Aloha!
Welcome to the 3rd episode of the 3rd series of our podcast.
Today we are happy to have as guests Remi, Romain and Fred founders of Impact Zone, the only existing surf podcast in France.
We discussed with them about their amazing podcast project, future plans and about, of course, surf!
You can listen to the episode in all major podcast platforms (Spotify, ITunes, Amazon, YouTube) or read below, forgiving us of mistakes done while transcribing!
Mahalo!
TTOS: Aloha guys! Welcome to the show! Where are you today?
We are in France, south west of France, Tarnos, Bayonne and St Jean De Luz.
TTOS: Representing Basque country, I love those places!
First question of the day is, what is the most important thing in surfing?
Having fun,
Going out
Catching waves….
TTOS: As long as you can catch a wave you have fun, very pragmatic approach, right? If you catch waves, then you surf… lol, otherwise you just keep trying, or you're just swimming….
let's talk about you as a surfers, what you like to surf….?
Basically all the three of us has some pretty different approach, that interesting part of it…
Romain : I would say that maybe 25% of my time I’m on the twin fin
Remy : personally I surf mostly performance boards, thrusters and quads, I also have some twins…but I can surf quite everything… I have 30 boards at home, maybe more… even at my mom’s place….
Fred: I mostly ride longboards or mid-length boards, I’m the elder in the team
TTOS: Today we talk about your podcast, it is the only surf podcast in France, right?
That’s correct, Surf Session Magazine is supporting us and they share our episodes and that help us to be popular in France.
TTOS: How did you come up with the idea of doing a podcast?
It was a Romain’s idea when he was working at Surf Session…. he really wanted to do that, but at that time it wasn’t the right time to do so…
When Roman left Surf Session, we were always talking about surfing and once he came up to me and said “ Oh, would you want to do that with me?” And I (Remi) was pretty excited about the idea, we tried the two of us, we started one episode, but it was not really possible to handle, just the two of us, we weren't technical enough to really achieve,nail it and really be able to do it efficiently, that's when Fred came into the adventure, because Fred is a bit like the guru of IT stuff like video, sound, music and whatever touch base with computers.
When he joined us, we really started to do it more regularly, at the beginning it was just like Romain and I, discussing about topics and then, because Romain is a journalist and a pretty accurate on the way to build subjects, I came up with the idea of having some interviews, which is way easier to do.
(Romain says) Fred, Remi and I are super good friends out of the podcast and we always hang out together, even before this podcast, we were already talking a lot about things, so doing a podcast it's a transposition of being friends and discuss about surf and just put the microphone among us so that everybody can listen to your conversation.
That wasn't as easy as we thought back then, talking with in front a glass of wine or beer, it's pretty easy, but then you need to be quite clear in what we were saying if you need to reach a broader audience …..
TTOS: I think the great thing of your podcast is that it shows that you are friend, people listen andthey know that there is a great interaction between all of you….it's like to join a living room of friends, for like an hour or 40 minutes, it's quite nice…
We have a lot of fun doing it and it's good that listeners feel we have been doing it…..
the three of us are really complimentary on our approach of surfing, that really leads us to manage topics on different levels being surfers, pro surfers or cultural subjects.
The good thing is Fred, as, as a good ear to criticize positively what we are doing,that's pretty useful to have pair of ears to readjust during the interview, what we are doing.
TTOS: Perfect team, that's pretty cool.
How do you select the guests of the show? Do you have a process?
I would say that we try to not to have the same profile for every episode, we like to change from an athlete to a journalist, to aa filmmaker. We try not to have the same profile in the two episodes in a row and, of course, it depends of the opportunity that we have and some guests don't leave necessarily in France and, when they are in France, we try to jump on zoom to catch them here. Some are more difficult to get, It's like sending a lot of messages, as you know, especially now, during the surf season is impossible to get people to meet to the show.
Some also look motivated at first and once arrived the time to put it together, there's always a better thing to do that on answering to three guys behind a microphone or whatever.
We have a big list of people we want to interview, so it's quite easy to switch; sometimes nobody's available when we are, but most of the time we make it work.
I think the important things to to add is that we really try to have the guests around the table with us, which like makes it more complicated for everyone, actually we only did one show with on zoom like you do, which is like super great and is much easier sometimes, but we try to keep having them around the table. For the moment it works, as Remi said, sometimes we have to do some show at the last minute also because of the unpredictable agenda of our guests
We also try not to put any limit of time of the show, and I'd say that the length of the show is 1 or 2 hours… so it would be super difficult to have someone like behind the screen for two hours without a break.
TTOS: Do you have a dream interview?
I think that's very different for all the three of us, you know, like we not necessarily have the same interest in the same surfers
Remi : Matt Warshaw being a free surfer in the eighties was not that common at the time
Fred: Rob Machado!
Romain : Rob Machado will be a good one too! There are plenty more guests to come!
TTOS: Are you afraid of losing listeners while keeping the podcast above one hour?
At the beginning, were kind of afraid of that, but lthe feedback we had from people was like, “Oh yeah, that's cool”, because you can go deep into the discussion with your guests….that's what we try to do, to give honor to the guest, whatever he has to say or he wants to talk about.
Keeping the tempo going, that's really like the role of Fred, he kind of makes some sign when we need to move on to another question, you know, this is the advantage of podcasts in comparison with an article written for a magazine, you don't have any limits and it can be super frustrating as a journalist, for example, to reduce or interview or what you want to say, because you have only one page to write….
TTOS: What is your favorite episode so far?
Fred: Nicolas Dazet because of the person and because of the scale of what he is saying
Remi : I think the one with Nicolas is a big one, it has been cool to learn from a guy like that. If we talk about surfers, I was very happy with Jeremy Flores
Romain : I agree with Fred on Nicolas Dazet, number one show!
Remi: as Italian, you should try to have Leonardo Fioravanti on the show!
TTOS: I tried, but I couldn’t reach him unfortunately….. I will keep trying anyway! I don’t give up….
I had Roberto D’Amico, another amazing Italian surfer!
Remi: I’m so impressed by Roberto the way he developed his surf carreer, I think is pretty amazing, like from where it comes from to have quite a pretty decent European career and and being still relevant without doing any contest and stuff like that.
TTOS: I think he's pretty, pretty good in managing his career.
TTOS: I heard the news that the Pro Tour is not anymore stopping by Hossegor, how have you taken these news? I mean, I was very surprised and shocked….
Because we also work in the surf industry for us wasn't a surprise, we kind of knew it was going to be like that with the new organization of the tour. We were hoping till last minute, but unfortunately it didn’t happen.
I think that's going to be a big hit for the local economy because when the pros are is in town, there is a lot of crowd coming to see them
All the restaurant, all the hotels are full and the small businesses are working also
I'm pretty sure the pro surfers will miss it as well, because it's fun.
I won't be surprised that he'd be back in next season….unless they want to have the finals here in september, that would be amazing!
TTOS: What are your future plans?
For the moment, I think that we have enough work with the episodes we lined up and with all the rest of the all normal job, but yeah, we hope covid will be over soon in order to allow us to do more things, maybe a live show!
TTOS: We're going to finish this session with a quick Q/A session, please answer the first thing that comes up in your mind…..
The best surfboard that you have ever ridden…
Fred: mine, that is a McTavish longboard.
Remi: A Matt Biolos surfboard that I had from him when he was here shaping in 2003, sick board, but I broke it pretty fast
Romain : Al Merrick Bobby Martinez model, I broke it too, 10 years a go in Biarritz
TTOS: Your favorite shaper….
Fred Skip Frye
Remi Pizel Surfboard, ghost model
Romain Al Merrick
TTOS: Your Favorite song….
Fred: Mr Ward, all his songs are really cool
Romain: anything WU TANG CLAN
Remi: The decline NOFX
TTOS: Favorite surf spot
Fred: Senioss, close to Hossegor
Romain: Les sables d”Olonne, France
Remi: Uluwatu, Bali
TTOS: Favorite surfer
Fred: Rob Machado
Romain: Andy Irons
Remi: Andy Irons
TTOS: Last question, I want to know your best relationship advice….
Fred : to be honest
Romain : be honest, be true to yourself
Remi don't try to please the people that you don't like, like basically be true
