Women Pro Surfers: Battling The Waves
How women surfers fought the sexism of the 1970’s to create the first pro-surf world tour.
Bringing together today's surf stars, and yesterday's legends, to tell the story of the first pro-women’s surf tour in 1976.
Today, women’s surfing has equal prize money for men and women, and women are an accepted part of the pro-circuit. Wind the clock back 50 years and things were very different - no wetsuits designed for women, barely a sponsorship deal in sight, (unless you count offers to be raffled off for a date, or as models for edible panties - both turned down! ) and undisguised chauvinism from the male surfing establishment.
Patti Paniccia was a surfer back in the 1970’s, determined to create a path to professional surfing for women, as well as men. Together with surf promoter, Fred Hemmings and surfer Randy Rarick, she founded IPS (International Professional Surfing), to create the very first men’s and women’s world tour in 1976.
The women’s surf team – Sally Prange, Jericho Poppler, Rell Sunn, Becky Benson, Claudia Kravitz and Patti herself – were met with a barrage of ridicule and blatant sexism, but also had the time of their lives - from surfing the shark infested waters in South Africa, to drawing crowds of 20,000 Brazilians to the beaches in Rio de Janeiro.
Together they opened the door for women's competitive professional surfing.
As well as some of the women from the tour, Patti tracks down the promoters she lobbied to get the tour accepted by the surf fraternity – reconnects with some of the top women surfers of the 1970’s, including double World Champion Lynne Boyer and Jeannie Chesser, and looks at the legacy the early surf stars left for today’s surf stars – including eight times world champion Stephanie Gilmour, and Queen of Pipeline, Moana Jones Wong.
She also hears from Surf Equity campaigner Sabrina Brennan, on equal pay, and gets historical insight from the author of the Encyclopaedia Of Surfing - Matt Warshaw.
