For two decades, Laurie Towner has been working closely with Dylan Longbottom. The shaper-surfer relationship is always an important one, and having a shaper that not only shapes extraordinarily well but surfs extraordinarily well is a real blessing. Towner and Longbottom aren’t just work buddies, either, so when the opportunity arose to chase a few waves together, Towner sprung at it.
“Dylan Longbottom has been shaping my boards for over 20 years and is one of my closest mates,” Towner wrote. “He’d just finished a new quiver of big-wave boards for the winter swells in Fiji, and I was waiting for the right South Coast window to catch up and share some waves with him.”
Longbottom, like any good lifelong surfer, always has an eye on the forecast, so when he saw something big on the radar, he got in Towner’s ear about it right away.
“When a powerful South Coast low formed, almost cyclonic if it were further north, Dyl called, knowing there’d be waves to test the new boards as the system tracked out to sea,” Towner continued. “I jumped in my car and drove overnight and as predicted, it was wild when I arrived and in the 20-foot range with a crazy devil wind up the face.”
Longbottom is one of those surfers who seems to have boundless amounts of energy. When the waves are good, he’s not wasting any time, and that’s something Towner knows well.
“Hanging and surfing with Dyl when there is swell you know there won’t be any down time,” Towner explained. “Up in the dark every morning and going all day. His energy levels are like no one I know. It’s really good to be around that kind of energy when there is a swell because you know you’re going to make the most of whatever is in front of you.”
Those Fiji boards needed a good test drive, and this particular swell definitely was the track for it. And Towner and Longbottom surely did make the most of whatever was in front of them.
“We tested the Fiji boards on a big, open-ocean left-hand bombie, and I took some of the largest waves I’ve ever had land on my head in Australian waters,” Towner wrote. “As the swell eased, we headed north and scored clean tubes near Dyl’s shaping bay. I was stoked to finally get to surf these waves which i have had on my bucket list.”
What you see here are a few images from those sessions, courtesy of Towner, Longbottom, and Need Essentials.
