Marge Calhoun came late to surfing. It was not until she was 29 years old that she began riding waves at the Californian point break of Malibu. But she made short work of learning how to “hang ten”, that is, walking up the board when the back is covered by a wave, then hanging all ten toes over the nose.

A talented swimmer and diver whose hopes of Olympic competition were dashed when the Second World War broke out, Calhoun was such a natural that in 1958 she won the Makaha International on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

By then Calhoun was married with two daughters, and had been surfing for only three years. However, she and a friend, Eve Fletcher, decided to try their