What does it take to face down a surging, four-storey wall of water? An irresistible sense of ambition and a whole lot of courage. Welcome to the first instalment of the Ambition Project: a three-part series from Man of Many in collaboration with investing platform Stake, showcasing unique tales of ambition, drive, and the determination to push onwards. Our first subject is champion surfer and conqueror of giant waves, Laura Enever, who has carved her own path from the humble sands of Narrabeen to Hawaii’s gargantuan waters.
On January 22nd, 2023, Laura Enever’s tireless journey to become one of surfing’s true greats brought her face-to-face with a wave that would secure her place in the history books forever. As she paddled, Laura couldn’t possibly have been aware that each stroke brought her closer to a date with destiny. Nonetheless, it proved the summation of years spent in pursuit of her ambition. As the champion surfer from Sydney’s Northern Beaches propelled herself through the waters of Outer Reef at Oʻahu’s North Shore in Hawaii, she was met with an enormous arcing crest that towered an astonishing 43.6 feet (13.3 metres) above her.
Thundering down the wave on her board would prove a defining moment in Enever’s career, despite being oblivious to the remarkable scale of her achievement at the time. It was only later, when a photographer who happened to capture the moment informed her she may have set a new record (later confirmed by Guinness World Records), that the scale of what she had done came into focus.
Securing the title for the largest wave paddled into by a woman was a new pinnacle in a journey marked by highs and lows. It was a moment that would inspire Enever to invest in her ambition, helping to realise the full potential of what comes next.
The Girl From Narrabeen
When Enever started surfing at the age of nine, it awakened something inside her. As the daughter of a surf-loving father, she quickly became hooked, plunging into the foam with her brother before and after school every day and demonstrating a real gift as she navigated the waves.
“We just lived in the ocean after that,” Enever reveals from her house in Narrabeen. “All these beaches along the coast here on the Northern Beaches, they’re so nostalgic, and it’s essentially where I grew up, especially here at Narrabeen.”
Within a year, Enever would join the North Narrabeen Boardriders Club, where she was determined to hold her own against the boys: “I was one of the only girls in the club. I wasn’t super competitive when it came to wanting to beat someone, but I was always pushing myself to keep up. I feel like that sparked something inside me. I was like, ‘I can do what these guys can do.’”
A Champion in the Making
By the time she turned 12, Enever’s talent had been noted, and she was sponsored to attend a Hawaiian surf camp hosted by Lisa Andersen, the American winner of four successive surfing world titles. There, Enever joined a small group of young surfers whom Andersen took under her wing, inspiring the girl from Narrabeen to take her surfing to the next level.
“I left Hawaii thinking, ‘I just want to get as good as them, and I want to be a world champion.’” Enever explains. “That trip fuelled my ambition for sure. Just to be like, this is what I want to do.”
The next five years would prove a whirlwind for the young Aussie, and by the time she was 17, she had secured a place on the World Surf League’s Championship Tour. There, she would compete against her heroes in a new reality she describes as “surreal”.
Throughout her time on the Championship Tour, Enever encountered numerous dream-fulfilling moments, including one treasured memory in which a final saw her come up against her idol, Australian surfing legend Stephanie Gilmore.
“I got to my first final against Steph Gilmore on the Gold Coast here, and that was my second year on the tour,” Enever smiles. “They’re just pinch-me moments; being able to travel, rub shoulders with all my heroes, and get to do what I love as a job.”
The Spark Dims
However, riding this particular wave didn’t last forever. After five years on the tour, Enever’s drive started to fade. A handful of losing streaks resulted in a bout of performance anxiety and created something of a crisis for the young surfer.
As she explains, “You’re growing up, you’re trying to learn about yourself and grow as a human, while competing well and winning at the top level. And I think I started to lose my love for it, and I noticed that it was showing in my performances.”
Enever’s attempts to reconnect with the sport and find her form would have a more sizeable impact on her career than even she could have predicted. The motto of this new stage in her surfing journey could be best described as ‘go big or go home’, as she traded the still formidable waves of the Championship Tour for some out-and-out monsters.
“Outside of competing, I started to surf big waves,” she says. “A lot of competing can be in pretty sloppy waves, so I started going off on these solo surf missions in between comps. I came back to the Australian Open in 2015 after a big-wave trip at P-Pass in Micronesia, where I just got the best waves I’d had in years. Once I did that and realised the power of filling your cup and doing things with purpose and passion, I went into that next event and I won it. It was my first win in five years.”
Power, Purpose, Passion
In the wake of her victory, Enever realised that surfing enormous waves meant more to her than competing. With her love of surfing rekindled, she threw herself into this corner of the surfing world that existed on an entirely different scale. Furthermore, a film crew started capturing her journey and would go on to share it in the 2020 documentary Undone.
Enever’s fearlessness and determination caught the eye of the Big Wave World Tour, resulting in an invitation to join the first women’s Big Wave event in 2016 at the surf break ominously named Jaws. Sadly, the omens didn’t end with the location’s moniker, as Enever’s hopes for the event were dashed on her first ride.
“I completely blew my knee to pieces on my first wave there,” she says with a hint of resignation. “That was my first time surfing really big waves. There are big waves, and then there’s the Big Wave World Tour. It’s like double the size.”
Some of those close to Enever took this setback as a sign that the 168-centimetre-tall Australian was not cut out for surfing gigantic swells, but she refused to be discouraged. Despite a long recovery process, she threw herself back into the sport, surrounded by some of Australia’s finest big-wave surfers in an effort to learn as much as she possibly could. Triumphantly, she would return to the Big Wave Surf Tour the following year to dominate the wave that had injured her.
“Part of me felt empowered because I was doing what I wanted to do, and I was so ambitious,” she says. “And then a part of me was like, ‘You’re failing and things aren’t really working out.’ To stay resilient and push through that was probably what I’m most proud of. There’s obviously something in me that if I get knocked down, I just want to get back up and try again.”
Taming a Titan
Having stared down the behemoths of the Big Wave World Tour, Enever explains that her next goal was to paddle into the largest waves she could find. However, she didn’t expect to ultimately catch the largest wave.
“That was the best moment of my life,” Enever says of her record-breaking ride down the 43.6-foot Hawaiian titan. “I couldn’t believe I caught it. A few days later, I got a message from someone who’d photographed my wave and said, ‘I think this is the biggest wave ever paddled into by a woman.’ So, I submitted it to Guinness, and a few months later, they called me to say I’d broken the world record. It still sounds so weird,” she laughs.
The ride may have only lasted moments, but it was the culmination of a lifetime of ambition that started with local waves breaking upon the sand at Narrabeen.
Investing In Her Ambition
Despite having permanently etched her name in the annals of surfing, Enever is in no way looking to slow down. Her love of surfing remains as strong as ever, and she will continue to forge her own path, seeking out the largest waves the world has to offer. That said, the now 33-year-old’s ambitions are even broader still.
“My biggest goal is to inspire young girls,” she says. “If they can watch me push myself and go for it, get knocked down, get back up, and keep pushing, I hope that inspires them to give it a crack and know we’re capable and we’re enough. I just want little girls to know that they can do anything they put their mind to.”
As for her next milestone, Enever is excited to partner with Stake for the Ambition Project and capture her forthcoming return to the world of competitive big-wave surfing, a project that would make a worthy sequel to 2020’s Undone.
“My next project is to document my comeback and just show that journey and everything I’ve learned along the way,” she explains. “Then to get back out and get surfing again.“
Taking setbacks and injuries in her stride, Enever’s drive remains undiminished, thanks to her unwavering commitment to investing in her ambition and her determination to overcome. With support from Stake, Enever has many waves left to conquer. As she succinctly puts it, “Investing in your ambition is so important, and Stake’s Ambition Project is giving us the opportunity to do that and chase the next dream.”
Stake is looking to invest in your ambition as well. To find out more, simply click the Ambition Project link below, and you could kickstart your next step with $10,000 from Stake!
Credits:
Producer – Harry Parsons
Director / Videographer – Adrian Emerton
Photographer – Matt Dunbar
Gaffer – Julian Pertout
Executive Producer – Frank Arthur
Videographer/Photographer Assistant – Beatrix Boon
Talent – Laura Enever
Editorial/Interviewer – Rob Edwards
Hair and Make Up – Natalia Ladyko
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