The champagne is not yet dry on Tyler Wright’s historical Lexus Pipe Pro championship though that has not stopped the British Broadcasting Corporation for savaging surfboard shapers as wantonly sexist in a blistering takedown. Auntie B pulled no punches in wondering “Are surfboards designed for female bodies?” savaging surfing as “male-dominated” with “the majority of off-the-rack boards designed for men.”
Rachael Lee, 33, from Porthcawl shared that she had started surfing at 13 on her father’s board but it wasn’t until years later that she borrowed her friend’s “female board” and popped up much easier. “The industry has been monopolised by men and women have always been an afterthought,” she said.
Jess Blake, 33, from Swansea offered that she liked surfing but found the boards too heavy and big.
Gwenno Haf Hughes, 34, from Bridgend realized that her boyfriend’s shoulders were twice as broad as hers but never considered that they would need different sorts of surfboards. When she finally got around from trying a woman’s surfboard she went “so fast with so little effort.”
Her boyfriend, on the other hand, sank like a foolish stone.
Stephanie Smailes, 34, from Ogmore-by-Sea ordered a custom woman surfboard offered, “When we say a board is made for a woman we make assumptions about what a woman’s body is.”
She is the chair for the inclusive line ups committee for Surfing England which helps the organization with equality, diversity and inclusion. She added “there is no Welsh equivalent at the moment.”
Jacob Arnold, 26, shaper and a raging capitalist and declared, “If you’re not making stock that will suit girls you are definitely missing a trick.”
Dr Elisabeth Williams, senior lecturer of applied biomechanics at Swansea University and editorial board members of the Sports Engineering journal, stated, “The rules and [sports] equipment are set up around male bodies, they always have been. It still is a man’s world and sporting equipment design is just a symptom of that.”
Except for the aforementioned Jacob Arnold who is swimming in sterling.
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