Margo Oberg – Biography

Margo Oberg – Biography

In 1977, Margo Oberg famously told People Magazine, “There are ten really famous male surfers in the world, and one really famous female surfer. That’s me. I want to ride the biggest waves any woman has ever ridden.”

Her words, while dripping with braggadocio, were rooted every bit in truth. No one could dispute that the graceful regular footer was the queen of women’s pro surfing. She was one of those rare athletes who dominate so convincingly that others appear ill-equipped to compete. Think Mark Richards, Tom Curren, Kelly Slater. Margo Oberg is on that list. She stormed to the top of her sport and is widely regarded as the first female professional surfer (parlaying wave riding into a legitimate career that would span decades). Her epic clashes with arch rival Lynne Boyer became legend. A world champion four times over and one of the first women to truly break into Hawaii’s big-wave boys club, Margo Oberg was one of a handful of women to set the performance bar beyond reach.

Born Margo Godfrey in 1953, the small framed daughter of an aerospace engineer relocated with her family at age 5 from Pennsylvania to La Jolla, San Diego. There she rode rubber rafts in the chilly Pacific Ocean across the street from her new home. As surfing’s popularity grew to a fever pitch, Margo wanted in, but her parents urged her toward tennis, a sport the young Godfrey found too stressful. Instead, she was drawn to the sport of kings and took naturally to riding waves at the tender age of 10. After two years lugging her 11 foot, 40 pound surfboard in and out of the water, Godfrey was ready to try competition, taking the Open Women’s division in her first contest and even leveling every boy in sight to win the 12-year-old division of the Windansea Surf Club Menehune Surfing Contest.

With revered waterman, Mike Doyle, as her mentor and her brimming natural talent, Godfrey made quick work of her competition, reaching the final of the Makaha International at 13 and was runner up at the US Surfing Championships the same year. Joyce Hoffman was the dominant figure in women’s surfing at the time, but little Godfrey, nothing short of a phenomenon, consistently beat her in the AAAA-rated California circuit.

In 1968, Godfrey took both the Makaha and East Coast Championships. That same year in Puerto Rico, she convincingly won the World Surfing Championships and the Surfer Poll. The following year she became the sport’s first woman to earn a paycheck, a cool $150 for winning the Santa Cruz Pro-Am but then took a “disappointing” second at the 1970 World Championship contest. After seemingly peaking in success and popularity by 17, Godfrey retired from competition with a world title under her belt and two years left until high school graduation.

Completely removed from competition in 1972, she married San Diego accountant and church pastor, Steve Oberg. She also found a new passion as a born-again Christian. The couple moved to the south shore of Kauai where for 3 years, she appeared to live as Margo Oberg: recreational surfer and housewife. But in reality, she was waiting for professional surfing to mature. In1975, Lightning Bolt offered her a lucrative contract which would set her on a competitive warpath then unimagined in women’s surfing. She quickly won the International Professional Surfing Championships at Malibu that same year.

The years spent surfing Kauai’s rugged perfection and reading the Bible had paid off with a surge in her performance level. So when in 1977 the International Professional Surfing tour added women’s events, Oberg set to task to easily snatch the first ever women’s crown. She lost to nemesis Lynne Boyer by a hair the following year but recaptured the Surfer Poll award. After a 1979 hiatus, Oberg returned to form to win back-to-back titles in 1980 and 1981. By 29, Margo Oberg retired for good to Kauai. She continued to surf events in Hawaii, winning the World Cup at Sunset.

During her competitive career, she wrote for the Honolulu Advertiser and Surfer Magazine while doing color commentary for ABC’s Wide World of Sports. In 1985, she was the only woman to be included in “25 Surfers whose Surfing Changed the Sport,” inducted to the Surfing Hall of Fame in 1991 and into the Huntington Beach Surfing Walk of Fame in 1995 alongside Tom Curren, John Severson, Herbie Fletcher, and Phil Edwards.

Recalling her surfing success, she would later ironically admit that her most lucrative surfing income came with the Margo Oberg Surfing School opened in 1977 in Poipu Beach, Kauai, which reportedly added some $50,000 annually to her surfing booty. Margo Oberg still lives with her husband and teaches surfing on the Garden Isle, but her effect on women’s surfing will never be eclipsed. The first world tour champion and original female big wave charger, Oberg paved the way for every girl who has donned a contest jersey since.

Today, there are dozens of successful and popular professional female surfers. But in the 70’s and early 80’s, there was only one: Margo Oberg.