar operations to local lore. But what's
Speaker 2: funny is that he documents surfing and calls it surf bathing.
Speaker 2: And here's how he describes it. He says, quote, at
Speaker 2: the right moment, the native would fling his board upon
Speaker 2: its foamy crest and himself upon the board, and here
Speaker 2: he would come whizzing by like a bombshell. It did
Speaker 2: not seem that a lightning express train could shoot along
Speaker 2: at a more hair lifting speed, so it's pretty cool
Speaker 2: to watch. I think he might have been exaggerating just
Speaker 2: a tiny bit. But what's even better is that Twain
Speaker 2: actually gives surfing a tries, so he was a little
Speaker 2: more brave than the two of us. And he goes
Speaker 2: on to write, I tried surf bathing once subsequently, but
Speaker 2: made a failure of it. I got the board placed
Speaker 2: right and at the right moment, too, but I missed
Speaker 2: the connection myself. The board struck the shore in three
Speaker 2: quarters of a second without any cargo, and I struck
Speaker 2: the bottom at about the same time with a couple
Speaker 2: of barrels of water in me. None but natives ever
Speaker 2: master the art of surf bathing thoroughly. Pretty great story there.
Speaker 1: Well, I feel like surf bathing makes it sound like
Speaker 1: a gentler sport does, so it feels like you should
Speaker 1: do that every day. I know you're a much better
Speaker 1: swimmer than I am because your your grandma was like
Speaker 1: an Olympic swimmer, right.
Speaker 2: She might have claimed that she was an Olympic swimmer,
Speaker 2: but she did teach us alt to swim, Thanks mamma.
Speaker 1: So I had no idea that Mark Twain wrote any
Speaker 1: of this stuff. And I actually just read James. Have
Speaker 1: you heard the book? I'm actually about halfway through it.
Speaker 1: It is fantastic book. Good and honestly like reading about
Speaker 1: Huck Finn from Jim's perspective made me want to go
Speaker 1: back and read more Mark Dwain, and I actually feel
Speaker 1: like now I've got to start with this travel bit more.
Speaker 2: Yeah. By the way, as a side note, you know
Speaker 2: who recommended James. One of our fantastic podcasters, Danny Shapiro,
Speaker 2: does Family Secrets. I always asked her what books are
Speaker 2: you obsessing over? And it was that book.
Speaker 1: Sorry for the yeah, I love it for over. My
Speaker 1: next fact, I want to talk about how surfing started
Speaker 1: as an equal opportunity family activity. And this goes back
Speaker 1: to its inception. So surfing and Hawaii and other Polynesian
Speaker 1: islands was a communal activity and it's really wonderful. So
Speaker 1: like men, women, children, like people of every social class
Speaker 1: did this. And in fact, the oldest known surfboard belonged
Speaker 1: to a woman. It dates back to the sixteen hundreds
Speaker 1: and it was found in the burial cave of a
Speaker 1: princess on the Big Island of Hawaii.
Speaker 2: I feel like whenever you hear about surf history in America,
Speaker 2: it usually starts with that surf legend, Duke something or
Speaker 2: other bringing it to the mainland in the early nineteen hundreds.
Speaker 2: It was definitely not a story with a woman.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So the truth is that Hawaii's surf culture was
Speaker 1: derailed for a period in the nineteenth century thanks to
Speaker 1: American missionaries. They disapproved of just about every aspect of surfing,
Speaker 1: from the mixed gender nature of it to the fact
Speaker 1: that you had to be nearly naked to do it well.
Speaker 1: So the sport kind of fell by the wayside in Hawaii,
Speaker 1: especially among women. But that started to change at the
Speaker 1: turn of the century when Californians were introduced to the
Speaker 1: sport by male Hawaiian surfers, and that includes Duke Anamuku,
Speaker 1: who I know I'm butchering that we're talking about. But
Speaker 1: that said, female surfers never went away completely. And around
Speaker 1: the same time that surfing made its American day, And
Speaker 1: so this is in the eighteen nineties, Hawaii's princess was
Speaker 1: busy demonstrating the sport in England, and she did it
Speaker 1: in this grand fashion. She surfed the English Channel. There's
Speaker 1: a document at the British Surfing Museum that has a
Speaker 1: great description of it, and it says, quote, the tall
Speaker 1: foreign dignitaries stood erect on a thin board with her
Speaker 1: hair blowing in the wind as she rode the Chili waters.
Speaker 1: It was such an impressive sight that some of the
Speaker 1: British nobility to decide to take up surfing, and before
Speaker 1: you knew it, the sport had this foothold on a
Speaker 1: whole new continent.
Speaker 2: That's amazing. Actually, you know, in my research I found
Speaker 2: some of the early pictures of the brit surfing or
Speaker 2: surf riding as they used to call it, and they
Speaker 2: used coffin lids instead of surfboards because they just weren't
Speaker 2: proper boards available. It's so crazy to see what people
Speaker 2: used to surf on. Look at this photo here, like
Speaker 2: you can see these are just pulled straight from They're
Speaker 2: either pulled straight from a coffin or they are lids
Speaker 2: that have not yet been put on a coffin lids.
Speaker 2: Maybe that's what it is. But anyways, speaking of female surfers,
Speaker 2: did you know that in the sixties TV surfer Gidget
Speaker 2: was based on a real person.
Speaker 1: I love that you're bringing up gidget like anyone remembers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, buddy remembers Gidget in the time before we were alive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you're gonna have to explain it.
Speaker 2: Well, obviously she's not a household name anymore. But in
Speaker 2: the late nineteen fifties and early sixties, Gidget was the
Speaker 2: most famous surfer of them all. Sandra d played her
Speaker 2: in the nineteen fifty nine movie, and then other actresses
Speaker 2: took over for the role and the sequels, you know,
Speaker 2: sequels like Gidget Goes Hawaiian and Gidget Goes to Rome,
Speaker 2: so you know, the usual classics. But then in the
Speaker 2: mid sixties, Gidget got a TV spinoff starring Sally Field.
Speaker 2: So we are talking about like pretty big actresses here,
Speaker 2: which very occasionally used to air on TV when when
Speaker 2: I was a kid.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I actually vaguely, vaguely remember that. And you know,
Speaker 1: I'm guessing this was during the height of the surf craze,
Speaker 1: when the beach Boys had all those songs on the air.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, Gidget was the first of those Hollywood
Speaker 2: beach party films that you think of that were so
Speaker 2: huge in the nineteen sixties. But one thing that set
Speaker 2: Gidget apart is that the character was actually based on
Speaker 2: a real surfer. Her name was Kathy Kohner and in
Speaker 2: nineteen fifty six, she was a fifteen year old girl
Speaker 2: growing up in the suburbs of Malibu. So that summer
Speaker 2: she learned to surf by trading peanut butter sandwiches to
Speaker 2: local surfers in exchange of using their surfboards.
Speaker 1: Is not cool.
Speaker 2: I love how creative that is.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. And I love that like a peanut butter
Speaker 1: sandwich can get your ride on a surfboard. Though, that's
Speaker 1: so great.
Speaker 2: I love a peanut butter sandwich like I would totally
Speaker 2: trade my board for one. So by the end of
Speaker 2: the summer she was hooked and kept telling her dad
Speaker 2: about it, and at one point Kathy told them she
Speaker 2: wanted to write a book about her surfing experiences, but
Speaker 2: her dad, being a writer himself, offered to write it
Speaker 2: for her. So a year later, the first of five
Speaker 2: Ya novels about a surfed crazed girl named Gidget hit
Speaker 2: the shelves and it quickly became this national bestseller and
Speaker 2: within no time they sold the film rights.
Speaker 1: It's so cool, that's fun. But if a real name's Kathy,
Speaker 1: why does she get named Gidget.
Speaker 2: Well, apparently that's the nickname that those older Malibu surfers
Speaker 2: gave her. It's a combination of girl and midget, which
Speaker 2: of course is problematic today. But some of the other
Speaker 2: characters in the book had better nicknames, like Gidget's longtime
Speaker 2: love interest was named moon Doggie, which I think is
Speaker 2: actually pretty cool and maybe problematic for other reasons. Haven't
Speaker 2: thought about it yet, but on account of his fondness
Speaker 2: for surfing by moonlight, which I think is kind of cool.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I just assumed gidget was a surf
Speaker 1: term because there's so many of those that, you know,
Speaker 1: you have no idea what they mean, and I thought
Speaker 1: it would be fun, actually if I gave you a
Speaker 1: bit of a surf vocabulary quiz, just in case the
Speaker 1: next time you meet a surfer and your Google Translate
Speaker 1: doesn't work, you know, you actually have some surfing vocabulary
Speaker 1: to lean on.
Speaker 2: Right, let's do it.
Speaker 1: So the first one is doggy door. Do you know
Speaker 1: what a doggy door is? To a surfer?
Speaker 2: Use it in a sentence?
Speaker 1: I thought he was a goner, but then he found
Speaker 1: that doggy door.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm guessing it's a little like a little gap
Speaker 2: in the wave or something like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, So a doggy door is a small exit
Speaker 1: hole of surfer finds to get out of the barrel
Speaker 1: of a wave. All right, so one for one? All right?
Speaker 1: How about a gremmy?
Speaker 2: I have no idea, give it to me in another sentence?
Speaker 1: Sure, I won my game of scrabble by using the
Speaker 1: word remy. That is, that is not helpful at all.
Speaker 2: So what is a gremmy?
Speaker 1: I guess? I also have said a grammy is almost
Speaker 1: the same as a grommet.
Speaker 2: Okay, that have been helpful. Not still not figure it out.
Speaker 1: A grommet is a young surfer, and amy is an
Speaker 1: inexperienced surfer of any age. So you'd rather be called
Speaker 1: a grommet than a grammy, I guess. But neither is
Speaker 1: a term of endearment, right. How about a kahuna?
Speaker 2: Uh? I feel like you hear the phrase big kahooner.
Speaker 2: You obviously hear the phrase bic kohoon a lot, and
Speaker 2: it's it's always around like Polynesian culture. So maybe this
Speaker 2: is a village chief or something like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's pretty close, okay. A kahuna is apparently a
Speaker 1: wizard or a magician, and it can also be a
Speaker 1: wise man or a shaman. So you can see how
Speaker 1: a kahuna becomes kind of a wizard of surfing on
Speaker 1: the waves. Yeah. So, and the last one I'm going
Speaker 1: to give you what is a mushburger?
Speaker 2: Well, I know, when you finish surfing or playing in
Speaker 2: the water or anything like that, you're definitely very hungry.
Speaker 2: So would this be like the sandwiches and chow that
Speaker 2: you scarf down after riding the waves and they're may
Speaker 2: be all wet from the ocean or sandy. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I'm trying here.
Speaker 1: I love that idea. I do feel like Mushburgers would
Speaker 1: be a great name for a franchise. But a mushburger
Speaker 1: is actually a slow and fat wave.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I get that, that makes sense.
Speaker 1: I like the name. So anyway, now that you know
Speaker 1: all the surf slang, why don't we take a quick break.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're sharing some
Speaker 1: of our favorite facts about the fine art of surfing
Speaker 1: and will I think it's your turn to go next?
Speaker 2: All right, Well, you felt like my my facts about
Speaker 2: gidget were a little dated, and so I'm going to
Speaker 2: dip into some pop culture that a few more people
Speaker 2: have heard of, and it's a little show called SpongeBob SquarePants.
Speaker 1: Not familiar. Not familiar?
Speaker 2: Okay, fact, Yeah, that's pretty great. This does remind me,
Speaker 2: as a side note, about the time where you told
Speaker 2: me that you were introduced to Hall and Oates, when
Speaker 2: you were literally introduced to Hall and Oates at that event,
Speaker 2: and I was like, how did this happen? How are
Speaker 2: we here? And you were not familiar with their body
Speaker 2: of works. Sorry to call you out.
Speaker 1: Here, but it just wasn't.
Speaker 2: That's pretty well. I didn't realize that the SpongeBob creator,
Speaker 2: Stephen Hillenberg, was actually a lifelong surfer and a marine biologist.
Speaker 2: And this comes from a friend of his named Biddle Doo,
Speaker 2: who wrote a piece about him in The New Yorker.
Speaker 2: But apparently when Hillenburg wasn't surfing, he was beachcombing and
Speaker 2: sketching shells and sea life. Anyway, Duke tells this story
Speaker 2: that he and Hillenburg and a group of friends all
Speaker 2: used to go to these camping beach trips and they
Speaker 2: would go once a year on these trips, and one
Speaker 2: year they were at this bonfire in Baja and Hillenburg
Speaker 2: passes around his journal with an idea that he has.
Speaker 2: Now apparently by this time, he's already made an educational
Speaker 2: comic book about sea life. He's won awards for this,
Speaker 2: he's done grad school and animation, won awards for that too,
Speaker 2: and so he's on this path to doing something with
Speaker 2: marine life and animation. But he opens his book and
Speaker 2: tells everyone he's going to write a cartoon about a
Speaker 2: sea sponge, and nobody gets it, right, I mean, you
Speaker 2: can imagine how people are, like, okay, and you know,
Speaker 2: obviously a sea sponge is like this lifeless, inanimate blob
Speaker 2: of a thing, and they're like, really a sponge, Like
Speaker 2: is this really what you're going to do? And he
Speaker 2: tries to tell them that that's actually the gag, that
Speaker 2: it's going to be about a kitchen sponge who lives
Speaker 2: in a tide pool and has all these other funny
Speaker 2: sea creature friends, but no one can see it. And
Speaker 2: while they all assume he's going to be successful, they
Speaker 2: just don't think this is the idea.
Speaker 1: I mean, it is funny to think of, right, like
Speaker 1: the idea that someone told me they were going to
Speaker 1: make a cartoon about a sponge like, there's no way
Speaker 1: I think that's gonna be.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's it's genius now, but I totally agree. Anyway,
Speaker 2: you cut to a few decades later and SpongeBob is
Speaker 2: the biggest cartoon on earth, but even the people at
Speaker 2: Nickelodeon don't quite understand success. And when the author goes
Speaker 2: to reunite with Hilenburg, he wants to ask him how
Speaker 2: is it that a sponge managed to capture all these kids' hearts?
Speaker 2: But Hillenburg at this time actually has als and he
Speaker 2: doesn't surf anymore, and he can barely get words out,
Speaker 2: but he's, you know, still surprisingly sunny, and he still
Speaker 2: goes to the office every day. So Duke goes with him.
Speaker 2: And when Duke talks to one of Hillenburg's co writers
Speaker 2: about what makes the show so captivating, this is what
Speaker 2: he says. He says, SpongeBob is not cool, he's not aspirational.
Speaker 2: He just wants to go to work and be happy.
Speaker 2: There's this innocence to him and he sees the good
Speaker 2: and a horrible person. So it's like a pretty great
Speaker 2: quote there. And apparently Hillenberg's entire goal was to concentrate
Speaker 2: on simple stories taken from real life experiences. A yearbook
Speaker 2: picture gone wrong, how a good joke overtold can go wrong.
Speaker 2: And he's really trying to make a show. That was
Speaker 2: funny and earnest, but he had a moral compass about it.
Speaker 2: But the sweet guy who just wanted to see the
Speaker 2: best in people and go to work every day, it
Speaker 2: seems he was just making a show about himself. And so,
Speaker 2: as Duke Biddle writes, quote, we all love goofy optimists
Speaker 2: who don't care what the cool kids think. And that
Speaker 2: was Stephen Hillenberg.
Speaker 1: Oh I love that. Awesome. That's really sweet. So my
Speaker 1: next fact has none of that charm, but it's interesting.
Speaker 2: Awesome. That was a little little emotional, So it's time
Speaker 2: to move on to something less charming.
Speaker 1: It's about how researchers are putting surfers to monitoring the
Speaker 1: world's oceans. And so you might have heard global warming
Speaker 1: is doing a real number on the oceans, creatures who
Speaker 1: call it home, or having a hard time with migration
Speaker 1: and reproduction, all these other things. And so to really
Speaker 1: tackle a problem, we still need to amass a lot
Speaker 1: more data in information, and that's where the surfers come in.
Speaker 1: So apparently scientists are outfitting volunteer surfers with a special
Speaker 1: board mounted sensor called a smart fan Phi N and
Speaker 1: then dispatching them to surf spots around the world to
Speaker 1: do what they do best.
Speaker 2: You mean to shred the NAR. Actually, while you were
Speaker 2: saying that, I was googling some other surfing term. I
Speaker 2: feel like I said it convincingly that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So while they're shredding the NAR, they're also collecting
Speaker 1: data on the temperature, slidity, and acidity of the surrounding waters,
Speaker 1: and once compiled, scientists will be able to compare those
Speaker 1: readings and get a better understanding of how the ocean's
Speaker 1: chemistry is changing over time and what it might look
Speaker 1: like in the future, which I think is awesome.
Speaker 2: I mean, I can see how this helps the scientists,
Speaker 2: but honestly, like what's in it for the surfers, because
Speaker 2: I for serious surfers or enthusiasts, I could see how
Speaker 2: mounting additional gear would you know, get in the way
Speaker 2: or down.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the researchers behind the project thought of that, and
Speaker 1: according to one of them, this is what they said, quote,
Speaker 1: we built some extra technology into the smart fin that
Speaker 1: will compel surfers to use it for their own selfish
Speaker 1: reasons to know where and when waves are good and
Speaker 1: to tract their own surfing performance. So you know, the
Speaker 1: idea is that all this technology can actually be performance enhancing,
Speaker 1: and the hope is that everyone wins.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, here is a quick one. So we've
Speaker 2: talked a lot about human surfers today, which I guess
Speaker 2: makes sense. But other animals have also taken up surfing,
Speaker 2: though none more successfully than the yellow bellied sea snakes.
Speaker 2: Are you familiar with the yellow bellads seas? Its original
Speaker 2: home was in the ocean waters of Southeast Asia, but
Speaker 2: the snakes have since been found near Hawaii or Mexico,
Speaker 2: even an island in the Indian Ocean, and for decades
Speaker 2: a big mystery among biologists was how these tiny snakes
Speaker 2: managed to turn up in tropical waters all over the world.
Speaker 2: I mean, these guys weigh like three to seven ounces
Speaker 2: or about two feet long, So that's like the weight
Speaker 2: of your namesake mango, the mango, and about the length
Speaker 2: of a baguette. You can tell I'm hungry here I'm
Speaker 2: going with these. So the question is how are they
Speaker 2: crossing the globe?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I guess that's a long way for
Speaker 1: a baget to swim, right, But I'm guessing the answer.
Speaker 2: Is surfing exactly. So the theory that's been kicking around
Speaker 2: since the nineteen seventies, after the time of Gidget, of course,
Speaker 2: But in twenty sixteen, researchers were able to model this
Speaker 2: path for c snakes using a computer program that simulates
Speaker 2: ocean currents. So basically, they took ten thousand virtual snakes,
Speaker 2: they released them from twenty eight different points on the map,
Speaker 2: and then they track the path of each group to
Speaker 2: see where the currents would take them. And you know,
Speaker 2: wouldn't you know it, the pass led straight to where
Speaker 2: this snakes have been found in the real world. And
Speaker 2: here's the wildest part. If the models are accurate, that
Speaker 2: means that the snakes are clocking distances of nearly six
Speaker 2: thousand miles or more over the course of their three
Speaker 2: and a half year lifespans. And for perspective, that would
Speaker 2: be farther than any other snake species has traveled. It's
Speaker 2: actually closer to the travel range of something like a whale.
Speaker 2: And because the yellow bellied snakes can hold their breath
Speaker 2: underwater for this astounding period of three and a half hours,
Speaker 2: it actually seems plausible that they surf the waves over
Speaker 2: from Asia. That's just crazy to me.
Speaker 1: Three and a half hours underwater is nuts. You know,
Speaker 1: when you said you were doing something on animals, I
Speaker 1: was expecting something about surfing dogs, you know, because they
Speaker 1: have the first image competition in hunting and beach But
Speaker 1: I'm kind of glad you owned with snakes instead.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you got to keep people on your toes.
Speaker 2: So what is your very last fact of the day.
Speaker 1: So, I think one of the things we often associate
Speaker 1: with surfing is surf music, right, whether that's when the
Speaker 1: beach boys who didn't really surf, or things that are
Speaker 1: a little harder, like the surf rock that plays in
Speaker 1: the beginning of Pulp Fiction, which, for anyone who hasn't
Speaker 1: heard it, sort of like pulsing instrumental guitar and heavy reverb,
Speaker 1: and it's in the opening credits of the movie. Anyway,
Speaker 1: when I was looking at surf music, I found this
Speaker 1: article on the New Yorker that I thought was fascinating,
Speaker 1: and it's titled Dick Dale, the inventor of surf rock,
Speaker 1: was a Lebanese American kid from Boston.
Speaker 2: I love it. I mean, that's like how Hawaiian pizza
Speaker 2: was invented in Canada by a Greek person, a big,
Speaker 2: big fan by the way, the Hawaiian pizza.
Speaker 1: So Dick Dale's the musician who actually plays that pulp
Speaker 1: fiction song, which is called messr lou I guess. Apparently
Speaker 1: the musician was born to a family of Lebanese immigrants
Speaker 1: and his birth name was Richard Monsieur, and he gets
Speaker 1: a guitar as a kid, but is obsessed with percussion.
Speaker 1: He loves big band music, so he likes like Buddy
Speaker 1: rich Gan, Krupa and all. That's a big part of
Speaker 1: why his music is so rhythmic and so percussive. But
Speaker 1: in high school, his family does move out to California
Speaker 1: and he begins to surf and kind of the same
Speaker 1: way that early skateboarders. I don't know if you've seen
Speaker 1: these videos, but if you've seen like Dogtown and z Boys,
Speaker 1: the skateboarders are trying to mimic surfing by reaching down
Speaker 1: to touch the pavement and they're skimming it with their
Speaker 1: hands like its water. And early surf musicians are also
Speaker 1: trying to figure out how do you recreate that feeling
Speaker 1: of surfing with music? So Amanda Petrecich, who wrote that
Speaker 1: article that The New Yorker puts it this way. Quote,
Speaker 1: though it is tempting to fold in bands like the
Speaker 1: Beach Boys, who often sang about surfing, surf rock was
Speaker 1: wet and gnarly and unconcerned with romance or sweetness. The
Speaker 1: important part was successfully evincing the sensation of riding atop
Speaker 1: a rushing crust of water, and to capture something about
Speaker 1: that experience, which was both tense and glorious. Its biggest
Speaker 1: question was how do we make this thing sound the
Speaker 1: way that thing feels, combining recklessness with grace. Anyway, because
Speaker 1: he is obsessed with percussion, and because he grew up
Speaker 1: listening to Arabic music and Greek rebetico music, which is
Speaker 1: sort of like the rebel folk music, He's using scales
Speaker 1: and tones that are unfamiliar, and he pumps up the
Speaker 1: reverb on these quick percussive notes and amplifies it at
Speaker 1: what Amanda Petrosuch says is an indecent volume, and he
Speaker 1: ends up creating the sound of surf music, which quickly
Speaker 1: sweeps the nation.
Speaker 2: I like that. That is, that's a good story, all right. Well,
Speaker 2: since I picked last week's winner. I feel like this
Speaker 2: week you'd get to do the honors.
Speaker 1: Well, I was fifty to fifty. Dylan also won last
Speaker 1: week's TROPHI so I don't think we can give it
Speaker 1: to him, but because you did that Mark Twain anecdote,
Speaker 1: and also SpongeBob, SpongeBob is pretty great, I think I've
Speaker 1: got to give it to you.
Speaker 2: I feel like I deserved it this week. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2: I appreciate that. Well, that's it for today's Part Time Genius.
Speaker 2: I do want to thank Gabe Lucy. It's been a
Speaker 2: little while he's done so many episodes in the past
Speaker 2: with us, but Gabe did most of the research for
Speaker 2: this week's episode, and as Mango mentioned, we've been sitting
Speaker 2: on some of these links and stories for a while
Speaker 2: and it's fun to finally be doing the show regularly
Speaker 2: enough that we remembered we needed to put.
Speaker 1: It out there.
Speaker 2: So this was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: Anyway, we'll be back with a brand new episode next week,
Speaker 2: but in the meantime, from Mango, Dylan, Mary, and myself,
Speaker 2: thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1: Part Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: This show is hosted by Will Pearson and me Mongashtikler
Speaker 1: and research by our good pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was engineered and produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan
Speaker 1: with support from Tyler Klang. The show is executive produced
Speaker 1: for iHeart by Katrina Norvel and Ali Perry, with social
Speaker 1: media support from Sasha Gay, trustee Nara Potts and Viny Shorey.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
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