"She can't be photographed next to the 18 year old models."
The Gold Coast’s Jack Freestone has quietly become one of my favorite surfers over the years. Tall, fearless, talented with an enviable top turn and also one half of the world’s cutest couple.
Freestone and Alana Blanchard have been together for many years, have two adorable children and split time between Jack’s Australia and Blanchard’s Kauai. The idyllic life funded, in part, by Billabong (Freestone’s main sponsor) and, in times past, Rip Curl, Alana’s sponsor of a decade and a half until the Torquay-based brand pulled the plug last-ish year.
Why?
Blanchard released a to-camera video soon after the breakup wherein she said, “As some of you probably already noticed, I’m no longer sponsored by Rip Curl. It was kind of a big change for me from going from being sponsored my whole life, pretty much since I was like 14 to now not having a main sponsor. As a professional surfer that’s a huge thing. As excited as I am for change and what’s to come it’s definitely a little bit scary and I think that it’s affecting me a little bit more than what I thought. Things ended OK with them, they pretty much stopped using me after I had Banks, or found out that I was pregnant. They really didn’t like that I had a kid.”
Lightly problematic, in this day, with the underlying assumption being a mother’s body is not the right “look.”
Well, Rip Curl has apparently woke up and just released a thoroughly modern body-inclusive bikini fit guide featuring women of all shapes and sizes.
Heart-warming except a little too performative what with the Blanchard dismissal still not cool?
Jack Freestone certainly thought so, taking to Instagram to lambast Rip Curl, artfully penning, “Wow! The audacity of this stupid company. I say and spoke with Alana multiple times as she felt berated by Rip Curl as they said stuff like, “She can’t be photographed next to the 18 year old models,” “We only care about results not how many followers you have” or made her feel bad for breast feeing her child at a photo shoot, or even docking her pay because she was pregnant and couldn’t be used for a photo shoot basically making it so difficult for her to feel normal and low and behold they do a campaign like this. Which I’m sure a lot of these women are probably mothers. Where was this campaign when 2 of your biggest team riders decided to start the chapter of motherhood?? There was no acceptance, no help, no understanding of the situation. Just Hmmm no you’re a mother now and that basically means you’re not marketable. I support and love this movement but not this company. Bunch of hypocrites.”
Direct and to the point.
Powerful.
Should Rip Curl respond?
Oh, companies never do but how wonderful would it be to see the brand apologize with a hefty new contract for Blanchard?
Performative no more.
A boy can dream.
Plain disgraceful
The reality is that both sexes eat like sh*t nor do they get enough exercise.
Celebrating “plus size” for either is a complete and total cop out.
It’s amazing that forced vaccinations are here when the death rate would be significantly reduced by wiring jaws shut instead.
I’m a bit late to this comment-party, but I’d just like to assure Rip Curl that I’m not a mother, and would happily wear a bikini for them for the appropriate fee.
I just noticed jack has a very original Sailor Jerry rum tattoo , brilliant one mate! maybe some last chance sponsor dollars there you can chase before heading to the construction site to look for some labouring work
I have no idea what this means Dane.
And has been a core part of RipCurl all the way through thus supports RipCurls buisness ethics, ohh and sorry cant let this one slide “lived with aborigines ” WTF it was not the 1700s you racist barstard.
the bigger one with the tats looks freaky-naughty. where jack freestone doth protests too much, the layman wanks to the bigger one with tats.
In a discussion at a dinner party with 12 specialist surgeons all trained by my father-in-law sitting at the head of the table, I interrupted a consensus that said a talented registrar was right to opt for general practice because she was determined to have children. There was no way children could be properly cared for – what with the conditions that must be endured during training – they insisted with benevolent collegiality.
To my mother-in-law’s horror, I piped up and said, “what’s easier to change… the way you do your work, or the fact that women have wombs?”
The silence was broken by MIL praising FIL on a 2 over par round he completed the previous afternoon to much rhetorical backslapping.
Yes I am divorced
In a sad way it’s a bit enjoyable to watch surfers become bold with the surf industry as they are near the end of their ride and have been given far more than they have earned. It’s not their fault though. The surf brands blow so much smoke up their asses from such a young age that they really think that what they do is work and important. Rip Curl has been using and discarding surfers for ever and will continue to do so. Pro surfers are just as pointless and dumb as the surf brands that pay them.
Funny how Kelly slipped right past the I have a daughter thing for years.
I could see Alana and Bethany doing their own company
Said it once said it a thousand times RC is a shit outfit that has always had a brilliant marketing team , anyone that has been close to them would know that , thats one of the reasons Tyler Wright has no social credibility because she is part of the machine same as Tom Curran and Wayne Lynch , if not part of the machine they would be gone mutha fuckers.
when your sexy doesn’t pay the bills like it used to same as when your shredding doesn’t make the tour like it used to.
He has zero social media. He is not doing vlogs, making social media clips, posts about how great his CI boards are and how much energy Monster drinks gives him. But yet gets paid a lot of loot by Monster to just surf. He’s not organizing videographers to shoot him. They find out where he’s gonna surf and show up to shoot him. CI makes videos of him. He doesn’t make videos for CI. I understand you’re implying that he “works in advertising” as a subject whether he knows it or not. But to say he goes surfing within the confines of his hometown with any other intention but to just go surf would seem like a stretch. It’d be like saying JJF or JOB surfs pipe for hours at a time because their sponsors are making them for advertising purposes. The world just happens to film their home break and they’d do it anyway. Nobody films SB on the regular and he certainly is not taking video trips. This is not a metaphoric debate. I haven’t seen any Monster ads or him on their social media. BM literally gets paid six figures to just freesurf at home.
Congratulations, you fell straight in to the “core surfer who’s too cool for social media and only respects other ‘core’ surfers who do it for love and not as sell-outs” demographics that they are aiming for by paying him.
Wow. Great insight… CHAD. That sure explains why I and all the other “core surfers” are on “social media” right now reading this… and why I’ve been running to ValSurf to buy CI Dumpsters and cases of Monster Energy all the time. So explain to me… if he does no contests, does not travel, and posts no social media, and his followers are other “core” surfers who have no social media either… how the fuck does that justify any brand paying him 6 figures? By your assertion, Monster should be marketing free downloads of hip hop bangers, available only by verifying the amount of bicycles in a grid puzzle for deaf and blind people.
I never said their plan was a good one, STUDENT.
Shame on Jack, they are birthing people, not mother’s.
Think this leaves the door open for Quik to do a dad bod VAL set of boardies with Jonah as lead model – size 44 and up
who?
Ironically, I think there is only one “pro surfer” who gets paid to just surf – and that would be Bobby Martinez.
I’d be curious to see what the terms of her contract were. 99% of athletes are Independent Contractors. PTO for pregnancy related issues and maternity leave is not the same as with an employed individual. If your pay is say, contingent on you doing 4 photo shoots a year and you cannot attend one for whatever reason – even if it was a car accident or an act-of-god, why would the company be obligated to pay you for it – or at least be justified in “docking her pay” as Jack put it? The money they were supposed to pay her would now be needed to hire another model. I can easily see how many could be lead to believe that this was more a contractual/clause issue than it was a discriminatory one.
Pro surfers (or ex pro surfers) must be some of the dumbest yet most egotistical people on the planet.
Jacks and Alanas Freeride appears to be nearing its end , hope they invested wisely
Wait till he tries to refinance his mortgage…