Sui Generis

Joyce Hoffman established the image of the archetypal pro surfer. Fiercely competitive and highly photogenic, she won four U.S. Championships in the 1960s and 70s, was the first woman to ride Pipe, and became a mainstream media darling. Then she walked away from surfing and really went for a ride… More than three decades later, we caught up with her at Tar Farm Stables, the horse ranch she now manages in Southern California, to talk gender politics in surfing, the ethos of professional and amateur athletics, and how she rediscovered the joys of simply riding waves later in life.