Back-to-back world title winner Sharron Weber of Hawaii was interviewed by Nathan Myers in 2001. Weber was 53.

Everybody thought so. If my dad had been Dewey Weber then maybe I would have been in the magazines and all that. But I kind of came out of nowhere, so nobody gave me any mention.

Do you know of any surf magazine articles written about you after you won the world title?

Mmmm. No, actually. I would say none. Nobody at the magazines knew me.

Where was [1968 world champ] Margo Godfrey when you won the ’70 world title?

Margo lives on the same island [Kauai] as you, doesn’t she? How well do you know her?

Well, she runs a surf school and I run a tire shop. I do her tires. We’re not best buddies, but she’s on the island and she’s cool.

Was [two-time world champion] Joyce Hoffman there in 1970 too?

She was. I knew Joyce well, she was always very nice to the Hawaiian surfers.

Do you have any hard feelings about being so overlooked by the media

Well, I’m a Christian person. I take what I get. I’m not big on publicity. If I got a photo in the magazine, cool. But if they didn't want to put me in there, well, whatever. Back then you had to know people or you just weren’t getting in the magazine. But so what, you know? I mean, I did a good job. I have two world championship trophies.

You bought your first surfboard from Linda Benson.

 like me, same blond hair, we were practically duplicates. It was a great board, a reverse T-band stringer Hobie.

1963, I was 15. My brother and I started at the same time, in Waikiki

Nobody taught us, really. We just went out by ourselves. You go down there and at first the sharks [local surfers] eat you, and after a while they don't, then you catch some waves, and eventually you learn how to surf. That's how it worked for us.

I won a little local contest, juniors division.

Later that year, yes. Right before I turned 16.

You were still riding the Hobie you bought from Linda?

I was. I had that board until Greg Noll gave me a new one.

Not very long. Maybe six months. I don't know why, but it wasn't for me.

Did you go to San Diego in 1966 for the world titles?

I did, yes. Thirteen of us went from Hawaii, 10 guys and three girls. Jeff Hakman and Jock Sutherland were on the team. Jock got second in the contest, but mostly we didn't do well at all, the Hawaiian team. Our boards were too big. We didn’t even come close. Nat Young had a smaller board, and he just whipped us. Joyce won the women's division, easily.

How about the 1968 world titles in Puerto Rico?

I got second there, behind Margo. I'm not making excuses, but I had a little hangover after going out the night before with some guys from the Puerto Rican team. We’d all been waiting for a few days to surf and I got antsy. I was only 21 at the time.

That was great, partly because Hawaii paid our way, and also because Martha and Rell Sunn were both on the team with me.

What do you remember best about that contest?

The preliminaries were held at Bells. We didn't have leashes back then, and I lost my board on the rocks, and this tourist picked it up, trying to help, and tossed it back out to me. Except the board landed right back on the rocks and smashed the tail. There was a big luau that night, but instead of going I stayed in and fixed my board. And the next day we all drove up the coast a ways to this place called Skenes Creek, and I won the contest.

Maybe that tourist throwing your board onto the rocks was a blessing in disguise?

That’s true. I didn’t go to the luau, so no hangover, and I won.

Gerry Lopez. He did all my boards around that time. Gerry and I were good buddies.

Anything else you remember from that contest?

I remember [men's winner] Rolf Aurness was there was his dad, the actor James Arness. And they flew in on a Learjet!

What about in 1972, in San Diego? You won again. Was there more pressure that year?

My parents were on the beach watching, so yeah. Definitely more pressure.

Oceanside during the preliminaries was okay. But finals day, at Ocean Beach, was crummy. Small and crummy. I made all my waves, but the other girls were struggling.

What was the deal with you not going to South Africa in 1974 to defend your title?

There ended up not even being a contest that year, but before it got canceled they [world contest organizers] handed out plane tickets to all the Hawaiians who had qualified. Then I found out that, because of apartheid, Gerry and Reno and some of the other Hawaiians weren't going to be allowed to surf in the contest, because of the color of their skin. So I gave back the ticket and said I wasn't going. If those guys can't surf, I'm not going.

You kinda need the world champions there to defend the title. After I bailed, some other people bailed too, and they just called it off.

Just one more time, at Haliewa, and that was it. I was starting up a Tire Warehouse, here in Kauai, and I had to decide if I wanted to surf or to run the business. I chose work. It was a hard business to get going, and back then I didn’t have anyone helping. Now I've got 13 people working for me.

Did your friends or family or anybody think you were making the wrong decision?

Some people were a little disappointed, like I gave up or something. They'd say, "How can you go from surfing to tires?" But come on. After years and years of only winning trophies—which was all I ever won—you have to make a living. I was tired of trophies.

Oh yeah. I still have surf books and magazines all over my desk here at the store.

A couple of girls on the island. Rochelle Ballard, I know her dad, and also Keala Kennelly. They're both so good.

I do their tires. And I do Andy Irons tires. And Titus Kinimaka, I do his tires.

They all want to get their tires done by the champ?

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