It’s pretty rare to read about San Luis Obispo County in the surf press. And it’s even more rare to read about local female surfers. But a couple of women with local ties stand out.
In next week’s Ticket, we’ll feature Pismo Beach native Sarah Gerhardt, the first woman to drop into huge waves at Mavericks, who will be coming to town for a screening of the movie “One Winter Story” in Pismo. (The surfer on the right in this photo is Herhardt at Mavericks.) And in a future Tribune story, we’ll profile Jaime Hannula, another Pismo native who is quickly becoming one of the nation’s top competetive female surfers.
Gerhadt’s biggest exposure was her appearance in “Riding Giants,” the Stacy Peralta-directed film about big wave surfing. While that movie primarily featured Greg Noll, Laird Hamilton and Jeff Clark, “One Winter Story” focuses solely on Gerhardt, an Arroyo Grande High School and Cal Poly grad, who has been known to surf 40-foot waves. (The film features several Pismo Beach locations, by the way.)
Hannula, meanwhile, was recently featured in two national pieces: One in Surfline and another in the August issue of Deep, which is Surfline’s magazine.
Hannula’s competetive surfing is about to take her around the world, with stops in Australia, Hawaii and Europe.
The Surfline piece features audio from Hannula and photos (Once again, Pismo gets some love) from South County native Chris Burkard.
Speaking of women surfers, Elizabeth Pepin, who co-directed “One Winter Story,” has a nice photo gallery of female sliders (including Gerhardt) on her web site.
Female surfers don’t usually get as much attention as the guys. But as Gerhardt and Hannula show, it’s not for a lack of talent.
Photo of Gerhardt: Elizabeth Pepin
Photo of Hannula: Joe Johnston
Posted on September 24th, 2008 by Pat
Filed under: Surf stuff
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