“Only the burliest men could handle the big hardwood surfboards of the first half of the 20th century,” he said. Ms. MacPherson grew up in a time when board makers had begun to experiment with different materials and more manageable designs. “So Janet was in the right place to benefit from shorter, lighter surfboards,” he noted.
Another important development was the creation and marketing of the wet suit. One of Ms. MacPherson’s friends was Jack O’Neill, a pioneer in manufacturing and marketing the gear, which made surfing in cold water bearable. Ms. MacPherson claimed that she had her own solution for the temperature problem in her early days.
“We used to go to the thrift stores and buy cashmere sweaters and wear them out in the water to keep warm,” she told Whalebone.
Though Mr. O’Neill was a friend, she always preferred warm water. “I hate wet suits with a passion,” she admitted.
Ms. MacPherson and her friends traveled the world surfing, and in the 1960s she found herself in Australia and New Zealand, where she met and married Tim Murdoch, a fellow surfer and Mr. MacPherson’s father. Although the marriage ended in divorce, she was in New Zealand long enough be crowned its women’s surfing champion in 1965.
When she wasn’t surfing, she was developing a modest real estate business, acquiring rental properties in Malibu.
Shipwreck off the Baja peninsula, Mexico was Ms. MacPherson’s favorite spot to surf with her son. Stephen Farbus was on a surfing trip with her while she was there in 1981. They were married in 2003. He and her son died in 2003. She is survived also by Marie MacPherson, a sister, and two grandchildren.
Source: NY Times