History
The All
Girls Surfriders Club was formed in 1992 after a hugely
successful Have a Go Day that attracted 80 interested
female surfers. The Club founders Keryn Noach, Max
Perrot and Kellie O'Brien ran the club as a regional
organization from Evans Head to New Brighton with
monthly rounds at different locations. The original
divisions were aimed at beginner, intermediate and
advanced skill levels and have grown to include a
longboard section and senior beginners.
The Club had few
experienced surfers in the early years and concentrated
on developing surfing skills through coaching days and
club competition. The older role models in Bev Simmons
and Evelyn Van der Aa were instrumental in offering a
level of surfing that the large numbers of beginners
could aim toward. Max Perrot convinced local surf shop
owners Wayne and Maree Lazarus and swimwear company
owner Grant 'Fandango' Dwyer that sponsoring the All
Girls Surf Showdown would be a history making marketing
opportunity in the world of women's surfing. The event
cost them $1500 dollars and despite opposition from the
cynics in surfing it became the biggest event on the
girls surfing calendar with 100 entrants in the first
year. There were so few events for girls the Club
executive determined to create a serious sporting event
that embodied the fun of surfing and increased levels of
participation - there was division for all possible girl
surfers from Under 16, Open B grade and Seniors with the
Open Pro and Under 21 the premier sectors: Hayley Tasker
took home $500 and Trudy Todd the winner of the U/21
division in the inaugural year.. The event organisers
canvassed all the available surfing wholesalers - at a
time when boardshorts and wetsuits were purely male- for
prizes and booty for the winners of the ACC rated event.
The Showdown was planned to promote women's surfing to
the general media and to create awareness of the rising
trend of girls entering the water to the people in the
sport seemingly blind to the popularity amongst women
and to show the girls on the North Coast the best women
surfers in Australia. The event has grown enormously and
numbers have doubled.
The executive had created
the 'model master plan' of the structure of the Club and
won a Prime Ministerial Women in Sport Award in 1994 for
the successful implementation of the plan attending
dinner at the Brisbane Hilton with Paul Keating. The
Model determined that the Club would foster successful
individuals and the original success story was Jenny
Boggis who was the Advanced Club Champion in the early
years winning the World Grommet Title in 1995 set for a
career in Pro Surfing. Boggis continued her good form to
win the inaugural Billabong Pro Junior series. The
string of talented girls to follow the success of Jenny
Boggis was phenomenal. Julie Morris and Crystal Vail
began in the Club's intermediate divisions moving
quickly into the world of coaching and training with Max
Perrot and managed to collect all amateur titles and Pro
Junior titles available in the late 1990's both
attending the World Grommet Titles twice with Morris the
winner in 1997 and Vail creating history winning the
most number of Pro Juniors ever by a male or female.
Laurina McGrath was the new young gun also winning the
world grommet title and created Club history in 1998 by
taking out the Open Pro division of the Showdown
defeating Professional surfers in the final. In 2004
Laurina qualified for the elite professional WCT circuit
for the first time and the All Girls couldn't have a
better ambassador. The original concept of the Showdown
in the Club's plan was to create a contest that mixed
the levels of competitors so that the new hot rats could
take a few experienced scalps in their quest for
success. The Club also developed the interclub shield
now an annual event between the Sunshine and Gold Coast
Girls Clubs which celebrates past Australian women's
surfing legends Ma Bendall and Phylis O'Donnell.
All Girls Surf
Showdown Winners History
