Layne Beachley begins each day wiht a visit to her happy place. Ideally she spends no less than an hour surfing her local break at Freshwater on Sydney’s northern beaches after the “briefcase bandits and schoolkids” have been and gone. Today she tweaks her morning routine to make time to meet in the Royal Botanic Garden on the othre side of Sydney Harbour.

With 12 surfboards in the garage and almost five decades of the daily ritual in her arms and legs, the seven-time world surfing champion is prepared for any and all conditions in the water. When the waves are not quiet to her liking, or on a rare occasion when she accepts she has too much else to do, Beachley still finds time to slip into the ocean.

“I prioritise surfing over most things,” Beachley says. “It’s my happy place. It’s where I decompress. it’s where I fill my own cup. And it helps me feel inspired and motivated, which then helps me inspire and motivate others.”

Beachley has had to learn to slow down – in and out of the water. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

“but I have an all-or-something approach to it. If I don’t have time to surf then I’ll take five minutes to run and jump in the water, immerse myself, ground myself and cleanse my mind.”

The gardens around the The calyx have started to bloom. That means more visitors to the inner-city green space, so Beachley picks out an empty path. She sets off like a woman on a mission, or probably just someone pressed for time, as we power downhill toward the water.

Beachley pauses close to a dozen times to pick up pieces of plastic and other litter along the way. “I’m always scouring the ground for it,” she says. “I have no problems with getting my hands dirty. If anything like plastic or pap

When considering which of her many sporting and personal successes, which include being appointed as an officer of the Order of Australia in 2015, now feels like her crowning achievement, Beachley splits her seven world titles into two buckets. The first and last are what she calls “love-based world titles”, when she was able to focus on the process. In between are five “fear-based world titles”, when any joy was sucked out by being “outcome-driven”.

“I literally only remember the world titles that I won based on the way I celebrated them,” beachley says. “So I don’t remember winning my second one. I didn’t even celebrate it. It was just a matter of … next.”

Beachley started surfing at the age of four. Along with her family, she became known in the Manly surfing scene. By 15 she was competing and winning against men as she developed a strength and style that would take her across the globe. But even as she set the highest of standards and broke records for world titles and riding the biggest waves, beachley was still searching for a sense of satisfaction.

“I got to my sixth title, my sixth consecutive one, and I realised that what I was going for was not the shiny thing,” she says. “It was not the trophies, it was not the world titles.It was self-worth,it was love. And that came from an old story, back when I was eight years old, and Dad said, ‘You’re adopted.'”

Beachley competes in 2006 in Maui,Hawaii. Photograph: Kirstin Scholtz/World Surf League/Getty Images

Beachley’s mother, Valerie, suffered a post-operative brain haemorrhage and died when Layne was six. Two years later her father, neil, revealed that she had been adopted when she was six weeks old. Her birth mother had been 17. Beachley would eventually seek out and meet her birth mother, who claims to have been date raped by her biological father, in California in 1999.

“I crafted a story around, ‘What’s going to make me worthy of love? OK, I’m going to have to become the best in the world.’

“I became the best in the world after my first world title. But I’m like, ‘I’m not

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Surfing prodigy Milla Brown: ‘It’s pretty Normal Now for Girls to Be Doing Big Airs’

Milla Brown is 16, and already rewriting the narrative of women’s surfing. She doesn’t just compete with the best; she’s pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, landing aerial maneuvers that were once the exclusive domain of male surfers. “It’s pretty normal now for girls to be doing big airs,” she says with a shrug, as if defying gravity is an everyday occurrence.

Brown’s nonchalance belies the years of dedication and the physical and mental fortitude required to reach this level. She began surfing at the age of five,growing up on the North Yorkshire coast,a far cry from the sun-drenched beaches typically associated with the sport.Her early training involved battling cold water, unpredictable waves, and a lack of local female role models.

“It was definitely challenging,” she admits. “There weren’t many girls surfing when I started, so I mostly surfed with the boys. I had to work harder to prove myself, to show them that I could keep up.”

Her mother, a former competitive swimmer, instilled in her a relentless work ethic and a belief in her own abilities. “She always told me that I could achieve anything I set my mind to,” Brown says. “She pushed me to be the best version of myself, both in and out of the water.”

Now, Brown is part of a new generation of female surfers who are challenging the status quo. She cites Carissa Moore, the five-time world champion, as a major inspiration. “Car