Jen Smith

Jen Smith is a tal­ented surfer raised in San Diego, CA. Brought up by sup­port­ive par­ents, Jen has lived an ideal South­ern Cal­i­for­nia beach lifestyle. But it was her hard work and abil­ity that helped her earn sev­eral long­board world titles. We spoke with Jen to learn more.

What was your life like grow­ing up?
I have great mem­o­ries of my child­hood and of grow­ing up in San Diego. I’m blessed to have par­ents who were always lov­ing and sup­port­ive and I have two older sis­ters, so I’ve always had some­one to hang out with and take care of me.

I remem­ber my mom tak­ing me out on her boo­gie board or just swim­ming in the ocean, jump­ing over waves, and me being scared because I was so lit­tle. She would take me into what I felt was so far out, and that I was doing some­thing I never could have on my own at the time. My dad is a surfer and would take us to the beach with him where my sis­ters and I would play on the sand and watch him surf or use one of his boards in the white water.

Nei­ther of my sis­ters really stayed with surf­ing but we all used to do it when we were young. Up until the age of 9 my fam­ily lived in Clare­mont, which is 5 miles from the beach. Our house had a mas­sive yard and we lived at the end of a cul-de-sac, so we had plenty of room to run around our yard and ride our bikes in the street. It was really an amaz­ing way to grow up. We moved to Pacific Beach because it was a bet­ter neigh­bor­hood and my dad hated the power lines behind our house that buzzed 24 hours a day. The move was a big tran­si­tion for every­one. We moved to a smaller house with much less space and a tiny yard in com­par­i­son to the old house.

My dad had opened a retail skate­board store in Pacific Beach called Soul Grind two years before and my mom would soon also trade in her swap meet busi­ness for a skate shop in San Diego. At this point, I was already hooked on surf­ing and liv­ing near the beach. This meant my sis­ters and I had more free­dom to ride our bikes or walk the dogs far­ther from the house than before.

When I turned 12, my mom started let­ting me go surf­ing alone. Before I would go with my dad or she would take me and watch from the beach or go boo­gie board­ing and it was not always easy to get every­one excited to go to the beach. This was a huge tran­si­tion for me and a turn­ing point in my surf­ing. I could skate to Soul Grind and surf the pier which was right out front. Not to men­tion Skip Frye’s shop and shap­ing room was on the same block so I would get to surf with him some­times. I would see him walk­ing up and down our block in his high top Con­verse and sweats (his shap­ing out­fit) with one of those trash pick­ers and a bucket, clean­ing up the sidewalk.

When I was about 14 or so, I got a brand new beach cruiser that I got with birth­day money so I could ride around with some friends who loved in the neigh­bor­hood. We had sort of a beach cruiser bike gang (laughs). I put a surf­board rack on it which meant I could ride far­ther to surf more waves.

When did you get your first surf­board?
I got my first board that actu­ally belonged to me when I was 8. It was a cus­tom Rusty (Preisendorfer) which I got to watch the “Big R” shape. What a spoiled lit­tle surfer girl, right? I sold it when I was a teenager to buy a new long­board. Not a smart move look­ing back.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
I can’t actu­ally remem­ber. My par­ents say I was stand­ing on a board on Mis­sion Bay when I was 2. I remem­ber one ses­sion when I was about 9. I was out with my dad and his brother at Crys­tal Pier on a glassy morn­ing and pad­dled into one of the first set waves I had got­ten with­out being pushed in. It was the best feel­ing drop­ping in hear­ing my Uncle hoot­ing for me and hav­ing con­trol of the board under my feet.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a child?
Well, being a short per­son as a child I had to look up to every­one if I wanted to look at them (laughs). I looked up to my dad of course, and I still do. He’s a great surfer and he still pushes me to surf bet­ter. I surf bet­ter when I surf with him than with most of my friends.

I’ve always looked up to Skip (Frye), he’s quiet and he rips with the smoothest style. There’s noth­ing like hear­ing him tell a story when he’s really into some­thing – he lights up like a kid. Of course, I’ve always looked up to the female surfers who have influ­enced me and who were rip­ping all through the 60s through the 90s when I became aware of them. Mary Bagalso, Julie Cox, and Kas­sia Meador were the three influ­en­tial long­board­ers who took time to surf with me and take me on trips when I was 15 or so. I also had a Prue Jef­fries Poster on my wall for years and I used to look at it and dream about being a pro surfer and a world champion.

Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out and why?
I think Morocco stands out the most to me. I was there in Jan­u­ary of 2009 with the Roxy team. The swell peaked at 30 feet and I was sooo sick. I had the worst sinus infec­tion and all I could do was watch these crazy waves break­ing. I loved the land­scape and weather which reminded me of Baja. The cul­ture was like noth­ing I had ever seen. Women in dark head dresses with noth­ing but their eyes show­ing. Men walk­ing down the street hold­ing hands. Some of the best food I’ve ever eaten and of course, things like mint tea which I learned to make and I still make at home from time to time. I would love to go back there and surf and expe­ri­ence the cul­ture again.

Who/what inspires you?
I draw inspi­ra­tion every day from so many things. Old peo­ple who have lived and learned so many things. Crazy home­less peo­ple who say some rad­i­cal stuff, some­times things that make no sense and you won­der just what they are think­ing. Chil­dren who skip and jump around for no appar­ent rea­son. A rad­i­cal sun­set, or a per­fect, unrid­den peeler that has got­ten past 100 peo­ple in the lineup.

One per­son who inspired me last week­end is Neil Nor­ris. He went to school with my dad in San Diego in the 60’s then moved to Maui over 30 years ago. He has archived years of pho­tos at his place in Maui and when he came to Cal­i­for­nia for the 50 year anniver­sary MSA clas­sic he brought over a photo of Dora at the same event in the 60’s. It’s such a cool photo and he was thought­ful enough to have it blown up and frame it so he could present it to the MSA club. Neil is a shaper and a good friend who is full of the Spirit. I’m look­ing for­ward to vis­it­ing him in Maui this year and surf­ing Hon­olua Bay for the first time.

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
God is in con­trol of every­thing. He holds the uni­verse in the palm of His hand and He cares for each indi­vid­ual equally as he has made us all spe­cial and unique. He has blessed me with the gift of surf­ing and the oppor­tu­nity to share it with peo­ple around the world. It’s up to each and every per­son to show love to oth­ers and it isn’t always easy. I’ve learned that this sim­ple thing is hard at times, but the reward for show­ing love is greater than the reward of not show­ing love.

Do you have any regrets or wish you had done some­thing dif­fer­ently?
Well, I tend to start a project or get an idea and then not fol­low through with it. I would like to pick up some of the projects I have started and fin­ish them.

What’s next for Jen Smith?
One project is my web­site jensmithsurfing.com. The other project is a surf­board I started shap­ing in San Diego 2 years ago. I made another board with a friend in Eng­land this sum­mer which is being glassed right now. I can’t wait to see the final product.

Learn more about Jen Smith here. Surf pho­tog­ra­phy by Myles McGuin­ness.