Two elite women surfers—an Israeli and an American with a Jewish family connection—continued their quest to reach the top echelon of the sport over Labor Day weekend.
Both competed at the inaugural Super Girl Surf Festival in Virginia Beach, Va. Going into the event, Hila Cohen was ranked ninth and Kaikora Nauenberg 24th in the World Surf League (WSL). Israeli surfer Anat Lelior, who was ranked 14th, did not compete in the event.
Calm winds on day one of the festival resulted in waves that were neither rad (awesome) nor gnarly (powerful), so the situation was super grindy (choppy). In fact, to borrow a Yiddish word, they were kind of feh.
By the final day of the competition on Sept. 7, a moderate rip current and southeast 15-mile-per-hour winds gave the surfers more favorable conditions.
The particular sports-goers tend to have mellow dispositions and take whatever Mother Nature gives them. Before her first heat, Cohen shrugged and said, “Usually, when the waves are high, you can pick the best one. But right now, whatever you have, you just go with it.”
Cohen and Nauenberg both reached the Super Girl quarterfinals, guaranteeing them a share of the prize money. They nearly missed moving on to the semi-finals. The pair, who are friends, will compete head-to-head again on Oct. 29 at the La Marginal Surfing Pro WSL event in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.
The Super Girl surf series consists of three 2026 events—in August in Oceanside, Calif.; in September in Virginia Beach; and in November in Jacksonville Beach, Fla. They are important qualifying stops where surfers can compile points to gain entry to additional WSL Challenger Series events.
Originally from Acre in northwestern Israel by the Mediterranean coast, Cohen is now based in San Clemente, Calif., where she trains. She recently graduated from San Clemente High School, where she was a National Scholastic Surfing Association competitor.
Cohen has also represented the Israel National Team in international surfing competitions like the ISA World Junior Surfing Championship. She only began surfing six years ago.
“I like surfing because it’s good exercise,” said the 17-year-old. “I look forward every day to getting better at it, and it’s a lot of fun. When I’m not surfing, I do a lot of training on land, which helps prepare for the water. It includes some skating on land, but mostly exercise and training in a gym. Surfing professionally is my dream.”
Cohen is also focused on training for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, where she hopes to represent Israel.
Nauenberg, 17, is the granddaughter of the late Michael Nauenberg, a noted Jewish physicist and faculty member at the University of California-Santa Cruz. She attends Santa Cruz High School and began surfing at the age of 10.
“Before I started competing, I never really liked surfing, but I was always decently athletic,” she said. “I was into swimming and other water sports, but I didn’t like the ocean that much. When COVID hit and we couldn’t do any other sports, I really got into surfing. My dad told me, ‘If you keep working hard, you can get better at anything.’
She said she likes the freedom of being out in the ocean.
“Everything I do now is for surfing,” said the teen. “I definitely want to make professional surfing my career.”
