Pauline Menczer is a former pro surfer, winner of both the 1988 Women's Amateur World Title and also the 1993 Women's World Championship of Professional Surfing. Pauline shines with the strength and determination to overcome any societal or physical obstacle, including autoimmune disease. All photos are by Mala Norris www.epicshotz.com in this feature. Please check out her Instagram to see more of her archival photos: @naughty_pauls.

What brought you to surfing?

My family grew up at the beach, and we were always swimming. One of my two older brothers broke his surfboard in half, and he just left the half on the beach. So, I grabbed that half of the surfboard, and that’s how it started.

I got into competing because there was another older girl that surfed at Bondi Beach and she was doing quite a few of the events. She said: “Oh come on grommet, you’re surfing good you should be able to go into some events.” First, I went to a couple with her—just watching—and as soon as I got all these prizes [for placing], I instantly became addicted to competing. I came from a really poor family, so being able to make something from surfing was really appealing.

What was it like to win these massive competitions without a major sponsor?

You have a lot more stress. You’re thinking: How am I gonna get to each of these events and how am I going to survive? But it built me into a tough character. If you didn’t learn how to survive, that’s it, your career is finished. I did a lot of things to make it work—I’d buy like 25 pairs of Levi’s jeans in America and sell them for three times the price in France. I was always a wheeler and dealer. They had what was called “street cleanups” in Australia—people would just throw out their rubbish that they didn’t want from their house. I’d go around collecting it all, and I’d have garage sales. I seem to do really well under pressure, and each time I had that pressure, I’d win. I would go from having nothing, to winning the next event.

How did not having the financial support of sponsorship impact you?

You learn and appreciate the value of things, struggle a lot more, and gain more humility. You learn the value of money! If it’s easy come, it’s easy go. I remember this one particular time I was in France with fellow pro surfers, and we were all sunbathing together on the beach. A few of the surfers wanted to go home; they were homesick. And I said: “Hang on—have a look around!” It was an absolutely gorgeous day. Yes, the surf was flat, but we were surrounded by castles, and it was just absolutely amazing down there. I said, “This is our office!” That’s the difference between having a lot of money and not. All they wanted to do was go home and be with all their toys, and then you have somebody like me who has nothing, and a very different outlook.

I think because I didn’t have the look, and that I was never out publicly, but everyone within the surf community knew I was gay... I believe I didn’t get sponsored because of that as well. I don’t have proof of that, but one company did say to my coach at the time, “Pauline doesn’t have the look that we want.”

I’m one of those people that says, If you’re not going to help me, I will do it alone, and I did. My mom said there’s always a positive in every negative. I had no money and I did real well because I had no backing. I had to win prize money to get to the next event. I won so many events because I had to.

Yeah, sounds like it gave you a lot of gratitude. Do you feel like you still try to carry that gratitude into your life today? Especially in your job working as a school bus driver?

Yeah, I do. When my mom fell unwell, I ended up looking after her, and I had to work a lot less hours. I decided to do school bus driving just while I looked after her, and I really started to enjoy the job. The kids looked up to having a surfer as their bus driver, and I love having kids asking, “What's it like on tour?” They would ask for surf tips, or if I could coach them, and I’d talk to them purely from the heart. The other reason I like being a bus driver is because kids are changing a lot. If they’ve got positive role models in their life, even if it’s just a bus driver, it makes a difference!

Pauline surfing in 2021 at age 51 by Mala Norris www.epicshotz.com @epicshotzdotcom on Instagram

How did you and the women you surfed with fight for women’s rights in surfing?

Everytime we would try to get anything done, we wouldn’t be heard. When the surf was so bad and the men wouldn't want to go out to surf, they would say, “The women are on now.” They’d say, “You aren’t going to get better waves because there are not enough women in the event.” We weren’t making any progress, so we decided to make a group of women with a representative to address a list of concerns. At one point, we fought really hard to have women at every event, and then a few years later, the men said, “We don’t want the women with us all of the time.” We were constantly fighting to try to get more money and more women in the events.

At one contest, they said, “Girls paddle out,” and I told them, “Alright girls, let’s not paddle out and just stay here.” And they said, “What do you mean?” And I said, “That’s absolute crap, don’t paddle out.” I was nervous because it only takes one woman to paddle out at an event and then we all have to. So I said, “If you seriously don’t want to surf out there, then just don’t paddle out.” So, we took a risk of possibly getting fined, but we didn’t paddle out. From that moment on, we realized how much power we had. That was a turning point of women having more of a voice.

**And you were nicknamed Naughty Paul’s so I just wanted to know the story about that and the meaning of it?**

I’m always entertaining people! Originally it was some Sydney friends that called me Naughty Paul’s because I would get a real cheeky look, and they knew I was going to do something mischievous. I was often playing jokes on people, doing silly shows or something like that, and then it just stuck from there.

What has surfing taught you about life?

Surfing has taught me to really look after nature. There were some places we’d go [on tour] that had raw sewage coming out of the water. Furthermore, I have learned to appreciate surfing in general. These last couple of years, I’ve felt awful and quite ill due to a very rare autoimmune disease: Pemphigus vulgaris. I’ve always had arthritis and that attacks your joints, but this disease attacks your skin causing it to fall off and blister— it’s incredibly painful. So, now when I get in the ocean, and I go under a wave, it just makes me really, really appreciate being able to surf.

Pauline Menczer in 2021 surfing. Photo by Mala Norris www.epicshotz.com @epicshotzdotcom on Instagram

How did you cope with Rheumatoid Arthritis while you were surfing on tour?

I just learned to surf around my obstacles. I couldn’t bend my wrist back or straighten my arms, so I learned to just get up on my knuckles; I just learned to coexist. Then, other times I could barely move my ankles. I just learned to live with it basically.

The year I went for the world title was my biggest struggle, and I think it was because of the stress and my desire to win. When I was in Japan, I caught chronic diarrhea which brought on my arthritis in a bad way, and I kept getting worse and worse. By the time I got to Hawaii, I could barely walk. My partner just stuck me in a shopping trolly to do our shopping. Then I didn’t free surf before the contest because I was just not doing physically well.

I was still completely walking crooked while getting ready to go out for the final few heats of the contest. What blew me away: I was so sore paddling out, but as soon as the horn went, I just felt like there was nothing wrong. That desire to win just crushed the pain. Then after the heat, I’d walk back up the beach struggling to walk again. It was an ongoing struggle.

Do you have any advice for people that want to follow some sort of dream in their life, but have obstacles with their bodies or things like autoimmune disease?

Take each day as it comes and still have high goals, but set your goals to how your body is that day. I try to explain it as a constant fight or flight response. If you’ve ever nearly been in an accident and you’ve felt your body go into quite a bit of shock from fear, it’s like permanently living in that.

I’ve always struggled with my arthritis and won the world titles barely being able to move, but these last couple of years it has gotten much worse. I was on a high dose steroid that fogs your brain and I felt like my whole body was full of burns. While I was in constant pain, I would set myself little goals like: Today I’m going to chop a carrot and have a bath. Once you’ve completed that goal, you congratulate yourself. Instead of looking at it like, I used to be one of the best surfers in the world now look at me, I’ve found new ways to have passion in my life. I started to work with succulents, and I started gardening in general. I’m part of a group of people with the same disease, and I always try to inspire people to be optimistic. There’s always something that you can do, even if it’s something really small.

One time a lady said, “I don’t know what to do, I can’t put my shoes on, and I can’t walk cause I got this, this, this, and this.” And I said, “Right, get in a chair and then lift your legs up and down, you know? Try and just do that, do that a hundred times.” So there’s always something that you can do, even if it’s something really small. I couldn’t even get out of bed and then I would just do things like move my wrist around in circles, then stop, and then do it again in an hour.

I believe in mindfulness, not thinking too far ahead, and thinking about the here and now. You have to practice it and learn it, but that has been my saving grace because I don’t take any pain medicine. If I’m in a lot of pain, and I feel like I can’t do much, I use visualization. For example, you can pretend that you’re a leaf that’s fallen off a tree, and you’ve landed in the water, and you’re floating down the river. I’ve got this nice little drain around my house with nice trees, and so I pictured that as my river. When I’m in a lot of pain and I feel like I really can’t do much, I start to visualize myself laying on that leaf and floating around on that river and going downstream. When you’re in constant pain, it is really difficult to try and pull out of that, but it takes practice.

My struggle with this disease has been way harder than all those years on tour. I commend anybody with an illness that still stays smiling and keeps going. They’re incredible people. Most of the people that inspire me are people with disabilities.

What’s interesting about Covid, coming from a health perspective, is that everyone in lockdown is complaining about being in lockdown. And this is basically the reality of what many people with disabilities have: they’re permanently locked in. So people are getting a small taste of what it’s like to live with a disability.

How has surfing changed over the decades?

It’s changed dramatically. When we were on tour at that time, there were ten of us staying in the same place with our mattresses on the floor, and basically just eating bread and tuna. Sometimes, we even stayed in contest areas and slept in our board bags to save money. In my lifetime, to find out that women are getting equal prize money as the men is absolutely incredible. To see the WSL also doing the same kind of media for both, that’s absolutely awesome. The guys would get an hour video and we were lucky if we got 30 seconds of media time.

**Pauline Surfing in 2021 by** Mala Norris www.epicshotz.com @epicshotzdotcom on Instagram

Do you have any advice for people that feel overlooked in their accomplishments?

Get out there and look a bit more. I always thought that sponsors would come to me, but that’s not how it works. If you can get someone else to help you with the marketing side of things, I would do it. But, I do say be true to yourself. Maybe I’m an old fogey, but I look at these instagrams and people taking photos of their butts and seriously, does everyone walk around doing that? No. So, just be yourself. That’s the only thing I don’t like in surfing today. We fought hard to be athletes, and to not be treated like beauty queens onstage, or having to take half your clothes off to be cool. That’s not cool. Sports shouldn’t have to be sexualized to be a sport.

Do you have any favorite surf session that you ever had or favorite wave that you surfed?

Bells Beach and Winky Pop! They’re not the best waves, but there’s something about that place I find quite magical. I love Fiji as well, but Bells would be one of my favorites, I think. It's like a big arena, so people that are watching are watching from above. I remember really nice surfs out there and not too many hassles either. Also, the community I have down there made the experience for me.

Is there anything you want to add before we wrap up?

This is for the grommets— even if you don’t get sponsored and you know you’re good, believe in yourself and you’ll make it happen. When I was in high school, I was baking cakes just to get money for these events. Don’t let financial barriers stand in your way. If there’s a will, there’s a way.

Thanks to: Siggi Bengston, Maija Fiedelholtz, Sophia Knox, and Becca Kauffman for copy editing/editing help. Thanks again to Mala Norris www.epicshotz.com, @epicshotzdotcom on Instagram, EpicShotz on Facebook.

Surf History: Pauline Menczer, A Powerhouse of Strength