December 2008

Surf's Up

It’s a great day for Aussie beaches. This week current reigning world champ surfer Stephanie Gilmore reclaimed her world title.

It’s a great day for Aussie beaches. This week current reigning world champ surfer Stephanie Gilmore reclaimed her world title. The perpetually smiling golden girl from Queensland is just 20 years old! Steph is apparently part of a ferocious new female surfing scene who love nothing more than carving up the ocean with their boards and giving the guys a run for their money. It’s exciting to think about how good they are now and can still become. I grew up watching that classic 1981 Aussie film Puberty Blues and the last scene of the girls taking to the waves — to the shock horror of their male and female peers — is a great reminder how far these female surfers have developed as champions. With women these days become increasingly strong, athletic and revelling in their bodies abilities, it’s interesting to think about what else they can achieve on the waves.

For all those (female) surfie grommets who hang out on the beach, down and out, wondering what to do with their lives, now the possibilities to surf their way to stardom is a real and very exciting possibility. Surf your way around the world. Australia’s beaches have always been a place for dreams and escapism, now even more so, as the horizon seems to have grown wider. It makes me wonder if I should have learnt to surf. Never mind the fact I can’t ice skate or rollerblade (also sporting endeavours requiring balance), surfing just looks like so much fun. It makes me want to squeeze into my antiquated wetsuit (from scuba diving days) and hit the surf and pretend to be, at the very least, Nell Schofield’s character from the film. I can’t wait for summer to roll around so I can sign up at my local surf school. One guy in Byron Bay guarantees he can get anyone standing! I don’t know who will have the tougher job me, or him teaching me. Hahaha. Steph has nothing to fear.
- Rachel Farnay Jacques