Isabelle McLaughlin
Isabel McLaughlin began surfing in the 1960s at New Smyrna Beach, Florida in the midst of the Shortboard Revolution. She was 14 — a late start by some measures — but excelled quickly, thanks to the local surf culture and a supportive family. One of four girls, Isabel was seen as the fiercest competitor of all the sisters.
After meeting a neighborhood kid who surfed, the girls told their mom they wanted to learn. The family hunted down a 9’6” navy blue longboard and, in true fashion of the time, shaved it down to 7’3”. The girls all taught themselves to surf on “Big Blue,” starting with small waves before trying out the Inlet, where they surfed daily alongside local shredders like Terry Pressley and David Chambers.
McLaughlin and her sister, Cathay, joined the Eastern Surfing Association and began competing in area contests, with their mom cheering them on at every event. In 1974, Isabel won the Women’s Division of the Florida State Championship. She went on to win that contest’s superheat, which included the winners of all the other divisions, even the Men’s champ.
Later that year, both McLaughlin sisters qualified for the East Coast Championship in Cape Hatteras, where Cathy placed third and Isabel took home first. McLaughlin then won the U.S. Championships, held at the Lighthouse, Cape Hatteras immediately following the Easterns, becoming the first East Coast woman to take the US title. When she returned home, Bernie Crouch of Mad Dog Surfboards asked her to ride for him.
McLaughlin kept winning contests and eventually went on to Huntington Beach to surf in the 1983 OP Pro. There, she beat out three-time world champion Margo Oberg to make it to the semi-finals, then went on to place third. Soon after, she was recruited by Charley Baldwin, who helped McLaughlin pick up several sponsors, including Hotline Wetsuits, Style Eyes, and Instinct Surf Wear.
Meanwhile, Coach Baldwin had hatched a plan to use McLaughlin as his secret weapon in the upcoming 1988 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) East Coast Pro Tour, enlisting her to surf against the men. She ended up placing 17th on the ASP East Men’s Tour. “The guys didn’t like it, but I just did what I always did, surfed against the guys, like I did every day at the Inlet,” she once recalled.
Baldwin tried to recruit McLaughlin for the Women’s Professional Tour, but she declined, opting to pursue a college degree instead: “I needed something more stable than surfing. If the tour then was anything like it is now, I would have graduated college and gone surfing for a living — at least for a while!”
McLaughlin became a teacher at her high school alma mater, where she was named Teacher of the Year in 2004, the same year she was inducted into the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame. She continues to surf the Inlet and is involved in Women of the Waves, a group of lifetime female surfers who meet every year in Cocoa Beach for a week of surfing and camaraderie.
