Former world surfing champ Pauline Menczer says she never let anyone get in the way of her dream

When Pauline Menczer won the 1993 World Surf Title women faced discrimination in and out of the water, now she looking to a new career as a motivational speaker to encourage equality for all surfers.

GIRL IN THE CURL: Northern Rivers resident and 1993 World Champion surfer Pauline Menczer features in the surfing documentary Girls Can't Surf and is an advocate for women receiving equal prize money and respect in the sport.

Equal prize money may be presented at the elite surfing competitions, but according to 1993 World Champion Pauline Menczer, women still face discrimination out on the waves.

Menczer, 50, is regarded not only as a pioneer in the world of women’s surfing but is a crack waverider and an advocate for every female who ever paddled out.

On Wednesday, the Northern Rivers resident who is featured in the recently released documentary Girls Can’t Surf, said how pleased she was that attitudes have changed since she was a grommet.

“It’s amazing when you see men taking their daughters out and encouraging them to catch waves and to take up surfing as a career,” she said.

“And the biggest change is at the top level of having equal prize money.”

However, Menczer said that there’s still challenges to overcome with some people whom she feels have closed their mind to progress.

“There’s been an amazing change of attitude to women surfing but there’s still a long way to go,” she said.

“I think the support that young girls in the sport is very good, but the boys get more and this needs to be evened up.”

Menczer said there’s also a massive disconnect between what sponsors demand from the women and male they promote – and the messages used in advertising.

She pointed to a recent Surf Dive Ski advertisement as an example.

“It showed a man in a barrel (surfing) and a woman on the beach in a bikini,” she said.

“We don’t see guys on the beach in their swimsuits (in advertisements), people need to think before they do this type of marketing, we need to speak up that this is not acceptable.”

Menczer said the response from people who have seen Girls Don’t Surf has been “wonderful.”

“I have received hundreds of responses, people tell me they really love it,” she said.

“People have said, ‘my kids love it, it’s such an amazing message’, we should show it at schools.

“The only negative feedback has been from uneducated men, anyone with a bit of education thinks it’s wonderful.”

Now Menczer is planning her next career move, this time into motivational speaking, where she will share her story of working through challenges including a long struggle with rheumatoid arthritis then a rare auto-immune disease.

She hopes to attract interest from health and wellbeing companies to sponsor her speaking engagements.

Menczer said she’s always been able to look for the silver lining.

“What got me through the tough times is that I loved the sport and loved what I did,” she said.

“My childhood was pretty tough but I always did what my dream was, and never let anyone get in the way.”