Surfing: No Longer Just ‘the Men’s Club’

When Alisa Schwarzstein began surfing 12 years ago, she faced a lonely paddle through a sea of boys. Today, the 22-year-old, world-ranked pro from Laguna Beach says the tide has changed in Orange County.

“In the last three or four years, there’s been a big emergence of girls taking up the sport,” Schwarzstein said. “At Trestles (a popular surfing spot near San Onofre State Beach), I’ll see four or five girls where I used to be the only one.”

The frustration of being just a spectator seems a large part of what motivates women to breach what one female surfer called “the men’s club out there.”

“It’s boring sitting on the beach,” said Sher Pai, 24, who followed her boyfriend, Aaron, into the Huntington Beach surf three years ago. Since then, the two have surfed together, gotten married, had two children and built a life around their favorite sport.

Surfing, said Pai, “lets me be with Aaron a lot, while we’re doing what we love.”

But if boyfriends prompt some women to hit the waves, those who keep surfing often do so for themselves.

‘Workaday Surfer’

Caroline Zimmermann, 23, of South Laguna, describes herself as “workaday surfer” who has been at it five or six days a week for three years. “I got in late,” she explained, “and mainly because of my boyfriend.”

But Zimmermann, an art student at Cal State Fullerton, said she was immediately seduced by a personal sense of accomplishment she had never felt on land. “Surfing gives you the chance to test yourself--your courage, your stamina, your common sense--all while you’re feeling this holistic thrill of being in touch with the (elements),” she said.

Schwarzstein, America’s second-ranked and the world’s ninth-ranked woman pro surfer, sees the recent California “health boom” as a contributing factor to the growing interest in surfing. “Everyone’s looking for ways to stay in shape,” she said.

She also cited changes in professional surfing that have made the sport less intimidating to women. Previously, she said, “boards were big and heavy, and there was an emphasis on riding giant waves. Now even the pro circuit is more oriented to smaller waves because we go where the money and contests are.”

The growing visibility of women in such contests is another important influence on weekend surfers, according to Carolyn Adams, executive director of the National Scholastic Surfing Assn., which sponsors amateur competitions worldwide.

“A woman will watch a competition, an event like the OP Pro in Huntington Beach, and think, ‘Hey, those girls are out there doing that; I could too,’ ” Adams said.

It is a part of the overall change in attitude toward women’s abilities in recent years, too, said the 32-year-old Adams. “In my time, there was a more frivolous, beach bunny image. Those were the Gidget days. But today we know that a woman can do anything, and she’s just as serious about it as a man.”

Crowded, competitive conditions on local beaches require even weekend surfers to work hard at perfecting their skills. And for women, who may start out with much less upper body strength than their male peers, this often means an even greater commitment to practice, repetition and overcoming early failures.

“You’ve got to want it a lot, or it’s an exercise in futility,” Zimmermann said. She admitted that she, herself, surfed a year before “really having any fun.”

The rewards, however, according to pros, amateurs and weekenders alike, are undeniable.

Debbie Beacham, formerly the top-ranked woman on the world pro circuit (in 1982-83) and now in advertising and sales for Surfer magazine, described surfing as “fantastic, similar to meditation. For an adult, it’s got a healthy kid level of pure fun. Out in the water, you forget your cares on land.”

‘Significant Increase’

Beacham, 33, who has surfed for 20 years and seen “a significant increase” in the number of women surfing in the last five years, noted that men have become more supportive.

“The stigma’s gone, the feeling that girls don’t belong in the water,” she said. “Guys see that girls can go out and rip, and they’re supportive.”

Zimmermann, Pai and Schwarzstein agree.

“You don’t get harassed anymore,” Pai said, then added with a giggle, “if you’re good.”

On the professional level, however, no matter how good a woman is, she can still expect to earn a lot less money and command a lot less media and sponsor attention than her male counterparts.

“It’s still a very male-dominated sport,” Beacham conceded. “And women competitors don’t get the recognition they deserve.”

She cited the relatively small numbers of female pros compared to males, and the resulting lack of high-profile pro events for women competitors. Finally, there is the reluctance of sponsors, often surf clothing or equipment manufacturers, to put up prize money without “knowing it will help sell their women’s lines,” Beacham said.

Ranks Are Growing

As long ago as 1975, the desire to expand competitive opportunities for women surfers prompted Laguna Beach’s Mary Lou Drummy and four other women surfers to found the Women’s International Surfing Assn., an organization that now annually sponsors eight pro and amateur contests for women.

Meanwhile, the ranks of pro women surfers, while still small, are growing. Last year, 43 women competed in the Assn. of Surfing Professionals’ world tour, compared to 286 men. But that was 11 more than in the previous year. Meg Bernardo, the ASP representative in North America, predicted another “significant jump” this year.

Prize money for women is also edging upwards. From $3,000 in 1984, the minimum women’s purse for an ASP event has tripled to $9,000 this year. It may pale in comparison to the minimum of $33,000 for men’s competitions, but it is an improvement, Beacham said. “In fact, it’s big news in our little world,” she added.

Locally, the growing number of surfing women is having its own impact on the sport. Don Craig, promotional director for Irvine-based O’Neill Inc., which sells wet suits, surfing accessories and sportswear, feels that “having women out there keeps the guys toned down. They’re not so crude, the way they might be among themselves.”

Schwarzstein sees women helping to forge a new image for surfing as a family-style sport. “Girls who surf bring their kids along,” she said. “The kids surf too; it’s something families can do together.”

The Pai family is a case in point. Sher and Aaron (who owns the Huntington Surf & Sport Shop in Huntington Beach) are dreaming of the day when they will lug four boards to the beach instead of two.

In fact, their 18-month-old daughter, Lindsay, has already ridden on a board with her father, Sher Pai said with evident pride, holding their 8-week-old son, Trevor, as small wavelets lapped at her ankles.

“Eighteen months old, and already a surfer girl.”