She hung a left and started to shred

Surfing

By Terry Rodgers
STAFF WRITER

March 30, 2004

(You can also read it here: http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/outdoors/20040330-9999-news_lz1s30surf.html)

The wind was shifting inside Jennifer James.  The ambition that had yielded a diploma from the University of Southern California and a job in marketing had lost its gravitational pull.

She found herself searching for answers in the lyrics of songs on the radio.

At age 25, she was having a typical quarter-life crisis.

"I thought to myself: 'If I don't change now, I'll be 50 years old looking back and not liking anything I've done with my life,'" James recalled.

She decided that surfing should be at the center of her life, not at the periphery.

Imagine the glee of her family when she broke the news, their eyebrows elevating with disbelief.

From this bold act of shedding her quiet life of desperation came the inspiration to organize the San Diego Surf Ladies, a surfing club for women and others in touch with their femininity.

Surf Ladies?

"I didn't want us to be called chicks. And women? Well, San Diego Surf Women sounded too burly.

"San Diego Surf Ladies rolled off my tongue and it stuck," she said. "If that sounds too dainty, too bad."

Her initial motivation was to create an organization that could foster local competitions for intermediate-level women surfers.

Jennifer began surfing at age 15. Her dad, a former surfboard shaper, gave her a quick backyard lesson and told her she was on her own. Her first board, shaped by her father in 1968, was a brick-shaped 8-foot-10 she nicknamed "The Beast."

She caught her first wave next to the Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach. It was an indelible moment.

As she stumbled to her feet on The Beast, her bathing suit top fell off.

"I got some cheers from bystanders on the pier," she recalled.

More surprises were awaiting her. Fast forward 10 years to last month.

After posting an announcement of the club's formation on the Surfline Web site, James received a flurry of e-mails from women wanting to join. Within two weeks, 40 women had signed up.

Some random dude also responded, asking if he could join, too.

Being collegial, Jennifer said OK.

Thus, Martin Rapa, an ocean engineer and surfer for 14 years, became the first man to join the San Diego Surf Ladies.

What was he, ah, thinking?

"It's not some big political statement," he said. "It was actually the result of an absurd joke."

Rapa said he saw the announcement of the club's formation on the Web site and thought it would be amusing to put James on the spot by asking if a male could join.

After exchanging several e-mails with her, he realized they share a similar zany sense of humor.

"We kinda became friends, I suppose," said Rapa, who is single.

On the club's Web site, James refers to Rapa as "the smartest man in San Diego" because he's finagled his way into a group of friendly, fun-loving women surfers.

Rapa said he's become a mentor to some of the club's beginner surfers and volunteers as the club's unofficial photographer.

James, now 26 and working for her father in property appraisal, said she has received encouragement from professional women surfers and recently met with leaders of the California Surf Coalition, an umbrella organization of surfing clubs.

A survey of new members shows that 60 percent want to "build community" among San Diego women surfers, while the remainder want to improve their competitive skills, James said.

In addition to helping women become better competitors, the club will help reinforce the rules of surfing etiquette, she said.

"I want this club to be a role model for other clubs," she said. "I'd love to see the girls have the chance I never had when I was starting out – to have an organization to help them grow and learn and welcome them as female surfers."

More information: See the club's Web site at www.sandiegosurfladies.com)

Terry Rodgers: (619) 542-4566; terry.rodgers@uniontrib.com