The immortality of sexism in surfing

This morning, I listened to the key, daily current affairs radio program on ABC National Radio, our national broadcaster. They usually close the show with a lighter story related to the arts, sport, or popular culture and this morning was no different as they interviewed Phil Jarratt about his new book, The Immortals of Australian Surfing. I’d not heard about this book, and it’s not a book I’d take interest in, but according to the promotion material: 

The Immortals of Australian Surfing celebrates our greatest ever board-riders. It takes the Immortals concept used elsewhere in sport and applies it to the surfing, choosing the best of the best from over 50 years of the local scene and the world tour.

Renowned surfing writer Phil Jarratt selects his top 12 riders then delves into the careers of the true greats. Legendary riders selected and profiled include pioneers Midget Farrelly, Nat Young and Layne Beachley; the world champs of the seventies and eighties such as Mark Richards; Tom Carroll and Pam Burridge; to modern era greats Mick Fanning and Stephanie Gilmore.

The book tells the remarkable stories behind each Immortal's rise to the top and the adversity faced through their careers.

I don’t know the full list of folk included, so I can’t comment on the other four not named in this blurb. But I do recall him talking about including Simon Anderson and Wayne Lynch, who, although they did not win numerous world titles have certainly made important contributions to how people surf. 

When asked about how he selected the 12 immortals, Jarratt discussed how much more difficult it was to choose 12 than 100, that he knew there would be much disagreement and potential insult about who was in and who was left out, and was careful to recognise that the terms immortal is not his (it is linked to a bigger project by the company stemming from a list of rugby league players) and that there can be no true definitive list because the criteria for what we might consider ‘immortal’ in surfing are so subjective and variable. 

Jarratt is not an unexpected choice for this kind of writing gig as he's had a really successful career in surf industry journalism and marketing. For these reasons, it is also no surprise that Jarratt appears to have focused his criteria for his choice of immortals on contributions to surfing performance, rather than the broader culture. I’m not critiquing that choice – it’s a legitimate one nad aligns with the series it's part of which is focused on sport – but I’m just reminding us that given the choice we would all likely set different criteria. Jarratt understands this and, rightly, doesn’t apologise for it.

There was nothing really new in the interview, which was light and focused on promoting the book and discussing the significance of surfing in Australia life and culture, but I knew there would have to be a point at which the question of the inclusion of women in the book came up. The usual names had been mentioned, Beachley and Burridge and Gilmore, and it was fantastic to hear their names included without it being a notable thing. 

Except for when Jarratt explained the publisher’s commitment to their being gender (binary) equity in the numbers of women and men included. That is, there were meant to be six women and six men. As I mentioned, this book is part of a series and there definitely doesn't seem to be the same commitment in the immortals lists for other sports such as rugby league, horse racing, and motor sports. It's really interesting that they made this request for surfing, but this is not how the list worked out. Instead, Jarratt negotiated that there would be four women and eight men, because, as Jarratt told the national audience of listeners, he explained to the publishers that “gender equity is a new concept in surfing”, so it wouldn’t be easy to include six women. 

[Pause for nostril flaring]

Gender equity is not a new concept in surfing. I accept that it’s new in terms of how it is being implemented across surf competitions, media representations, funding, sponsorship, etc, but conceptually it’s not new at all. There is so much evidence of how generations of women in Australia have been arguing for greater equity, inclusion and recognition in professional surfing, surf media and everyday lineups. Generations! I mean, Jarratt himself has written a fiction book that included a focus on Isabel Letham, an early White woman surfer who was riding waves in Australia the early 1900s. 

I accept that surfing is going through change, but gender equity isn’t a new concept in surfing, except perhaps to the cultural and industry gatekeepers who maintain their ignorance to women’s boardriding contributions in the waves and the culture. But moves to equity there have long been. 

In a subjective list like this one, and in a sport like surfing, there is no excuse for not including equal numbers of women and men, just as the publisher requested. The criteria used is entirely made up, is based on one man’s choices, and offers no prize money or benefits for the surfers named beyond a sense of recognition. There would have been no harm at all at creating a criteria for boardriding that enabled Jarratt to include six women. None. There would have only been benefits in expanding the ways that women’s contributions to surfing are increasingly recognised and included.

I genuinely appreciate Jarratt publicly recognising that change related to women’s inclusion and representation has been slow in surfing. He’s entirely right and it’s great to hear him say that on air. But it is equally disappointing to hear that the outcome of this recognition was him continuing to keep the bar so low for what women can expect when so many others have lifted the bar so high. 

In surf media, men still dominate senior editorial roles but they have been bringing in more and more women to contribute, to gain experience, to create and drive projects, and to set a path for a change in leadership in surf media. This shift is reflected in the much greater representation and celebration of women surfers (and writers and photographers and filmmakers) in surf media, which in turn paves the way for more sponsorship money and opportunities for women. And, slowly, surf competitions have been under increasing pressure to provide equal prize money – something you think should just be a legal obligation, but instead seems a sticking point truly difficult to undo.  

Where Jarratt sees a slow move to thinking about gender equity, I see action to an increasingly cumulative effect. 

These points about the list of immortals are sort of moot because, as Jarratt knows, this book won’t be a national bestseller, nor will it make any real noise across surfing beyond some possible initial reactions on online discussion forums or on click-bait surf websites. But in world where there has been so much momentum in gender (binary) equity in surfing, Jarratt’s decision to argue to include fewer women when he could have followed the publisher’s lead to have equal numbers really stand out as old, tired, and from another time.