Lachie Rombouts grew up a two-hour bus ride from the beach and never flinched about grabbing his board and making the journey at every opportunity. As soon as he was old enough he moved closer, but along with the increase in surf time came the trappings of being a young man fresh out of school, living the party life. Lachie struggled to balance the so-called good times on land with the actual good times in the water and eventually his mental health nosedived. Until, one day his home break lit up with the swell of a lifetime.
“In the end, it was finding a connection with giant surfboards and even bigger waves that re-invigorated Lachie’s love for the sea and helped him identify what sort of man he wanted to be,”
Tales of surfers from the edge of the Australian continent and fringes of society, who through their unique relationships with the ocean have discovered who they want to be and the way they want to live. They ride on their own terms, for the pure, simple stoke of it, and each wave is another step on the path to self-discovery.
The O’Riginals are artist Billy Bain, design student Dan Johnson and gardener Lachie Rombouts.
PART 1: BILLY BAIN
In an alternate universe, Billy Bain may have gone on to be an elite professional surfer. He cut his teeth in junior contests and enjoyed success, the thrill of sponsorship and even a few magazine spreads. The future was seemingly laid out before him, but inside there was conflict. Billy wanted to draw and paint.
The O’Riginals Part 1 follows Billy’s story from up-coming grommet through to his decision to leave his suburban beach home and move to the city. It captures the struggles that came as he tried to adjust, and eventually the acceptance that he was on the right path and that he hadn’t abandoned surfing, but rather, he’d embraced in a new way that was even more fulfilling.
“Like so many kids who show promise as talented juniors, their journey with surfing doesn’t just stop when they finally decide the contest rash vest isn’t for them. If anything, it’s just getting started, that’s what makes Billy’s journey so cool. That – and the fact he’s doing it on his own terms,” said O’Riginals director Vaughan Blakey.
Mick Fanning is jumping out of his skin. It’s taken four days to get here and waking to the sight of six-to-eight foot A-frames unloading right in front of the camp has got the three-time World Champ’s blood at maximum fizz.
He suits up, skips down the boulders, jumps in a rip and is swept towards the impact zone just as the first true set of the morning begins stampeding over the horizon. Collision is inevitable. Line after line of unimpeded ocean power aims to unload directly onto the famous blond cranium of Kirra’s favourite son. As we watch Mick get obliterated, Mason Ho stops waxing his 6’4”, returns it to his board bag and picks up a knifey looking 6’8” pintail. “It’s a lot bigger than it looks out there, huh,” he says with a smile that’s all eyebrows. “Brah… the Search has delivered again!”…
Welcome to Rip Curl’s latest episode of #TheSearch, Outer Inner Space. More HERE.
Not every day you see people surfing in bikinis and boardies in North Wales. But this was the scene when the O’Neill youth hit Surf Snowdonia to get a wave riding fix after a surf light June.
The crew hacked, slid, flew, dropped, laughed and just had a ball in the new Med style weather we now have. Dive in to see Lukas Skinner nearly go in to orbit, see them answer the question as to whether it’s possible to acid drop in to the wave and if that little dry runner in the corner is rideable.
If you’re a young surfer aged between 13 and 17 you can win an all expenses paid weekend in Snowdonia with only flipping Jordy Smith at the end of September!
Details HERE…
