SURF COUNTY, USA : THE LONG RIDERS : Some change from business suits into wet suits. Others practically live in the water. All find exceptional challenges and rewards in their search for the perfect wave.

JOYCE HOFFMAN

EX-WORLD CHAMPION, 43

Mention the name Joyce Hoffman to today’s surf grommets, and they’ll shake their heads and ask, “Who is she?”

She is considered the best female surfer ever. In the 1960s, Hoffman’s deftness on a surfboard was magical. She was aggressive, yet graceful. Very few women at the time, or since then, have been able to match her style or string of victories.

Hoffman, the mother of a 14-year-old daughter and a successful real estate saleswoman in Mission Viejo, grew up under the influence of her father, Walter Hoffman, and uncle, Phillip (Flippy) Hoffman, who were both big-wave riders in the 1950s. She was a four-time world champion.

She probably would still be winning contests if she had not convinced herself it was time to move on.

“I kind of reached the point where there were no challenges left. I had won the U.S. championships 6 or 7 times and the world championships in Hawaii. There were no more hills to climb, so to speak,” she said.

Although she doesn’t surf as much any more, she does manage to get in the water “a coupla” times a week. But she recently returned to surfing after a 10-year hiatus, and in the last two years has competed in several longoard contests and placed high.

“It’s only longboard contests. I don’t ride short boards,” she said. “I tried one once, and they’re too short for me and I don’t like doing something that I’m not good at.”

Hoffman said she can recall paddling out at Huntington Beach near the pier with no crowds, dodging the Marines at Trestles, and going out at Dana Point before the harbor was built.

“But surfing is a million miles away from where it was. Nowadays, you can also pull up to the beach at Huntington and it’s, you know, like around five million people.

“Yet there are still places . . . where you can paddle out at some little beach break at the crack of dawn and be by yourself, and it’s like years ago. Beautiful.”