Margaret Yao

Mar­garet Yao is a Cal­i­for­nia surfer who is also the gen­eral man­ager of Bing/Jacobs surf­boards. Her atti­tude in the water and in life is to make every moment count. We recently spoke with Mar­garet to find out more.

What was your life like grow­ing up?
I grew up in South­ern Cal­i­for­nia, but nowhere near the ocean. I was raised in Arca­dia, a small sub­urb near Pasadena. My par­ents immi­grated from Taiwan, so nat­u­rally edu­ca­tion was a pri­or­ity. I also took to com­pet­i­tive swim­ming around age 11 and learned to love sports.

When did you get your first surf­board?
Dur­ing my sopho­more year at UCLA, my best friend and I decided we would get a cou­ple surf­boards and learn to surf. So at age 20, I started surf­ing. We checked out a cou­ple surf shops in the area and finally set­tled on a 9’0” Wave Tools for her and a 9’0” bright yel­low, late 80’s Infin­ity for me.  The board was prob­a­bly 3 ½” thick; it was a monster.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
My friend and I were team­mates on the UCLA water polo team, so when we started to learn surf­ing, the pad­dling part was a cinch. Unfor­tu­nately, the stand­ing up part wasn’t so pretty. I think on our first go-out, we pad­dled for the same wave and ended up crash­ing into one another. So, within a mat­ter of sec­onds, we had expe­ri­enced our first wave, our first crash and our first surf­board dings! It was dis­ap­point­ing, but I wasn’t dis­cour­aged and even­tu­ally I got the hang of it.  And I def­i­nitely learned the “one per­son to a wave” rule really quickly!

Who did you look up to and admire when you were younger?
Def­i­nitely my par­ents for all the chal­lenges they faced build­ing a new life in a for­eign coun­try. My teach­ers and pro­fes­sors for the inspi­ra­tion they instilled in me to enrich my own mind and con­tinue to learn through­out life. My coaches for push­ing me when I wanted to quit. And Hap Jacobs, not only for his kind­ness and wis­dom, but for intro­duc­ing me to a love of surfboards.

How did you get involved in the surf­board busi­ness?
I’d been surf­ing for a few years when Hap Jacobs invited me to be on his team. It was such an honor.  One day, when I dropped by to talk about my next board, he told me he was retir­ing and intro­duced me to the guy who would be tak­ing over his busi­ness and fac­tory. His name was Matt Cal­vani.  I instantly remem­bered his face because I had surfed the same peak at El Porto with him just days ear­lier and he didn’t once glance my way or give me the time of day! I was pretty sure this wasn’t a good thing, hav­ing to order my boards from this rude fella. Matt would prove me wrong over the next cou­ple months and even­tu­ally he asked me out. Those were some of the hap­pi­est days of my life.

But sadly, those days came to abrupt end when my dad passed away in a fatal car acci­dent. I was 25 and my lit­tle brother, Wes, was only 14. My life felt like it had unrav­eled. I decided to take a leave of absence (from my job) and move home to live with my mom and lit­tle brother. Mean­while, Matt always checked in to see how I was doing. Matt’s sup­port was prob­a­bly the most crit­i­cal part of my recov­ery and ulti­mately led to my biggest life change.

He had moved into Hap’s fac­tory and was build­ing surf­boards for the Bing, Jacobs, Lance Car­son and Rick Surf­boards labels. Board orders were flood­ing in, but he was slowly drown­ing from the admin­is­tra­tive side of the busi­ness. I had been a busi­ness con­sul­tant for four years, so get­ting a lit­tle startup surf­board busi­ness orga­nized and run­ning effi­ciently was def­i­nitely within my abil­i­ties. So, I agreed to help him out for four to six months while I pre­pared for my exam and filled out appli­ca­tions (for busi­ness school).

My first order of busi­ness was to pur­chase a com­puter and set up a small office in the factory. Before we knew it, it had been six months and it was time to take my exam and start my grad­u­ate school appli­ca­tions. But some­thing had dra­mat­i­cally changed. It was a no-brainer; I threw out my appli­ca­tions and embraced the foam dust!

Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out and why?
The first big surf trip Matt coaxed me into tak­ing with him was to Tavarua, Fiji. At the time, I was strictly long­board­ing and was nowhere near ready to surf the kind of waves they had there. Matt shaped me my first shortboard—a 6’4” that was air­brushed pink with a flower on the deck. This was Matt’s sixth trip to Tavarua, so he gave me the run­down on how things oper­ated. Keep in mind that I could barely pad­dle a short­board into a wave and get to my feet.

So, the first day on the island, I’m stand­ing with a group of all guys with my pink short­board under my arm, wait­ing for the boat to pull up. We’re the last ones to get in and, after Matt gets in, the broad-shouldered Fijian dri­ving the boat cracks a huge grin, show­ing two miss­ing teeth, and says with sur­prise, “Hey lady, you gonna surf Cloud Break???” I could’ve burst into tears if I hadn’t been so mor­ti­fied by embar­rass­ment. With what lit­tle shred of pride I had left, I reluc­tantly sulked into the boat and awaited my doom.

We pulled up just out­side of where the wave broke just to see a set wave crash onto the reef and send six feet of feath­er­ing spray into the air. I WAS TERRIFIED. Every­one hopped out of the boat froth­ing to get into the lineup. A few more dread­ful min­utes of silence passed while I watched every­one catch amaz­ing glassy left-hand peel­ers that looked so fun. Then, Mr. Smi­ley Face finally broke the silence, “Well, lady, are you going to surf?” I don’t know what came over me at that instant, but I grabbed my board and leash, and hopped into the water and pad­dled over to the lineup.

I went for a few small ones at first and got pretty bat­tered by the lip of the wave; it just came so fast and so pow­er­fully I barely had time to react. I prob­a­bly sat for a good hour out­side try­ing to work up the nerve to go for a big­ger wave. Then, the whis­tle for every­one to pad­dle in sounded and the lineup was start­ing to empty. I had run out of time and was start­ing to feel pretty defeated when sud­denly this wave started com­ing right for me. Maybe it was beginner’s luck, but some­how I had man­aged to pad­dle in, get to my feet and then the wave opened up per­fectly and it was pure eupho­ria. Every­one in the boat cheered when I kicked out and pad­dled back to the boat. I’ll never for­get that day at Cloud Break.

Who or what inspires you?
The strength of my fam­ily in over­com­ing the chal­lenges we’ve faced. Peo­ple who pur­sue their pas­sions despite the obsta­cles that lie before them.

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
Mak­ing every moment count. Some have accused me of being a “busy body,” but I just can’t bear the thought of a wasted moment.

Do you have any regrets or wish you had done some­thing dif­fer­ently?
I could say that I regret not dis­cov­er­ing surf­ing ear­lier in my life, but I feel too blessed to have even found it at all and to be able to build my life, love and career around it. So, no regrets.

What are you most proud of?
Mak­ing the then dif­fi­cult deci­sion to leave the cor­po­rate world and pur­sue a dif­fer­ent career path in an uncer­tain surf indus­try. A lot of peo­ple tried to talk me out of it; they said that my job was sta­ble and so was the pay­check, that if things didn’t work out in the surf indus­try, it would be super hard to come back. But if ever there was a call­ing, this was it.

What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
Surf­ing started out as a hobby, but along the way, it evolved into a lifestyle and then a sav­ing grace dur­ing a rough time in my life. Now, it’s become my liveli­hood and life’s passion.

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
The com­fort of know­ing that my fam­ily is safe and happy, that my world is in bal­ance and that I’m mak­ing the most out of the pre­cious time I have on this Earth.

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
There are too many, but I’ll just name a few that come to mind. I know I’m biased, but of course Matt Cal­vani, who has such a deep ded­i­ca­tion and love for the craft of board-building and despite his 20 years in the busi­ness, sur­prises me with his enthu­si­asm for new designs and con­stant refine­ment of exist­ing designs.

And surfers like Chris Del Moro, who is so tal­ented in so many dif­fer­ent facets and has made a name for him­self in the pro­fes­sional surf­ing arena with­out hav­ing to com­pro­mise on the kinds of boards he rides or the ideals he stands for. Also, film­mak­ers Tiffany Camp­bell and Andria Lessler for cre­at­ing a beau­ti­ful film (Dear and Yon­der) that brings aware­ness to the his­tory, power and beauty of women’s surfing.

What is your favorite board? Your favorite surf spot?
It’s like ask­ing a girl what her favorite pair of shoes are. My “go to” long­board that I bring with me on prac­ti­cally every surf trip is my sin­gle fin, rounded pin­tail Jacobs Tra­di­tional Noserider. It works in just about every “long­board­able” type of wave. But lately, I’ve been obsessed with quad fishes.

What’s your favorite meal?
Sushi.

What are you most grate­ful for?
Being able to love what I do, make a liv­ing at it, travel the world and all the while shar­ing every moment of it with my best friend.

What’s next for Mar­garet Yao?
Gear­ing up for another busy sum­mer, squeez­ing in a quick surf trip and then Matt and I have finally made the time to tie the knot this Fall. We fig­ured if we could work, surf and live together all these years, it’s def­i­nitely meant to be.

Find out more about Mar­garet Yao here.