Surfing Sisterhood Hawai‘i: Wahine Reclaiming the Waves

Author: Mindy Pennybacker | Paperback

In Surfing Sisterhood Hawai‘i, Honolulu native Mindy Pennybacker, a columnist for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, brings waveriding in the Islands to life blending Hawaiian legends, historical accounts, and interviews with more than thirty contemporary female surfers of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities.

Surfing Sisterhood recounts how female surfers got pushed aside and deprecated by a male-dominated industry in the mid-twentieth century and how they’ve come roaring back. In 2021, Hawaiian five-time world champ Carissa Moore won gold in the debut Olympic surfing event. In 2022, Hawaiian Moana Jones Wong won the first women’s World Surf League championship tour event at Banzai Pipeline, in big, barreling waves that were, until then, considered too dangerous for female contests. Surfing Sisterhood Hawai‘i shows how surfing in Hawai‘i is a daily celebration and lifestyle for its women, who sustain community, nature, culture and ‘ohana in its waves on top of having a lot of fun