Just before Layne Beachley’s 21st birthday, she won her first world tour surfing event. It was the 1993 Diet Coke Women’s Classic at Narrabeen beach on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
It was a major milestone in Beachley’s career, and helped chart her path to become a 7-time world champion.
Two weeks later, Beachely was diagnosed with her first bout of chronic fatigue syndrome.
“So my first bit of advice to my 21-year-old self would be to prioritise your health and wellbeing,” Beachley tells Women’s Agenda.
“We’ve all heard the classic phrase “health is wealth” but when you’re young, we tend to think we are bulletproof and invincible, and sabotage ourselves in really impactful ways that we’re unaware of.”
For Beachley, that meant poor nutrition, unhealthy sleeping habits, and as she describes it, the physical abuse of her body.
“I just pushed it and pushed it and really didn’t allow my body to properly recover or heal from the intense physical training I put it through.”
One of the most important lessons she’s learnt over the subsequent 30 years, is that our bodies whisper before they scream, and an all-or-nothing approach won’t hear the whispers.
“If we have an all-or-nothing mentality, we won’t start taking action until our body is screaming at us,” Beachley says. “I’ve learned that over the course of my life that I’ve waited until my body was screaming, and even then I’ve ignored it.”
“I am now 50 years of age and in constant pain management because of how much I’ve used my body and chose to have an all-or-nothing mentality, which then resulted in a win-at-all-costs mentality that cost me a significant amount.”
Beachley’s learned to adopt an “all-or-something” mentality when it comes to her health, a message she’d like to advocate as an ambassador for AIA Vitality.
“I really want to continue reinforcing that prioritising your health and wellbeing is your greatest asset and if you have an all-or-something mentality, then you’ll find the time to do the little things that make the biggest difference,” she says.
Beachley, who was a fierce advocate for gender equality throughout her surfing career, is very aware of her position in Australian society as a role model. It’s a role she takes very seriously and something she works on everyday at the Awake Academy, a centre she co-created to help others with self-improvement, connection, growth and happiness.
“When I started becoming more successful, more consistently successful, and becoming really close to becoming a world champion, all of a sudden people wanted to align themselves with me and I started to understand the gravitas of my voice and my reputation,” Beachley shares.
“So I’ve always taken my position as a role model very seriously and prided myself on being a very positive one and recognising that people may not always be watching or listening but still respect the position we hold as leaders, pioneers, and trailblazers.”
“I am a deep empath, so I feel that that really drives me to want to help people. That’s one of the reasons why Awake Academy was born and that’s also why I willingly accepted the role as an AIA Vitality Ambassador because they really are focused, and as passionate as I am, about helping people prioritise their health and well-being and live a healthier, happier longer life or a better life.”
As for the latest gender equality developments in surfing? Beachley said she was pumped to see women competing in The Eddie, an iconic big wave surfing event at Waimea in Hawaii last month, for the first time ever.
“I felt an immense amount of pride and satisfaction when I saw the women surfing at Waimea, because I started lobbying for acceptance into that event back in 1999,” Beachley says. “It’s disappointing that it’s taking so long and they call that progress. I feel that the women who embraced that opportunity did us very proud.”
Beachley says every time she sees women in professional surfing given the same opportunities as men, it shatters her own self-limiting beliefs.
“I have this underlying belief which stems from my childhood that male surfers don’t respect women,” Beachley says. “We are self-fulfilling prophecies and we continuously seek evidence of what we believe to be true. It’s called a confirmation bias. It’s very easy to find evidence to support that belief. But what I have to do is poke holes in my own bias to embrace and accept change.
“So seeing the women being granted the opportunity to surf Waimea alongside the men, then seeing the women now on the WSL platform surfing in the same conditions as the men in the same locations and being paid the same, fills me with immense satisfaction.
“It pokes very deep holes in a very deep fear-based belief that is currently being shattered. I’m very proud of that.”