Surfing champion Pauline Menczer’s trailblazing legacy has been honoured with a life-sized bronze sculpture at Bondi Beach, where she grew up.
Menczer was the winner of the 1993 Women’s World Championships, making her the first and only world champ to come from Bondi. She did so without the backing of a sponsor and while battling rheumatoid arthritis, and she didn’t receive any prize money- all funds went to the men’s champion.
Beyond her athletic prowess, Menczer is celebrated for overcoming hurdles of sexism, homophobia and debilitating bouts of rheumatoid arthritis. In 2018, she was inducted into the Australian Surfing Hall of Fame.
Menczer’s story was included in a docu-series, ‘Girls Can’t Surf’, which dug into the history of inequalities in women’s surfing.
Creator of this series, Christopher Nelius was the instigator of a local project to crowdfund and get a life-size bronze statue of Menczer installed in Bondi. This was approved last year by Waverley Council, and now her incredible career is immortalised in a spot overlooking the very place she took to the water as a child.
Menczer said she was “blown away” by the statue and emphasised that it was for the “surfers, the battlers and everyone who’s copped a few knocks but refused to give up”.
“This statue isn’t just about me,” she said. “If it inspires even one kid to have the courage to paddle out, its done is job.”
“It’s so wild to think a little Bondi grom like me would end up with a bronze statue overlooking the waves where I learnt to surf.”
The bronze statue of Menczer is the work of respected Australian artist Cathy Weiszmann and portrays the surfer as a young woman doing a “surf-check” and looking out across the ocean from the park in South Bondi.
The costs were covered by the crowdfunding efforts of grassroots community group Pauline in Bronze and gifted to Council as a donation for the community, with Menczer saying she is incredibly grateful to “those who tirelessly campaigned”.
“I’m so grateful to this amazing community. You legends made this happen,” Menczer said about the community group.
Waverly Mayor Will Nemesh welcomed the statue’s installation, saying: “As well as being a talented athlete, Pauline Menczer has been a trailblazer and Ɵreless advocate for equality in sport, paving the way for so many to follow in her footsteps.”
“Pauline’s impact and everything she was as a champion remains as relevant as ever, and Waverley Council is honoured to give her a permanent home at South Bondi Beach.”