ATwo years ago, when asked about progress in gender equality in surfing, Australian player Tyler Wright told the New York Times, “It takes a lot of little, tiny, tiny things to really make progress. change”. But sometimes, these incremental steps culminate in a decisive moment. In the words of Ernest Hemingway, change can happen gradually and then suddenly.
This week, women’s surfing’s moment arrives. Tahiti’s Teahupo’o is known as one of the most fearsome waves in the world, and the best female surfers put on a show as they whip up 8- to 10-foot waves. “Teahupo’o is for women after all,” exclaimed event winner Vahine Fierro after one of the most exciting days of competitive surfing in the history of the sport.
In recent years, the World Surf League (WSL) has committed to gender equality and shed its reputation as a sexist sport. In 2018, the governing body announced that prize money would be the same for every tournament controlled by the WSL. In 2022, the sport moves to a fully integrated World Tour, meaning men and women compete in the same venue, in the same competition window, in every event (previously there were some combined events and some different events).
The shift is most evident in impact waves – hard waves on shallow reefs – which have long hosted men’s surfing competitions while women’s surfing competitions have been held elsewhere. The lack of competition opportunities on such waves means that the best female surfers train less frequently on these waves and have fewer opportunities to showcase their surfing skills.
A fatal shark attack changes that. Previously, during the WSL Hawaii leg, the men surfed Pipeline – considered one of the most notorious waves along with Teahupo’o – while the women surfed Maui. But a shark attack on the women’s playing field at the start of the 2020-21 season meant they were unable to complete the wave. Australian Jessi Miley-Dyer, WSL competition director, proposed another option: Women players could finish in Pipeline competitions.
After a meeting with the surfers, the group decided to go ahead with the conversion. “We’re going to look back on this event because it changed the trajectory of the sport,” Dale later reflected. “We all walked away from that meeting knowing this was going to change women’s surfing forever.”
If the move to Pipeline was a landmark moment on the road to gender equality in surfing, Thursday’s fireworks display in Tahiti marked the next. Teahupo’o is pretty much the mecca of world surfing, the “End of the Road,” an iconic, terrifying wave. Tahiti has hosted WSL matches for decades, and women have often participated in the tournament in the past.
But the decision was reportedly made to discontinue Teahupo’o’s women’s event in 2006 due to concerns about serious injury. “It’s a pretty sexist decision,” Australian surfer and three-time Tahiti pro champion Melanie Redman-Carr said at the time. “If men can go there, why can’t we?”
Almost two decades later, in 2022, the women are finally back. On Thursday, in a world-class bucket, they proved they were more than worthy of being there. Fierro is the local wild card and looks in sync with the sea all day long. Costa Rica’s Brisa Hennessy has displayed skills that have earned her a deserved return to the top spot in the world.
Excellent surfing reached its peak in the second semi-final, when Fierro faced Brazilian Tatiana Weston-Webb. The locals effortlessly pulled it into bucket after bucket and soon collected eight out of ten. With her back against the wall and just five minutes left in the heat, Weston-Webb took off late, dug into a thick slab of rock, disappeared in a spray of water, and miraculously reappeared with her arms aloft. All five judges gave it a perfect 10, pushing Weston-Webb into the lead.
But even perfect efforts are not enough. Fierro responded with less than a minute left, scoring 9.63 points to advance to the finals, which he ultimately won. The semifinals were quickly dubbed one of the best in women’s surfing history. This also provides vindication to those who have always maintained that women belong to Teahupo’o.
Fierro acknowledged Miley Dale’s role in pushing the sport forward. “Thank you Jesse for trusting these women because we have what it takes,” she said. It’s probably no coincidence that former pro surfer Miley Dyer competed in Teahupo’o in 2006, before women’s surfing was suspended.
Of course, there is more progress to be made. Despite the same prize money and the same schedule, the women’s WSL has significantly fewer players than the men’s – after the mid-season suspension, there were only 10 players left in the women’s tour compared to 22 for the men. Business opportunities still abound for male surfers. While the WSL is no longer so blatantly prioritizing good conditions for the men’s game over the women’s, the timing and order of preliminaries still sometimes raises questions.
After decades of underinvestment and limited opportunities for women in surfing, true equality in the sport won’t happen overnight. But Thursday’s action remains an important moment. After a raft of “tiny, tiny, tiny shifts” in recent years as elite female surfers fearlessly tackle one of the world’s most challenging waves, progress toward gender equality suddenly becomes concrete change.
Progress came gradually and then suddenly on Thursday. In less than two months, the surfing world will return to Tehubao for the Olympics, with more to come.
