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 25--Neftali Espino
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Every once in a while you meet someone who is so unique and far from ordinary that they leave an indelible mark in your memory. Neftali Espino of Davenport, California, is one such character. Known to his friends simply as "Nef", this kind hearted board builder has been busy making a name for himself as a skilled craftsman and relentless workhorse over the past twenty years. Not only that, he's a community driven environmentalist and proud father who's kept his head held high after losing it all.
Born in La Morada, California, Nef is the son of Mexican immigrants who chose to leave Baja California to make a better life for their children. He was introduced to surfing after cutting his teeth on his skateboard and found community and purpose in the beach lifestyle. It wasn't long before he migrated to Huntington Beach, and then San Clemente. It was there that the Homegrown Surfboards brand was born. He was shown the ropes by a few local shapers and it wasn't long until he brought his rapidly evolving act north, to Santa Cruz.
While admittedly veering off the track multiple times due to hard partying, Nef never let his love for shaping surfboards die. He's bounced back from horrific tragedy with the loss of his son and, years later, his home and shaping room during the CZU Lightning Complex Fires of 2020. Since then, he's put down the booze and narrowed his focus with his board building and ding repair work. He's shaped boards for a who's who of local talent, including Anthony Ruffo, Zealand Hunter, Julian Sekon, Jesse Colombo, and Austin Smith Ford, just to name a few.
He's also a staunch advocate for environmentalism, and uses his powerful social media reach to document his efforts cleaning up the beaches and roads in and around Santa Cruz.
In this podcast, we talk about his efforts to bring awareness to pollution, his evolution as a shaper, the fire that took everything he owned, his love for music, his wide circle of friends, his unique shop overlooking the coast off Davenport, and much, much, more.
What are you waiting for? Time to dig into the newest serving of Split Peak Soup!