The Lone Star state celebrates its girls at the Texas Surfing Museum, DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS (WOMEN)

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DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS (WOMEN)

The Lone Star state celebrates its girls at the Texas Surfing Museum

By: Jon Steele

Photos: All photos and captions by: Jon Steele

June 12, 2008

The weekend of June 6 was the opening of the Texas Surf Museum's most recent exhibit, "Texas Women, Texas Waves."

It was a good look at the foremothers of the Texas Gulf surfing scene (one in which, surprisingly to most, you can totally clock in hours in the salty, humid, windblown water to enjoy some cold beverages and surf the shoulder high punchy beachbreaks). The earliest contribution dated back to Kathryn Williamson (c/o BJ surfshop in Houston) and you could feel the respect as the women gave tribute to one of the strongest forces that helped pave the way for them. With photographers from the likes of Jimmy Metyko and Aaron Lloyd, the ladies told their stories of growing up as a surfer on the less than open arms of the Texas surfing scene as well as their experiences abroad.

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Gig Gangel shows off her Texas tan in Playboy.

A wide variety of characters made up the show in Corpus, a mere two hours away from the infamous spring break spot, South Padre island. From Playboy centerfolds and US champs to fist fights and child rearing, these girls have done it all. ("That chick just broke my f**kin' nose!" Local kneeboarder, Donna Self, had enough on a crowded reef break day in Hawaii.) The stories got more and more colorful as the night went on and I had more to learn as the laughter and tears flowed from many a good time spent on the South Texas coastline. With 4WD trucks on the beach, surfers consist of cowboy-outfitted oil workers, tan bikini gals and city folk alike. The community includes a tight knit group of women in a place that can be harsh and downright dreadful to surf, with flat spells and hurricane surf along with sun exposure and lots of currents.

"That chick just broke my f**kin' nose!"

-- Overheard at the opening

Prior to the event, the museum staff chased down more than 100 different women living all over Texas (and in some cases they were native Texans now living in Hawaii, California, Mexico, Oregon and Canada), obtained photos (some of them 45-year-old old prints) of each surfer, copied and printed them. "We were really gratified by the reactions we got from everyone," says Dan Parker, museum curator. "I loved watching the emotional reunions of old surf buddies who hadn't seen each other in years." Eighty-eight-year-old Kathryn Williamson traveled from Houston with about ten family members to see the exhibit, Karen Mackay flew in from California, Grace Clark Knowles flew in from Garland and Janice Richardson, a former Corpus Christi resident who surfed North Padre in the 1960s, traveled to the museum from her home in Colorado. They ended up with the biggest exhibit opening the museum has experienced in its four years of existence.

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