74 SurfGirl Magazine
T
railblazers, icons and water-dancers – these
women are the champions of their sport who
never gave up their dreams to be the best. So
many individuals have influenced the history
of women’s professional surfing. And now, with more
women in the line-up than ever before, it’s important that
we honour those who paddled against the current to catch
the ultimate ride.Early days (1977-1982)
In 1977, a year after the men’s first international
professional circuit was launched, women were given a
tour of their own. The International Professional Surfers,
or IPS as it was known, loosely organised nine women’s
events, crowning a champion at the end of the year based
on a ratings system. Hawaii’s Margo Oberg won the first
world championship in 1968, and was the first woman
to collect prize money at the Santa Cruz Pro-Am. She
went on to win three of the six world title crowns between
1977 and 1982, before the beginning of the ASP era in- Her rivalry with fellow Hawaiian, and two-time IPS
champion Lynne Boyer, saw both surfers share the spoils
during those early years, each winning nine contests.
Trailblazers (1983-1993)
With the formation of the ASP in the early 80s, women’s
surfing continued to fight for recognition and reward.
Minimal sponsorship and prize money, competing in
terrible conditions, and a disinterested surf media did not
deter these pro-surfers, and their success was born out
of resolution and determination. Pam Burridge, Wendy
Botha, Freida Zamba, Pauline Menczer and Jodie Cooper
are just a few of that names who battled it out on the
circuit, pushing each other to new heights of skill and
performance, and setting records of which some still stand
today.History Makers (1994-2006)
The mid-nineties saw a new breed of surfers force their
way into the limelight. Fed up of the sexualisation of
their sport and the profile of women’s surfing dominatedby appearance rather than skill, Layne Beachley, Lisa
Andersen, Keala Kennelly, Rochelle Ballard and Melanie
Redman-Carr took the image head-on, letting their
surfing do the talking as they charged big waves with as
much energy and aggression as their male counterparts.
Swapping bikinis for rashies and boardies, these women
were not afraid to hit the lip, get barrelled, and spray
anyone in their path with power turns and vertical carves.
They were surfing demanding waves like J-Bay, Teahupo’o,
and Sunset, and weren’t afraid of the challenge. These
surfers were here to win, and in doing so thrust their
competitive rivalries into the public domain for the first time.
They weren’t just shredding waves, but each other, and the
mainstream media had never seen anything like this before
in women’s sport.
Lisa Andersen became the first woman to win four
straight world titles, matching fellow Floridian Kelly Slater
every year between 1994-97. At the age of 16 she decided
her surfing future was in California, buying a one-way ticket
to Los Angeles and leaving only a note saying she had
‘gone surfing’. Anderson became much more than just
a champion in the water, starting the transition between
sport and celebrity when she became the face of the newly
launched Roxy in 1996. The same year, the front cover of
Surfer magazine boldly proclaimed ‘Lisa Andersen surfs
better than you’. The previous season she had surfed the
final in nine of the 13 contests that year, winning three,
while in 1997 she became the fifth surfer in pro-history to
win five events in a single season. Her six titles overall in
France are a WSL record, and Andersen’s 21 overall are
the fourth most in pro-surfing history.
Layne Beachley rewrote the history books of women’s
competitive surfing, dominating the sport like no other
athlete had done before. Her seven world titles were won
the space of nine years (it took Steph Gilmore 11 years to
equal her), including six consecutive crowns between 1998
and 2003 – something no other surfer, men’s or women’s,
has ever achieved. Beachley took almost every record in
women’s surfing and broke it, winning a then-record 27
World Tour events, while her 315 career heat wins and six
contest titles in Hawaii still stand.Swapping bikinis for rashies and
boardies, these women were not afraid
to hit the lip, get barrelled, and spray
anyone in their path with power turns
and vertical carves