Pro surfing history to be made tomorrow as transgender woman competes in finals of World Surf League’s Manly Classic! “Trans-girls aren’t going to take over the world, we just want to be included, we’re humans too”

“I’ve been hiding in this male shell up… for 42 years. To still be made to be that guy that I’m not, it’s shattering,”

The T-Girl community is cock-a-hoop following the release of the heat draw for the WSL’s Manly Classic, a one-day longboard event that runs at the famous Australian beach tomorrow. 

In quarter final number four, numbers I guess are so low for the event competitors are gifted a guaranteed spot in the quarters just by turning up, we find the inspirational transgender surfer Sasha Jane Lowerson.

You’ll remember Lowerson, of course, the svelte forty five year old with terrific arms who transitioned into womanhood in 2020 shortly after winning the men’s longboard div as Ryan Egan. 

“Trans-girls aren’t going to take over the world, we just want to be included, we’re humans too,” Lowerson, who is the reigning Western Australian women’s longboard champ, said.“I’ve been hiding in this male shell up… for 42 years. To still be made to be that guy that I’m not, it’s shattering.”

@sashajanelowerson The journey of #genderaffirmingsurgery ♬ original sound – Sasha Jane Lowerson

The triumph was a sweet return for Lowerson who says she was close to killing herself and had even had a few swings at it.

Depressed as hell, Lowerson gave up surfing, shaping, but once she decided to transition and the female hormones kicked in, woke up one day in February, felt a little better, called up Surfing Australia and said,

“Umm, this is me, the last time I competed in your Australian titles I was third, what are you going to do? I was pretty frank about it. We can do this two ways. We can do it together and make it amazing or we can do it terribly and it’s a circus and you guys are the only ones who are going to  come out looking silly… I’d prefer to not go through that.” 

A feel-good story for the times.

Surfing’s reactionary core was laid bare, however, when Momentum Generation funnyman and Kelly Slater bandmate Peter King waded into the trans-athlete imbroglio saying,

“Stay out of women’s sports where you miraculously win after being an average performing man. Women’s sports is not a backup plan where you can’t win a trophy (And $) in the men’s division. Leagues like WSL and sponsors like Red Bull will you now stand up to this now instead of harming women’s sports?”

Kelly Slater added, “Make a trans division and we don’t have this confusion.”

The appearance of Lowerson is a thumb in the eye of one-armed surfer Bethany Hamilton who threatened to boycott WSL events so long as T-Girls were gifted the keys to competing among the bio-gals. 

And, you’ll remember, only one week ago Hamilton, the world’s most inspirational surfer it’s said, issued a chilling prophecy warning of Third World men “suppressing hormones” so they could get rich smashing girls in competition. 

Responding online to the question, “How many transgender athletes are joining the League?” Hamilton wrote,

“I don’t think that’s a fair place to start because you have to think long term and what things could look like in 20-50 years. For example, a young male from a poverty stricken country may decide to suppress his hormones in hopes to make money and get out of poverty.  When he may not succeed in the mens division but he may thrive with the women. Kinda an extreme example. But I find it strange seeing in others ports men who did not find the success they wanted and switch to the women’s and then did succeed.” 

Also in the quarterfinals is Lucy Small, who rocketed to fame a couple of years back when she gave organisers of a longboard contest hell from the stage for paying the women half as much as the men. The effect was seismic and mainstream media went into overdrive, for who, after all, doesn’t love a little patriarchy busting? Is there no crime greater or more deserving than a little public vengeance?

Lucy also appeared on BeachGrit’s now-defunct Dirty Water podcast where we all agreed that white men are the worst (I’m of a brown-ish hue, Charlie is yellowed from the booze) and talked admiringly about the wonderful Valerie Solanas and her Society for Cutting Up Men (SCUM)

Tune in tomoz!