You either believe or you don't.
The central tenant of last year’s award-winning documentary Girls Can’t Surf was the charge, and it was correct, that menstruating pro surfers though the eighties, nineties and most of the two thousands were given the worst conditions at any given contest.
As soon as the wind hit or the tide got too low for the men to shred, the beach would clear out and out would go the sport’s legends, Pauline Menczer, Jodie Cooper, Pam Burridge, Wendy Botha etc.
1985’s rookie of the year Jorja Smith says women were forced to surf “this shitty, hell-hole, scum pit [part] of the ocean” .
I slept in a little yesterday, missed half of the men’s first round, but was thrilled by the waves, “best Pipeline ever for a competition” said Doz, and electrified at seeing Pipe regular Moana Jones Wong create history and iconic, impossible-to-argue with shots, arms above head and so on, when the women hit the water.
The viscosity and abundance of frothy saliva in my greedy jaws, thick as a ball of paste, reflected my animation.
A fateful day, to be sure.
Didn’t happen.
We got sixteen men’s heats.
No women. No… talk… even of the women surfing.
Was it an act of chivalry, the WSL figuring the surf was way above the level of most of the tour’s surfers’ skill? And the magnitude of the looming catastrophe was such that it would destroy any claims for equality?
Or was it proof that the chauvinism so rightly hit with the spotlight in Girls Can’t Surf hasn’t gone anywhere; that when the waves are perfect, the girls are given the revoltingly slimy end of the stick, so to speak.
Chivalry or chauvinism? One or the other.
“It was a fucking joke and a disgrace to all equality in sports pushes ever,” one top pro told me.
You either believe or you don’t.
Today, no men, all women, the surf an easy and picture perfect two-to-four-foot, a time, usually, for a lay-day and for tourists and weekend warriors to have a little thrash around at the famous break.
When Moana Wong posted her joy at being awarded a Pipe wildcard yesterday, big-wave legend Ian Cairns, still squirting testosterone even as he nears seventy, wrote: “I hope it’s 10-foot and perfect. You’ll kill it!”
Yeah, she would’ve.
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Wow, Derek, were you sitting on the beach at Pipe with your lapt0p when you typed up this story?
Sometimes, If given time to training, and sometimes better…
But this phrase it’s completely generalist and reductionist about the story.
It’s all about training to the girls, hours training. Right now, Pipe’s left and Tchopo it’s a long road, and again, right now a high risk because 99% don’t have skills to do that.
But they only ran like 2 elim heats for the women that day. Everything else was the dumbass non elim heats. So who cares if its shitty 90% of the field is still left and the forecast isnt lacking. The ones who made it are gonna have to send it.
Moana and Carissa surfed Pipe/Backdoor.
All others looked like amateurs on a vacation trip
got to second this – a coherent take on day 2 pipe:
https://www.swellnet.com/ne…
Fark i like smart cunts that can express themselves so well with the written word , just nailed the bit about being paid as elite but not actually being elite , says it all in so few words.
They are paid to represent clothing companies.
How well they will sell clothing is what they are paid for, not how well they surf.
Longtom is a retard if he still doesn’t get that.
Paid.
Follow your logic through to the end and no surfers need be sponsored, just get models to wear your product in photo shoots.
Why have a tour at all if it doesn’t move product?
My point is that the sponsorship deal you get is in relation to how much product you can help sell, not your tour ranking. Kai Lenny, for instance or Alana Blanchard before she had kids. The tour does help move product because it hypes up the people on it. But it’s not always the sole reason a person has a sponsorship, if you have enough Instagram followers than you may not need to go on tour to get publicity
There could a be a very simple reason for it:
Honolulu City Council permits them to hold competitions from 8am until 4pm (technically a bit later than that, but they’re not permitted to commence a heat past 4pm) So that’s 8 hours of surfing. Given that 30mins is really the bare minimum that you need for a long-interval swell to guarantee a couple of sets per heat, that gives them 16 heats for the day. So if they ran mens R1 followed by womens R1, they would’ve missed 2 heats, which seems a little unfair. But 16 heats works out perfectly for Mens round 1 & 2.
They don’t have this problem at other locations so they usually have no trouble getting through Mens and womens R1 on the same day. Sucks that they didn’t just wait till another day for the women, though.
Underrated vegetable.
Maybe three girls could of handled day one conditions. Don’t front. Saying is different than doing. And your woke headline/ story ain’t gonna change the fact that most of the women would have passed on 90% of the waves that day and/or gotten injured. Will they be there someday? Yes. Not today tho. And for context for all the bullshit comments that will come my way, ask yourself: How many insta videos, or videos in general do you see the top 15 girls going over the ledge at pipe on a day like DAY ONE? Even the dude’s were scared. Stop with the nonsense. Nature doesn’t give a shit about your politics.
The entire thing is due to the flawed concept that equal opportunity = equal outcomes.
Modern society is rushing headlong into inconvenient truths about gender. I dont let it bother me anymore (and im a leftist), I enjoy the lols.
One of the girls is gonna get hurt at pipe or the box or gland or tavarua. I guess thats what they call the law of unintended consequences.
Riss would go
https://www.instagram.com/r…
yes she died from radiation. Also wouldn’t have XRay machines without her sacrifice.
What is plow?
I recommend Steve Shearer’s Day 2 wrap up of Pipe on Swellnet. Essential reading. Savagely honest, and not a woke undercurrent to be seen anywhere.
wait until Chopes…. send them out 10-15 ft below sea level hell holes that scrape the coral and your hide if you fall.
That’s gonna happen big time at the olympics.
They only deliver to Hoops McCann
This is all a nice distraction but can we please return to the real topics of Jonah and whoop.
And surfing real estate “bargains”
Let them surf the big stuff, the ones that don’t want to don’t have to but they won’t keep their spot on tour because there are plenty of groms that will have a go. Its called evolution. Not letting them surf because its too dangerous is like not letting Marie Curie work with radiation because its too dangerous. We wouldn’t have nuclear power today without her work.
Besides JJ, Jack and Jordy, I actually prefer watching the girlie bits.
Seth, Owen, Kelly and a few other guys also good to watch. I agree there is something about the women surfing pipe that I tune back into. Just waiting for one of them to make a sick one or get fully pounded.
They just sit there, do you like waiting?
Brah. No do you? I just tune in once in a while. Especially since I was laid up w an injury this weekend. And still today.
nah man, I like busy heats or I’m out.
The ladies didn’t want to be busy.
Why are we even talking about this? Of course the women suck at Pipe. I would never watch that shit if I wasn’t laid up. Peace
Can see both sides of this debate but the dumbest part of the whole thing was to spend two full days of surfing to eliminate 6 surfers. What a waste
Nothing quite like a bunch of has beens sitting around talking about what women can or can’t do. Let them decide!
Has-beens is a compliment!!
*Lunch box legends
I admit to have never been and never will be.
All of this hand wringing and the Pipe (not Master’s) Women’s bracket still has 16 of the original 18 surfers in the comp. Courtney and Caroline had 2 chances (in shit surf) to advance and did not. Their bad. Put the next 16 out in legit pipe and let us see what happens.