Female Surf Pioneer Dies at 91
Mary Kerwin Riehl, the pioneer of women’s surfing who won the women’s division of the 1939 Pacific Coast Surfing Championship, died on March 16 in Santa Maria, Calif., after suffering a stroke. She was 91.
Riehl was born in 1912 in Hermosa Beach, Calif., where her Irish-immigrant father owned a bakery. Riehl, who lived across the street from the ocean during her adolescence, took up surfing as a pastime. She surfed on a 65-pound paddleboard that her brother made for her in 1939. That same year, she used the board to compete and place first in the women’s division contests of the Pacific Coast Surfing Championship and the National Paddleboard Contest in Long Beach, Calif.
Riehl is survived by her daughter, Joan Garcia of Santa Maria; her son, Bob Riehl of Morgan Hill, Calif.; four grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. —Claudia Figueroa
