Newly crowed Rip Curl Women’s Bells Beach champ, Carissa Moore may have seen off Tyler Wright on the way to taming the bustling 5 foot swells (bar the horrendous 25 minute flat spell in the final), but it still seems Moore and her shred-worthy contemporaries have a ways to go before closing the gap in the male dominated surfing scene.
With some blistering opening rides in the final, Moore kicked ahead of the in-form Wright to take out her second consecutive final in front of the capacity crowd and vaulted Moore to the top of the ASP Women’s World Championship Tour (WCT) ratings.
“To win Bells is a dream,” Moore said. “As a little kid, you always
looked forward to watching it and reading about it. The history and the
prestige and the people who have won it are really legendary. To be a
part of it now is really special.”
The early rankings lead may have Moore laughing, but it’s certainly not to the bank with the women dividing US$110,000, compared to the men who distribute $425,000 amongst their pool. While the disparity is not as shocking as it first appears, with the Women dividing their cash amongst 18 competitors and the men 36, it roughly equates to the female surfers taking home half as much cash as the men – all for shredding on the same waves and dodging the same white pointers.
It’s not a new argument for female athletes, and it’s certainly not a new argument for female surfers, with gap in prize money compounded with a reluctance to focus on female surfing which culminated in the decision to drop the women’s event from the most revered contest in the world, the Pipe Masters. Despite being one of the heaviest waves in the world, Stephanie Gilmore, Tyler Wright, Alana Blanchard and Coco Ho had taken women’s surfing to a new level during the 2011 event. Not only were the girls shortchanged on an event in 2012, but it robbed them of an opportunity to evolve their sport to the point where they could make it more commercially viable.
The old, and very valid argument is that prize-money should reflect the interest and opportunities that the sport generates. WBA players are never going to earn the same as NBA players and our Netballers are yet to develop a platform that generates the kind of revenue that rivals our football codes. But are female surfers only half has interesting and commercially viable as the men? Much like the (ever so slowly) bridging of the gap in tennis, the quality between women’s and men’s surfing is not as great as their paycheck indicates.
Be it men or women, thanks to webcam development and increased television coverage, surfing has become a fantastic spectator sport. And while not exactly keeping with the feminist ideals that laid a foundation for the equal pay for equal value movement in the 60’s, sex sells and fit and attractive women surfing in bikinis creates exposure. Fact. Thankfully we don’t have to sell it as babes on boards because more importantly, we are starting to see the leading female surfers charging as hard as the dudes. The whole babes thing is just the icing on the cake.
Do you think the pay divide between men’s and women’s surfing is too great? Hit us in the comments section.
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