Surf Stories

Kevin Miller sat down with Cape Town filmmaker Alan Van Gysen @alanvangysen in person during a trip to South Africa, so John Brooks sits this one out. Alan traces his path from a waterproof Minolta and selling prints to bodyboarding friends, through 20 years shooting stills for Zigzag, to co-founding Now Now Media @nownowmedia with Will Bendix @will.bendix. They discuss Chasing the Unicorn and the power of film to lift communities, close encounters with great whites, and Alan free-diving under a drifting charter boat in the Mentawais to cut a fouled propeller free. Plus: bringing aloha back to crowded lineups.

Mike Ruthnum is Jeffreys Bay's resident surf photographer and filmmaker, the eye behind @jbaytv. Raised in Isipingo Beach south of Durban, he took up kneeboarding at 13 and first made the pilgrimage to J-Bay at 16, settling there for good in 2007. After a near-fatal illness kept him in hospital for eight months, Mike picked up a camera during his recovery and turned pro in 2021. His work has since appeared in The Surfer's Journal, Zigzag, Pacific Longboarder and Surfline, and on most days he's on the beach at Supertubes from first light to dark.  Enjoy this chat with Kevin Miller while he was on location in Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa.

In this episode of Surf Stories, John Brooks and Kevin Miller talk with professional big-wave surfer Torrey Meister about his path from childhood at Banyans on Hawaii's Big Island, shaped early by Shane Dorian's grom contests, through a decade chasing the Qualifying Series in California. Torrey shares his breakthrough 2013 Cold Water Classic win, his long-standing O'Neill partnership, and the Jaws session during the 2015–16 El Niño swell that turned him into a dedicated big-wave rider. He also opens up on injuries, resilience, and gratitude for a life built around the ocean.  Florida Surf Film Festival was the gracious host of the world premiere of Tucker Wooding and Torrey's new film, Unmakeable.

Nate Zoller, a professional surfer, photographer, and writer based in Southern California, has spent over a decade with Roark as a Brand Ambassador and storyteller. He produces branded content and narrative campaigns from surf and adventure trips around the globe — from Iceland and Japan to the Falkland Islands and Mexico — while contributing to acclaimed Roark films like "The Forgotten Archipelago" and "Dear Mexico." On this episode, hosts John Brooks and Kevin Miller sit down with Zoller to talk about his Laguna Beach roots and what it takes to turn a life of travel into compelling marketing.

Aaron "Gorkin" Cormican, New Smyrna Beach's own aerial pioneer and two-time Quiksilver King of the Peak champion, joins John Brooks and Kevin Miller for this homegrown NSB chat. Known equally for his high-flying competitive career and for shaping boards under his own Gorkin Surfboards label, Cormican has spent decades as one of the Inlet's most recognizable and respected talents. In this conversation, he digs into how he found surfing and competition, kill or be killed attitude, his journey from competitor to shaper, and the local characters and culture that influenced his journey - a true homegrown story, straight from the source.  Now, Aaron lives and makes surfboards in Nicaragua.