Gail Yarbrough

If you’re a surfer in the Pacific Northwest, “The Point” just south of Seaside, Oregon is a cherished spot, located where the Pacific Ocean meets Tillamook Head. Gail Yarbrough (Williams), who was originally from California, where she competed in skateboarding, was surfing The Point in the 1970s, and according to a Facebook page called Oregon Surfing: past and present and book by Scott and Sandy Blackman, Oregon Surfing: Central Coast, Yarbrough was dubbed the “First Lady of the Point.”

I searched out Gail’s name after reviewing the results for the very first National Skateboard Championships, held at Santa Monica Park on December 4^th, 1964. The event was judged using a flip card system, like ice skating. Gail placed fifth behind Patti McGee, Giola Siciliano, Colleen Jones, and Valerie Perez.

Authors, Scott and Sandy Blackman wrote that, “Gail first surfed on ocean mats in the 1950’s, belonged to the Bay Cities Surf Club of Hermosa Beach and was a team rider for Dewey Weber, Bing, Gordon & Smith, Velzy. In the 1960’s she surfed Hawaii, Oahu’s North Shore, was a professional surfer, ranking Number 1 in Hawaii for 2 years. She was one of the first women to ride Pipeline and Sunset Beach.”

Gail was also documented by the legendary photographer LeRoy Grannis in 1964:

And again, in 1966 LeRoy Grannis took a photo of the female surfing champions including (left to right): Joyce Hoffman, Joey Hamaski, Judy Dibble, Linda Benson (who is our first skateboarder with a signature board!) and Gail Yarbrough. The overall USSA 1966 ratings list these surfers in the May 1966 issue of Surfer magazine (vol 7, no. 2):

In the 1970s, when Gail was married to Dana Williams, they ended up moving to the north coast, living in Nehalem Valley, Oregon. She was described by Tim Foley (who was a pioneering surfer on the north Oregon coast) as “a hell of a rider, a champ.” While raising her sons, Gregg and Sandford on the farm in Nehalem, Gail decided to start her own skateboard shop with the first mini-ramps in the State, located in her horse barn, according to her feature on the Oregon Surfing: Past and Present FB page.

A Facebook follower on the Oregon Surfing page named David Kron reported the time he documented Gail at the Point. “No one was out but it was a clean 6 foot, glassy with a slight off shores. I was lucky to catch an image of her cranking her first bottom turn after dropping in on a perfectly shaped glassy tube. It was classic. After a few years, the picture to my disappointment, came up missing.” Another comment came from Jack Molan who said, “Both Gail and Dana were so hospitable, we were late teens, early 20’s and would descend on the barn, skateboard all day long, she would feed us, talk surf, treat us like family… a wonderful lady!”

Yarbrough moved to Hawaii in the 1980s where she “started the first windsurf company in the area, importing boards and was active in Kanaha Windsurf Race Series” (Blackman). And in the 1990s, Gail “became a master scuba diver still competing and winning surfing competitions in New Zealand and Fiji. Before her passing she began the new sport of kiteboarding and rollerblading when she was a grandmother” (Blackman).

This photo is of Rick Stoltz, and I believe he’s skating Gail’s mini-ramp in the Nehalem barn… would love to confirm this and see more!