In October 2006, Australian surfing great Layne Beachley was on top of the world. She had won a record six world titles and was on track to add a seventh. Since winning her first crown in 1998, the Manly local had become a global sporting star and was using her platform to advance women’s surfing, going so far as to organise the Havianas Beachley Classic – with a bumper prize purse – at her home beach in Sydney.
Beachley cruised through to the final, where yet another competition win seemed inevitable. It was a fairy-tale finale as retirement loomed (she ultimately stopped competing two years later). The best female surfer in history was set to win her own WSL event, at the beach she grew up shredding.
