Surfer Linda Merrill was born in 1945 in San Clemente, California. The daughter of Kay Merrill and longtime California surfer Benny Merrill, Linda grew up on the beaches of Southern California and first started surfing with her father at the age of twelve at San Onofre State Beach in San Diego County, California. Merrill was a runner-up in the 1961 West Coast Championships contest and a finalist in the same contest the following year. In 1963 the 18-year-old Linda teamed up with surfer and strongman Mike Doyle as a tandem surfing duo: The pair won the tandem division of the West Coast Surfing Championships, the Pacific Coast Tandem Championships, and the Makaha International Surfing Championships in 1963, another big win at the 1964 United States Invitational, placed second at the US Championships that same year, and once again won the tandem division of the 1965 World Surfing Championships held in Lima, Peru. Moreover, in 1964 Merrill became the first woman to grace the cover of Surfer magazine. Linda quit participating in surfing competitions in the mid-1960's Show less «