"Rip Curl could not have made their contempt for women clearer."
Yesterday’s story about Rip Curl and its celebration of the wildly inspirational and aspirational Sasha Jane Lowerson quickly exploded into Bud Light-esque flames after anti-trans-women-in-sport activist Riley Gaines slammed Rip Curl as “crazzzyyyy”.
“You mean to tell me that Rip Curl dropped Bethany Hamilton for opposing men surfing in the women’s league then picked up male surfer who surfs in the women’s league as a women’s ambassador?”
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Rip Curl joined two other Australian swimsuit brands in a pivot to the queer market describing their ambassador as, “West Australian waterwoman who loves the freedom found in surfing, disconnecting from the mainstream, and the feeling of dancing on constantly changing waves… It’s a state of mind, always being ready to try something new, curious to seek out knowledge and learn the rules – and break them.”
Comments were quickly disabled on the post (although it was liked almost two thousand times) following calls from surf fans to boycott Rip Curl, which was bought by camping giant Kathmandu for 350 mill four years ago.
A small sample of the 2200 replies to Riley Gaines’ post on X.
6 months from now: Rip Curl announces that it is laying off half of its staff..
How are the advertising team not getting fired for this , how many companies have been damaged and they still use the larping blokes in their campaigns. I thought they had to know trends , not watching hard enough
They could not have made their contempt for women clearer.
Now, the pro skateboarder Taylor Silverman has joined the chorus calling for a boycott of Rip Curl.
Silverman hit the headlines when she lost a skateboarding contest to a transgender woman. She argued that allowing transgender women to compete against biological females in sports is unfair due to potential physical advantages. Silverman’s stance has been met with both support and opposition, with some people applauding her for standing up for women’s rights and others criticizing her for being transphobic.
Taylor Silverman was unsparing in her criticism writing,
“According to Rip Curl this man is a ‘waterwoman’…reality is he’s just a mentally ill man making a complete mockery of actual women and “The “community” is so supportive that Rip Curl had to disable the comments!”
According to @ripcurl this man is a “waterwoman”…reality is he’s just a mentally ill man making a complete mockery of actual women. pic.twitter.com/XeCSeLKyPF
— Taylor Silverman (@tmsilverman) January 26, 2024
All pretty interesting from a biz point of view.
Rip Curl knows, or it should, that it’s going to piss off a significant percentage of your market but you do it anyway because, and I’m guessing the logic here, the wrong of not including trans gals, is greater than any fiscal loss down the track.
The question is, I suppose, how much is Kathmandu willing to lose to push the trans agenda?
And do you think that same agenda would be getting pushed if the company was still owned by Doug Warbrick and Brian Singer and Neil Ridgeway was at the tiller?
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Lex I totally get it. I never meant any harm. I will delete the comment and use this as a learning experience. I will do better as a human being.
I hope you get some waves whereever you are, it was sure fun in San Diego today. Again, my apologies. I shared this experience with my wife and son, they agreed I need to do better.
Roger that, I guess I won’t make jokes on the internet. Sorry if I offended you. I have a friend who is they/them. They have a sense of humor about it. Take care. (I am older, so maybe that’s why I don’t get it, to be honest) On a side note, I wouldn’t end up in the ER. I’d just have my wife stitch me up at home.
Lex, it was a joke. I am not attracted to the trans-guy. Just trying to be funny here. My wife laughed, she has a great sense of humor. It is the Beach Grit comments section, not a place of high moral ground.
ridiculous how rip curl thinks this won’t turn into another bud light fiasco
This Sasha bloke is going to set hearts all a flutter when competing at the Backdoor Shootout.
I’d rather look at Sasha than Beth’s arm and that’s not being phobic of anything except maybe weird vaginas
The full frontal of the Sasha one is brutal. More lines on the face than Jack Elam in drag. Bigger teeth than a great white and about the same physique.
Like someone that got arrested giving head in a car on that old reality show Cops
Imagine being a gay, les, bi trans,queer 14 year old?
What a smorgasbord of emotional delights that would be. I really missed out.
DR to be hired by Rip Curl for fa’afafine recruitment
To be clear- Riley Gaines is NOT an “anti-trans-women-in-sport activist”. She is anti trans-women in WOMEN’S sport.
If “Sasha”, who was born male and remains male, wanted to compete in male sport with other males, well, nobody would have a problem with that. But no. “Sasha” just wants to trample all over women instead. And we’re supposed to just rollover and say congrats, otherwise we’re bigots?
No, dude. Just no.
R.I.P. Curl
The own goal of the century
If I were a female LGBTQ 14 year old I would be perplexed at Bethany getting binned off and replaced by a bloke wearing a dress and would be more than outraged that a male was appropriating my space. How would you imagine it would feel?
Ive been boycotting surfbrands for years. I only buy clothes from kmart.
Does this signal a return of Trans-World Surf?
Maybe I’ve been out of my home loop for a bit, but as someone who’s met and skated with Taylor I’d be hard fucking pressed to call her a pro. She’s a good skater and all but I reckon she gets paid more to appear on Fox News than she’s ever gotten from a sponsor
I guess very few can imagine the hardship and hopelesness felt by real trans people (the OGs willing to go thru surgery etc…). In solidarity to their pain i would say this is the best sponsorship deal ever.
“Contempt for women” hit the nail on the head. The company doesn’t make much of its revenue from women, so as long as a marketing scheme only harms women the potential gain outweighs the potential loss.
Unless the men make a stand ( pun intended ) and boycott Rip Curl out of Respect for Women
people jest but itll be your kids who are indoctrinated into the cult before you know it.
What would Karen say ?
eat a dick?
although I love the gay trans spankfest thing.
I was thinking about the mananalu thing and thought of how Jason got into canned water biz.
Cali Dude: Yo man, you know this plastic shit is like shit and like you know there’s like a giant plastic island floating around in the Pacific and like your like Aquaman yo, and like what, like use like..check this beer can, yo…it ain’t plastic so like yo, it’s like better yo? this beer taste good, yo. like water. yo.
a potential conversation between J. Mo and investors:
JMo: you dogs I got an idea.
INV: yo JMo we love your ideas, like your like a major star.
JMo: yeah like I AM A STAR dumbasses. I’m thinking bottled water….I want to make a bottled water company.
INV: yeah, ah, yeah like, you know we love you JMo and your last film kicked ass, and you’re like really smart, like super smart…and a star, but there’s already hundreds of bottled water company’s.
JMo: yeah, I ain’t done talking bitch, you want me to punch you?
INV: no JMo we love you, you’re so smart.
JMo: You know like how other companies do like plastic containers? Like shit man, like that fucks up the planet? Do you know about that plastic island?
INV: Yeah
JMo: so like here’s the pitch, you ready? (investors nodding), we bottle our water in aluminum cans…and save the planet!
INV: YEAH JMO, YEAH! Fuck Yeah. Can that shit! Did you work out today?
JMo: fuck yeah. check the gun show goin’ on over here.
Intern: ah Mr. MO, do you know that you first have to mine Bauxite to create alumina, requiring destruction of the land and thousands of hours of heavy equipment operation and tons of fuel and electricity?
JMo: yeah but I’m saving the planet!
Intern: But Mr. Mo, you do realize that the extraction of alumina from bauxite creates red mud pollution, toxic waste and the impurities or red mud left behind in the alumina production process is a major environmental concern. In fact, for every tonne of alumina, refineries produce 1.2 tonnes of red mud, and there are over three billion tonnes of it stored in the world today?
JMo: yeah…..but I’m saving the planet!
Intern: and you you know that Alumina is converted into aluminum through electrolytic reduction. Besides alumina itself, another mineral called cryolite is key to the process, along with loads of electricity?
JMo: yeah?….BUT I’M SAVING THE PLANET!!! who the hell is this bitch.? Shut the fuck up. I’M SAVING THE PLANT!!!.
I get my water from Cali, Montana and Nebraska, bro….and ship it to North Carolina, so we can bottle it in aluminum cans that come from like China and shit, and bro we have like a Hawaiian name for it which makes it sound really cool. because LIKE IT”S HAWAIIAN, LIKE ME!
GUYS?
INV: yeah Jason. you rule. you’re like a celebrity and shit so you’re like smart and…
JMo: shut the fuck up. I’M SAVING THE PLANET….and that’s fucking huge publicity!