Watch: Laurie Towner // Slow Lane
Everyone wants to do it, but not everyone can.
No, not launch carefree from a Tombies lip, but packing up the tribe for a lap of the land.
From the blurb:
"Slow Lane is a surf film that follows big wave surfer Laurie Towner and his family as they travel on a dream road trip exploring the vast Australian coastline in search of waves, good fishing and adventures.
"This film produced by needessentials and edited by Ishka Folkwell not only showcases Laurie Towner's surfing but also gives you an in-depth understanding of Laurie as a surfer and father. The film explores the concept of passing on knowledge to the next generation through shared experiences and good times spent together as a family.
"Cinematographer Nathan Henshaw's beautiful images capture the stunning landscape of the Australian continent and its wide variety of waves and wildlife as the family make their way from coast to coast. With an original soundtrack featuring Headland, Nick Bampton, Maanyung and additional music by Mick Turner and Musgrave Band, this film is a portrait of a young family on a simple adventure."
'Slow Lane' is produced by needessentials
Comments
fuck yeah. ducked home for lunch. came across and just watched the first 15 mins on computer at home. think this deserves plugging into the TV. Onya Laurie. Legit guy.
edit: dunno if its my computer but the surfing sections seem glitchy/not fluid?
The boy can surf, good clip Ishka's prints all over it well done boys.
Haven’t watched but as with earlier Gnaraloo discussion, I vote for a media blackout on these locations
sounds good to me!
Agreed. It doesn't need any more exposure.
Love the way these guys are happy to keep WA locations in the front of everyone’s mind, but they never show a clip from their own home towns. How about the Need crew start putting out videos of Lennox or Angourie each time it’s pumping instead contributing to the surf media saturation of the NW each winter
Maybe because they’re an East coast brand who do not give a fuck about WA beyond using it as adventure fodder for the wave-starved big spend demographics of Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong.
Their target market are the surfers who’s waves are mostly crowded shit and they consider the rest of the nation to be ripe for exploitation plunder.
Last 10 videos I've seen of the joint have been WA surfers or filmmakers? Meanwhile Kael Walsh runs the very first footage of a sacred east coast joint and crickets from cunts like you.
You do realise that we can both be talking truth yeah?
Haven’t seen Kael Walsh’s East Coast thing. If it’s old let it lie.
Cunts like me just get sick of seeing the the advertorials irrespective of how cruise they try to portray it. You’re selling wetsuits. It’s not art.
If they truly respected these places they’d keep their film for their own enjoyment instead of using it to sell wetsuits on the internet. Just more fake soul shite.
First 10 minutes was literally in his hometown.....
Realistically comparing pumping Lennox to that is like comparing go-karts to F1….
Love a quick spin in a Go-Kart.
The place is cooked. You can't literally squeeze another human into the camp grounds from May to August so it doesn't matter anymore.
Oh but he is. I heard recently from a very reliable source that Paul plans on extending the camp south.
They come and they go, Good work to those who stand up to those who sell what is free! Sell sell sell portray portray portray. Literally half the vid is wa n they drove probs more than 8000ks at least. I feel for those underground guys up there n those that go not to sell but recharge. Hope people are respecting those who don't sell every image n live to live not to portray bliss. Fuckers slave all year to go relax n be quite. There are lots of people that do but lots that don't nd it's sad.
Lovely chill music and i really like Lawries style for a big wave surfer as well as small wave surfer. But feel some of those waves are probably somebody's secret...i guess pretty hard to work out where they are though except fort the WA obvious spots.Bit slow paced for my liking though and feel there isnt a need for lawrie to film any more is there? He has a job.
Really looking forward to watching this, will wait until uninterrupted time and a big screen. I commented a while back on one of Torren's vids that if would be good to see Laurie surfing in this format. Here we are.... Stoked
It's easy to pick NSW South Coast surf spots. Laurie surfing is old school which is great. Has no trouble taking late drops. Tube stance is top notch and roundhouse cutbacks great. Not one bring air just fast smooth power surfing.
Thanks for the vid…good to see.
Great video
Only a few of the clips show the 30cm deep water at the end section at slaters. Very sketchy
Usually lots of people checking the place, not many surfing. He makes it look easy
Yeah Lampy i reckon he surfs it way better than Kelly did 30 or whatever years ago.
Yep agree!
Gnaraloo exposure?
Recon you are about 40 years plus too late.
Love Laurie's surfing, and what an adventure. The whole family will treasure that for ages.
Is there a slightly preachy, holier than though edge to much of what Need/Patagonia do? The cynic in me thinks so.
Well done to Laurie. He’s grafted his own path. From being literally one of the best big wave surfers on the planet, to having no backing, I think it’s fantastic that at his age a company wants to support him and his family to do stuff like this.
There’d barely be a family man/woman amongst us who wouldn’t watch that with a touch of the green eyes.
My goodness he can surf, can learn a lot by watching him.
All the grumps, has-beens and cynics need to get the F#*k over themselves. If you didn’t know or haven’t been you wouldn’t know where most of those spots are. NW excepted of course, place has been a zoo since Jesus was at school.
Most of the waves are mental slabs that 99% of the eyes watching this aren’t taking on. They are in extremely remote regions that will self regulate in any event.
As previously commented the first portion of the film is ALL north coast.
I think he does it tastefully, never shows landmarks and probably holds back a fair bit. Compare this to your Koa Rothman / Nick Von Rupp’s of the world.
Seems like a good bloke but that vid was WAY too slow for me.
And when I mean slow, I mean slow-mo of the same tube wave after wave shot from the water.
Highlight was that late drop over in WA.
Can't believe Billabong dropped this guy! One of the best surfers on the planet!
Loved the film
The water cameraman looked to be putting his life on the line. I find them off-putting when you go to take off and they're right in your firing line.
Fantastic film
Thankyou
Really enjoyed the film. Suspect a bit of trickery in the filming tho as I was in the region at the same time and it was packed to the gills due to covid
It must be hard having no sponsors.
Especially hard for Loz having to get paid to travel around oz and get paid to film it …ha
Need essentials the most corporate non corporate good fit for Loz the most sponsored unsponsored surfer in history ha
Great surfing and visuals, but like the Torren Martyn vids, it would be better if they cut 90 or even 100% of the voice-over.
"Australia is a large continent that's completely surrounded by ocean."
That doesn't add anything to the film. Neither does telling us you're travelling around Australia with your family surfing and fishing. We can see that. Just let it unfold with the pictures and music. They're plenty good enough. We'll follow.
A hardcore family holiday (with my cameraman of course)more east coast rape and pillage of others coastlines for 5 minutes of attention and relevance
Seems like a nice guy....
I think those outraged by this film's rape and pillage of "other's" coastlines can be comforted that at least one surfer, (me) has less intention of riding dems gnarly breaks than I had before viewing. Seemed to me the film encouraged thoughtful and respectful travel? LT was paddling out with zero other surfers; when not camping he and his family were put up by friends who were stoked to see them, there was no fly-in-on-the-swell-get-the-shot-and-get-the-hell-outta-there vibe I could tell. Funny I can remember, back as a blow-in kook to LT's neck of the woods 15 years ago, him giving me the nod on waves he could easily have had himself. Could be wrong but I reckon Laurie could give two shits about being relevant.
*couldn't.
Always thought the expression employed the positive 'could' in an ironic way? ... like “I could care less” etc
the ironic “I could care less” is the American version.
I'm not convinced that the way they use it is ironic, so much as a misunderstanding of what the saying means.
I hate to be that jerk, it's the only one that really irks me as it's so murican haha.
Not sure Seppos understand irony.
I think you're right, it's probs a linguistic foible, because Irony is something seppos – as a rule – often find hard to understand.
Really enjoyed that, great film around a beautiful country. Laurie knows how to read a wave. A lot of negativity on here about a pretty positive trip. Can sound like the old rhetoric you hear from some old grumps in lineups all over the country that are really trying to say "can everyone else leave so I can get more waves" Unfortunately they never seem to be having much fun themselves. Most surfers including me won't be out at breaks like that and if we where we wouldn't be near the peak taking sets. I'm happy to watch. Loved the film. Let's put our happy teeth in. Have a great day!
Farquar
Give me the need videos just with music and no narration.
I was surfing Angourie last week and Lawrie was out. I saw him shred a wave then swap boards for the little Alaia and shredded a few more. Seemed to me his skill level is quite phenomenal....then I came home to find the clip on SN. Not having a sponsor I believe he's manifested for himself and fam quite beautifully.
Quality content, top class surfing, beautiful soundtrack, gave me a bit of envy of the life he leads. Best I can say is I also moved my kids coastal in last 2 years to raise them by the beach. Won’t necessarily live the life he does, but it’ll be better than the burbs of Melbourne.
Also enjoyed the lack of jet ski drop in’s… ;)
and 10pts for no signs of a stupid ugly gob camera