Aloha and Welcome to this LEGENDARY SURFERS chapter on the Great Women Surfers of The Wooden Era.
Originally written in the later part of the 1990's, this work was slightly edited in 2002 and part of the online collection for the following decade. After several years lapse, this chapter is once again posted for public viewing, reading and downloading.
Aloha,
Malcolm Gault-Williams
July 2019
Mary Ann Hawkins - photo by Doc Ball, 1939
Contents
Traditional Hawaiian Wave Sliders
Mamala
Chiefess Kaneamuna's Papa Holua & Papa Hee Nalu
Kamehameha’s Ka‘ahumanu
Princess Kaiulaini
Early 20th Century Waikiki Surf Riders
Josephine Pratt & Mildred Turner, Circa 1910
Dowsett Sisters & Leslie Lemon, Tandem Riders
Paddleboarders Newport, Hammond, Wehselau, Gillespie, Clark & Slaight, Circa 1915-30
Beatrice Newport, Cecily Cunha, Wehselau, Hammond, Gillespie, Frazier, Circa 1930
Australia’s Isabel Letham
Early California Women Surfers
Mary Ann Hawkins, March 7, 1919 – January 28, 1993
Post World War II Wave Warriors
Keanuinui Rochlen
Darrylin Zanuck Sparks A Flame
Aggie Bane Quigg
Vicki Flaxman
Claire Cassidy
The pre-Gidget Gidgets
Robin Grigg
Peter Lawford Group
Male Reception
Makaha Champions
Ethel Harrison Kukea
Marge Calhoun
Makaha Results, 1954-71
Kathy Kohner -- Gidget, the Girl Midget 27
During most of the Twentieth Century, males came to dominate the world of surfing almost to the exclusion of women altogether. In recent times, this has been changing. Even so, few realize that surfing’s roots lay in a much more egalitarian surfing lifestyle in the Polynesia and Hawaii of old. This included equal participation by not only males and females, but children as well. In fact, when one looks at the entire history of surfing that we know of and can surmise, most of that time was spent with, yes, an admittedly male dominant role, but certainly not without the ever presence of kids and women. In that sense, the increasing modern day influence on surfing by female surfers can be seen more as a return to past balance, rather than just a new development.
While our history rights its course, virtually lost to us is the memory of the many notable women surfers who rode the ocean’s waves up through the first half of the 1900's. Some of them, you will find here…
