It was certainly no way to treat a man at his own retirement party. Inside the chic gastropub surrounds of Kirra's Le Monde restaurant, Danny Wills was torn apart, thrown across the dance floor, had cigarette's jammed in his hands, had beer poured all over his face, and was snapped in half like a pretzel.
"They were only cardboard cut-outs!" clarifies Willsy. "But when I woke up at 3pm I was that fucked, I could have sworn that these things had actually happened to me."
The retirement shindig of one the most stylish surfers and respected gentlemen of his surfing generation was a regular 'this is your life' barn-burner: with man-sized photos dug up by mates Brooko and Warto, and wild speeches from his old man Mick and masochistic fitness brute Rob Rowland-Smith.
Says Willsy: "By the time I got up there to give my speech they'd already said everything, totally milked me."
"It was just an epic night and all these faces were there. I was so nervous before it, the only other time I'd been this nervous was my wedding day, I get a bit overwhelmed when I'm the centre of attention but I got there and had a few beers and everything felt amazing."
When he first walked in he was blown away by a blown up family photo of he and his dad and grandad, three generations of surfing Wills' from Byron Bay: "It was back in Shirley St, on my dad's lap when I was a kid and I had never even seen it before."
One of the highlights for rev-head Wills (who could forget his awesome beach driving in South Africa last year?) was when Australian motor sport icon Craig Lowndes turned up on video cut-away and congratulated Danny on his career.
"I'd been following him for so long and couldn't even believe he knew who I was, and then I was given the rear bumper of the car he won Bathurst on."
"I sort of missed a bit of the night because I was stoked to catch up with all these people that had come out to see me, but next thing I know people's girlfriends were throwing beer all over the place, (wife) Kirsty was trying to push Kelly on to the dancefloor and everyone was having a hell time."
Photos: By Joli
