If you were to ask the best surfers in the world to list their top 10 big wave surfers, chances are good that Laurie Towner would make most of the lists. Strange, then, that Towner is often conspicuously absent from the conversation when it comes to surfing waves that could potentially kill you.
Back in 2014, when the surf industry was dying its slow death, Billabong cut the fat from their team. Times were so tough that along with the fat, they cut some of the meat off the bone, too. Towner suddenly found himself without a main sponsor. He had a baby on the way, so instead of complaining, he became a carpenter and a tiler and put food on the table by working with his hands. Now, he’s just a regular surfer with the same struggles as the rest of us, but he’s a regular surfer who surfs at the same level as the best in the world.
“It’s always hard to get time off work to chase waves and also juggle the family and organize that they’re going to be okay,” he says. “When times aren’t super busy, every now and then throughout the year, I’m lucky enough to get a week or so off to chase a swell.”
He never stopped surfing, of course, and in the most recent offering from Need Essentials, Towner heads out into the vast Australian desert to find waves. He found more than that, though — he found something that we all need to be reminded of every now and then: the simple things in life are always the best.
