This morning I went for a walk with my cousin Bryony from Freshwater to Manly beach and back. I class it
as one of the best coastal walks in the world and I couldn't think
of a better way to spend my last day in Australia.
We dived into the surf at the end of the walk and I spotted a
woman surfing. She looked pretty good and was wearing an Australian
flag bikini. Bryony recognised her as Layne Beachley, so yeah, considering she's a 7
x world champion, she's not bad on a board.
We had a bit of a chat and she told me she was busy organising
the Layne Beachley Classic.
It started with a dream to see female surfers compete for the
same money as professional men on the tour, and for their skill to
receive the same recognition. That dream becomes a reality in Dee
Why in three weeks time when the worlds top 17 female surfers
battle it out on Sydney's Northern Beaches, competing for a prize
purse of US $140,000.
But she doesn't stop there, her Aim for the Stars Foundation provides financial
and moral support to girls and women across Australia to help them
realise their dreams in sporting, academic, community or cultural
pursuits. Since 2003 the foundation has supported females across
Australia including a glider pilot, marine biologist, race car
driver, figure skater, rodeo rider and opera singer to name a
few.
I told her a bit about my adventure and amazingly she'd already
read about what I was doing in the newspaper. I was super stoke to
meet such an inspiringly driven and down-to-earth woman, achieving
big things in and out of the water. Go Layne!