Mission Viejo Teacher Leaves Lasting Impact On Sports Equality

MISSION VIEJO, CA —Teacher of the year at Carl Hankey Elementary School, Jolene Smith, was honored in the school's first Woman's History Month. It took a second-grade class project on the history of surfing to learn what this surfing teacher did for the world of women's surfing in the late 1980s.

During the project, Jolene Smith and her twin sister Jorja Smith's name came up.

Students learned that the twins led a minor revolt to change the face of women's surfing in southern California.

The twin surfers longed to compete in the 1980s, Jolene Smith says. They drew sponsors, were amateur surfers for five years before turning to the pro circuit.

"As twins, we had a marketing advantage in attracting sponsors," Smith said.

Though they excelled in surfing, OP did not invite them to compete in the Ocean Pacific competition. At that time, the surfing competition only offered a bikini contest for the pros, she said.

They didn't want to be known for sporting bikinis. They wanted to be part of pro surfing and be known as great surfers, according to Jolene Smith. It took an intensive letter-writing campaign to make that happen for both the twins, their family and friends.

OP was the "Wimbleton of surfing," she says. "We made an impact (with the letter-writing campaign). OP got bombarded with bad press. A couple of weeks later, they reinstated the women’s competition. Then they acted like nothing ever happened.”

They are also featured in the Australian documentary "Girls Can't Surf," coming soon to American theaters.

"All they wanted in 1989 was the right to compete in Ocean Pacific's professional surfing contest," Capistrano Unified School District spokesperson Ryan Burris writes.

The twins still surf together in San Clemente and San Onofre.

"I couldn’t imagine going through lockdown and not being able to surf,” Burris says.

The documentary shows the impact that the pair made on the sport, and now as a teacher, Jolene Smith is making an impact on students in her classroom.

Principal Dana Aguilera spoke on Jolene and her accomplishments both on the waves and in the classroom.

"The amazing thing about Jolene is that she is so quiet and unassuming, yet she shows how one person can make a difference,” Aguilera says. “Her role came to light only when we showed the film to our staff. She and her sister made such an incredible mark on women’s surfing.”

Cathi Douglas, Ashley Ludwig Patch Editor, contributed to this report.