An interview with Susie Smith, surfer woman, wahine toa.

Susie was already surfing when the first World Surfing Championships were held at Manly Beach, Sydney, Australia – and she was there. 

She always sought the biggest waves she could find, travelled to New Zealand/Aotearoa, met and fell in love with Phil, her soul mate; together with their two children roamed Kenya spreading the word of God, surfed remote islands of the Pacific Ocean, tore themselves away from their beloved Mount Maunganui and started a new life with Spud the dog, in beautiful Hawkes Bay. And more.

This is Susie Smith of Sydney, a surfer woman with a soft voice but the body strength more akin to the high-performance athlete. Aotearoa has been her home for decades now with Mount Maunganui being a huge part of her story, her soul. When Phil passed, in 2024 she moved back to the Mount again, no longer surfing but tuned to the ocean sounds that she can hear not far from her retirement apartment in Mount Maunganui east. It is that sound, her two children and her special memories that sustain what is a very active retirement life. 

Now close to 80 years of age, meet Susie Smith, a woman of great style, a fist full of memories of surfing remote Pacific beaches and Kenya as well as Haumoana in Hawkes Bay and the crowded line up at Mt Maunganui. 

Encouraged by her two children Mike and Sarina, Susie now answers the questions asked of her by Jonette Mead. Susie looks back on her life through the lens of surfing and is good enough to answer our questions.

Susie, what year did you start surfing? 

I was a body surfer from age 9 and used surfoplanes or Coolite boards. We lived in Colloroy Long Reef, Sydney, and I would go right out the back of the surf. But it was in 1960 that I did my first stand-up surfing also at Colloroy. The board I used was borrowed from the local surf club.

So, Colloroy remained your home beach?

Yes, it was Long Reef Colloroy, at the northern end of Dee Why Beach.  it picked up all the southerly swells. It was great! 

I found some surfing history about you on FB that was created by legendary Snowy McAlister. He found a photograph of you as the then Susie Williams of Colloroy, and Carol Simpson of Manly, saying that you both “acquitted themselves in surf of 12 foot in a way that surprised all those present”. Seems Snow spoke highly of the way you both dropped straight into this powerful break. In fact, you had taken on the legendary Bombora! You loved the big waves, right?

Yes, the bigger the better really. Again, because I understood how waves and the ocean behave, I felt confident to just drop in and enjoy what happened next. 

How did you get your first surfboard? 

There was a competition to guess the amount of jellybean lollies in a big jar and I won! I had guessed it correctly and to my great joy, the prize was a surfboard! It was a 9-foot 2-inch Gordon Woods. 9 foot 2 was quite short at the time compared to some of those heavy 11-foot boards. 

Susie, you were there at Manly Beach for the very first World surfing championships in 1964. What was it like?

So exciting! Midge Farrelly was there – he was already a hero for his style and prowess on a board. Nat Young lived nearby so he was there too, the first surfer to “climb and drop”. Everyone was awestruck.

I was also stoked to see women surfers in the World Champs, such as Phyllis O’Donnell (who placed first), Linda Benson (runner-up) and Heather Nicholson (third place). 

Tell us how you ended up living in New Zealand. 

I was on my way to South America with a Brazilian guy who was on the CSRIO beef cattle conference team, but I got as far as Rotorua and fell in love with that town and decided to stay. I needed a job so called in to see the people at the Daily Post. A certain young journalist, Phil Smith was up in the office working at the time I called in.  He also delivered the newspapers and when he found out I was from Australia asked me if I would like to do deliveries with him so that I could see more of the area. He was so polite, talked about geology, geography and volcanos. I was entranced with Phil and we became an item. Phil proposed to me at Newdicks beach at Maketu. It was a great love story – we loved the same music, loved surfing, and had loads of mutual interests too. 

What happened the first time you went surfing with Phil?

Ah yes. That! I was wearing false eye lashes. The mini skirt hadn’t made its appearance at that time, but false eyelashes were a thing. I surfed with the lashes in my mouth to keep them safe but got dumped by a wave and ended up swallowing the lashes! I haven’t worn any since.

How did your life differ in NZ from that in Australia?  

Completely opposite. Aussies versus Kiwis, country v city, it was all overwhelming at first.  Kiwis are different to Aussies. It was also very countryfied, and I was used to the city life of Sydney. 

What was your approach to surfing?

I wasn’t an expert, but I loved the “drop”. The bigger the waves the better, and I knew about waves from body surfing.

What was it like surfing at Mt Maunganui back then?

Phil was entrenched in the surfing groups out at Maketu as well as in The Mount. These were welcoming wonderful functional families. They were great! I loved meeting them. It was such a friendly vibe spending time with them, and in the surf. 

How did your international adventures together develop?

Phil got a job overseas up the Queensland coast. We got married at Maroochydore. Phil would drop me off at Noosa beach before he started work so I surfed all day. I had Tea Tree Point pretty much to myself, surfed myself silly, until Phil picked me up back at the carpark. 

Then we ended up in Melbourne which we loved, worked for World Vision and lived at Phillip Island.  More great surfing! 

Next was Kenya, again working for World Vision.  We travelled down the east coast of Kenya to Mombasa and Malindi where there was great surf. We climbed almost to the top of Kilimanjaro Mountain – we adored rock climbing. We were in lots of countries in Africa, the quite dangerous ones at the time such as Angola. Idi Amin was at the height of his dominance then with his cruel practices and “cleansing” of communities. We were there at a terrible time for Africa and were lucky to remain safe there. 

World Vision took us out in their van to see some of the wild animals. The children and I went in too hard when we spotted some elephants and it was no surprise that we were charged by them! We ran back to the van where no one could speak due to being so terrified!   When elephants charge it is not good – but this time – they stopped. 

Then Phil had a big baboon come up behind him when he was putting rubbish in a bin, but he survived. We were caught in floods too. So many adventures. But we lived to tell the tale.

We loved flying over the land following the big rains. It looked magnificent as the greenery flourished overnight. Then there were tribes that we encountered, too. We met a range of them including Masai as we went through the Rift Valley. We crossed one of the borders at night and were let through despite being confronted by military police. We knew there were tribal wars going on and we did rescue other missionaries from the Samburu tribe. Exciting!

Susie, was Phil working over there?

Yes, Phil was director of communications there for World Vision and took videos and photos of where he went right out to where the missionaries lived and had established programmes such as drilling wells (a high priority.) We were in places where they had dug into the ground, and would write reports for the Scandinavian countries, Australia and Canada. In this way we raised money for drilling wells, school projects, training in crop growing, schools and education to save them from going into the cities. This encouraged them to stay in their villages to keep their skills there.  

I believe your family ended up living in Europe for a while.

Yes, we moved to Switzerland of all places for a short time, but with no surf there we ended up back in Sydney staying with family. However, the call of Mount Maunganui was too strong and so we returned there in the early 1970s. From our base in the Mount, we surfed all around New Zealand, the west coast of the South Island was amazing.  Sadly, DOC have now fenced off some great surf spots there. There was usually just the two of out surfing which was very special. Just past Riverton are the Blue Cliffs where the Hector Dolphins surfed with us. They formed groups and surfed alongside our boards. We also used to camp and surf at Raglan’s Whale Bay. 

You went to Fiji to surf. How did that go?

For Pacific Ocean adventures we holidayed in Fiji and surfed Cloudbreak three times, we surfed Frigates and discovered breaks in Fiji out from Mana Island. We named them too. We used to go to the bottom of the long coral reef out from Cloud Break and found a magic right hander. My son once surfed it under a full moon, and I have a memory of him seemingly surfing right into that big old moon. He surfed on a right hander on his thruster surfboard, and what a long wave that was. We named this spot Joe’s reef in honour of Joe the fisherman. 

On one occasion flying out of Fiji, we looked out the window and saw Nandola which is just south of Suva. We could see a reef so took a photo and decided to try to find it the next time we went back. Later, we found it and stayed in a village there. From the travellers we met there, we formed two groups - Australians, a New Zealander and some Israelis. We managed the vehicle and cabin bookings for them as we had had so much experience with this in Fiji. We surfed together at places like Lighthouse and Kadavu, the latter a long way out in the ocean. There is a surfing camp there now which opened in 2000.

From Suva went South down river to the end and discovered a beautiful wave. Our boat captain had never seen surfing before and was absolutely gobsmacked! We stayed in a camp at the end of the river called Sigatoka. Our expensive camera gear was a worry to keep safe, so we stashed it in a disused run-down toilet that had a huge spider on guard! 

We tended to stay away from the tourist resorts. Where we surfed and stayed with so magical. There is a small coral island called Yanutha out from Frigates where we surfed too, sleeping under the palm trees, even though we had small portable tents.   

So, Cloudbreak, got any stories from surfing there?

Well, even Kelly Slater said Cloudbreak was his favourite. It sure was mine, but only at high tide! On one occasion I didn’t tuck my head in enough and ended up with a dislocated leg!  We were there for the inaugural Frigates competition. I won the Women’s division. I was never afraid of the drop; it was my favourite part. I mostly always made my waves because of my great read of waves. 

How did motherhood affect your ability to go surfing? Eg who baby sat?

Both our children were born in New Zealand. When Michael was young, I would go to the beach and put him in a playpen there with an umbrella for shade, a bottle of orange juice and raisins and go out and surf. You could leave your car unlocked then remember? Both kids were good. They always enjoyed themselves and were great travellers. Even in Kenya they were great. 

Did you follow the surf contest scene or were you more of a free surfer? 

More a free surfer but I did compete in the South Pacific Games at Ruapuke in about 2001. There were just a few guys in it and me! I came away with a Silver and a Gold medal. 

Then I was up at Ahipara once where they had the Christian Surfers surf camp. I went in the comp and won it. But I could see how keen the other girls were and felt a bit guilty. I did go to the World Masters Champs at Stent Road in Taranaki in 2003. I’d already met Heather Dent in Fiji but she lived in Taranaki at that time. So, Heather and I were very familiar with Stent Road which was absolutely huge that day. Sadly, the organisers moved the Women’s division to Fitzroy Beach which was only 3 foot. That was so disappointing. Heather and I wanted the big stuff!  None of the other girls would go out at Stent so Fitzroy it was.  I love Stent Road so much, and the kinas up and down that coast, the reef at Opunake. A wild, mostly undeveloped but great part of New Zealand.

Mt Maunganui hosted a women’s only Open Surf Championships and I did enter that first year back in 1986 I think it was. I did quite well and was chuffed to win a wetsuit – probably an Aleeda back then.  And I did win the Women’s division in that first event at Frigates in Fiji. 

Susie, you are a creative person, how did you express that through surfing?

Surfing centred and focused my creative side which influenced how I earnt a living. I had 2 surf fashion labels, EARTHMOVERS and PLAYWORKS that I sold through a wonderful retail store in Tauranga, called Calico Mill at the bottom of Devonport Road. Janice Mathews owned that store and she was great! I also ran a ROCKS AND MINERALS OF NEW ZEALAND business where I organised rock specimens to supply to Te Papa Museum, schools and tourist shops. With Phil being a geologist, it was a perfect venture. I passed on what I learnt from establishing these businesses to our children, and in fact told Michael to forget about surfing in competitions, to get established in business so he could afford to take himself anywhere around the world to surf. And he did just that. Today he is still RPM clothing manufacturing based in Mount Maunganui.

How has surfing shaped your philosophy on life?

Surfing keeps you real, keeps you simple. I much prefer sleeping under a palm tree rather in a flash motel. That approach to life keeps you connected to the earth.

Any advice for people wanting to take up surfing?

Yes, watch surf videos to programme your mind. You Tube is full of coaching and learn to surf videos, and whatever your local break is, get something similar from You Tube clips to help you visualise. Concentrate on looking good on a wave one manoeuvre at a time, like standing up, leaning into the wave and getting the right stance. Baby steps, one skill at a time will help you get there in the end. Being a confident swimmer is a key skill too. Maybe start with a body board so that you know when waves are going to break. You will end up with great wave knowledge very quickly. Also travel around, try different beaches and point breaks and travel to surf breaks overseas.  And you must be fit to get the most out of your surfing and feel confident. Then the good skills will come.

Thank you for being part of the legacy of early women surfers in New Zealand, Susie.