Matt Warshaw on surfing’s remarkable first world champion Phyllis O’Donell, dead at 87

“I can’t think of anyone, at her level, who was
less interested in surfing as a path to money or fame.”

Phyllis O’Donell, who won her final in the 1964 World
Championships at Manly Beach about 45 minutes before Midget
Farrelly won his, and thus became our sport’s first world
champion,…