Wonder Woman of the Week: Johanne Defay
This week's Wonder Woman is one of the top surfers in the world. As a representative for France in some of the top surf breaks in the world, Johanne Defay is part of a generation of surfers inspiring young women and girls to take to surfing in numbers never before seen. Defay began her competitive career at only ten years old when she competed in her first competition after taking up the sport two years prior. Defay advanced rapidly up the European amateur circuit before breaking into the Qualifier Series: a sort of minor league surfing within the World Surf League. In 2008, Defay considered quitting competitive surfing because of years spent failing to qualify for the Championship Tour- the sort of major league for surfing in the WSL. The economic collapse of the 2008 financial crisis made things worse when suf sponors began pulling sponsorships en masse from surfers across the world- including Defay. Against all odds however, Defay kept competing and in 2014 managed to reach the Championship Tour as a staple competitor.
Once in the Championship Tour however, Johanne Defay had a long way to go towards becoming a staple competitor. Still a teen on the circuit, Defay had to compete in the Junior league and the Qualifier Series in order to maintain her right to compete in the Championship Tour. During that time however, Defay was making a name for herself in all three campaigns. In the Junior league events, Defay won first place in five tournaments along with earning the title as European Junior Champion. During the 2014 Championship Tour, Defay earned the Rookie of the Year award after ending the season in eighth overall place out of eighteen competitors. Finally, in 2016, Defay won her first Championship Tour event at the Fiji Women's Pro. Starting in 2019, Defay was part of a corps of professional women surfers taking part in the new "Rising Tide" programmed aimed at getting more young women and girls surfing and to provide novice women surfers with role models in the sport. Thanks to Defay and athletes like her, an unprecedented number of young women and girls are taking up the sport.
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