PODCAST · sports
We Shouldn't Be Friends
by Hannah Anderson and Nick Carroll
Tales from a world where everyone surfs.Nick’s a bald headed Boomer in recovery from surf rage. Hannah’s a blonde Millennial with a surfboard addiction. It’s like we’re from different planets! We really should not be friends. But this is 2026, and anything is possible, in and out of the surf. Here’s our playful, quizzical and highly informed look at modern surf culture in all its watery magnificence, and how it reflects all the social change we see in the world today. Oh, and watch out for epic guests.
Episodes
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SHE IS THE HURRICANE: ROCHELLE BALLARD
This year’s been a deeply sketchy one for many residents of the Hawaiian islands. The warming eastern Pacific has triggered numerous hurricanes near Mexico and sent a number of them skittering toward the islands. Cue gale force winds, floods, and repeated destruction across the chain. Nick and...
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SHAPING FOR THE GODS, WITH MATT BIOLOS
San Clemente, California, has two town centres. The first and most commonly known is a shop-lined street leading down to the pier. The second is a slightly tangled old industrial area not far from the railroad — the dusty home of some of the world’s great surfboard companies. Right in the middle…
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JUST SPORT?? UNTANGLING SWEENEY, WITH REBECCA OLIVE
Sometimes things happen. Sometimes they just blow up. This week pretty much the whole sporting world — including surfing — was blown up by an ad for an American sports prediction site featuring one of its key investors, the actress Sydney Sweeney, nude except for various pieces of sporting...
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Just One Big Turn, with supercoach Matt Grainger
Great surfing, like we just watched at the WSL CT Fiji Pro, can seem like magic to the rest of us. What are they DOING out there? All that timing, power and flow, coloured by small yet unmistakable flashes of individual style — it doesn’t come out of nowhere. Matt Grainger, Manly surf school and...
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THE SILVER GOBLIN: TOM CARROLL, A DECADE ON FROM DORIAN
“Sorry, Mr Pipeline!” Imagine surfing at a psychotically high level for 50 years, then being run over in a two foot beachie by an unsteady grommet. This is what happened to Tom Carroll, just a couple of days before Nick and Hannah put him on the spot to follow up Shane Dorian’s awesome take on...
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CHASED OUT OF THE WATER: OUR EVOLVING SHARK COUNTRY
There’s never been a time quite like this one. Since Surfing World published issue 428, “Shark Country”, there’s been three shark fatalities around the nation and one very seriously injured swimmer at a Sydney metro beach. Drones are being dispensed to boardriders clubs, shark bite kits are…
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THE AGEING DILEMMA, WITH SHANE DORIAN
Does anyone really think they’ll get old some day? The whole notion of ageing seems to run counter to surf culture’s obsession with youth — after all, at some level, maybe staying young is what it’s all about. But how do you manage that as your body and mind begin the inevitable process of change...
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GETTING IT DONE, WITH “NOW DAYS” CREATOR JODIE NELSON
It’s one thing watching a surf movie, or any movie really. It’s quite another thing to make one. “Now Days”, the recent release via Red Bull’s highly skilled and solidly funded media team, is a classic example. It come across as clean, sharp and clever — you see the surfing, but you never see the...
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SEEING THINGS DIFFERENTLY, WITH TRENT MITCHELL
What’s a “designer?” Can a designer even tell you? Trent Mitchell is a highly gifted photographer and graphic artist who’s well into one of the most interesting career arcs of his generation. If you’ve seen his book “Australian Lustre” you’ll already know that. But Trent has also signed on as art...
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THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT: SELLING THE TOUR
What happens when you sell a business? Everything changes, that’s what happens. Which means very interesting times ahead for all the people involved in the amazing, entertaining, possibly confusing yet all round brilliant circus you just watched go down at Snapper Rocks. Because the World Surf...
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IN THE WARM SEAT: FELICITY PALMATEER
Talking for a living isn’t the cakewalk people assume. This is especially true in sport. Even if you have something to say, it can be spun by circumstance — maybe you don’t mesh with the commentary team, maybe nerves mess up your message, maybe your voice is just plain unpleasant! None of this is...
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WHEN SURFING MAKES PEOPLE CRY: PAM BURRIDGE
Ever been sacked from a job you love? Even better — ever thought you might be sacked, and had to hang around for days in the office corridor waiting to find out? This is what a coupla handfuls of professional surfers just went through at Merewether Beach, with the tiny little addition of it all...
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THE CHANGAS: SHOW IT OR BLOW IT
While we’re on the subject…competition! In case you haven’t tried it, Hannah’s recently gone there on your behalf, and she’s rapidly finding out what a triple-edged sword it can be. You THINK you’re ripping, everyone TELLS YOU you’re ripping, you KNOW you’re the best … and you come third in your...
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THE OLYMPICS: GOTTA BE IN IT TO WIN IT
In the past four days, we’ve seen a classic, vaguely farcical, perhaps even hilarious story play out at the very top end of organised competitive surfing. On the surface it looks pretty simple: the WSL CT pros are cut up over a new Olympic selection criteria issued by the International Surfing...
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THE CARNAGE, PART ONE: PRO SURFING’S INSANELY AWKWARD BEGINNINGS
2026 is pro surfing’s 50th anniversary, and it’s been fifty years of epic carnage. 28,000 surfers. Over a billion dollars of investment. You can love it, hate it, or just not care about it, but you can’t really deny it — since 1976, the world tour has grown from very scrappy beginnings into one…
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RAGLAN SURF REPORT: THE FUNNIEST MAN IN THE GAME
It’s not secret to anyone who’s tried it: comedy is HARD. And given the number of people who’ve tried it and failed, comedy based on surfing is even harder. It’s weird, because we all know a heap of funny shit happens in the water all the time, but how do you dig it out and show it to the world?...
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THE BRAND MACHINE: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SURF INDUSTRY?
The gossip mills began churning about a year ago. Liberty Brands, the retail curator arm of US private equity play Authentic Brands — which owns most of the surf industry’s most familiar brand names — fell over, taking well over 100 “surf” shops with it. This seemed the final straw for an…
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THE BULL SHARKS OF JANUARY: WHAT JUST HAPPENED, AND WHY?
Four attacks. Numerous in-water sightings. A whole coastline of surfers wondering — who’s next? It’s safe to say this has not been the January anyone in NSW was expecting. But what’s behind the past few days of mayhem, and the strange stillness that’s followed as surfers stayed out of the water...
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CHRISTMAS EVERY DAY, WITH BOB McTAVISH
“Longevity.” It’s a word more and more surfers are throwing around as an aspiration. Well how about eternal youth? At 82, Bonza Bob McTavish has a deeper well of surfing memory than maybe any other surfer in the world, yet he still exudes the stoke and buzz of someone who lives right here with…
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“BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT”: MARK HEALEY AND THE MYSTERY OF OAHU’S NORTH SHORE
When winter comes to the north shore of Oahu, every swell is shrouded in myth. The Pipeline! Sunset! Waimea Bay! The outer reef spots that nobody ever actually names. But these swells and spots are just like anywhere else. They’re ridden and held down by human beings, just like you and us, and…
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THE ACTUAL WORLD CHAMPION: YAGO DORA’S VERY GRACEFUL LIFE
Recently the World Surf League has been dropping world champ comebacks like they’re on sale. Carissa, Stephanie, John, Gabriel! That’s 19 world titles rolling up almost out of the blue for the 2026 tour. They’ll change the game for sure. But in the meantime, what about the current men’s champ?...
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THE EVOLVING GOAT: KELLY SLATER ON LIFE BEYOND TITLES
It’s a sporting truism: once you’re a world champ, you’re forever a world champ. But that’s not all you are, and in this classic extended-play run-on from our chat with him during the WSL Finals, Kelly lets his mind wander freely across the new landscape of his life. Hip surgery — which he put…
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ONE OF A KIND: KEALA KENNELLY’S LIFE AHEAD OF THE CURVE
She challenged every surfing stereotype. Beat Andy and Bruce in their local Kauai juniors, charged Pipeline before it was for the fucken girls, towed Teahupo’o on Code Red day. Went on tour, made the top five while hiding her sexuality, then wore it on her sleeve. Built a big wave free-surfing...
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THE NEW BABY: WHY SURFING WORLD IS THE MAG FOR US
Surf magazines look like fun, but if you end up with one as your very own baby, it’ll kill ya. The beloved Sean Doherty has been dying on the altar of Surfing World magazine every three or so months for five years now. In the process Sean has made and kept making the grittiest…
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“WE’D JUST WEAR OUR WETSUITS ALL DAY”: PICKLES AND THE KIDS
What’s it like to be 22 years old and coming home a world champion? On the way back from a very happy arvo with Molly Picklum and the absolutely stoked North Shelly Boardriders crew, Nick and Hannah dig in to what actually happened at Cloudbreak last week, and how it’s likely to wash through into…
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FINAL FIVES: FROM THE ISLAND, WITH KELLY SLATER AND JON ROSEMAN
In part two of our special Finals series, Nick and Hannah are joined direct from Tavarua by two people who know the place inside out — literally. Resort director and barrel master Jon Roseman, and the phenomenally skilled GOAT of all GOATs, Kelly Slater. Listen as Jon picks Kelly to win, and…
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FINAL FIVES: FROM THE COUCH, WITH TOM CARROLL
We’re abject pro surfing fans over here, and when something like what’s about to happen in Fiji comes along, there’s no way we’re letting it just slide by. The WSL’s ten best surfers, vibing each other and themselves into one of the world’s best surf zones, with a world title on the line? One way...
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WRITING SURFING INTO LIFE, WITH ERIN HORTLE
Surf-lit is a wobbly field at the best of times, mostly because the writer tries to turn surfing into something it sorta isn’t. Something kooky your daughter’s doing on her summer hols (“Gidget”)? Psycho B-Grade movie cheese (“Point Break”, “The Surfer”)? Scary death metaphor (“The Dogs Of...
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VAUGHAN BLAKEY, THE MAN WITH 16 GEARS
Presenting yourself in public is not as easy as it seems. When you’re simultaneously presenting as a manic super-frother, a cool headed CT analyst, a party-time ringmaster and a semi rock star, it could easily turn pretty pear-shaped. Yet Vaughan Blakey contains multitudes, and there’s a very…
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IS SURFING REALLY JUST PORN?
The first week of August was fantastic wherever you looked. Indonesia, Tahiti, south shore Hawaii, and the whole east coast of Australia — where wasn’t pumping. But what happened next left us feeling vaguely ick. These amazing surf zones were mined mercilessly for clicks: single-ride superwaves...
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DID ANYONE MAKE YOU A KILLER WETSUIT?
“The Big Sea” is one of the surf culture’s films of the year. It’s won awards, most recently at the Noosa Film Festival, for its harrowing portrayal of the toll taken on a Black community in Louisiana, USA, by a nearby petrochemical factory that makes the base ingredient for neoprene. “Cancer...
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GRAND FINALES
In this episode, Hannah and Nick go super-nerd on the WSL CT’s big-hitting Teahupo’o event. This is the last straight up CT of 2025, and nothing is quite as it seems! While the top women seem to have sorted out who’s who, they face an extremely dangerous wildcard in Vahine Fierro. And on the…
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SHAUN TOMSON CAN’T WATCH JORDY SMITH
It’s a difficult situation, for sure. You’re the only world professional surfing champ from your country in HISTORY, and a kid 30 years your junior is not super far from a shot at the title. No wonder Shaun Tomson weeps when Jordy Smith loses a heat! But that’s far from the only thing on the mind...
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MR AND THE SURF TRIP JINX
We asked the great Mark Richards to join us because it suddenly struck us: here’s someone who won four world titles in a row with no coaching, no diet advice, no personal strength trainer, and a bunch of self-shaped twin-fins. How many might he have won with all of that?? But there’s so much more...
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HOW TO FIND YOUR PLACE
A Special Live Podcast from Seas The Day “Hey mate, I’m a 66 year old woman and I’m struggling! And you’re taking my wave!” Here’s how the fantastic Toni Sawyer describes calling an errant hassler to account recently on a small day at Cabarita, NSW. Toni is part of one of Australia surfing’s…
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LAST RIDE WITH UNCLE CLYDE
One of the great surfing lives recently came to an end with the passing of Hawaii’s Clyde Aikau. On the eve of his memorial paddle-out ceremony at Waikiki next week, Nick and Hannah recall their encounters with the amazing, larger-than-life Clyde, and his astonishing efforts over many years to...
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SURFING COWGIRLS UNITE!
Seas The Day is the world’s warmest surf festival. Which is weird since it happens on winter solstice weekend. It should be freezing! But it won’t be, because Seas The Day’s purpose is not aligned with cold. On June 21-22 at Kingscliff, NSW, it draws together some of surfing’s smartest and most...
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CHALLENGING TIMES
Of the world’s many pro surfing tragics, few are as tragic as your unlikely hosts. Maybe that’s why we’re so tweaked by the WSL’s much-surfed yet little understood Challenger Series, where 14 year old supergrommets, old school ex-superstars, and dozens of hopeful nationalities do battle in search...
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WAY BEYOND CROWDS
Learning about each other in the surf is the basis of our wacky friendship. It’s why this poddy even exists! But conversations about the lineup often seem so basic — let’s face it, is there anything more tedious than complaining about crowds? There’s a lot more going on out there. In this…
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REVELATIONS FROM PRO-WORLD
After 10 days at Burleigh Heads, Nick and Hannah stagger back home with their heads full of WSL gossip. But what’s actually happening at the sport’s pointy end, what calls are being made and who’s making ‘em? We enlist one of pro surfing’s happiest back room operators, Christian Bessera of the...
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Your Town - Coolangatta
In this very special episode, we head north to the land of right-hand pointbreaks, the southern Gold Coast, and ask four fantastic guests to explain for us what makes it home. Recorded live at the Coolangatta Sands with Jay Phillips, Dean Morrison, Sally Paxton and Jesse Starling. First of a…
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Swell of the Century/Decade/Year
When a huge easterly gale forms off New Zealand and points shotgun-like at the whole NSW coast, Nick talks it up like a wildman while Hannah gets ready to shoot her brains out. But Tom’s stolen the jetski! What happens next?
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We’ll Never Be Pros!
Professional surfing has been around for almost 50 years! It’s like Nick and Hannah’s middle sibling. Here we explore one of surfing’s most divisive yet inescapable subjects, and answer a vital question: why is Hannah such a fan?
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Cyclomania
Complete with jet-ski and little brother Tom, Hannah and Nick hurtle northward to meet the mighty Tropical Cyclone Alfred head-on, and end up with minor bruising and special guests, Lilliana Bowrey and Clint Kimmins!
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In the middle of things
Hannah and Nick met-cute through of all things, surf media! Here we invite our very first guest, the legendary surf journo Sean Doherty, to help us understand just what it is we all got ourselves involved with.
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How did we get here?
This wacky friendship didn’t just fall out of the sky. Hannah and Nick take a look at surfing’s past, at the times when they could have been friends — and the times when they definitely couldn’t.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Tales from a world where everyone surfs.Nick’s a bald headed Boomer in recovery from surf rage. Hannah’s a blonde Millennial with a surfboard addiction. It’s like we’re from different planets! We really should not be friends. But this is 2026, and anything is possible, in and out of the surf. Here’s our playful, quizzical and highly informed look at modern surf culture in all its watery magnificence, and how it reflects all the social change we see in the world today. Oh, and watch out for epic guests.
HOSTED BY
Hannah Anderson and Nick Carroll
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does We Shouldn't Be Friends have?
We Shouldn't Be Friends currently has 46 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is We Shouldn't Be Friends about?
Tales from a world where everyone surfs.Nick’s a bald headed Boomer in recovery from surf rage. Hannah’s a blonde Millennial with a surfboard addiction. It’s like we’re from different planets! We really should not be friends. But this is 2026, and anything is possible, in and out of the surf....
How often does We Shouldn't Be Friends release new episodes?
We Shouldn't Be Friends has 46 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to We Shouldn't Be Friends?
You can listen to We Shouldn't Be Friends on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts We Shouldn't Be Friends?
We Shouldn't Be Friends is created and hosted by Hannah Anderson and Nick Carroll.
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