THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 2, 1995 TAG: 9506290248
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 48 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CATHERINE KOZAK, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 125 lines
FRAMED IN spectacular beauty, with good waves and pristine waters, the Outer Banks is reputed to be some of the finest surfing on the Eastern Seaboard.
But most people seem to believe wave riding on the barrier islands is best left to dolphins and rash young men.
Barbara Corey will have none of that.
Barely more than 5 feet tall, weighing in at 98 pounds and fast approaching 45 years old, Corey has sidestepped the hypermasculine image of surfing with casual aplomb, garnering nearly 40 trophies in various surfing competitions.
``It's really a great sport,'' the Maple resident said. ``But it's not like learning to play Monopoly. It takes a lot of physical endurance.''
But stamina was hardly a necessity for Corey at a recent competition in Kill Devil Hills sponsored by the Eastern Surfing Association's Outer Banks District.
``My sole competitor is still pregnant,'' she lamented, adding that women surfers who enter local competitions ``have kinda dropped out over the years.''
Absent a rival, Corey was required by contest rules to just touch the water to win. So she touched the water.
It wasn't her first hollow victory.
``I used to wish more women would enter - not that I think I could beat most of them,'' Corey said with a broad smile. ``I usually lose.'' But now she said she continues to at least attempt to compete to promote women as surfers, ``especially us older women. And I'm pretty old.''
Age may eventually hinder physical vigor, but in Corey it seems only to enhance guts and passion for the sport.
Born and reared near the New Jersey shore, Corey was intrigued by women surfers on television and decided to give it a try in her early teens.
Unpretentious and plain-spoken, Corey said she thrives on the rush of speed and facing something as unpredictable - and unforgiving - as an ocean wave. ``I like the freedom of it; the individuality of it.''
Dwarfed by her 9-foot longboard, ridiculously outnumbered by young male surfers, Corey has eschewed vanity in favor of self-assurance. She's learned to change into her bathing suit and wetsuit in public by deftly holding a towel around her. She can barely see without her glasses, but you can't surf with glasses, so she squints and makes do.
``You're not out there for anyone else,'' she said. ``If it wasn't fun, I wouldn't be doing it.''
And she does it whenever she can. Since catching her first wave, she has surfed up and down the East Coast and even had a brief stint surfing in Chile. She moved to the area about 10 years ago, after tiring of commuting to the Outer Banks to surf from her job in Washington, D.C.
Six years ago, she married Dave, a musician, and moved to Currituck County. Now she drives to two jobs, as a fish surveyor for the U.S Department of Commerce and a banquet server at the Ramada Inn in Nags Head, in addition to participating in surfing events.
``Barbara is like Old Faithful - she's there every competition,'' said Julie Hume, co-director of the district ESA. Out of 69 entries in the last contest, Hume said Corey was the only woman. She joked that it's gotten to the point where she feels she'll have to compete just so Corey can go into the water against someone.
But surfing is apparently not Hume's strong point. ``My husband has tried to teach me,'' she said. ``I stand up. I scream. I fall down. It's really comical.''
Noting that she sees more women surfing and competing in other districts, Hume guesses that women may have less time here.
``On the Outer Banks, most people have to work all the time,'' Hume said. But she was still puzzled that the sport doesn't attract more females.
``I'm really surprised that we don't have more girls. They all come, but most of them just flit around in their bathing suits,'' she said. ``I don't know whether it's a disinterest, or if it just hasn't been promoted enough.''
The ESA, a non-profit organization that supports amateur surfing, holds more than 116 competitions annually. Membership is open to surfers of all ages and abilities in 28 districts along the East Coast, the Gulf Coast of Florida and Alabama, and the Great Lakes. For the last 18 years, the annual ESA championship has been held at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
Barton Decker, owner of the Hatteras Island Surf Shop in Waves, said most of the women surfers he sees are half of a surfing couple. Some women windsurfers are starting to switch over, he said, but he doesn't see many single young women on boards here yet.
``More women should do it, at least get out on a surfboard,'' he said. ``Everyone can do it; it just takes a lot of work.''
Surfing is not only physically demanding, it involves interaction with a powerful body of water. ``There are a lot of people who are afraid of the ocean,'' Corey said ruefully. ``They're also afraid of the things in the ocean.''
She should know - she's shared the water with sharks and jellyfish. And even as an experienced surfer, she's been flung around and spit out by waves and bounced off sandbars, suffering a broken toe, torn shoulder muscles and various bruises.
``But you can get injured in any sport,'' she said.
Surfing historically hasn't gotten the backing as a professional sport, said Sonny Yambor, the former co-director of the Association of Surfing Professionals/East, the Florida-based governing body of the sport worldwide. Yambor was instrumental in kicking off the first women's pro surfing tour on the East Coast two years ago.
``I think it's been sold as a male sport,'' he said, ``but as more women learn to surf, they're going to communicate their enthusiasm to other women.''
In that way, the number of women surfing and competing will naturally grow, as happened with other sports. ``There's no question that's going to happen,'' he said.
Male surfers have to start teaching their daughters to surf, Hume said. ``I would love to see more girls (surfing),'' said Hume. `` A lot of that depends on the fathers - they have to get them excited, get them motivated.''
But start them young, Decker advised. ``It gets more difficult to start to surf the older you get, because you don't take the abuse as well as when you're a teenager,'' he said.
Hume also said local competitors are few and far between in the young divisions, both male and female, and in the senior male divisions. She's encouraged by rumors that a lot of young girls are planning to enter surfing contests on the Outer Banks this summer.
In the meantime, Corey will keep surfing.
``I'm not gonna stop because I'm outnumbered in the water,'' she said. ``But I'd love to see a lot more women out there.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by CATHERINE KOZAK
Barbara Corey of Maple has garnered nearly 40 trophies in various
surfing competitions.
by CNB