Menczer, Pauline (1970 – )

Feisty Australian pro surfer from Bondi Beach, Sydney; 1993 world champion, and described by surf journalist Jodie Young as "the epitome of the Aussie battler." Menczer was born (1970) in Sydney, and came into hardship at age five when her taxi driver father and milkman grandfather were killed in separate car accidents, leaving her mother to take care of four children and a parent on a monthly welfare check. She began surfing at age 14, after she was given one-half of her brother's recently b...