Surfer Profile

words sally o’neill photos warren reed

The dynamic Dannielle Baylis is all about timing: she lives her life as if she’s sitting out the back waiting for that perfect set to roll through. So far, it’s been a dream ride …

“It’s about time you guys started interviewing chicks for your surfer profiles!” begins Dannielle, die-hard surfer, musician and mother-of-three, as she talks to me from her San Remo home. This chick has well and truly earned her place in the local surfing scene. Few could claim surviving paddling out at legendary breaks like Twelve Foot Bombie on a huge swell, or Express Point at eight foot: Danielle can. Dragged out somewhat reluctantly by her partner Jon, she was absolutely terrified and convinced that if she didn’t get smashed by a wave, she would surely be eaten by a shark.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, as they say, and these experiences are now filed away as some of her most memorable moments.

Surfing waited patiently for Dannielle. Living on the south coast of New South Wales, horses were her first love. “My mum and aunty rode horses and thought I had potential,” she recalls. But the self-proclaimed tomboy couldn’t resist tagging along with her dad and brother on one of their regular surfing trips. The skinny 12-year-old determinedly demanded to be left alone as she tackled the shorebreak at Caves Beach near Jervis Bay on her dad’s old seven-foot Parkinson. It was harder than she thought, and more than her ego was bruised.

A boogie-board and flippers made it easier to follow her older brother out the back. “I wasn’t scared of the big waves,” she volunteers. Within months she was competing with the local Christian Boardriders Club. “It was the only club in the area and all the local kids were members. The leaders were encouraging and nurturing and drove us to Ulladulla and north to Manly for comps.”

At fifteen, Dannielle figured she would try surfing again. Her aunty bought her a second-hand five-foot-eight ‘Shark Island’ board. “I remember my very first wave. My brother was watching me from the beach, yelling: ‘Paddle, stand up, go sideways!’ and I was screaming, ‘I’m doing it!’” A natural, she began competing after six months. Considered a little nerdy at school, she was suddenly popular with the cool >