Herstory: Surfing in the late 1960s and early 1970s
Taking a look back with Sue Hodkinson
I surfed in Aotearoa/New Zealand in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
I was seriously short sighted and this was before contact lenses so I relied on my friends and the sunlight glinting on the swells. Surfing by braille meant I didn”t know the size of the wave but the bigger the better.
I am what is now referred to as an Early NZ Woman Surfer. But back then I was a “Tomboy”, a girl who didn't look after a boy’s dog and watch him surf. A girl who was so keen that a beautiful 6’ glassy offshore wave was “Love”.
At 14 years of age I realised that the boys in my Mount Maunganui College had a freer, exciting and unscripted life than the girls. My female gymnastics friends agreed and surfing fitted the physicality, excitement and artistry that we loved.
So Muffy, Tina, Peewee and I embraced surfing. Later there were more girls but at the time we were a novelty.
I was a dedicated, single minded surfer and I knew that my parents would be more forgiving if my school work and later university studies was the main focus. Thus surfing was my reward and my goal.
I remember sitting in the public toilets at beaches such as Whangamata and Raglan under the one electric light completing set reading or an assignment (it was pen and paper back then) whilst the boys were at the local pub or a party. Later we all stretched out under trees in our sleeping bags.
In my fourth year at Waikato University, the Science Faculty opened and the surfers enrolled.
I was able to ride with them on the gravel road to Raglan mid week and I remember we were so protective of the Raglan break that we put sugar in the road construction vehicles’ petrol tanks so that the road wouldn’t be tar sealed (We failed as today the road is sealed and Raglan is a surfing mecca).
There were no leg ropes, rash shirts, wetsuits, or custom boards when I began surfing. Surfers had to be strong swimmers and so many SurfLifesaving Clubs became the centres of Surfing.
My first fibreglassed board was 9’0 and was a secondhand one stringer Atlas Woods with one wooden/skeg/fin.
It was so wide I carried it miles and miles on my head as my arm could not reach around it.
I presented my parents with the board that I’d purchased from Marine Sports using the wages I saved over a couple of summers, from rolling ice creams in a local dairy and hamburger outlet.
It wasn’t a fashionable board. Fashionable boards were 9’6 and had multiple stringers. But at 5’2 /157 cm and being very small there was no way I could manage a bigger board.
A few years later Bob Davies made me custom boards and I could do more than big bottom turns.
Image: Su Hodkinson and her first board, Mt Maunganui 1964
Back then we wore bikinis made by our friends and original button fly Lee, or Levis, bought off the Australian surfers. My jeans were taken in by using a sacking needle to sew the seams to fit.
Later Exposay, a local Mount Maunganui international award winning swimwear company, created the bikinis.
I travelled to Australia in 1971 for my 21st Birthday and my aim was to surf and buy a wetsuit.
Guess what? I used the money to buy my Graduation Ball gown!
I surfed regularly in the weeks I was in NSW. Narrabeen and Avalon Beach, and also Crescent Head and Byron Bay. The Australian surfers surfing in Mount Maunganui had warned me off surfing at Narrabeen as they said the Australian surfers didn’t like female surfers. I was out at Narrabeen, doing my usual “Don't drop in on guys” etiquette when a surfer called out to me and began to paddle over. However it turns out he wanted a buyer for his stereo and he noticed my accent and after that I was able to surf as an accepted Narrabeen local.
“As a female surfer I heard frequently the refrain “You surf Ok for a girl”.”
However, girls were never equal. We competed in the worst surf. We got bounced out of surf safaris and we didn't have, until later, our own clothing. And socially, I fitted in better with the young surfers 2 or so years younger than I.
Clothing was important too. I discovered the smaller the bikini bottom, the better it stayed on my body,
Halterneck Bikini tops were more resilient and a breaking wave didn't snap the straps as easily as a bikini with shoulder straps. I became used to surfing with my hands covering my boobs because my bikini had broken!
To gain equity and blend in better in the surf, at 16 years of age, I cut my hair into an Eton Crop known as a Mia Farrow haircut. It was so convenient, as after a lunch time surf, my wet long hair no longer made my school uniform blouse transparent.
I competed in surf competitions a few times, mostly for the squad feel and the fact that competitions gave me access to new places and new people. My first Club was Mount Boardriders where I was registered as a Junior one year and a Lady another. Later, Bob took me under his wing and I was the first female in Bay Surfers. When at Waikato University in Hamilton, I met members of the Point Boardriders Club and I was so happy to meet some top NZ Woman Surfers who belonged to Point Boardriders.
I found it interesting that the Hamilton crew, being from an inland location, were more entrepreneurial than the Mount locals as they had to find petrol money to access any waves.
When I rode with the Waikato University surfers out to Raglan, and on longer Surfaris, we were in really old bangers. These 1930s Essexs Plymouths Chevs must be the pride and joy of their current Hot Rodder owners, but back then, breakdowns and failed brakes were standard.
On one trip we broke down returning from the East Cape and on another when coming down the Ohope Hill. Scary. My parents rescued us on both occasions but as there were no mobile phones and we had to beg locals to allow us to make a collect toll call.
“For me the best part of surfing was belonging to a new movement – relating to other people who were mad about surfing was shared common ground.”
We sat on the beach around a fire and ate loaves of Vienna or Barracuta bread and drank milk whilst we dissected our and each other's surfing.
We laughed about our escapades like when Mr Kereopa shot at us if we came beyond low water mark and onto his land at Raglan. Did he really shoot? He never shot me but I was very careful to stay on the far out.
I remember how cold Taranaki was when the snow melted and the icy water flowed and we surfed without wetsuits.
I remember keeping secret the “secret” spots at Matakana and Taranaki and how at the Nationals the Taranaki boys were leant to agree to ask the farmer for the Kumara Patch /Paroa Rd. to be available for the Nationals. This meant the end for those as a secret. This was also the time when Logan Murray flatted in my Mt Maunganui rental flat, and he was threatened with death for disclosing secret spots.
Back in 1966 the surfing at Matakana was non-existent. We 4 girls stayed the weekend at Muffys home at Bunn's Mill Cook House on Big Bend, Matakana Island (her Mum ran the Mill Cook House), where we could take the ancient fire engine over to the surf from Big Bend (from the harbourside of Matakana where the Mill was located) to the ocean side where we could surf. Paradise! Only 4 girls and before most anyone else had surfed the Island. This was before tinnys and jetskis surfers had to paddle across the Tauranga Harbour entrance and play chicken with any ship movements, but we girls were able to travel by barge.
I miss these, live in the moment surfing days. I'm grateful my old age strength and physicality was hewn by being a surfer. I'm grateful I learnt to stress less by exercise and at times my surfing was poetry in motion.
But best was the magic of the water moving, the tide and wind moving, the surfer moving, the world moving and yet the skilled artistry of the surfers ballet keeps it all in a beautiful synchronicity.
This quest for balance and speed still awes, excites, and gratifies me.
“I’m especially proud of all the women who surf. Women who because of their dedication and skill have ensured that the “Tomboy” and “You surf good for a girl” words are no longer heard.”
Photos: Su Hodkinson, 1960s
