Rip Curl Gromsearch 2011

I caught up with some of the State's best young rippers for the 12th annual Rip Curl Gromsearch at Jan Juc last September. It's epic what these guys are doing, and as always it was awesome to catch the stoke that comes from sporting competition, when I spoke with Joe van Dijk, Naomi McCarthy and event organiser Mark Flanagan at the presentations.

Layne continues to inspire

After meeting one of my ultimate heroes Layne Beachley over Easter, I was stoked to catch up with her again this week! Layne recently came second in the Four Seasons Surfing Champions Trophy in the Maldives, amid an all-star, all-male field. We spoke about surfing single fins, and her passion for helping the environment, in particular the huge plastic problem in our oceans due mostly to misinformation, confusion and inaction.

Check out my interview with Layne here:

One of the projects Layne is involved in is the Vac from the Sea Initiative, by the Surfrider Foundation and Electrolux, involving an awareness campaign around non-biodegradable plastics, and the amount that is heading out to sea, and harming animals.

Everyone can help the environment and marine life, by being involved in a local beach clean-up, or contributing to an environmental group.

Who are Chicks with Stix?

Zoe Jaboor is an inspiration for the future of women's sport, and an extremely talented freestyle skier. She's also a great conversationalist, coach, international ski judge and one of the nicest girls I've met. I met Zo over in Mammoth Mountain in California with her sister, and great friend, Anita.

Zoe founded the all-girls freestyle ski and snowboard program Chicks with Stix last year, and this year I was stoked to be a part of the shred days we had up at Mt. Hotham and Mt. Baw Baw. News Geelong caught up with Zo recently to find out how the program's been going.

Check out the story, which was also one of my first News Geelong edits, in Pinnacle Studio Ultimate. 

You can find what Chicks with Stix are up to this season on their website http://www.chickswithstix.com.au/

The lowdown with Herb Corona

With Kelly Slater and Herb Corona at the Rip Curl Pro 2011

Herb Corona is a video maker who hails from Caracas, Venezuela, and now resides in Geelong, Victoria. I met Herb surfing at Jan Juc - he is a super positive, motivated, inspiring, talented and friendly guy and was one of the only ones out there smiling.

Herbie is involved in many sports media projects: a freelancer for his own media company, Surf Coast Media, a cameraman and editor for local media and sport companies, and now a media teacher.

We discussed his attraction to working in sports media, how he got to where he is, his views on new media, advice for potential media workers and what the future holds for him.

Since interviewing Herby, we linked up to cover local news and sport for News Geelong including the 2011 Rip Curl Pro, 2012 Rip Curl Pro and stories with Pulse Television.

Filmed and edited by Herb, check out our coverage of the Rip Curl Pro 2011 here,
(click forward to the 1 minute mark to view the story).

Interview with Deano, Frontier Wakeskates

On Saturday, 26th February I interviewed my brother, Andrew 'Deano' Deane. Although younger than me, he is an inspiration in his creativity, ingenuity, his can-do-anything attitude, his mad board skills and his downright honest personality. He has a fascination with media, design and construction, is a skilled photographer, board rider and the owner and maker of Australia's only wood wake-skate company Frontier Wakeskates.

We spoke about what drew him to photography and digital video, the freedom and ease new media technologies enable in terms of creativity and timely exposure, the benefits underground sports may experience in terms of growth and progression, the advantages a smaller grassroots company can have over the larger brands and I also found out more about his latest project.

Click here to view Part One of my interview with Deano.


And here for Part Two.


I really enjoyed the interview, I discovered some interesting views on sports media and I loved being on location filming.

Here are a couple more clips, filmed and edited by Deano, on wakeskating in Melbourne and Frontier Wakeskates.

On the mic with John 'Reggae' Ellis

John 'Reggae' Ellis has been referred to as a surfing aficionado, he is a commentator on the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour, a seasoned snow reporter, and is also the co-publisher and managing editor of Surfing World and Chillfactor magazines.

Wayne 'Rabbit' Bartholomew and Reggae.

I met Reggae up at Thredbo during the filming of snow reports for the 2008 season. Reggae's variety of work in sports media, his friendly and fun personality and his stoke on life intrigue and motivate me to follow my aspirations of working in sports media and I always look forward to catching up with him at surf events or in the mountains.

Reggae's roles in sports media have utmost appeal to me, as he is often travelling, meeting and speaking with exciting people and he seems to have so much fun. I spoke with Reggae recently about how and why he got into surf media, advice he has for entertaining and informing audiences, advice for women hoping to break into a male dominated sport and industry, and the changes that new media are bringing to the sport.

Click here to listen to my interview with Reggae.

I had fun interviewing Reggae from the studio at 94.7 The Pulse. We had a few laughs and it was interesting finding out more of Reggae's path into the various roles in surf and snow media, his opinions on new media, and his advice of being yourself, being natural and maintaining humour when you are on the mic.