Surf Equity

Access, Inclusion, equity & Equal Pay

 

We support access, inclusion, equity and equal pay.

Increasing the number of events and the number of awards for women, as well as offering equal prize money, is the best way to achieve equity and gender diversity in competitive surfing.

The waves do not discriminate.

 

WELCOME

Together we are the new wave of professional surfing.

  • All races

  • All cultures

  • All sexual orientations

  • All gender identities

  • All national origins

  • All abilities

  • All socioeconomic backgrounds

  • All gender expressions

  • All countries of origin

  • All ethnicities

  • All religions

  • All genders

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We, Surf Equity, acknowledge that the San Mateo County Coastside is located on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples who are the original inhabitants of what is now the San Francisco Peninsula. As Guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland, and we affirm their sovereign rights as first peoples.

Surf Equity’s POSITION on the Inclusion of Trans and non-binary Athletes

Trans, Nonbinary and Gender Expansive people belong in the lineup.

Athletic performance is influenced by biological and psychological factors as well as environmental factors such as access to healthcare, financial stability, housing security, access to youth sports, family support, transportation and access to training and coaching. External factors also impact access to competitive athletics, a partial list includes: human rights, politics, judicial decisions, laws, policies, discrimination, abuse and lack of pay parity.

We oppose the weaponization of any of these factors to target and attack trans athletes.

Support for Inclusion:

  • In athletics, we support the inclusion of trans women/girls and men/boys in the gendered category that fits their gender identity.

  • We support nonbinary athletes in the category of their choosing and look to them as primary resources in decision-making for the future of pro competition that expands beyond the binary of women’s and men’s sports.

  • In professional sports, we support the inclusion of trans women/girls, trans men/boys and non-binary athletes in divisions that fit their gender identity.

    On Aug 9, 2022, Surf Equity published this on our website and social media accounts.

 

Sasha Jane Lowerson

Swell Season Surf Radio podcast interview with Sasha Jane Lowerson.

 

BEAU BRINK

Felix Gonzalez Torres

Artwork by Félix González-Torres

Conspirituality podcast interview

From stage to gallery to studio to craft room, Beau creates subversive, playful artworks that celebrate difference.

Beau is also a tenured media professional with experience as a writer, editor, researcher, data journalist, novelist, project manager, coach, mentor, and SEO manager.

 
 

SURF EQUITY OPPOSES BILLS, LAWS, & POLICIES THAT TARGET & ATTACK TRANS PEOPLE

Over the past several years the U.S. has experienced an unprecedented level of attacks on trans adults and youth in the form of state level anti-trans legislation. To learn more about these issues checkout this video produced by The Nonprofit Quarterly.

On March, 20 2022, NBC News reported that nearly 670 anti-LGBTQ bills have been filed since 2018, according to their analysis of data from the American Civil Liberties Union and LGBTQ advocacy group Freedom for All Americans, with nearly all of the country’s 50 state legislatures all having weighed at least one bill. 

Throughout that time, the annual number of anti-LGBTQ bills filed has skyrocketed from 41 bills in 2018 to 238 bills in less than three months of 2022. And this year’s historic tally quickly follows what some advocates had labeled the “worst year in recent history for LGBTQ state legislative attacks,” when 191 bills were proposed last year.

 
 

The slate of legislation includes measures that would restrict LGBTQ issues in school curriculums, permit religious exemptions to discriminate against LGBTQ people and limit trans people’s ability to play sports, use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity and receive gender-affirming health care.

As the number of anti-LGBTQ bills hits record highs, research shows that so, too, has support for LGBTQ rights and policies prohibiting discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. Nearly 8 in 10 Americans, or 79 percent, support laws that protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in jobs, housing and public accommodations, according to a Public Religion Research Institute survey released Thursday. That same survey also found that nearly 70 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage, up from 54 percent in 2014.

LGBTQ advocates and political experts say the uptick in state bills is less about public sentiment and more about lobbying on behalf of conservative and religious groups. 

Many organizations including Surf Equity see the bills as part of a conservative political strategy to use transgender people as a “wedge issue” to motivate right-wing voters.

“Conservative politicians, conservative religious leaders, religious organizations, and sometimes conservative scholars, often present themselves as defenders of traditional values and traditional institutions in society,” said Gabriele Magni, an assistant professor of political science at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. “LGBTQ rights have become a natural target because they go against one of the most traditional institutions of society, and that is the family.”

NBC News’ analysis of the ACLU and Freedom for All Americans data found that among anti-LGBTQ bills, measures targeting trans Americans have significantly increased in recent years. For example, 22 of 2019’s 60 anti-LGBTQ proposed bills, or 37 percent, were anti-trans bills, compared with 153, or 80 percent, of 2021’s 191 anti-LGBTQ bills. This year [2022], about 65 percent of the anti-LGBTQ bills filed as of March 15 — 154 — were anti-trans bills.

“The authors of these bills and the dark money groups pushing for them do not want it to be possible to be a trans kid in this country,” said Gillian Branstetter, a longtime trans advocate and the press secretary for women’s advocacy group the National Women’s Law Center. “They’re responding to trans kids as if they were responding to a contagion.”

Anti-trans legislation — specifically, measures that would block trans students from competing on school sports teams that align with their gender identity — have been among the most successful of the anti-LGBTQ bills filed in recent years. Since the start of 2021, 11 states have written trans sports bans into law, according to tallies from the ACLU and the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group.

Advocates also point to the mental health risks plaguing trans youths and how anti-trans policies can exacerbate them.

A survey last year by The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization, found that 42 percent of the nearly 35,000 LGBTQ youths who were surveyed — and over half of trans and nonbinary youths — seriously considered suicide within the prior year. Separately, two-thirds of LGBTQ youths said debates about anti-trans legislation have impacted their mental health negatively, according to a small survey The Trevor Project conducted in the fall. 

 

Veronica Ivy, formerly Rachel McKinnon, is a Canadian competitive cyclist and transgender rights activist. In 2018, she became the first transgender world track cycling champion by placing first at the UCI Women’s Masters Track World Championship for the women's 35–44 age bracket.