In 2007, Bianca Valenti had an experience which nearly killed her. When she surfed (冲浪) at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, she met a wave as tall as a two-story house.
The wind was strong enough to block my vision. The moment I went under water, I was just getting knocked and spun (旋转) every which way. And then my feet touched the sand bottom there. When I swam to the surface, my lungs were burning painfully. I just thought to myself, "If there's one more wave after this, I'm going to die." Luckily there wasn't another wave. That was when Valenti knew she had the drive and skill to surf big waves.
By 2014, Valenti surfed and won her first big waves contest (比赛) at Nelscott Reef in Oregon. There, she met fellow professionals Alms, Moller, and Kennelly. "One thing got me fired up at that point," she said. "I wanted to have the opportunity to win more events, but there weren't more events for women. That's really annoying." Luckily, Valenti, Alms, Moller, and Kennelly decided to stick together, support each other, and then fight together.
The four surfers formed Committee for Equity in Women's Surfing (CEWS) to fight for entrance at Mavericks—a contest set in the surfing location of the same name, north of Half Moon Bay. Mavericks was invitation-only and was open to only men when CEWS was formed. Now, through the organization's hard work with the State of California, women are allowed to surf in the event.
When Valenti was young, there weren't many women represented in surfing culture. "I think it's important for young kids to have all kinds of role models. That way they know all the people who they see as superheroes are just normal people who have crazy dreams. And sometimes the dreams aren't even that crazy. If you work hard and you stick together with your friends, you can do anything. You can move mountains."
