Twenty-three-year-old Floyd has been surfing around the Coastside for a decade and is now opening a surf school called Jetty Betty, the only one in the region run by a woman.
"As far as I know, there's none that are run by women," said Krista Alexander, whose husband Dave Alexander has operated Half Moon Bay's only other surf school, Open Ocean Surf Lessons and Surf Camps since 1999. There are several surf schools and camps in Santa Cruz and Pacifica and one in Marin County, but men run all of them.
 Vanessa Floyd prepares for a surf lesson with 11-year-old Ridge Mickelsen. Floyd's new surf school is unusual - few are run by women. |
"That's where I got the idea for my name," said Floyd of her Jetty Betty moniker. Floyd taught at Sunset Suzy, which is based on Oahu, as well as the Royal Hawaiian Surf Academy in Maui. Her travels have taken her to Australia and Tahiti in the pursuit of waves - frequently big ones.
"I'm training to surf big waves right now," said Floyd. She said she ventured into the heavy water of Teahupoo, Tahiti's infamous big-wave spot for the first time this year and has just begun to surf the local monster wave, Mavericks. She's also paddled out at Sunset Beach and the Banzai Pipeline on Oahu's North Shore.
Floyd, who also works at the Half Moon Bay Brewery, may be somewhat of a local pioneer, but she says her school is not just for women.
"I think there's so many people that would get a lot out of it, especially kids," she said.
She will teach mostly private lessons and leave the bulk of group activity to the more established local school, Floyd said.
She is aware that not all surfers are fans of the surf school phenomenon and the attendant overcrowding of good teaching spots like Cowells Beach in Santa Cruz, Linda Mar in Pacifica and even The Jetty, also known as Surfer's Beach, in Half Moon Bay.
"I think you get more out of private lessons than groups," said Floyd. "That's what makes me cringe about surf schools. People just pile out there and try to make the money." Floyd says she knows Dave Alexander of Open Ocean and hopes to complement his business.
Local big-wave maestro Jeff Clark knows Floyd as well and has seen her out surfing the local spots for years. He is leery of surf school overcrowding but said Floyd's approach could work if it was well run.
"Another way to surf as your occupation is a great thing," said Clark.
Jetty Betty is a one-woman show for now. Floyd will be teaching at Surfer's Beach all summer. She hopes to build on her big-wave approach and her international experience to become a sponsored surfer some day. For the moment she is studying to be a personal trainer in Santa Cruz and looking forward to doing more of what she loves.
"I just love to teach surfing," she said. "I would rather be teaching surfing than doing anything else."
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