Are We Close To Achieving Equality In Surfing?
Photo: Arto Saari
According to the Kama’aina of Ho’okena, Chiefess Kaneamuna of the Big Island of Hawaii’s favourite thing to do was to go surfing.
So much so that when she died, she was buried alongside her surfboard among her most prized possessions. It is said to have dated back to the 1600s making it one of the oldest known surfboards and was discovered in 1905 inside the burial cave of the Hawaiian princess. Some four hundred years later, in 2018, the WSL decided that women deserve the same amount of money as men do for surfing the same waves, despite the overlooked fact that women have contributed to surfing since its ancient beginning.
Today, models who are not professional surfers still spearhead marketing campaigns, fewer females are sponsored and on tour, less airtime is given to females across pretty much all media and someone swapping out a pastel pink for a pastel blue and a paisley pattern is still the highest level of design innovation we’ve seen across women’s ranges. And yet, more women are surfing today than ever before.
While the progression of surfing is largely attributed to the Lisa Andersons’ and Stephanie Gilmores’ of the world, it is the women penning articles, standing out in the weather filming, and being an authority in surf brand meetings who are also driving change. Arguably it is the people behind the scenes, male or female, who influence a lot of what happens in the surf world today and so it makes sense that when more women are in these roles, we start to see real impacts. While many of us can only dream of being paid to surf, some people were savvy enough to leverage their talents outside of standing on top of a piece of fibreglass to working a career within the industry as the next best thing. And with the changing landscape of women in surfing nearing closer and closer to equality, who better to ask about women’s representation, what it’s like to work in a male-dominated industry and their take-home notes to close the gap than the very women behind the scenes doing just that.
Tay Kitts – Surf Journalist
Tay Kitts is a surf writer from California who is a contributing journalist at Stab, the surf world’s most influential media powerhouse. Despite its influence, the ratio of men to women across both coverage and employees is at about 15:2 if you objectively look at who they are featuring and who is making the content (full disclosure we are good friends with Stab and this is not a knock - just an observation of men to women numbers of which anyone could make by simply looking at their homepage for thirty seconds). If there is one person who knows a thing or two about the reality of being the only woman in a room full of bros, it is Tay and yet she is nevertheless still positive about the future of women’s representation within surfing. ‘We’re in a day in age where people have the autonomy to do much of their own representation. Everyone’s got a platform. The positive thing to note is that women nowadays seem to have more of a choice in how they want to navigate that whole thing.’ That autonomy is exactly what equality is about after all and believing that you deserve to be there just as much as the guys even when it doesn’t feel like it. ‘You’ve got to act on confidence. Arrogance would be coming in hot thinking you know everything and are entitled to it, but confidence is just listening to your intuition and having some grace.’
While talent, confidence and grace get you a long way, as a female navigating industries where men have long been the default, representation is often tokenised. This extends in most cases where ‘female’ is constantly distinguished but not the other way around. Where we say ‘best female surfer,’ but default to ‘best surfer,’ for the men and where females often become some kind of symbolic effort to be inclusive rather than simply offering the same opportunities and access. ‘I will say, as a female writer I certainly wouldn’t want to be pigeon-holed into exclusively writing female-focused stories. That’s entirely beside the point. Luckily I haven’t experienced that thus far.’
Thembi Hanify & Mariah Erst of EMOCEAN Magazine
Thembi and Mariah spearhead EMOCEAN, a surf magazine that campions diverse narratives of women, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ surfers. ‘Traditional surf media is more often than not, through the lens of a white, thruster-riding man. Even when other voices are highlighted traditional media and the women they tend to gravitate towards highlighting (Caity Simmers, Molly Picklum, Sierra Kerr) fit the hard-charging narrative that aligns with that audience. You don’t see a huge spectrum of women surfers nor male alt-craft or longboard riders either,’ says Thembi. ‘Historically, I think the surf industry and media has sucked at [women’s representation] and we have been force fed the most pedo boring white skinny airbrushed beach shit ever,’ adds Mariah. These reasons as well as their own experiences are what drove them to start EMOCEAN. ‘I have experienced bias in my career of people turning to the male in the room for direction when I’ve been the one in charge, and have had male co-workers ask ‘So, are you interning here?’ says Thembi. An experience that is unfortunately shared among most women breaking into a male-dominated industry uncharacteristic of just surfing.
However, if there are two people who are truly pushing a more inclusive surf world it is these two, because at the end of the day, how we treat people on land (with respect) should be a mirror of how we treat people in the ocean. As Thembi says ‘Surf culture can be so predictable and boring!!! I’d like to see people drop their stinky everyday surf attitudes. It’s on us to model the behaviour we want to see in the line-up and at the end of the day, being able to surf is an absolute blessing that we should have so much gratitude for.’
Jesse Jennings – Surf Photographer and Filmer
Jesse Jennings is a photographer who is more often than not seen running around on the beach carrying five cameras at a time or in the water for twelve hours never once without a smile. She’s a part of the young females who hasn’t let a line-up of males deter her efforts to do what she loves. ‘The girls have always been doing gnarly stuff but up until recently, the media coverage hasn’t always reflected such. There’s a beauty to the femininity of surfing which extends far beyond the decades of surf mags purely showcasing women in bikinis on the beach. I think everyone in the industry is witnessing the explosiveness and progression among the gals right now. Women have finally been given the opportunity to compete at Pipe, Jaws, the Eddie, etc. Maybe the only people missing it are the keyboard warriors that don’t get much sunlight anyway.’
When speaking about her experience of breaking into surf photography, particularly when swimming out at heavy breaks, Jesse shares in the same reaction most women are met with when they push the boundaries imposed upon them. ‘The reality of it is dealing with constant rhetoric that a guy doing my job or something scary is ‘cool,’ but that for a girl in the same role it’s ‘too dangerous.’ And while it hasn’t stopped Jesse, these age old comparisons between men and women seem to be what continues to limit the industry reaching equality. ‘Let the comparison be to the art, power, style, flow – not to who is doing it in bikinis and who is doing it in boardshorts.’
Photo: Arto Saari
Giulia Avila – Filmmaker, Photographer, Surfer and Model
Giulia is one of those especially talented humans who have made a career from being on both sides of the camera, a skill that has no doubt leveraged her ability to capture surfers in incredible light working on projects like Redbull’s ‘No Contest Off Tour’ and ‘Stab In The Dark’ with Jack Robinson. While female representation still has a long way to go, Giulia believes it’s improving ‘but not because of any shift in surf media or the WSL. Female surfers today have a lot more opportunity to express themselves through their own platforms, their own brands, their own creative projects, especially the young girls like Caity or Jaleesa, or the free surf crew—Lee Ann Curren, Karina Rozunko, Lola Mignot, etc.—and especially with someone like Coco, and her new board brand XO, and seeing how much support the ladies share towards one another.’
Giulia also sheds light on what her experience has been like as a filmer where the majority of her co-workers are men. ‘I do think some brands and media miss out on working with really talented women, because the veterans are for the most part dudes, and tend to just rinse and repeat with crews or shooters they know already instead of women like Jesse Jennings, Crista Funk, Shannon Hayes, Alana Spencer, Megan Villa, or the woman who I am probably most inspired by these days as a new mother and a filmmaker, Ana Romanio and her partner Tomas Hermes.’
The gap in women owned, run and funded surf brands is another miss for women in surfing. Roxy’s recent public severing of athletes an obvious example. ‘I think the support and demand for women's owned brands is bigger than the more male-focused industry guys probably think. But I think that's changing and fast, because of how supportive the women are of each other. Surfing these days—it's for the fucking girls.’
A Note From The Editor, Sam Hetherington
When I was first asked what I would like my name to be penning the articles at Monster Children I instinctively said Sam. Although a name I feel more comfortable with, it was also a strategic choice because I knew that more doors opened when men felt like there was another man letting them in. Flash forward to today and I don’t think there is a single week where I am not met with an email that replies ‘Thanks man, dude, bro’ or when I have met someone in person or on a camera where the reaction has been ‘I thought you were a guy.’ Initially, when I was younger and starting out I thought this was a positive thing, whereby I must be doing a good enough job talking about the surf or whatever for someone to assume that I was a guy. Now though, it just pisses me the fuck off. The natural assumption that I must be a guy to be good at my job and to know what I am talking about, especially in surfing is a disservice to the hard work I’ve put in to get here as well as all the women before me.
It took me so long to finalise this article because I was so worried about ostracizing the men given the Monster Children audience. It’s a habit women in male-dominated spheres are extremely familiar with. I know there are so, so many good guys who truly strive for equality. I work with them every day. But I also know, from being in a role in an industry that requires me to have touchpoints across pro surfers, filmers, photographers, writers, brand people etc, that this industry is not equal yet. My experience speaks to that and so too does the access I have to women in those very jobs. It is simple math really. My intention with this article is not to make men in the surf industry feel like shit as there is no progress with pointed fingers, but rather to start a conversation. Sure the pros might be getting the same pay, but look around at your next brand meeting or when you need a photographer to shoot your next campaign and ask yourself where are the ladies? If your answer is that you don’t know a woman good enough for the job than the historically hired man– do you think maybe it’s about time you give the women a chance to try and achieve that?