Bianca Valenti: I'm A Competitor And I Like To Win
Surfer|Volume 60, Issue 3

Bianca Valenti didn’t plan on becoming the face of the fight for equal pay in surfing, but when it comes to the advancement of women’s big-wave surfing, she’s not one to back down

Ashtyn Douglas-Rosa
Bianca Valenti: I'm A Competitor And I Like To Win

In winter, when long-period northwest swells batter Northern California and stir Mavericks from its slumber, odds are you’ll find Bianca Valenti sitting deep in the lineup on a bright-pink 9'2", waiting for an opportunity to chase down a horrifying wall of water while spectators lining the cliff watch on with mouths agape.

On this partially cloudy day in June, however, there was hardly a ripple in the lineup and the only people on the cliff were day hikers and dog walkers. Yet Valenti still insisted that I see the spot in person, even if it wasn’t breaking.

We stared out at the ocean from the base of Pillar Point, and Valenti gestured to a row of partially submerged, house-sized boulders just offshore, terrifyingly referred to as “The Boneyard.”

“That south rock over there is ‘Mushroom Rock,’” Valenti told me. “And on the far right, that’s ‘Sail Rock’. The wave breaks about 500 yards further than that.” As if reading my mind, she added, “You can get pushed in onto the rocks. I think at some point it happens to everyone.”

Valenti first surfed this wave back in 2009. Savannah Shaughnessy, a Mavericks local who used to surf with Valenti at Puerto Escondido during the summer, told her to get a big-wave board and she’d coach Valenti through her first session at Half Moon Bay. But getting someone to shape her a proper board proved to be difficult.

“This one shaper told me he usually doesn’t shape boards for girls,” said Valenti. “I literally had to promise him that I would be safe in order for him to let me buy the board. I was like, ‘Umm…yeah, I plan on being safe. I don’t want to die.’ It was a full-on, back-and-forth conversation convincing him to let me pay him for a service.”

Esta historia es de la edición Volume 60, Issue 3 de Surfer.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

Esta historia es de la edición Volume 60, Issue 3 de Surfer.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

MÁS HISTORIAS DE SURFERVer todo
60 Years Ahead
Surfer

60 Years Ahead

We had a whole plan for this year. Funny, right? Surfer's 60 year anniversary volume was going to be filled with stories nodding to SURFER’s past, with cover concepts paying homage to the magazine’s most iconic imagery. Our new Page One depicts something that’s never happened in surfing before, let alone on a prior SURFER cover. And our table of contents was completely scrapped and replaced as we reacted to the fizzing, sparking, roiling world around us. In other words, 2020 happened to SURFER, just like it happened to you.

time-read
4 minutos  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
A Few Things We Got Horribly Wrong
Surfer

A Few Things We Got Horribly Wrong

You don’t make 60 years of magazines without dropping some balls. Here are a few

time-read
7 minutos  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
THE LGBTQ+ WAVE
Surfer

THE LGBTQ+ WAVE

Surf culture has a long history of marginalizing the LGBTQ+ community, but a new generation of queer surfers is working to change that

time-read
10+ minutos  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
For Generations to Come
Surfer

For Generations to Come

Rockaway’s Lou Harris is spreading the stoke to Black youth and leading surfers in paddling out for racial justice

time-read
5 minutos  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
Christina Koch, 41
Surfer

Christina Koch, 41

Texas surfer, NASA astronaut, record holder for the longest continuous spaceflight by a woman

time-read
4 minutos  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
END TIMES FOR PRO SURFING
Surfer

END TIMES FOR PRO SURFING

By the time the pandemic is done reshaping the world, will the World Tour still have a place in it?

time-read
10+ minutos  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
CHANGING OF THE GUARD
Surfer

CHANGING OF THE GUARD

After decades of exclusive access to Hollister Ranch, the most coveted stretch of California coast is finally going public

time-read
10+ minutos  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
What They Don't Tell You
Surfer

What They Don't Tell You

How does becoming a mother affect your surfing life?

time-read
10+ minutos  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
Surfer

Four Things to Make You Feel A Little Less Shitty About Everything

Helpful reminders for the quarantine era

time-read
10+ minutos  |
Volume 61, Issue 2
The Art of Being Seen
Surfer

The Art of Being Seen

How a group of black women are finding creative ways to make diversity in surfing more visible

time-read
4 minutos  |
Volume 61, Issue 2