It is not well known why, but there was no news of this practice again until the 1950s, when pioneers such as the famous Linda Benson, who at 11 years old got on a surfboard for the first time, or the admired Rell Sunn, they made history.
At that time, surfing was a sport mostly for men, who did not believe that a woman was capable of surfing big waves, of having the stamina to reach the peak or of maintaining balance in those big ones. wooden boards that were available at the time.
Fortunately there are more and more girls who want and can start surfing.
Here we can see the trailer of the documentary The Women and the Waves (Heather Hudson, 2009) in which we see how women were introduced to surfing:
Little by little, women were making their way and gaining position and respect, beginning to be more valued as athletes. But yes, after so much effort the world of competition and the big sponsors arrived for them, who seem to focus more on the good physique of the surfers than on the waves they catch or the tricks they they are capable of doing.
Why in surfing ads do they appear surfing and they appear posing?
Surfers are much more than an image in their underwear and, obviously, they often play their part in the water, just like them. So,does the surfing world turn out to be a sexist scenario?
It is clear that there is nothing wrong with athletes deciding to pose showing their bodies for the media they choose. What is surprising is that the sponsors themselves are the ones who show them like this instead of showing their sporting achievements.
Surfing is a world in which values and some unwritten rules of behavior, such as respect for nature, camaraderie, work or the effort to improve. They are values that, given this approach that we see on the internet, press and television, it seems that everything is much more superficial, that it only matters to have a pretty body and little else.
Let us remember the controversial advertisement for the promotion of the Women's Surfing Championship in Biarritz in 2013, in which we do not even see the face of the surfer Stephanie Gilmore:
So much so that the spot was even parodied, revealing how ridiculous it would be if the protagonist had been a man:
And it goes without saying the amount of the prizes in the major championships, where the amount of money is higher for the winners than for the winners, where there is a choice in the conditions for the heats of both...
It is clear that appearance is something that sells, but to what extent does it compensate for surfing to be made known to the masses thanks to this technique?
And you? What do you think about it?
