Typed letter signed ("Mary Ann") to surf historian Gary Lynch, about Tom Blake and other surfing memories

Waialua, Hawaii, 1989. 1 p. 4to. On Mary Ann Sears Swim School letterhead. Fine. 1 p. 4to. Pioneer woman surfer Mary Ann Hawkins. Pioneer woman surfer Hawkins (1919-1993) writes to surfing historian Gary Lynch, offering to send tape recorded memoirs, and writing about Tom Blake, one of the most important figures in the history of surfing. In part" "Some of the things I remember about Tom Blake I don't think I should write or talk about without his permission. you know how that is. And I don't know if I dare ask him, I don't want him angry with me. I can tell you that he used to sit out on his board at P.V. and talk to me like an older brother. He gave me a lot of good advice, but I can't tell you exactly what was said as it's been too many years. I told you what he said to me the last time I saw him, 'Get a hat on, what do you want to do, get alligator skin?;, or words to that effect ... I know I would look much better now if I had taken his wise advice. Everything he ever said to me was to try to help me. He's a wonderful man and has always been my ideal." She closes by mentioning she'd just seen on T.V. the night before the 1949 film "The Girl from Jones Beach," in which she had a small part and was introduced, as she recalls, by the film's star, Ronald Reagan.
Hawkins was the "undisputed standout woman surfer of the 1930s" (legendarysurfers.com), and the winner of the Pacific Coast Women's Surfboard Championship in 1938, 1939 and 1940. The letter is sold with a color photo of an elderly Hawkins wearing a lei, and with an Autograph postcard signed of PAUL KREBS, to Lynch, recalling Hawkins.