Trans woman Sasha Jane Lowerson was victorious last week, taking out the West Coast Suspensions Longboard and Logger State Championships.
Lowerson won the event three years earlier as a male when she went by the name, Ryan Egan. The 43-year-old trans woman made the medical transition last year, in the wake of a suicide attempt in 2020.
Sasha was a hot prospect in her junior years, making up to USD200,000 per annum as a talented shortboarder. Sasha made the switch to longboarding when she become an adult.
Talking to The Australian, Sasha talked about how heavy it got when she hid her truth from the world.
“About every two years I’d want to kill myself and I’ve had a good go at it, I had a real wakeup call (suicide attempt in 2020), then I thought, ‘What are you doing? You are living a lie’.”
“I started a medical transition at the start of 2021. Up until then I hid from people surfing, I stopped surfing for six months. I basically took six months out of the water. Then I woke up one morning and said, ‘No it’s been my life, I can’t just walk away from my passion and life’.”
There isn’t a more nuanced topic in surfing than this right now.
Of key consideration is the fact that longboarding isn’t a sport like shortboard surfing, where power is a major factor in the judging criteria. We saw Sierra Lerback win a unisex longboarding event at the Noosa Festival of Surfing earlier this year, defeating some of the best male longboard surfers in the world including Harrison Roach.
To gain some better insight into the issue, we spoke to competitive longboarder, Lucy Small.
Have you competed with Sasha before?
“Yeah she was competing in the Noosa festival in March. And I was also there with her too.”
What are your thoughts on competing against her? It’s very divisive, as I’m sure you have seen online.
“I’ve seen some really horrible transphobic things being said by people that I thought I respected. And it’s extremely disheartening. My position and the position from our campaign as well is that trans athletes should have every opportunity and the support they need to be included and take part and compete.
Like, as a female, I believe that female athletes should be standing in solidarity with trans athletes, because we know what it’s like to be treated like we don’t belong. And I wholeheartedly welcome and value Sasha, in the women’s division.
I think it’s so horrible to see these backward, bigoted comments from people in the industry who have some kind of strange perception, that it’s obviously a clear misunderstanding of what being trans actually means. Because there are comments from people that seem to reflect that they think that she’s a man dressing up in women’s clothes. And that’s just not what being trans is at all.
What Sasha has gone through and what she’s had to face over her life, we shouldn’t put her up against something that’s so horrific and dangerous to be saying all that horrible stuff on the internet.
I think that there’s been such a huge weigh in on this issue from surfers who it just doesn’t affect, people who aren’t in the women’s division.
And I think that it’s so weird that people suddenly who have never weighed in on wanting women to have their opportunity to compete, now weigh in on the conversation when it comes to this.
But the thing that makes it unfair, the only thing in my mind that makes it unfair is that in the late 90s, Sasha was paid 200,000 US dollars a year as a pro junior short border, and she’s had so many more opportunities to compete and be supported and travel and do these trips prior to transitioning, when she was still presenting as a man, women and girls in the women’s division haven’t had those same opportunities.
So that’s what makes it unfair. But that doesn’t mean that we should exclude her from the Women’s Division, that means that we should have greater investment and support in the women’s division to make sure to ensure that we have every opportunity to compete fairly. And to think in this Sasha is just one person, she’s just one surfer, I think that like, good on her for doing it. I think it’s incredibly brave.”
Do you see how it may possibly be an issue in the future? Like the kind of argument used against what you’re saying is, ‘If we allow this, then anything can happen in regard to (trans competing) in the sport?’
“I think in longboarding, gender is not the necessarily the most defining part of performance. And so I think that is an interesting conversation to have, especially like when I competed with Sasha in Noosa. Then, like, at the same time, in the same comp, they had another division title ‘The Old-Mal’ division, which is like, surfing on boards made before 1967.
And that division included some of the top long boarders in the world, people like Harrison Roach. And there’s usually just a sprinkling of girls that do it. It’s just one division, but it’s mixed. And this year at the same events, Sierra Lerback won, and like she’s a woman, she beat all the top men longboarders in the world in the final at the same time.
And so, I mean, to me that was quite symbolic in sort of indicating that, like, the role gender takes in longboarding, is quite different to other sports. But I think that transgender athletes competing, is some sports, like swimming, I know there has been this controversy in the US around Leah Thomas who’s a trans athlete.
I think that, like the way that US swimming has responded to that situation is to just adjust their rules. I think it is kind of trial and error at this stage of figuring out what is there. But Surfing Australia has only brought in their gender inclusion and diversity policy this year.
It’s their first policy. So I think that there is going to be some readjustment over time as we do get more athletes, but I just think like, if you love to do this sport, and you go through the trauma of gender transition, and all of that, you shouldn’t then come out the other side and be shat on by your community for who you are. That’s the last thing you need.”
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The trans debate in sport is a complex issue and has all sides of the conversation emotionally charged up. Historically sport at all levels has always been neatly divided into boys and girls or men’s and women’s. Therefore trans athletes represent a major shift in the status quo. The best resolution may not be immediately apparent and the debate will likely play out differently for every sport.
In putting this article together perhaps the most balanced social media comment we came across was from big wave champ Keala Kennelly who had a rational perspective on how we can start dealing with this situation.
“I think trans women athletes absolutely need to be included in sports but their biological advantages need to be taken into consideration because it also has to be fair for female athletes. I don’t have the solution, however, having RESPECTFUL non aggressive, collaborative conversations is a start.”
2022 WEST COAST SUSPENSIONS LONGBOARD & LOGGER STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS RESULTS:
Open Men’s Longboard:
1. Ryan Clark (Dunsborough) – 14.60
2. Anthony Spencer (Trigg) – 14.54
3. Scott Trew (Gabbadah) – 11.06
4. Lindsay Small (Waikiki) – 8.73
State Champion – Ryan Clark
Open Women’s Longboard:
1. Sasha Jane Lowerson (Mandurah) – 14.70
2. Georgia Young (Perth) – 10.63
3. Samantha Vanderford (Greenhead) – 9.27
4. Shae Sheridan (Dunsborough) – 8.67
State Champion – Sasha Jane Lowerson
Open Men’s Logger:
1. Ryan Clark (Dunsborough) – 15.87
2. Anthony Spencer (Trigg) – 15.27
3. Jock Bahen (Cowaramup) – 12.43
4. Lindsay Small (Waikiki) – 11.53
State Champion – Ryan Clark
Open Women’s Logger:
1. Sasha Jane Lowerson (Mandurah) – 13.97
2. Emily Gibbs (Dunsborough) – 11.37
3. Georgia Young (Perth) – 10.73
4. Shae Sheridan (Dunsborough) – 7.57
State Champion – Sasha Jane Lowerson
