Mary Monks Surfing

Mary Monks Surfing

33021

Courtesy of Mary Monks, 2001

Mary Monks, AKA Mondos Mary, surfing at Mondos Beach circa 1950s. Historical note: Mary Monks, AKA Mondos Mary (or Mary Mondos, depending on who you ask), was born in Fillmore in 1919 and was one of the early women surfers in Ventura County. She is featured in the Museum’s historical journal “In the Curl: The Evolution of Surfing in Ventura County”, which was so popular it is no longer in print. She surfed for the first time in Hawai’i in 1953 and surfed for the first time in Ventura County in 1955. Her first boards were three balsa boards from Velzy and Jacobs, which she purchased for $150 dollars. The other surfers made fun of her stance, she said, because “I would put my hands down flat on the board and then raise my fannie.”

Unknown

circa 1950s

Color Photograph

35.3 x 24.3 cm

Monks, Mary

Women surfers

California

Ventura County (Calif.)

Fillmore (Calif.)

Ventura (Calif.)

Museum of Ventura County

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Image

English

Photo is featured on page 23 of VCHA Surfing Quarterly, Vol. 44 No. 3 "In the Curl: The Evolution of Surfing in Ventura County”