On January 15th, 2010 South Kingstown's Sue Lloyd Hogan was inducted into the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame in a ceremony held at the Orlando Convention Center in Central Florida. It had been a long time coming. I originally submitted her name and resume over a decade ago to the nominating committee. Hall of Fame politics being as it may, it took this long to get her what she rightfully deserves, to be included in the history of East Coast surfing as one of the top female surfers of all time.

I remember the first time I saw Susan surfing. It was on a hot steamy summer day in a crowded line-up at the Narragansett Town Beach. This was during the height of popularity of the new sport in the summer of 1966. She was the only female in the water riding the formitable 3-5 foot surf. Surfboards were big and heavy and you really had to be in shape just to carry one, never mind surf on it. Susan was absolutely stunning in the water....a well toned muscular athlete. She would take off on wave after wave, gracefully bottom turning into the left sections and casually walking and trimming across the open faces. It was obvious that she was by far the best surfer in the water.

East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame inductees for the class of 2010
Front row-left to right: Ross Houston, Sue Lloyd Hogan, Sharon Wolfe, and Doug Waters
Back row-left to right: Jeff Klugel, Bob Rohman, Bud Gardner, George Miller, and Scott McCranels
Photo:Joe McGovern

Susan was very fortunate to have had a family that lived close to the Narragansett Town Beach and parents who supported her obsession with the sport. They bought her and her sister their first surfboard in the summer of 1964. She had already had a season of surfing under her belt borrowing boards the previous summer. "I caught the bug in the 7th grade when I was 13 years old," said Sue in an interview this past week. "My parents took me and my sister to the Gob Shop in Wakefield (current location of Town Meats) and bought me a Velzy 9'4" stock single fin that seemed to weight 100 pounds. I spent the first couple of summers surfing with Charlie Johnson, Pat McNulty, and Frankie Garceau. I was the only girl surfing in Narragansett during those first years."

Susan became the first female athlete in Rhode Island to be asked to join a nationally sponsored surf team when she signed on with the Surfboards Hawaii Team. She quickly became a force to be reckoned with on the highly competitve Northeast contest circuit. Although this was truly the heyday of surfing competition only a small handful of female surfers had the ability and physical capabilty to handle the big heavy longboards of that era. She won or placed in just about every major contest in the northeast during the mid-60's competing against the likes of Florence French, Donna Johnson, Janice Chronley, Karen and Kathy Adams, Liz Herd, Stephanie Katz, and Donna Snodgrass.

Susan dropped out of the contest scene during the transition from long to shortboard surfing. "Most of the longboarders I surfed against in the mid-60's stopped surfing entirely when the shortboards came out," said Sue. "I worked hard to drop down, first from a 9'4" Surfboards Hawaii log to an 8' V-Bottom. I continued to go smaller until I found a comfortable size and weight." By 1976, she ahd brought her level of shortboarding to the same heights that she had gone in the longboard era. Every day I watched her surfing I felt the urge to convince her to start competing again. As the New England Director of the Eastern Surfing Association I knew that her level of surfing was as high if not higher than her East Coast peers. I finally convinced her to surf in one event which she easily won. By the end of the season she was undefeated in New England competition.

In the early 1970's, there were no professional contests. The Eastern Surfing Association hosted the big events and the surfers who placed at the Eastern Championships were considered the professionals of that era. Most of the top surfers who competed and won at the ESA events of that era are now members of the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame. The stage was set for an upset when Sue Lloyd Hogan showed up at Cape Hatteras for the 1977 East Coast Surfing Championships as the top representative from New England. She had been out of the circuit since the mid-60's and no one from New York to Sebastian Inlet knew who she was or took her seriously. The surf was big and gnarly for her division with thick hollow left barrels grinding off the 2nd Jetty at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Sue put on quite a show at that event as she charged the big lefts that seemed like they were made just for her goofy foot style. Needless to say that after devastating the competition (including a field of very hot Floridian women) everyone on the beach knew her name when she was announced as the new East Coast Women's Champion.

Armed with a new Hobie surfboard that she had earned from winning the Easterns, Sue traveled to Texas for the United States Championships. Again, there were big waves and tough competition from the East Coast, the Gulf Coast, the West Coast, and Hawaii. Surfing in her first national contest ever, she took an impressive 3rd place in the Open Women's Final.

After taking a year off from competition, Sue again went undefeated in New England contests and was invited to the 1979 East Coast Championships to represent the area. Again there were big waves for the event but the field of competitors were completely different. Surfing against a new group of hot women competitors, Sue again dominated the left groin peak and wiped out the field in perhaps her greatest victory ever. She won the coveted East Coast Women's title for the second time in three years.

Winning a major title once is tough enough but twice is magic. Only a handful of surfers in the world excelled in both the longboard era and the shortboard era and Susan was one of those few. Her body and surfing ability has changed very little in the past 40 years. She is physically fit and still rips it up whenever she paddles out for a surf. It is great to see her finally get what she deserves....to be inducted into the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame.