Carla Rowland

Carla Row­land is a Cal­i­for­nia surfer who grew up rid­ing First Point Mal­ibu since she was a child. She is renowned for her style and grace on a board as well as her no-nonsense atti­tude in the water. Carla talks with us about single-fins and her new found love.

What was life like grow­ing up?
I had an amaz­ing child­hood. I was born in the San Fer­nando Val­ley when there was still some empty land avail­able. I romped around on our prop­erty for 10 years and when the devel­op­ment started mov­ing in, my dad made a dream come true and moved our fam­ily to the hills of Mal­ibu. Although not logis­ti­cally that far, mov­ing to the afflu­ent com­mu­nity really trans­formed my life.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a young girl?
Obvi­ously, my par­ents have been a sig­nif­i­cant part of my life, and if not for them, I would not be here. As far as those I admired in surf­ing, dur­ing the early to mid 90’s, there were more men in the lineup than women to look to for emu­la­tion. Lance Wolesla­gle, Dylan Jones, and Josh Far­berow were my main male influ­ences. Of the few women I had to look up to, I admired most Brit­tany Leonard for her grace and unbe­liev­able noserid­ing skills, Diane Sanders for her power and no-nonsense approach to Mal­ibu and Phranc Got­tlieb for her tra­di­tional old-school style. Out­side of Mal­ibu, and still to this day, I have always had the utmost respect for Cori Schu­macher. Her amaz­ing con­trol in and out of the water is a qual­ity I hope to master.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
I actu­ally vividly remem­ber my first ride. I was six or seven years old, and my fam­ily was camp­ing at San Elijo State Beach, as we did bi-annually every April and Octo­ber. My dad had con­vinced me to pad­dle out with him on his long­board. Once in the lineup, I recall look­ing to the beach and think­ing the cliff­side looked so small and far away. I clearly remem­ber our first ride because as we were rid­ing in, my dad had slipped off the board and I rode in on my own. I rec­ol­lect look­ing back at my dad as he waved and smiled, and I rode the wave all the way into the shore.

When did you get your first surf­board?
Although my first ride was at a fairly young age, it took a num­ber of years for me to be con­vinced that surf­ing was meant to be a cen­tral theme of my life. From the ages of seven through 14, my dad may have had more luck pulling my teeth out than get­ting me on a surfboard.

For some rea­son, I had a great deal of appre­hen­sion about get­ting in the ocean, although when I would get out there, I’d have a blast. That being said, it wasn’t until I was about 15 that I got the surf bug and, at that point, I just rode my dad’s 10-foot Lance Car­son. It was about a year later that my dad bought the first board that was really meant for my small frame—a Toot Gundy.

Tell us about your involve­ment with Mal­ibu.
I have been going to Mal­ibu since I was just a babe in dia­pers. My dad began surf­ing there in 1963, so the renowned break has pretty much been engrained into my life since the begin­ning. Grow­ing up as a young woman in a male-dominated, testosterone-filled break such as the highly vis­i­ble First Point was not always fun.

The days of the “palapa” were filled with good times. How­ever, there were also many times where being a woman meant being humil­i­ated and degraded. I man­aged to sur­vive and I can­not say I would nec­es­sar­ily want things to have gone dif­fer­ently, for if they had, I do not think there would be all the women that now flood the lineup on a reg­u­lar basis.

Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out? And why?
There are still so many places I have yet to wit­ness, but of the trav­els I have had thus far it is easy to say that Japan is, by far, the most amaz­ing coun­try. I have had the oppor­tu­nity to travel there twice—once to the south­ern­most island of Kyushu, and most recently to the incred­i­ble metrop­o­lis of Tokyo and its sur­round­ing areas. I am most fond of the local peo­ples, who are so kind and gen­er­ous, as well as all the incred­i­ble Japan­ese cui­sine. And despite the lack of fre­quently pump­ing swell, they have a rich surf com­mu­nity that is very sup­port­ive of Amer­i­can surfers such as myself. How can you hate on that?!?!

What is it that makes you such a nice per­son? What code do you live by?
I can hear some peo­ple laugh­ing at this ques­tion because many would prob­a­bly tes­tify that I am not the most con­ge­nial. On the con­trary, I con­sider myself some­one who is real and not usu­ally afraid to say what you’re all think­ing. Few may know that I am a devout Chris­t­ian who tries my best to fol­low the Golden Rule—treat oth­ers as you would like to be treated. I believe the foun­da­tion to har­mony is to give respect in order to get respect. Peo­ple that have wit­nessed my not-so-nice side were prob­a­bly peo­ple who lack that Golden Rule knowledge.

What inspires you?
God and his omnipo­tent strength inspire me, as well as see­ing oth­ers fight against injus­tice and for equal­ity. Self­less­ness. Uncon­di­tional love and con­sid­er­a­tion are qual­i­ties I hold in high regard.

Who do you admire?
Approx­i­mately 15 years ago, my father began show­ing symp­toms of neu­ropa­thy and spinal steno­sis. It slowly took its toll until it reduced his surf­ing capa­bil­i­ties to a sit-down view only. Since the con­tro­ver­sial craze that is stand-up pad­dle surf­ing, my dad has redis­cov­ered the view from on high and is rip­ping once again … even if it is facil­i­tated. It wasn’t until I frac­tured my tibia in August and was immo­bile for a cou­ple months that I earned a new appre­ci­a­tion for what my father has been deal­ing with. To live each day in a con­stant, even if dull, pain, but per­se­vere through life in a pos­i­tive man­ner is truly a mon­u­men­tal task. I have such admi­ra­tion for my father’s strength and deter­mi­na­tion to make the best of the cards God has dealt him.

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
I have a gen­eral knowl­edge of worldly things. I received hon­ors when I earned my col­lege degree in Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and have trav­eled the world where I have expe­ri­enced other cul­tures. How­ever, the great­est thing I have learned thus far is that I really know noth­ing. Albert Ein­stein said it well, “Who­ever under­takes to set him­self up as a judge of Truth and Knowl­edge is ship­wrecked by the laugh­ter of the gods.”

Do you have any regrets or wish you had done some­thing dif­fer­ently?
If I had done any­thing dif­fer­ently, I’m afraid that would have mis­di­rected my path to the love of my life (Ian Zamora). Through him, I have found what it is to truly be at peace.

What are you most proud of?
I am most proud of grad­u­at­ing magna cum laude and receiv­ing Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Pro­gram Hon­ors from Cal State Chan­nel Islands last year.

What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
When I was 15, I was involved with an unhealthy group of kids. I made the dif­fi­cult deci­sion to remove myself from the sit­u­a­tion and began hang­ing out at First Point. My only friends were over the age of 45. (Thank you to Judy Gross, Cary Weiss, and Steve Stan­ley!) Although it was an incred­i­bly tough deci­sion for my inse­cure ado­les­cent self to make, if it had not been for that change, I would not be where I am at today. In the begin­ning, surf­ing was a means of estab­lish­ing my iden­tity with a col­lec­tive group. Now, it is more about exer­cise, expres­sion and peace of mind. The older I get, the harder it has been to deal with the mad­ness that occurs among the masses every sum­mer at Malibu.

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
I am most happy when I am with my love, Ian. I know it’s cheesy, but true.

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
I think surf­ing is in a weird place right now. The men have it all going on and the women have been left out to dry, espe­cially women’s long­board­ing. The biggest prob­lem is that the artists have no con­trol of the art. The big money com­pa­nies are hold­ing the reins and decide who, what and how our divi­sion of the sport is going to be rep­re­sented. As with the cur­rent Hol­ly­wood paparazzi cul­ture, too much of what is being por­trayed as “women’s long­board­ing” is, in fact, just smoke and mir­rors. See­ing the real actors get their name on the mar­quee is long overdue.

What is cur­rently your favorite board? Your favorite surf spot?
It’s no mys­tery that I am a lover of the tra­di­tional, single-fin school of slid­ing. I have been most for­tu­nate to have boards cus­tom built for me since 1996—first by Scott Ander­son and most recently by my man, Ian Zamora. I have always been a fan of the pin­tail, which I con­tinue to ride. I have the capa­bil­i­ties to ride almost any­thing, and I tend to sur­prise myself when I step out­side my lit­tle box, but I have the most fun when I am rid­ing my log or my mid-length single-fin at a nice, long point­break like Mal­ibu, Punta Pequña or Tea Trees.

What’s your favorite meal?
Seared alba­core salad. For dessert? T. Joe’s Vegan Choco­late Chip cookies.

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
I have so much music I just stick it on shuf­fle! The playlist I’ve been bob­bin’ to lately includes Mt. Saint Helen’s Viet­nam Band, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Rachel Yam­a­gata, Sia, Yo La Tengo and Rogue Wave.

What are you most grate­ful for?
I am most grate­ful for the men in my life—my dad, my boyfriend and my Lord. The last few months were the most phys­i­cally dif­fi­cult of my life thus far, and if it had not been for Ian’s patience and strength, my father’s sym­pa­thy, and my Lord to carry me through, I don’t think I would be in the posi­tion to write these words today.

What’s next for Carla Row­land?
As the other half of a grow­ing surf­board label, Ian and I plan on con­tin­u­ing with inter­na­tional pro­mo­tion. We hope to go to Aus­tralia in March, the Philip­pines in May, Japan in June, and Europe in the fall. In the mean­time, I will con­tinue my work as a sub­sti­tute teacher in the Mal­ibu school sys­tem and as a surf instruc­tor in the Los Ange­les and Ven­tura counties.

To learn more about Carla Row­land, click here. Pho­tog­ra­phy cred­its: 1&5 — Ian Zamora. 2–4, 6&7 — Steve Lipp­man