SurfGirl Magazine Issue 68 Back Issue

Whether you’re a 15 year-old grom, or a 50 year-old just learning to surf, age doesn’t matter in the line-up. The stoke you get when you take up surfing is timeless. So, in this issue we’ve bought together women spanning the decades, to find out what surfing means at their time in life, whether they’re busy juggling kids with trying to surf, or defying what’s expected of ‘a certain age’ and surfing into their 70s – like Robyn Strano. It’s all about having a positive mindset and staying fit to surf. Bear this in mind and we could all be like Robyn in years to come!
Today women’s surfing is booming. From inspiring performances by pro surfers on the world tour, to women-only surf camps and female specific surf gear, the sport is bigger and more accessible, and there are more women in the line-up than ever before. However, the surf scene of the 80s and 90s was a different story, and one of testosterone-fuelled line-ups and sexism in the sport. It’s taken a couple of decades for the sport to open up to female surfers in a big way, and it’s thanks in part to strong women such as Layne Beachley, Lisa Andersen and Rochelle Ballard, who paved the way for pro surfing as we know it today. Read their stories in this issue. Plus, there’s a gallery of archive photos collated by the California Surfing Museum, to get a feel for what surfing was like for pioneering women in the era of Gidget and the early 20th century.
While we take a look back at the past, we also need to be mindful that we hold the future in our hands too. Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet, our world is a delicate ecosystem that needs balance to survive. Even if the leaders of the world aren’t listening, we still have a part to play, and as surfers we need be aware of the environment in which we play. We have some tips on how you can help in The Knowledge section – they are small steps, but we need to get on the right path for the sake of future generations.