Laurie Towner's new job
“When I was a young surfer I got picked to do an apprenticeship because I knew surf culture, I had a creative mindset, and I was a problem solver. Laurie is exactly the same.”
I'm talking to needessentials founder Ryan Scanlon about his latest employee, Laurie Towner. That’s right, ‘employee’, not ‘brand ambassador’ or ‘sponsored surfer’. You see, Laurie is now a fully-fledged on-the-payroll worker at needessentials.
As a teenager, Laurie was the best big wave surfer of his generation, with images of him dropping into oversized Cloudbreak, Solander, and Shippies, making multiple covers and centrespreads. The kid from Yamba saw a long and illustrious career stretch out before him. However, just as he was hitting his stride, print media began to contract, so too did the surf industry and with it sponsorship dollars. In 2014 Laurie was dropped by his longtime sponsor and found himself in the surfing wilderness.
He tried other surf companies but when they wouldn’t return his calls the realisation dawned on him: at age 26, when he was ready to take the next leap into big wave maturity, his surfing career was over. At first he worked construction, labouring on job sites around Yamba, then focussed on something more permanent, starting a tilers’ apprenticeship.
In 2018, Laurie hooked up with needessentials founder Ryan Scanlon, who also lives in Yamba, to work as an aforementioned brand ambassador. Whenever possible - meaning between TAFE study, site work, and family duties - Laurie would chase swells which would be edited into popular clips. The lack of spotlight clearly hadn’t diminished Laurie’s appetite for thrills, as evidenced by trips to maxing Nias and Cloudbreak, the latter producing a Wave of the Year entry at the Big Wave Awards.
Taking off on his celebrated Cloudbreak wave - check 4:15 in the link above for video footage
A year ago, Ryan approached Laurie with a proposition: come and work full time for needessentials. At first he hesitated. “I wanted to finish my tiling apprenticeship,” says Laurie, “because I was so close to the end and it’s always great to have a trade.”
With his apprenticeship ticked off, Laurie switched over and is now full time on the needessentials payroll. Essentially he’s doing a design apprenticeship under Ryan, but he’s also got one eye on the weather maps. Family duties notwithstanding, he’s free to chase waves whenever he pleases. To that end, he’s been kitted out with a caravan to doss in while on the road and a computer to work remotely.
Daily duties involve pattern designing across the whole company range, something that Ryan assures me is more work than it sounds. Designs and patterns don’t stand still. “We’re constantly refining and improving,” explains Ryan. “So basically every shape, every panel, every little piece of a wetsuit, needs to be adjusted for every size and for every material.”
The things you learn…
I put it to Ryan that with a small but growing list of employees the minimalist company he formed in 2013 may outstrip his own humble ambitions. “Well, I started making wetsuits as a one man band just because I wanted to make a good product without all the bullshit basically,” says Ryan, “and as more people liked what we were doing and bought our products it required hiring more people, so I just found people with the same sort of ideas that I have.”
"Philosophically, nothing has changed."
Ol' Scanno goes alright too - laying rail on a pintail singley
In Laurie, he’s found the ideal work mate: humble, diligent, and appreciative, and he surfs like a mofo of course. Speaking of, not long after they arranged the new working relationship, Laurie made a dash south to a deepwater bommie. There he scored a large mid-summer swell, and it was enough to draw him back to the same wave last weekend.
This time, however, he took a hit and aggravated an old injury. It’s nothing too bad but it means a few weeks out of the water. But don’t call it downtime, it just means the sponsored surfer will flip his job description and for the next few weeks be a full-time designer.
(Homepage photo of Laurie by Ted Grambeau)
Comments
Not only one of the best big wave surfers in world but a top bloke too.
second that tim, what an amazing talented waterman
That one might be more "celebreated" but this takeoff is way heavier.
From 2010 so he's not wearing a vest either.
https://www.surfline.com/surflinetv/greatest-wipeouts/laurie-towner_50444
Good luck to him!
Incredible surfer.....
Good news story.
Hopefully down the track Need can do a longer film on Laurie similar to the Torryn one in N Z
I like the gear.
boardies still going from 2015.
Wetties get better with each iteration.
FR agree I’m a chippy and been wearing their boardshorts to work for years and can’t kill em.
I like the gear too being using the wetsuits for the 5th year in a row. With a new winter and summer steamer every season.
There is massive room for improvement.
Legs fill with water after 3 surfs.(one way valve at ankles will fix that)
Glue in seams only lasts absolute max 12 weeks and its leaking like a sieve and your freezing your tits off. So the wetsuit is completely shot.
Keeping in mind I like my windsurfing and kitesurfing so the suite gets used a lot.
We surf every day in wetties, even peak summer. So a few of us tried out the Need wetties (cost decision). They did not last with heavy use. Perhaps a bad batch? Consistently failed. No-one I know ascribes to them now, due to durability issues. We are wearing the 6mm and 5mm versions. Maybe their thinner versions hold up better and with less wear in warmer climates.
There must be some variation then, or people don't rinse them/hang em in the sun, because we're in Torquay and wear steamers most of the time and I'm still in a 4/3 which has 3 winters behind it and it's still ok. The sealed 4/3 from last year is still like new and toasty. They last longer than RC suits at less than half the price. The new range this year are meant to be better again and word is there's a Yulex option similar to Patagonia.
They are all [were ?] made in the same factory - Sheico .
Well done Laurie, Finished your trade time and now a new, interesting and fun challenge for you...and you got a cara as well....nice....You deserve it too.
May God richly bless your future and your family as you add designer to your skill set. Needessentials can only move further forward from here that's for sure.
Gd one - ripper team you have there Ryan
Everyone give the wax a go all profits go to SurfAid.
Sea salt of the earth.
awesome vid. Both the paddle and tow bombs are spine tingling
Tiles by Towner. Artisan tiles, designed, hand crafted and laid by Laurie. Would be a hit with the new crew invading the Clarence coast.
Good stuff. Give me a real job over being just a performing seal dancing for pennies any day.
My Needs wettie was the best I have ever had and great value. It is 3 years old and still going well.
He's in good company. Great product. A year of corona surfing the cold down here, the 4/3 liquid taped wettie, no leaks at all, still very warm. Able to be pulled out and used when we get Winter in Summer (TM) with it's icy winds. Previously, I've had suits where the damn seams go really quick - within a season, for eg - and that welcome to the water is a chilly one! Looking forward to matching the 4/3 with the Needs 3/2 liquid taped as replacement time comes up. The pricing of the product is great too. Well done crew.
Excellent news. One of the truly gifted surfers out of Yamba - just like Bryce Young - amazing to watch and sooooo much better than any flippy spinny Brazzos. Well done Needs, makes me want to check out your gear now.
Congrats on finishing the trade. May be a cnt of a job but it’ll always be there if shit hits the fan and you can take it anywhere.
Kudos to Needs for extending the love beyond the expiry date. Great surfers don’t stop being good crew just cause they’re no longer eligible to front a K pop boy band.
x2
So good ! Love all my Needs Essentials products , and Im totally in awe at Laurie's skills as a surfer . Incredible charger with grace in the BIG stuff.
I know he doesn't seek attention , but it still blows me away how so many
longtime surfers know so little about him .
Congratulations Needs and Laurie ...
Needessentials wetsuits, booties and gloves are outstanding value for money.
Thanks Ryan for your great surf products.
God Bless you, Laurie, all your crew and you too Stu. Nice article.
Numbers 6:24-26
Laurie is a special one, isn't he.
Stoked for him, and here's hoping this works out well.
Can't wait to watch Cape Fear this year. I felt Laurie and Russell Bierke were the standouts last time.
Impossible for me to comprehend riding waves of that scale. You wouldn't even get me in a boat to sit in the channel!
Nice one Need.
Quality gear at the right price and best of all no branding.
Onya Scanno Onya Laurie. Well done on assembling a great team of likeminded legends. Need suits are the bomb, have a 4/3 thermal premium down to a 2mm short arm short leg which is a great suit for cold mornings or evenings and super flexible. Plenty of suits in between which have all lasted for a longtime and a good time. It’s nice that you can take you suit in for minor repairs / a little patch up to keep em going . The Torryn / MOTE fins are bananas too, nicely crafted & foiled. To boot they are a bunch of legends down the shop. Good vibrations to you all and the growing team. Keep up the great work
It is astounding that someone of Laurie's talent would find himself floundering in the abyss of the un-sponsored masses. Good to see that someone who has the common surfer in mind with a no bull shit product has picked him up and allowed him the opportunity to still chase swells. Everyone wins, Laurie gets to support his family financially, have input into a product by surfers for surfers and chase swells that we can all hopefully witness through their website.
P.S
I did tiling for about for about 4 years in Margaret River and it is a tough, dirty trade with unhealthy glues, dust; etc.
Like Blowin said it is a c..t of a job that is murder on your back and knees.
It shows Laurie's mettle to finish the apprenticeship before he joined need.e to ensure he always has something to fall back on.
Good on ya mate. (Take care of those knees).
Good on him. Great story. But another boy gets a job in the surf industry. Watched "Girls Can't Surf" doco this week. It got me thinking about how male-dominated the surf industry is. Particularly in Australia.
Im struggling to comprehend this comment...of all the professional surfers (male or female) that have been treated unfairly by the surf industry in the last 8 years, Laurie would have to be near top of the list IMO. Surfers of both genders with far less skill and talent than him being paid very well to surf while Laurie has been toiling away with the kneepads on for that entire time. Fairly misguided to categorise Lauries new and longtime coming role with Needs, as just another male getting a gig because you watched a documentary about the womens experience in 90s and early 00s..I reckon the surf industry these days is fairly equally represented and renumerated? It would be near impossible for it survive in todays environment if it were otherwise wouldnt it.
Try getting a tiler these days, 3 month wait.
Bugger - No wonder you haven't turned up to finish my tiling job.
Simon, I totally agree that it is a male-dominated surf industry. And yes, it is on its surface, another male getting a job at a surf company. However, this is Laurie Towner! It is so great to see him be paid to surf and design for Needs. As a result of Laurie getting sidelined due to corporate greed (said male-dominated industry), we missed out on so many edits and that's just shit for everyone.
Ben, I agree with you that Laurie Towner got poorly treated by the surf industry. His role with Needs is deserving and down-right exciting for us punters. But the surf industry is not equally represented. Aussie surf culture is still steeped in misogyny, as is our current government.
I'd say that Needs probably does a better job with representation than other companies but hey, Ryan and Needs, as well as all us men need to do our bit to actively dismantle the patriarchy!
In summary, down with misogyny, and can't wait to see new designs and edits from Laurie :-)
Could you please provide five examples of Australian surf culture currently being steeped in misogyny?
Hey Blowin! Here are articles on the topic:
&ab_channel=GuardianNewshttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/09/about-the-boys-tim-winton-...
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/mar/14/layne-beachley-how-we-foug...
https://theconversation.com/womens-surfing-riding-wave-towards-gender-eq...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-15/female-surfers-call-for-end-to-se...
https://www.tracksmag.com.au/news/a-future-beyond-sexism-for-womens-pro-...
Not a single example of Australian surf culture still steeped in misogyny provided in those links.
Check your privilege blowin
Yeah, nah.
Seems to me that girls get an equal start with blokes in Aussie surf culture now.
that was a joke if it didn’t come across that way..
No, mate. I don’t joke about the genders.
BTW can anyone please tell me :
- A/ What’s the difference between a bloke’s wife and his girlfriend?
And
-B / what’s the difference between a girl’s husband and her boyfriend?
That’d be :
A/ 30 kilos
And
B/ 30 minutes
At least needs has a women's range.
Based on a perusal of this competitors site https://www.zionwetsuits.com/ not a single female product or team member (note the slogan no country for cold men).