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Vivacious raven-haired teenage surf champ and cover girl from Palm Beach, New South Wales; winner of the 1963 Interstate Surf Meet, a forerunner to the Australian National Titles. "She was suddenly everywhere," Phil Jarratt later wrote, "making the cover of the magazines, starting her own advice column in 

, and even making guest appearances on Australia's #1 variety show, Bandstand." 

Turton was born (1947) in Surrey, England. Two years later the family immigrated to Australia, and in 1957 they landed at Palm Beach, where her father co-managed the local golf club. Turton and her two brothers began riding surf mats. Older brother Ron was first to get a board. He later recalled that Pearl was "confidence and raw talent to burn" and that "it was just matter of time before she borrowed my board and off she went—this petite little thing could just ride." By 1960, she and Ron were both members of the Beachcombers Surfriders Club at Palm Beach. 

Turton was 16, out of school, and training to be a beautician when the first and only Interstate Surf Meet was held at nearby Avalon Beach. It was Turton's first competition, and she won. 

A flood of attention followed. For the cover of 

 magazine, Turton wears a plaid bikini, silver silver rings and bracelets, and sits atop her sky-blue board. The cover blurb reads: "She's Queen of the Surfers." Just a month later, Turton got the cover of 

, again with her blue board. A block of text reads, in part:

Pearl Turton, our 16-year-old cover girl, spends most of her spare time in the water—winter and summer. Petite and feminine, she laughed at the idea that riding the waves should be strictly for the boys. "I'm just stoked (crazy) about board-riding," she said. "It's a great sport for girls, too." So why don't YOU take up surfboard riding this summer?

While this was happening, Turton begin writing her "Ask Pearl" column surf 

 magazine, replying to questions sent in my young females surfers.  

In 1964, Bruce Brown and his small crew arrived in Australia shooting for what would become 

. Turton was asked to surf in the film, and spent four hours in the water at Palm Beach riding waves with 

 stars Robert August and Mike Hynson. When the finished film played in Australia the following year, Turton later recalled, she "slide under the seat" in embarrassment—Brown cut the footage to emphasize her low-cut bikini, not her surfing skill. 

For reasons unknown, Turton by that time had given up competitive surfing. Older brother Ron later said that Turton, after her big win in the Interstate meet, entered just one other contest in her life—the first Australian Surfing Titles, held at Bondi Beach in late 1963. "She did not feel at all well," he recalled. "[But] she turned up all the same and I remember her paddling out for her heat and she just sat out the back and did not attempt to catch one wave. I was there and felt so sorry for her." 

Turton worked at her local drugstore, and later with a veterans group, and remained a cheerful presence at  New South Wales and Queensland surfing events in decades to come. She died in her Palm Beach home in 2021, at age 73, following a long illness. Older brother Ron Turton died just a few months later. 

Turton, Pearl

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