Most of the quotes below are from "Perennial Pam Burridge," by Elizabeth Glazner, published in Volume 4, Issue 4 (1998) of Wahine magazine. Some quotes are from the 1992 biography Pam Burridge, by Marion Stell.


I was uncomfortable being a girl. Nobody who I surfed with knew I was a girl for about two years. I kept my mouth shut, so I didn't get hassled; I didn’t have any older brothers to protect me. I just went to the beach, went surfing, and went home.


I was pretty much this loner kid. I lived a lot in my head, and surfing was everything. I could do it by myself; it was just me and the wave, I didn't need anything, and it solved all my problems. But while I wanted to be a surfer, I had no interest in staying on the beach one second longer than I had to. In fact, I hated everything about surfing except surfing.


Pro surfing was just really being born; it was this new thing, this commercialization of surfing. I remember saying to my mum, talking about world champion Margo Oberg, "I wonder if I'll ever be like her." I remember the hidden agenda behind what I said. I was trying to get an answer out of her; to see if she thought I'd be good enough.


Things were changing really fast. It was all twin-fins and it was the beginning of the surfwear boom—the greed of the '80s—that kind of growth without any real soul or direction. But we just went with it and showed up where they told us to show up. I remember the turnover on the women's tour was quite high—you’d get a girl from Australia that would have a go, and she might only stay for one year, then fly home, get married, get a job, or go back to school. I didn't blame them at all. There was almost no money. The only people who were lucky enough to stay around were either at the top or had enough backing to keep on doing it.


At 17, after I'd been pro for two years, I went kinda punk. Surfing by that point had already become a job, and I hated being boxed in. The pressure in my life was coming from surfing, and because of that it didn't fill me up like it used to. I loved riding waves, but there was so much about surfing I didn't love. The whole, "Hey, dude" thing. Plus I didn't have friends who were surfers. So I was living two lives. My surfing life, and my nightlife where I'd go to clubs and see bands and hang out with my friends.


There came a point [in the mid-'80s] where I'd rather be in a bar than go to the hassle of surfing. I was really run down and started getting sick a lot; my immune system was shutting down. I had a friend [in Hawaii] who had been in a similar position and had a pretty good recovery. She had to cope with exactly what I'd had to cope with. For me it helped to listen to someone who was like me, with the same sort of past, telling me how it happened for her and how she got well. That was a turning point in my life. I started to go to meetings and be part of a recovery program, and then I was free to move on.


I had to work on a new approach to my contest surfing. I finally figured out that I didn't handle pressure well at all. In fact, I probably have the absolute opposite personality type I need to be a competitive sports person—I’m way too introspective, and if I get close to a goal, I think, "Well, I’m gonna lose it now." I mean, I sabotaged myself out of being #1 so many times. But my ego didn't want me to go any lower than #2. I still wanted to have some limelight.

The year before [1989], Mark started making my boards and traveled with me to Hawaii, so I was starting to feel we had a little team going. [Pam and Mark Rabbidge were soon married.] Competing was finally starting to feel normal. I was getting feedback and I was in a relationship that I was happy with, and things just started to change. I opened up as a person. I was a lot more easygoing than I'd been. I was growing up, finally.

About halfway through the 1990 season we were flying to California, with some good results already behind me, and I thought, 'If I can win in California, I can win the world championship." 

[Note: Pam won World Cup, in Oceanside; and a few months later won the world title in Hawaii.]


I packed my boards away and went "Thank you very much." It felt like I'd been a prisoner and I'd just been released with a full acquittal.

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