"Conversations: Kim Mearig," written by Sam George, ran in the October 1984 issue of Surfing; Mearig was the reigning world tour champion.

How's the women's event calendar looking this year?

I'm excited about going to Israel and France, but the competition level right now is incredible. Frieda Zamba and Pam Burridge are so consistent. In the last contest we finished one-two-three, and I can see that happening all year long.

Do you feel at a disadvantage surfing lefts against those two goofyfooters?

This last contest it was choppy little lefts and my nerves got to me and it was really hard to surf backside. If the waves are good and clean I feel no disadvantage at all.

Yeah, Al [Merrick] and I are working on a stabilizer fin for my twin. A keel-like stabilizer.

Okay, so how come girls aren’t as good as guys? It can’t be strength, you’re bigger than Chappy Jennings. Liz Benavidez is bigger than Michael Ho.

Most of it is the way women are brought up as opposed to men; no killer instinct. A lot of girls put limitations on themselves, like, “Oh, I can’t do that!” Women should get those thoughts out of their heads.

Could that be why there’s never been a published photo of a girl surfing Pipeline? How come girls don’t surf Pipeline?

There are women who surf it when it's small, but there are not too many people who are mentally there who surf it when it’s huge. I remember driving along Kam Highway with Ian Cairns when I was on the NSSA National Team, and we asked him why he doesn’t surf Pipeline and he just shivered, like, “Why surf something like that when you don’t have to?” Maybe girls are smarter than guys. Surfing’s supposed to be fun.


What about Sunset? I’ve seen you out there.

I’ll admit it. I’m more of a small- to medium-sized hotdog surfer ’cause of where I’ve been brought up. I’ll have to grow into big waves. Guys have that go-for-it attitude. A lot of women don’t have that.

You seem to have more of it than most. I’ve seen you ride the tube like, well . . . like a man.

I think it’s because I’ve been surfing nine years now, pretty long, and it gets to the point where you get bored with the typical cutback and instead you're trying to find something really thrilling. I find myself looking for that. In the last couple of years, I’ve really gotten into tuberiding. It’s so exciting, and it’s not that hard if you have a real hollow wave. You just pull in and ride.

You surf differently than most girls. Is it because of where you live?

Yeah, you can tell that a lot of top women surfers ride a mostly beachbreak, ’cause they’re really quick and do a lot of little turns. I like to speed down the line and do big open turns. Al videotaped me back East and I’m not used to seeing me cramming little turns into small waves. It looked funny. It's not as appealing to me as big open turns.

So you can separate contest surfing from free surfing?

Oh yeah. I just got back from Hawaii this weekend and I couldn’t believe how relaxed and mellow I surfed, compared to when I'm there for the contests. I didn’t have to do anything. It felt so good just to surf. It was great. There are advantages to not surfing in a contest, you can kick out of a wave if it gets dumpy. You don’t have to get up at dawn.

Some pros say it’s a disadvantage to surf good waves all the time. They actually look for crummy waves.

I've seen a lot of people who surf beachbreaks a lot, they come up here [to Santa Barbara] and they can’t judge a wave and draw a clean line, making sections. I’ve seen a lot of people who can’t make the wave, it passes them by, they hit the lip too much, try to get too radical and blow the wave. I think beachbreaks are pretty easy ’cause I know that line to take across a beachbreak, too, to make the section.


How do you feel you rate among the rest of the guys who surf Rincon?

I feel I’m up there with the top people who surf there. I definitely stand out there with all the other hot guys.

What about in a more chauvinistic area, like Australia? What kind of reaction do you get there, when you’re better than most guys?

They watch you. They watch everything you do. I don’t know. I think guys always watch girls, to see what they’re going to do.

I’ve been treated really well though. Mostly.

Oh yeah, in Ventura (laughter). That place! I don’t know, I’ve had some incidents there. I don’t feel really welcome there. A lot of the people who hang out in Ventura don’t like what I’m doing. Anyone who stands out and gets a little recognition in a place like that is bound to get flak.

Girls never seem to get any recognition except in articles about girls.

That’s one thing I don’t agree with. I wish magazines would just stop making a thing of it, like, “OK this issue we’ll have a big article on women’s surfing.” What they should do with hot pictures is just mix them into the rest of the magazine.

Where do you want to go in terms of surf travel?

France and Israel. That’s exciting. Real interesting. I also like doing adventure-type trips, like into Mexico, just getting away from it all. That’s fun. I enjoyed South Africa when I went as an amateur. I want to go to Bali. Far out places.

How was it going to Africa, doing real well in the contests and having the only published photo of you showing you laying on the beach in a low-cut bathing suit?

It was one of the first pictures of me in the magazine so at first I was really stoked. Then later I thought about it and realized that I got some unreal rides that afternoon, and the photographer was there all day. And 

You must admit, though, in the pro world, man or woman, being attractive has its advantages. How would you feel if Op wanted to run a provocative ad of you in a bathing suit?

If Op wanted to do it, there’s nothing wrong with showing the feminine side of women’s surfing. One of the reasons girls haven’t been getting sponsors is that in the past, sometimes we've been too much like guys. So if I could help change that, I’d be happy. Like through my style of surfing. I’ve been told it’s more like a woman surfing, not like some girl out there trying to look like a guy.

[Photos: Dan Merkel, Joe Mickey, Jimmy Metyko, Jeff Divine]

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