Layne Beachley

Riding on top of the world is all in a day’s work for Aussie pro surf champ, Layne Beachley

WORDS HUGH BALDWIN PHOTOGRAPHY SCOTT NEEDHAM
STYLIST LIZ JONES
Surf Photos: Courtesy of ASP C Covered Images

LAYNE Beachley has just clinched her seventh world title.

Statistically the greatest female surfer, she dates a world-renowned rock star, uses her profile to raise funds for charities, has her own clothing label, and no woman has ridden larger waves, but Beachley isn’t about to stop.

“I never give up,” says Layne Beachley.

She states this in a laidback yet upbeat way, revealing something of the Manly beach local in her, but her steady gaze speaks volumes about how she came to claim her latest women’s surfing world title.

Within hours of becoming a seven-time champion – a feat that was assured early in the final Billabong Pro Maui event in December 2006 thanks to other heat results going her way – Beachley is standing on the sand in Manly fronting a media contingent. They’re happily grouping her with seven-timers from other sports: Tour de France legend Lance Armstrong and Formula One driver Michael Schumacher. She’s also compared with her male equivalent Kelly Slater, who has just kept her at arm’s length in the world title department by claiming his eighth.

But the truth is, there is only one Layne Beachley, on and off the board. What she does have in common with other champions is the ruthless desire to achieve. But the place from where that desire burns is forged solely in the Beachley furnace. She knew she was always going to achieve something; it was just a matter of what and how.

“I started surfing out the front here (in Manly) when I was four,” Beachley says, reciting the life story that is clearly with her every minute. “My mother who adopted me died when I was six. And then my dad told me I was adopted when I was eight.

“It was at that point in my life when I felt like I was on my own. To prove my worth to the world and to prove that I was worthy of love and recognition and respect, I would become the best in the world at something. The best in the world at something was all I wanted to be.

“So when I was eight years old I made a pact with myself. At 15, I won my first surfing tournament and I went ‘that’s it, it’s going to be surfing now’. Up until that point it had been tennis. Then at 16, I started announcing to the world I was going to be a world champion surfer. It took me eight years of professional surfing to get there.”

Eight years, a battle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, a struggle with depression, and endless hours of dedication was what she had to endure to fulfil her original dream.

Beachley won her first world title in 1998 but that wasn’t enough and, on reaching her childhood goal, the first thing she realised was that she wanted to stay at the top, a feat which came with another set of challenges.

“Life became full of expectation and pressure,” Beachley says. “I expected myself to perform as a world champion, thinking that what got me there wasn’t enough. It’s so much more challenging to stay at the top than it is to get there.”

Even so, Beachley has managed to dominate her sport the last decade, in the process becoming a role model not only for her sport but also for women and girls in general. She puts much of her tenacity down to what she learnt in the water at her home break off Manly beach.

“I grew up in the most competitive environment of Manly beach, being a surfer and the only girl in the water,” Beachley says. “It taught me to fight for what I believe. It taught me to stand up for myself and give as good as I got.

“That’s enhanced my ability to be a role model. I enjoy it because it allows me to inspire people to a much greater level. It allows me to touch people without having to speak to them personally. I’m really grateful for the opportunity to inspire people to go out and achieve things through my achievements.

Carving her name in history at Maui, Hawaii, in December 2006
And it would seem that while seven world titles are not enough - eight
might be.

I remind people daily that I wasn’t born a world champion, I just worked really hard to become one.”And it would seem that while seven world titles are not enough – eight might be. There was no hint that retirement was an option for Beachley when she earned her most recent crown, and confirmed that she would be competing again in 2007.

It’s not money, glory or a need to square the ledger with Slater that motivates her to have another shot but rather, she jokes, the similarity between the figure eight and the symbol for infinity. The subtext being that she wants to ensure she leaves a legacy that has every chance of lasting forever.

Throughout 2006, Beachley told anyone who would listen that her journey to the seventh world title was different from the previous six, which she won in successive years (1998-2003). This time around, she says, she surfed with her heart and not with her head.

“I got out of my own way and got into my heart and realised that I love what I do,” Beachley says.

“Number eight I’m going to have to take to a whole other level. Number eight will be more heart and more consistency. My results have been incredibly consistent but my mind patterns have been incredibly inconsistent.”

Aside from the internal battle between heart and head, winning this most recent title is an achievement for another reason. She had to fight her way back from a serious neck injury (severe disc herniation) the season before, which was followed by a knee injury. High on her agenda this season was looking after herself physically, which was helped, she says, by having “therapists all over the world”.

Out of the water, Beachley has also had to maintain an often long-distance relationship with INXS band member Kirk Pengilly, but technology has helped.

“He’s been on tour and I’ve been on tour on the opposite side of the world,” she says. “We’ve barely seen each other this year but we’ve got through it with flying colours. We’re so used to having our own lives and fortunately we’ve been able to maintain that consistency, yet still enjoy the moments we have together.”

With a unique view into the parallel worlds of stardom – the dedication of elite sport alongside the excesses of rock and roll – Beachley confirms that the two areas of pursuit couldn’t be more converse but despite this, she and Pengilly have learnt a lot from each other, in a surprising way.

“I’ve lived the parallels and it is two opposite lifestyles,” Beachley says. “I’ve learnt a lot out of it. The thing about our relationship is we keep each other well-balanced. We complement each other’s lifestyles.

“He’s so regimented and into planning, and sometimes anal and stressed out. And I’m just the opposite: I don’t plan, I don’t think ahead. I just go with the flow. I’ve taught him to relax and he’s taught me to be more organised.”

Pengilly was on hand when Beachley won in Maui. Beachley then put her beau to work on return to Australia: he was given the job of polishing one of her previous six trophies for the media conference. Unfortunately, he broke it in the process.

Like her trophy cabinet, Beachley’s time out of the water is full. She readily reels off that she has her own charity, Aim for the Stars; that she is an ambassador for Tourism Australia, the National Breast Cancer Foundation, SurfAid International and the Australia Day Council; that she is a spokesperson for Planet Ark and RADD (Recording Artists, Actors and Athletes against Drink Driving); and that she runs her own surf event at Manly Beach, the Havaianas Beachley Classic, which has just won sponsorship from the NSW state government.

On top of all that, she has her own surf clothing label, Beachley, which caters for “women that are a bit more mature than what the current surf market offers”.

“The wonderful thing is that there are so many opportunities now and I never thought surfing could bring me to this point,” Beachley says.

This drive to achieve has, however, come at a cost in and out of the water as Beachley has never had the best of relationships with the other women surfers. By her own admission, she struggled to deal with “bitchiness” and “isolation” for a significant part of her surfing career but has found a positive way around it.

“I guess I manage it by keeping to myself a lot but (also) by becoming more approachable,” Beachley says. “I know the girls respect me and appreciate all that I do but at the end of the day, there’s professional jealousy and there’s personal jealousy and the majority of it is professional.

“They don’t like to see me win and most people don’t like to see champions win, except for me. I love to see champions win. I will always champion champions.

“But it’s been a real learning experience for me this year to separate myself from the occasional bitchiness that exists on tour, just because it’s easy to buy into it. And it’s even easier to think the world’s against you and now I realise it’s not.

“I appreciate their friendship and support, plus their competitiveness, because it makes me a better champion. It makes me work harder and fight. And I’ve enhanced their competitive nature as well because they know they can’t give up against me, because I never give up.”

Take a surf at Jetstar’s top 10 favourite beaches

Margaret River south of Perth
Bell’s Beach south of Melbourne
Bondi Beach east of Sydney
Newcastle Beach in Newcastle
Byron Bay in Ballina Byron
Kirra Beach south of The Gold Coast
Noosa Beach on The Sunshine Coast
Uluwatu south of Denpasar in Bali
Sunset Beach north of Honolulu in Hawaii
Taylors Mistake Bay east of Christchurch

INSIGHTS

Packing

I’m a procrastinator. I’ll do everything I can before I pack. It’s a really bad habit, because if you are packing in a rush you usually over-pack. I am really guilty of that.

Places to eat

My favourite spot is this place up in North Curl Curl called Curly’s and they do this amazing delicacy called the Curly Roll. It’s a Turkish-type bread with a sweet chilli sauce, caramelised onions and fried eggs and bacon and, oh, it’s making me salivate. But basically when I get off the plane, if I come home on a morning flight, I go straight to Curly’s. It’s my secret spot. And fresh juices – I don’t drink coffee.

Favourite surf breaks

My favourite wave in Australia is Angourie, on the northern NSW coast. And then Queenscliff and North Steyne. My favourite wave in the world is Sunset Beach in Hawaii. But I love the Mentawai Islands off West Sumatra. They are surf-mad in Japan and there are plenty of waves all over the place, just not consistent enough.

Jetstar flies to Hawaii, Bali and Sydney, visit www.jetstar.com