Washed Podcast - Episode 11 Liam O'Brien

Growing up, you're from the Gold Coast, pretty competitive place and a lot of insanely talented surfers.

Does growing up around so many help you or does it mess with your perception of how good you actually are?

I think when you're younger, it's pretty gnarly.

You think it's the end of the world if you're not going to make a heat in the GromCon for whatever.

But I think overall, it's a good thing.

You definitely see where the level's at and it pushes you.

it's probably less important now because you see everything anyway online but when i was younger it was just pretty cool to see all the best dudes regularly you know like guys like yourself and and cruisy and stuff were like the next sort of gen above me so i was like in proximity to watching all your guys surfing and seeing where the level was at and seeing what you you know what what all you guys were doing.

So it was like a pretty clear pathway for me to follow, which was really cool.

And then obviously beyond you guys, it was like Mick, Joel, Dingo.

I mean, for me, it was like Botsy at Burley.

Having all those, all you guys to look up to as role models was pretty cool.

I think it would definitely be more difficult if you weren't, if you know, if you're somewhere where there wasn't as much of an industry and as much of a competitive scene but yeah there definitely were times too where you know you had there's so many good crew around that you doubted i doubted myself a lot it's just like i don't i don't know if i can make it like this is just one town in the whole world and there's already like so many other guys better than me um i don't know i think it in the end it probably bred just a good balance of being able to compete and also being able to look up to people and know where the level was at and see the pathway.

It was like a tangible dream.

It wasn't like I was living in the middle of nowhere going, well, pro surfing would be cool, but I've got no idea what you do or what the level is.

It was all right there, so it was pretty accessible and it's pretty cool to be able to look up to all you dudes.

Sick, man.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

That's really cool.

Good answer, man.

And I was thinking because you grew up at Burley, which is like, it's real, like we lived really close to each other.

But Burley always felt like to me, like a little bit more heavily localized.

Was there ever a local guy who humbled you when you were young? Or was it everyone just kind of keeping you like, or like, was it collective? Because I always, when every time I came to Burley, I was like minding my P's and Q's because I know like people would snap on you a little bit harder, a little bit harder.

Yeah, it was a little bit more aggressive in the water when I was younger.

I mean, everyone was pretty cool.

It was more just like people would keep you honest, keep you in check.