Before Female Surfers Were Sex Symbols, They Were Trailblazers

The past few years have been a really perplexing duration for a women’s roller industry. On several occasions, a media and a brands compared with a competition have been criticized for oversexualizing womanlike surfersundermining their talent

For a primary instance of this problem, demeanour no serve than 2013, when pro surfer and indication Anastasia Ashley rode one of her biggest waves yetHot Surfer Chick Catches Huge Wave, Famous Butt Unscathed

But a waves could be changing.

The newly revamped World Surf LeagueIt creates me feel like they trust in us

While many are carefree that a WSL’s new manners will change a tinge of women’s surfing, active purpose models among womanlike athletes can also change perspectives, surfer Darcy Roland says.

“When women and girls have purpose models to code with

In respect of Women’s History Month, we demeanour behind during a pioneers of women’s surfing — a strange purpose models. These women who surfed in a ’50s and ’60s didn’t have to understanding with a vigour of billion dollar brands and sensationalist media, though they did have to face male-dominated lineups and firm stereotypes about a roles of women.

“It was formidable [for these women] to be surfers when they were approaching to have a family and make a happy home,” Cori Schumacherworld champion surferHistory of Women’s Surfing Project

Below, accommodate a moving women of a ’50s, ’60s and ’70s; a women who initial grabbed a house and afterwards done waves:

Linda Benson: The First Woman To Surf Waimea Bay

Linda Benson

She grabbed a house from the shortest guy

“I don’t remember fear,” Benson told The Huffington Post. “I usually wanted to do what a guys did. we didn’t consider twice about it.”

Benson competed for 10 years, winning over 20 initial place titlesfeatured on a cover of a roller magazine

Joyce Hoffman: The First To Train Like A Serious Athlete

Surf historians note that surfing in a 1960s was counterculture and, as a result, many surfers weren’t many some-more than free-spirited beach bums.

Joyce Hoffman altered all that. She creatively aspired to be an Olympian, so she was one of a initial surfers to sight like an athlete, according to Schumacher. “When surfers were in a stone and hurl and drugs phase, she was a initial to have an opinion of, ‘I wish to take this competition seriously.’ … She was approach forward of her time in that regard,” Schumacher told HuffPost.

Even her possess father found her opinion surprising for a surfer lady in in a midst ’60s. “My daughter’s genuine weird

Hoffman’s training paid off. She dominated scarcely each roller competitionLos Angeles Times’ “Person of a Year.”

Marge Calhoun: The First Woman To Judge Contests

Marge Calhounsurprised her with a code new surfboardtraining for a 1940 Olympic Games

After usually a few years of surfing, a 32-year-old Calhoun jetted off to Hawaii for a monthlong roller outing with a girlfriend. She casually entered into a Makaha International Surf Contest and won

Calhoun upheld her adore of surfing onto her dual daughters and together, a 3 women became one of America’s many distinguished surfing families in a ’60sco-founded a United States Surfing Association in 1961 and became a organization’s initial lady to decider women’s contests

Rell Sunn: The First Woman To Surf With Aloha

Rell Kapolioka’ehukai Sunn began surfing during a age of 4the Hawaiian suggestion of compassion, beauty and charityworld’s biggest womanlike longboarder14-year onslaught with breast cancerfounded a annual Menehune Contest —

“She was one of a many outspoken and many manifest Hawaiian females from [the 70s and 80s],” Shumacher told HuffPost. “Juxtaposed with this hyper-competitive, male-dominated change that surfing was going through, was this figure of Rell Sunn who was still occupying a place of aloha [and presented] surfing as a present rather than as a greedy endeavor.”

She was a champion longboarder who competed in men’s competitions in Hawaii before a women’s difficulty was establishedHawaii’s initial womanlike lifeguards

Thanks to these trailblazers, there are some-more women shredding waves currently than ever before, and increasingly, “Female surfers everywhere are creation it transparent that [the hypersexualized] classify is passed in a water

We usually wish that a roller brands and a media are listening.

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/11/women-surfers-sex-symbols-trailblazers_n_6681594.html?utm_hp_ref=los-angeles&ir=Los+Angeles