Courtney Conlogue, Paige Alms, and Leah Dawson Discuss Making Positive Change in Women’s Surfing and Beyond
We read this article on Surfer Magazine and had to share. So interesting to see three ladysliders who we look up to discuss topics important to us and our cause.
The sun had just set outside Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore of Oahu, where I met an eclectic trio of world-class surfers — World Tour competitor Courtney Conlogue, Maui charger Paige Alms, and longboarding style-master/filmmaker Leah Dawson. The conversation jumped between seemingly disparate topics, like Conlogue’s recent competitive performance on Tour, the monstrous tube Alms nabbed at Jaws in 2015, and Dawson’s unhinged approach to riding single-fins. But eventually the discussion turned to the complex topic of what it means to be a female surfer today. And while their voices are uniquely tuned by the different paths they’ve each taken, together they speak volumes about what women’s surfing has become: A community of diverse characters that is more powerful than the sum of its parts.
In what ways do you feel that women’s surfing has improved over the past decade?
LD: It’s an interesting time. I think women’s surfing really blew up after the movie Blue Crush came out just over a decade ago, but in a sense we lost our community identity when that happened. It seemed that way until your generation came along, Courtney. That’s when we started seeing competitive surfers that were elegant, powerful, really technically sound, and could keep up with anyone in the lineup. I don’t think that was happening 20, or even 10, years ago.
CC: I’ve been on Tour for five years now, and even the transition within that time has been insane to watch. Today, when I go out for a heat, it’s game on. As soon as you drop your guard, you’re done. I think all the women have drastically improved. The equipment is getting better, the performances are getting better, and the locations are a lot better with Fiji and Honolua Bay back on the calendar. When the WSL came along, they really supported us in a positive way, especially with increasing the prize purses to be more equal with the men’s.
PA: I think the Tour stepping up with the prize money and the event locations are key. I stopped doing the ’QS when I was 20 or 21, when those good spots were taken off the schedule. I was over it. It wasn’t worth it to me to be on Tour if those prime locations that I dreamt about as a kid were suddenly out of reach. And to not have Honolua Bay as the final stop? That’s just…
CC: Anticlimactic?
PA: Yeah! Exactly!
CC: Tahiti was taken off the schedule too. I was feeling the same way my first year on Tour; I never had a groveler board until that point. You have to put us in good waves to allow us to show the level we can perform at.
PA: The men’s contests are held at different locations, and at the end of the year, the world champ [title] is deserved because they’ve surfed well in all types of conditions. To allow the women to finally do that again is awesome.
LD: Paige, I was just talking to someone yesterday about how you’ve had the same smooth, drawn-out style since you were like 14. And you’ve continued to maintain and translate that style into big-wave surfing. It’s absolutely remarkable that you can stay so composed in such a heavy situation. You look graceful. I can look at footage, and just from your style I can say, “That’s a woman riding that wave. She’s charging, yet still surfing with so much grace.” Everything you’ve accomplished in the last 10 years is a testament to what women are really capable of in the water.
Paige, do you feel like there are more women in big-wave lineups today than there were a few years ago?
PA: For sure, but I think it’s still a really small community. It’s funny, I get asked a lot about who I think would be good big-wave surfers if they decided to go for it, and both Courtney and Leah have been on my list.
LD: [Laughs.] Oh no! I’ll film you any day, though.
CC: Actually, I will surf big waves at some point in my life, but I’m definitely not there yet. I haven’t done your training yet. I need to be able to do six-minute breath holds; I’m only at two minutes.
PA: That’s still pretty good. But yeah, I’d say there are a few more women who surf big waves than there were in the past, and they’re more talented, calculated, and well-rounded. Not to say anything negative about the previous generation, but 10 years ago there were a lot less women like that.
Do you think there will ever be a big-wave tour for women?
PA: I do. But I don’t really think the way to progress the sport of big-wave surfing is through the competitive aspect. The Pe’ahi Challenge was amazing, and I definitely would’ve loved to have been part of a women’s heat that day. I would never say no if a women’s big-wave tour came about, but I just think it’s more important to have a deeper connection with Mother Nature. Putting a time limit on something like that changes everything. In a contest, you might have one hour to perform. Sometimes Shane [Dorian] and Greg [Long] sit out the back for four or five hours during sessions and don’t catch anything, and they’re the best in the world. When you put a time constraint on heats and you have a contest window, I don’t really know if crowning someone as a world champ really proves they’re the best big-wave surfer in the world.
CC: I kind of agree with that. Of the few times that I have dabbled with bigger waves, I’ve sat out there and waited for the one that felt right for me. Trying to catch two waves in that little time sometimes forces you to go for waves that you wouldn’t normally go for. And that’s when risk comes into play and you might take a crazy pounding.
LD: Yeah, and I think there’s a bit more risk for women than there is for men. We’re more fragile. Our physical makeup is different. So forcing women to go on waves that we intuitively feel is not the best thing for us is probably not a good idea. Women are more in tune with gut instinct—our intuition—and we follow that. Listening to your gut, I’ve found, is so important to staying safe and not getting injured.
PA: I agree.
LD: And you don’t go on waves that you don’t want to go on, right?
PA: Absolutely.
Women are undoubtedly surfing better than ever, but do you still think there’s a performance gap between men and women that we need to overcome?
PA: Men and women are different, and we choose the way we want to surf and how we want to portray ourselves on a wave. I just think, “Does it really matter that we choose to surf differently than men?”
CC: No, it’s surfing. It’s an art form and an expression. Even though I’m competitive, I don’t focus on getting the score when I’m riding a wave. I just surf the wave the way I think that it should be surfed. The next person might see the same wave differently and draw different lines. If I want to huck a big air, I’ll learn how to huck a big air, but that’s not what I want to do at this point in my surfing. I’m working on my foundations, on what I want to work on, on what I want to display, competitively and artistically.
LD: And you’re doing a very good job at it.
CC: Thank you! But I wouldn’t claim “she’s a better surfer” or “he’s a better surfer.” We’re just different athletes drawing different lines out in the lineup. Why compare? We should just appreciate.
Do you feel like there’s a more equal playing field than in the past in terms of sponsorship opportunities?
CC: For women, there’s a huge market that hasn’t been tapped yet. I think the next step to enhancing sponsorship will be approaching non-endemic brands, going outside the surf industry and showing other people how amazing surfing is.
PA: Yeah, as far as sponsorship goes in the big-wave world, I really think we can tap brands outside the industry because you don’t have to be a surfer to relate to it. If you walked into Sports Authority and saw an ad of someone on a huge wave, even if you’d never surfed before, you’d still be drawn to that. But if you see an ad of someone doing a cutback, unless you know the technical skill it takes to do that, standard maneuvers can be really hard for non-surfers to relate to. I think it’s going to take those outsider companies to support the women’s side of big-wave surfing and show these women as amazing athletes. Right now, within our tiny big-wave community, I think there are only one or two women who are making money from surfing. I’m fortunate enough to have a little help from my sponsors, but getting to this spot was 10 years in the making.
LD: And you’re at the top of your sport. I was a competitive longboarder for a while, but now I ride all kinds of boards and I’ve realized that there’s really no space in the surf industry for women like myself. There’s not much help. I could only name a handful of women in the world who are lifestyle surfers.
PA: And that’s crazy. There are a lot of sponsored male freesurfers who never have to do a contest, so why isn’t there more backing for people like you who are extremely talented surfers?
LD: Well, I think it will breed a lot of opportunity when people realize that there are a lot of women around the world that will never put on a contest jersey, but they will still fall in love with the lifestyle of surfing, and being able to connect with those women is a really valuable thing. We really need to get our community together, because in many ways we haven’t had our own voice. Like, there haven’t been many women’s surf films, either.
CC: It’d be great to see more films put out by women that push the level of performance, cinematically and surfing wise. I think that’s one avenue that women haven’t really taken yet.
LD: Yeah, there hasn’t been much light shined on women’s surfing in film, but that’s what’s so exciting about it.
CC: There’s so much opportunity.
PA: I want you guys to see my movie. It turned out great. [Laughs.] I think it’s a good voice for women’s surfing. [Alms recently finished working on a full-length profile movie, The Wave I Ride.—Ed.]
LD: I’m so excited to see it.
Do you think a time will ever come when we won’t need to have these kinds of conversations? Do you see a future when women’s surfing will have equal footing in our culture?
PA: I sure hope so. The fact that this is still an issue in 2016 is discouraging. I feel like the time is now to gain equality, but there haven’t been enough substantial changes within the surf industry in order for that to happen. Things are improving, no doubt, but the industry as a whole needs to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Women are much more than just their looks, and they should be celebrated equally, like the men, for their accomplishments as athletes. When the industry takes action to make that happen, then there will be equal footing. It has to come from everyone, not just the women.
LD: I think the conversation about the state of women’s surfing is changing and we’re already feeling it. What I see the conversation shifting to in the future is how can we, as surfers, regardless of sex, be more of change-makers? Just as an example, the environment is facing so many problems today, and we have this connection to it through the ocean. What can we do together as surfers to help? That’s where I want the conversation to shift.
CC: With surfing, I feel like we have a huge platform to talk about the things that we feel are important, whatever they happen to be. People ask me about sexism and judging between male and female, and I always think, “Shouldn’t we be past that now?” It would be nice if we could utilize our voice to talk about other things that are also really important. We need to move beyond all this gender stuff, and I think we will be able to do that soon.
Story by Ashtyn Douglas via Surfer Mag