This article ran in the December 28, 1967, issue of the Honolulu Advertiser; the version here has been slightly edited. Martha Sunn went on to win the 1967 Makaha International.

What is the first thing a lithesome 18-year-old bikini-clad beauty says after she has won her heat in the Makaha International Surfing Championships?

She says, “What's to eat? I'm starved!"

The hungry beach cutie is Anella Sunn who won the eighth heat in the women's event yesterday. Not even big wave rider Jock Sutherland, the dream date of every surf bunny between Makaha and Malibu, could have spoiled the appetite she worked up on the 4-foot waves.

She and her 15-year-old sister Martha both earned a place in the semifinals. Then they went home to raid the refrigerator.

‘I've gained 10 pounds since I took up surfing," explained Anella, on whom it looks good. “When I'm not in the water, I eat. I'm ALWAYS hungry."

Her mother, a non-surfer, nodded. "They both eat like boys,” she said. “Nella has rice for breakfast, rice for lunch, and rice for dinner. I think I’m running a training table.”

The Sunns live at 840162 Makau St. in a remodeled quonset hut only a short paddle from Makaha Beach. Martha and Anella keep their surfboards in their rooms along with hair curlers and cosmetics. Luckily, Mrs. Sunn approves of the sport.

“Our daughters make a lot of friends in the water,” she explained. “One year during a surfing meet the girls brought home four boys and four girls and we didn’t know any of them. We put a tent in the front yard for the boys.”

So far during this year’s Makaha meet only three houseguests have stopped by, but Mrs. Sunn said she is expecting more any minute.

Besides eating and surfing, Anella makes swimsuits for herself and her sister.

“It would cost a fortune if we had to buy them,” she said. “This way we spend only $1 for materials. Right now I only have eight suits. For a while when I felt like sewing I had 13.”

Of the two girls, 15-year-old Martha is the better surfer. She placed second at the Makaha meet last year. This year she is considered a top contender for the championship.

“I got started when I was in the sixth grade and my parents gave my big brother a board,” she said. "I borrowed it and stood up on the first wave. I really got jazzed over it.”

Since then Martha—she’s called “Kula” at home—has been surfing at Makaha after school whenever there is surf. Last year she talked her sister into trying it. Anella has been surfing since last December.

A counter at home is covered with the girls' surfing trophies.

“And the rest of the house is covered with sand and salt,” sighed Mrs. Sunn. “We also have three dogs and two cats. For a while, we had a rice bird that ate poi and drank Coke, a frog and a crayfish. But the crayfish ate the frog.”

The girls maintain that their best critic is their father, Elbert, who surfed off Waikiki in the 1930s on a redwood board he made himself. He said yesterday that Anella could have paddled out a little farther and that Martha’s board wasn't quite right for the waves.

Apparently, surfing boyfriends aren’t so critical.

Martha explained smugly, “One thing about being girl surfers is that boys always save us when we wipe out. I never have to swim in if I lose my board.”

As girl surfers, both Martha and Anella have definite ideas about how to judge surfing contests.

“If girls were judges, Jock Sutherland would win every time," they said. “Nobody else would have a chance! Oh, boy, he’s the number one triple-seeded champion. And he's CUTE, too!”

[Photos: Martha (Kula) Sunn on the left, Anella on the right]

"SISTERS MAKE SURFING WAY OF LIFE AT SUNN'S," BY BOB KRAUSE (1967)

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