The increasingly popular women-only surf competition was started in 2021 by Holly Macdonald and Niamh Jefferson, who started the wāhine-focused surf school Sea Sisters in 2020.
The pair started the competition because they wanted to create a women’s surfing community in Hawke’s Bay.
“I think for women, sometimes it can be a bit nerve-racking to put yourself out there and give competing a go,” Macdonald said.
“It’s just about supporting each other and celebrating women’s surfing.”
Among last year’s first-time entries was Esther Geerlings, who has been surfing for the past 15 years.
To push herself, she set a sports goal and ended up choosing to enter a surf competition.
Soon, she discussed her plan to enter Lady of the Log with a friend at a birthday party.
“She dared me to go in it, so I double-dared her back. So there was no backing out after that,” Geerlings said with a laugh.
Esther Geerlings was among last year's first-time competitors in Lady of the Log. Photo / Michael Farr
She entered the beginners’ category at the competition and was extremely nervous heading into her heats as the crowds gathered to watch the competition.
She hadn’t realised her efforts in the surf would be so visible, with the crowd watching closely from shore.
“I just sucked it up and went in my heat.
“And I never realised that when you came back out of the water, everyone cheers for you, no matter how you did.
“At the time, there were, like, people that I barely even knew, and then those people have actually become friends over the year after the comp, and then when we bump into each other in the surf and we talk about, are you going to go in it again?”
Geerlings said last year’s experience has been a motivator to enter the competition each year.
“It’s just been really inspiring, and you know that you’re gonna have a great time.
“There’s no way anything else could happen except fun and celebration and encouragement and friendships and old connections.”
Geerlings has been training throughout the winter with 7am surfs, where she’s had to battle numb chins and ice cream headaches from the chilly water just to get her preparation in.
However, just a month out from the competition, disaster struck when Geerlings chipped her fibula during a football match.
Four weeks into her seven-week recovery period and with the competition just over two weeks away, Geerlings asked her physio what her chances of competing were.
