Women's surfing
| Highest governing body | International Surfing Association |
|---|---|
| Characteristics | |
| Mixed gender | Yes, separate competitions |
| Presence | |
| Country or region | Worldwide |
| Olympic | Yes, as of the 2020 Olympics |
The earliest recorded incidence of women's surfing concerns the mythical Kelea. Kelea was born of royalty in Maui, it is believed she out-surfed riders of both genders. A few centuries years pass until the mid-late 1800s, when Thrum’s Hawaiian Annual reported that women in ancient Hawaii surfed in equal numbers and frequently better than men.Women's surfing in Australia has a popular following amongst female participants.
In the muslim world many women are taking up surfing.
Women’s surfing has made an increase in popularity over the last 50 years.
The origin of surfing was most likely started in New Guinea. It was a sport full of culture, fun, and adventure. Surfing was used to explore the oceans and to have fun becoming a part of nature. It spread from New Guinea to Hawaii. It is mostly known to be practiced in Hawaii and the surrounding islands, but it has spread to the rest of the continents. It was not widely accepted by Europeans because it took time away from working and labor, although they enjoyed the excitement of seeing the action of surfing.
The California Golden Girls played a huge part in the making Women’s surfing featured. They were pivotal in the 1970 to the 1980 to making people aware of the sport and they gave a face to the once widely known “Men’s Sport.”
In the United States, the most common places you will find women’s surfing would be California and Hawaii because they have the best conditions for surfing. Although you are able to surf in any place that has waves, surfing is mostly found all across the world from Peru, Australia, Indonesia, South Africa, France, Philippines, Ecuador, and anywhere else that has a shore and waves coming in. Although surfing can be found anywhere, there are a lot of things that affect the waves. Tide, time of day, storms miles off shore, and weather can all affect the strength of the waves.
Bethany Hamilton: She is an American surfer that despite getting attacked by a shark while surfing, and having her arm bitten off, she did not let that stop her from continuing her career as a surfer. She continued to get better and won many competitions following her attack.
“It's hard for me to describe the joy I felt after I stood up and rode wave in for the first time after the attack. I was incredibly thankful and happy inside. The tiny bit of doubt that would sometimes tell me you'll never surf again was gone in one wave.” –Bethany Hamilton
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