One Giant Leap for Dudette Kind

One Giant Leap for Dudette Kind
By Todd Balf and Paul Kvinta (with Debra Shore)

Lisa Andersen is no suffragette, but events last November, when she clinched a second-straight world surfing title at the Roxy Hawaiian Pro, elevated the Floridian to a status never before achieved by a female surfer: that of headliner. “The attention has been nice,” says Andersen, who labors on the decidedly second-class women’s tour and hurdled a major gender barrier when she
became the first female in more than 15 years to make the cover of Surfer magazine. “Some of the others on the tour came up to me and said, ‘All right, Lisa, score one for the girls!'” But Andersen says she holds no animosity. “Basically, I go out and have a good time,” she says, “and if I push myself hard enough, I can pull off some things that the
guys do routinely. And when I do, everybody gets stoked.”