Live at the AM — Lunchtime Lecture Series: Australians Shaping the Nation, Layne Beachley

AMplify - Conversations at the Australian Museum

Layne Beachley is widely regarded as the most successful female surfer in history, and is the only surfer, male or female, to claim six consecutive world titles (1998-2003); she went on to win a 7th world title in 2006 before retiring in 2008. In this inspiring conversation with AM Director Kim McKay, Layne reveals the source of her drive to be the best of the best, involving the loss of her mother at age 6 and the revelation of her adoption. She also opens up about the equally strong power of love and her marriage to rock legend Kirk Pengilly. “The fear of abandonment and the fear of rejection is essentially what drove me to become a six-time consecutive world champion. And the reason I differentiate from the seventh is because the seventh title was won in a state of love. So I proved to myself that you can do it in two different ways. “We all experience trauma, we all perceive it in a different way and none of us can control what happens to us, but the one thing we can control is how we respond to it.” This talk took place at 1pm, Tuesday 28 August in the Hallstrom Theatre at the Australian Museum.