Pushing limits against fear

When world-renowned surfer Courtney Conlogue goes paddling out into the ocean, she tries to push herself a little further each time. The “gnarlier” the better, she says.

And that was the message for the young girls at Girls Inc. Monday — never be afraid of pushing to go further than ever before.

“It is really important to see girls push their limits,” the 15-year-old Huntington Beach resident Courtney said. “They should push their limits any time they seem scared — when it’s fear holding you back.”

In conjunction with the S3 Supergirl Jam action sports event and competition taking place this weekend in Huntington Beach, six of the event’s top competitors in skating and surfing came to the Orange County Girls Inc. center in Costa Mesa to talk to area girls and show off some of their skills.

Along with Courtney, Brazilian Fabiola da Silva, 29, spoke about her career as one of the world’s top-in-line skaters, and skating competitors Lauren Perkins, Alize Montes, Allysha Bergado and Leticia Bufoni answered questions from the crowd and signed autographs.

“I am amazed at how young they are and doing it for 5 to 10 years,” said Girls Inc. Executive Director Lucy Santana-Ornelas. “It’s impressive there are girls out there doing this. We need to celebrate their successes more.”

Santana-Ornelas stressed the value for the girls in their organization to see how girls in non-traditional roles can excel. For action sports, like surfing and skating, not many women are seen in the media, she said. But these risk-taking women inspire girls to go for more in their lives, even if it is in different arenas, she said.

“It is all about feeling empowered,” Santana-Ornelas said.

For the girls representing their field, it was nice to teach girls their profession as well as represent themselves as women who can empower their peers. Courtney knows the difficulty of striving to achieve something women aren’t normally associated with.

When she first started, at 4 years old, Courtney would sometimes hear the gripes of older men who believed she shouldn’t be in the water. As time went on, she heard the gripes less and less as her proficiency increased.

Now, some people say she surfs like a man and can compete, but she doesn’t see it that way.

“I’m surfing correctly now — not surfing, ‘like a man,’” she said. “That’s how I look at it. The guys should start respecting us more.”

DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at daniel.tedford@latimes.com.