Mindy Pennybacker: Women are making their mark in surfing

Dec. 23—Many a Hawaii parent's holiday travails involve wrapping a surfboard and finding space for it under the tree.

This can be a challenge, especially after too much cookies and whatever.

Especially if it's a longboard.

But it's so worth it in the morning to see that smile on your kid's face.

Later, of course, you have to surf—more challenge, after the stollen, coffee, kim chee fried rice and eggs.

And accidents can happen.

One Christmas morning 40 years ago I paddled out to Tonggs with my husband and my brother ; they caught the same wave and collided, paralyzing my husband's arm.

Don's arm recovered, but he and Robert gave up boards to bodysurf, exclusively.

Happy me. Fins are exponentially cheaper and take up less space than boards, but elicit smiles of equal wattage beneath the tree and justify spending more on my quiver.

On Dec. 5, local surfer Bettylou Sakura Johnson lit up with an early Christmas smile when she won the Michelob Ultra Pure Gold Haleiwa Challenger at Haleiwa's Alii Beach Park, during which she also qualified as a rookie on the World Surf League women's championship tour.

She held up her trophy, shaped like a surfboard's pointed nose, and bobbed it up and down.

The Haleiwa native's precisely drawn, daring rides in her home break, and her poise, grace and power in the big, rough conditions were loudly cheered by ohana, friends and, it seemed, her whole hometown on the beach.

"Winning the Challenger was a huge moment, not just for me but for my town, a big one for all of us, " the 16-year-old said in a phone interview a few days later.

"It's great to have all the support, but it can be a little overwhelming, " she said, adding recent inclement weather and lack of surf had provided a welcome excuse to hide indoors.

Before the Challenger, Johnson, who made a splash with her deep barrel ride as a wild card in the 2020 Maui Women's Pro at Honolua Bay, had surfed for points in qualifying events in California, Portugal and France.

"I'm happy that it's at home on this island, " she said of her first-ever professional competition at Haleiwa, noting there hadn't been any pro events for women there since 2010.

Opportunities for young, female Hawaii surfers to qualify at home have expanded rapidly since last December, when the Honolulu City Council passed Bill 10 requiring gender equity in sports events at city parks.

Hawaii natives swept the four-woman Challenger final heat, with Gabriela Bryan placing second and Olympic gold medalist and 5x world champ Carissa Moore placing third ; Australia's India Robinson took fourth.

Moore was the first to paddle over and hug Johnson, whom she defeated at Honolua last year.

"It was really cool—the champion said, 'welcome to the tour, '" Johnson said.

Asked how it felt to win against the champ, "To be honest, I don't really think about the competitors as going against them, " she said, "but it was just really cool to surf another heat with Carissa."

There's true sisterly solidarity among this crop of island rookies—Johnson, Kauai native Bryan, and Sunset Beach native Luana Silva, Johnson's best friend, who also qualified for the CT.

"I've never competed at Haleiwa, only free surfed, so it's really cool, and special, to see three new girls from Hawaii qualified, " said Bryan, 19, who won a regional qualifying series event in gnarly Pipeline barrels at 16, and qualified for the CT after this year's Portugal event.

Among the CT veterans, "we have so many (Hawaii ) girls to look up to like Carissa, and Malia (Manuel ) and Tatiana (Weston-Webb ), who are also from Kauai, " she said, thanking Kauai surfers Bethany Hamilton and Alana Blanchard for "always inspiring me."

"I've been inspired by Carissa ever since I was a little girl, and always will be, " said Silva, 17. "She's paved the way for so many young women in Hawaii as a role model, and I still pull up her videos on YouTube to see what she's doing (that ) I can mimic."

She added she was happy and amazed "Bettylou and I qualified this same year, because we grew up surfing together every day, and now I get to travel and compete with her and Gaby, " noting she and Bryan share the same coach, Rainos Hayes.

"It's this new generation that's been pushing the level so much in women's surfing, that makes it really fun to watch and be part of, " Silva said.

As a kid, Johnson said, she felt girls were far outnumbered by boys in the lineups and events.

"It used to be just me and Lulu on the North Shore, and then the (older ) CT girls, " she said, "but this last couple years, there's been a huge boom of younger girls."

Congratulations, too, to Hawaii's Moana Wong for winning the HIC Pipe Pro Dec. 16 at Banzai Pipeline, with Brisa Hennessy of Costa Rica placing second, Bryan third and Hawaii's Brianna Cope in fourth.

Strong performances from Hamilton, big-wave champ Keala Kennelly and North Shore native Coco Ho, with youngsters Silva, Zoe McDougall and Erin Brooks emerging from the ranks, showed Hawaii women rule in the sport invented here.

Which makes this old girl smile like a grom on her first board.