Should WSL atone for Pro Surfing's historical sexism?

Shot me old pal Pauline Menczer a text the other morning to congratulate her for the successful GoFundMe campaign following the premiere of the movie she stars in, Girls Can’t Surf. 

Me and Pauline go way back grafting a semi-honest living working as sham contractors for one of Byron Bay’s biggest shuttle bus services. Pretty hectic gig. Running a too-tight schedule rounding up tourists in Bangkok-style traffic and getting them to the steel bird on time so they could resume normal life in the city.

Menczer is one of God’s great hustlers, a tough-as-teak old-school Bondi street urchin who does not take a backward step, for anybody. Tales of her various confrontations in the surf and on the street are legendary: getting spat on in the surf, screaming matches on the streets, standing up to crooked bosses. Menczer can scrap.

As the world’s grittiest surfing champion Pauline was also the victim of maybe world sports’ most brutal and blatant sexism. A world champ who could not raise a dime in sponsorship, who received a trophy that would not make the grade for the second-hand shop at the dump. Lesbian, when that was taboo, lacking the physical accouterments that were classically assumed to stimulate the desire of a presumed male audience and thus moreorless discarded by the companies that largely funded the sport.

Bad old days.

Very bad.

A clear historical wrong, yes?

Things are very different now, of course.

Equal prize money thanks to Sophie G and Natasha Ziff.

Dual World Champ and one-time highest paid surfer on Earth, Tyler Wright, plies her trade as an openly gay athlete and basks in nothing but full-throated support from her sponsors and employer. That being the WSL, one of the most fiercely progressive organisations on Earth.

Most likely, in the near future a transgender athlete will strut the stage and will be likewise welcomed into the warm bosom of Pro Surfing.

WSL has been shameless in its cultural appropriation of the pro surfing history of the organisations which preceded it. Question: if it is going to claim the good, should it also own the bad?

Redress the wrongs and make reparations for sexist blunders like Pauline’s busted trophy and lack of financial support?

Oh, I know, slippery, slippery slope.

Ziff can’t be expected to stick his hand in his pocket to make good a World Champ who got so royally shafted by the sport she loved so had to drive buses for daily bread. Didn’t get enough to get the coastal real estate that any pro who gets within cooee of the CT now considers a birthright.

Still, even acknowledging the sexist pig managers and the sexist pig pros and the sexist pig contest organisers were no fault of Ziff or any of the revolving door CEO’s of the WSL they couldn’t pitch in and raise the 25K for the GoFundMe?

You claim ownership of every facet of the history of the sport and then let one of the true legends still alive dangle in the breeze with their cap in hand?

A bad look, I think.

Menczer herself has referenced other sports that provide more support to former stars fallen on hard times, in this case the “Men of League” program run by the governing body of Rugby League in Australia, the NRL.

Very low hanging fruit for the WSL if they wanted an easy win to generate real goodwill amongst former pros and the great unwashed.

Off the top of my head I could think of a few former stars who could very much benefit from a little hand up, and so could you.

As for the greater issue of a #Metoo style reckoning for the historical enterprise of pro surfing many questions remain.

A former women’s CT pro backgrounded me for the story but declined to be named.

According to her, and if even half of what she said is true, there are very many skeletons rattling around in very man closets.

Very many instances where consent between those with stars in their eyes and the gatekeepers with access to money and career paths were, lets say, less than enthusiastic.

Different times of course.

In the current climate maybe now some nervous moments in the dead of night for  those who took advantage and wonder if the axe of justice will fall.

Very interesting times.

And will use custom surfboard with curved deck to fit bag… 

The story of Emirati surfer and Olympic hopeful Mohammad Rahma is a good one: ten years ago, when he was twenty-three and rehabbing a knee injury from rugby, Mo had a swing at surfing at the Wadi pool in the UAE.

You know the wave from the Globe surf flick Electric Blue Heaven. A wave described by Chas Smith as “a head-high, legitimately head-high, wave with a beefy shoulder and a lip.”

Seven years later, he was charging Mullaghmore (see below for his 2017 entry for wipeout of the year) and Nazaré. All while battling a severe case of ulcerative colitis.

“I used the bathroom from fifteen-to-twenty times a day, so my lifestyle was bad. I didn’t have any nutrition. I would feel fatigued, tired. Basically, I had no control over bowel movements. Every time I felt the urge to go to the toilet, I only had a few seconds to make it to the bathroom.”

After becoming the first pro surfer from the UAE, Mohammad competed in a number of QS events and the ISA World Championships.

However, the butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling was greatly exacerbated by the colitis.

“For example, when you compete your stomach already moves by itself. But with this, it was just like the worst. I still remember, I was super late to four heats because I was on the toilet. I actually went to the bathroom like super close to the beginning of a heat, then paddled out, then I had to run back to the bathroom…. It happened at the ISA World Games. They were calling me on the mic and I’m just in the bathroom. It happened a lot.”

Last year ,doctors found precancerous cells in his colon and determined it needed to be removed. This meant that Mo would have a bag on the outside of his body to act as his colon.

He immediately began to question if he would be able to surf again. He scoured the internet for information in hopes there was someone else out there who was able to surf with an colostomy bag. He found a surfer in the UK who had undergone the same procedure.

“He was like ‘Don’t worry as long as you don’t lay down too long. It’s ok for paddling quick and catching the wave…. You’ll be fine. It’s ok for you to do it.’ He said for the first few months it was difficult for him but now he’s used to it, so this is what gave me the courage. I was like ‘Cool, if this guy can do it I can do it,’ so I went in for the surgery.”

Doctors removed the majority of his colon, leaving behind a small portion of it, which now protrudes outside of the stomach. The bag secures onto that protrusion. Everything that would be coming out of his rear end, now ends up in the bag.

When asked what would happen if the bag ripped?

“So when your body digests food, before it becomes poop your body produces some chemicals, so that is what would come out. But usually now before I surf or do any sports I will not eat for a while beforehand just in case this happens, that way nothing comes out.”

In fact, it came out recently while surfing, “When it happened, I wasn’t wearing anything to support it and from now on I just wear a wetsuit. The wetsuit presses it in and keeps it stable.”

He also popped it while skateboarding recently, “I was dropping into the halfpipe. I ate shit so many times. I slammed straight into the ramp and the bag popped.”

It’s possible for Mo to get a procedure so he doesn’t have to use the bag, but it would require two additional surgeries and he would go back to having to use the bathroom between at least seven times a day.

“So far I’m happy with my bag. It’s a little uncomfortable surfing but I spoke to a few shapers to see if I can have a small curve where the bag is, to have less impact on the board. So I’m working with a shaper in South Africa (DGS Surfboards) to create something. My only concern is paddling. Otherwise, I’m just gonna go big wave surfing and get towed in.”