Margo Oberg (September 8, 1953-) |
 The Largest Surfing EncyclopediaA-Z: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Advertisement
|
|
|
Women's surfing, despite its '90s boom in the marketplace, gets no respect.
Many still think that watching the top female pros is the miracle cure for insomnia. There are exceptions, but in general, the girls aren't exactly going balls out. In the mid-'70s, women were still trying to prove that they deserved a tour, and graceful daredevils such as Lynne Boyer and Margo Oberg stepped up to the plate in waves of consequence. Oberg not only dominated womens' surfing over three decades, she was considered worth watching by even the most hardened sexists. When little Oberg was five, the Godfreys moved from Pennsylvania to the affluent beach scene of La Jolla. She rode rubber rafts, played competitive tennis and began surfing at age 10 to be a part of the fad. But in her debut contest, she knew she was on to something. As the youngest competitor, she took out the Open Womens division. The same year, she won a coed Menehune event and her future was written. By the time Oberg reached high school, her resume spoke for itself: she was coached by her idol Mike Doyle, learned strategy from Corky Carroll and based her style on that of Skip Frye. At the age of 15, she won the 1968 World Contest, the Western Surfing Association's Women's title and the Surfer Poll. She met Steve Oberg in Encinitas in 1972, and after a two-week courtship, they were married. The couple moved to a two-acre retreat on the south side of Kauai, where she sought refuge from her surf star status. For three years, she was simply a housewife, but professional surfing was knocking on her door. Beginning in 1975, Lightning Bolt enticed her back into the arena with a substantial contract for the time. Oberg won everything in sight and boosted women's surfing to a level of respectability it has yet to recover. When the IPS added a women's crown to the year-old tour, there was little doubt that it would be Oberg's. In 1978, she lost the title to Boyer by the slimmest margin in history but regained the Surfer Poll she had claimed 10 years earlier. After a 1979 sabbatical on Kauai, she returned as world champion two consecutive seasons. She would resurface again in 1984 and 1989, each time stamping her supremacy on women's big-wave surfing. Life on Kauai was suiting Oberg fine. She began giving surf lessons in the mid-'70s, and in 1977, she started the Margo Oberg Surfing School, which she still owns and operates. All told, she was pulling in around $50,000 annually, a healthy second income even by today's standards. "Surfing school supported me more than pro surfing," she insists. "I also had a full-time job as beach director at the Kiahuna Resort." She and Steve had two boys in the '80s, Shane Kanoi, a top Hawaiian bodyboarder, and Jason Kaipo, an avid skateboarder. As for the lack of charging by today's female pros, Oberg places the blame on the system. "Except for Layne Beachley and maybe Rochelle [Ballard], they are all small-wave pros. It's not required to surf big waves to be a world champion anymore." No longer competing, Oberg spends her time helping out at events and teaching others through her surf camp. While she isn't directly visible on the world tour, her influence remains. Ballard, acknowledged as one of the hardest female chargers around and the only woman equipped for the barrel, grew up watching Oberg on Kauai. So each time Ballard pulls in, inspired by Oberg, she raises the level of commitment in women's surfing, inching it ever closer to the standard set by Oberg herself. -- Jason Borte, October 2000 Click here to find all the Margo Oberg photos and editorial on Surfline.
|
|
