Speaker 1: We'd like to acknowledge that traditional custodians of the land
Speaker 1: on which this podcast was produced, the Galligall people of
Speaker 1: the orination. We pay our respects to Elder's past and present.
Speaker 2: Hi, and here we're taking a short break and we'll
Speaker 2: be back soon with some more incredible stories. In the meantime,
Speaker 2: I wanted to reflect on some of the inspirational guests
Speaker 2: we've had on head Game this year. In this episode,
Speaker 2: you'll hear from Owen Right, Lane, Beachley, and Blaky Johnston,
Speaker 2: all surfing legends with truly incredible mindsets. First up, Olympid
Speaker 2: surfer Owen Wright. Owen was at the top of his
Speaker 2: game when a traumatic accident completely turned his world upside down.
Speaker 3: I felt invincible and this ocean saw me completely and
Speaker 3: it just pinpointed me and swatted me down. Man, I
Speaker 3: overlooked a scenario that was really dangerous and instead of
Speaker 3: chucking my board and diving diving deep, I let, like,
Speaker 3: you know, like the size of a two story plus
Speaker 3: built like wave, just lean straight on me, just detonate
Speaker 3: straight on me, explode me.
Speaker 4: So what were you meant to do? So the wave
Speaker 4: comes up and what you duck? Diving you're supposed to.
Speaker 3: You're supposed to bail in those situations, right, So you
Speaker 3: think it's.
Speaker 4: Too late to get too late to get out of
Speaker 4: the way.
Speaker 5: You just you can't.
Speaker 3: You can't get around the wave. So you're supposed to
Speaker 3: dive to the bottom. So you get down meters to
Speaker 3: get out of the way, and you can kind of
Speaker 3: it's a bit safer down there. I decided to duck dive,
Speaker 3: which I'm going to go on like two foot under
Speaker 3: the water. If that foot, I'm on a big board,
Speaker 3: just pushing it down about this far under and then
Speaker 3: I have like two stories of water, just stricken.
Speaker 4: You didn't go deep enough.
Speaker 3: I didn't go deep enough.
Speaker 4: And where you're just thinking of I've done this before before.
Speaker 3: I'll be right, and this lack of lack of judgment, implacency,
Speaker 3: fully complacent. Man just overlooked, I know, just and the
Speaker 3: thing just detonated me, shook the life out of me.
Speaker 3: I had what they call like well, I had a
Speaker 3: tb iron and a severe concussion. But the type of
Speaker 3: concussion I had wasn't from like blunt force trauma. It
Speaker 3: was from like a what the doctor in hospital said,
Speaker 3: like a blast my head looked like a blast victim
Speaker 3: from their war vets. That they see is that I
Speaker 3: got what they call shaken baby syndrome essentially, and it
Speaker 3: just like shook my head so hard that it had
Speaker 3: all these bruises and contusions on each side of my
Speaker 3: brain where it just got bounced off each side.
Speaker 4: And this was the washing machine like effect on the
Speaker 4: washing machine wave.
Speaker 3: Yeah, under the wave, and I was just completely ragged old. Yeah,
Speaker 3: just basically shook the shook the living daylights out one wave,
Speaker 3: one wave.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, When do you realize you're in trouble?
Speaker 5: Do you?
Speaker 4: When do you it happen so quick? When do you
Speaker 4: think I've left up here?
Speaker 3: There's a moment in time where I don't, I can't
Speaker 3: full it was just fully black. Then there's there's a
Speaker 3: period of time where I remember being conscious but like
Speaker 3: not able to move or anything, and like just I
Speaker 3: was still way out the back. It was just I
Speaker 3: had probably ten of those waves land one after another
Speaker 3: on top of it. It was so yeah, it was
Speaker 3: a consecutive. It was like one and then two and
Speaker 3: three and then four and five. It was like a
Speaker 3: multiple wave set, just like and because I was the
Speaker 3: way the lineup works. I was deep. I was out
Speaker 3: and deep, and the water rest comes down the reef
Speaker 3: and pushes you in. So each wave that hit me,
Speaker 3: I was still in the line of fire because I
Speaker 3: was just not in I was just slightly down the
Speaker 3: reef further where the wave was still like landing and dumping.
Speaker 3: So I got each wave the hallway down and then
Speaker 3: just like.
Speaker 4: You got churned and munched up and in the washin
Speaker 4: ten waves. Yeah, yeah, one after.
Speaker 3: The other, one after the other. I remember just like
Speaker 3: just just holding on in my mind, just going and
Speaker 3: just stays just like trying to stay conscious.
Speaker 4: Do you think you're going to die at that stage?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a point where you're just like, I'm done.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I was everyone.
Speaker 2: Coming on done.
Speaker 3: I don't know, I'm like, it just felt like I
Speaker 3: was done already.
Speaker 2: Owen's story of recovery and his journey back to his
Speaker 2: board is inspiring.
Speaker 4: If you'd like to hear the full.
Speaker 2: Episode, I'll link it in the show notes. My next
Speaker 2: guest is Lane Beachley. Lane's path to success hasn't been
Speaker 2: an easy one. The seven time World surfing legend embraced
Speaker 2: setbacks and use them to propel her growth. In this
Speaker 2: special interview, she opened up about the moment she learned
Speaker 2: she was adopted after losing her mother at just seven
Speaker 2: years old.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Well, the thing was like, didn't know I'd lost
Speaker 5: too mothers at that stage. I only know i'd lost one.
Speaker 5: And then when my dad decided to tell me I
Speaker 5: was adopted, I was eight years of age, and that
Speaker 5: felt that was the biggest capitalist moment in my life
Speaker 5: because I felt so rejected in that moment, irrespective of
Speaker 5: how beautiful he was in communicating his truth to me
Speaker 5: around you know, I'm your baby girl. He would say,
Speaker 5: you're my baby girl, and you belong here and we
Speaker 5: love you, and I've always wanted a girl within this family.
Speaker 5: But you're not a blood relation. And the minute I
Speaker 5: heard that, I don't belong here. I am not from
Speaker 5: this family. I am not of blood relation. So where
Speaker 5: do I come from? Who do I belong to? Why
Speaker 5: am I here? Where is my mother? And why didn't
Speaker 5: you want me?
Speaker 4: Yes? Do you think you were too young to take
Speaker 4: that information in?
Speaker 5: We're never too young to take in information. Ever, we're
Speaker 5: never too young to take in honest communication and truth,
Speaker 5: and you know we do it. I see a lot
Speaker 5: of parents say or do or behave in a way
Speaker 5: to protect their children, but all the doing is literally
Speaker 5: protecting their own emotional state. You know, you're not protecting
Speaker 5: your children by lying to them, You're protecting yourself.
Speaker 2: And you said that that was a huge moment in
Speaker 2: your life, right, yeah, huge moment? Yeah, and how do
Speaker 2: you deal with that moving forward?
Speaker 5: Set a goal to become a world champion?
Speaker 4: Do you know what? Wow?
Speaker 2: What? And what a goal to set yourself down. It's
Speaker 2: bizarre because when people go through a lot of trauma,
Speaker 2: they go through you know, traumatic experiences or experiences that
Speaker 2: really change change their life in the moment, a purpose
Speaker 2: and a goal, you know, and then we always I
Speaker 2: know it sounds a bit cliche, but it really does
Speaker 2: help you focus that aggression, that frustration, that misunderstanding onto
Speaker 2: something and direct it onto a goal or onto a
Speaker 2: purpose that you're truly passionate about. And it's people like
Speaker 2: yourselves that have been through that that end up high
Speaker 2: achievers because every because they've managed to bundle it all
Speaker 2: together and go, right, I've got this purpose. Now, I've
Speaker 2: got this goal that I need to and I'm going
Speaker 2: to do it for my mom. I'm going to do
Speaker 2: it for the family. I'm going to do it forever,
Speaker 2: whatever the reason is for that purpose. When was the
Speaker 2: first time that you realize that, actually, I'm looking good
Speaker 2: at what I do and I'm going to make a
Speaker 2: living out this and I am actually going to become
Speaker 2: a world champion.
Speaker 5: Well, firstly, I want to reflect on what you just
Speaker 5: said in regards to channeling your energy, because it's one
Speaker 5: hundred percent right. We choose to channel our energy, our focus,
Speaker 5: our emotions into something. I'd say the most successful people
Speaker 5: and the biggest misfits have all been through trauma. But
Speaker 5: it's how we choose to respond to it. And some
Speaker 5: of us choose to become victims while others choose to
Speaker 5: become victors. And I was really fortunate that I had
Speaker 5: the I don't know if you've read Malcolm Gladwell's book
Speaker 5: Outliers that he refers to three things that contribute to success,
Speaker 5: and number one is an opportunity, number two is ability,
Speaker 5: and number three is an arbitrary advantage. And if I
Speaker 5: think about how those three things played into my ultimate success,
Speaker 5: I mean I had the opportunit unity to grow up
Speaker 5: with a surf loving family. I had the ability to
Speaker 5: stand on a surfboard, and I had the arbitrary advantage
Speaker 5: to be close to Manly Beach, so I had consistent
Speaker 5: access to the environment that I loved to be in.
Speaker 5: So those things really contributed or gave me a head
Speaker 5: start to the success that I ultimately craved.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty three, Blaky Johnston achieved one unbelievable goal
Speaker 2: the Sydney Local Surf continuously for forty hours to raise
Speaker 2: money for youth mental health initiatives. In this conversation, Blaki
Speaker 2: revealed just how mentally, physically and emotionally draining those two
Speaker 2: days were and how he managed to get through it.
Speaker 6: It was about accepting every moment for what it was.
Speaker 6: You know, it's dealing with the ocean. It's always it's
Speaker 6: constantly changing, like life is too right it was. It
Speaker 6: was accepting of everything that came across my way this
Speaker 6: particular event in particular, I focused on the outcome, you know,
Speaker 6: I focused on believing that I'd never had as much
Speaker 6: self belief through that process, through anything, through anything I'd
Speaker 6: ever done, obviously, through my challenges that I'd set myself
Speaker 6: and life challenge with luck with my dad, I've I've
Speaker 6: been through quite a bit and in to this event,
Speaker 6: I really I visualized and believed that I was doing
Speaker 6: it for the right reasons, and I actually manifested the
Speaker 6: moments beforehand. I was running past the alley every day,
Speaker 6: imagining this huge crowd that was there and sort of
Speaker 6: gone a hold whatever, but starting off to just imagine
Speaker 6: this huge crowds there, I really feel it, but then
Speaker 6: ended up running past stopping, breathing in, feeling in the
Speaker 6: moments and visualizing my this moment actually happening, feeling it,
Speaker 6: not just thinking this thing is going to happen. So
Speaker 6: everything that I was doing, liding that and every surf
Speaker 6: I go for, every time I was down the beach,
Speaker 6: the intention for everything was towards this goal. So I
Speaker 6: was you know, I was thinking connected with them, being
Speaker 6: connected with the moment. So I got to these I
Speaker 6: got to this one part in particular of the surf
Speaker 6: where it was the hardest. My eyes were just on
Speaker 6: I had to close them most of the surf because
Speaker 6: the lights were brighter than I thought they were going
Speaker 6: to be, because the surf was bigger than I thought
Speaker 6: it was going to be. For the first ten hours
Speaker 6: really so beautiful day. So the sunrise came up and
Speaker 6: my eyes were already cooked. On the first day, and
Speaker 6: you know, I was riding a wave. You know, no
Speaker 6: one really. I surfed every wave with intention, you know,
Speaker 6: I surfed it as a surf. I didn't flick off
Speaker 6: to get numbers. The wave had a section for a turn.
Speaker 6: I was going to surf the wave properly.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 6: I wore one wet suit. I rode one board, just
Speaker 6: to do it authentic and do it. And when I
Speaker 6: hit the water, I was full of self left so
Speaker 6: much saw of self leaf that I wasn't really listening to.
Speaker 6: There was a doctor on the bitch, slow down, don't
Speaker 6: ride the waves into the short breaker using too much.
Speaker 6: You've still got thirty five hours ago. No matter what
Speaker 6: I was going to I was accepting whatever I was
Speaker 6: going to go through, it was gonna it was going
Speaker 6: to be in front of me and I'll get through it.
Speaker 6: So yeah, it just it was a lot harder from
Speaker 6: earlier on, you know, from that first the first morning
Speaker 6: was just the surf was bigger. I did five hundred
Speaker 6: duck dives. When you know when you go to the
Speaker 6: waved about Yeah, between three hundred and fifty and four
Speaker 6: hundred duck dives going through. I'd rode two hundred and
Speaker 6: twenty ways by the time the sun came up, so
Speaker 6: hurt Town came in really early.
Speaker 2: It was like, don't appreciate that you're you're in a
Speaker 2: year you're duck being on the water and you know,
Speaker 2: keeping yourself in that area, keeping yourself, you know, safe,
Speaker 2: so you're not.
Speaker 4: That's a surface.
Speaker 6: One positioning and ideally a world record. It's small and
Speaker 6: it's clean, and it's your mate through out there with
Speaker 6: you for support or they're there for water safety. But
Speaker 6: this was big surf, Like the beaches would have been
Speaker 6: closed and no easy places to get out, so my
Speaker 6: friends would come out and they just get smashed around
Speaker 6: and go in. So I was working really, really hard.
Speaker 6: So I'm proud of that that I you know, I
Speaker 6: did it. I didn't hand it to me, the ocean
Speaker 6: didn't hand it to me. I had to really work
Speaker 6: for those waves and those times that I got in
Speaker 6: and the fact that I surfed every wave and every
Speaker 6: section I could was something that you know, I'm proud
Speaker 6: of as a surfer too.
Speaker 4: You know, you felt like you completed It wasn't just
Speaker 4: doing a world record.
Speaker 6: I was doing it properly, surfing challenging waves, doing it.
Speaker 2: World record wasn't was almost out of your head because
Speaker 2: you know, if you wanted to go for the world work,
Speaker 2: you'd hit the wave, come off, hit, They'll go.
Speaker 6: Back do it in y key key thirty five degree water.
Speaker 6: But this was about, you know, proving to the people
Speaker 6: that everything had build up around the event. There was
Speaker 6: people who was one hundred and fifty people there at
Speaker 6: one am in the morning when I was paddling out.
Speaker 6: You know, so I have a responsibility, like I always field,
Speaker 6: to be accountable to my word and do it properly.
Speaker 6: And I know a lot of kids were there watching
Speaker 6: and it was getting broadcasted, you know, globally.
Speaker 4: So it was a huge event. Yeah, it was an.
Speaker 6: Opportunity to show you know that is do what you
Speaker 6: say you're going to do, be accountable to you, and
Speaker 6: you can do the things that you set out to do.
Speaker 2: Hear these incredibly moving stories from Owen Right, Lane Beachley,
Speaker 2: and Blakey Johnston in full.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: I've linked the episode details in the show notes. Thank
Speaker 2: you so much for listening to Headgame. If you enjoyed
Speaker 2: this episode, make sure you're subscribed and leave me a review.
Speaker 4: Wherever you're listening, I'm add Middleton. See you again next time.