Alex Gray Gets Real on Benji Weatherley's Podcast, 'Let's Poddy'
Alex Gray says his first-ever surf session was "terrible."
But he didn't suck for long and spent 20 years as a pro surfer. Today, he hosts events, does motivational speaking, and is the founder of Agray Surf Therapy, which facilitates sibling grief therapy sessions.
On Benji Weatherley's latest podcast, "Let's Poddy," we learn that it all began when Gray wanted to copy his big brother who'd just started surfing. Surfing, he said, "Changed my family's life forever... I'm still in awe of it all."
The latest episode above was captioned:
"This episode, Let's Poddy producer Annie Graziano takes over for Benji while he's out of town. She sits down with ex pro surfer Alex Gray to talk about his career in surfing, how he got the stoke, what it was like to retire after a long career and what he's been doing since."
Gray gets candid about a variety of topics, like losing a major sponsor, grom hazing on the North Shore, plunging toilets at the Volcom House, how surfing helps mental health, and just how much he still loves to surf.
Particularly, Gray got real about the end of his career.
"I surprised myself this interview when explaining how embarrassed I was when my first major sponsor didn’t renew the contract. I’ve never said that out loud before. Those couple of years after the career ended, I would’ve never told the truth of my emotional state. Which wasn’t good," Gray captioned his post of the podcast.
Gray and Graziano keep the convo flowing for about an hour and a half. But what's pretty cool to hear is that he's still just a stoked grom at heart.
"I have surfing. And when I have a bad day I go surf, and I come out and I'm okay," he said, regarding mental health issues. "We as surfers are so lucky. We'll be fine."
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