December 7, 2025 • 11 mins
As seven-time world champion surfer Layne Beachley was recently honoured with the DAWN award at the Sport Australia Hall of Fame (SAHOF) in Melbourne, it's the perfect time to revisit her chat with Osher and just a few of its many insightful moments. You'll hear:
- What diving headfirst into your fears gives you
- How Layne realised the truth of what was really holding her back from being number 1
And more.
Listen to the whole episode for more - search Layne Beachley Better Than Yesterday
For Story Club and copies of So What Now, Now What? (a great Christmas gift), head here
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Good day. Thanks so much for listening to the show.
This is Better than Yesterday. Useful tools and useful conversations
to help make your day to day better than yesterday.
Every week since twenty thirteen by names Osha Gainsburg. And
I'm very, very grateful that you're here. I am very
grateful and very happy that a few nights ago in
the city of Melbourne, Australia, seven time world champion Lane Beachley,
(00:21):
the surfing legend icon Lane Beachley was honored for her
pivotal contribution to the world of surfing when she was
awarded the Dawn Award as in Dawn Fraser at the
Sport Australia Hall of Fame Awards in Melbourne. The Dawn
was introduced to these awards a couple of years ago,
honoring down Fraser, who's a patron. It recognizes a person
(00:44):
or a group that has shown courage and bravery that
has changed their sport for the better and Lane Beachley
is an incredibly well deserving recipient of this awards and
because of it, I felt it was a perfect time
to take a moment and revisit When Lane Beachley came
on the show, she is one of the most successful
(01:04):
female surfers in history, and she is the only surfer
male law female to win six consecutive world titles between
nineteen ninety eight and two thousand and three. She added
a seventh world title in two thousand and six before
retiring in two thousand and eight. Her journey is incredible.
It's one of resilience, focus of a fierce mindset that
has inspired countless people in and out of the water. Today,
(01:27):
there's a couple of great moments from that full conversation,
Lane really reflecting on overcoming fear, how much she advocates
for equality and surfing, the lessons that she's learned about
preparation for a big event, for whatever. And we're going
to start with her experience of overcoming fear and reframing
that fear as a tool for growth, kind of like
(01:51):
almost in a way, using the technique of exposure therapy
to help her conquer the world's most dangerous waves. I
was lucky enough to witness one of the competitions that
Lane competed in during her two thousand and three world
titled run at the Billabong pro in Tahiti, at a
wave called Chopoo so let me describe shop before you.
(02:13):
If you ever been dumped by a sure break, you
know when it comes up like a wall and then
smashes down what It just picks you up doesn't care.
The ocean doesn't care what you want to do. It's
got enough power to squish you on the sand like
a bug. Now, just imagine that wave that dumped you
is as tall and as round as a subway tunnel,
and instead of breaking onto sand, it's breaking onto raise
(02:35):
a sharp coral reef chopoo. Looks like a wave that
a teenager would doodle in the margin of their maths book.
And it looks like that because of the reef below
it that causes the ocean to break above it in
that particular way. But that reef is an absolute death trap.
People have died there and Lane Beachley has paddled into
that wave many many times. The contest that I saw
(02:59):
scheduled the women's heats to run when the swell was
coming from a very dangerous angle. So the break was
a very quick break and it was dumping.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Quite a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
In one heat of the women's competition, we watched from
the shoreline as no people paddled out into the wave.
It was just too dangerous. Later in that day, when
the swell swung around, they ran the men's heats, which
is pretty ordinary, you know, waiting for the better conditions
to run the men's competition. And I wanted to get
(03:31):
Lane's thoughts on competing in a situation that is just
so dangerous.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
And this reef is not only that jagged and sharp
with fire coral, so it burns you and grapes you.
And the boy suggested it was too shit for us.
You guys keep going for it, you know, I we'll
send the girls out. And it was so dangerous, so
unethical to send us out there, Like, it's just unacceptable
that we surfed it. But we felt like we had
(04:02):
no choice, so we just endured it. And that's what
we did, year after year after year.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
We just copped it. Turns of ships and the girls out.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So quite insulting now we look back on it, so
fortunately things have changed and the girls don't have to
endure that anymore. How is it different now, Well, now
they have a commissioner that represents the women's tour and
a commissioner that represents the men's tour. They have a
governing body that wholeheighedly support and value female athletes. They
provide them with equal opportunity to serve in the equal
(04:30):
conditions in equal locations. And they don't cancel events to
save money to inject them to the men's tour, which
is what they used to do to usk cancel our
events to inject them the money back into the men's right.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
I guess it was things like that, because I vaguely
recall the final or one of the heats on this year,
because me and Jacko were out in the boat watching
it happen, and we watched a whole heat go by,
and by then it wasn't three people in a heat,
it was two people in a heat. I can't remember
where it was. But no one paddled into a sat.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yes, yes, that happened quite often because the girls were
that shit scared, but they did not want to embrace
their fear.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
They did not want to threaten their own lives.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Chopu was a venue that very few girls embraced, let
alone wanted to go to. And I must admit it
to get the shit out of me too, But for
me to succeed and become the champion that I.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Vowed to become or decreased.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Then it was important for me to embrace those fears
and overcome them. So I made friends with the reef
by first cutting myself on it many times, and then
taking off my leg rope and allowing my board to drift,
and then diving down and just exploring it and getting
familiar with it. And then I was able to make
friends with it, and then.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
I stopped fearing it. Then I stopped hitting it until, of.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Course, we were sent out intent footspirf when it was
west and that was inevitable to hit it.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Hang on a sex take me through that, because this
is it sounds to me like you're describing the kind
of thing that my shrink makes me do when it's
exposure therapy time.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Oh they don't shock you or something.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
No, no, No.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Exposure therapy as a compulsive disorder as one of the
things that's going on with my head, and exposure therapy
is a very successful way to treat that. It's very uncomfortable.
It's very uncomfortable. You just have to learn with you
learn to be with the discomfort of the thing, all right,
You learn to be with discomfort of Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Bently exposing yourself to it.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yes, yes, yeah, in the same.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Well, I've subconsciously learned exposure therapy without actually being put
through therapy.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
She's such an extraordinary athlete. That approach to fear and
using fear for her own benefit is a powerful reminder
that growth, growth often always growth will come from discomfort.
Growth is a response to stress. The way that Lane
can embrace that danger and the uncertainty surfing some of
(06:45):
the world's most treacherous waves is a testament to her resilience.
You and I don't We don't need to paddle into
Chopu on a heavy west and swell. But this mindset
that she's talking about, that's something that we can all
apply to our own challenges, whether it's a daunting task, work,
or some sort of thing in our relationship that we
need to confront. As you've just heard, the conditions that
(07:05):
Lane was competing and were far from equitable to the
men's contest, and unfortunately, so was the prize money. Lane
Beachley has been a trailblazer not just in surfing, but
also in advocating for equality in the sport. When did
you first realize the disparity between the prize money and
when did the first time he went hang on a second.
(07:26):
That's the same one.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
When I joined the tour in nineteen ninety. Yeah, yeah,
it was shiit. I mean it was ridiculous. How much
was I don't know. We didn't record the prize money.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
I should have done that in my book, my ledger,
I've got my first ledger. But the prize money disparity, yeah,
became very clearly apparent from the start. Yeah. And also
the sponsorship dollars and opportunities for life after sports that
became very apparent. The representation, the opport to compete in
(08:01):
the reasonable conditions, the support of the governing body, like
all of it was very focused and catered towards the man.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Women where were just the sideshow.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
We're just going to take a quick break from Lane
Beachley before I play some ads. I'd just like to
remind you that the story Club YouTube is live and
up now. The linker is in the show notes. Story
Club is the live storytelling show I do once month
in Sydney and if you're unable to make it to
a gig, all the stories are going up every week.
I put them up every Thursday. That and the new book.
So what now? What is out right now. The linkers
(08:35):
in the show notes makes a perfect gift. Perfect Chris Kringle,
It's all yours. Here's some ads for some other stuff.
Thanks for listening to the show. We're just revisiting the
full conversation I had with Lane Beachley a little while back.
You can find it in the show feed if you
want to scroll back. Lane Beachley has won seven World
(08:58):
surfing titles. It's a huge achievement. But it wasn't always
that way. She wasn't always a champion. For many years,
Lane was consistently coming in second. She was up there
on the podium, yes, but she was in number two
when it came to her world titles. I wanted to know,
how does it affect you when you are turning up
and showing up and paddling in and putting in your
(09:18):
best and you're at number two again and again and again.
What do you learn about consistently being number two? A.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
I'm really surprised I haven't been asked this question before,
but I love it because there's so many valuable lessons
I learned from being number two in the world.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Number one.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Was I passionately disliked coming second? I loved winning, and
so I saw coming second as an absolute failure. And
that was because my whole sense of self worth and identity.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Was wrapped up in it. Number two, I.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Learned that I actually had a fear of success, and
that was a really valuable lesson. And it wasn't until
I came second the second time that I thought, Okay,
what's stopping me, what's getting in my way?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
And then I realized it was me. It was me.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
It was getting in my way because I judged success
as being put on a pedestal and being rejected, because
that's how I judged successful people. So therefore I feared
being rejected and I feared being put on a pedestal,
so therefore I feared success. So they were the two
main lessons that I learned from coming second.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Wow, So the thing that was keeping you from winning
had nothing to do with the surfboard or.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
The wave or the water, no, nothing at all.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Listening to Lane is so inspiring. It really reminds me
of the importance of assistance and of self reflection. Lane's
ability to think about her setbacks and use them as
a stepping stone really a stepping stone on the way
to success. That's something that we can all take away today.
It's no surprise that Lane Beasley was awarded honor at
(11:00):
the Hall of Fame Awards the other night. Her story
is full of resilience, of courage, and of determination, from
overcoming fear to advocating for equality, making the competition better
far after she was going to retire, just making it
better for people in the future. And really how much
(11:21):
she prepared, how much work she put into prepare for
each competition and each day. There's really valuable stuff in
and listening to that and the proofs in they're putting,
you know, seven world titles, six in a row. No
one has ever done that before or since. It's a
great conversation. Lane Beachley is an absolute inspiration. The full
chat is well worth it. You can scroll back in
(11:42):
the podcast feed to check it out. Thank you so
much for listening to the show. If you liked it,
please share it, Please subscribe, rate, follow, do all those things,
Send it to a friend. Thank you to Addam A
Buncher for chopping up this episode. I'll see you back
here on Wednesday.
Good day. Thanks so much for listening to the show.
This is Better than Yesterday. Useful tools and useful conversations
to help make your day to day better than yesterday.
Every week since twenty thirteen by names Osha Gainsburg. And
I'm very, very grateful that you're here. I am very
grateful and very happy that a few nights ago in
the city of Melbourne, Australia, seven time world champion Lane Beachley,
(00:21):
the surfing legend icon Lane Beachley was honored for her
pivotal contribution to the world of surfing when she was
awarded the Dawn Award as in Dawn Fraser at the
Sport Australia Hall of Fame Awards in Melbourne. The Dawn
was introduced to these awards a couple of years ago,
honoring down Fraser, who's a patron. It recognizes a person
(00:44):
or a group that has shown courage and bravery that
has changed their sport for the better and Lane Beachley
is an incredibly well deserving recipient of this awards and
because of it, I felt it was a perfect time
to take a moment and revisit When Lane Beachley came
on the show, she is one of the most successful
(01:04):
female surfers in history, and she is the only surfer
male law female to win six consecutive world titles between
nineteen ninety eight and two thousand and three. She added
a seventh world title in two thousand and six before
retiring in two thousand and eight. Her journey is incredible.
It's one of resilience, focus of a fierce mindset that
has inspired countless people in and out of the water. Today,
(01:27):
there's a couple of great moments from that full conversation,
Lane really reflecting on overcoming fear, how much she advocates
for equality and surfing, the lessons that she's learned about
preparation for a big event, for whatever. And we're going
to start with her experience of overcoming fear and reframing
that fear as a tool for growth, kind of like
(01:51):
almost in a way, using the technique of exposure therapy
to help her conquer the world's most dangerous waves. I
was lucky enough to witness one of the competitions that
Lane competed in during her two thousand and three world
titled run at the Billabong pro in Tahiti, at a
wave called Chopoo so let me describe shop before you.
(02:13):
If you ever been dumped by a sure break, you
know when it comes up like a wall and then
smashes down what It just picks you up doesn't care.
The ocean doesn't care what you want to do. It's
got enough power to squish you on the sand like
a bug. Now, just imagine that wave that dumped you
is as tall and as round as a subway tunnel,
and instead of breaking onto sand, it's breaking onto raise
(02:35):
a sharp coral reef chopoo. Looks like a wave that
a teenager would doodle in the margin of their maths book.
And it looks like that because of the reef below
it that causes the ocean to break above it in
that particular way. But that reef is an absolute death trap.
People have died there and Lane Beachley has paddled into
that wave many many times. The contest that I saw
(02:59):
scheduled the women's heats to run when the swell was
coming from a very dangerous angle. So the break was
a very quick break and it was dumping.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Quite a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
In one heat of the women's competition, we watched from
the shoreline as no people paddled out into the wave.
It was just too dangerous. Later in that day, when
the swell swung around, they ran the men's heats, which
is pretty ordinary, you know, waiting for the better conditions
to run the men's competition. And I wanted to get
(03:31):
Lane's thoughts on competing in a situation that is just
so dangerous.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
And this reef is not only that jagged and sharp
with fire coral, so it burns you and grapes you.
And the boy suggested it was too shit for us.
You guys keep going for it, you know, I we'll
send the girls out. And it was so dangerous, so
unethical to send us out there, Like, it's just unacceptable
that we surfed it. But we felt like we had
(04:02):
no choice, so we just endured it. And that's what
we did, year after year after year.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
We just copped it. Turns of ships and the girls out.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So quite insulting now we look back on it, so
fortunately things have changed and the girls don't have to
endure that anymore. How is it different now, Well, now
they have a commissioner that represents the women's tour and
a commissioner that represents the men's tour. They have a
governing body that wholeheighedly support and value female athletes. They
provide them with equal opportunity to serve in the equal
(04:30):
conditions in equal locations. And they don't cancel events to
save money to inject them to the men's tour, which
is what they used to do to usk cancel our
events to inject them the money back into the men's right.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
I guess it was things like that, because I vaguely
recall the final or one of the heats on this year,
because me and Jacko were out in the boat watching
it happen, and we watched a whole heat go by,
and by then it wasn't three people in a heat,
it was two people in a heat. I can't remember
where it was. But no one paddled into a sat.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yes, yes, that happened quite often because the girls were
that shit scared, but they did not want to embrace
their fear.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
They did not want to threaten their own lives.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Chopu was a venue that very few girls embraced, let
alone wanted to go to. And I must admit it
to get the shit out of me too, But for
me to succeed and become the champion that I.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Vowed to become or decreased.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Then it was important for me to embrace those fears
and overcome them. So I made friends with the reef
by first cutting myself on it many times, and then
taking off my leg rope and allowing my board to drift,
and then diving down and just exploring it and getting
familiar with it. And then I was able to make
friends with it, and then.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
I stopped fearing it. Then I stopped hitting it until, of.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Course, we were sent out intent footspirf when it was
west and that was inevitable to hit it.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Hang on a sex take me through that, because this
is it sounds to me like you're describing the kind
of thing that my shrink makes me do when it's
exposure therapy time.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Oh they don't shock you or something.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
No, no, No.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Exposure therapy as a compulsive disorder as one of the
things that's going on with my head, and exposure therapy
is a very successful way to treat that. It's very uncomfortable.
It's very uncomfortable. You just have to learn with you
learn to be with the discomfort of the thing, all right,
You learn to be with discomfort of Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Bently exposing yourself to it.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yes, yes, yeah, in the same.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Well, I've subconsciously learned exposure therapy without actually being put
through therapy.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
She's such an extraordinary athlete. That approach to fear and
using fear for her own benefit is a powerful reminder
that growth, growth often always growth will come from discomfort.
Growth is a response to stress. The way that Lane
can embrace that danger and the uncertainty surfing some of
(06:45):
the world's most treacherous waves is a testament to her resilience.
You and I don't We don't need to paddle into
Chopu on a heavy west and swell. But this mindset
that she's talking about, that's something that we can all
apply to our own challenges, whether it's a daunting task, work,
or some sort of thing in our relationship that we
need to confront. As you've just heard, the conditions that
(07:05):
Lane was competing and were far from equitable to the
men's contest, and unfortunately, so was the prize money. Lane
Beachley has been a trailblazer not just in surfing, but
also in advocating for equality in the sport. When did
you first realize the disparity between the prize money and
when did the first time he went hang on a second.
(07:26):
That's the same one.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
When I joined the tour in nineteen ninety. Yeah, yeah,
it was shiit. I mean it was ridiculous. How much
was I don't know. We didn't record the prize money.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
I should have done that in my book, my ledger,
I've got my first ledger. But the prize money disparity, yeah,
became very clearly apparent from the start. Yeah. And also
the sponsorship dollars and opportunities for life after sports that
became very apparent. The representation, the opport to compete in
(08:01):
the reasonable conditions, the support of the governing body, like
all of it was very focused and catered towards the man.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Women where were just the sideshow.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
We're just going to take a quick break from Lane
Beachley before I play some ads. I'd just like to
remind you that the story Club YouTube is live and
up now. The linker is in the show notes. Story
Club is the live storytelling show I do once month
in Sydney and if you're unable to make it to
a gig, all the stories are going up every week.
I put them up every Thursday. That and the new book.
So what now? What is out right now. The linkers
(08:35):
in the show notes makes a perfect gift. Perfect Chris Kringle,
It's all yours. Here's some ads for some other stuff.
Thanks for listening to the show. We're just revisiting the
full conversation I had with Lane Beachley a little while back.
You can find it in the show feed if you
want to scroll back. Lane Beachley has won seven World
(08:58):
surfing titles. It's a huge achievement. But it wasn't always
that way. She wasn't always a champion. For many years,
Lane was consistently coming in second. She was up there
on the podium, yes, but she was in number two
when it came to her world titles. I wanted to know,
how does it affect you when you are turning up
and showing up and paddling in and putting in your
(09:18):
best and you're at number two again and again and again.
What do you learn about consistently being number two? A.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
I'm really surprised I haven't been asked this question before,
but I love it because there's so many valuable lessons
I learned from being number two in the world.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Number one.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Was I passionately disliked coming second? I loved winning, and
so I saw coming second as an absolute failure. And
that was because my whole sense of self worth and identity.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Was wrapped up in it. Number two, I.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Learned that I actually had a fear of success, and
that was a really valuable lesson. And it wasn't until
I came second the second time that I thought, Okay,
what's stopping me, what's getting in my way?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
And then I realized it was me. It was me.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
It was getting in my way because I judged success
as being put on a pedestal and being rejected, because
that's how I judged successful people. So therefore I feared
being rejected and I feared being put on a pedestal,
so therefore I feared success. So they were the two
main lessons that I learned from coming second.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Wow, So the thing that was keeping you from winning
had nothing to do with the surfboard or.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
The wave or the water, no, nothing at all.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Listening to Lane is so inspiring. It really reminds me
of the importance of assistance and of self reflection. Lane's
ability to think about her setbacks and use them as
a stepping stone really a stepping stone on the way
to success. That's something that we can all take away today.
It's no surprise that Lane Beasley was awarded honor at
(11:00):
the Hall of Fame Awards the other night. Her story
is full of resilience, of courage, and of determination, from
overcoming fear to advocating for equality, making the competition better
far after she was going to retire, just making it
better for people in the future. And really how much
(11:21):
she prepared, how much work she put into prepare for
each competition and each day. There's really valuable stuff in
and listening to that and the proofs in they're putting,
you know, seven world titles, six in a row. No
one has ever done that before or since. It's a
great conversation. Lane Beachley is an absolute inspiration. The full
chat is well worth it. You can scroll back in
(11:42):
the podcast feed to check it out. Thank you so
much for listening to the show. If you liked it,
please share it, Please subscribe, rate, follow, do all those things,
Send it to a friend. Thank you to Addam A
Buncher for chopping up this episode. I'll see you back
here on Wednesday.
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