RealSurf Surfers' Forum

Saw on Swellnet that Gee from Chix surf school copped it in the comments section from a few keyboard warriors. Legend lady but doubt a male surf coach would get the same.

Leej - I've been in the water at the same time as Layne heaps of times.Really friendly, encouraging heaps of people. Rate her pretty highly compared to most of the other ex-pro's in the water.

channels wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 18, 2018 2:23 pm

Saw on Swellnet that Gee from Chix surf school copped it in the comments section from a few keyboard warriors. Legend lady but doubt a male surf coach would get the same.

To be fair, Gee copped it, not about being a woman, but for crowding the surf, which is the standard criticism of surf schools. I'd say she drew roughly the same level of criticism then if she were a guy. As editor I've seen plenty of it on Swellnet.

I know Bec Olive very well, and while she obviously doesn't want women being oppressed, she equally doesn't want preferential treatment. I reckon the banter with Gee was bang on and she thought so too.

...and just for what it's worth, I was brought up at Cronulla and now live at Thirroul, two hardcore blue-collar surf towns, yet I've never seen a woman cop a hard time in the surf.

My experience means nothing though, from speaking to Bec a large percentage of the wrong-headed behaviour happens when it's one-on-one and not when there's a crowd around.

...

2nd Reef wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 18, 2018 3:27 pm

channels wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 18, 2018 2:23 pm

Saw on Swellnet that Gee from Chix surf school copped it in the comments section from a few keyboard warriors. Legend lady but doubt a male surf coach would get the same.

To be fair, Gee copped it, not about being a woman, but for crowding the surf, which is the standard criticism of surf schools. I'd say she drew roughly the same level of criticism then if she were a guy. As editor I've seen plenty of it on Swellnet.

I know Bec Olive very well, and while she obviously doesn't want women being oppressed, she equally doesn't want preferential treatment. I reckon the banter with Gee was bang on and she thought so too.

Fair call 2R, i just mused quietly and wondered whether Matt Grainger or any other coach would cop the same comments.

While your here, any chance of a surf cam at Lennox?

Legion wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 18, 2018 3:34 pm

channels did she start every sentence with "when I won 7 world titles ..."

Every time I've seen her in the media she immediately diverts attention from the actual topic to focus on her.

Different strokes for different folks.

If part of my income related to having a public profile, i reckon i would talk up my achievements at every opportunity.

channels wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 18, 2018 3:36 pm

2nd Reef wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 18, 2018 3:27 pm

channels wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 18, 2018 2:23 pm

Saw on Swellnet that Gee from Chix surf school copped it in the comments section from a few keyboard warriors. Legend lady but doubt a male surf coach would get the same.

To be fair, Gee copped it, not about being a woman, but for crowding the surf, which is the standard criticism of surf schools. I'd say she drew roughly the same level of criticism then if she were a guy. As editor I've seen plenty of it on Swellnet.

I know Bec Olive very well, and while she obviously doesn't want women being oppressed, she equally doesn't want preferential treatment. I reckon the banter with Gee was bang on and she thought so too.

Fair call 2R, i just mused quietly and wondered whether Matt Grainger or any other coach would cop the same comments.

While your here, any chance of a surf cam at Lennox?

Yeah, I was wary of the reaction, would it be on point or coloured by gender? Had to assess it through that lens but I think it was fair.

The surf camera at Lennox? Shame we pulled it before Carcass went Johnny Boy on Jodie.

steve shearer wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 17, 2018 11:05 pm

Wow, 40 years of surfing and I've never seen or witnessed anything like the incidents detailed above.


Are they isolated incidents or is this evidence of something more widespread?

The increase in women surfing has been one of the main features of the surf culture over the last decade.

I see way less aggression in the surf compared to when I started.

Same. I grew up surfing Bells and its environs in the 80’s. Way more aggression back in those days. I saw blokes getting their heads held under water, punches thrown and boards destroyed. I’ve seen bugger all on the NB’s.

I surf with Mrs. BA all the time. In 10 years, we’ve had maybe two incidents that I can recall. One at DY when I guy went straight at her and sprayed her right up close. Then paddled back past her really aggressively and just stared at her as he went past. When he saw her paddle over to me and start talking, he paddled further up the beach.

One at D’bah (as you would expect). Guy just kept dropping in on her. Huffing and puffing as he’d paddle back past her. We ended up paddling to a different peak. I took her out to small Snapper on the same trip and there were some older blokes out there on mals and they were calling her onto waves.

What kind of weak cnut do you have to be to intimidate a chick in the surf.

I'm surrounded by women who surf.

My daughter surfs, my wife surfs, her friends surf.

I took their temp over any abuse and didn't get a single response: plenty of low level chauvinism and mansplaining, occasionally sleaziness/leering, but none of the vicious abuse outlined in Nicks story.

I passed Nicks story on: terrible stories, not my experience was the common theme.



Nick, are you there> just wondering on the methodology of your reporting. Did you put out a call asking for women to tell stories of abuse? In which case the sample size is a 100% and it might be quite isolated.....or are these a random selection of women, in which case it might be the tip of a much more disturbing phenomena.

Steve, have you ever masturbated to the memory of a woman you have seen surfing?

fcuk Loof, can't you show some class for once in your life?

Well One of the locals at our beach ended up being OZ Champ back in the seventies. The fact she had two brothers who were high in the social pecking order made it easier I think.
Steph Gilmore had her dad to look after her when she started out. I remember him saying some of the guys at Lennox gave her a hard time though.

Pauline Mencer used to get plenty of waves at Bondi.

One of the related things though, I think, is the change where a lot of people who take up surfing as adults don't have the same deference for skill that used to be part of the cut and thrust of the line up. I often see people with very rudimentary skill paddle inside more competent surfers and try to claim the peak in city surf. Obviously if the surfs challenging it's not an issue but if it's mediocre unless the person is aggressive they get no quarter.

That’s not a gender issue though beany it’s a general characteristic of the adult improver, male or female

I guess that is what I am trying to tease out: now much of this is a gender issue and how much is general lineup behaviour as more people compete for a scarce resource and the usual rules of line up hierarchy fall apart.

steve shearer wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 18, 2018 6:21 pm

fcuk Loof, can't you show some class for once in your life?

It was a fair question Steve, studying how you may subconsciously objectify women in the surf.

Subconsciously objectify is an impossibility.

You owe me an apology for your previous reply.