THE STAGE BELONG TO PAULINE

When Tracks catches up with Pauline Menczer, it’s around 11 am on a Friday and she has already finished her morning shift. “These days I’m a school bus driver and a mad gardener,” she explains enthusiastically. Driving the bus is a job she professes to love. “I’ve got a few surfers on the run and it’s really nice to encourage little teen surfers… I’m a kind bus driver but I’m strict. I just like to teach kids manners. You know, they’ll give you a hard time for the first six months. And then they’re just absolutely lovely.”

While the ‘kids are alright’ with Pauline at the helm, the 1993 World Champion is also enjoying the publicity wheel, as attention turns to the recent release of the film ‘Girls Can’t Surf’. The new documentary delivers a gritty, but highly entertaining take on the sexism, inequality and oppression faced by women pro-surfers in the 80s and 90s.

Utilising a montage of archival footage and contemporary interviews, the film focuses on the careers of Pauline, Jodie Cooper, Pam Burridge, Wendy Botha, Frieda Zamba and Lisa Andersen. However, it’s arguably the story of Pauline, the plucky and resilient Bondi girl, who overcomes crippling arthritis and major sponsorship woes to win her World Title, that proves to be the most compelling and heroic narrative. We learn how Pauline kept her pro-surfing dream alive by sleeping at contest sites and resorting to various sideline hustles – like buying 20 pairs of sought-after Levis in the USA and on-selling them for a profit when she