Surf contest brings out the best for third annual event in Malibu.
By Cathy Neiman/Staff Writer
The weather gods were in good form this weekend, as well as the women, for the Third Annual United Surfers Association (USA) Women’s Longboard Championship at Surfrider Beach.
The 2- to 4-foot waves provided excellent surfing conditions for the weekend contest starting on Saturday. The competition featured the world’s top professional longboard surfers with more than 50 professional women competitors and about 50 amateur competitors.
It was a beautiful sunny day, as the morning fog burned off into a hot afternoon. Dozens of women, of all ages, were in the ocean paddling out on their longboards, waiting to catch the one. The contest was divided into five different classes of competition: U.S. Women’s Pro Longboard Open (ages 20 and up); U.S. Women’s Longboard Masters (ages 35 and up); Wahine Teen (ages 15-19); Teeny Wahine (ages 14 and under); and the Men’s Malibu Heels-Over Exhibition (invitation only). The contestants came from all over California, from San Diego to Santa Cruz and every coastal city in between. There were also contestants from Australia, Florida and Hawaii.
An out-of-towner from St. Augustine, Fla., Lauren Hill, won the Wahine Teen Division of the contest, while mother and daughter Kim and Margeaux Hamrock of Huntington Beach won the Women’s Open Division and the Teeny Wahine Division crown, respectively. In the Women’s Master segment, Mary Schwinn of Playa del Rey came in first place.
The surfers were judged on their skill, ability, grace and sportsmanship. No “surf rage” was tolerated.
“In past contests there were boys who would surf right in front of the girls to mess them up,” said Jericho Poppler, one of the Master’s Division contestants and past world surf champion.
“The contests have gotten much better as far as surf rage [is concerned],” she said. “It seems women have to fight for everything.”
Jericho (her last name is rarely used in the surfing world) was one of the celebrity surfers at the contest. A veteran surfer of 40 years, from Long Beach, Calif. and a world champion surfer in 1970, she is also the mother of five children. Not only is Jericho a professional surfer and mother, she also was one of the founders of the Surfrider Foundation and the more recent Ground Swell Society, where she teaches children to surf “clean”- teaching them not to give in to “surf rage” and to keep the beaches clean and litter free.
Jerichco has also been involved with numerous projects throughout the years-surfing, teaching and working with the environment.
“Surfing is it. It’s my life,” she said with a smile as she picked up her signature “Jericho” surfboard made from surfboard manufacturer Robert August, who was also responsible for the surf movie classic, “Endless Summer.”
Jericho manages to surf three to four days a week, notwithstanding her busy schedule.
The subject that continually came up when speaking with these graceful water goddesses was how hard it is for women.
Kassia Meador, a 20-year-old from Westlake Village, Calif., is a two-time winner of professional surf contests. She won the Malibu Margaritaville Surf Contest two years ago and took third place in the “Toes on the Nose” World Championship in Costa Rica.
“When it comes to surfing, women put just as much work into the sport as men do, but women get nothing back,” Meador said. “Sponsors only put the funds back in to the men surfers not the women, so it is unfair sometimes. But it is getting better.”
She brushes her hand through her blonde-streaked, cropped hair.
“It’s like breaking a bad habit. The more contests there are for women, the better it will be.”
Numerous companies sponsor Meador, who has been surfing for five years and competing for four, such as surf-wear clothing company Roxy and Velvet Eyewear.
This weekend’s contest was formerly titled “Margaritaville Longboard Open,” sponsored by Joseph E. Seagram (of Seagram’s alcohol beverages). But Seagram fell on hard times and sold last winter, causing the USA a significant loss in sponsorship money. When informed that Margaritaville wanted to bring in a men’s only professional division to the formerly all-women contest, USA took a financial risk and severed relations with Margaritaville to uphold the USA’s support of women’s surfing contests. This year, USA could not find a corporate sponsor willing to fund the event like Seagram did in the past, and could only find funds for this one event in Malibu at Surfrider Beach.
Flip Cuddy, organizer for the USA Women’s Professional Longboard Contest, stands his ground on having the contest be women only, and not change it to a men’s contest just because of the lack of sponsor funding.
“The caliber of surfers this year is incredible,” Cuddy said. “All the women in the pro divisions of this contest surfed extremely well and gave proof that women’s longboard surfing is continuing to raise the bar of professionalism. The future of women’s longboarding is strong.”
And echoing what Jericho said, Cuddy reaffirmed the fact that, “It seems women have to fight for everything.”