Man enters “Women on Waves” surf contest in Santa Cruz sparking outrage

"It’s juvenile, immature, pathetic behavior."

The “Women on Waves” contest, a yearly Santa Cruz area bacchanal nearly two decades old, was the scene of much acrimony over the weekend after a cisgendered male surf instructor, Calder Nold, entered, and surfed, in the masters category. Liza Monroy, author and event finalist, described surfing against him on Saturday. “He wore the requisite jersey wrapped around his neck and was bare-chested and in board shorts,” she penned for Lookout Santa Cruz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning website.

Wanting to get to the bottom of why he was there, she asked. Nold responded a friend had “nominated him.” After further pushing, he offered, “This is an inclusive event for charity, right? I just want to support.”

But maybe more to the story?

Monroy later learned that Nold had entered the contest as a protest to the inclusion of trans women and at the behest of a local chiropractor named EmilyAnn Pillari who penned an opinion editorial wherein Monroy surmised “she admits she entered him as a provocation, to test the rules and make a point that as supportive and appreciative Nold is of women surfers, he can easily outpaddle even the strongest surfer. She says that wouldn’t change if he ‘thought he was a woman.’”

Surf Equity co-founder Sabrina Brennan, who usually trains her fire on women, momentarily shifted to describe Nold’s “stunt” as “mean-spirited, disrespectful, unkind, and selfish attempt at making a point.

Not finished, she continued, “I don’t care how nice and polite the cis guy was, he was there to make fun of them. It’s juvenile, immature, pathetic behavior. To engage in this behavior to be exclusionary is so targeted.”

The Women on Waves organizers stated, “We’re dealing with two issues. What EmilyAnn was trying to say about trans women and the women in the contest who were upset they had to surf with a man.”

Calder Nold also once saved a dying baby seal.

Monroy, anyhow, interviews the women in the contest as to their feelings about the matter all while addressing the larger trans issue, leaning very much toward inclusion and sensitivity.

David Lee Scales and I, as chance would have it, also discussed other overlooked trans issues during our now twice weekly get togethers. Helpful for potential sticky conversations at upcoming Thanksgiving Day feasts.

My gift to you.