Give Us Laurie Towner, Or Give Us Hell!

Life is different for Laurie Towner these days. Different, but good. It’s true the strike missions are fewer and far between. And the footage, rarer still. But here’s the thing… despite putting his aspirations on the backburner (Laurie was stripped of his badge in 2014) it’s obvious today he’s come to terms with riding an undeniably blank quiver, and raising a rad little family with his wifey, and they’re havin’ an absolute ball together!

And even though Laurie has all but vanished from the spotlight, we keep asking for more because it wasn’t that long ago he matched big wave surfing’s famed maniacs on their days of days – think Teahupo’o Code Red, acid drops at 15 foot shippies, standout moments at Backdoor / OTW – breaks of deadly consequence, where Laurie proved to everyone he’s cut from the same cloth. Which is why we nearly fell off our wheelie chair when we copped Lozza’s Pe’ahi session from this season past. But how can this be? Who’s picked him up?

Well, it all started with a short film called Keeping On, put out mid last year. It featured some of his wildest, suckiest oceanic disappearances, including his departure from pro-surfing itself. And the film was so sick, affordable wetsuit brand, Need Essentials signed him up and (partially) lined his pockets. Enough at least to fly Laurie to Jaws for the first time ever, so he could bomb huuugggeeee fricken sea mountains! Laurie’s mate Caleb Graham was the man on the lens, and he shot the whole thing on his own wicket out of pure belief in Laurie’s heavy water expertise. And as you can see, he doesn’t disappoint.

So what’s next? If the conversation between Loz and Caleb is anything to go off, he’s still got his eyes on the end of the road… Click ahead for an independent triumph, plus you get to watch Laurie shred his own backyard which is nothing short of sublime. And even if there’s no major logo to slap on his nose, can the powers that be just hand over that Chopes wildcard? Heck knows he’d kill it!