Sofia Mulanovich

The 2006 Surfer Poll and Video Awards was a big night for Sofia Mulanovich. Not only did she win Best Female Performance in a Video for her surfing in Sofia: A Documentary, that biopic made during Sofia’s championship year also won Documentary of the Year, beating out even Kelly Slater. And then to top that off, Sofia was voted #1 on the women’s reader poll, showing that even though she was second in the ratings at the end of the 2005 season, she is first in the hearts of surfers everywhere.

Sofia deserved the honor, as did the movie made in her name. Produced by Peter Goetz, Sofia: A Documentary is a first-rate production, detailing her arc from a girl with dreams in a small, poor coastal town in Peru, to her impossible dream of World Surfing Champion.

To see Sofia: A Documentary is to appreciate how far Sofia has come. She was born in Lima in 1983, to parents who loved the ocean. Peru is a very poor country and Sofia grew up comfortable, but hardly wealthy. She went to the San Silvestre School in Lima and took to the water almost immediately, learning to swim at three and competing as a girl. In Sofia: A Documentary, the time of Sofia’s youth is shown as a time of severe political upheaval in Peru, a time when the country suffered severe blows to its national pride and heroes were scarce.

Peru has always been a little surf mad, going back to the Peruvian Surf Championships in the 1965, and the country has produced some good surfers over the decades, but never a World Title contender. Sofia’s road to the impossible began with trips to Mancora, a popular beach resort, where Sofia began riding waves on a Morey Boogie and then moved up to a surfboard at 9. Sofia was trained as a girl by Robert Meza and then Peruvian pro Magoo de la Rosa began to take an interest when she showed some real talent.

Sofia took her first trip out of Peru as an observer to a surf contest in Guadalupe at the age of 12, but she raised eyebrows there and did it again at 13 when she made the quarterfinals of the US Open. After winning the Pan-American Championship in Brazil, Sofia was signed by Roxy to represent the company on the World Qualifying Series Tour, with hopes toward making the World Championship Tour. All this time, according to the documentary, Sofia doubted herself, that a girl from nowhere in Peru would have a chance against all these women she had read about and idolized in surf magazines.

Sofia finished 11th in her first year, missing the WCT by one place. She made it the next year, and in her first year on the WCT she finished 7th out of 18. Sofia came up during the Reign of Queen Layne, when she won six World Titles in a row and the only thing that could stop her was a lightning bolt.

Peru is the land of long left points but not barreling left reefs, but in 2004, Sofia caught fire in the two most difficult events on the tour, winning the Roxy Pro Fiji and the Billabong Pro Teahupoo, and crowned that nicely with a win at the Roxy Pro France. As seen in Sofia: A Documentary, Sofia’s World Title came down to a heat at Haleiwa, and when she came from the water with a World Title, Layne was right there cheering for her.

It’s impossible to begrudge a girl who came from so far, against such great odds, to accomplish what Sofia did in such a short time. Watching Sofia: A Documentary, you learn that not only is Sofia a national hero in Peru, she is the national hero in Peru. And watching the documentary is to be amazed at the present level of women’s surfing. Sofia rips. She is very fast, she is smooth and she thwacks it wherever and whenever she can. Sofia lost the 2005 World Title by one missed drop at Honolua Bay, but she was right there cheering when her friend Chelsea Georgeson emerged from the water the Champ. For now and for the next few years, the race for the WCT Women’s Title is now a love pyramid with Beachley, Georgeson and Sofia all going at each other to be on the top. Women’s surfing has never been more exciting, and women like Sofia make you wonder who else is out there, bubbling in some obscure corner of the world, dreaming of taking the world.