CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Cows were seen running up and down the beach when RoxAnne Schlabach started surfing.
It was 1965, and Schlabach rented her first surfboard from Larry Laws at a shop at Bob Hall Pier.
“That was it. I was hooked forever. It took me probably another couple of months before I could find another board to ride," Schlabach said. "After that it was beg the parents, beg anybody else that had a board, so I could come out. And that's the rest of my life, begging to come out to the beach whenever I can."
A year later, thirteen year old, Tippy Kelley sat on Horace Caldwell Pier watching the surfers in Port Aransas.
"I said I got to do that," Kelley said. "Back then in the '60s, Port Aransas was the big beach scene."
She didn't catch her first wave that day, but later at Bob Hall Pier.
"There was a bus that would pick me up at Seaside Memorial Cemetery and drop me off at Bob Hall Pier," Kelley said. "They allowed me to put my 9-foot-6-inch longboard on the bus and at four o'clock in the afternoon they would pick me up and drop me back off."
Kelley quickly started competing in competitions. Winning 17 state titles, two U.S. titles and one AAU National title.
"I've never been a recreational (surfer)," Kelley said. "It got a hold of me and just the feeling of going fast on a wave, and doing maneuvers, and getting barreled, that feeling, you want to experience it all the time."
Kathy Rogers started surfing in 1972 and joined the competition scene when she was 16. That's where she met Kelley.
"I'm a soul surfer now,” Rogers said. "I just do it for the fun, but I've had many fun times surfing here in Corpus, surfing with the crowd. The crowd is great. The vibe is always great. And I really enjoy seeing new upcoming girls, you know, coming into surfing. I love seeing children surf and it's just a good clean sport. And that's a lot of fun for everybody."
Rachel Chaney was one of those children Rogers watched grow up in the waves.
"We met in the water," Rogers said. "I surfed with her parents. Her parents are my age."
"Both of my parents surfed," Chaney said. "So yeah, I grew up really learning from these women, especially Tippy. I was like a shop rat so I was always in there soaking up everything I could from these ladies."
Kelley and her husband Patrick bought Dockside Surf Shop in 1994. The store originally opened around the year 1968 in Port Aransas. Cora and Jerry Chisolm moved the shop to Downtown Corpus Christi after a fire destroyed the store, and moved to the current location in Flour Bluff off SPID in 1974.
"My whole life has been surfing, and then I got a surf shop and I've done that for 30 years," Kelley said.
Chaney said Kelley, Rogers, and Schlabach are part of the pioneers that paved the way for women surfing in Texas.
"It was a brand new sport to us here in Texas. It was a male-dominated sport, and it still is, and it was hard to break into that. Once you got into it, it was still a very close-knit family."
"And they rule," Chaney said. "If you're in the way they'll tell you you're in the way, if you catch a good wave, they'll tell you caught a good wave."
"I cheer them on," Roger said. "You have to, yes, because it's a male-dominated sport. It is. Always has been, and probably always will be."
"Even as a woman you're out there, you feel all of this male energy around you, "Flo Tissot said. "It was kind of hard to let female energy express."
Flo Tissot originally moved to Corpus Christi to windsurf, but switched to surfing 15 years ago. Now she paddles out with Rogers and said she enjoys seeing other women out there.
"Those girls, they come out and they're just themselves," Tissot said.
"Looking up to like these ladies who were, like, able to kind of like break barriers, and like make it easier for, like us to surf and paddle out, and get to express ourselves in the water," Chaney said. "I think collectively as a whole it's like how much more rad could it be?"
Chaney was also inspired by Kelley to open her own store. Needles & Fins is a vintage, record store, and surf shop in the Hamlin Shopping Center putting an emphasis on independent, women owned surf brands. She also works to create Texas surf films.
"We feature only Texas surfer and we use Texas music," Chaney said.
"She paddles out, swims out in the surf and takes these insane surf shots," Chaney said. Those shots are then hand developed on 35 mm film.
Ten years ago Kreis moved to the coast to attend Texas A&M Corpus Christi. She learned to surf and never moved back to the Dallas, Fort Worth Metroplex.
"I've been so lucky to be able to surf with these awesome ladies. It's always a fun time out here. It's so inclusive and yeah, Corpus is just the best," Kreis said.
"Their attitude and their abilities. Oh my gosh, they've just taken off," Schlabach said. "I am so excited for them to come up through the ranks and be part of the teaching (of) surfing out here."
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