A Brief History of Surfing by Matt Warshaw

Author:Matt Warshaw [Warshaw, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
Published: 2017-04-10T04:00:00+00:00

GARY PROPPER, COCOA BEACH, 1967.

MIDSIXTIES AD SHOOT FOR HANG TEN BEACHWEAR.

COSMO, PLAYBOY, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED . . . MAGAZINE PUBLISHERS LOVED TO RUN SURF FASHION LAYOUTS. THE CLOTHES WERE NEW AND HIP. BETTER STILL WERE ALL THOSE YOUNG, SLIM, CALIFORNIA-TANNED LEGS, ARMS, SHOULDERS, BACKS, AND STOMACHS. THE BEACH FASHION HOOK WAS SET PERMANENTLY INTO THE MINDS AND WALLETS OF AMERICAN CONSUMERS.

Women Surfers

Two-time world champion Joyce Hoffman of Capo Beach was blond and attractive, with a radiant smile and the deadliest competitive drive in all of surfing during the 1960s. “My idea of having fun,” she once said, “is being the best at something and winning all the time.” Seventeen, Vogue, and Teen all ran profiles on her. Triumph gave her a free TR4 roadster and used her in ads. She was Miss Capistrano Beach and named by the Los Angeles Times in 1966 as Woman of the Year. As the Times reported, Hoffman was a straight-A student who didn’t smoke or drink, liked Andy Williams records, and preferred (in Hoffman’s words), “nice, clean movies . . . not the new trash they’re putting out.” There was eye-rolling among surfers at Hoffman’s sanitized presentation of herself and the sport, but nobody gainsaid the fact that she was a kick-ass surfer who made a big impression on middle America.

Female celebrity and empowerment in the sport, though, was exceedingly rare. Women were more often treated as decorative: rubbing up against a male surfer in an advertisement, handing out trophies at the awards ceremony, or just watching the valuables while the guys hit the waves. Surf movies included plenty of girls, but most films didn’t have a single clip of a woman wave-riding. This was surfing sexism during the boom age. It only got worse in years to come.

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