This is a “must listen”. The life lessons and outlooks are beyond inspirational. I listen to this podcast because I’m foil-brained. Didn’t expect this one but it is worth every word.
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Completely agree. Best Progression podcast to date.
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How come the podcast isn’t on Spotify?
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Stacy is a legend. Been amping on this one for a while. Can’t wait to drop the Josh Waitzkin episode in the next couple weeks!
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Great listen! Stacey is an inspirational bro. I have always loved being a skater and foiler and all that they have in common.
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His thoughts on aging and some peers not being willing to try new things was really interesting. As I get older, I can identify with getting what you are good at wrapped up into your identity and not wanting to suck again at something. Really great show Erik.
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The revelation about the meditation vision really blew up my perceptions. Thank you for sharing that. Not going to lie, the comment a while back about “5 weeks of two sessions a day” really activated my resentment switch. It’s easy to forget that although you hear a guy chatting to people all the time, you still don’t know sh!t about them. Sorry for being annoyed that you get more time in the water than I do…. You probably never noticed I hope.
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Solid episode! Even convinced my wife (who is sick of me talking about foiling) to have a listen… she loved it as well Great job, keep up the good work!
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Imagine if /when foiling could be as accessible as skating. That was a great episode with minimal FD discussion 
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Something that I’ve thought about alot that was really reinforced here is how necessary it is to have a background being a kook inorder to foil. Surfers who have been shredding since being a kid almost never make it. They haven’t sucked at anything since they were 9 and they can’t deal with the ego hit. The toxic surf culture reinforces this - it’s really a place where you can never show weakness. Kiters are a good fit just because nobody learned to kite as a kid. Every kiter has sucked at something as an adult.
I think the #1 thing any surfer needs to be a successful foiler is therapy!
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His ability to separate curiosity from ego is the best. He does what he’s interested in and what challenges him, not necessarily what’s cool or going to make him look good. He’s not afraid to kook out. Those traits that he exemplifies, are such catalysts for creativity. What a great reminder.
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+1 on all the above…
…but…listening to a bunch of foiling podcasts lately, I find it a bit alienating as aspiring intermediate foiler, not living in a great place to foil…all the references are Hood, Maui, Oz, Bali, and Kane, James, Josh, Bennets, and Co…and DW…
So, FWIW, it makes the common mentions of love for growing the sport and making it more accessible, ring a bit hollow…and keeping the conversations within the greater club of elites, using elite gear, doing elite things, in the best places may not be the best way to do that.
It does make sense to talk to and about all the top people places and things, and geeking out on stuff you are super super into…because it is interesting and exciting and inspirational, kind of, for a bit…
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I spend a lot of time thinking about the culture of foiling. I’ve been surf foiling for 6 years now and I’ve always been conscious of the fact that I’m building something new. The crew on our beach is a thing that I built and to a big extent I get to decide what it’s going to be like. My podcast is all about hyping my local crew, getting to know local riders and being stoked for our spot and the epic conditions on offer! This is something that I actively invest in and work on because a lot of the “brands” and pro riders don’t really fit in the reality of “foil culture” on the ground for regular kooks!
I think stuff like this Progression Episode resonates because for a lot of us foiling is HARD and nothing like what the pros do and it’s still awesome and fills us with joy. It’s great hearing from objectively talented people who are still on that part of the program.
I think for alot of us tapping into and enhancing that part of the foil culture does more for our progression than hearing someone talk about how awesome some new piece of gear or technique is or their own personal journey to to living a life that seems like it’s designed to stoke our FOMO. I’m stoked to hear about kooks kooking!
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I’ve never been afraid to be a kook at whatever I try to do. The only problem is I very rarely ascend above kook level. I am kook, know me, love me.
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My new podcast is going to be “Kooks on Foil”…watch for it…
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In retrospect I was afraid to be a kook in the climbing world. My identity was of a “competent and strong climber”. Now I wonder if that’s why I don’t climb much anymore.
It’s the constant yearning to learn , what ever sports but also in professional life, that keeps me interested and young.
Great episode, back to the root of the first few Progression podcasts.
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What is your podcast? Sounds like it could be a good listen.
It’s the mediocre foiling podcast. It is HOT GARBAGE. But it’s my garbage
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Excellent episode.
I really liked the point that we are in some kind of action sports “age of enlightenment”, started at the beginning of surfing, not to be taken for granted, and possibly coming to the end of a long arc.
It made me think that where surfing or snowboarding took a 50 or 30 year arcs to reach maturity, foiling maybe has happened much more rapidly due to social.
I also resonated with the line of quitting while you’re ahead, letting go and moving on - new things, beginner mind:
I could have done it the rest of my life [skateboarding team] but I would have felt that I was an autopilot and I was still so young and I really felt you know what I’ve been given one of the blankest canvases anybody in this sport’s ever going to be given and it’s time for me now to give that canvas back and let other people have it and do what they want to do with it and so like you’re saying it I left so much of what I loved and so much of what created me but I was done and I had to be true to myself about being done that I was done and I had an uncertain future ahead of me but I knew what I wanted to do and I took a chance and did it isn’t that like uncertainty beautiful but it is it’s remarkable it’s scary it doesn’t it it you can’t be an uncertainty without being afraid and without being insecure and freaked out but that’s just part of it it’s also filled with possibility and potential exactly
I’m a big advocate of starting something almost completely new every five to ten years and the reason there’s a lot of reasons why but one of them is that you learn so much and when you get to start fresh you get to take everything that you’ve learned and create the new with the new knowledge I feel like so many folks just continue on the same path and it’s not that that’s bad in any way shape or form but it’s like you don’t get to see what you can do today with all of the skills and the minds that you acquired over the last journey
Another great section was the point on how difficult it can be between “interests” - really resonated, and deeply relatable:
I love deep rabbit holes where you can focus that’s what it’s all about man yeah getting immersed hey oh here’s an interesting thing I was thinking about this are you good with something that I’ve always tried to do and be lenient with myself on is you’re someone who’s bounced from passion to passion throughout life
and there’s definitely a time in between that can be hard where you want to have the next focus the old one isn’t working have you been able to seamlessly go through those or sometimes those are hard transitions and in those transitions are you okay like those are the times that I generally find myself reading a lot like I’m okay giving myself six months of doing almost nothing on the surface from the outside perspective of just gathering as much information about whatever not necessarily what my next endeavor will be but just being okay just taking time and reading and waiting for the next thing to materialize
I have a current running through me and if I don’t have a place to put that current the current doesn’t go away it turns against me so okay so I have to find these I have to continually find these other things
I can only read so much I can only garden so much paint so I have to have something to put it on because if I don’t it goes against me or it just throws me off so I do my best to to work with that current and always have something for it if I can
but that doesn’t mean that there’s times when I just don’t let myself go and be completely fat lethargic and just go that’s it I have nothing to do because I also think that bottoming out is very important I think it’s very important every once in a while to completely bottom out and have a couple of months where you’re just not productive you’re just a sloth
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