Izzy Tihanyi rubs wax onto her surfboard, a very girly-looking longboard adorned with flowers and koi fish. Then she tucks it under her arm and tromps off toward the ocean, pausing briefly to toss a Surf Diva Surf School slogan back over her shoulder: "The best surfer in the water is the one having the most fun."
That would be either Izzy or her twin, Coco, co-owners of the La Jolla school and co-authors of the 2005 book "Surf Diva: A Girl's Guide to Getting Good Waves."
"I'm the 'Surf,' " Izzy says.
"I'm the 'Diva,' " Coco says.
The twins divide duties too. Isabelle "Izzy" Tihanyi trains surf instructors and oversees classes, while Caroline "Coco" Tihanyi handles sales, marketing, the boutique in La Jolla and the company's clothing and swimwear line. Surf Diva runs camps for boys and girls in La Jolla and operates "surf adventures" in Costa Rica for women. It also sells such products as surfboards and clothing.
Now, after coaxing thousands of females -- and some males -- onto boards over the last 12 years, Surf Diva is looking to open its first surfing school in Los Angeles County, although it has not yet settled on a site.
Although many surf businesses have been struggling in a weakened economy, the twins say that sales were up 29% in their shop in the first quarter, compared with the same period last year, and that the school's revenue was 45% higher. The owners decline to release specific sales numbers.
"A diva never tells her age, her weight or her income," Coco says.
The twins' timing was right. Female interest in surfing swelled over the last decade as surf-wear companies cranked out more products for them and the media piled on the bandwagon. "Blue Crush," a surf movie starring women that Izzy saw in the theater five times, helped spark interest when it was released in 2002.
"They jumped on that very quickly," says Sean Smith, executive director of the Surf Industry Manufacturers Assn. in Aliso Viejo.
The number of women in the U.S. surfing population rose 25% in 2002 and 37% in 2003, according to research by Board-Trac, a marketing firm in Trabuco Canyon. Since then, the proportion of female surfers has held steady at about 33%, though recent surveys suggest that may have slipped to 28% this year, says Marie Case, Board-Trac's managing director.
With another movie, or maybe a reality show, "we'd see a spike again," Case says.
