Linda Benson

Linda Ben­son is a Cal­i­for­nia surfer who was the first woman to ride Waimea Bay. She com­peted for 10 years in the ‘60s, win­ning titles in both the West Coast Cham­pi­onships and the US Cham­pi­onships. Still mak­ing surf­ing a part of her life, Linda was gra­cious enough to share her story.

What was grow­ing up like?
I was born and raised in Encini­tas. Back then, every­body went to the beach in the sum­mer. Moon­light Beach was sim­ply the place to be. It had a recre­ation cen­ter, food and pic­nic area. Even the car guys would come down and wax their cars in a shady spot across the street. I first started rid­ing those surf mats—we were fierce and had the great­est time. We were really good at it, rid­ing big waves on our knees with hands in the air. For us, it was really a time of no fear.

Do you remem­ber the first time you stood up on a board?
When I was 11, after my older brother got a surf­board, I remem­ber watch­ing the guys surf from the cliff. I thought it was the great­est thing I ever saw and some­thing just hap­pened inside (of me). I just knew I had to do it. It was right before the surf­ing boom and it all was just start­ing. My soul was just absolutely drawn to it. I would sit on the beach and wait until some­one lost their board and then hang on to it in waist deep water until they got to me. I remem­ber just touch­ing the boards—it was just an imme­di­ate con­nec­tion. Finally, one guy said “Do you wanna try?” Boards were big back then and I remem­ber just pop­ping up right away; it wasn’t very hard for me since I was so small. I can still visu­al­ize it in mind as I was rid­ing that wave. And that was it.

Back then a lot of peo­ple didn’t know about surf­ing. This was before the Gid­get book or the beach party movies or even Surfer mag­a­zine. We knew we had some­thing spe­cial. We had a vibe, a feel­ing of such “inner stoke”. We just knew.

You lived in the South Bay?
I’m from down here, but I’ve spent most of my life in Man­hat­tan Beach when I worked for United Air­lines for over 35 years. When I started to fly for United, I was for­tu­nate to be able to fly only to Hawaii for many years. It was a dream job for me. I rode for Jacobs when Don­ald Takayama shaped for him and I took that board to Hawaii. It was just a sim­pler time then. On my first trip, I just walked up to the guys with my board and they just placed it in the belly of the plane. Of course, you couldn’t do that today.

Who did you look up to when you were grow­ing up?
Well, we all looked up to Phil Edwards. One day he pad­dled by me. And it was the way that he was kneel­ing on his board with his white trunks and great body. He was posi­tioned so per­fectly on that board. It was a beau­ti­ful sight just to watch him paddle.

Of all the places you’ve trav­eled to, what place stands out for you and why?
There are so many won­der­ful places with waves. I was able to expe­ri­ence some beau­ti­ful areas of Aus­tralia, dri­ving from Syd­ney to Surfer Par­adise after the World Con­test in 1964.

I like to go to Mex­ico in the win­ter­time. But I really love Hawaii. It is one of the great­est spots in the world. I even like Waikiki. I’ve been fly­ing over there for a long time and I sort of got into this grumpy thing with all the crowds in town and in the water. I just really had a hard time with it. I finally had to tell myself, “It’s just not going to change.” Since then, I have been able to look past all of the peo­ple and I began to enjoy the beau­ti­ful water and sky all over again.

What period of surf­ing holds the most cher­ished mem­o­ries for you?
I was pretty happy when I won the Hunt­ing­ton Beach U.S. Cham­pi­onships dur­ing the 60’s. It was a fun time see­ing friends and cheer­ing them on. There wasn’t any money in it, but it was the con­test. Of course, some of the time it was closed out and break­ing through the pier, which cre­ated great drama. The Hunt­ing­ton Beach Walk of Fame was also a pretty spe­cial award. Through­out the years, there have been many occa­sions when I have taken home awards that will always be spe­cial to me.

Tell us about the Women’s World Long­board Cham­pi­onships.
I took over the Cham­pi­onships in 2005. I never thought I would take on such a thing. I always tell Hank Ray­mond, who started the event in Costa Rica in 1999, “It’s all your fault!” It has been so spe­cial to me to watch long­board­ing grow and to see the women get the recog­ni­tion they deserve. It’s really been very spe­cial for me to give back in a way I never expected.

I want every­one to know about the pro­posed 2010 Women’s World Long­board Cham­pi­onship at Swami’s. There has been oppo­si­tion from some of the locals. We think a beau­ti­ful, well-planned surf­ing event for women would have a pos­i­tive impact on the lifestyle, sport, indus­try and the local com­mu­nity. The idea of spread­ing the pos­i­tive mes­sage of soul surf­ing bal­anced by pro­mot­ing the sport to the com­mu­nity would be an added ben­e­fit to many in this dif­fi­cult economy.

The set-up will be small and garden-like, respect­ing the sanc­tu­ary feel­ing and vibe of Swami’s and SRF. Every aspect of the care and pro­tec­tion of Swami’s is being con­sid­ered. Swami’s is a world class wave and its loca­tion pro­vides a close walk­ing access to the planned Encini­tas Surf Fes­ti­val at “K” Street, the city and mer­chants cre­at­ing a vil­lage atmosphere.

It will be an event that would bring peo­ple to the con­test at Swami’s, but allow them to leave eas­ily and enjoy the fes­ti­val and fun activ­i­ties that would be hap­pen­ing else­where around town. A num­ber of non-profits span­ning the health, envi­ron­men­tal and his­tor­i­cal fields will be fea­tured and supported.

What are you cur­rently rid­ing?
Don­ald Takayama shapes all of my boards. I’ve known Don­ald since I was 15. He is one of my dear­est friends. There were times when I stepped away from surf­ing for short peri­ods of time and he’s always been there to say, “Come back. And here’s your board.” We’ve both sup­ported and helped each other through the years and he has been a great, great friend.

How is surf­ing spe­cial for you?
For me, it’s self-expression—it’s how I express myself. Some­one once said, years ago, that it’s like we use the wave as our can­vas and the board as our pen. This is our art. I’ve always believed and felt that. Surf­ing is a true inner art form of expres­sion. Each wave is dif­fer­ent and each one a dif­fer­ent paint­ing. I have been really lucky. I’ve got­ten a lot of gifts through the years because of surf­ing, for which I’m very grate­ful of.

What was it like to be the first woman to ride Waimea?
Back then (1959), every­thing was new. The gen­der thing didn’t play a big part in it. I was 15 and we lived in a lit­tle cot­tage on the North Shore with peo­ple like Bud Browne. We were all just teenagers. I remem­ber that day. They were call­ing it 18 feet. We stood on the cliff just watch­ing the waves and kick­ing the dirt, try­ing to decide whether to go out or not. There was a small guy from Win­dansea named David Cheney. He had the small­est board, a 10 foot gun, and he let
me bor­row it. I waited for a lull and my heart was pound­ing. I didn’t think about whether or not I was going to be the first girl. I just went and did it.

As I pad­dled out, I saw Fred Van Dyke wipe­out. He popped up and then two parts of his board popped up beside him. Another set came in and John Sev­er­son rode a wave and then he wiped out. He looked at me as I was pad­dling out and said “You’re crazy.” When I came back in, I remem­ber just stum­bling over myself. I was just so happy I had done it and that I was back on land. It was amaz­ing. I never did it again and I never wanted to!

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in life?
Peace. Fun. Friends. And good warm surf.

What are you most proud of?
My surf­ing. It’s allowed me to have a jour­ney that has been unbe­liev­able. Words could never describe my grat­i­tude for all the gifts it’s brought my way. My life with­out surf­ing would have been so totally dif­fer­ent. It might have been pretty boring.

And I am proud of my Surfher Surf School that I started and ran for 5 years. To see the look on the faces of these women and girls surf­ing for the first time was both touch­ing and amazing.

Iron­i­cally, the surf school was in the exact same spot that I caught my first wave. I really received a lot of sup­port from the com­mu­nity and Don­ald, of course. He got the girls to rally around me and every­one helped me to get started. I was for­tu­nate to have really great instruc­tors. We all cared whether the stu­dents were suc­cess­ful and were dili­gent about teach­ing “the etiquette.”

What’s your favorite meal?
Well, I eat pretty healthy. I don’t eat pasta a lot but I think it’s won­der­ful. (Laughs) And I like Mex­i­can food, too. There is also a new cook­book, that I have a recipe in, called Surf Food by Nava Young (daugh­ter of Nat Young), and the book is absolutely wonderful.

What kind of music do you lis­ten to?
I like Jack John­son or any­thing con­tem­po­rary. I like all of the pop­u­lar songs of each decade. I love The Bea­t­les and The Stones, Bob Dylan and music of that era. I think the ‘60s was the great­est music era of all time.

What’s next for Linda Ben­son?
I just want to surf and enjoy each and every day.

Help Linda bring the WWLC to Swamis here. More infor­ma­tion about Linda Ben­son can be found at the Surf­ing Museum. Pho­tog­ra­phy cred­its: John Sev­er­son,  John Elwell, Tom Keck, Anony­mous, and Chris Grant. Images are for this inter­view only and may not be used with­out per­mis­sion.