--- title: International Surfing Day: Gidget Interview & Vintage Photos description: In honor of International Surfing Day, Gidget herself looks back on the history of women in American surfing canonical: https://time.com/4361986/international-surfing-day-2016-gidget/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-20T12:30:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:46:37.374Z article:section: History og:title: International Surfing Day: Gidget Interview & Vintage Photos og:description: Gidget herself reflects on surfing history og:url: https://time.com/4361986/international-surfing-day-2016-gidget/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd3608ada908b2f54/698897073c1639456845d91c/160608-international-surfing-day-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: International Surfing Day og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: International Surfing Day: Gidget Interview & Vintage Photos twitter:description: Gidget herself reflects on surfing history twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd3608ada908b2f54/698897073c1639456845d91c/160608-international-surfing-day-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Real-Life Gidget Reflects on Women in Surf History by [Olivia B. Waxman](/author/olivia-b-waxman/) and [Liz Ronk](/author/liz-ronk/) Jun 20, 2016 12:30 PM CUT  Six young women are ready with their surf boards on a beach in southern California, circa late 1920s/early 1930s. Six young women are ready with their surf boards on a beach in southern California, circa late 1920s/early 1930s.Underwood Archives—Getty Images by [Olivia B. Waxman](/author/olivia-b-waxman/) and [Liz Ronk](/author/liz-ronk/) Jun 20, 2016 12:30 PM CUT Think back on the popular image of surfing during the post-World War II years when the sport took off in Malibu, Calif., and the surfers you picture are likely to be male. And that image is, in part, correct. While Hawaiians have told stories about women catching waves alongside men in perfect harmony for centuries, surfing in the continental U.S. started out as a boys’ club. But that doesn’t mean women aren’t part of the early history of American and international surfing, as these vintage photos clearly show. And on International Surfing Day, which falls on Monday, it’s worth remembering their role. Though some women began surfing earlier, up until the mid-20th century they “were just expected to be on the beach and be props,” says Matt Warshaw, author of _The History of Surfing_ and the _Encyclopedia of Surfing_. Some of that had to do with the wooden boards used at the time being so heavy. Once men started making lighter, thinner boards for their girlfriends in the early 1950s, there emerged “a few girl surfers out at Malibu, like [Vicki Flaxman](http://encyclopediaofsurfing.com/entries/flaxman-vicki "undefined"), who were on beach every day, who got good at surfing really fast and seemed to be accepted.” One particular female surfer would become world-famous for trying to be a part of the boy’s club. Los Angeles native Kathy Kohner started learning to surf in the summer of ’56 and earned the nickname “Gidget” because a Malibu regular [Terry “Tubesteak” Tracy](http://encyclopediaofsurfing.com/entries/gidget "undefined") thought the 5-foot-tall 10th grader looked like “girl midget.” [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter "undefined") A crush on one of the boys motivated her to practice. Speaking to TIME by phone, Kohner, now Kathy Zuckerman, 75, recalls recording in her diary “every time the love interest was at Malibu. And if he wasn’t at Malibu, it was like, ‘Oh, I’ll have to paddle harder to make this day well worth it.'” The older boys treated her like a kid and would “tease me, throw my board over the fence,” she recalls. “One of the guys disconnected the distributor in my car. Years later, I found out it was because I brought along a girl friend who was very well-endowed, and it was the only way they could keep looking at her.” Her experiences inspired her father, Hollywood screenwriter Frederick Kohner, to pen the bestselling 1957 novel _Gidget,_ to which LIFE magazine devoted an Oct. 27, 1957, photo essay called [“Gidget Makes the Grade”](https://books.google.com/books?id=5lYEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA110#v=twopage&q&f=false "undefined") by photographer Alan Grant. The surfing girl became a nationwide sensation after the 1959 film adaptation starring [Sandra Dee](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052847/ "undefined") and the 1960s TV adaptation starring [Sally Field](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058806/?ref%5F=ttfc%5Ffc%5Ftt "undefined"). But by the time the first film came out, Kohner says, she had put her surfboard away and gone off to college. (Incidentally, she briefly became a travel agent like the Gidget in [the second TV adaptation (late 80s)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090488/fullcredits/ "undefined") before moving into the restaurant industry, where she’s worked for 35 years.) Nowadays, while she doesn’t surf anymore, she’s still friends with the boys with whom she used to surf (including her old crush), and she gets to be “Gidget” full-time as the so-called “Ambassador of Aloha” at the restaurant Duke’s Malibu, which displays her pictures on the wall and sells _Gidget_ books. “I would say that the _Gidget_ movie in 1959 was the start of the billion-dollar surf industry. There’s no question about it,” she says. Warshaw acknowledges that “Gidget became a great female surf icon” who inspired droves of women to pick up the sport, but laments that the most-skilled female surfers of that time period don’t have the same name-recognition— like Margo Oberg, Linda Benson and two-time world champion surfer [Joyce Hoffman](http://encyclopediaofsurfing.com/entries/hoffman-joyce-new "undefined"), to name a few. “There are women surfers to this day who cite \[Gidget\] as someone who inspired them, but she’s a symbol more than a real thing,” he says. But _Gidget_ didn’t mean women were immediately accepted into the surfing mainstream, he says. Even as the Women’s International Surfing Association was founded in the mid-’70s, female surfers were often judged on their looks rather than their skill. Even after Roxy-sponsored four-time world champion [Lisa Andersen](http://roxy.com/surf/team/lisa-andersen.html "undefined") stood out during the surfing craze of the 1990s, Warshaw says that—after interviewing female surfers over the years—there is still a feeling among surfers that women are more likely to get attention for being buxom blondes than athletes. “Periodically, there are people and events that seem to show it’s getting better—and one of the events was not long after World War II in Malibu—but the sport remains ridiculously sexist,” Warshaw argues. The real-life Gidget doesn’t see it that way. “There are women that have surf schools, there are fantastic women surfers, I definitely do not see it as a male-oriented sport,” she says. “It’s a very mainstream type of sport that women and men both do. Now big wave surfing? I just saw video of [Bethany Hamilton](http://bethanyhamilton.com/tow-in-surf-at-peahi-jaws/ "undefined") surfing at [Jaws](http://bethanyhamilton.com/tow-in-surf-at-peahi-jaws/ "undefined") \[a big wave spot on Maui’s north shore\]. That is pretty amazing. I don’t see it as, ‘She’s a woman.’ I just see think that’s amazing…Cowabunga! [It’s the ultimate](https://books.google.com/books?id=eBvMFuHle2kC&pg=PA37&lpg=PA37&dq=it%27s+the+absolute+ultimate+sandra+dee&source=bl&ots=dxAnsx24bd&sig=whTz%5FapdVQNhlV3PEusZVD-%5FG-8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwicl52K4q%5FNAhUCXz4KHYU5D08Q6AEIVDAQ#v=onepage&q=it's%20the%20absolute%20ultimate%20sandra%20dee&f=false "undefined"), as Sandra Dee said in the _Gidget_ movie.”  Six young women are ready with their surf boards on a beach in southern California, circa late 1920s/early 1930s. Underwood Archives—Getty Images  Women surfboarders form a star as they lie on their huge hollow surfboards on Santa Monica beach, circa 1935. General Photographic Agency—Getty Images  Surfers in the water in Hawaii, 1938. Toni Frissell—Condé Nast/Getty Images  Geraldine Mathis being pulled along on her surfboard by a car driven along the sand near the mouth of the Necanicum River in Oregon circa 1940. FPG—Getty Images  A lifeguard teaches four women how to handle a surfboard on the beach at Newquay in Cornwall, 1950. J. R. T. Richardson/Fox Photos—Getty Images  Expert surfer Betty Hunt riding the waves at Newquay, Cornwall, 1952. John Chillingworth/Picture Post—Getty Images  Three surfing girls (left to right, Marilyn Ridge, Lyn Connelly, Dee Delaney) prepare to ride the swell and maybe catch a tube or two down on Newquay beach, Cornwall, 1955. Russell Knight/BIPS—Getty Images  16 yr. old surfer Kathy (Gidget) Kohner on the beach with her surfboard, 1957. Allan Grant—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Kathy Kohner (aka Gidget) surfing, 1957. Allan Grant—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  American actor Sandra Dee walks on the beach, carrying a surfboard in a still from the film, 'Gidget,' directed by Paul Wendkos, 1959. Columbia Pictures—Courtesy of Getty Images  Two women carrying their surfboards at the beach, 1960. Marka/UIG—Getty Images  Members of the North Bay surfing club upload their surf boards from a station wagon at Malibu Beach, Calif. on July 12, 1961. AP Photo  Linda Benson of the United States in competition for the women’s title of the World Surfboard Riding Championships staged at Sydney’s Manley Beach, Australia on May 17, 1964. AP Photo  Maureen Horsley, 18, of Sydney, Australia, left, and American champion Linda Benson, 20, of the Encinitas Club of California, prepare for a dip in the Australian surf on May 16, 1964, in a warm-up for the World Surfboard Riding Championships at Sydney’s Manly Beach. AP Photo  A woman carries her surf board down to the water on a beach near Sydney, Australia, circa 1965. Archive Photos—Getty Images  Sally Field from the television series, 'Gidget,' posing in a swimsuit with a surfboard on the beach, circa 1965. ABC Television—Courtesy of Getty Images  Water ski champions demonstrating their skills as they ride the wake of the waves without the use of a tow-line, at Cypress Gardens in California, 1965. Keystone-France/;Gamma-Keystone—Getty Images  Surfers enjoying the warm waters of Miami Beach, Fla., 1966. Joe Migon—AP Photo  US surfer, Kathie Lacroix, during the Woman's World Surfing Championships, 1966. Charles Bonnay—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  A woman in a checkered bikini leaning on a surf board Circa 1967 in Los Angeles. 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