Joyce Hoffman Sculpture

Joyce Hoffman Sculpture

Bill Limebrook, July, 2005

This statue is a life-size statue of Joyce Hoffman on her surfboard, modeled after a famous surfing photo of Hoffman from the 1966 World Surfing Contest in San Diego. The statue is the first life-size statue in the United States to honor a female surfer.

Hoffman was also the first female ocean lifeguard in California. She began surfing at 13 when her family moved to Capostrano Beach. Since then, she’s won United States Surfing Championships in 1965, 1966, and 1967. In 1964 and 1966, Hoffman won the Makaha International . Later, she won the Laguna Masters in 1965 and 1967. Her first ever surf contest was a tandem competition with her father at Doheny State Beach, which she won at 13.

In 1967, Hobie Surfboards introduced the Joyce Hoffman signature model surfboard. She also was featured on LIFE magazine’s cover and was the first surfer to be named Los Angeles Times’ Woman of the Year in 1965. In 1994, Hoffman was inducted into the Surfing Walk of Fame as Woman of the Year.

“While this statue is of me, I like to think of it as an honor to all the women surfers who came before and after me,” Hoffman said. “All the trailblazers who didn’t accept the concept that surfing was a man’s sport, that women were expected to stay on the beach while the guys had all the fun.”