Thoughts on Female Surfing in Portugal
One night, about a month ago, I had so many thoughts in my head about the position of female surfers here in Portugal based on my experience in Ericeira. I wrote down everything that I was feeling and thinking about the topic. I want to share those words. You don’t have to agree, this is purely my opinions - food for thought:
Being in Ericeira makes me feel like the surf industry has regressed. Or at least that the sexism I thought had diminished is still very much alive. Don’t get me wrong, when I’m surfing around or working in the surf schools and lessons, most of the beginners are women and girls: more female surfers is a good thing! But how many of these females are going to continue surfing after they have left Ericeira? Who will grow their skills and fight for their place in the water? Because as soon as the waves get a few feet bigger here, the lineup is just men. I am so disheartened when I paddle out on a good day and all I see around me are guys. And the male energy is so apparent, so tangible; it’s intimidating. I don’t feel safe in a line-up and end up letting the men have the good waves because I’m scared…of them.
My friend Freja and I went to Pedra Branca to surf and Backdoor was firing (on a day when there really wasn’t much swell). We decided not to go for that break because we were “scared of the localism and any aggression they might show towards ‘tourists’”. Later, when I thought back on the decision we made, I realised, it wasn’t the locals I was afraid of, but of the men. Because when I imagined who was sitting in that lineup, all I saw was male faces.
Furthermore, I see, far too often groups turning up to the beaches in Ericeira, carrying boards and wetsuits, ready to surf. But it’s not the women who enter the water, only the guys. I see the women sit on the beach, watching the men from their towels. “Why don’t you surf as well?”, I want to scream at them. I feel as if these women have relegated themselves to sit in the sand. Is that what surf culture has taught them to do?
I’m glad to have my friends around me in the water, my girlfriends, when I do surf. I feel no pressure to impress others or prove myself, I can simply enjoy my time in the water and on the waves. I would like to see a day when lineups have more women than men, not just on the small days.
Guys do not have the need to band together and create surf support groups. I have never heard of an ‘ocean brothers’ project, but I have seen many ‘ocean sisters’ and ‘salty sea sisters’ and ‘ocean wahines’ projects. That says a lot, no? That for women to even just feel supported and safe in the water, we have to know that there is a whole community behind us to face the sexism of surfing. Male surfers do not face the same problems. I thought the surfing culture and industry had come further than this.