They come in padding along in their bare feet with nothing on but a bikini, hair wet from the ocean and lips about to blister from the sun.It’s The Girl Next Door’s clientele.
The boutique and surf shop in St. Augustine is for serious female surfers — the ones who live to surf, love the ocean and like to look good doing it.
The shop is owned by Tory Strange, who also owns the adjoining Surf Station store. About 10 years ago, Surf Station hosted an all-girls contest to encourage females to surf and highlight local talent. That contest was the genesis of The Girl Next Door.“The girls just turned out, and so many were there,” Strange said.
The surfing bug is apparently being felt by girls all across the region. Paul West, president of the United States Surfing Federation and the Florida Surfing Association, said based on contest entries for the past three years, he’s seen a 700 percent increase in the number of girls competing in North Florida.“I’ve never seen another area in the country that has more girls surfing, and not just surfing, but are really good, like we do in North Florida,” he said.
At The Girl Next Door, to accommodate the rising interest in the culture, the store goes beyond just a boutique with surfer girl clothes. Yes, there are the shell hair clips and sundresses, as well as skimpy suits and sandals, but there are also wetsuits, wax and hundreds of boards.
Strange said the shop is the only one like it in Northeast Florida, and it bolsters the local female surfing community by providing a comfortable, girls-only atmosphere focused on the sport.
“Some girls feel intimidated going into a surf shop with the guys behind the counter,” he said. “[But] the girls don’t want to go to a boutique; they don’t want the fluff. They want good equipment.”
Part of this strategy is picking a staff of about 10, made up of mostly female surfers.One employee, Chelsea Gresham, 19, has worked in the shop for three years. On a recent day she unpacked inventory with a bikini on under a Surf Station T-shirt and denim cutoffs. She headed out to nearby Anastasia State Park to catch some waves before going back on the job.
On the shore, a Surf Station camp was teaching young surfers the proper way to pop up when they catch a wave and the most effective way to paddle out. Two weeks prior, the store hosted an all-girls camp. About 15 girls showed up.
One of the instructors was Sara Lear, 20. She said girl surfers in the beginning stages appreciate being taught by another female surfer because they often feel more comfortable. On this day, Lear was helping out with the co-ed camp, and the girls in the camp were the ones with the most gusto, she said.“The girls are the only ones who will paddle out on the big sets,” Lear said.
Strange said there’s been growing interest in surfing among the female set, particularly in the past few years. There’s been a lot of factors contributing to the rise, including the films “Blue Crush” and “Soul Surfer,” as well “Leave a Message,” a film released by Nike a couple of months ago documenting the surfing talents of pro girls Coco Ho and Carissa Moore, among others. The Girl Next Door recently hosted a screening of the movie in the shop. With the growing acceptance on film and in the water for girls surfing, Strange said he’ll see girls in the shop who just learned to walk accompanying their parents, who are buying them their first board. And despite the recession, the shop has stayed afloat by catering to a burgeoning market of future female surfers.
According to West, nearly all local contests have had to expand the number of divisions to accommodate the new crop of female surfers, and the surf camps are riddled with girls. West said six years ago, about 20 percent of the campers were girls; this summer it is about 80 percent female.
In St. Augustine, the girls toddling on the board have big flip-flops to fill. Women like Rachel Bardin, 25, Ashley Minor, 20, and Amanda Giberson, 19, as well as Gresham, are some of the most aggressive yet smoothest surfers out in the water, despite a line of guys floating on their boards waiting for the same waves. Bardin has traveled the world surfing, including trips to Hawaii and Australia to surf. She’s also on The Girl Next Door team, which has a handful of females. Bardin isn’t so much into the contests, but embodies what Strange said The Girl Next Door represents: commitment to advancing the sport among women.
Although surfing for girls has come a long way, especially in St. Augustine, there’s still some progress to be made. Ashley Laguna, 18, just graduated from Creekside High School and was enjoying the waves in the water with a friend. She bought her board at the shop and frequents The Girl Next Door for surf stuff. “Being a girl surfing, it kind of gets looked down upon,” she said. “You have to prove yourself.” Which is exactly what many of the St. Augustine girls are doing, such as Gresham. They are all committed to the sport and know each other from waiting together in the sea for a wave. There’s a sisterhood among them, and like sisters, they fight, make up and encourage each other. “In a contest, everyone is friends outside of the water,” Gresham said. “But we’re still all girls.”
Tracy Jones: (904) 359-4272
http://jacksonville.skirt.com/articles/young-women-paddle-out-girl-next-door-surf-shop-st-augustine
