Quick Take
Local female surfers Kaila Pearson and Sarah Gerhardt explain why the statue project matters to the Santa Cruz County community and to them personally.
Veteran surfers Kaila Pearson and Sarah Gerhardt trace how women helped shape Santa Cruz surfing from the beginning and why the community needs a female surfer statue in a Community Voices opinion piece – read it here.
Local female surfers Kaila Pearson and Sarah Gerhardt explain why the project matters to the community and to them personally.
Kaila’s story
I’ve spent my life in this water. I am a surfer, ocean lifeguard, marine biologist, biology professor, artist, daughter of surfboard shaper Bob Pearson and member of the female surfer statue project’s advisory council.
I grew up on the Westside, and the male surfer statue near The Lane was always a positive, iconic landmark. I’ve never heard anything negative said about it. A female statue on the other side of town would bring balance and help unify our surf town.
Growing up, I had three badass ocean women whom I looked up to — Sarah Gerhardt (first woman to surf Mavericks, Ph.D. in chemistry), Jane McKenzie (the only female to surf The Lane for years) and Zeuf Hessen (icon of Eastside female surfing). I could see myself in them, and because of this I had the confidence to assert myself (as a female) in the lineup.
Seeing other women in the water gave me a sense of belonging. I went on to become an ocean lifeguard, marine rescue swimmer for the Santa Cruz City Fire Department, attend graduate school at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, where I discovered and described three new species of deep sea worms, and now I’m a biology professor at Cabrillo College, UC Santa Cruz and West Valley College. As a female, it’s incredibly powerful and motivating to see other females in disciplines that are normally male-dominated.
I love the idea of little girls looking up at a female surfer statue, and seeing themselves in her. It’s significant and inspiring for young girls to see women doing tough things.
I know firsthand.
Kaila Pearson is a biology professor at Cabrillo College, UC Santa Cruz and West Valley College, deep-sea biologist, surfer, ocean lifeguard and artist. Everything Kaila does revolves around the ocean. Kaila was born and raised in Santa Cruz and has lived in Santa Cruz the majority of her life. Kaila was born four months after the Westside surfer statue was unveiled. She has appreciated this statue her entire life.
Sarah’s story
I grew up in many places: the Big Island of Hawaii and in coastal Northern and Central California. I first taught myself to surf in Pismo Beach and was the only female surfer in my high school of 2,000 students.
The only representation I saw of female surfers was in ads for thongs showing women wearing bikinis on the beach. It was a lonely time, and I almost gave up because of the heckling I got from male surfers on the beach and in the water. I am grateful I didn’t give up because I loved the ocean and my time in it was beyond special; really a life-saver.
I learned perseverance, gratitude and humility and carried that with me as I grieved the early death of my mom, as I graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a chemistry degree and got my doctorate in physical chemistry from UCSC, and when in 1999, I became the first female to surf Mavericks (I continued to surf Mavericks for the next 20 years), and as a professor at Cabrillo College in a male-dominated field.
Along the way, I have met so many females, young and old, with diverse backgrounds who wanted to feel the joy of the ocean, but were held back by gender stereotypes and unfriendly vibes at the shore. It is unfortunate that these barriers still exist today and that only male surfers are represented by a statue in “Surf City,” perpetuating the gender stereotype and exclusive, male-only vibes.
Statues are representations of power, cultural values, ideas and memories. As such, a female statue is past due for Santa Cruz. I hope to see it soon.
Sarah Gerhardt is an ocean lover, wife, mother and chemistry professor at Cabrillo College. She was raised by a single, quadriplegic mother and taught herself to surf on the Central Coast of California. She moved to Santa Cruz to earn her doctorate in chemistry in 1998 and became the first woman to surf Mavericks in 1999. Sarah and her husband have lived in Santa Cruz since then, enjoying the natural beauty and community of the county.
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