Over the weekend 21 year Stephanie Gilmore from Australia was crowned the 2009 Women's World Champ after making the finals of the Gidget Pro held at perfect 6-10 ft Sunset Beach, one of the premier surf spots on the legendary North Shore of the island of Oahu in Hawaii.
The Gidget Pro was one of 6 contest held at Sunset this year.
Watch the video of the final,
For contrast here is the video from the 2008 Women's Longboard Championship, the event we are "stealing" from France.
And, the 2009 highlights,
I bring all of this up because of the proposed Women's World Longboard Championships (WWLC) at Swami's, to be held October 2010 (called "the biggest thing to ever happen to Encinitas" by the new CEO of the old Encinitas Chamber of Commerce Marshall Weinrab).
Women's longboarding has a problem and it's called women's shortboarding.
This new generation of women shortboarders are surfing at an incredibly high level right now. They are charging waves of consequence on the world stage. Women's shortboarding is leaving women's longboarding in the dust. I already asked if it is wise to have a world champ event at a soft wave like Swamis. Previous post: Leucadia Blog: An alternative venue for the proposed Swamis surf contest: Tavarua Fiji
Of course, the reality is that women's shortboarding, women's longboarding, men's shortboarding, and men's longboarding is all bullshit invented by the Costa Mesa based surf industry for marketing purposes. In real life surfing is not segregated by gender or board length. All surfers love to ride waves with their friends. That is what it is all about when you peel away all the hype. I've believe that one of the coolest things about surf culture is the wide variety of people out surfing at the same surf spot.
It is my opinion that surf contest should not be segregated by gender. To me this is backwards and sexist. The Supreme Court ruled that separate but equal is unconstitutional. Jackie Robinson broke racial barriers in professional baseball and I'm shocked we still don't have women playing in the big leagues. I'm unclear why sports gets away with segregation, especially in surfing.
Its simple. Men are typically superior to women in physical sports. You might have a women beat a man in chess, but not in rugby.
ReplyDeleteIn the context of surfing, why would gender play a role in superior abilities?
ReplyDeleteWhy is golf segregated?
I bet Serena Williams could smash down a lot of the men.
What's ironic is the last two videos weren't parodies but were intended to be taken seriously...
ReplyDeleteThat's the "greatest contest ever"??? Tell that to Bruce Jenner or the U.S. hockey team that beat the USSR in the Olympics!
they are hot. Bring them to Swamis.
ReplyDeleteanon 639,
ReplyDeleteyou sound like Dalager
Why not have the contest at San O' or Malibu? Those are the classic longboard waves of california and they are both part of the state parks system.
ReplyDeleteYou can take that argument to the extreme. Women surfing against men, groms surfing against pro's, women playing in the NFL, healthy folks competing in the Special Olympics. Where do you stop.
ReplyDeleteJP's point is that surfing is unique in that female humans can surf as good as male humans. It is pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteBan surfing and contests of all kinds. Ban cobbles and sand. Ban women. Return Leucadia to the Hippies.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Swamis is in Encinitas NOT Leaucadia
"JP's point is that surfing is unique in that female humans can surf as good as male humans. It is pretty cool."
ReplyDeleteWhat?
Apparently you haven't seen the way pro male's are surfing.
Maybe someday and maybe they should compete in the same class. But as of today their are clearly two different levels of talent.
Surfing sucks, everyone should quit. Don't anyone start, the water is very cold, is polluted, there are sting-rays and sharks. The surf is crummy here in Encinitas, there are a lots of better things to do with your time.
ReplyDeletePut you surfboards in the attic or burn them, take up skateboarding or snow boarding or biking or jogging or anything else but give up surfing.
Yeah.... like privatize the beaches so the City can pay for their huge pensions and pay raises.
ReplyDeleteWe like pensions over surfing anyday!
It has been reported that the WWLC will be charged only $150-300 a day. City pensions cost way more than that.
ReplyDeleteSwamis is a key surfing resource used by Leucadians.
...and Leucadia is Encinitas, right???
ReplyDeleteWell if we don't want the women lets give swamis to the stand up paddler boarders for a contest. They are mostly men and do a lot better job than the long boarders or short boarders.
ReplyDeleteLeucadia is what it has always been. Encinitas was manufactured by an election with johnny-come-lately voters and politicos.
ReplyDeleteThe dividing line between between Encinitas and Cardiff is Santa Fe Drive. That puts Swamis south of the line. My Thomas Guide shows Swamis in the 92007 zip code, not 92024. Encinitas? Leucadia? Or Cardiff? All part of the City of Encinitas.
ReplyDeleteThis deserves a post:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/dec/03/surfing-contest-hits-rough-waters/
Probably one of the worst propaganda articles yet. Full of total butt kissing plus erroneous "facts" and heavily edited quotes.
I thought it was going to be a blog about women from Hawaii, but I guess it is about the best surfer, and not the best native to Hawaii surfer?
ReplyDelete