By Abbey Cannan
During the Noosa Festival of Surfing, the eldest daughter of a multiple-time surfing world champion, Naomi Young has launched a wetsuit to prevent other surfer’s from ageing like her dad’s ’crocodile hands’.
She was born to the beach but has travelled the world as a first class international air-hostess, experiencing the value systems of many cultures, seeing first hand the true human cost of consumerism and capitalism.
Naomi’s ethical brand, YoungSurf is the culmination of research and design and years of thought.
“Our aim in our whole brand is to save human skin from melanoma and sun cancer, and fight the signs of ageing on the skin,“ she said.
“My best friend just had a melanoma cut out of the top of her wrist. My father’s a 1966 Australian multiple-time world champion, Nat Young.
“How I created the wetsuits was I looked at my dad’s hands a couple of years ago and I said ’I love you Dad, but you’ve got crocodile hands’. They are sun-damaged.
“The inspiration came from looking at our skin as surfers. I’m a surf coach so I’m always out there standing in this hot sun. I used to bite a hole in my wetsuit for my hands and when I tried to buy a wetsuit like it, there was none on the market. So I thought, I’m going to have to make it myself.“
The recently launched Terra Australis Spring Wetsuit design is centred around withstanding the impact of the elements on the wearer, fighting the signs of ageing by protecting many of the most vulnerable areas.
“The wetsuits are made in Burleigh Heads. I really want to keep them all Australian-made,“ Naomi said.
“They’re going to be dropped three times a year with different patterns from around the world. There is nothing like it in the market in this fabric. We’re doing it out of recycled bottles and plastic. The wetsuits are for everybody. It’s non-binary.“
Managing to find time out from launching her new design, Naomi has been having fun at the 2023 Noosa Festival of Surfing.
“I entered last minute into the over 50s Womens and I was lucky enough to be gifted a surfboard for that heat by surfboard shaper Maurice Cole,“ she said.
“I came second in my heat, so now I’m surfing in the final on Sunday 12 March.
“I’m a professional surf coach and I surf daily, but I’m not normally a competitive surfer, so it was a bit of a shock to the system.“
Naomi said International Women’s Day on 8 March was a time to celebrate inclusiveness.
“We are celebrating the rise of women’s surfing,“ she said.
“I grew up surfing with Layne Beachley. I competed with her for my whole scholastic surfing title. She always came first and I always came third or fourth, but we were always out there against the men together.
“Surfing to me is like ballet in the ocean. I just love watching female surfing. I just love embracing femininity, poise, style and grace. I just love everything that women are doing in surfing. It’s so progressive. We’ve got female surfboard shapers, designers. There’s so much growth.“
The girls just want to have fun, and that’s exactly what the YoungSurf team did at the Noosa Festival of Surfing.
“We came last in our team’s event but it’s not about where you come, it’s all about having fun,“ Naomi said.
“We were laughing because it was so windy and the boards were flying around. Obviously Noosa is too hot really to be wearing a wetsuit at the moment but I was so honoured that the girls showcased them and surfed beautifully.“
For more information on the Terra Australis Spring Wetsuit visit youngsurf.com
