Renee Whitman-Zabourek
Daughter of renowned East Coast surfing pioneer Dudley Whitman, Renee Whitman Zahourek is in her own right an East Coast legend — she was the first Women’s East Coast Surfing Champion!
If you knew the Whitman family, then you know that Renee’s groundbreaking tracks in the sport of surfing were inevitable. Whitman’s grandfather, William Francis, was the son of a Chicago industrialist who, in the early 20th century, owned one of the largest printing companies in the Windy City. To escape the bitter cold of Chicago in winter, William Francis took the family to Miami — it was here that Dudley, Renee’s father, was born. The tropics were in Dudley’s DNA, and it wasn’t long before he and his brother, William, were body surfing in the waves of South Florida.
During the winter of 1930, Dudley and William witnessed for the first time surfing in Miami Beach. The brothers borrowed the surfers’ boards and were instantly hooked. Their obsession lasted a lifetime and extended to their children. For a time, Dudley took his family to Hawaii to live, where Renee and her siblings had the honor of getting to know and surf with the legendary Duke Kahanamoku and his family, as well as many other Hawaiian surfing legends.
Some of the Hawaiian surfers were women, and they were the reason for Renee’s belief that if the boys could ride waves so too could the girls. To have played a consequential role in the inclusion of women in surfing was something that continued to bring Renee joy throughout her life. “When I see what girls have going on today,” she said at her induction into the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame in 2004, “I’m amazed!”
