Woman on Waves: A History of Women in Surfing

The event was curated by a team of collectors, writers, editors, and the museum staff to create a chronological evolution of women and their personal adventures, that would lead the surfing community to experience a flux of feminine presence all throughout the history of an otherwise male-dominated realm of sport.

“I see big things for this exhibit. I see empowerment in a lot of ways, just by girls seeing other girls doing rad things,” said the California Surf Museum operation’s manager and curator Julie Cox. “I see more people being exposed to the fact that women can surf and that it is celebrated. And people being stoked on the photos and the stories.”

Putting together the exhibit was a process that involved many people from the community. Materials poured in, old stories emerged and it was up to the museum staff to figure out what –went- where and how they were going to fit it all in.

“The process was basically each of us coming up with what we thought should be included in the exhibit,” Cox said. “There was a lot of brainstorming and talking about who should be included and how much space they should get and what were the most important things to show. We also wanted to keep the visitors interested. We wanted to educate and have fun with it as well.”

Putting together the exhibit was only part of the work. A lot of materials were submitted to the museum on loan. All of the stuff on loan had to be tracked and logged.

“We keep track of all the stuff that is on loan,” Cox said. “We have temporary sessions like old Gidget books and posters. All these collectors have certain things that we borrow and we have to write it all down and have them sign.”

Miniature replicas were hand cut and pasted on mock story-boards for a visualization of the final exhibit. The timeline starts with ancient Hawaiian times when the sport of surfing belonged to the king and queens.

“So we go from pre Christian conquest to the resurgence when Duke went to Australia and taught Isabel Lethem to surf,” Cox said. “That was Australia’s first surfer, a woman, she was like 15 and that was in 1914. We will start from the first drawings of women that we can find up to Isabel Lethem to Mary Anne Hawkins who was surfing big waves in the 40’s and 50’s. We will talk about these really strong women and characters.”

Throughout time there were different stages that marked a unique impression in the culture of surfing.

“We are doing a time-line but also doing it with groups of people, Cox said. “We are going to talk about the culture like how Gidget was a big influence,” said Cox. “We’re going to talk about the Hollywood influence and the real Gidget and how pop culture changed surfing.”

Once the exhibit was all put together, the museum held a ribbon cutting celebrating the completion of the project. The characters from the story boards came to life with faces in the room such as Linda Benson, Marge Calhoon, Jerico Poppler, Debbie Beacham, Eve Fletcher and Jen Smith were among them. The women gathered around the ribbon of flowers that stretched across the entrance way to the exhibit. The crowd filed in after the ribbon was cut. Some of the women began reminiscing of old times and the story telling and laughter filled the room as visitors enjoyed the display.

“The most fun part for me too has been the reaching out to people,” said Cox. “Reaching out to my mentors and letting them know that we are doing this. I like putting things together and networking. The rewarding thing has been bringing people together and I think that will continue through the exhibit. It will be cool to teach the younger generation where we came from.”

Please visit www.surfmuseum.org for more information.