Sexism in the surfing world: a mixed report

Alisa Schwarzstein, a pioneer in woman’s pro surfing and member of Surfing Walk of Fame, surfs during a recent session in Laguna. “Now it’s considered cool.” While surfing has long been considered a male-dominated sport, women are now seeing more equality on the waves, from greater rates of women’s participation to the World Surf League committing to parity in prize money between the sexes. For a long time, women were laughed at as, ‘Get the chicks out of here, they’re cluttering up the lineup.’” But in the 1990s the sport began to change with the rising popularity of professional women surfers like Lisa Anderson, and the introduction of women’s surf wear companies, particularly Roxy, the sister brand of the Huntington Beach-based company Quiksilver. Even as Cendro herself represents more women’s participation in the sport—in 1987 the team had just three girls on the team; today there are 25, her coach, Andrew Verdone, said—she “I’ve noticed even through the seven years I’ve been surfing that there are more girls, even young girls in elementary school who are going out with their brothers and dads,” she said. “If someone disrespects women, I’ve seen guys step right up and defend them, saying, ‘You almost hurt her,’” he said.