The project became Blue Crush, and what the film did was inspire an entire country full of women into the mainstream cultural sidebar we call surfing. It caused a big ripple in the traditionally male dominated and targeted surf market, and the phenomenon continues to unfold around the world today.

My ex-wife was one of two female surf photographers in the 70’s and early 80’s. She shot for Surfer Magazine. This was during the infancy and heyday of the surfer as athlete movement that laid the foundation for professional surfing as we see it today. After two years of traveling around the world with me, taking photos while I surfed the tour, she made a very caustic observation that stopped me in my tracks one day. It was after a particularly testosterone laden double leg in Hawaii and Australia.

“You know David, this whole pro surf thing is really weird. You guys all hang out with each other. You surf together, travel and party together, the magazines are all about guys. Even the lifestyle images are almost all male (inferring that it bordered on homoeroticism). You would think that a bunch of guys would want women involved, unless the entire surf industry is really run by homosexuals. Where are the girls?” I was stunned. She was right. Surfing had become one great big boys club. But in looking at the sport’s history, this was definitely not always the case.

It’s a widely accepted fact that surfing is rooted in traditional aspects of ancient Hawaiian culture. If you look closely, women have always been involved in surfing from day one. When Captain Cook passed through Hawaii in the late 1700’s he observed Polynesian men and women out in the surf together.

Historic records contain several accounts of strong and beautiful Hawaiian queens being proponents and practitioners of the sport, right alongside their men. I remember Rell Sun and I, in a film interview for the BBC, were queried about women in the sport’s history. Rell put it this way: “It was a tradition for men and women to surf together. When a woman would choose to ride a wave with a man, it was the precursor to them making love on the beach after.” However, the traditional concept of surfing as a way to impress a potential mate was something that the Christian missionaries needed to quell in order to “civilize” the Hawaiian people. The side effect, of course, was the death of women’s surfing for the most part. As the Offspring song goes: “Gotta keep ‘em separated.”

In the late fifties a big media push surfaced in California with the inception of “Gidget.” The story chronicled the real life Malibu surf adventures of Kathy Kohner. Kathy’s father, Frederik Kohner, a Hollywood screenwriter, was amused and probably also somewhat alarmed by Kathy’s involvement with an all boy sport. He turned Kathy’s stories into a best selling book, “Gidget,” which later became a premise for several movies and a television series. His view of beach culture was distributed globally and within a short period of time, women were back in surfing. When I asked Kathy what drew her into the sport, she was quite candid with me and said, “That was where all the boys were!” Made sense to me then. It still does now.

As surfing has matured, we now see a certain dichotomy in the sport on both the female and male side. Professional male and female surfing sets a performance benchmark, but the goal for the surfing community by and large, is to actively experience the vibrant, rich lifestyle the sport offers. So girls have finally found a place in the lineup once again, alongside the boys.

In a quick glance back, it’s interesting to note how many influential women came from our neck of the woods here on the California coast: Margo Godfrey Oberg of Santa Barbara, Womens World champion Kim Mearig-Greutzmacher, also from Santa Barbara, Women’s World Champion and cultural icon Kathy Kohner, a.k.a. Gidget, from Malibu, US Champion and the first woman to surf Pipeline Joyce Hoffman from San Diego, and finally today, Mary Osborne from Santa Barbara, a budding cultural icon herself. The list is actually even a few names deeper, but you get my point.

Today, women’s surfing embodies all that is attractive and athletic in both the sport and fashion world. The girls now comprise a whopping 40 percent of the surf goods and apparel market. I think maybe the old boys club in Orange County may be overdue for a change of view. I find it sort of a relief, because I would rather go play with the girls anyway. Too much testosterone is not a good thing.