If you wanted to see how far female surfing has come in the past few years, you just had to take one look around Kirra Beach on Saturday March 2 at Surfing Queensland’s Surf Sisters Women’s Surfing Day to see that there is a tidal wave of female surfers heading to a line-up near you.
The sun was yawning itself awake over the Gold Coast glitter strip, with onshore winds that did not look inviting for a surf. Yet here we were, more than 100 women gathering on the beach to celebrate International Women’s Day.
Boards were laid out together and tired hellos were shared. Organisers took our coffee orders, and then we were straight into meet and greets which had us turning to a woman beside us, a woman we didn’t know, and getting to know them.
I met Ruth who travelled from Noosa for the event, making a road trip out of it with her two friends. Their reason for being there was simple – to surf with like-minded women. I told her this was definitely the place to be. I had met my best surf friends attending a women’s day event just like this a year ago, and now we talk every day, and surf every other.
After introductions, The large group of surf sisters split into two where one half sprawled out on the grass for a yoga class with Teigan Woollard and the other headed to the sand for a breathwork session with Alli May. A calmness swelled across Kirra Beach as we inhaled, exhaled, and stretched together.
Then it was time for a surf, but not before a group photo. As we stood together in two long rows, I realised just how many women were there, and just how quickly the female surf community had grown. As we cheered Yeah the girls! to the camera, I thought about my young teenage self, desperate to surf, yet too afraid to go out in the water because there were no other women out there. Now I had 100-strong women beside me.
We paddled out for some baby shoreys where there were smiles and laughter rippling across the water. It wasn’t about the waves today, it was about coming together as one. After a few futile attempts surfing waves on the dumpy shoreline, we headed in for a Rigs Recovery ice bath where yet again women were coming together, holding each other through the uncomfortable.
That is what these events are all about. We come from all walks of life – all ages, races, cultures and communities – but when we get out there in the water together, especially in a male dominated line-up, we are a force to be reckoned with. The energy shifts just with a few women taking to the waves. And finally we are being recognised by the surf industry for the changing tides. Local boardriders club The Surf Witches broke down barriers with documentary surf film Taking Off, a film about older women who surf on the Gold Coast, taking out Surfing Australia’s Innovation Award at the Australian Surfing Awards last week.
The teenage surfer girl in me wouldn’t have hesitated on the sand if she had had the support of the women who showed up today at the Surf Sisters event. So why now are more women taking to the water?
We finished the day with coffee and a Q&A session with surfing legends Liz Cantor and Dimity Toyle. Surfers from different generations, they shed light on how the culture has changed.
A competitive surfer in her younger years, Cantor transitioned into a female judge for the World Surf League before becoming a television presenter for Channel 7. When she first started out in TV she felt she needed to hide her surfer girl style, but in doing so it lost her a job.
“An executive producer met me at an event in Narrabeen, where I was decked out in Billabong gear and had salty hair. I was so easy to chat to that he asked if I wanted to come into the office to chat about maybe doing some presenting.”
When Cantor went for the interview she had bought brand new Kuwaii clothes to wear, had her hair blow dried and her makeup done. “I tried to be that TV presenting person I thought they would want. But they didn’t want that. I lost that job because I was trying to be something I wasn’t.”
Now she embraces her surfer girl style. “Everyone has something to offer that’s unique to themselves.”
That to me is why more women are taking to the water – to be ourselves.
It’s pulling on a wetsuit, slapping on zinc, wearing no makeup and having salt in my hair that makes me feel equal to others in the water, where I’m not defined by who I am or where I am at in life. There’s no Instagram filters to hide behind in the ocean. It’s that feeling of freedom out in the water that connects me to myself, to others, and to the world around me.
Dimity Toyle, professional surfer and DJ, summed it up for us all at the end of the day. “Go surfing. You always feel better after a surf.”
Lisette Drew 