Split Peak Soup
Welcome to Split Peak Soup Podcast! I’m your host, Neal Kearney. I feel very blessed to have been born and raised here in Santa Cruz, California. Santa Cruz is a hotbed for talented individuals, including, but not limited to: professional surfers and skaters, master surfboard shapers, internationally renowned artists, expert musicians, boundary pushing intellectual thinkers, and out-of-this-world explorers of consciousness.
Working as a professional journalist for the past twenty-plus years, I’ve had the opportunity to sit down with these extraordinary humans and in-depth and insightful chats. While these discussions have helped inform many written pieces that I’m proud of, I oftentimes felt that I was leaving a lot of meat left on the bone, as the few quotes I’d incorporate into my writing oftentimes seemed to strip my interviewees of their own authentic voices.
Luckily, we are entering a brave new world, where the podcast has risen as a popular form of storytelling and media consumption. From Joe Rogan to Conan O’Brien, podcasters have officially taken over. And now, I’m joining the fray. The Split Peak Soup Podcast is my way of using my skills as a story-teller to offer long format conversations with those whose stories deserve to be told.
So, what are you waiting for? Pull up a cozy chair, grab a napkin and your favorite spoon, and get ready to dig into another savory serving of Split Peak Soup!
Split Peak Soup
Split Peak Soup Podcast Episode 11-- Michel Junod
There is sometimes an unflattering, and often undeserved, stereotype of older surfboard shapers: that they are cantankerous and jaded old grumps limping through their shaping bays like lame prize horses, their brains frazzled from long-term exposure to hazardous resin, foam and fiberglass (that, or from all the acid they dropped in the ’60s and ’70s).
Seventy-six year-old boardmaker and longboarder Michel Junod is none of that. He’s robust, clever, grateful and just plain stoked on life, even in the face of a market that is primarily focused on brand name, mass-produced shortboards and fishes. He has a winning business model—making people happy—that’s worked for him for nearly six decades.
“People are stoked when they get a custom surfboard,” Junod says. “I’m known as a guy you can come to for a fun, custom board.”
In this episode of the Split Peak Soup Podcast, I had the pleasure to sit down with this humble craftsman for an extended chat about his experience building surfboards.
In the interview, we touched on a number of of topics, ranging from his humble beginnings as a beach rat in Santa Monica, introduction to shaping by surf icon Carl “Tinker” West, his time spent honing his craft in Santa Cruz and the North Shore of Oahu, the value of a working relationship with a custom surfboard builder, and the challenges of surfing into old age.
We also discussed his move to Arizona in 2021, and how he’s been able to continue operating his business hundreds of miles away from the Pacific Ocean.
It was a real treat sitting down with Junod, a longtime friend and true legend of surfing. So, what are you waiting for? Grab a snack, get cozy, and prepare for another nutritious serving of SPLIT PEAK SOUP!!!!!