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Caffeine. For all its many blessings, there can be a cost. Anxiety, jitters, irritability and fatigue can occur in those who overindulge in their preferred form of caffeine, but due to it’s ubiquity and accessibility, people can find themselves in potentially harmful addictive relationships with this substance. Enter Shane Heath.

Santa Cruz’s Shane Heath found himself second-guessing his own relationship with coffee after an artistic exodus to India showed him the virtues of the less-caffeinated morning cup of Masala Chai. Working at a tech start up in California he’d found his coffee addiction was leading to more stress and burnout in an already demanding field. He found the Chai in India more chill on his nervous system and began using it as a coffee substitute upon returning home to California.

Not long thereafter, he began adding a ton of functional mushrooms to his Chai to boost the health benefits. After some curious friends and family began to get in on his secret blend, he realized he had something the people wanted. From there, he started MUD WTR, a brand dedicated to selling his proprietary brew. Before long, the company blew up, and is now selling its products to millions of happy customers.

I was stoked to have Heath, a long time friend, on the latest episode of the Split Peak Soup podcast. During our chat, we outlined the entire Mud WTR genesis arc, discussed mental health, surfing, longevity, fatherhood, as well as the importance of fitness. We explored caffeine addiction, his huge new deal with Costco, as well as his foray into the world of fictional mushroom coffee blends with the release of Mud Water coffee.

It’s really great to see people you know and respect blowing up and making such a huge impact on the world, so this was another special chat for me.

Enjoy!

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I’ve always admired surfboard shapers. The amount of tenacity, grit, and dedication required to consistently produce boards that work is staggering. Materials are costly, and it takes thousands of hours of work and hundreds of finished shapes before a shaper can claim any semblance of mastery over their craft.

In order to be profitable, not only does a shaper have to believe in themselves, they have to have a product that is undeniable in it’s ability to deliver that feeling that every surfer is looking for.

Nowadays, where mass-produced giants of the industry have a stranglehold on the market, it’s amazing to see smaller scale custom surfboard brands fighting the good fight in the face of these corporate juggernauts. One such shaper is former professional surfer Scott Crump, of Sol Life surfboards.

Since the 1980’s, Crump has been applying his vast ocean knowledge and love for design into his custom surfboards and the results speak for themselves. He’s forged blades for some of the best surfers in the world, including Adam Replogle, Bud Freitas, Gabriel Medina, and Shane Powell. Currently Crump is residing in Noosa Heads, Australia, not too far from the spitting sand bottom pointbreaks of the Gold Coast.

Crumpy supported me during my own short run as a competitive surfer, so I was more than happy to have him on the podcast while he was in town to deliver some boards. During our chat we discussed his upbringing, introduction to competitive surfing, early sponsorships and mentors, time spent as a team manager for Billabong, design theory, and how he met his lovely wife, Tia.

We also discussed the merits of his latest obsessions, twin-fins and channel-bottomed surfboards.

Crumpy is a real one, and this is an episode that you don’t want to miss!

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It’s no secret that professional surfers are a dying breed, especially here in Santa Cruz. Twenty-five years ago, in order to get a paycheck from a big surf brand, all you needed was a decent air game and a good relationship with at least one local photographer. Nowadays, if you wanna see any coin come your way, you better have that, a boatload of charisma, connections, and good looks.

Luckily, thirty-two year-old Seacliff local Noah “Waggy” Wegrich, has all that, and then some. The lanky goofyfoot is currently enjoying his reign as the king of local Santa Cruz professional surfers—traveling to exotics locales to film movie parts, modeling for his sponsors, regularly nailing mondo airs, and marrying and making babies with his dream babe, Natalie.

While getting paid to shred the gnar and look pretty doing it might inflate a surfer’s ego, that’s not just the case with Waggy. He’s respectful in the lineup and a true gentleman on land. I’ve never heard one negative thing come out of his mouth and he seems beyond grateful for all the opportunities his surfing has brought him.

That’s why I was so stoked to have him on the latest installment of the Split Peak Soup podcast! During our chat, we touched on a range of subjects, including his humble beginnings as a South Side beach rat, first contest win and sponsorship opportunities, hopes for the afterlife, opinions on wavepools and sharky lineups, and much more.

We also spoke about his excitement for the premiere of “Keeping in the Shadows”, an independent surf film he’s been working on with Perry Gershkow for the past six years.

Waggy is a class act, so do yourself a favor, hit that play button and prepare to soak up some knowledge from a truly original Santa Cruz icon.