The Kim ‘Danger Woman’ Hamrock Interview

Where did you learn to charge?

Well, believe it or not, there are some places in California that can break pretty hard. I would surf spots like Newport Point and Hollister Ranch when it got big. I’d always go out no matter what. Then I started going to Hawaii in maybe ‘84. Obviously, in those days it wasn’t really documented unless you were at an event or something. I was just surfing. 

When did you get your nickname Danger Woman?

That happened back in the 70s. I grew up primarily surfing at Trestles. I just wanted to surf and the guys didn’t want women out there, so they’d just hawk me, and I would do it back and it kind of turned into a war. They had all kinds of great nicknames for me and that one stuck. It was mostly because I never backed down. I didn’t care how big the guy was or how big the wave was. That was from growing up with three brothers who were pretty gnarly, I think. I’d already been bullied and pushed around by the time I started surfing. 

You must be heartened to see how much things have improved for women in the lineup in that respect…

Yeh, it’s much better now, although there are still moments… But it’s about how I handle it now and not what they do, and that makes a whole lot of difference. I wish I’d learned that 30 years ago.

When you started going to Hawaii did you take that same attitude with you?

Yeah, I was going to charge, I was going to go as big as I could. I never had any issues with the Hawaiians, except for a couple of incidents where I was already in the tube and a guy would try to stuff me and I’d make it anyway. That’s the only time I had guys upset with me. Other than that, they would protect me. I surfed when I was about 5 months pregnant and they just got such a kick out of that, they’d give me waves and ride them with me. They just wanted to see a pregnant woman surf!

How did you end up getting the call-up for the Puerto Escondido invitational event in ‘99?

Well, first I’d like to say that I never had a desire to surf there, ever! I’d seen videos of it and pictures in the magazines and thought it was just one place I never wanted to deal with (laughs). 

But then I got a phone call asking if I wanted to come down for the event. They said I’d be the only woman. They told me they’d asked ten guys if a woman should be in it and nine of them had said no, but one had said yes and put my name forward, I guess that was enough for them to invite me.

Do you know who that one was?

I don’t and I don’t know whether to praise him or curse him (laughs). 

How did you feel when you got that call?

Honestly, I was scared. But how could I not represent women’s surfing at that level?

I asked, ‘How much time do I have to train?’ They said, ‘Six months.’ Now I’d never trained for surfing, I just surf. I really don’t like exercise and I certainly don’t like the gym. But my friend had been asking me to come and train with his shifu for a while. He taught a martial art called Jeet Kundo. It’s Bruce Lee’s style of fighting, called ‘Way of the Fist’. I call it ‘No Fuck Around’ (laughs). Basically, I just wanted to be tough and actually learn something, so I wasn’t just going to the gym to try and get strong. I needed the mental aspect as much as the physical. My shifu was Bill Holland, he’s passed on now god bless him but he’s still in my head, encouraging me to push myself. It was six months of really intense training, just going as hard as I could and that gave me the confidence I needed. 

Can you remember what it was like to stand on the beach and get ready to paddle out for your heat?

Oh yeh. The waves were 12-15 foot Hawaiian, so there were easily some 30-foot faces out there. I remember Lance Ho’okano was in the heat right before mine. I love that guy, he’s an animal in big surf. I was putting my jersey on and he came running by going, ‘Oh my god, are you sure you want to go out there? That was so heavy, that was as heavy as Hawaii!’ 

He was pretty jacked up, not scared, but definitely full respect for the ocean, you know. You don’t want to see someone that heavy saying that right before you’re going to paddle out. My now ex-husband was there with me and at that moment he was begging me not to go out, saying ‘You don’t have to do this, you don’t have to prove anything,’ I was like, ‘Don’t mess with my head now man, I’m like 2 minutes from paddling out, don’t even say anything, leave me alone,’ I was focussing! 

What can you remember from the heat itself?

You know sometimes in your life it’s the waves you didn’t ride right that you remember more than the ones you did. That’s what happened on my first wave at Puerto. I could have pulled into the biggest barrel. I was on my backhand, and all I saw was this big closeout section coming towards me, so I got scared and straightened out instead of pulling in. Thank goodness I had enough speed to outrun the lip, but to this day I regret that decision. 

Later in the heat, I took a wipeout and lost my board. I was trying to swim in, but there was a really strong riptide sucking out from the beach. It’s notorious for that, they’ll take you out to sea if they want to. I was just relaxing, waiting, trying to go with it. I’m not a great swimmer but I can dog paddle forever. Ted Robinson was paddling out for the next heat and he asked if he could help me get in and I said ‘Nah you’re all good, you’ve got a heat, don’t want you to blow it.’ He kept asking, and eventually, I said ok and let him paddle me in. Just as we got near the shore, they start yelling on the loudspeaker that there was a huge set coming! They’re screaming at us to paddle back out. We turn around and we’re just huffing. Ted told me to get on his board while he swam. He’s known to be a very good swimmer and I can paddle a lot faster than I can swim. As I started to take a few strokes, I realised he still had his leash on and I was tugging on his leg. Suddenly, I couldn’t paddle as fast as I needed to without interfering with his swimming!  We barely made it over the first wave of the set and as I looked behind I saw an even bigger one. I was about ready to cry. We’re both still tethered to the board, scratching for this lip about as thick as I am tall and I’m thinking we’re not going to make it through this.

Suddenly all I could think about were those offshore winds, so I turned my whole body sideways and lifted up the board to get as much wind under it as possible, hoping it would blow us over the back. Next thing I remember was sitting on nose of the board, pulling the tail up, trying to drag Ted through the lip so he didn’t suck me over. If it was any other situation like that, I would have thrown the board aside in a second and dove through that wave but here, a man just came and saved my life, so I couldn’t do it; I would die before I would throw him over the falls. That was just my pride. Fortunately, I just managed to pull him through. Oh my god, we were so grateful.

Wow, that’s heavy. You mentioned earlier a lot of the men had voted not to invite any women. How did they react to you being there? 

Mostly they gave me mad respect. There were a few heats where I got scored higher and advanced and some guys didn’t. I remember one guy got upset and kind of protested it and the rest of the guys got down on him really bad, they said, ‘Hey she pulled into a bigger tube than you quit whining.’ 

After that first event I did everything I could to get a women’s division down there, but I didn’t get many takers, although one year two other gals came down, Jamilah Star and Desiré Desoto. 

You ended up going back for all the longboard events held there up until they finished in 2004 right?  What motivated that?  

My two intentions were to get the biggest tube any woman had ever had and to inspire people. I didn’t get the biggest tube, or at least didn’t make it, but I did inspire people.

I remember one time when that became really clear. My heat was almost over and I didn’t have the score I needed to get through. All of a sudden I saw this huge set coming.  

One thing in big wave surfing is you don’t ever reach for the wave. I learned that from Frosty, he lives up in Santa Cruz and he’s the one who trained Jay Moriarty. He always told me: ‘When you take off on big waves, you have to have a really tight zone, if it’s not right where you are, don’t even go.’ I did listen to him many times, but I really needed a wave in that moment, because for so many years I’d just been trying to make it to the quarter-finals. 

I paddled hard, trying to get down the face, but it just started sucking me back up. I was going backside, grabbing the rail and I went up and over the falls. All I remember seeing was the inside of this room with bright rainbow colours, mostly pink because it was reflecting the colour of my board. I always take in the view when I think I might die (laughs), and I really did – I kept my eyes open and took it all in, because I thought if I don’t make it I at least have a nice exit. 

Anyhow, I hit hard, I went all the way to the bottom with my board and it got ripped out of my arms. That’s when my martial arts came in handy – I was blocking it right and left! I pushed off the bottom and it just threw me down again. I’m always two people down there in a situation like that, one that’s scared to death and the other one that’s the coach, saying: ‘Just relax, you’ll come up when you come up, stop wasting your energy.’

When I got back to the beach, I looked like I’d been attacked by a tiger, my white jersey was all shredded and covered in blood. (laughs) But the first three people that came up to me said ‘Oh that was so inspiring, I can’t believe you paddled for that wave.’

So it was those heavy experiences that always kept you coming back for more?

I was just obsessed with the place! (laughs). It’s such a difficult wave to get dialled. Unlike in Hawaii, where you see corduroy lines and know to start paddling, in Puerto the waves come out of a really deep trench so you don’t see them coming until there’s a 30-foot lump in front of you. You’re just always on edge. The guys always helped me with local knowledge – like using the lighthouse to time a set. They did what they could to help keep me alive! I haven’t been down there since 2007, but I’d love to go back. 

How do you reflect on that chapter of your career? 

Oh they were some of my favourite events for sure. I didn’t even know the political game then, I just thought you surf good you get scored good. I had a really hard time in competition later on, because they couldn’t categorise me. It was like here comes this old lady out of nowhere with three kids, and she’s kicking ass. I kind of ruined it for all the young little girls out of California, you know the next generation. That was not at all my intention, but you never get sick of winning! That’s one of my sayings, I’ve got another one for you Luke, you don’t need balls to charge! (laughs) 

Needless to say, I really wanted to push these women, that was part of my reason for going to Puerto too. It used to be embarrassing when you’d walk up and watch these girls surf, it was like come on ladies, bump it up! So I never gave them a break. If they wanted a wave they had to take off deeper. My goal really all along was to push the level of women’s surfing. And whether or not I had a part in that I don’t know, but I love how the girls are surfing now, they’re ripping! That makes me really happy.