Isabel Letham

Isabel Ramsay Letham (23 May 1899 to 11 March 1995) was an Australian pioneer surfboard rider and swimming instructor, renowned as the first Australian to ride a surfboard, although she herself disputed that claim. A long repeated story places her on a board in tandem with Duke Kahanamoku at Freshwater Beach, Sydney, on 10 January 1915, but researchers have disputed it and the reality is probably that she did not do so until shortly after, at Dee Why beach on 6 February 1915, when she was 15 and already an accomplished swimmer and bodysurfer. She went on to become an accomplished surfer and a teacher of surfing and swimming, and during the 1920s lived in California, working as an assistant swimming coach at the University of Southern California and as Director of Swimming for the City of San Francisco. Her ashes were scattered by surfers off Freshwater Beach.