Pete Abell grew up in Gloucestershire. No coastline, no surf breaks, no obvious reason to end up where he did. But when his dad took him to Mawgan Porth at the age of eight with a borrowed foam board, something clicked. He never really left. Over two decades on, he's still there - running King Surf, raising a family in the water, and quietly building something that goes well beyond a surf school.
What's fascinating about Pete is his philosophy. He's not chasing performance or competing for the best wave. He rides old-school twin fins and single fins. He lets other people have the set. He'll watch someone catch their first wave and get just as much out of it as if he'd caught it himself. In a world that's always pushing harder and faster, there's something really refreshing about that.
In this episode, Salim and Pete explore:
How a childhood spent swimming and skating led Pete to surfing, and why a back injury at 15 became a turning point.
The connection between swimming ability and surf safety, including what speed standards lifeguards and surf coaches are actually expected to meet.
The River Severn proposal: how Pete caught a wave at 7am on a freezing January morning, produced a ring from his armpit and created one of the most-watched videos on the BBC website that week.
The crossover between open-water swimming and surfing: why Salim can spot a surfer within two lengths, and whether swimmers should all have a go
What changes as you get older, not just physically, but in what you want from the water and what brings you back to it every morning.
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