TRENDS Surf wear becomes latest wave of teen styles

You can be casual and cute at the same time.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
MIAMI -- Sifting through the racks at Ron Jon Surf Shop at Sawgrass Mills, holding up hangers draped with board shorts and rash guards, Allison Gilbert of Miami is riding the next wave of girl fashion.
"I'm really getting into it," Gilbert, 18, says. "I don't surf but I definitely like the look."
And apparently, so do thousands of other teen girls. Styles that once were solely surf wear are now a familiar sight at malls and movie theaters, bookstores and video game arcades. Coastal cities are filled with young women decked out in flip-flops and bikini tops, their arms loaded up with hemp bracelets and waterproof watches. Even residents of inland towns thousands of miles away from a riptide are getting into the look.
"I get a ton of tourists coming in from the Midwest and buying surf wear for their daughters," says Leigh Perry, operations manager of Quiksilver Boardriders Club, a Miami Beach surf shop. "This year, I've seen a tremendous increase in the amount of female customers. It's been popular with guys for a long time, but now for everyone the whole surfing look is in."
Ron Jon spokeswoman Debbie Harvey also says she's seen a decided increase in the percentage of female customers. "There's been an overall increase in girls who are interested in action sports, not just surfing," she says.
Perry credits surf wear's rising popularity among teenage girls to increased exposure in the media. The trend began cresting the fashion horizon over a year ago with the summer hit movie "Blue Crush." Starring Kate Bosworth and Michelle Rodriguez, the movie followed the trials of girl surfers who ride Hawaii's fearsome Pipeline with style. The look caught on.
"I loved all the clothes in 'Blue Crush,'" Gilbert says. Her 12-year-old cousin, Rebecca Fultz, shopping with her at Ron Jon, chimes in, "We watched it, like, five times in the theater."
Reinforcements
Reinforced by reality shows like MTV's "Surf Girls," which pits 14 female surfers against each other, and WB's "Boarding House: North Shore", the sport (and trend) has gained mainstream attention. And it's not just a teen thing: 40-year-old Demi Moore donned surf wear in "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle."
"People like it because it's comfortable and easy to wear, yet fashionable," Perry says. "You can be casual and cute at the same time. It's huge among teens and kids, but I've had plenty of older customers."
Perry says Quicksilver's three most popular sellers are board shorts, surf shirts and swimwear. Quiksilver, a men's surf wear company, pioneered women's surf clothing by creating Roxy, the first all-female line in 1991.
Some female surfers say the copycat look gives them hope that more women will pick up the sport, which has become increasingly popular among women in recent years.
Women now represent more than 15 percent of the total surfing population in the United States, and female membership in the National Scholastic Surfing Association has more than tripled between 1994 and 1999, according to an article in The State, a South Carolina newspaper.
"In a sense, it could be just a trendy thing," says Sarah Henderson, 23, a Miami Beach resident who has been surfing for years. "But we're hoping that more girls take on the hobby, that the style will lead over to more girls surfing."
Difference
Perry says she can easily pick out the real surfers from the imitators. Real surfer: Knows just what she wants. Fake: Just knows she wants to look good.
"They're more practical," Perry says of surf girls.
Henderson believes that since surfing is as much a lifestyle as a fashion, it has less of a chance of becoming pass & eacute;. Stores like Quiksilver and Ron Jon, which retail surfboards, feature TV screens depicting dramatic wipeouts and stock magazines like SG aimed at female surfers, sell the lifestyle as much as the look.
"If it was just about clothing it would die off," Henderson says. "But once you start surfing, it's not something you ever get over."