Laura Lee Ching

Laura Lee Ching, also known as Laura Blears, Laura Blears Ching and Laura Blears Cody, was born on 25 December 1950 and is an American surfer. Her father was Lord James Blears, a professional wrestler and amateur surfer, and her brother Jimmy was also a champion surfer. She won the 1972 Makaha Invitational and in 1973 became the first woman to compete in the Smirnoff World Pro-Am Surfing Championships, the same year in which she was the world number one female surfer. She appeared on the television show What's My Line and on ABC's Wide World of Sports Challenge of the Sexes, was pictured in Playboy in July 1975 in a spread called Super Surfer shot in Hawaii, and in 2022 received the first Pioneers of Surfing Award from Kimo's restaurant in Maui.