Professional Surfing Background

Prue Jeffries Surfing Career Biography

Prue Jeffries (b. 1972) A pioneer and visionary of women’s surfing, she spent two decades traveling the world on the Association of Surfing Professionals World Championship Tour, now known as the WSL (World Surf League). Her competitive and athletic career spanned from the late 1980s through to the mid-2000s. She was also a published writer, editorial consultant, founder of a women’s clothing company, brand ambassador, event co-producer, and filmmaker.

Prue grew up surfing at the iconic Bondi Beach, Australia. Initially, Bondi Beach was a working-class suburb that welcomed numerous immigrant families. The eclectic influences of multicultural Sydney shaped Prue's childhood. From a young age she had a love of creativity, water, nature, and the metaphysical. Prue initially took up skateboarding, bodysurfing, surf mat riding, and bodyboarding before transitioning to surfboards around 12 years old. 

Shaped by an education that supported children from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, she thrived in an intellectually and socially expansive environment. It shaped her openness and desire to explore and exchange with cultures and life around the world, as well as her opinion of the importance of women's surfing (and surfing in general) to be inclusive and grow the length, breadth, and diversity of narratives and opportunities for women.

From 1990 to 2006, Prue spent 16 years competing on the ASP WCT and WQS Tours. She contributed to the growth of women’s surfing in multiple ways, as an advocate for women in boardsports. She is a WCT-level surfer willing to work in areas of writing, editorial consulting, clothing company development, surfboard design, and filmmaking. 

She has felt that good surfing was genderless, transcended surfboard choice, and was a reflection of a surfer's relationship with the water and waves. A waterwoman at heart, Prue is known for her soulful, quieter nature, graceful, smooth, flowing style, and keen interest in surfboard design.

In 1990, 17 years old, fresh from high school and deferring university, she traveled to the Bells Beach Easter Classic. With minimal surfing exposure outside of Bondi and little amateur experience or coaching, she continued on the ASP World Tour, supported by sole sponsor Peter Daniel Surfboards. She achieved a world ranking of #13 in 1990 at the age of 17-18 years old. It was considered the best raw rookie performance at the time. She followed up in 1991 with another #13 finish.

Between 1992 and 1996, Prue competed part-time and pursued a passion for outrigger canoe paddling. She paddled many distance races, including in 1993 the 41-mile Na Wahine O Ke Kai Molokai to Oahu Canoe Race in Hawaii and in 1995 the Hamilton Island Canoe Races in Australia. Prue honed her water skills, paddling, and surfing abilities training in Hawaii. Feeling a close kinship and respect for Hawaiian culture, Prue was bestowed the name by a friend from a Kahuna of “Alohiwaipuhia,” meaning “bright wind-swept water” or “waterfall blown back up to heaven.” Later, she relocated from Bondi to Narrabeen, where she continued to refine her surf style while working as one of the first women in construction for the Australian telecommunications company Telstra. Despite her young age, she received rapid promotions to administer and supervise minor works projects.

In 1997, Prue returned to full-time competition with improved financial support from her job, greater confidence and fitness from canoeing, received coaching support, and used a combination of holistic and somatic training methods as her foundation. She qualified for the ASP Women’s Top 11 WCT Tour, earning the ASP Most Improved Award. Her surfing abilities caught the eye of legend Midget Farrelly, along with Simon Anderson, for whom she started to ride surfboards and received his support. That year, she won the Senior Division of the Roxy Wahine Classic at San Onofre, a groundbreaking event where she met Linda Benson, Marg Oberg, Candice Woodward, and many other USA surfing legends who inspired her.

By 1998, Prue had finished World No. 6. She won the Quit Women’s Pro at Margaret River after being a finalist in 1997. She defeated Pam Burridge, Lisa Andersen, and Rochelle Ballard on her way to the finals with Layne Beachley at the Bells Beach Easter Classic. She is a two-time finalist at the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach and a finalist at the Rip Curl Pro in Hossegor, France. She has won several events, including the Boundi Pro in Portugal, the Gallaz Pro in Oceanside, the SG Queen of the Creek in Salt Creek, and several Professional Surf Tour of America events. She is a dual silver medalist from the 2002 ISA World Surfing Games in Durban. 

In 1999, Prue was one of the first WCT-level women, with her ranking at #6 in the world, competing on two world tours to play an instrumental working role in founding and developing a women’s clothing and lifestyle brand. Connected by Wahine Magazine publishers Marilyn Edwards and Elizabeth Glazner with Jackson Sports Management, she signed a sponsorship deal with the Bodywaves Group from Orange County, California, USA, led by Tim Su, for their B-Pro activewear line. Responding to what she felt was the objectification of women in the surf industry. Prue partnered with Tim to transform B-Pro into a core women’s line by strategizing and rebranding it as Elleven. 

Elleven emerged as a vessel to empower women from all backgrounds and stages in life seeking to showcase women surfers strength and appeal in expressing their natural talents. She felt women’s beauty and strength were inherent and expressed in many shapes, sizes, faces, and cultures. Representing this was the best way to role model for younger women. 

She oversaw the branding, marketing, and development of Elleven, finding, hiring, and working closely with Solodizine/Blue Door Creative Tiff Seale and Victor Sokolow, who were instrumental in the new branding, along with Art Brewer, Jim Russi, and Jim Pidgeon for photography. Prue worked with fashion designer Pamela Zoolalian, the first woman on ESPN, and who competed in the X-Games in street luge racing for the clothing development. She also worked on advertising placements, event sponsorship, editorial trips, and developing a team of women riders from diverse backgrounds. 

Onboarding Florida WQS surfer Falina Spires and Californian longboarder of Filipino heritage Mary Bagalso with an eye to growing more ambassadors in time. Elleven sponsored the 1999 Elleven Women’s US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach, and in 2000 both the Women’s US Open of Surfing WCT and WQS events. The investment was significant—roughly $300K for women’s surfing at the time. One of the promotions of the events was a poster of Prue doing a powerful cutback on the face of a Puerto Escondido wave with the bold and perhaps prescient statement, “The future of surfing is in the hands of women.”