The Grey Space with Brenden Newton

Welcome to the life of an incredible young man.One of the most exciting bodyboarders there is, losing his dad to drugs at the age of 3 and surrounded by this challenge every week since, Jesse used wave-riding as his place of expression. This is some of Jesse's story.

Core boog journo, skater, moto rider and golden child for transmuting hardship into shared stoke and stories. Wayne Bell's life changed the moment his mum suggested he buys Rush 'Class of 99' at the age of 7, from Helensburgh Newsagent. 30 years later Roots Bodyboarding will bring back the theraputic boog film - team trips and small town premieres. The dream's alive!

30 years in the making & more compelling even than you might anticipate.The Joel Taylor doco, Beyond The Break has been crafted slowly & sensitively by today's podcast guest, Caleb Graham.Listen for the full down-lo behind the brilliant production.Lovely chat, Caleb.

A ponder on the human condition.Lost and finding.Give to keep. Addiction, acceptance & the in-between.

Take a walk with Mike.Talk through our fortune as wave-riders, breathing exercises to manage reaction & what his manoeuvre exploration looked like in the 80's.A long and reflective chat revealing the inner workings of one of the greatest water people who has ever lived.A celebration of SIC 2025 & more.Enjoy this episode.(Tile image by Sam Venn)

An education in flow & style.A time portal to the timeless.90s boog royalty get honest with the full loop of 4 decades, from Mike to Mike.Enjoy.

His dad sends him 500 metres out to sea and sits on the land to film.Tapped into some of the east coast's best reefs, Jesse's dad opened pathways for his future booglord son. Aware of his dad's legacy Jesse now teaches behaviourally challenged & emotionally disrupted kids while knifing slabs & smacking flips during school hols.An eye for photographic nuance and plenty of commitment to his hobbies, Jess is an exciting lad to speak to.Hope you enjoy what was a delightful recording moment in the Sunny Coast Jetstar lounge this morn.Tile image: 35mm b/w by Jess

Amazing chat with this true boog lord.1km paddles in pre-sunrise baitballs, 14 years married & wrestling his lifelong SIC dream at the age of 44.So sick.Tile image: Paul Humber

Cohen Thomas is likely the answer to our cries “where are all the hardcore young boogers these days”Compared to the early 2000’s there appears to be less in number, but maybe Cohen & his brother make up for a few dozen given the airs n pits they're piloting.Imagine surfing 6-10 foot flat bottom pits in the middle of nowhere for 10 hours straight. Literally 10 hours straight. That’s Cohen & his brother.Enjoy this chat with a truly special breed of boog bloodline. Coco Thomas.Tile by Lachie

In the footsteps of King Doory, Toby takes to av shorey on his council cleanup beast. 14 years later he wrestles this cavern at the bottom of the world.Lotsa stories. Too many for a 15min pod. But here's a small doorway into TP for you to see see.Tile image by the master - Phil Gallagher

Marli Dunn surfs slabs, but he spins in them and flys out.A unique set of skills n bravery.Tune in for his frame by frame account of the 2 most gnarly waves of his life.Enjoy.

The most agile soldier in the field.The flying gymnast.Super friendly & a hellova ticker in his chest.A bottom turn as sharp as a f*^ckin stanley knife.Here, Jase speaks of some of the outer edges of his life, in the lead up to his beloved Shark Island Challenge.Show us another fist pump on the sled this year brudda!A wonderful recording.

In a northern hemispheric land of boog talent Steph grew up under the tutorlage of the famous Paulino, one of Portugal's greatest. With his older brother as motivation and aspiration to fly out of Aussie end bowls, Steph now clocks his online work hours at 6-10pm Aus time - in sync with his Portugese colleagues morning shift.One of the greatest global boog technicians these days, Steph yarns across a few topics in this ep, prior to his 2025 SIC campaign. Tile image: Cult Bodyboard

A girl rippin in and living large."Shark Island is for the f*&kin girls!" she yelled over the mic at the 2025 SIC Launch Party.Great to catch up, hearing the backstory and the cognitive processes of Sophie. Fascinating & good vibes.

Power to Lilly.What a strength.Great chat with a wonderful person.We talk 3 decades of camping around the world with her bodyboard. Setting up one of Australia's best Boog coaching clinics & finding nature as her friend most recently.Stoked to catch up with the boogworld's slab queen, and see her doing so well.

Beautiful convo with a truly talented gentleman.We talk big macs in ya teens & raw veg in ya 30's.We talk soccer vs boog world tour.We also talk about changing nappies for 10 years straight & how to stay connected to your partner in that process.Good yarn with one of bodyboarding's favourites.Enjoy.Tile image: Toinz

Under 16's Australian water polo champion.The foundations were strong.Now 2024 Shark Island Challenge winner,& IT manager across some big-ass underground tunnels.There's more to Benny than we knew.

Andrew Lester is one of the all-time best pocket surfers on the planet. For this recording I caught him in his corporate office, well dressed and kindly chatting through life as he knows it. Something very special about someone with such skill and stature quietly going about his daily requirements. One beautiful thing to note is how his eyes glowed as he proudly announces that he gets to work from home 3 days per week, meaning he can ride to school with his boy those days. Hope you enjoy this chat as much as I did.BrendoTile image: Gleeso

A casual yarn in front of 4 ft pits, with two gentle humans full of story. The challenges of their lives and how they have navigated such. Appreciate their time and application.

From the tyranny of guilt and overthinking, to being content with what is.This is Heydon Bunting 2.0, a rich walk through therapeutic art, natural wonder & stilling the mind.What a blessing and a gift to record this one.Brendo 

This chat, as with all eps, gets better and better as the recording continues.Jarod and I really hit a flow and towards the back end, as he's able to discuss his passion for helping others; connected to his photography practice.

In this collaboration episode, I chat with Ben Hodge & Jolan Kilkelly - two diehard NZ boogs who run a cracking little boog centric podcast called Fumanswoo.We talk discrimination, shame, the global boog network, world tour ideas, the 2024 Shark Island challenge, my boog career, and we break down who we deem the 12 Apostles of Bodyboarding.Super fun chat and a real testimony to the strength of the boog lifestyle.Brendo

Shaun Cooper is a doer.Coming 2nd to Mitch Rawlins in the Australian Pro Junior in the 90's, Shaun used his disappointment to fuel 2 subsequent Australian Titles victories.Running a busy pools maintenance business, raising 2 boys & now, with his childhood buddy Idris Wais, launching a 100 member local boog club.In this episode we look behind the curtain on Coops' motivations and journey.Onya Coops.

Jim is an 80 year old bodyboarder, potter & painter.He nursed his wife until she passed, from cancer.He played Offspring at the start of her funeral.He lives a clear life. Something he credits a particular therapy for.Fascinating & cathartic chat.

Ep 2 of Lula's podcasting career we explore strategies in accepting difficult feelings and thoughts. "What's the worst that can happen" says Lula. We also take a look at Talulah's educational series: Stop Earth's Worries, where she breaks down the basics of climate change & highlights the need for our political leaders to move faster.Now 9, she is nuanced and reflective; growing in some very helpful techniques for managing life.

Fear of young pregnancy for her daughter, Darryl's grandmother pounded his mum in the belly to force miscarriage.Darryl grew violent in his later teens, staring down the barrel at 10 years in jail.This beautiful man has since walked the hard road, slowly retraining a misguided toughness into a tender and powerful, real toughness.His story is super interesting & I'm blessed to have heard it.Daz is now a qualified counsellor, running some powerful services.  Most importantly he is continuing to look within.​

OCD is real.It's not a joke.It's not just cleaning things, locking things or being a perfectionist.Here's a story that'll be deeply comforting to some, a shock for others and hopefully the start of new chapter for dear Susie.All strength to those suffering from stuff we cannot see.Our empathy and love as individuals, and as a collective, matters.Brendo

If anyone has ever met Artie, you'll have felt good.He has a beautiful knack for making people feel good, relaxed; connected.Arthur has become a close friend of mine & I thought his recent interview via the national Indigenous-lead radio station, Koori Radio, was something worth publishing for Grey Space listeners.I hope you enjoy it.Brendo

Claire is one of the most generous, dedicated and insightful people I've ever met.I had the opportunity to meet Claire recently. She had generously done her research on my work, which is rare and appreciated.Claire is wise, has been through hell, and is living proof of the power of following your own path in life.Claire is and will provide tremendous support to thousands of people experiencing anxiety; with her story, her listening, her sense of contentment, and with her entrepreneurial nous & bravery.In a world seemingly chasing the wind, Claire flying high in an updraft. I'm so stoked to meet her and hear her story.Link to Claire's necklaces: 15% off with greyspace15https://breatheintopeace.com/discount/greyspace15Bookings for an 'anxiety relief' therapy session with Claire: https://calendly.com/claire-bip/nervous-system-therapy

Take a stroll with Kuko - a fearsome Puerto Rican bodyboarder who recently faced his biggest challenge. Learn how he found hope while lying immobile on his small apartment floor of Honolulu.Prior to this interview I scooped Kuko up from his small makeshift apartment village where 6 dwellings occupy the space of your average house. With passion and curiosity Kuko unravelled his perspective on life, his sailing journey from home to Hawaii and what happens in his mind when all cards are down.Check the Pipeline air-forward silhouette on the episode tile. Kuko is an athlete with a rare ferocity. 

Growing up in Brazil, fighting for a place in the world, Magno slowly becomes a grand hustler, with these-here stories to prove it.Having ridden the biggest wave ever paddled into on a boog, and desperately memorising 100s of restaurant orders per night, The Magi has landed on his feet, living his dream, with his beautiful family here on Oahu, Hawaii.Not without the back-story though.Here's the back-story...

Shane Tolson was abused, badly, as a boy.He was addicted to sleeping meds before the age of 10.He experiences the most horrific of shame.But Shane is still here, with a sweet answer for us all.Thank you Shane, for your courage, openness and friendship.We all love and appreciate the remarkable human you are.Brendo

Beautiful & talented lads from Gerringong walk us through what many will not know about them.A lovely chat with two fun dudes living a large life.Thank you lads.Brendo

Maybe all art frees us.Not hard edged dogma of self help strategies. Maybe just art.This riveting little chat with Shal suggests so.MAYBE ART FREES US.Enjoy. 

Again, Julia walks us through her internal world; what triggers her into a variety of responses, day to day. By learning these parts, and accepting them, working with them, she is less blown by the wind of thoughts and emotions. A great lesson and reflective episode for us all.Julia is the General Manager at Heart On My Sleeve (HOMS), an important org offering resources for better mental ill health management & awareness. HOMS offers free online resources like this:https://www.heartonmysleeve.org/all-training

A generous and delicate walk through someones adaptations and honesty regarding her childhood trauma. Julia is a sensible woman, a mental health trainer, a general manager & a marriage celebrant. This episode is Part 1 of 2. I hope it’s helpful for listeners in potentially reflecting on their own internal worlds and characters. It was for me.- Brenden

Bravely pulling herself through life on poetry, performance and pain; Holly finds wonder. Small, marvellous moments of real wonder.Holly's book:https://vagabondpress.net/products/holly-isemonger-greatest-hit

What happens when you have everything, but self worth?What happens when the escape drugs offer is so relieving it feels like heaven?What happens when your partner is strong enough not to chase you?Cesar Bassi's story is real, and ongoing.Inspirational, tender, and terribly real.Come walk with us down his path. Find hope in the small things.Welcome to the Ces Bassi story.

A boy in a Portugese village.Haunted with stories of sea dangerFearful of 'the other side of the headland'Growing on the boogDreaming beyond taboo possibilities Now dancing with danger, and doing pretty well at it.Anotonio Cardoso A marriage of bodyboarding & surfing.... yet again the boog skills and humility serve some mainstream surf production.

Jed's an animal.A decade writing cutting n unpopular editorial for major news entities.Sitting on the dusty floors with overworked women of the developing world, comprehending the real influence of our $7 Kmart t-shirt.The global piss-take tour, with the world's best, an ironic success.But what of this thoughtful man, plagued with pain & punish, prolific in practice.Jed's your under 18's rugby captain, and... he's the kind-hearted soul listening to your pain.But really. Jed Smith. Something else.

What really happens in our brains?What pushes someone from a traffic jam in Sydney's CBD to befriend a neuroscience lecturer in Western Australia?What happens after you achieve your childhood dream?And..Why is Luna's nothing like Chopes?A rip snorter of an ep with Sigur Ros fan, Drew Innocend.

Orion Jennings.25. Musician. Dragged through a decade of public housing.Brave, beaten, bastardised and bold.But making a song out of it.This is a special account of finding the rhythms in the chaos & hope in the heart. Stay till the end, cos we fly. You're inspirational, Orion.- Brendo

Welcome to a lap in Rexy's lane.A fun and fascinating chat with a 5 year old who has  few neat answers for us.Rex is a sensitive, deeply creative and funny boy, who is such a delight to hang with.His sister is wonderful with him too - you can hear from her at episode 53.Here's to a great life of processing feelings through writing them down, or drawing them and passing them under our bedroom door.Enjoy this beautiful episode.

A serendipitous moment with a whale at age twelve; seven hospitalisations due to a bipolar condition through his teens;now getting a regular peace and pump-up from swimming with his camera and sharing his story.Jarod has dreams.Welcome to his Grey Space episode.

Max Blumer doesn’t talk radical exploits or overwhelming milestones.A relatively normal life of ups n downs, however turns out to be a story worth listening to, a story of tremendous depth.A precious experience of the ‘strangeness’ one would feel down the vortex of depression. A fizzing dissonance, repelling a sense of peace during his late teens and early 20’s.A painful hop, and confusing skip and a hopeful jump into a therapeutic method that’s seems to provide relief.This is a truly special ep, spotlighting a truly normal experience. I’m deeply proud of this one.Hands together for our German compadre, Max Blumer 🙏.- Brendo

Bodyboarding takes Argentinian duo, Nico and Marcos, around the world, finally landing 9000 kilometres from home to settle in the slab rich islands, the Canarias, 20 years down the track.They've made families there and we discuss fatherhood, caring for others, dwindling ocean time.We also run into the somewhat conspiratory idea of chemtrails. Interesting convo.Bless these wonderful adventurers.

He's paddled the right.Launched the largest of stunts.Considered clown school.Classically trained.And he lives in the universe.Josh Garner.

A previous Grey Space guest, Stephanie Beck, has been wrangling with the big concepts and today catapults us into different thinking - some potential solutions.There's hunger, homelessness and hazard.Are we really living on a planet where natural disaster may become as common as owning a dog?What type of thinking will lead us out of this?

A fast paced, hugely informative, and fun talk through the ins and outs of OCD;also unpacking suicide, with role plays designed to equip us.Such a pleasure to catch up with Jack.BN

These guys walked the tight rope between hilarious and unreal.A special display of real story and real emotional, all jammed into a factory art show like no other.Why did Hardy wake up at 130am, drive 4 hours to The Right, paddle out, paddle into bombs all morning, then return for afternoon tea with his family?"It's been fucken hard, but it's been incredible" - RHWhy did Kingy contemplate his life on the hospital floor, 20 years ago?Enjoy this ep.BN