Isabel Ramsay Letham (23 May 1899 – 11 March 1995) was an Australian pioneer surfboard rider and swimming instructor, renowned as 'the first Australian to ride a surfboard' (although she disputed that claim - Isma Amor of Manly is believed to be the first Australian Female Surfer and Tommy Walker of Manly is believed to be the first Australian Male Surfer).Nikki Henningham

in She's Game (exhibition online), in The Australian Women's Register, The

National Foundation for Australian Women ''The Australian Women's Register'' is a fully searchable online database which aims to cover Australian women and Australian Women's organisations. It combines many resources and allows users to find historical and contemporary material on not ...

and The

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb ...

accessed 18 August 2011 A probably erroneous story has been repeated for years that on 10 January 1915 at

Freshwater Beach Freshwater Beach is a beach located in Freshwater, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. Freshwater Beach is the first beach north of Manly, New South Wales, on the Peninsula. The beach is flanked by a headland at each end and can pro ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

she experimented riding a board in the Hawaiian tradition in tandem with

Duke Kahanamoku Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku (August 24, 1890 – January 22, 1968) was a Hawaiian competition swimmer who popularized the sport of surfing. A Native Hawaiian, he was born to a minor noble family less than three years before th ...

.Isabel Letham
(2007) Australian Women's Archives Project accessed 18 August 2011 This story has been disputed by researchers who have investigated its roots and provenance, and the reality is probably that she did not do so until shortly after, at Dee Why beach in Sydney, on 6 February 1915. I1665

Kahanamoku had been invited to Australia by the NSW Swimming Association. He hadn't brought a surfboard so he made one from

sugar pine ''Pinus lambertiana'' (commonly known as the sugar pine or sugar cone pine) is the tallest and most massive pine tree, and has the longest cones of any conifer. The species name ''lambertiana'' was given by the Scottish botanist David Douglas, ...

. At Freshwater Beach, Kahanamoku gave a 3-hour demonstration of "Hawaiian-style surf shooting" to a crowd of several hundred people on 10 January 1915. Australians had been

bodyboarding Bodyboarding is a water sport in which the surfer rides a bodyboard on the crest, face, and curl of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore. Bodyboarding is also referred to as ''Boogieboarding'' due to the invention of the "Boogie ...

on wooden boards, and

bodysurfing Bodysurfing is the art and sport of riding a wave without the assistance of any buoyant device such as a surfboard or bodyboard. Bodysurfers often equip themselves with a pair of swimfins that aid propulsion and help the bodysurfer catch, ride an ...

Again probably apocryphally, the idea has been repeated for years that at the end of the Freshwater Beach session Kahanamoku invited Letham from the crowd for a

tandem surfing This glossary of surfing includes some of the extensive vocabulary used to describe various aspects of the sport of surfing as described in literature on the subject. In some cases terms have spread to a wider cultural use. These terms were origi ...

demonstration. Letham herself later repeated the story, but contemporaneous records indicate that this incident did not take place until the following month at Dee Why beach. In either case, Letham was 15 at the time, but an accomplished

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

and bodysurfer. As she later told the story, on the first few waves they paddled for she yelled for him to stop because it felt like going off a cliff. Kahanamoku ignored her cries, went anyway, and hauled her to her feet. They rode at least one wave that day, although repeated re-telling of the story has resulted in an increasing number being reported over the intervening decades. Letham was, as she later said "hooked for life". Letham went on to become an accomplished surfer, and to teach surfing and swimming. During the 1920s Letham lived in California where she worked as an assistant swimming coach at the University of Southern California and Director of Swimming for the City of San Francisco. When Letham died in 1995, her ashes were scattered by surfers in the sea off Freshwater Beach.

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