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Little Steps By Monty Webber | 14 September 2009 |
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I FIRST MET LAURIE TOWNER TEN YEARS AGO. IT WAS THE WINTER OF ‘99 AND THE TWO OF US WERE STANDING ON THE LEDGE AT ANGOURIE, BOARDS UNDER OUR ARMS, WAITING TOGETHER FOR A BREAK IN THE SETS. I WAS SURPRISED TO SEE SOMEONE SO YOUNG WANTING TO GET OUT IN SURF SO BIG AND ASKED HIM HOW OLD HE WAS... “ELEVEN”.
 LAURIE TOWNER HAS MANAGED TO CARVE A PATH FOR HIMSELF AS ONE OF THE MOST RESPECTED FREE-SURFERS IN THE WORLD. SMITHYJust the other day I opened the 2008 ‘Tracks Yearbook’ and saw on the opening page that Laurie had been invited to be an alternate in The Eddie Aikau event. I don’t need to explain to anyone in the surfing world what this means, but I should add, for those who don’t know, that Laurie has always ridden for Billabong, while The Eddie is a Quiksilver event. And I gotta tell you, that means something. So what on earth happened over those ten years you might ask. Well, you would have had to have been buying ‘Trucks and Trailers’ magazine instead of Tracks to miss all the shots of Lozza over the last few years, often flying through the air over “little bumps” on monster slabs, or pulling into what would become known as “the wave of the season” at Backdoor. Knowing a small amount about what it takes to get any kind of a wave on the North Shore in high season, let alone the tube of the season, I felt compelled to ask the now not-so-little man what the hell has been going on, about his childhood and life in general, and what led up to these amazing achievements. So I walked three houses up to the end of my street in Angourie, asked him to tell me his story, and this is what he said.  DESPITE BEING WELL OVER SIX FEET TALL, LAURIE STILL HAS THE PLIABILITY OF A PILATES INSTRUCTOR – PERFECT FOR CRAMMING HIMSELF INTO CAVERNS LIKE THIS ONE NEAR HOME. DAVE FERRYEARLY YEARSI was born in Maclean Hospital and from then until I was about three I lived with my family on a farm out on Brooms Head road, before moving [closer to the coast] out to Brooms Head, where we all lived ‘til I was nine. Brooms Head was just a tiny little country fishing village back then and a top place to grow up. Life was great, just riding around on our pushies, going fishing and swimming and bodyboarding at the beach. I was just a normal little kid hanging out with my brothers and a handful of mates and having fun. There was this little pebbly basin sort of a thing there and whenever we could get our hands on a surfboard we used to take turns paddling out there and try to stand up and surf. I had a fun little childhood at Brooms and then my parents split up when I was nine and me and my mum and brother Hughie moved to Angourie. |