Are Women Surfers at a Disadvantage?

 

The number of times I’ve been dropped in on by some dude just because I’m a woman and he doesn’t expect me to actually go on a big bomb….

….Is actually far less than the number of time a guy calls me into a big bomb that rightfully belongs to him just because he wants to see a woman get a good wave.

At times I feel that I am at a disadvantage in the water simply because there are a lot of people who surf better than me, men and women, who are able to take off deeper, and therefore get the wave before me. Unfortunately, there is no “intermediate users section” in surfing.

But there are some unique challenges I’ve faced that the men in the line up simply don’t have to deal with.

  • Swimwear. Its funny, but its not. There are times when I’m literally deciding between pulling my bottoms back up over my butt or taking that one extra paddle that will get me under the wave about to crash down on me.
  • Looking old. It kinda sucks. In general I think men age more gracefully than women. The sun and the salt water do so much damage to hair and skin. I do everything possible to mitigate the damage but it happens anyway, there is just no way around it. You can see photos of what I mean here.
  • Unsolicited advice giving. Sometimes I’m open to it and I appreciate the help. Other times it just pisses me off. Shut your mouth stupid dude, seriously would you say that to another man in the line up? I doubt it!

But there are two things that really stand out to me as being serious challenges unique to being female:

First, my emotions. It is often hard for me to refrain from crying. If I get frustrated with myself I start to feel hor tears building. Men tend to get angry, I tend to cry. Getting angry would be better because crying means I struggle to breath. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how long I sit in the channel and try to control my breath, once the tears start, they are hard to shut off. If I’m not breathing properly then I am in physical danger. I’ve learned I have to cut my session short.

And the second issues is probably the hardest for me to admit. The natural fluctuations in my hormone levels throughout the month means that some days I just don’t feel like surfing.

Surfing takes a certain amount of aggression, at least at the level I enjoy surfing. If I wake up feeling like I have no fight in me and paddle out anyway, I am not likely to get any waves. You have to hustle to get waves before other people. Not only that, but if conditions are challenging it can be dangerous to paddle out when you don’t feel aggressive.

These low energy days happen a lot, not just when I’m tired from too much surfing. It is an issue for all female athletes, not just surfers. But surfers have the unique challenge of playing in a field that could kill them of they are not up for the fight.

My hormones have been a mess since I was 12 years old. When I was taking birth control it helped a lot. But because of my genetic mutation BRCA1, I can no longer take hormones as they increase my risks substantially for breast cancer. That means I’m subject to huge energy swings.

That means I need to listen to my body more than most. And it sucks.

But I’m learning to embrace days where there is no fight in me. I actually makes me feel more feminine and girly. Slowly I’m learning to enjoy these periods, filling my time with being productive, cultivation relationships or getting cheap spa services in the developing world 🙂

I want to charge as hard as the boys, and I frequently do. But I also learning to appreciate being uniquely female.

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