Layne Beachley

Hard to know whether Layne Beachley hates to lose more than she loves to win. She has had a lot of both in her long career, but enough of the good stuff to make her the winningest professional woman surfer of all time.

Beachley’s drive may have something to do with her upbringing. Born Tania Maris Gardner in 1972, she was adopted by parents who changed her name and her life. Beachley’s adoptive mother Valerie died when Layne was six, and who knows what effect that had on her psyche. Beachley first tried surfing at four but didn’t get passionate about it until she was 16: “I was the only girl that hung around at the beach,” Layne was quoted. “I had to be one of the guys. I had to surf as good as the guys, give as much shit as the guys and to take as much as they could give me.”

With no amateur contest record to speak of, Beachley turned pro in 1989 and struggled for four years until she won her first event in 1993 and caught fire, finishing in the Top Five from 1993 to 1997. In 1998 Beachley hooked up with veteran Hawaiian big-wave surfer Ken Bradshaw, who traveled the tour with Layne and definitely effected her performance. She won five of the 11 events for her first World Title, won the Title again in 1999 despite a knee injury, and won again and again and again in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2004 to become the first six-time women’s world champion.

Along with winning all those World Titles, Beachley has established herself as one of the best women big-wave surfers of all time. Working with Bradshaw and others, Beachley became the first woman to tow into serious 35-foot surf, whipping into manly waves at Todos Santos in Mexico, and at Phantoms and Outside Log Cabins on the North Shore of Oahu.

Beachley’s unprecedented reign was ended in 2005 by Sofia Mulanovich, and a serious neck injury in 2006 nearly ended her career. Beachley now travels the tour with INXS guitar player Kirk Pengilly when they aren’t at home in Manly, Australia, and the world is about to see how that is going to effect her performance. Beachley is healthy and back for the 2006 ASP Tour, and if she is in it, she is in it to win it. No one will be the least bit surprised if Beachley takes another World Title, if not this year, then in one of the years to come.