In the 1980s, when women’s surfing faced erasure, the San Clemente twins led protests, fighting to keep the sport alive. Their activism, highlighted in the documentary Girls Can’t Surf, helped ensure that future generations could compete on equal terms. The documentary chronicles the early days of professional female surfing in the 80s and 90s as women battled for equality and recognition in the male-dominated sport. 

A defining moment came in 1989 when the organizers of the OP Pro in Huntington Beach canceled the women’s competition in favor of professional bodyboarding while keeping the bikini contest. Jolene and Jorja were outraged and immediately began writing letters to newspapers and rallying the surf community to boycott the event. 

“It was a huge step backward for women’s surfing,” says Jolene. “If they got away with it, other contests would follow suit. We knew we had to fight.”  

That protest worked, and the women’s competition was reinstated - a victory that helped push women’s surfing closer to equality. “It wasn’t just about one event,” says Jorja. “It was about making sure that future generations of girls wouldn’t have to fight the same battles we did.”

Their fight for women’s inclusion at the OP Pro marked a pivotal turning point, but their journey in surfing started long before that. The Smith family moved to San Clemente in 1975 when Jolene and Jorja were nine years old.  Though they spent their early years living in Downey, their weekends were spent in San Clemente, where their grandparents had owned a house on Avenida Aragon since 1960.   

 

“Our parents would load up our Chevy van with our beach gear, five kids, and three dogs, and head down to T-Street beach every weekend,” recalls Jorja. “We’d be so excited to go that we’d sleep in our bathing suits on Friday night. Our parents would wake us up early, toss us into the van, and we’d sleep the whole drive until we felt the van slow down near the off-ramp and saw the Denny’s sign - that’s when we knew we had arrived.” 

By the time they officially moved to San Clemente that summer, it felt like a dream come true.

“It was the happiest day of my life,” she adds. Their father, Vern, had grown tired of his job as a paper salesman and moved the family to San Clemente on the first day of summer after their older sister Judy graduated high school in Downey. Their mother, Arlene, had a seasonal job at the Del Mar Racetrack, and Vern began working as a night janitor for the Capistrano Unified School District. A couple of years later, Vern became the Head Custodian at the new Shorecliffs Middle School, where he was fondly known as “Smitty” until his retirement 35 years later. The family didn’t have much, but they had the beach - and for the Smith Twins, that was everything.

Surfing quickly became a way of life for the twins. Initially, they started on boogie boards before eventually graduating to surfboards, inspired by their older brother Arnie, who was already a dedicated surfer. “Boogie boards were new, and we would sit up on them to look like we were surfing at 204, which was a surf-only beach. We were so little we started to stand up on our waves,” says Jolene. 

 

They graduated to Morey Doyle soft boards a year later, and the desire to do more maneuvers led them to get their first hardboards in junior high - a Midget Smith for Jolene and a BC for Jorja. In junior high, they also met their first female surfing friend, Phoebe Limebrook, from Beach Road. By the time they got to high school, the trio became the glue of the Triton Surf Team.

At high school surf meets, the girls always surfed after the guys. If the Triton team was down, Coach Sam Conroy would say, “Don’t worry, the girls are coming.” The trio was his ace in the hole, always coming in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. They helped lead the team to undefeated state champions in their junior year and became co-captains (alongside Todd Gryzwana) in their senior year - the first time a girl had been captain of the surf team.

After high school, the twins continued competing in NSSA contests while attending Saddleback College. But by the mid-1980s, they decided to take their surfing careers to the next level. Sponsored by Hobie, they joined the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour and traveled the globe, competing in places like Japan, Australia, France, and Hawaii.  Jolene won the prestigious Japan Maui Pro in 1985, while Jorja placed second at the OP Pro in Huntington Beach that year, cementing their status as top contenders in professional surfing. Jorja won the OP Pro in 1988, the year before OP tried to pull the rug out from Women’s Pro surfing. 

 

Jorja had her best year in 1987 when she was ranked #4 in the world. That year, she won a total of $18,000 in prize money. Today’s World Surf League (WSL) Women’s 4th-ranked prize money is well into six figures.  

The duos’ surfing success also opened doors beyond the water. Being twins garnered them extra attention, resulting in national advertising campaigns and a profile on the popular TV show Sports Lifestyles. In 1986, they were invited to New York City for the Women’s Sports Foundation banquet, where they met some of the most famous athletes in the world.

“We were at this huge banquet at the Plaza Hotel, surrounded by all these incrediblewomen - Billie Jean King, Diana Nyad, Jackie Joyner-Kersee,” Jorja remembers. But one moment stood out above the rest. “We went up to Mary Lou Retton to introduce ourselves, and she said, ‘I just saw you on Sports Lifestyles! I know who you are.’ It was mind-blowing that someone as famous as Mary Lou Retton knew us. It was a highlight moment for sure.”

After retiring from the professional tour in the early 1990s, both Jolene and Jorja remained connected to their roots in San Clemente. Jolene returned to school, earned a teaching degree, and has spent the last 25 years as an elementary school teacher with the Capistrano Unified School District.  She lives in San Juan Capistrano with her girlfriend of 12 years, Beth Olsen. Jorja enjoyed a successful career in sports marketing, working for Dragon Sunglasses and advocating for female athletes, ensuring they received the respect and pay they deserved. For the past 8.5 years, she has been part of Kagan Publishing and Professional Development, a thriving local San Clemente business. She married her high school friend, Steve Harmon, 33 years ago, and together they raised two children, Reece and Cole, both graduates of San Clemente High. Jorja even bought the home next door to her parent’s house on Aragon, keeping her connection to the neighborhood where it all began.

Reflecting on their journey, the Smith Twins are proud to see how far women’s surfing has come - from their early days as underdogs fighting for inclusion to watching the next generation of female surfers, like Caroline Marks, take home Olympic gold. “We met Caroline Marks at the WSL Meet and Greet at the community center last September, and she recognized us and thanked us for everything we did for women’s surfing,” says Jolene. “She said, ‘You and Jorja should be back here signing autographs.’ It was such a full-circle moment. But the truth is, we’re just excited to see how far the sport has come. It’s everything we fought for.”

Looking back, the Smith Twins are grateful for the life that surfing gave them and proud of the legacy they’ve left behind. “We grew up in this amazing, tight-knit community,” says Jorja. “It could have been so different if Dad hadn’t moved us to San Clemente. We’re so lucky to have been part of something bigger than just catching waves. We were fighting for women’s equality, and to see how far it’s come - it’s incredible.” 

And … this pioneering duo is still catching waves in San Clemente today! 

Girls Can’t Surf is now streaming on Prime and YouTube.