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I grew up around women surfers, and I was heavily influenced by Margo Oberg. When I was young I watched her surf and she surfed well by any standard. So it always opened my mind to the fact that women could surf well. But for some reason they just weren't out there. There was a group of women that tried to be pro surfers throughout the early 80's, one of whom was Jodi Cooper, who was an Australian girl who surfed big waves rather well. And I sat down with her once and I was exploring this - why there weren't more girls that surf and what do you think the problem is. And her answer was that there wasn't any reinforcement in the media. There wasn't anything for girls to aspire to be like, any heroes, and any photos that showed them what they could do. So I've always done my best to champion women as surfers, shooting whomever I could, whenever I could. |
