Two women take on Dungeons in the Big Wave Africa contest
Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 22 June, 2005 :
- Kim Hamrock is small and light, although her upper body has the strength required for life as a professional watersports athlete. She's no spring chicken at 44 and radiates an easy-going attitude of somebody who's been there, done that and earned the T-shirt. Several T-shirts actually, as that is what was required of her just to get into the sport that she loves the most.
Hamrock, of California, is an invited guest at the Red Bull Big Wave Africa contest held at Dungeons near Hout Bay. Invited guests get to show their prowess at big-wave surfing, but they are not considered full competitors. Hamrock is not an invited guest because she is a woman. Male surfing stars also often find themselves first invited as a guest before they get awarded a slot in the competition line-up.
Australian big-wave hero Ross Clarke-Jones was an invited guest last year, before joining the line-up this year. Hamrock is widely known as "dangerwoman", a nickname that developed in her youth, a bit of a degrade offered up by the ego-driven young men with whom she battled for a wave at her home breaks in California from the age of 16.
The name stuck and became a useful handle in the end, especially when she entered competitive surfing at the age of 30. She laughs about it now - a bubbly, energetic laugh that comes easily. "I did not surf competitively until then," she explained, while sitting on a breakwater stone at the small boat slipway at Hout Bay harbour.
"I got married at the age of 19 and only started competing when I had three children. But the teasing of the early days actually made me a better surfer. What the guys did not realise was that I had grown up with three brothers. I was expert at being teased. "I had to learn to take off deeper and faster to get a wave ahead of the guys. I had to be quicker.
"I love the life, the surfing. I even surfed while pregnant. I only stopped at eight-and-a-half months." Hamrock retired from competitive surfing a year ago, after winning the women's world long board championship in 2002 and 11 US women's championships. She remains a professional surfer though and also runs a business as a surfing instructor, while taking part in special events.
Long boards and big waves make up a great part of her surfing. "I will surf until the day I die, or I will die surfing," she says. "Nowadays I am choosy about the events in which I take part and I am really a soul surfer at heart. I want to ride any board on any wave in the way I want to and I don't mind, I'll ride anything. I can go into the sloppy stuff and come out smiling, having had a complete blast."
Shawn Alladio, also 44, is also a hard-nosed professional.
She does not really surf, except for fun. Her role in the water is to be on a powerful jetski, patrolling the surf zone for struggling surfers who have wiped out. It is a tough job that requires lots of experience and even more guts. Her jetski often has to blast into really gnarly stuff as she rushes to the rescue of some stricken board rider.
"You have to earn the guys' respect. They have to believe that you can do what you are supposed to do," she said shortly after arriving back in Cape Town for her fifth Dungeons campaign.
"Jetski rescues did not exist when I started doing it. I race jetskis and as I spent a lot of time on the water, I found that I was becoming more and more involved in rescuing people from swimming or boating incidents. The techniques I developed to improve my racing, such as getting better traction in the water, all ended up being invaluable in rescue situations too."
Water conditions, body positions, what works, what doesn't - all were figured out by her through years of experience. Since 1998, when she was first approached to do water safety for a big-wave surf event, many male surfers have had the opportunity to reach for her outstretched hand while in dire straits.
The result? They keep quiet and listen when she speaks to tell them the rules and arrangements before an event. "In 1998, I think my name helped me get in. I think they thought I was a man," she says, laughing.
Alladio has two children. Kyla, 23, runs the family business - a water safety training school in California - while she is away. And she is away about 50 weeks of the year, either doing water safety at an event, or training people in countries around the world. Shaniah, 1, travels with her mother.
"I did one event while pregnant in 2003. Of course I did not tell anybody. Shaniah was with me in class as I taught when she was 11 days old. She had travelled thousands of kilometres before she was six months old."
Sunset Beach, Hawaii
