Benson, Becky (1958 – )

Pioneering Hawaiian pro surfer, state champion in 1972 and 1973, and world-ranked #3 in 1977. Becky and older sister Blanche—daughters of Col. Albert Benson, a cameraman whose work was featured in over a dozen surf movies—were fixtures on Oahu's North Shore in the mid- and late '70s. "I never actually had the guts Blanche did," Becky later said. "My dad used to say she was all guts."

Benson was 9 when she and her family moved from Texas to Hawaii in 1967. Not long after arriving, her father ...