"So disappointing. #wslmaledominance is grossssssss.”
An historic moment for women’s surfing today as the best in the world, including those storied multiple world champs Stephanie Gilmore, Tyler Wright and Carissa Moore, paddled out at Teahupoo for the first time in sixteen years.
What should’ve been a day to celebrate was slammed by the WSL’s own fans as the women were forced to surf in waves so poor their male counterparts were given another day off as they wait for an upcoming epic swell.
The fans railed,
“How come WSL claims to promote gender equality while putting only women to surf these terrible conditions? That’s disrespectful to women’s surfing.”
“ALWAYS PUTTING THE GIRLS IN THE SMALLEST CONDITIONS. So disappointing . They deserve the best conditions. #wslmaledominance is grossssssss.”
“What a joke, why even show this? These girls shred in proper conditions. Not this.”
“Gotta feels sorry for the women having to surf this shit.”
“What an anti-climax after all the hype… yawn… turned it off and vacuumed the house instead.”
“Disrespectful.”
“This is embarrassing.”
“The WSL: hurry up and turn the women’s before the swell comes in.”
“Waited sixteen years to send them out prior to the swell. A total setback joke.”
“There were four proper waves in four hours of competition, your call today was a big LOL.”
Even former title contender Julian Wilson couldn’t help ripping in, “Shortened field still can’t escape the poor conditions.”
The event was scrapped for women in 2006 because the wave, which is shallow as hell and has nowhere to run if you don’t wanna get near the tube, was deemed too dangerous for the gals, a call that infuriated the then best female surfer in the world Layne Beachley.
“There’s been a rumour going around that the girls all got together and decided they didn’t want to go there because we were too scared… That’s completely untrue,” Beachley told the Australian newspaper, The Sun-Herald at the time. “We’re extremely disappointed and incredibly frustrated.”
Four years earlier, she’d conducted her victory interview there as she stood in a pool of her own blood, feet, arm, back and legs covered in lacerations.
The tour leader at the mid-point in 2002, Melanie Redman-Carr, said, “It’s a pretty sexist decision. If the men can go there, why can’t we? They’re scared about one of us getting badly hurt and having all the bad publicity coming from that. Just going to Teahupoo has improved the standard of women’s surfing. They seem to think it’s too heavy and dangerous for us. We want to show that’s wrong, and we’ve been doing it. To lose Teahupoo – it’s just pointless.”
Critics will point to the fact that highly ranked tour surfers Megan Abubo and Lyn Mackenzie didn’t catch a wave in their Teahupoo heats although that criticism could also be levelled at the men given that the current world number one, Filipe Toledo, scored the lowest total in professional surfing history when he achieved a zero-heat point total at Teahupoo seven years ago.
Even Gabriel Medina had to be coaxed into surfing the Box a few years back when the Margaret River Pro was moved there with the words, “You’re the world champ! You have to surf!”
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Revised history according to Layne Beachley… beggars belief.
The WSL’s solution to gender equality in these situations is to only put women who look like men in these terrible conditions.
No poo’ for you
They got the conditions deserved, the men were surfing junky waves too just bigger. If it was eight foot they’d be sitting in the channel waiting for it to get manageable. How many of the women’s competitors would charge this spot solid?
That bright yellow hat certainly complementing Courtneys good looks ….
They clearly damaged the image of the city. Something must be done.
Anyone else TIRED OF THE ADS? 5 min later see the surfing.
THIS is so TRUE! wsl is falling apart from the top top on down. I get it wsl needs to make money to pay the large staff bills keep the lights on. When Some of the staff are silenced or fired for there opinions. Get real!! Since back in Australia,they’ve (Not everyone) made so many BAD decisions going forward.
I feel bad for the Girls that work JUST AS HARD as the Men. .
The last time the women surfed there and cloud break was Awesome. WSL LOSING ITs positive branding of equality for all.
The pro women of the WNBA play way better than the average male at the local rec league, but I still don’t want to watch those games on TV.
Then don’t. Why do you have to whine about it?
Haha, but that’s the whole point. We don’t watch WNBA or women’s pro surfing. That’s why they don’t deserve equal-everything or the best waves of a contest they’ve been shoe-horned into. Has nothing to do with sex or that they can surf better than some male schlub on a Wavestorm in HB. Same would be true if male gymnasts demanded the same pay and sponsorships as Simone Biles. Viewership doesn’t support it. Anyone simping against this reality are the ones who are whining, lol
Let’s be honest here chopes is dominated by Testosterone. Not to say the girls weren’t ripping out there. They had fun surf and some ladies have more testosterone than some men…. It’s more about hormones than sexism IMO. 😉
Why can’t we just surf for fun, skip the wall of positive noise in favor of a wall of Jimmy Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn and of course some Air Supply for the folks from Oz?
Anyone seen Courtney and Cristiano Ronaldo in the same room?
What about Pat?
Morita?
Pat from SNL….. male? female? Who the fuck knows….
Waiting 3 mins for your stupid fucking ads to load only to be repeatedly taken to the wrong comment thread every time is pretty god damn annoying boys. Hard to understand why BG seems to be the only place this happens.
Its intentional.
It happens when there is no one moderating .
Why would anyone intentionally piss off all their readers like that? Seems more related to $$ and clicks.
This site is just shit and they know it. How can you compare this to any other surf website. Even the worst Gossip mag is not as bad as this.
Inertia and stab are for soft cocks.
There is other sites other than Inertia and stab. Why are they for soft cocks? I don’t even read them.
Yeah you could hang on the surfer.com comments section i suppose.
U have to want it to coment. Just keep trying, they don’t have time to keep up the shenanigans. Or maybe they have the time just not the insanity to keep it up.
When I got my first job in tech I was told that ‘maintenance’ is the problem.
The site is shit and broken. I don’t think they care or know how to fix it. lol
After briefly (3 minutes) watching one heat yesterday I can say with full confidence that I could handle 5-7′ Chopoo. Might even go helmet free.
once in a lifetime wave, even for the one percenters/
I’m still amazed by Layne Beachley’s story about how she severed her spinal cord at Chopes and still won the competition! Edit: she told tracks magazine “ Five years later I had an MRI and it revealed 80% of my spinal cord had been severed by a disk herniation. So now I’m constantly in pain management because I didn’t give my body time to heal and recover.” That is pretty remarkable.
Remarkable line of bullshit, much like most of the crap that comes out of her mouth.
You believe her spine was severed 80% by a disc and only discovered it 5 yrs later in an MRI …..she is not bright and neither is anyone who listens to that crap
I find it hard to believe, but I’m no epidemiologist
Normally with 80% of the spinal cord severed you lose control of your bladder. I’m surprised see didn’t notice.
They do have a thing called the waiting period where the contest has to be completed in a set window. Assuming someone had to surf yesterday due to time constraints, would everyone preferred to see the men surf that crap, or was it wise to run a non-elimination round for the women? Lets just hope the swell pumps and the ladies get a chance to show their chops. More likely, though, is that it will simply support the fact that Teahupoo is too heavy for the women when its pumping.
More likely is that there will be 4-5 girls ready to charge and the rest will be lackluster as they got on tour surfing shit waves to begin with. But theres at least a few that can handle it out there at size.
They could of surfed big pipe but were too scared. Now whining for big chopes when it’s small. Be careful what you wish for unless you can back it up.
Yooo the commenters here never fail to spew the most rancid dogshit. Whatever you want to say about progress, the issue here is progression. Which takes time. Some clowns think it confirms their misogynist bullshit every time a woman underperforms under extreme pressure (like the pressure of representing their entire gender to a grotesque mass of chuds that will never meaningfully recognize their accomplishments). I’ve seen it in high pressure jobs I’ve worked too. It’s just an obstacle to progression and a self-fullfilling confirmation bias.
I don’t expect the shit-flinging goons to understand but sometimes you just gotta scream into the void.
Progression?
Here surf this little wave.
Year later surf this bigger wave.
Year later year later.
Well they are on the CHAMPION TOUR!!!
TOP LEVEL nowhere to progress To!!!
Now I can see the girls not doing well at pipe it is unique and with the crowds on it everyday it is hard to get a wave.
So im bad I just think the WORLDS BEST should be somewhat competent on the world’s best waves.
What r u talking about? This is beach grit. A place 2 rip on everyone anyone equally. Most guys want to see women charge. Its just a teas when they say we’re going for it and then back out. Like at pipe this year. I personally feel there should be a coed tour with the heaviest spots, surfers on call waiting to hop a flight wherever its the heaviest that month. If u qualify then u get paid to go. Gender sex nationality don’t matter. Winner takes all. Loosers figure it out.
Sorry Axel but its 2022 and there’s no way to run a ‘coed’ tour without inviting the chicks with dicks.
Do they rip too? I don give af if they have horns coming out of their back, as long as they shred, let em surf against whoever!
Self-fulfilling confirmation bias.. lol
Go burn your bra somewhere else, loser. Nothing here is serious, you’d know that if you stayed a bit longer.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Rumor has it our current VP got her big break in politics surfing ‘big pipe”.
It was really giving BJs to Willy Brown….
Maybe the Brazilian fairies can surf in the women’s to even the competition?
We’re doing a beach cleanup instead #honored #youcntscriptthis #wherehaselogone
Poor Pip, always the poster Boy. Lets not forget William Cardoso.
Watched the highlight reel before of the action today. Yikes! some rank tube riding styles
#coyoteugly
Ha! Thought the same, Poor Pip.
The Panda won Uluwatu in 2o18
Great day that was. But tiny Ulu’s