Surfer interview: J. Lee Driskell

By Nick McGregor

J. Lee Driskell is not your typical Roxy blond “surfer girl.” She’s got deep roots in St. Augustine (her late mother Carol was one of the area’s original female surfers) and she knows how to win (two different East Coast titles in 2000). Plus, she works hard keeping surf shops across Florida stocked with the bikinis, tank tops, and sandals as a Matix rep. Driskell also pilots seaplanes across the Caribbean, explores her creative side designing locally-sold pottery and jewelry, and is well-known for a laid-back, carefree attitude. Oh, and she’s charged Pipeline.

D: How did you get started surfing in St. Augustine?
JLD: My mom and dad taught me when I was about 4 years old at Vilano Beach. My mom surfed since back in the ‘60s here in town.

D: So you grew up learning from the older generation?
JLD: Oh yeah, like Burgess Autrey and all those guys.

D: What about surfers your age?
JLD: The only girl I ever really surfed with was Nicole Grodesky, but some of the guys I surfed with were Josh Cabana, Casey Stahr and Kevin Mileski.

D: What spots did you frequent when you were growing up?
JLD: I grew up on Vilano until I was 11, so I always surfed at Surfside and the jetties. When I moved over [to St. Augustine Beach], I used to go to Middles, and Blowhole was still good. A St. actually was my home break when I was a teenager, A St. and 3rd St. where the rocks ended. It used to way better than the pier, but now it sucks there.

D: So Vilano, then A St. …
JLD: Well, we lived on 2nd St. My mom actually grew up on 2nd St., and we lived on the end there all through high school. Then we all tried to move to Costa Rica, but we got in a big car accident and they kicked us out.

D: Care to elaborate?
JLD: [laughs] The other people blamed it on us. They went off the side of the mountain, but they lived, and then blamed it on us. So we came back and lived on 3rd St.; I stayed there through college.

D: So you’ve been surfing for a long time here in town?
JLD: Yeah… [laughs]. About 26 years.

D: How did you get interested in competition surfing?
JLD: I didn’t really want to compete until I was at Flagler College in 2000. They had a college team and needed a girl really bad, so I decided to do it. I found it to be really fun, and I made a lot of friends that way.

D: So the same year you started competing, you won a National Scholastic Surfing Association East Coast Championship title and an ESA Easterns Championship title?
JLD: Yep, that was the same year [laughs].

D: Do you think natural talent won you those titles? You hadn’t really been competition-tested at that point.
JLD: Yeah, I got lucky a couple times with the waves. My parents had been taking us to Costa Rica, and those competitions you mentioned just happened to have big waves. I was really more comfortable than some of the other girls … I think that might have had something to do with it, because some of those girls are good.

D: Did you continue to compete after that, or was it just a one-year thing?
JLD: I went to the U.S. Championships, and it was really weird with this girl – I don’t know, the competition got fishy. I didn’t like the way it worked out, and I kind of retired. I did try a little bit of the [World Qualifying Series] tour last year. My first contest was Pipeline (on the North Shore of Oahu). But it was flat, the waves were crappy, and we had to wait for 2 weeks. So I just gave up. I didn’t even feel like dealing with it. The other girls were calling it the “Tour of Bad Waves.”

D: You decided to enter one contest, and you went for the toughest spot in the world to surf?
JLD: [laughs] Yeah. Well, that was the first one of the year. Kinda gnarly.

D: Have you done any other WQS contests?
JLD: Nah, I spent so much money on that trip, and I’ve never really had a full sponsor. If I’m going to spend two grand on a trip, I’d rather have gone somewhere I wanted to go.

D: You never got any sponsors after winning the two East Coast titles in 2000?
JLD: Not really, no. Aaron Chang sponsored me, but even when I got published they never sent checks. The local shops have always supported me, both Blue Sky and the Surf Station. Oh, and Kevin Mileski always made me boards. And Dick Rozo up in Jacksonville, he made boards for me since I was fifteen, and he always took care of me, kind of like a second dad. He’s an amazing person.

D: You mentioned Costa Rica and Hawaii, have you traveled other places for surfing?
JLD: The farthest was Australia, then Tahiti, and also this island off Tahiti that was really awesome. Those are the big ones. And the Caribbean also.

D: That brings me to my next question. I hear you’ve piloted your way to lots of breaks in the Bahamas?
JLD: Yeah, my dad used to fly when I was a kid. He had his own plane, and he did charter flights to the Bahamas. It was an old-ass plane; he used to work on it every time we flew it. So as I grew up, when he quit flying, I always missed it so much. So when I was in college, [my parents] helped me get my pilot’s license.

D: What kind of planes have you flown?
JLD: Mostly small planes. In college, I’d get the kids I went to school with to pitch in and we’d all hop in a little tiny plane, like with an inside smaller than a Honda Civic, surfboards on top of our heads. And the biggest plane I’ve flown is a 14-seater seaplane.

D: Do you work or make money flying, or is it just an interest?
JLD: I have a license, so I’m allowed to make money doing it. But it’s really hard; I’d rather just go get a job. If I fly anymore now, it’s mostly just for fun, or if people want to pitch in and do a trip. I’m working so hard now with Matix and doing my pottery and jewelry.

D: So what exactly are you doing with Matix?
JLD: I’m the women’s clothing rep. I have all the Florida accounts right now, but they’re gonna try and push me into Georgia, South Carolina, and then maybe all the way up to Virginia Beach.

D: A lot of traveling comes with the job?
JLD: Oh my gosh, yeah. I’m like a truck driver. It’s cool, because I have friends in all the little towns I go to, but it’s kinda lonely. It’s a tough life being a rep, I feel for the guys that do it all year.

D: You’re just doing it part-time right now?
JLD: No, I’m pretty full-time; they’re expecting the numbers out of me and everything. I’m doing that and my other job with the pottery at the same time. I still have to make a living [laughs].

D: Do you make your own pottery?
JLD: My dad and I make a line of pottery together, and then I have my own line of jewelry. So that kind of pays the bills. I go pick up a check for the pottery, and then I show the DVS and Matix line … hopefully I’ll get paid for that one day [laughs].

D: Are they for sale in town?
JLD: Yeah, the pottery and the jewelry are at Simple Gestures, and the jewelry is at the Girl Next Door.

D: Get to surf St. Augustine on a regular basis?
JLD: Actually I probably surf more in other places than I do here. But I’m so picky; I can’t stand it when it’s cold, or when it’s mushy.

D: Did you get any of that late March swell?
JLD: Nope, I missed it. I kept looking at it and it looked crappy, so I decided to do a dodgeball tournament one day. And then I decided to play kickball instead of surfing the next day. Apparently I blew it, looking at the pictures.

D: Do you see yourself staying in St. Augustine permanently?
JLD: I don’t think I’d live anywhere else in the United States. There’s just something special about St. Augustine, and I’ve spent time in a lot of other towns. I might choose the Outer Banks as No. 2, but St. Augustine is cool all year.