Pittwater Life August 2018 Issue

PL’s AUGUST SURF CALENDAR
10-21/8: WSL CT men’s Billabong Pro, Teahupoo, Tahiti
This event turns the pro year around. Before it, lots of surfers still
kinda had a shot at a world title, or at least a big ranking; after it,
only five or six will be in it. Teahupoo when it’s on epitomises what
we might call the Core Theory of professional surfing, which runs
thus: The waves are the main game. A great surfer will interest
some people, but epic surf gets everyone. In the case of Chopes,
it’ll be the year’s biggest challenge to the young Brazilian surfers
who’ve dominated much of the competition so far. They rip in
normal surf, but Teahupoo is not remotely normal.
NICK’S AUGUST SURF FORECAST
I have to say, July did way better than I’d expected. It featured
the best six hours of surf this year, when an unexpected northeast
swell popped up off a short-lived wind-band up near Lennox
Head, and two of the biggest swells of the year, one of which – a
massive southerly – pretty much stripped Pittwater’s beaches.
Super fun! And also super cold! I think August might begin a trend
away from mega-swells. There might be something significant
early in the month from deep winter storms moving south of
Tassie, but once they’re done, expect a long second half of the
month, with light winds, occasional cold westerlies, and mostly,
very small waves. Sorry.
Nick Carroll
but they also suspected the real
reason Fred had invited Laura
to compete, out of all the girl
surfers in Hawaii, was that Laura
had recently appeared in Playboy
magazine.
They elected Patti to go talk
with Fred about this conundrum.
“Fred was like, ‘Who are you
to be telling me how to run
my business?’” she laughed.
“But I went to lunch with him,
and we kept talking… Maybe it
was some of the Italian in me –
scrappy, is that the word?”
Patti and Fred had plenty
of arguments, but finally he
relented, and asked her to run
the women’s events, which
by 1976 had expanded into
something worth calling a Tour.
So Patti actually founded the
Women’s World Tour. She ran
it that year, then for the next
two years during which the first
women’s pro champion, Margo
Oberg of Kauai, was repeatedly
crowned.
By 1979 Patti had had
enough of running contests
and tours, and decided to
challenge herself. She went
back to California and did Law
at Pepperdine University, and
eventually found her way into
journalism, where she was a key
correspondent for the fledgling
CNN, covering everything from
the Reagan Presidency to the
Rodney King riots in LA. When
CNN sacked her in 1994 after
the birth of her second child,
The Local Voice Since 1991
she fought a celebrated lawsuit
over the issue of employment
during childbirth, took it to
the Supreme Court, and won.
Subsequently she wrote a
best-selling book, ‘Work Smarts
For Women: The Essential Sex
Discrimination Survival Guide’.
Today Patti is an Adjunct
Professor of Law at Pepperdine,
where she teaches legal theory.
She also still owns the old
family home at Waialua, where
she stays and surfs regularly
through the Hawaiian winter
surf season.
I know of very few ex-pro
surfers who come close to Patti
in terms of achievement in and
beyond the sport, if it really is a
sport. Her efforts began a chain
of events that led directly to
Steph Gilmore’s fantastic recent
win at Jeffreys Bay. But why had
I never heard of her before I
started scratching away at this
book? Simple: no surf mag had
ever published a story about
her, or featuring her, or really
anything about the Hawaiian
women surfers of the time at all.
Surfers of the time thought
they were radical people living
a radical life, and in some
senses they were. But when
it came to seeing women and
men as equals, they were as
conservative as any of their
parents.
More from this mad research
from time to time in coming
months!
AUGUST 2018 43
Surfing Life