SurferGirl
catches big wave
Support surges
By Greg Ambrose
around a new magazine
for female surfers
Special to the Star-BulletinAfter nine months of intense and sometimes painful labor, a new magazine has been born. SurferGirl has landed in Hawaii's surf shops with a fresh new voice for the next generation of wahine surfers.
These are good times to be a female wave rider. Not since Polynesian kings, queens and commoners shared the waves have wahine played such a large part in the sport of surfing.
Girls who used to scamper across the soccer fields have traded their cleats for surfboards, and the surf industry has responded. Unthinkable less than a decade ago, women have their own surf magazines, and are the stars of surf videos.
Women have attracted new sponsors and more prize money for an expanded world professional tour, and a Triple Crown of Surfing title in Hawaii each winter to match what the men have enjoyed for decades.
In a reversal of the usual scenario, SurferGirl began as a website in December, 1996. Creators Jennifer Ramsay and Pat Villyard realized they had met a need when surfers began dropping in on http://www.surfergrrl.com more than 1 million times a month.
When the pair informed the web surfers that they intended to create a print magazine, subscription orders began to pour in, some from as far inland as Dubuque, Iowa, for a magazine that didn't even exist.
Then the major players in the surf industry enthusiastically bought ads for the inaugural issue and beyond, convincing Ramsay and Villyard that SurferGirl was destined to satisfy a gnawing hunger for validation among women wave riders.
Cara Hemperly can watch people surfing Rocky Point from her North Shore home. But the 18-year-old Kahuku High graduate has to strain her eyes to find inspirational photos of wahine surfers in the male-dominated surf magazines.
Hemperly is exactly the type of mermaid the editors created SurferGirl for, to provide role models her age and inspire her with action surfing shots of a variety of girls, not just the occasional pro.
"A lot of people will be interested in this magazine," says Hemperly.
During nearly four years of surfing, Hemperly has learned that she loves to compete, in Hawaii and on the mainland. "We had a contest at Ala Moana Bowls and we were just laughing, four girls out in the water and catching waves.
"It's a good time to be a surfer, whether you're a girl or a guy. It's a positive thing to have in your life."
Hemperly progressed rapidly enough to attract industry giant Rusty, which gives her surfboards and beach wear and uses her as a model.
"There are a lot of opportunities for girls right now," she says. "It has become a lot more accepted to have women in the water." Especially confident women. While surfing Rocky Point with friend Mark Healey last month, the pair interrupted their session to rescue a father and daughter from the East Coast calling for help as a current pulled them out to sea.
"It's because of her training with the junior lifeguard program," says her mother, Ilona. "To them it wasn't a real big deal, they just did what they are trained to do."
SurferGirl lives above a car wash in the coastal hamlet of Half Moon Bay, 40 miles south of San Francisco and light years away from the Southern California epicenter of surf publishing.
A tiny three-room office, crammed with Macintosh computer equipment, has page layouts taped to the walls and an ocean view. A crew of six scurries from room to room, pausing often to dispel deadline stress with jokes and laughter.
Worries that they might not have enough material to fill a magazine every other month were quickly wiped out by a tsunami of stories and photos.
SurferGirl has attracted correspondents in South Africa, South America and Australia, and has arranged to have women contribute stories while competing on world bodyboarding and surfing tours. In Hawaii, Lucy Wright and Henry Lee handle SurferGirl operations.
"It's like a large, extended family," says Villyard, 36. "Everyone wants to participate." The magazine will cover the entire surfing world, but Villyard recognizes the heart of that world. "Hawaii is crucial to us."
The first issue, 25,000 copies strong and 76 pages long, is mostly devoted to the aloha state. Rochelle Ballard, Hawaii's top professional surfer, graces the cover. Inside is a tribute to Makaha's Rell Sunn, a feature on young Waianae surfer Kristen Quizon, a profile on apparent world champion and part-time Hawaii resident Layne Beachley, and a reprise of the North Shore winter season.
"We take Hawaii seriously," Villyard says. "We're going to cover the amateur, and local and world professional contests there, and help sponsor contests."
Ramsay, 23, is an archetypical surfer girl, raised on an island (Long Island), with a brother and a boyfriend who surfed. She was a lifeguard who viewed wave riding as a male domain.
Her attitude changed nearly three years ago when Ramsay moved to Santa Cruz, where a person can scarcely check the surf without seeing dozens of wahine riding the waves.
"I was sitting on the beach watching girls having fun in the waves and I just had to get out there." Now a totally stoked surfer, Ramsay is frustrated by the irony that working on a magazine to encourage more women to get into the waves has cheated her out of a lot of good surf days.
"I just hope that by the magazine's fifth anniversary, we have helped inspire girls to surf because of the role models they have seen in SurferGirl."
To subscribe:
What: SurferGirl, the new magazine for young wahine wave riders
