Layne Beachley and Kirk Pengilly celebrate 10 years of marriage
Australian surfing champion Layne Beachley and rock star Kirk Pengilly reveal how the pandemic forced them to grow closer as they mark a decade of marriage.
Stellar
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Layne Beachley’s impressive resume and legacy speaks for itself.
The former world-champion surfer is Australian sporting royalty (tick), married to a rock star – Kirk Pengilly of INXS fame (tick) – and has worked as an ambassador for various charities, including the National Breast Cancer Foundation, UNICEF and Planet Ark (tick, tick, tick).
But Beachley admits she came undone this year – by a pair of fluffy slippers.
The offending slipper managed to do what a booming left-hander at Tahiti’s Teahupo’o could not. The heaving wave that crashed on the back of her neck left Beachley with a hole between the discs in her neck and three herniated discs. She reacted by paddling straight back out.
But, in a coronavirus climate of restrictions, the slipper wipeout has momentarily enforced a terra firma lockdown for the seven-time world champion, eight if you include her World Surfing League World Masters title in 2018.
“I still like to surf every day, but I am out of the water with a bit of a back injury at the moment. I fell down the stairs in my fluffy slippers with my computer in my hands – sober!” Beachley says with a laugh.
Thanks to the rogue slippers, Beachley has had to clock up a few more couch hours than she would have liked and as a result is already plotting to ignore doctor’s orders.
“I’ve been out of the water for three weeks and the doctor suggested maybe six, but I’m hosting a surf retreat soon. I may have to just paddle out and sit on my board.”
Not that she’ll be stopped by her chief cheerleader for the past 18 years: husband Kirk Pengilly, founding member of INXS and official household chef. This weekend, the pair celebrate 10 years of marriage and are marking the milestone with a getaway to the Blue Mountains in NSW.
Ordinarily, a trip overseas would have been on the cards, but the global crisis has changed travel and reoriented relationships with the outside world and each other. The couple had several overseas trips scheduled this year: Vietnam and Laos in March, followed by the Maldives, a few international speaking gigs and a trip to Japan for the Olympics.
Keeping diaries in sync has been a hallmark of a relationship that started, by their own admission, with a disastrous first blind date.
Big spurts of time together have been punctuated by extended periods apart and as opposites, they have learnt to compromise to the point where white-wine drinker Pengilly and red-wine drinker Beachley meet in the middle for a rosé.
Pengilly, 62, admits to Stellar that some of the change has been welcomed. “When it was truly lockdown, we were sitting down and eating at home all the time... and we’ve become more social with each other.
“But right now, I’m currently in the middle of booking restaurants for our anniversary weekend and I am about to throw the computer out the window! With COVID and the restrictions...I want the old world back.”
Beachley cheekily interjects: “Should we take a picnic basket and sit in the room? Kirk is the planner. He is mildly OCD, but he is also one of the most thoughtful, sensitive and supportive people I know.”
This month’s anniversary break is also a breather for Beachley, who recently launched the Awake Academy. In her own words, it is a no-bullsh*t, online self-empowerment platform offering a series of courses designed to guide participants to detach from fear, take control and live a life they love.
It is the result of the lessons Beachley has learnt over the years combined with high-performance mindset coaching and mentoring. If there is one thing a big-wave surfer should have in abundance, it is confidence.
But Beachley reveals that she has only recently conquered her fear of expectation – others’, that is, not her own.
“Earlier this year I realised I was on the hamster wheel,” Beachley says, “I was going down a very similar pathway of what I’d experienced during my world-title campaign, which was success at all costs. Throughout my career, I was the queen of self-sabotage.
“Working myself into the ground, compromising my relationships, my health and wellbeing. I was still doing good work and achieving fundamental results, but I was also compromising and sabotaging the life that I was striving for.”
Asked what kind of life that is, the former world-champion surfer explains, “What I’ve envisioned for myself is more time doing things that I love, stronger connection with my personal values and recognising if I’m compromising them. Also aligning myself with people who bring the best out in me and taking time to play more.”
Like her husband, Beachley can see the silver lining in what has been an extremely difficult and devastating year. “COVID has been a sh*t time for a lot of people but it’s been an absolute blessing for me – and allowed me to reset.
Before March we were all gung-ho and we never really considered stopping to reflect on the quality of our lives, the nature of our relationships, and the quality of our health and wellbeing.”
Layne Beachley’s Own Your Truth course is available now via awakeacademy.com.au.