Against The Grain with Albee Layer and Jack Freestone
Jul 6, 2026 · 59 min · 12 segments
In this episode, Luke shares stories from his journey, his competitive career, future goals, and gives us an inside look into the mindset and dedication of one of surfing’s most exciting young…
Albee LayerHost
Jack FreestoneHost
But anyway, it seemed like when we were growing up, we watched the generation before us or like even like the when we were Groms, we were watching like the Kalani Robs, the Bruce Irons, like that kind of generation.
But it seemed like the trajectory for being a pro surfer when we were growing up was, like, you built, you built, you built.
And that was, like, when you, like, you know, you did the NSA, you did the juniors or the, you know, the...
And every company, instead of trying to watch people get built up and then like, you know, pick from the people who made it, they went backwards and tried to pick the next Jon Jon.
And like, I've always felt like our generation and like I talked about this with with Tory Meister and stuff, we were in this weird little gap where it was like, oh, we were building to like almost hitting our big contract.
And then all the companies, instead of looking here, started looking at 13 to 14 year olds here.
They were like, oh, okay, we need to start like planning, like looking at the youthful generation rather than like, the mid to late teens and like early 20s.
And it's like, instead of trying to pick one of the best surfers, they're like, oh, let's just go make one.
But anyway, it seemed like when we were growing up, we watched the generation before us or like even like the when we were Groms, we were watching like the Kalani Robs, the Bruce Irons, like that kind of generation.
But it seemed like the trajectory for being a pro surfer when we were growing up was, like, you built, you built, you built.
And that was, like, when you, like, you know, you did the NSA, you did the juniors or the, you know, the...
And every company, instead of trying to watch people get built up and then like, you know, pick from the people who made it, they went backwards and tried to pick the next Jon Jon.
And like, I've always felt like our generation and like I talked about this with with Tory Meister and stuff, we were in this weird little gap where it was like, oh, we were building to like almost hitting our big contract.
And then all the companies, instead of looking here, started looking at 13 to 14 year olds here.
They were like, oh, okay, we need to start like planning, like looking at the youthful generation rather than like, the mid to late teens and like early 20s.
And it's like, instead of trying to pick one of the best surfers, they're like, oh, let's just go make one.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.