Great Women Surfers of the Wooden Era

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 1990s, 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

Contents

Traditional Hawaiian Wave Sliders

Mamala

Chiefess Kaneamuna's Papa Holua & Papa Hee Nalu

Kamehameha’s Ka‘ahumanu

Princess Kaiulaini

Early 20^th 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…

Traditional Hawaiian Wave Sliders

He`e nalu (Hay-ay na-loo) -- board surfing in ancient Polynesia and especially Hawai‘i was stratified in the sense that the nobility had special board reserved only for their use and had rights to certain breaks common people did not. Aside from this separation, however, surfing was enjoyed by everyone; men, women and little ones.

"The local Polynesians," wrote Desmond Muirhead, in the 1962 publication Surfing In Hawaii, "were a pleasure-loving people... Men, women and children, chiefs and commoners alike spent much of their time in the water... Nearly every Hawaiian, rich or poor, young or old, owned a surf board, which was often used for travel as well as for pleasure. Surf meets and water festivals were common, and there was widespread wagering on their outcome, for the Hawaiians alone among the people of Polynesia were great gamblers. During a surfing match, in a rash moment, a man would sometimes bet his entire worldly possessions and, if he lost... he might bet his 'body or his bones and thus chance losing his life or his liberty.' This was a wholly appropriate gesture for a vigorous sport like surfing, which left little room for the weak or faint-hearted.” ¹

              "Surfing beaches also provided a meeting place for the different sexes. The Hawaiians were ever renowned for their lack of inhibitions, and sexual freedom was taken for granted. In the early days relations between the sexes had no serious consequences, and it was not until the white man brought his dreaded diseases to the Islands that difficulties arose. Children were never a problem -- all Hawaiians loved children extravagantly, and there was no such word as orphan in the Hawaiian language. It was not conceivable that an Hawaiian child should be without a home."²

              In 1823, the missionary C. S. Stewart observed that on Maui the surfboard was "an article of personal property among all the chiefs, male and female, and among many of the common people."³ Noted scholar Kenneth Emory confirmed the care that was taken towards board maintenance. "After use, those who cared for their boards dried them thoroughly, then oiled them, wrapped them in cloth, and suspended them in the house."⁴

All classes, ages, and both sexes enjoyed surfriding in pre-European Hawai`i. Although early European accounts do not mention who surfed the most, eye-witness descriptions usually refer to adult men and women, with occasional reference to children riding smaller boards closer to shore. Except on those beaches where the most dangerous swells peaked, men and women shared surfing areas equally.

              Historians Finney and Houston documented that, "a large percentage of wahines of early Hawaii were skillful surfers, and sometimes champions. Early engravings of the sport are full of half-dressed island girls perched on surfboards at the top of a curling wave."⁵

Thomas Thrum published an article in 1896 entitled: "Hawaiian Surf Riding.” In it, he wrote, "Native legends abound with the exploits of those who attained distinction among their fellows by their skill and daring in this sport, indulged in alike by both sexes; and frequently too -- as in these days of intellectual development -- the gentler sex carried off the highest honors."⁶

              "This equality and sexual freedom," wrote Finney and Houston, "added zest to the sport and was important to its widespread popularity. No doubt many an amorous Hawaiian, who didn't feel at all like surfing that day, found himself paddling for the breaker line in pursuit of his lady love, knowing full well that if a man and woman happened to ride the same wave together, custom allowed certain intimacies when they returned to the beach. More formal courtship was also carried out in the surf, when a man or woman tried to woo and win a mate by performing on the waves."⁷

              Surfing as courtship is corroborated in a story that appeared in one of Honolulu's first Hawaiian language newspapers. In the December 23rd 1865 issue of Nupepa Kuokoa, in an article about "Ka Holomana Kahiko" (Ancient Sports of Hawaii), J. Waimau recalled that at surfing contests held in older times, the men, looking like "a company of soldiers of that day," would wear red-dyed malo (loincloths) and assemble on the beach. Women would make their way to the beach in matching red-dyed kapa skirts. Then, "they (would) go and join together with the men in surfriding. In their surfing, a man and a woman will ride in on the same surf. Such riding in of the man and woman on the same surf is termed vanity, and results in sexual indulgence."⁸

              The newspaper was probably edited by missionaries.

              "Hawaiian legends abound in tales of thwarted and successful love affairs," wrote Ben Finney, "and surfing played a part in many of them. Great romances could blossom or fade with the rising and falling of ocean swells. Passionate adventures of champion surfers, and some of the famous courtships that began on the edge of the ocean were recorded in Hawaii's abundant oral history. They indicate surfing's significance in the unwritten literature of the Hawaiian people."⁹

Mamala

The surf rises at Koolau,

Blowing the waves into mist,

Into little drops,

Spray falling along the inner harbor.

There is my dear husband Ouha,

There is the shaking sea, the running sea of Kou,

The crablike, moving sea of Kou.

Prepare the awa to drink, the crab to eat.

The small konane board is at Hono-kau-pu,

My friend on the highest point of the surf.

There is a good surf for us.

My love has gone away.

Smooth is the floor of Kou,

Fine is the breeze from the mountains...¹⁰

              Ke-kai-o-Mamala (the Sea of Mamala), the ocean west of Waikiki off the coast of Honolulu, was named after one of Hawaii’s earliest known legendary woman surfers -- Mamala.

              Mamala rode at a time when Hawaiian history was kept orally, only, so it is virtually impossible to separate the facts from the myths. Both are included here.

              The harbor area of Hono-lulu was once known as Kou.¹¹ Kou hosted a number of primo surf spots, including ‘Ula-kua (black red), Ke-kai-o-Mamala (the sea of Mamala), and Awa-lua (double harbor).¹²

Look at an island map of O‘ahu and you can still see Ke-kai-o-Mamala, the Sea of Mamala still marked. The surf spot of the same name broke through a narrow entrance to the harbor, straight out from a grove of coconut trees belonging to the chief Honoka‘upu, which bore his name.¹³ This is in the area now known as Ala Moana, Rock Pile, Inbetweens and Kaisers – contemporary surf spots at the mouth of the harbor channel, just east of Magic Island.¹⁴

              Ke-kai-o-Mamala broke "straight out from a beautiful coconut grove... [at] Honoka`upu and provided some of the finest waves in Kou," wrote Finney and Houston. "The break was named after Mamala, a famous surfer and a pominent O`ahu chiefess. She was a kupua, a demigod or hero with supernatural powers who could take the form of a beautiful woman, a gigantic lizard, or a great shark.”¹⁵ She was a mo-o,” added Patterson, “-- sometimes a gigantic lizard or crocodile; sometimes a beautiful woman.¹⁶

              According to legend, she was first married to another kupua, the shark-man Ouha. Mamala and Ouha would often drink awa together and played konane (pebble checkers) on the smooth konane stone at Kou.¹⁷

              Mamala, by all accounts, was a wonderful surf rider. Skillfully, she rode the roughest waves. She apparently liked to surf far out from shore, in rough seas, when the winds blew strong and whitecaps rolled in disorder into the bay of Kou. The people on the beach, watching her, would clap and yell in recognition to her extraordinary riding.¹⁸

              One day, the coconut grove chief Honoka`upu decided he wanted Mamala as his wife. Apparently, she was amenable and left Ouha to go live with her new husband.<sup>19</sup> Feeling loss-of-face, Ouha got angry and first tried the belligerant approach, trying to do Honoka`upu in. Driven away, he fled to lake Ka-ihi-Kapu, toward Waikiki. There, he appeared as a man with a basketful of shrimp and fresh fish, which he offered to the women of the place, saying, "Here is life (a living thing) for the children." He opened his basket, but the shrimp and fish leaped out and escaped into the water.²⁰

              After this, the women of Ka-ihi-Kapu made fun of Ouha, further ridiculing the god-man. Ouha, like the other ancient legendary characters of Polynesia and most of the rest of us, could not endure anything that brought shame and disgrace upon him in the eyes of others. Consequently, Ouha cast off his human form forever and became the great shark god of the coast between Waikiki and Koko Head.²¹

              Mamala was remembered ever afterward both by the surf spot named in her honor and also in a song about her triangular love affair called the Mele (song) of Honoka`upu."²² Two parts of the song go like this:

I wait for you to return,

The games are prepared,

Pa-poko, pa-loa, pa-lele,

Leap away to Tahiti

By the path to Nuumehalani,

Will that lover return?

I belong to Honoka`upu,

From the top of the tossing surf waves,

The eyes of the day and the night are forgotten.

Kou is the day, and to-night

The eyes meet at Kou.²³

The surf rises at Ko`olau,

Blowing the waves into mist,

Into little drops,

Spray falling along the hidden harbor.

There is my dear husband Ouha,

There is the shaking sea, the running sea of Kou,

The crab-like sea of Kou...

My love has gone away...

Fine is the breeze from the mountain.

I wait for you to return...

Will the lover return?

I belong to Honoka`upu,

From the top of the tossing surf waves...²⁴

Chiefess Kaneamuna's Papa Holua & Papa Hee Nalu

              In 1905, the oldest known papa he‘e nalu (surfboard) was discovered. It was a small "floater" surfboard²⁵ that was more like a paipo or bodyboard.²⁶ It most likely belonged to Princess Kaneamuna, who lived during the early-to-mid 1600s. The board was discovered in a burial cave, along with a land toboggan or papa holua. These rare vehicles were described in "Sled of a Chieftess," in the December 8, 1905 issue of the Hawaiian Gazette, a popular semi-weekly Honolulu newspaper. N. K. Pukui, while on a tour of the Big Island for the Hawaiian Realty and Maturity Company, found the boards in the Ho`okena area:

              "It is said that the oldest kamaainas of Hookena have heard from their parents and grandparents that sometime in the reign of King Keawenuiaumi... a high chiefess named Kaneamuna was then living at Hookena. Her principal amusement was hee holua (coasting on a sled) and hee nalu (surfing).

              "She had her people make a sliding ground for her on a hill just back of the little village of Hookena, and ordered a sled, or land toboggan, called a papa holua, as well as a surfing board, or a papa hee nalu. When the slide was finished she passed many pleasant hours sliding down the steep hill. This slide was composed of smooth stones covered with rushes. After her death her sled and surf board disappeared, and the secret of their hiding-place was never revealed. It is believed the sled and board found in the cave belonged to the High Chiefess. They are made of the wood of the bread-fruit tree (the `ulu) and at the present time are in very good condition..."²⁷

Kamehameha’s Ka‘ahumanu

              Kamehameha the Great (1753?-1819) and his favorite wife Ka‘ahumanu (1768-1832) were both enthusiastic surfers. According to Hawaiian historian John Papa Ii, they liked to surf Kooka, a break located at Pua`a, in north Kona, "where a coral head stands just outside a point of lava rocks. When the surf dashed over the coral head, the people swam out with their surfboards and floated with them. If a person owned a long narrow canoe, he performed what was called lele wa`a, or canoe leaping, in which the surfer leaped off the canoe with his board and rode the crest of a wave ashore. The canoe slid back of the wave because of the force of the shove given it with the feet. When the surfer drew close to the place where the surf rose, a wave would pull itself up high and roll in. Any timid person who got too close to it was overwhelmed and could not reach the landing place. The opening through which the surfer entered was like a sea pool, with a rocky hill above and rows of lava rocks on both sides, and deep in the center. This was a difficult feat and not often seen, but for Kaahumanu and Kamehameha I it was easy. When they reached the place where the surf rose high, they went along with the crest of a wave and slipped into the sea pool before the wave rolled over. Only the light spray of the surf touched them before they reached the pool. The spectators shouted and remarked to each other how clever the two were..."²⁸

              Current day surf journalist Sam George wrote that Kamehameha and Ka‘ahumanu rode “their koa boards in the waves at Keauhou, near Kailua-Kona. She also excelled at a practice known as lele wa‘a, in which she’d leap from a speeding outrigger canoe with her board into a big wave – perhaps the first female tow-in surfer,” Sam speculated. “Unfortunately, Ka‘ahumanu’s influence on the sport later grew detrimental. Widowed from Kamehameha and an early Christian convert, she toured with Calvinist zealot Hiram Bingham.”²⁹

              Although Kamehameha’s son Liholiho was titular head of the Hawaiian royalty following Kamehameha’s death, Ka‘ahumanu proclaimed herself kuhina nui, prime minister of Hawai‘i. As such, she ended up ruling the kingdom and the missionaries “soon had her inveighing against surfing,” Duke Kahanamoku told his biographer in 1968.³⁰

              In the late 1800s, there was a brief revival of Hawaiian culture that took place during the reign of king David Kalakaua, which began in 1874. “Kalakaua was a fun-loving man, and he did much to lighten the many bans which the missionaries had brought on,” Duke Kahanamoku told his biographer. “… He was a particularly strong supporter of surfing, and it enjoyed a renaissance during his reign.” Unfortunately, “Kalakaua died in 1891 and again surfing went into a steep decline…”³¹

Princess Kaiulaini

              "By 1900," Father of Modern Surfing Duke Kahanamoku told his biographer Joe Brennan, "surfing had totally disappeared throughout the Islands except for a few isolated spots on Kauai, Maui and Oahu, and even there only a handful of men took boards into the sea."³² The "handful" were virtually all males. A notable exception was Princess Kaiulaini who, "was an expert surfrider around 1895 to 1900," recalled early Twentieth Century surfrider Knute Cottrell. "She rode a long olo board made of wili wili. She apparently was the last of the old school at Waikiki."³³

Early 20^th Century Waikiki Surf Riders

Josephine Pratt & Mildred Turner, Circa 1910

              The Waikiki Swimming Club was the first surf club to form when surfing’s revival got underway at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. The Outrigger Canoe Club was the second. Other clubs sprang up, also, including the Myrtles, Healanis and Hui Nalu.

              "There was a need for facilities to store boards, canoes, plus the availability of showers and dressing rooms with lockers," recalled Duke Kahanamoku of those days. "Today's swank and renowned Outrigger Canoe Club actually began as a tumbledown grass shack purchased from the local zoo in Kapiolani Park and reassembled on the Waikiki shore.

              "The new club had expenses and required initiation fees to join, along with monthly dues. With no funds, we 'hau tree surfers' were on the outside looking in. It triggered us into forming our own club with the hau tree as our headquarters. We conceived the name of Hui Nalu (hui -- a uniting; nalu -- surf) for the infant club, and suddenly we seemed to belong to something important. At least it was to us."³⁴

              "To obtain official recognition for any records," wrote Joseph Brennan, "swimmers had to belong to a recognized club... Duke had concocted the name when all were in a dilemma over finding one that would challenge the already-organized Healanis and Myrtles. Sitting on their boards off Waikiki one afternoon waiting for a rideable swell, Duke pointed seaward and said, 'The name of our club is out there.' He explained, 'The swells coming in spill into a hui (a gathering). And nalu (surf) is what we ride. See? Add them up and you get hui nalu -- the surf club!'"³⁵

              The Hui Nalu had begun informally around 1905,³⁶ along with the Waikiki Swimming Club, when Duke and friends had grouped under the famous hau tree. The Hui Nalu was officially organized in 1911.³⁷

              The Hui Nalu two outstanding women surfers, Mildred Turner, a petite young woman nicknamed “Ladybird”, and Josephine Pratt, nicknamed “Jo”.³⁸

              "Josephine Pratt was the best woman surfboard rider in the Islands during 1909-10 and 1911.,” wrote Tom Blake, who arrived in the Islands a little while afterwards, but had gotten the word from others. “She surfed Canoe, Queens and small first break."³⁹

Dowsett Sisters & Leslie Lemon, Tandem Riders

              In the second book ever published on surfing -- but the first with any real distribution -- Hawaiian Surfboard (later retitled Hawaiian Surfriders, 1935), Tom Blake noted that Duke Kahanamoku was the first one in recorded time to tandem ride a surfboard.⁴⁰

Duke's first tandem ride at Queen's was with Akana, a boy. But, it was "Leslie Lemon," who, "was the first to stand on Duke's shoulders. Miss Marion 'Baby' Dowsett and Beatrice Dowsett were the two girls who first rode with Duke, three on the same board, the full length of Canoe surf.⁴¹

Tom Blake gave the following narrative for what tandem riding was like at Waikiki, circa early 1930s:

              "Sunday; good surf running, not big surf...

              "The surfers gather around a certain dark patch of water… the third board [to catch a wave is] -- a tandem. The boy on this board has a passenger. He stands up first, then assists his partner to her feet.

              "The fourth board also contains a tandem party. On this one the girl rises first, then the boy stands up with her on his shoulders -- very thrilling, indeed, for the girl. The next board has two girls for riders. They 'jam up,' after a short fifteen yard ride, with an inexperienced surfer and all three lose their boards and get ducked, barely missing getting hit by the loose boards. Rather brave these girls to be out there. The rest of the riders have pulled away some twenty yards. They are on the same wave and all manage to hold their boards, as this is one of the first rules of surfing. To loose a board means to swim maybe a hundred yards for it and also a loose board is dangerous to the other surfers."⁴²

Paddleboarders Newport, Hammond, Wehselau, Gillespie, Clark & Slaight, Circa 1915-30

              Writing about the prevailing female paddle boarders of the day, Blake wrote, "Among the best known at surfboard paddle racing since 1915 are: … Beatrice Newport, Dot Hammond, Marchien Wehselau, Babe Gillespie, Olga Clark and Mildred Slaight."⁴³

Beatrice Newport, Cecily Cunha, Wehselau, Hammond, Gillespie, Frazier, Circa 1930

              By the beginning 1930s, Beatrice Newport had risen to top slot amongst the females surfing Waikiki.

“Miss Beatrice Newport was the best woman surfrider along about 1930, wrote Blake. “Her skill was equal to the average boy surfer... Since her time no girl has come near to the mastering of surf-riding as she did except perhaps Cesily Cunha. I've never seen any girl ride the Kalehuawehe [the outermost reef]. [Marchien] Wehselau, [Dot] Hammond and [Babe] Gillespie were good women surfriders. Miss Frazier, a newcomer, is doing well."⁴⁴

Australia’s Isabel Letham

              While in Australia competing in swimming competition, Duke introduced surfing to Oz. On December 23, 1914, Duke gave a three hour demonstration at Freshwater FreshwaterBeach, riding on a pine board he made for that very occasion. He wrapped up his surfing exhibition with a demonstration of tandem surfing with a local girl, Isabel Letham.

              His tandem partner was only 15 years old at the time. Even so, Isabel Letham was already a locally-recognized and respected bodysurfer, aquaplanist and ocean swimmer. After four waves of going tandem with Duke, Isabel was “hooked for life,” she recalled. “It was the most thrilling sport of all.”

              While Duke went on to tour Australia’s eastern states and compete in swim meets, Isabel practiced her surfing. When Duke returned to Freshwater before returning to Hawai‘i, she rode with him again, at an exhibition that was widely publicized. She was later inducted into the Australian Surfing Hall of Fame for the role she played in encouraging later Australian generations of women surfers.

Early California Women Surfers

              Surfing had revived. On the Mainland, it was embraced by a limited number of watermen and even some women, like Mary Kerwin, Martha Chapin, Patty Godsave, Marion “Cookie” Cook, Dixie Scholes. Ann Kresge, and the one that stood out above all the rest: Mary Ann Hawkins.

              In the late 1930s, John Doc Ball – surfing’s first dedicated photographer -- shot a small amount of 16mm movie film and, later on, some 8mm. “I finally got rigged-up with a Keystone,” Doc told me. “It was a 16mm. Take that out on the board and I got – man, I just got pack after pack. I’ve got it here in the house, all stored up… it’s got some wild stuff in there.”⁴⁵

Notable footage includes Martha Chapin, sister of pioneer surfer Gard Chapin, and step-aunt to Mickey Dora. Martha stands in front of an enlarged map of Los Angeles wearing an eye-catching swim suit. Looking like a Hollywood film actress, she points out the way from Hollywood to Palos Verdes Estates. This shot ended up being a promotion device for the new Palos Verdes Estates subdivision.⁴⁶

              “What kind of roles did women have in surfing, in those days?” I asked Doc.

              “Mostly,” he replied, “if they had a boyfriend in it [surfing], they’d come down and eventually they’d say, ‘Hey, let’s get out in the water together.’ So, they’d have a tandem ride and finally started to get in the real deal.”⁴⁷

Tandem riding was a common sight, particularly at San O. In "Tandem Rides Are Popular With the Boys," Doc Ball showed a picture of "Benny Merrill and wahini slicing along neat as anything. Most of the female sex, however,” Doc had noted even back in 1946, “prefer to sit on the beach."⁴⁸

              Patty Godsave was one of the standout tandem surfers of the time.⁴⁹ “She used to ride tandem with one of the guys,” Doc said, “either Pete Peterson or E.J. Oshier.” Marion “Cookie” Cook⁵⁰ and Dixie Scholes⁵¹ were yet other tandem riders; less well known. Another woman at the beach in the late 1930s was Ann Kresge.⁵²

              Teaming up as tandem partners sometimes lead to bigger things. After World War II, in 1946 at age 33, Whitey Harrison married his second wife, Cecilia Yorba, who he’d first got to know through tandem surfing.              "When I met Cecilia, she was walking down the beach at Doheny with her cousin,” Whitey said, “and I came ridin' in on this board right to where she was standing. That had to be about 1945. She said, 'That looks like fun.' I said, 'Yeah, you've gotta try it.' So I spent a week talkin' her into going surfing with me. She said, 'Well, I don't know, they've had such awful drownings in my family, nobody wanted to go near the ocean.' So I said, 'I've worked lifeguard for five years, I'm not gonna let you drown.' A fella named Voss Harrington was surfing with me at the time I was going with her. We were in the abalone business together. Voss, Fritz and Burrhead worked abalone with me all up and down the coast of California... I talked her into coming over and helping trim abalone at the cove. Then I got her to go surfin' with me at Doheny. Voss had this 11' board. I caught a wave with Cecilia and he was on the shoulder and jumped off when he saw us coming tandem. I was standing up, and his board flipped right over, hit on top of her head and shoved her teeth through her lower lip. So that's how we started. Since then she got so she could ride real good."⁵³

Mary Ann Hawkins, March 7, 1919 – January 28, 1993⁵⁴

 1933 -- SPAAU Record for 880-yard Freestyle Swim (new national junior record)

 1936 -- AAU 500-meter Freestyle (winner)

 1936 -- 880-yard Female Paddleboard Race, Ambassador Hotel Swim Team (winner)

 1936 -- National Junior 880-yard Backstroke Champion

 1936 – 1^st ever all female paddleboard race. Mary Ann won 1^st place. Same day, she won the half-mile swim.

 1938-40 -- National Paddleboard Champion and Pacific Coast Women’s Surfboard Champion (Long Beach)

 1^st Female to enter the Catalina-Manhattan Beach Aquaplane Race

 1939 – won Women’s Half-mile Swim and broke the 220-yard record for freestyle (Natatorium, Waikiki)

 1970s – By the 1970s, she had taught over 10,000 people to swim and had been a stunt double for many movie stars.⁵⁵

Mary Ann Hawkins was unquestionably the greatest woman surfer of the first half of the Twentieth Century. Her record of competitive wins is evidence to that, as well as the respect of the women and men she surfed with.

“She was one of the first surfers down there at Palos Verdes Cove,” Doc attested of her surfing beginnings. “She was a friend of E.J. Oshier, at the time, and he got her into the water there. She got excited. Then she was about to get a job with the movies, but she needed a portrait or photograph, so I took a picture of her down on the rocks, there, in her bathing suit at Palos Verdes and she got the job.”⁵⁶

              “I was born in Pasadena, California, on March 7, 1919,” Mary Ann wrote in a 1989 letter to Gary Lynch.⁵⁷ “I lived there until I was fifteen, and then because of my love for ocean swimming -- ocean races more than pool races -- my mother bought a little house down in Costa Mesa, near Newport Beach and Corona Del Mar, so that I could build up my endurance for the ocean swims that I loved. That was in 1934. Somehow, we found Corona Del Mar right off the bat. Although I’ve been in a few long distance ocean swims I’d never seen anyone surfing until I went down to Corona Del Mar one sunny day.” ⁵⁸

              “Some of the boys that were surfing that day,” continued Mary Ann Hawkins, “were Gene ‘Tarzan’ Smith and Lorrin Harrison⁵⁹. They both became very good friends of mine. There was also Nat and Dave Theile, Gardner Lippincott,⁶⁰ Nellie Bly Brignell,⁶¹ Barney Wilkes,⁶² Frenchy Jahan,⁶³ Johnny McMahn, Doakes,⁶⁴, and a man named Bill Hollingsworth.⁶⁵ And later down there in Corona Del Mar, Whitey Lorrin Harrison brought Joe Kukea over from Hawai`i, and he was the first Hawaiian I ever got to know very well.” ⁶⁶

              “My mother’s idea to move from Pasadena… to Costa Mesa, so I’d be near the ocean to swim, actually backfired. Because right away, I started learning to body surf and then started going tandem; as I met the surfing boys. And I fell so much in love with surfing and body surfing that I really never did my best in swimming from that time on.

              “The lifeguard down there at Corona Del Mar was Gene ‘Tarzan’ Smith. In my training in the ocean there and body surfing, of course he got to know me and started taking me tandem.

              “The most thrilling and exhilarating thing that ever happened to me was riding tandem with Gene Smith. And to this day, I’m sorry it was so early in the morning that there was no-one there really to record it, or say what a great wave, or anything like that. There were a few people on the beach, but nobody we knew. And, as I told you before, Gene was a lifeguard there. My mother had taken me down there early, and dropped me off, so I could surf and be on the beach all day.

              “We were far out past the jetty, riding tandem, when this wave came along, and we rode tandem across the end of the jetty. And, as far as I know, we’re the only two that ever did ride tandem across the end of the jetty.

              “There weren’t too many surfers that ever had a chance to accomplish that, or probably could accomplish it. It was quite a feat, in fact, in those days that somebody slid across the jetty. In front of the jetty. I guess you’d say behind the jetty. But I’ll never forget when we caught that wave, I know that wave had to be 30 feet high, because I’ve been on 30 foot high platforms, diving platforms, and knew what 30 feet looked like.⁶⁷

              “I would not have fallen off that board for the world. I was sticking out there in front of Gene, and looking straight down. It was just like looking straight down off a diving platform. And [as] we rode, he made me get up. Then we rode across that jetty and he pulled out. We had no problem. And that was that. But you only have my word for it, unless Gene’s around somewhere to tell you.” ⁶⁸

              “I was a strong swimmer,” continued Mary Ann Hawkins, “because the year before, when I was fourteen, I had won the junior nationals in the 880 yard freestyle. I’d say being the swimmer that I was, actually saved my life in [at least] one frightening episode there at Corona Del Mar… [when I helped] Gene Smith rescue someone. There was the huge surf again, and a young man -- older than I was, because I was 15 or 16 -- was calling for help, out past the jetty facing out towards the ocean. He was on the left of the jetty, and these big sets were coming in. But they weren’t breaking out that far, they were just humping up. I guess they still call it that. I don’t know. And he was screaming for help.⁶⁹

              “I went out, and I was giving him the tired swimmers carry -- the Red Cross method -- and kept talking to him... He was perfectly calm. I stayed out there a long time with him, and he just really seemed fine. And eventually Gene Smith got there. I don’t know where he’d been earlier. And he took over.” ⁷⁰

              “She was an all around waterperson,” big wave rider and oceanograher Ricky Grigg noted of Mary Ann Hawkins, who knew her later in life, “and I think it gave them [the women surfers who followed] a sense of depth. They had to be more than surfers. They had to be good bodysurfers and swimmers and just totally comfortable in the ocean.” ⁷¹

              “There were women who could get to their feet on a board that their boyfriend built for them,” remembered noted surfboard shaper Joe Quigg. “But, as far as just going out and being a surfer on their own, Mary Ann stands out in my mind.” ⁷²

              Featured in Doc Ball’s California Surfriders 1946, then Mary Ann Hawkins rode the waves in the late 1930s and through the 1940s, later becoming a stunt person for Hollywood.

              “Every time she had to do one of those stunts,” remembered Aggie Quigg, who used to baby-sit Mary Ann’s young daughter, “It was so dangerous and she would have to overcome this horrible fear. But, once she got used to the money, it was hard not to do it. And they paid big money. She was a pretty gutsy person.” ⁷³

              “She was one of the best bodysurfers, man or woman,” Joe Quigg acknowledged. “She could get across (waves) at Malibu bodysurfing that most people couldn’t get across on a surfboard.” ⁷⁴

              “She was like a seal in the water,” Aggie said. “Her body would just be moving in very graceful arches. She could accelerate ahead of the wave and come up to the peak and fall back down. It was wonderful to watch.” ⁷⁵

              “Early in the summer of 1950,” Joe Quigg remembered, “Mary Ann got one of my earliest superlight girls boards, and became one of the regular riders at Malibu. She ended up marrying my early idol, Bud Morrisey.” ⁷⁶

              Mary Ann eventually moved to Hawai‘i, where she started-up a swimming school for babies at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

              “She was forced to become a swimmer. It really wasn’t her choice,” claimed Robin Grigg, who also moved to the Islands later on and taught with Mary Ann. “Her mother was the driving force behind it, but she turned it into her lifelong profession.” ⁷⁷

              “The most prominent thing that comes to mind in speaking of Mary Ann,” waterman Tommy Zahn told Gary Lynch in and interview in July 1990, “is that there have been great swimming ladies and great board surfing ladies -- there’s very few body surfing ladies, by the way. But, I think she is probably the finest – I was (laugh) gonna say ‘water man’! – water person of the last several generations. I haven’t seen or heard of anybody with her versatility.”⁷⁸

              “By the way, she was a great diver, too,” Tommy added. I mean, I’m speaking of platform and springboard… And she was, of course, this redoubtable stunt woman, in Hollywood… She could do just about anything; very well coordinated and easy to work with; lot of fun to go surf with… She used to work out with me, too [swimming], and give me a heck of a workout; great swimmer. She was a national junior AA champion in several events.” ⁷⁹

Post World War II Wave Warriors

Keanuinui Rochlen

              Rabbit Kekai was one of the great beachboy surfers of Waikiki, beginning during World War II and after. Complimenting him was his wife Keanuinui, who was the first standout Hawaiian woman surfer of the postwar period. She continued her charging well after she remarried to another noted surfer of the time, Dave Rochlen.

              “Keanuinui Rochlen was one of surfing’s little-known treasures,” wrote Sam George for Surfer magazine in 1999, “emerging as one of the hottest female surfers and all-around waterpersons in Waikiki. Keanuinui (who was once the wife of legendary Rabbit Kekai before marrying Dave Rochlen of Jams fame) excelled in all the traditional beachboy arts. To this day, she is one of the top steersmen competing in Hawaiian long-distance outrigger races.”⁸⁰

Darrylin Zanuck Sparks A Flame

              Although originally not considered any big deal, the surfboard that would become the first in a long line of what became known as "Malibu Boards" was made in the Summer of 1947.⁸¹ Just before leaving for the Islands for the first time, Joe Quigg created his first breakthrough design, according to Craig Stecyk, on July 5, 1947.⁸² Not intended, originally, to be any great breakthrough in design or shape, it was merely a board built as a "novice girls board" for Tommy Zahn's girlfriend Darrylin Zanuck. Shaped out of balsa and sealed with fiberglass and resin, Quigg created "the board to satisfy Zahn's expressed requirements that the board be short, light, and easy for a girl to carry, plus it must fit in the back of her Town and Country convertible."⁸³

              "She probably thinks of herself as the original Gidget," Joe Quigg declared many years later. "She was at Malibu, really the first girl to buy a surfboard and buy a convertible and stick the surfboard in the back and drive up to Malibu and drive up and down the coast and learn to surf. Of the Malibu girls she was the first Malibu girl to really do it."⁸⁴

              Quigg went to five lumber yards to find the lightest wood he could find. He then constructed a varnished redwood/balsa 10'2" surfboard with 50/50 rails, curved rail rocker throughout, a flat planing bottom, and a fin. It was tested by Dave Rochlen, Tom Zahn and Pete Peterson, and voted the loosest board on the West Coast.⁸⁵

              On August 5, 1947, Malibu/Santa Monica area surfers surfaried down to San Onofre. "Perhaps intuitively sensing some hidden potential," wrote Craig Stecyk, "Dave Rochlen borrows the 'Darrylin Board' and proceeds to rip San O apart. It is immediately apparent that Rochlen is turning four times faster and making it into and out of what would previously have been inconceivable situations. Pete Peterson next borrows the board, and is instantly banking and turning in an obvious departure from his patented power trim, runaway style. Kivlin is intrigued and promptly decides to have one for his girl friend."⁸⁶

              The board weighed half as much as the lightest Simmons surfboard, had a flowing deck rocker with 50/50 rails and rail rocker from end to end. At first, Quigg named this board his "Easy Rider." It's better associated, today, with the name of the girl for whom it was made and best known as "the Darrylin Board." It was the first Malibu Board.⁸⁷

              Quigg had incorporated in one board, parts of the best workable shapes he knew of. The Darrylin Board had "The Complete Combination," as he put it, and is considered to be Quigg's major contribution to the evolution of the modern surfboard.⁸⁸

Aggie Bane Quigg

              Aggie Bane [Quigg] and Robin Grigg had been friends since Sunday School. One day, during the Winter of 1950, at State Beach, the girls saw Matt Kivlin and Joe Quigg for the first time. ⁸⁹

              “Aggie caught one look at Joe and she was in love,” Robin declared. “She said, ‘I want to meet him,’ and I said, ‘O.K. Let’s have a party at your house and we’ll invite a bunch of the surfers.’” ⁹⁰

              Aggie and Joe soon got together. Around September 1, 1950,⁹¹ he shaped a Malibu Board for her, like he had for Zahn and Darrylin Zanuck. C.R. Stecyk tells the story:

              "Joe Quigg fashions a couple of extremely light 9'0" surfboards for his wife Aggie and his friends. Quigg frequents ten different lumber yards to get the lightest balsa possible. These twenty-four pound boards were an immediate curiosity. Les Williams, a guy from Santa Monica, borrows Aggie's board, and promptly begins to surf in a manner never before seen. The Birdman starts laying out full banked turns on the wave's face, and is cutting back from the wave's top all the way through the curl and then bouncing back into a bottom turn. Matt Kivlin has bought some balsa from Joe and has fashioned a 9'6" streamlined stick for his girlfriend and starts surfing it for fun. Being the best surfer around, people are acutely aware of these light boards performance capabilities. The extremism of Williams and Kivlin set the new style."⁹²

              Matt Kivlin and Les Williams were two era surfers who were quick to borrow the Quigg “girls boards” and give them a spin. Leslie “Birdman” Williams was particularly noted for soon carving radical cutbacks and wrenching powerful bank turns off the lip of Malibu waves. As such, Les Williams helped lead the performance revolution, albiet on “borrowed craft.” ⁹³

              “He used to borrow my board and go out and do circles around everyone,” Aggie remembers. “Every day you were surfing, guys would come by and ask if they could borrow your board. I learned to say: ‘Well, how long are you going to be out? I may want to go out again.’ It was all very friendly.” ⁹⁴

Vicki Flaxman

              “I didn’t start surfing in earnest until the Summer of 1950,” best of the Malibu women Vicki Flaxman recalled. “Aggie was going with Joe and he made her a board, so I ordered one. I’d only been surfing once or twice before that.” ⁹⁵

              Considered one of the most popular girls at “Samo,” -- Santa Monica High School -- Vicki got interested in not only surfing, but beach volleyball and bodysurfing. Her main hangout was State Beach, a block down from Neeny’s hamburger place and a center of UCLA student activity. ⁹⁶

              Summer of 1950, Vicki went on surfari with Matt Kivlin, Joe Quigg and some others. They took it south, going to Salt Creek, San Onofre, Sunset Cliffs and even Baja. ⁹⁷

              The main stop was Windansea and the annual July 4^th luau hosted by the Windansea Surf Club. Craig Stecyk tells the story:

"The Malibu group ventures south on its way to a gathering of the tribes at the Windansea luau. The light, short, all balsa Malibu boards they are equipped with are a source of interest and oftentimes provocation. At San Onofre, for example Burrhead, Hammerhead and the crew are particularly vocal in their criticism… They dismiss them as being useless, since they could never 'trim through the soup.' The Malibu group, remaining silent, is content to surf aggressively around and through the pocket. ⁹⁸

“On the occasion of the big luau, an event at which almost all of California's surfing populace is in attendance, the Malibu elders sense vindication is at hand. Vicky Flaxman is taken aside and told that she will become the first [mainland] female to surf outside Windansea. Ms. Flaxman is honored, but somewhat apprehensive and agrees to do it as long as the guys remain outside in the lineup with her. Naturally, they don't, and Vicky is forced to deal with the ten foot faces by herself. Her first wave results in a hideous wipeout and a long swim. The Hammerhead contingent nod their heads in a knowing manner. On her next wave Flaxman takes off far outside and adroitly maneuvers all the way to the beach, where she gingerly steps off onto the sand. The entire beach crowd breaks into applause upon Vicky's dismount. History had been made, and a point had been proven."⁹⁹

              “Everybody was kind of dazzled because we had these balsa boards,” Vicki remembered. “It was like 10 feet. The biggest waves I’d seen at Malibu were maybe six-to-eight feet. It was breaking way outside and I wasn’t anxious to go out there. But the guys talked me into it. They kept telling me I had to go out there and take off from the point. ‘No girl’s ever done it,’ they said. So I said ‘O.K., if you guys don’t take off and leave me out there by myself.’” ¹⁰⁰

              Vicki eventually paddled into a set wave and went left. “I wasn’t used to that hollow drop and I ate it,” she remembers. “I had to swim all the way in. I said: ‘That’s it. I’m done.’ But they insisted I go back out. I took off on a big wave. There was a little bit of a channel, then an inside break and I sort of hot-dogged it and rode my board right up on the beach. All these guys were there and they clapped. It was kind of funny. I was the talk of the luau that night. The next day, I went out tandem with Walt Hoffman. We rode a few waves and they were just amazed, because the board was 32 pounds, which was nothing for a tandem board in those days.” ¹⁰¹

As a result of having these new-type Malibu Boards, “Vicky Flaxman and Aggie Bane represented the counter-counterculture at Malibu,” wrote Sam George, “riding alongside he-men on custom, trimmed-down balsa boards designed by Aggie’s boyfriend (and future husband) Joe Quigg. Both talented surfers, it was the use of these ladies’ lightweight boards by Quigg and Malibu rad-man Les Williams that is credited with sparking the entire movement toward shorter, lighter surfboards. Unperturbed by more macho applications, these two gender-rebels rode gracefully through California surfing’s seminal cultural epoch.” ¹⁰²

Claire Cassidy

              “Quigg says Claire Cassidy was the original independent woman surfer,” Albert Smith said. “Uninfluenced by the male surfers, she forged her own style, driving the coast in her Chevy convertible with her board and ‘uke, ready for whatever adventure she could find." ¹⁰³

The pre-Gidget Gidgets

              “Along with contemporaries Aggie (Bane) Quigg and Robin Grigg,” wrote Jeff Duclos in “Women of Malibu,” for Longboard magazine in 1999, “and on revolutionary surfboards designed by Joe Quigg and Matt Kivlin, these women set a hard edge toward the evolution of high performance surfing on the waves of postwar Malibu.”¹⁰⁴

              “They may not be recognized as pioneers today,” Ricky Grigg said, “because… all the attention is on what’s going on at the moment. But, when you think back, they were the ones.” ¹⁰⁵

              “The thing that was unique about Aggie, Claire, and Vicki,” Joe Quigg said, “and a whole bunch that followed them within weeks to get those rockered boards, was that they could go out and, in a couple of weeks, they were standing up and coming across (the face of the wave) at Malibu. Like Aggie – by the end of the month, she was coming across at the point and that was unique… and she was just out there for fun, she wasn’t trying to be a star. Vicki was a little more athletic and aggressive. In a couple of months, she learned to surf better than most men.” ¹⁰⁶

              “When I started making those boards for those girls,” Joe Quigg continued, “they were the first boards that were light and had rail rocker. Before that, all the boards had straight decks and straight rails. [Bob] Simmons glued a bit of a lift on the nose, but that wasn’t new and that didn’t do it. The back end of the board was still straight. When I rockered the whole board, especially the tail, that let a person change direction instantly. The board would almost automatically do this. If you just leaned the least little bit, the board would go in on the hollow of a wave, or straighten off out of a hollow wave, or get up into speed, or come down off of speed, without any cranky tracking. That’s what helped Vicki look better than most men out there, because they (the girls) got those boards first. And, oh, they (the men) were jealous. A lot of people don’t want to admit that, but a lot of big name Malibu guys did not like women out there looking that good.” ¹⁰⁷

Robin Grigg

              “Before these original girls boards were finished,” wrote Jeff Duclos, “each woman would paint on their name and a special design. The boards eventually became known by name (i.e., ‘the Aggie Board,’ ‘the Vicki Board’). One board that became particularly well known was the ‘Di-Di Board,’ [pronounced “die-die”] a board shaped by Matt Kivlin for his girlfriend, Diane. ¹⁰⁸

              “It was one of the first really light balsawood boards,” Robin remembered. “It had a scoop nose. I fell in love with that board and, at some point, somehow I acquired it. I took it up to Stanford with me when I first started going there. Greg Wilkerson took it to Santa Cruz one day. I didn’t even know he’d taken it. It got broken in half. I was so pissed, because that, to me, was the ultimate surfboard.” ¹⁰⁹

              Robin Grigg was another of the pre-Gidget Gidgets who was influential during surfing’s early 1950s.

              “In 1943,” wrote Jeff Duclos, “when Robin was nine, she moved with her mother and younger brother, Ricky, to a large but rundown beach house at Santa Monica’s Muscle Beach. The two-story home had originally been built in 1907 for Mary Pickford.” ¹¹⁰

              “The prices at the time were rock bottom cheap,” Robin Grigg explained. “Everybody thought the Japanese were going to bomb, so houses on the beach were really (undervalued). My mother rented out rooms and the family lived downstairs. There was a lifeguard tower right in front of our house. I used to hang out at the lifeguard tower and the lifeguards got to know me. Tommy Zahn took a liking to me and took me under his wing. I sort of became his little [female] protégé. He guilt me a surfboard. Tommy and Joe (Quigg) might have built it together. I remember going down to General Veneer and buying balsawood and redwood strips. It was 10’, had a big square tail and weighed about 60 pounds.” ¹¹¹

              Robin Grigg’s early memories of Malibu included the Rindge Estate’s 12-foot chainlink fence still in place.

              “I was just a little gremmie riding along with the big guys,” Robin remembered. “The surfers would sneak through a hole in the fence. We’d collect Coke bottles and turn them in at the market across the street for two cents each and get a loaf of bread and some mustard and that’s what we ate for the day. In those days, there wasn’t a group of kids that got together and went out surfing. It was an older crowd. I got to tag along because I happened to live behind the lifeguard station.” ¹¹²

              “As soon as summer came,” Aggie recalled, “we were up there (at Malibu) every day. We used to have parties. A lot of them were at my house because my mother would let us. Matt liked to do the cooking. He’d fix up some slum-gullion thing and everybody would come. It was a social group, because we all loved surfing and loved the water.” ¹¹³

              Among the party attendees were Walt Hoffman, Ted Crane and friends from North Hollywood, Dave Rochlen, Tim Lyons, Buzzy Trent and Kit Horn. Girls included Aggie and Robin, Vicki Flaxman, Diane Griffith and Claire Cassidy. ¹¹⁴

              “Matt Kivlin was not only the best surfer (of the era),” Joe Quigg declared, “he was also the social leader at Malibu during the late-‘40s and early-‘50s. Matt would bring carloads of these young high school kids down to the beach, and he instigated most of the beach parties and dances.” Quigg added, speaking of his wife Aggie: “I married one of the girls he brought down there.” ¹¹⁵

Peter Lawford Group

              “That same summer,” Aggie added, “there was the Peter Lawford group that came down to the beach. They added a whole other dimension.” ¹¹⁶ With Lawford, as part of the Hollywood set, were actors Robert Walker, Red Grange, Richard Jaeckel and Jackie “Butch” Jenkins and, more rarely, Norma Jean Baker (Marilyn Monroe). ¹¹⁷

              “He was low key about it,” Robin said of Lawford, who was the leader of the Hollywood beach group. “It wasn’t like he was Mr. Hollywood. He felt honored to be accepted by us, not the other way around. He lived up on Sunset Boulevard with his mother and he’d come to my house and pick me up and give me a ride. I think he had a crush on me and on the lifestyle.” ¹¹⁸

              “Peter used to pick up Robin in his jeep and I’d jump in the back,” Robin’s younger brother Ricky recalled with a laugh. “Robin would always frown and say, ‘Do you have to come too?’ and Peter would say, ‘Oh, let him come.” ¹¹⁹

Male Reception

              According to the women Jeff Duclos interviewed for his “Women of Malibu” article published in an early 1999 summer edition of Longboard magazine, acceptance by the men of the group was never an issue. The guys wanted the girls to surf and, with few exceptions, they were helpful and encouraging.

              “The guys at Malibu were really nice to us,” Vicki attested. “With the exception of Simmons, of course, and Buzzy Trent. All the guys would let us in waves. When we first learned, there were only two breaks at Malibu: There was a mid-break and there was the point. We learned at mid-break and the guys would let us in the waves – except for Simmons who would never let any girl in a wave and Buzzy Trent, who wasn’t very nice about it either. Most of the surfers were anxious for us to learn. They thought it was a good deal.” ¹²⁰

              “A lot of guys liked us to be out there,” agreed Aggie. “We’d be surfing and there’d be a guy beside us and he’d say: ‘Come on! Get on board.’ And we’d step from our board on to theirs. We did a lot of playing.” ¹²¹

              Of course, there was some resistance to the “girls boards,” themselves, but most of it came from what Joe Quigg considered the hard core. “Everybody bought them,” Quigg said. “The most macho guy on the beach had one within a year.” ¹²²

              The first guy to buy one of these new Quigg boards was Jim “Burrhead” Drever,” Quigg specified, “one of the leaders of the San Onofre crew.

              “He said he was getting it for his girlfriend.” Following Burrhead was WindanSea regular Buzzy Bent, whom many considered one of the best surfers in Southern California in the early 1950s. ¹²³

              As time went on, so did the girls and, as Jeff Duclos put it, “The ‘chips’ would soon fall where they may.” Aggie and Robin began working as lifeguards, “But not at the beach,” Robin emphasized. “In those days, they didn’t let girls work the beach. We worked at the municipal pools. Aggie and I both lifeguarded and taught swimming. In those days, we made better money than most girls could make working in the dime store or whatever. I was able to save up enough to pay my way through college. After I started college, I was just home in the summer and working as a lifeguard so I could go back to school the following year. My Malibu days essentially stopped on a regular basis around the Summer of ’52.” ¹²⁴

              Vicki’s life was changing during this time, too. “Basically, my life changed,” she said of the mid-to-late 1950s. “I had a baby in ’57. I was teaching school. My husband didn’t surf. It became so much of a hassle. I remember I went up to surf one time and took the play pen and all the paraphernalia. I had to get somebody to watch my child while I was out surfing. It just got to be too much.” ¹²⁵

              “Almost all of us from that time went to college,” Robin underscored. “We all had other things going on in our lives besides surfing. Surfing was something we did that pulled us together and set us apart.” ¹²⁶

              “For me, I was always exposed to everything Joe was doing,” Aggie recalled, having married Quigg in 1950. “So, I always got to be near the water. It didn’t just involve surfing. I got into canoeing. Patty O’Keefe, Vicki and I were on a championship paddling team here (in Hawaii).” ¹²⁷

              Tommy Zahn had taught Robin the finer points of paddling and she went on to compete as a champion paddler. “I never lost a race, even when I came over here to Hawaii,” Robin declared. She now owns a ranch on the Big Island of Hawai‘i and is a physical therapist. ¹²⁸

              “When the idea of ‘Gidget’ came along,” Ricky Grigg concluded with accuracy, “the writer, of course, picked his daughter. You can’t blame him for that. But the idea of it was the young girl at Malibu. That could have been Robin, or Vicki, or Aggie. In fact, it was all three of them.” ¹²⁹

Makaha Champions

              The first Makaha International Surfing Championships were held in the Winter of 1954, during a period that, in ancient times, would have been part of the Makahiki festivities.¹³⁰

              Up until the 1960s, it was the Makaha contest that determined one’s ranking as a world class surfer.

Ethel Harrison Kukea

              Lorrin “Whitey” Harrison and Hawaiian Joe Kukea met during Whitey’s first trip to the Islands. Joe’s wife-to-be originally came from the Mainland and was a friend of the Harrisons.

              “Joe Kukea is full-blooded Hawaiian directly descended from royal family,” Whitey’s daughter Rosie wrote in the biography of their father. “He and Ethel were pen pals in the ‘30s. It was popular to have a pen pal those years. It was at the same time that she and Lorrin were surfing at Corona Del Mar… After he and Ethel had corresponded so many years it was as though they were in love almost before they actually met. To her parents Hawaii must have seemed a far off land. I’m not sure that her mother ever forgave her for running away to marry Joe. But, I can’t imagine two people more beautifully suited to each other.

              “Joe was tall and dark, with a sober, almost regal manner, he looked like he stepped right out of a Polynesian movie as a Kahuna. His voice echoed that ancient Hawaiian mellowness and he seemed very focused on his goals in life. A hug from him was wonderfully warm and filled with significance.

              “Ethel was a big, strong, athletic woman with the kindest sun-etched face and big smile to match. She won the Women’s National Surfing Championships several years in a row…”¹³¹

              “Having already learned to surf in California,” wrote Sam George, “Ethel Harrison married into Oahu’s surf-centric Kukea family and became the dominant figure in Hawaiian women’s surfing during the late 1950s. Ethel is perhaps competitive surfing’s earliest female role model, winning back-to-back Makaha International contests, considered then to be the sport’s world championship.” ¹³²

Marge Calhoun

              “Laguna Beach’s Marge Calhoun began her long run as a cultural icon by winning the Makaha Championships,” in 1958, Sam George noted. “Marge also became one of the first women to tackle some of Hawaii’s big waves, including Makaha Point Surf and Sunset Beach. Marge was best known [later in the 1960s], however, as the matriarch of a remarkable surfing clan, which included her two daughters, Candy and Robin. Together these three dedicated, talented ladies embodied a healthy, wholesome involvement in surfing that has only recently been appreciated by women surfers and the surfing industry.” ¹³³

Makaha Results, 1954-71

For women, the winners for various years are as follows:

1954

-- Senior Women not scheduled

Walt Hoffman and Joan Jones, Tandem¹³⁴

1955

Ethel Kukea, Senior Women¹³⁵

Ed “Blackout” Whaley and Nancy Boyd, Tandem

1956

Ethel Kukea, Senior Women

Robert Krewson and Kehau Kea, Tandem

1957

Vicky Heldrich, Senior Women

-- Tandem not held

1958

Marge Calhoun, Senior Women

Rabbit Kekai and Heidi Stevens, Tandem¹³⁶

1959

Linda Benson, Senior Women

Ed “Blackout” Whaley and Diana Moore, Tandem

1960

Wendy Cameron, Senior Women

Mud Werner and Robin Grigg, Tandem¹³⁷

1961

Anona Naone, Senior Women

Rabbit Kekai and Lucinda Smith, Tandem

1962

Nancy Nelson, Senior Women

Joseph Napoleon and Sue Ellen Ketner, Tandem

1963

Nancy Nelson, Senior Women

Mike Doyle and Linda Merrill, Tandem

1964

Joyce Hoffman, Senior Women

Mike Doyle and Margie Stevens, Tandem

1965

Nancy Nelson, Senior Women

Mike Doyle and Danielle Corn, Tandem

1966

Joyce Hoffman, Senior Women

Pete Peterson and Barrie Algaw

1967

Martha Sunn, Senior Women¹³⁸

Bob Moore and Patti Young

1968

Marge Godfrey, Women

Leroy Ah Choy and Blanch Benson, Tandem

1969

Martha Sunn, Women

Bob Moore and Blanch Benson, Tandem

1970

Martha Sunn, Women

Steve Boehne and Barrie Algaw, Tandem¹³⁹

1971

Becky Benson, Women, 1^st place

Leroy Ah Choy and Becky Benson, Tandem, 1^st place

Martha Sunn, Women, 2^nd place

Annella Sunn Gardner, Women, 3^rd place

Roy Uyehara & Karen Bell, Tandem, 3^rd place

Kathy Kohner -- Gidget, the Girl Midget

              Vicki Flaxman, Aggie Bane Quigg, Robin Grigg, Claire Cassidy, Darrlyn Zanuck and a few other young women surfed the waves of Malibu long before” Gidget, the book (1957) and then the movie (1957) hit the streets. Although “Gidget” popularized surfing and emphasized female participation in the sport, the real Malibu babe chargers were the women that immediately preceeded her. ¹⁴⁰

              While Gidget -- Kathy Kohner -- was never known for her surfing, but she had a significant impact on those female surfers to follow.

              It was June 27, 1956, a day destined to change Malibu history forever. This day, a girl who wanted to surf made her way into the Malibu domain where she was immediately noticed.¹⁴¹

              “I remember the first time Gidget came down the stairs at Malibu,” wrote Mike Doyle. “She was only about five feet tall, weighed less than a hundred pounds, and was carrying a borrowed surfboard that was so big, one end of it was dragging in the sand. She really caught our eye because there weren’t a lot of girl surfers then. Tubesteak said, ‘Gee, here comes a girl.’

              “Somebody else said, ‘God, she looks like a midget to me.’

              “’Yeah, a girl midget – a gidget.’

              “Somebody else started giving her a hard time, saying ‘Whatta ya think you’re doing? Don’t you know girls can’t surf?’

              “Gidget (whose real name was Kathy Kohner) stopped halfway down the stairs, practically in tears. Tubesteak, who had a soft heart and needed a girlfriend, went over and said, ‘Hey, it’s okay if you surf. Come on down.’”¹⁴²

So, Tubesteak was the guy who first named Gidget. “According to Tubesteak himself,” wrote Nat Young, “about the last week in June 1956 he, Mickey Munoz and Micky Dora were standing on the incline above Malibu, checking out the waves, when a young surfer in a baby-blue ski parka pulled a new Velzy/Jacobs board from the rear of a Buick convertible and headed off down the path.

              "'Hey,' shouted Dora, hassling the new arrival. 'Go back to the valley, you kook!' shouted Munoz. The stranger got such a shock he stumbled and the board tumbled to the rocks below. Tubesteak told the others to shut up and went to help and discovered the new arrival was a girl. A very short girl!

              "'For Chrissake,' mumbled Tubesteak, 'it's a midget, a girl midget, a goddamn gidget!'

              "The girl was not amused. 'I'm not a gidget,' she yelled. 'My name is Kathryn -- and you can keep your filthy hands of me, you creep.'

              "Tubesteak laughed. 'Hey Gidget, see you around.'"¹⁴³

              "That,” wrote Young of Tubesteak’s reception of Gidget into the Malibu fold, “was a statement which was to mean more than Tubesteak thought. Kathryn's father was a writer, and he wrote a book about his daughter's summer adventure which became a bestseller. Columbia made the first of its Gidget movies, glamorizing the West Coast surfing life, and suddenly [after 1959] everyone seemed to be going surfing. It was the 'in' thing to do. [But} By the summer of 1956 the surfing craze was in [a more natural, evolutionary stage of] high gear. Surfers had built the two famous grass shacks at Malibu which appear in the Gidget films, one in the pit and another out on the point. The offshore santana winds blew regularly all that summer and there was a consistent glassy swell. It was a time when Dora could be seen flying across the face of a five-foot wall, executing a perfect 'el spontaneo' while the crowd on the beach went wild. Munoz might be next up with an immaculate Quasimodo, followed by Cooper with an 'el telephono' from point to the pit…"¹⁴⁴

              “An indomitable girl,” wrote Jeff Duclos, “Gidget finally mastered the board. Breaking into the man’s world was just as hard. An artless, sensitive girl, she still flinches at memories of her rebuffs before being accepted: ‘I used to say, “Look, I’m not bothering you.” And they’d say: “Yeah? You’re still breathing.’” – Kathy “Gidget” Kohner, as told to Life magazine, October 1957. ¹⁴⁵

              “Gidget never did become a very good surfer,” Doyle noted, “but she learned to take our roasting in good humor, and eventually she was accepted into the crowd because all of us could appreciate somebody who tried as hard as she did. Like me and a few others in that Malibu crowd, Gidget was the kind of person who didn’t really fit in back in her own neighborhood, but instead of feeling sorry for herself, she bought an old Buick convertible and a surfboard, and found her way to the beach. I really admired her for that.

              “I thought Gidget was cute: She had dark hair, fair skin, and nice legs,” wrote Mike Doyle. “One day I told Gidget that the board she had was way too big for her, that she would have an easier time learning to surf if she used a smaller board. She asked me what kind of board she needed, and I said, ‘Why don’t you let me find one for you.’ After looking around, I found a board that was just right for her. I got her a deal on it, too: fifteen dollars. Gidget and I became friends after that. I’d take her to the movies or just for a walk along the beach. But there were other guys taking her out during the same time, so we never had anything very serious going.” ¹⁴⁶

              "Probably it was the Gidget movies, books and magazines," suggested Young, "that did as much as anything to bring surfing to the masses. Malibu had become a prestige area, and many sons and daughters of the wealthy people who lived along the coast became involved in surfing... and the 'surfers' who went with it. At the time these included Dewey Weber, Mickey Munoz, Kemp Aaberg, Bob Cooper, Mike Doyle, Jim Fisher, Micky Dora, Johnny Fain, Tom Morey, Robert Patterson and 'Tubesteak.'” ¹⁴⁷

---

^{1  Muirhead, Surfing In Hawaii, 1962, p. 2.}

^{2  Muirhead, 1962, p. 2.}

^{3  Stewart, C. S. A Residence in the Sandwich Islands, Boston, published 1839, p. 196. See also Finney and Houston, 1966, p. 35.}

^{4  Emory, Kenneth P. "Sports, Games, and Amusements," Ancient Hawaiian Civilization, "A Series of Lectures Delivered at the Kamehameha Schools," C.E. Tuttle Company, Inc., Rutland, Vermont, ©1965. Ninth printing, 1981, p. 149.}

^{5  Finney and Houston, 1966, pp. 41-42 and the 1996 edition, p. 36.}

^{6  Thrum, Thomas G. "Hawaiian Surf Riding," Hawaiian Almanac and Annual for 1896, Honolulu, Hawaii, pp. 106-107. See also Finney and Houston, p. 42.}

^{7  Finney and Houston, 1966, p. 42 and the 1996 edition, p. 38.}

^{8  Waimau, J. "Ka Holomana Kahiko," Nupepa Kuokoa, December 23, 1865. Quoted in Lueras, 1984, p. 38.}

^{9  Finney and Houston, 1966, p. 42.}

^{10  Patterson. Surf-Riding, "Mele of Hono-kau-pu," © 1960, pp. 124-5. Nuumehalani is the name given for the home of the gods. Patterson has "hidden harbor" in the fourth line, but this must be a typo. A mele is a Hawaiian chant or song. See Finney and Houston, p. 39.}

^{11  Pukui and Elbert, Place Names of Hawaii, ©1974. The name changed around 1800; “the area from Nu‘u-anu Avenue to Ala-kea Street and from Hotel Street to the sea (Westervelt, 1964b:15), noted for konane (pebble checkers) and for ulu maika (bowling), and said to be named for the executive officer (ilamuku) of Chief Kakuhihewa of O‘ahu (PH 168). Lit., kou tree.”}

^{12  Gault-Williams, “Ancient Hawaiian Surf Culture” and “Ancient Polynesian Surfers.” Also, Finney & Houston, Surfing, A History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport, ©1996, p. 30.}

^{13  See Gault-Williams, "Ancient Hawaiian Surf Culture." Former land section along the waterfront beyond the seaward end of Ala-kea Street, downtown Honolulu. See Pukui and Elbert, Place Names of Hawaii, 1974, p. 49. Lit., the albatross bay.}

^{14  Wright, Bank. Surfing Hawaii, ©1973, 1985, pp. 16-17.}

^{15  Finney & Houston, 1996, p. 33.}

^{16  Patterson, 1960, p. 123.}

^{17  Patterson, 1960, p. 123.}

^{18  Patterson, 1960, p. 123.}

^{19  Finney, Ben R. and Houston, James D. Surfing, The Royal Sport of Hawaiian Kings, ©1966, C.E. Tuttle Company, Rutland, Vermont, pp. 38-39. See also Patterson, p. 123.}

^{20  Patterson, 1960, pp. 123-4.}

^{21  Pukui, Mary Kawena, Elbert, Samuel H. and Mookini, Esther T. Place Names of Hawaii, ©1974, The University of Hawai`i Press, Honolulu, Hawai`i, p. 144. See also Finney and Houston, 1966, p. 39 and Westervelt, 1964b: 15, 52-54.}

^{22  Finney and Houston, 1996, p. 33 & 35.}

^{23  Patterson, 1960, pp. 124-5. Nuumehalani is the name given for the home of the gods.}

^{24  Westervelt, 1915, p. 52-54. See also Finney and Houston, 1996, p. 35.}

^{25  Lueras, 1984, p. 42.}

^{26  Kahanamoku, 1968, p. 31.}

^{27  Hawaiian Gazette, "Sled of a Chiefess," December 8, 1905, p. 6. Quoted in Lueras, 1984, p. 43.}

^{28  Ii, John Papa. Fragments of Hawaiian History, translated by Mary Kawena Pukui, ©1959, Bishop Museum Press, Chapter X, "Life in Kona." Quoted in Lueras, 1984, pp. 42-43.}

^{29  George, Sam. “500 Years of Women’s Surfing,” Surfer, Volume 40, Number 3, March 1999, p. 112.}

^{30  Kahanamoku, 1968, p. 28.}

^{31  Kahanamoku, 1968, p. 29.}

^{32  Kahanamoku, Duke with Brennan, Joe. World of Surfing, ©1968, Grosset & Dunlap, New York, NY, p. 30.}

^{33  Blake, Thomas E. Hawaiian Surfriders 1935, Mountain and Sea, Redondo Beach, California, ©1983. Originally entitled Hawaiian Surfboard, published 1935, by Paradise of the Pacific Press, Honolulu, Hawaii, p. 60. William A. Cottrell, one of the early twentieth century surfriders at Waikiki, quoted.}

^{34  Kahanamoku, 1968, p. 32. Grady Timmons has Hui Nalu meaning "Club of the Waves," p. 28.}

^{35  Brennan, 1994, p. 23. Duke Kahanamoku quoted.}

^{36  Finney and Houston, James D. Surfing, A History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport, ©1996, p. 61.}

^{37  Finney and Houston, 1966, p. 71.}

^{38  Brennan, 1994, pp. 23-24.}

^{39  Blake, p. 61.}

^{40  Blake, 1935, 1983, pp. 50-51.}

^{41  Blake, p. 61.}

^{42  Blake, 1935, 1983, pp. 53-54.}

^{43  Blake, 1935, 1983, p. 52.}

^{44  Blake, 1935, 1983, p. 16. Blake misspelled Kalehuawehe as “Kalahuewehe.” Corrected, here.}

^{45  Gault-Williams, Malcolm. Interview with John “Doc” Ball, January 10, 1998.}

^{46  Lynch, Gary, “Doc Ball, Legendary Lensman,” April 10, 1990.}

^{47  Gault-Williams, Malcolm. Interview with John “Doc” Ball, January 10, 1998}

^{48  Ball, 1946, 1979, 1995, pp. 84-85.}

^{49  Ball, 1946, 1979, 1995, pp. 56-57.}

^{50  Gault-Williams, Malcolm. Interview with John “Doc” Ball, January 10, 1998.}

^{51  Ball, 1946, 1979, 1995, pp. 44-47.}

^{52  Ball, 1946, 1979, 1995, pp. 86-87.}

^{53  Stecyk, The Surfer's Journal, Winter 1993-94, p. 38.}

^{54  See also Gault-Williams, Malcolm. “Tommy Zahn: For The Pure Joy Of It All,” collaboration with Gary Lynch, unpublished, ©1999.}

^{55  Lynch, Gary. Letter to Malcolm, August 9, 1998.}

^{56  Gault-Williams, Malcolm. Interview with John “Doc” Ball, January 10, 1998. Mary Ann Hawkins was married to Bud Morrisey for a while.}

^{57  Hawkins, Mary Ann. Letter to Gary Lynch, March 15, 1989. Punctuation corrected.}

^{58  Hawkins, Mary Ann. Letter to Gary Lynch, March 15, 1989. Punctuation corrected.}

^{59  Mary Ann occasionally misspelt Whitey’s first name as “Loren.”}

^{60  Gardner Lippincott (spelled Gardener Lippencot by Mary Ann) won the PCSC in 1934. See Gault-Williams, “Redwoods, Hollows & Redwood Combos.” and Gault-Williams and Lynch, “Doc Ball, Early California Surf Photog.”}

^{61  George “Nellie Bly” Brignell spelt “Nellie Blye Prignell,” by Mary Ann. See Gault-Williams, “Redwoods, Hollows & Redwood Combos.” and Gault-Williams and Lynch, “Doc Ball, Early California Surf Photog.”}

^{62  See Gault-Williams, “Redwoods, Hollows & Redwood Combos.” and Gault-Williams and Lynch, “Doc Ball, Early California Surf Photog.”}

^{63  See Gault-Williams, “Redwoods, Hollows & Redwood Combos.” Mary Ann identified this as “Frenchy Peterson,” but the only Frenchy around at that time was Frenchy Jahan.}

^{64  See Gault-Williams, “Redwoods, Hollows & Redwood Combos.” Mary Ann identified this as “Stokes,” but it was most likely Charle “Doakes” Butler.}

^{65  See Gault-Williams, “Pete & Whitey.” Bill Hollingsworth, Bob Sides, Willy Grigsby and Whiey Harrison were the first guys known to have surfed San Onofre, after Sides first discovered it as a surfing spot, circa 1933.}

^{66  Hawkins, Mary Ann. Letter to Gary Lynch, March 15, 1989. Punctuation corrected.}

^{67  No way was it 30-feet; maybe maximum of 12.}

^{68  Hawkins, Mary Ann. Letter to Gary Lynch, March 15, 1989. Punctuation corrected.}

^{69  Mary Ann wrote it as “hupping,” but she surely must have meant “humping,” which is the term used in those days.}

^{70  Hawkins, Mary Ann. Letter to Gary Lynch, March 15, 1989. Punctuation corrected.}

^{71  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 53. Ricky Grigg quoted.}

^{72  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 53. Joe Quigg quoted.}

^{73  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 53. Aggie Bane Quigg quoted. As of 1999, Joe and Aggie had been together for 49 years.}

^{74  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 53. Joe Quigg quoted.}

^{75  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 53. Aggie Quigg quoted.}

^{76  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 56. Joe Quigg, caption to photo of Mary Ann riding a surfboard in back of a Redondo Beach roadster after a storm flood. See also photo of Mary Ann on p. 57.}

^{77  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 53. Robin Grigg quoted. Mary Ann actually started out as a swimmer, then got into surfing, then returned to swimming. See Gault-Williams, “The Last Chapter: Tarzan Smith}

^{78  Zahn, Tommy. Interviewed by Gary Lynch, July 3, 1990.}

^{79  Zahn, Tommy. Interviewed by Gary Lynch, July 3, 1990.}

^{80  George, Sam. “500 Years of Women’s Surfing, Surfer magazine, Vol. 40, Number 3, March 1999, p. 112.}

^{81  Lynch, 1995, pp. 30-31. Quigg's notations on diagrams.}

^{82  Stecyk, Craig. The Surfer's Journal, Volume 1, Number 3, 1992, p. 49.}

^{83  Stecyk, Craig. The Surfer's Journal, Volume 1, Number 3, 1992, p. 49.}

^{84  Lynch, 1995, p. 28. Joe Quigg quoted.}

^{85  Lynch, 1995, pp. 28-29.}

^{86  Stecyk, Craig. The Surfer's Journal, Volume 1, Number 3, 1992, p. 49.}

^{87  Lynch, 1995, pp. 30-31. Quigg's notes have the spelling "Darolyn" for Darrylin Zanuck.}

^{88  Lynch, 1995, pp. 28-29.}

^{89  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 54.}

^{90  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 54. Robin Grigg quoted.}

^{91  Stecyk, C.R. "Humaliwu," The Surfer's Journal, Volume 1, Number 3, 1992, p. 45.}

^{92  Stecyk, "Humaliwu," 1992, pp. 45-46.}

^{93  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 57.}

^{94  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 57. Aggie Bane Quigg.}

^{95  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 55. Vicki Flaxman. Duclos has Ms. Flaxman as “Vicki,” although she appears in a number of sources as “Vicky.” I’ve used “Vicki,” under the assumption that the most recent portrait contains the most correct spelling.}

^{96  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 55.}

^{97  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 57.}

^{98  Stecyk, "Humaliwu," 1992, p. 60. Stecyk has Burrhead and others dismissing “potato chip boards”, but that was a Simmons invention and preceded Quigg’s work, although elements of the chip – sometimes even referred to as the “Malibu Chip” – found their way into Quigg’s designs.}

^{99  Stecyk, "Humaliwu," 1992, p. 60. Stecyk has the date as September 1, 1950, but Vicki recalls this as during the Windansea luau of July 4th 1950.}

^{100  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, pp. 57-58. Vicki Flaxman.}

^{101  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 58. Vicki Flaxman.}

^{102  George, Sam. “500 Years of Women’s Surfing, Surfer magazine, Vol. 40, Number 3, March 1999, p. 112.}

^{103  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 55. Albert Smith, caption to photo of Claire Cassidy on same page.}

^{104  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 52.}

^{105  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 52. Ricky Grigg quoted.}

^{106  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 55. Joe Quigg.}

^{107  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, pp. 55-56. Joe Quigg. See photo of Vicki, Ricky Grigg, Nick Gabalon and unidentified riding 3-foot Malibu in 1950. Photo on p. 52.}

^{108  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, pp. 56-57.}

^{109  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 57. Robin Grigg. See picture of Vicki and Claire, with their labelled boards on p. 50.}

^{110  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 53.}

^{111  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, pp. 53-54. Robin Grigg quoted. The board referenced was an early version of Joe Quigg’s “ground-breaking ‘Girls Boards’ that followed,” meaning predecessor to the Darrylin Board.}

^{112  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 54. Robin Grigg quoted.}

^{113  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 54. See the Kivlin-illustrated “Summers Pau Welakakao,” summer’s end, it’s time to party invitation replicated on p. 54.}

^{114  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 54. Ted’s last name spelled “Crain” in this article.}

^{115  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 54. Note with accompanying photo of a Kivlin party.}

^{116  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 55.}

^{117  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 55.}

^{118  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 55. Robin Grigg.}

^{119  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 55. Ricky Grigg.}

^{120  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 56. Vicki Flaxman.}

^{121  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 56. Aggie Bane Quigg.}

^{122  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 57. Joe Quigg.}

^{123  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 57. Joe Quigg quoted.}

^{124  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 58. Robin Grigg.}

^{125  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 58. Vicki Flaxman.}

^{126  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 58. Robin Grigg.}

^{127  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 58. Aggie Quigg.}

^{128  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 58. Robin Grigg.}

^{129  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, p. 58. Ricky Grigg.}

^{130  See Gault-Williams, Malcolm. “Ancient Hawaiian Surf Culture.”}

^{131  Clark, Rosie Harrison. Let’s Go, Let’s Go! The Biography of Lorrin “Whitey” Harrison: California’s Legendary Surf Pioneer, p. 72.}

^{132  George, Sam. “500 Years of Women’s Surfing, Surfer magazine, Vol. 40, Number 3, March 1999, p. 112.}

^{133  George, Sam. “500 Years of Women’s Surfing, Surfer magazine, Vol. 40, Number 3, March 1999, p. 112.}

^{134  Walt Hoffman referred to her as “Joni Jones.”}

^{135  The former Ethel Harrison, from the Mainland.}

^{136  Heidi Stevens = Phil Edwards future wife?}

^{137  Robin Grigg = Ricky Grigg’s sister.}

^{138  Rell Sunn’s mother?}

^{139  Barrie misspelled “Barey” in original program guide.}

^{140  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999, pp. 52-53. Darrylin misspelled.}

^{141  The Surfer's Jounrnal, Volume 1, Number 3, C.R. Stecyk, p. 42.}

^{142  Doyle, Mike. Morning Glass, ©1993, pp. 35-36.}

^{143  Young, 1983, p. 82. Terry "Tubesteak" Tracy's recollection. As Young got this information second-hand, it’s probably the least accurate of the recollections of the event entered here. See also C.R. Stecyk's version in The Surfer's Journal, Volume 1, Number 3, p. 42. Stecyk’s recollections are closer to Doyle’s.}

^{144  Young, 1983, p. 83.}

^{145  Duclos, Jeff. “Women of Malibu,” Longboard, Volume 7, Number 2, May/June 1999. Replicated on p. 55.}

^{146  Doyle, Mike. Morning Glass, ©1993, p. 36.}

^{147  Young, 1983, p. 82. Terry "Tubesteak" Tracy's recollection. See also C.R. Stecyk's version in The Surfer's Journal, Volume 1, Number 3, p. 42. He pin-points the event as June 27, 1956, but has Gidget's board as "an oversized beater balsa board."}