To end her posts on Women on Waves – an Instagram community with a 14,500-strong following that she’s built since 2016 – Fiona Hunt likes to use #healthyobsession.
For the owner of Helensburgh’s Essential Surf and Skate shop and surf school, someone whose bread, butter and dessert is surfing, to describe the sport as her passion would only be scratching the surface.
“I think that’s exactly what it is – it’s a healthy obsession,” Fiona said.
‘[It’s about] paddling out in the ocean, just having the salt water on your skin and being able to look around and say to yourself, ‘Where else would I rather be?’”
Moving to the coast as a teen in the early 70s, it wasn’t long before Fiona’s pocket money was spent on surf magazines and her bedroom walls were lined with posters of women’s surfing pioneers Margo Oberg and Lynne Boyer. Soon 13-year-old Fiona and five of her friends were inspired to take to the water themselves.
Five decades on and her healthy obsession hasn’t once let up. Fiona competed in amateur surfing competitions throughout the 80s, met her husband and business partner, Peter, out in the surf and, in 1999, chased her dream and opened Essential Surf and Skate in Stanwell Park. Now in Helensburgh, the shop was initially geared towards women in surfing.
“I really wanted to concentrate on the women’s side of surfing because I loved it myself and felt that I could really offer something in that area,” Fiona said.
“Being someone who had the hand-me-downs of their brothers’ wetsuits, and even clothes, because I wanted to wear surf clothes growing up, I just sort of thought to myself [around] 1998, ‘Why isn’t there something just for women?’
“Sadly, it was ahead of its time… and at the same time, our son and his friends were pretty insistent I had to make it unisex because they were missing out.”
This year marks 25 years in business for both the shop and the school, with the first learn-to-surf session held in December 1999. While their fun, relaxed classes for all ages and levels have stayed constant, what has changed is the number of women and girls in the lessons. All of Fiona’s and half of Peter’s students are women, with the surf school averaging 60 per cent women students.
For Fiona, this indicates how far attitudes towards women in surfing have come since her early teens. “It was pretty intense to be a woman surfer amongst all the men,” she said.
“I grew up with brothers, so I was used to being teased… but the others found it quite intimidating, so out of the six of us [who started surfing together], I was the only one that actually kept going.
“[Women are] so much more accepted now, and it’s still got a way to go, but it’s a lot more comfortable now than it was back in the 70s.”
While she acknowledges there are improvements to be made in how surfing is marketed to women – as a sport and lifestyle choice, over aesthetics – she says one of the most exciting developments of recent years is the admiration of elite women’s surfing.
“Most men these days are fantastic. You’ll hear them encouraging girls… and most of the dramas I have heard about tend to be that older generation, who as a young girl I had trouble with,” Fiona said.
“I’ve actually heard a few comments just watching the professional comps, like the [World Surf League] Championship Tour, and when you hear some of the guys interviewed on the surfing that’s been done recently, I’ve actually heard some of the really high-level guys say, ‘I don’t know if I could do that.’
“[Women are] of a level now that is just blowing people’s minds, and a lot of those minds are men.”
Women of the Illawarra will have their own chance to shine at the inaugural Ocean Queens Classic at Woonona Beach on May 5.
Fiona’s Women on Waves team will field 22-year-old local surf sensation Darci Air as their top Essential Surf-sponsored rider on the day, before Fiona paddles out herself to take on former Australian world champion Pam Burridge, and local surf legends Jenny Gill, Yvonne Turner and Kim Wooldridge in the highly anticipated heritage heat.
Essential Surf and Skate will also be donating skateboards, sunglasses and other goods to the event’s prize pool.
“I’m just so excited to be involved in it,” Fiona said. “I really feel this comp is a showcase of women’s surfing.
“I just cannot believe how the girls have done so well with sponsorship… and the prizes and the prize money are just amazing.
“A lot of people around here don’t know the history of women’s surfing in the Illawarra… These girls were really, really good surfers. They were either on the circuit, or not far off.
“I can’t wait – I just hope we get good waves. That’s the only thing with comps, you’re at the mercy of Mother Nature, but it should be a fantastic day, and people should come down and watch the best in the Illawarra take it on.”
