Excerpted from the Marge Calhoun chapter of Andrea Gabbard's 2000 book Girl in the Curl. The interview itself took place in 1998 or 1999, when Calhoun was in her early 70s. Some quotes have been slightly edited


The water was safe and curative. If I had problems—the stress of dealing with all the stuff that life entails—I’d go out surfing and look back at the land, and I’d forget what was bothering me. I’ve never experienced fear in the water. I always wore a grin and had a tickle in my stomach.

LEARNING TO SURF AFTER HAVING TWO CHILDREN OF HER OWN


I now realize that everything built up to surfing. I had no idea when I was young that surfing would be my destiny. [The first time I saw surfers, at Topanga, in the mid-'50s], there were three guys out in the water: Matt Kivlin, Wally Reed and a guy named Percy. I was so excited. Tom, my husband, who loved scuba diving, turned to me and said, "You know, Marge, you could do that.”


The first time was at the Colony, in Malibu. I stumbled down the cliff path to the sand and, much to my surprise, there was this diminutive, platinum-blonde girl on the beach with a surfboard. [Darilyn Zanuck] was very friendly, and took me under her wing. When I first went out in the surf, Darilyn told me, "Get in front of the whitewater and stand up." I did, and when I went to stand up, I slipped and landed on my bottom facing sideways to the shore, my legs straight up in the air. But my board was trimmed to the wave and I just kept going, laughing, all the way in.


In the sixties, as surfing got more popular, more boys and girls headed to the surf. The boys didn’t make the girls feel welcome in the water, so many of them felt they had to imitate the boys. I’d tell them that they didn’t have to look like a gremmie, in baggy suits with uncombed hair. I never got hassled in the water. I was always polite and never antagonistic.


I was always good in big surf. That’s where I felt most comfortable, that’s where I wanted to be. I was a big, strong woman. I loved the takeoff and that drop down the face of a big wave. It was so exhilarating.”


When the door of the airplane opened and the warm, fragrant air hit me, I realized I hadn’t known anything like that existed. And I quickly realized that I was with people who feel like I do. They just adore the sea. I like their lore, everything about the Hawaiians.


The most graceful person I ever saw on a board.


My friend Alan Malama, a big Hawaiian, said, "Marge, get behind me on the wave and I’ll pick them all off for you." We’d catch a wave together and Alan would go in front of me on his big board, come up behind the surfers and literally pick them off their boards by the seat of their pants and toss them off the back of the wave. We did it for fun, but the guys got the message.


I remember getting wiped out and rolling around in the water, laughing to myself. I always knew who was the boss. The ocean doesn’t care whether or not you ride waves. There is no "conquering," other than yourself.

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