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Lifelong surfer Paris Chisholm had one thought when starting Feral Femme Surf: “I can literally do so much of a better job than your boyfriends”.
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Maria Lewis
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ifelong surfer Paris Chisholm had one thought when starting Feral Femme Surf: “I can literally do so much of a better job than your boyfriends”. The 24-year-old soil scientist by day, passionate surfer and community organiser by earlier day, launched the female focused group last month with the aim of girls supporting girls to achieve their goals in the ocean. “My number one pillar in life is community and I just wanted to create
a surf school that really feels like a community and is tailored to women,” Chisholm told The Bugle. “As women, whenever I see my female friends learn to surf I think what’s holding us back is confidence. “That’s the number one thing I wanted to instil in girls because I know it’s so intimidating going out into a big group of boys and trying to learn a new skill and be confident in the ocean. “It has taken me so many years to feel like I can paddle out into a lineup of boys and take the waves that I want.
“I think surfing is amazing and I feel so lucky to experience it as often as I do. Everyone deserves to have this feeling and being connected to nature and the ocean. “It’s the most present I ever feel in life.” Growing up in Western Australia, Chisholm became hooked on surfing when she was 10-years old and learned on some of Australia’s most iconic waves in Esperance and Margaret River. She moved to the South Coast specifically so she could complete her university studies while continuing to surf as often
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as she liked, all the while the idea of starting her very own surf group percolated in the background as she worked as a coach at other surf schools. “I got back from an overseas trip last year and a whole lot of my girlfriends had just learnt how to surf and their boyfriends were taking them out,” she said. “Their boyfriends were just doing the worst job and the girls were like ‘maybe I just want to do a lesson or video analysis’ and I thought ‘oh my God, I could do that’. Continued on page 6
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