Through the decades and 600 issues of Tracks, plenty has changed for women in surfing – and yet plenty remains the same. How far off equality are we? Kate Allman talks to legends from the past and present to unpack what’s holding women back.
It’s an iconic Australian beach scene. A gaggle of wetsuit-clad grommets escape their parents’ clutches and clatter toward the freedom of the whitewash.
They crunch excitedly across the sand, moving as quickly as their little engines can propel them while hoisting miniature shortboards under twiggy arms. Hair in various colours and stages of rat’s nest tangles along behind them, caught in zippers and neoprene. The next generation of surf ratbags has arrived; but one thing is different these days. They’re female.
It’s a sight that’s strikes 1990 World Champion, Pam Burridge, as evidence of the momentous steps women’s surfing has taken towards equality in recent years.
“To see so many young girls as little frothers, I love that. They see their full potential; they’re not affected by gender politics. They just want to be really good surfers,” Pam tells Tracks.
We’re chatting in the wake of the second inaugural all-women’s surf festival hosted by Surfing Australia, called Seas the Day. Thousands of people have swarmed Kingscliff Beach on the Tweed Coast of NSW to celebrate women’s surfing and cheer for an all-female surf comp with 270 competing. Both Pam and her fellow World Champion, the 1993 winner Pauline Menczer, are remarking on the incredible number of girl grommets in the water – not just at the event but on beaches everywhere in 2024.
“There are so many little girls around now – we never saw that before!” Pauline agrees.
“When our movie Girls Can’t Surf came out, I went to theatre after theatre and I was so chuffed when I saw dads with their little girls coming to watch, and mums with their little girls. So many girls there, and little boys as well. I’ll never forget one boy saying to me, ‘Why were they so mean to you?’ Even ...
