Stylish male surfers channel inner gal…
I really don’t think it’s a stretch to call the Australian Stephanie Gilmore the best female surfer of all time, and perhaps, one of the game’s best choreographers. There’s an accessibility to her surfing as well as a freedom and a joy, even if it feels a little confected sometimes.
In an interview with Britain’s The Telegraph newspaper yesterday, Gilmore played the usual hits: pay gap, insecure men in the lineup, having to wear a damn bikini and be sexy and how she’d be three times wealthier if she was a man or as gorgeous as Giselle and so on.
Sample quotes.
“There’s always a couple of local guys who will flex and try and overpower you with their testosterone. I do know that there are a lot of women who feel it a lot and there are guys out there who are a nightmare to surf with.”
“When there’s a couple of girls in the line up who surf better than them, I think their egos get a little bit of a check.”
“If the waves were terrible and you put the men out in them, it’s going to be boring too. Now, when the women actually surf great waves, everyone’s like, ‘oh my god, the girls are ripping, they’ve come so far’ and we’re like, ‘no, we surf like that. We just never used to get the chance to show you’.’
Her posit, towards the end, that the best surfers approach a wave like women is a new angle and one that I like very much.
“When you think about the most stylish male surfers – Tom Curren, Joel Parkinson – guys who, when you watch them are so fluid and seamless. They have a graceful touch. It’s funny, people say to me, ‘you surf like a guy’. But actually, no, the greatest guy surfers surf like girls.”
Do you surf like a girl or wish that you surfed like a girl?
I wear a girls wetsuit but it identifies as being male
Curren surfs like a girl. He rollerskates to feel like a man again.
https://youtu.be/vhuwLRl4MtQ
she surfs as well as a thousand 14 years old boys that are out there. she is delusional about her self.
being smooth is female? what a fool
“the outlaw feeling of doing something graceful, as if dancing on water was the best and bravest thing a man could do.” from Tim Winton’s book “ Breath “
I new a bloke who got a spot dancing in the Vienna ballet. the only straight guy there. he got an astonishing amount of female attention. when he came home for Christmas and we would go out for a few beers, the most unbelievable girls would seem to materialise wherever he was. not sure how this relates to surfing, Steph or Tim Winton but it pops into my head every time the subject of dancing is raised.
Confidence and corporal awareness of the successful dancer has parallels in competitive surfing and in impressing potential sexual partners ?Ps Griffin Colapinto’s mum comes from a dance background and in a WSL interview the word they dropped was « Body Mechanics « or one could go scientific with the spatio – temporal analysis of human movement .
I worked that same theory, although less successfully. At uni, I used to choose to luncheon at a spot far removed from any of my lectures based solely on it’s proximity to the recently opened School of Dance. Guess those girls weren’t into the lost surfer look…
I definitely don’t surf like a girl. I surf like fully grown adult woman beginner.
I think Chelsea Georgeson was/is the best female surfer of all time. Steph’s a close second
Fark, could/can she ride the barrel!
There’s been a few over the years who have
transcended gender stereotypes: Joyce, Margo, Lynn, Lisa and Steph. Did I miss anybody?
Peter.
Touché
Gidget
Carissa
… I’m truly enamoured for Steph.
Her infectious smile melts my heart, her surfing is simply beautiful and, her grace in and out of the water, beyond peer. Her ‘Spirit of Asaka’ section riding that DP shaped single at Greenmount is sublime.
Mermaid indeed! Go girl!
To be honest, Steph is sorta my measure, and I definitely surf a bit like her (style) at times… which is perfectly alright with me.
Feel free to post up some footage for our appraisal.
i wish i could surf like her
Lakey and Courtney are the picture of smooth and laidback…
Also is that Curren on a real board or pfd skimboard?
In their dreams.
Sarcasm?
Yep, good one, you could add another 12 from the top 16
Actually 11 cause I like
C. Marks.
Teenage girl Occy is a cold blooded wave killer!
The most occy since occy! And yet not derivative if that makes sense.
I am such a Caroline Marks fangirl. Totally want to do an interview with her!
The guys surf better than the girls. Guys are better than girls at most sports. It is not a banner for equal rights. It’s a physical limitation. This is also accentuated by: not many girls surfers, competitive structured women’s comps started way later than men’s, etc. But I guess men have enough chauvinist pigs in our surf corner – actually more than enough. Women can have some too. I will fuck off and go back to Inertia now.
Hey I love watching the women’s comps
Its just I reckon only 3 have a great style.
The others still rip
I wear woman’s underwear under my wet suit if that counts? Yes.
E-Lo: “That’s the kink in my armour too.”
No wonder he is so brave. His thong is tainted.
My dad now surfs like my sister who surfs like a little boy.
Ah, it is a wise father who knows his own child, and the cruelty that lurks in his heart.