It all began in Lockdown…
Who’s behind Betty Zine?
There are many women behind the zine; it’s a reflection of our female surfing community in Aotearoa. Three of us have been working behind the scenes to make it happen. Zofia spearheaded the project and is the chief curator and designer. Rachel is our editor and Steph is the words behind our social media. We didn’t know when we started the project that the three of us live in Muriwai! Zofia in a tiny house, Steph with her partner and one-and-a-half year old Kaio, and Rachel in a plywood shack!
How did the zine begin?
It all started with a post in the local women-oriented surf facebook group. The day after surfing was banned (a day of most perfect waves), I (Zofia) wanted to channel my frustration into something positive, creative and collaborative that would keep us occupied and bond as a community. I used to make a ton of zines back in my art school days and thought it would be fun to make one based on the Surf Bettys. A zine is basically a DIY grassroots publication. I envisaged asking for submissions of art, poetry, writing, photography, etc. and putting it all together in some handmade at-home-printer project. My hope was to maybe make fifty copies that would keep the community entertained during lockdown. I really wanted the zine and it’s content to reflect the community of women behind it. Steph and Rachel volunteered (really I roped them in) as co-creators. It turns out they both also live out at Muriwai Beach, so we formed a bubble.They had great direction, ideas and moral support. Charlotte Hardy stepped in with a lot of advice from her experience as a writer and was one of our first contributors. Kate Winn suggested and organised a business directory and we held a vote for cover designs which ended up featuring the artwork of Georgia Burgess.
The zine kept growing by word of mouth and evolved into something much bigger than any of us anticipated! And honestly, we just rode the wave. We have been overwhelmed with support and feedback about the need for content that is women-focused in the surf community. As a result, we are proud to say that we sold out of our initial print run, after increasing it twice. We’ve already had more submissions and people wanting to get involved so we decided to keep the project going and are working on a second issue, thanks to the incredible community support.
What’s next for Betty Zine?
We are passionate about keeping this project going and we have so many more ideas- from running events to board reviews to art shows. We want to hear your ideas and input!
As a team, we want Betty to keep growing and reach out to women all across Aotearoa to share their stories, places and waves. We want to showcase our women, the work that they do, the things they create, and the waves that they ride. We all have our own voices, stories and ways of engaging with the ocean and it is time we made a space to share these voices in the narrative of surf culture, for us to start telling our diverse stories around the ocean. And of course, riding more waves.
Follow Betty Zine on Instagram, like us on Facebook and sign up for the newsletter to keep updated. And most of all, spread the word!
Photography by Zachary Maguire