Women Making Waves 2024

 

Nine More Women Shaping Our Seas and Surfing

 

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

This is the ninth year for SurfWriter Girls Women Making Waves story focusing on nine amazing women making a difference in the lives of our oceans and in surfing. 

 

Like the ninth wave in a set, that is more powerful than the rest, these women have had a powerful impact on the world. Surfers, scientists, entrepreneurs, artists, and more. SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel are excited to introduce you to this lineup of dynamic women.

Nancy Caruso, marine biologist/founder of nonprofit Get Inspired! is getting people involved to restore California's kelp beds and protect endangered abalone, white sea bass and Pismo Clams. She's taught over 12,000 students and takes people in SoCal on dives to see the kelp beds and sea life. Caruso worked at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific caring for exhibits and animals and in the water quality lab. Growing up in Virginia, she hadn’t even seen the ocean when her fourth-grade teacher told the class about oceanography and got her hooked on being an oceanographer.  

 

 

Sally Fitzgibbons, 2024 U.S. Open of Surfing champion and Surfing Walk of Fame inductee, had lots to celebrate in Huntington Beach this August. The Australian, who started surfing on the World Tour in 2009, scoring a win in Portugal her rookie year, won the Open before in 2011 and has 12 wins on the Tour, including the Rip Curl, Billabong, and Fiji Pro events. With sponsors including Town & Country Surfboards, Breitling, Boost Mobile, and Accor Hotels, Fitzgibbons is a major force in surfing. She says, "Being a professional surfer is the best job in the world. The ocean is my office, nature is my business partner."  

 

Love Lee Ghione, founder of the Surf City Splash, Huntington Beach's annual New Year's Day run into the ocean, is at the heart of Surf City's vibe, working with the HB Coordinating Council and the Surfrider Foundation to stage events and promote the city. Known on Instagram as surfcitywonderwoman, Ghione lives up to the name with her boundless energy and enthusiasm. A dog lover, Ghione is also a co-founder of HB's DogBeach.org preservation group that supports the city's dog beach where pooches can run and play in the ocean.  

 

 

Christy Hahn, champion bodysurfer and Beach Volleyball Hall of Famer (Manhattan Beach Volleyball Championships Doubles winner 1969), is the epitome of the California beach girl, living a life people dream about. And, in February she saved a life, rescuing a swimmer from drowning in rough surf in Del Mar, CA. Hahn, who's in her eighties, knew the ocean conditions well. She set a World Record there in 2018 with twelve other bodysurfers for the most women bodysurfing a single wave. Hahn puts on bodysurfing clinics for disabled vets and Soul Surfer Bethany Hamilton's Beautifully Flawed Foundation

 

Melissa Murphy, of Melissa Murals, based in Huntington Beach, recently used a 60-ft. boom to paint the exterior of the Sunset Lounge, turning the building's bland gray exterior into a riot of color. With murals all around Huntington Beach and other SoCal beach towns, the HB native (nicknamed “Melissa Murals”), who graduated from CSU Long Beach with an art degree, is changing the look of the O.C. one brush stroke at a time. An avid surfer, former lifeguard and water polo player, she is particularly fond of ocean scenes and sea life.

  

Jane Schmauss, co-founder of the California Surf Museum in Oceanside, has served as the museum's director, president and historian. A San Diego native and graduate of San Diego State University, Schmauss is a booster for all things surfing. The museum's first location (in 1986) was in a corner of her restaurant George's in Encinitas, a spot where all the surfers hung out. Its current location, steps from Oceanside Pier, is 5800 sq. ft., filled with surfing exhibits, art and memorabilia. Schmauss co-edited Surfing in San Diego, a book about the region's surfing history. 

 

Brooke Shannon is the founder of Jilaine Swim, a Costa Mesa, CA, manufacturer of sustainable swimwear made from recycled materials. A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, Shannon started her business because she wanted to make a fashion statement while having a positive impact on the environment. A beach girl at heart, who practically lives in bathing suits, her lineup of eco-friendly swimwear lets her put all her skills to use. And nothing goes to waste – fabric scraps from the manufacturing process are made into matching scrunchies.

 

Caitlin Simmers, 18-year-old surfing phenom from Oceanside, CA, just made history by becoming the youngest female to win the World Surf League Championship. Dazzling the crowd at CA’s storied Lower Trestles in San Onofre State Beach September 6^th, she clinched the number one spot on the tour. With three World Tour wins this year and a spot on the 2024 Olympics team, the 2023 Rookie of the Year has not only lived up to everyone’s expectations but skyrocketed to the top of her sport.

 

Suzanne Strom, Ph.D., oceanographer and head of the Strom Lab at West Washington University, focuses much of her research on plankton, an important part of the ocean ecosystem. Plankton, a diverse collection of organisms that drift on the water, are a key source of food for fish, marine mammals and seabirds. Researching how plankton produce and interact, Strom has made breakthroughs in the lab and encountered 30-ft. waves at sea, working on projects from the Gulf of Alaska to the Palmer Station in Antarctica.  

 

Leaders in their chosen fields, each woman shares one thing in common – a passion for the ocean and a desire to make the world better.  

  

SurfWriter Girls

Surf’n Beach Scene Magazine

Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel hold the exclusive rights to this copyrighted material. Publications wishing to reprint it may contact them at surfwriter.girls@gmail.com Individuals and non-profit groups are welcome to post it on social media sites as long as credit is given.