"Coooarrr! An Interview with Jodie Cooper," by Tim Baker, ran in the May 1994 issue of Australia's Surfing Life magazine. This version has been edited and shortened

GROWING UP IN ALBANY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA; HOME OF THE LAST WHALING STATION IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE.


They'd be dragging the whales up the slip and you would see these sharks going, 

 Huge bites out of the whale, and you'd be standing on the town jetty going, fuck, if I ever fell in there. The water was just totally red. And the smell was disgusting.


It was a place where either you got married at 18 and had kids, or you were the town mole, or you were a sports person. We had a drive-in theater and that was the only entertainment. We'd go to the drive-in and get drunk. So for me, it was always, "I've gotta get out of this town, otherwise I'm going to end up with four kids." Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it just wasn't my style.


I got into surfing when I was 16. I had such a good group of guys to surf with. My best friends from 16 onwards were men. I never saw another girl surf for about two years.


When you're with a bunch of them [male pro surfers], and all you hear about is the women they fucked that night before, and it's all just, "Mate, yeah, I porked that one, and Huey was over there was looking and he was cracking up having a wank." They [female pro surfers] would never want to become involved in a sexual relationship with those guys, because who wants to be treated like that? As soon as you turn your back they're laughing at you and asking their mates, "Would you like to pork her? I'll give you a go." I don't want to have anything to do with these guys.

The thing that disappoints me most is that guys get [sex] confused with friendship. Things might be going along great in a friendship way, and it's sort of like they feel like they 

 to try or something. And once they've tried it's like, did you really have to do that? That happened to me a lot from a young age and I'd always be really confused by it. I got myself into some pretty ugly situations because I was too ashamed to speak up. They're coming on too strong and you know you don't want this to happen but you let it happen because you're scared to say no. And I let that happen a lot to me when I was an adolescent, before I convinced myself that it's OK to stand up for yourself and say No. You would pretend it wasn't happening because for some reason you thought you couldn't say, just, fuck off. You'd be at a party and you would go to bed and they'd follow you in afterward and jump in bed or something and you would be asleep and you would just be going, What the fuck is going on? This guy's just jumped in bed and his hands are starting to go everywhere.

"Punk Chick," by Tracy Hawkyard, ran in the September 1997 issue of Surfing, when Cooper was 33. This version has been shortened and edited.

You were probably the most well-rounded person in pro surfing [in the '80s and early '90s.] You deviated from the norm even back then.

Something that drove me nuts was the close-minded attitude of the surfers on tour. Only a few were interested in anything else besides surfing. Not to say all surfers like that, but on tour they pretty much all were. I was always interested in other things, not just surfing, so I always made an effort to find out about other things, talk about other things.

I never wanted to be a try-hard. I always just things by thinking, "That looks like a lot of fun, so I'm gonna do it." I didn't think much of the consequences. I did things because I'd get the heebie-jeebies from the way everything just seemed the same, so then I'd have to go out and do something different for my own benefit. I think my lifestyle, being gay—that's a pretty punk thing. Certainly in the climate that I had to operate in when I was a pro surfer, anyway. I always wanted to be true to myself, and if it shocked or offended people, well, that's just what had to happen. My general attitude was that I'd risk things.

"Jodie Cooper: Big-Wave Trailbozer," by Reggae Ellis, posted on June 14, 2o17, on Surfing World Magazine's website. Cooper was 43. This version has been shortened from the original.


Growing up in Albany really helped, but the main thing for me was after my first year on Tour I hung out in Hawaii for three months and I did that every year. That’s the advice I’d give to any rookie, do the time in Hawaii – it’s the best thing you can ever do for your big wave surfing. I wanted to get better at riding big waves, so I put myself out there; I’d go out when it was huge. Even if I don’t catch the biggest wave at least I’ve gone out. That was my strategy and I got good results. There was a handful of us [women pros] who surfed Sunset well but the other 80% went out there cause they had to. They were happy to put a contest singlet on and fluff around and catch ones on the inside.


The day of our run-in was a typically packed session at Beach Park, everyone getting barrelled, and everyone was out. Bud Llamas was on a wave and Johnny Boy dropped in, so Bud rode around him, and Johnny flicked his board at Bud’s head, nearly killed him. They both came up next to me, their boards were tangled and Johnny started punching. Everyone put their head down and paddled away, as they do, just chickenshit. I thought he should stop, and I said, “Oi, Johnny Boy, leave him alone! Chill out!” That sort of thing, cause I thought I knew him. He was about to smack Bud, but he looked at me instead, let go of Bud, paddled over and whacked me in the head. Everyone just took off. No one stood up for me – and you name 'em, they were out there – everyone saw it but didn’t want to get smacked in the head as well. He hit me and tried to humiliate me, and said, "Get out of the water you stupid F-this C-that." And I thought, “Fuck you,” so I stayed out for another half an hour and caught a few waves just to satisfy my own ego and pride.

He harassed me for two years after that. It was so heavy. Once at the 7-Eleven in Haleiwa he came up and threatened to kill me. Finally I’d had enough and knew I had to sort it out. The next time he confronted me was at the Sunset carpark and I lost it. I was like, “Are you gonna stab me or are we going to deal with this?” I just let it rip. He didn’t say or do anything and from that day on he left me alone. But it was a heavy two years.


When I was competing there was never a time I thought surfing was tolerant enough to accept my sexuality. Certain individuals were fantastic and didn’t care at all. But in general, surfing was the most bigoted, closeted sport. It was terrible. I made a decision very early on that I didn’t want to be in the closet, needed to be true to myself and I was going to wear the consequences of that. I came out when I was still competing, still had sponsors. I didn’t do it with a banner saying, “Look at me, look at me.” But if someone asked I didn’t hide from it. I thought, if I don't take a stand then I’ll be a hypocrite, and what happens in the future if my kids, or a niece or nephew, are gay? If I pretending to be something I'm not, or lying about it, then nothing’s going to change.

Surfing may be a bit more tolerant now, but I think people are still fearful of the repercussions; people worry about being judged, or not getting sponsorship. It’s so Neanderthal. Surfing has a long way to go.

[Photos: Art Brewer, Warren Bolster, Jeff Divine]

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