Dangerous surf conditions along the coast of California prompted the National Weather Service to issue a pretty unique high surf warning for today:

The largest waves are breaking along the Central California coast, stretching north to the San Francisco听Bay Area. The NWS reported waves of 30 to 40 feet:

While Southern Californians won鈥檛 get the same huge waves as parts of the north, the swell鈥檚 effects will be visible. On Monday and Tuesday, surfers in Southern California should expect waves as high as eight to 12 feet and six to 10 feet in Ventura and Los Angeles Counties, respectively, according to the NWS.

These swells were brought on by a huge low-pressure that originated in听the Gulf of Alaska, according to , and that system is hurling surf at the California coast.

Mavericks, the iconic big wave spot,听has had 40-foot sets rolling through all morning. But听the World Surf League the Mavericks Challenge, the third stop of the Big Wave World Tour.

鈥淲e will not be running the Mavericks Challenge this week and will wait for more optimum conditions,鈥� says听tour commissioner Mike Parsons. 鈥淭he wind is good and conditions will be clean, but the swell will be dropping through the day on Thursday and we won鈥檛 have the consistency we need to run an excellent event. With three months left in the waiting period, we are confident that we鈥檒l have better opportunities to run this event this season. January is typically the best month for Mavericks so we鈥檒l be watching things closely and hoping for a great finish to the season.鈥�

The last Mavericks Challenge was held on February 2016. The next contest will include 24 men and 10 women surfers鈥攁 recent change that ended a nearly two-decades-long fight for women to be included in the lineup.

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On September 5, the World Surf League announced a major milestone: equal prize money for male and female surfers at every WSL event in 2019 and beyond. It was a watershed moment for a sport with a history of treating women as second-class athletes.

鈥淏ravo to the WSL for their commitment to equal pay,鈥� says Bianca Valenti, a San Francisco鈥揵ased pro who conquered 20-foot waves to win Latin America鈥檚 first big-wave surf competition this summer. There, she won $1,750鈥攁 quarter of the $7,000 men鈥檚 purse. 鈥淢aybe we鈥檒l find we have created equity not just in surfing, but for all sports.鈥�

So where do other sports stand? Surprisingly, when it comes to prize money, a great number have reached parity鈥攁s high as 83 percent, according to one . But prize money isn鈥檛 the whole story, and because it鈥檚 a public-facing number, organizations have a considerable PR incentive to make purses equal. Harder-to-quantify issues like salaries, sponsorships, representation, and opportunities often still lag behind for women athletes.

When Title IX passed, in 1972, rewarded men and women equally. Tennis became the first, in 1973, after Billie Jean King and eight other female pros pressured the U.S. Open. By 2004, sports like volleyball, marathon running, and skating were awarding equal prize money. In the past four years, according to , at least 12 more sports joined the club. Climbing, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing, snowboarding, BMX, mountain biking, triathlon, and track and field pay men and women equal prize purses at the world championship level. Sports that haven鈥檛 closed the gap include cliff diving, ski jumping (in 2017鈥�2018, the sport鈥檚 raked in more than twice as much as the ), and many cycling events.

Road cycling is a particularly egregious offender: a UCI-sanctioned World Tour one-day road race pays the male winner than the female victor. But recently, the sport has taken some significant steps forward. This March, the Tour of Britain for the women鈥檚 race by more than $60,000 to match the prize purse for the men, making the most lucrative event in women鈥檚 cycling even more rewarding. Also this year, the Tour Down Under to match the men鈥檚. In 2014, Le Tour de France introduced La Course, a women鈥檚 race with prize money equal to what a man wins for winning a stage of the Tour.

However, these events are still several stages shorter than the men鈥檚 races, and other elements, such as media coverage, remain unequal. This year鈥檚 La Course delivered a thrilling race but fell short of delivering the audience it deserved. Only the last kilometer was televised in the United states, and the rest required a $50 streaming subscription. Still, it was considered a victory after years of women fighting to have any event, with little success.

On the other hand, younger sports are more likely to have reached gender parity than historically male-dominated sports. The International Triathlon Union, for example, has paid equal prize money to men and women in since its 1989 inception鈥攎ore than a decade before triathlon became an Olympic sport, in 2000. (Triathlon is indeed a more progressive sport for gender equality, but one of the sport鈥檚 biggest events, the Ironman World Championship in Kona, offered more qualifying spots for male pros than for women .) The International Federation of Sport Climbing has also offered equal pay from the start.

There鈥檚 now a push from the highest echelons of sport鈥攖he 鈥攖o get all sports paying equally and paying attention to harder-to-quantify factors of equality. On International Women鈥檚 Day in March 2018, the IOC announced the results of its , including 25 recommendations for promoting gender equality in sports. Three of them related to funding, and one specifically called out financial rewards, urging international sport federations to 鈥渆stablish mechanisms to address inequalities between genders in prize money or other athlete payments.鈥�

As with so many other watershed moments of progress, this Olympic push is being led by a woman: Marisol Casado, president of the International Triathlon Union since 2008 and a rare example of a woman elected to the top post of a sport鈥檚 highest governing agency. (Of 40 Olympic International Federation presidents, Casado is one of two women.) As the chair of the IOC Gender Equality Review Project, she has pushed for not only equal prize money but also equal media portrayal and gender balance in leadership鈥攑erhaps the next frontier in the quest for gender parity in sports.

Speaking of leadership, it鈥檚 worth noting that surfing鈥檚 rise to equal prizes is happening under the WSL鈥檚 first female president, Sophie Goldschmidt. But it didn鈥檛 happen without an external push from a vocal group of women, including Valenti and other pros, San Mateo County Harbor Commissioner Sabrina Brennan, and a pro bono attorney, who formed the . The committee demanded that a women鈥檚 division be added to the Mavericks Challenge, a big-wave competition that for decades was open only to men.

The women prevailed. Mavericks added a women鈥檚 competition. But it took government involvement to push things forward. By excluding women, the contest was violating anti-discrimination laws that apply to events held on state lands, and the state of California mandated the inclusion of women as a condition of issuing an event permit. The resulting publicity put a spotlight on the inequality that pervaded other areas of the sport鈥攍ike prize money. And the听victory for women's surfing could have larger implications for other sports that play out in publicly funded venues.听

鈥淓very time I drive by one of those ginormous sports stadiums, I鈥檝e always thought about how much public funding goes into them,鈥� Brennan says. 鈥淪o now we鈥檙e looking at what can this do for other sports?鈥�

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Sarah Gerhardt is not a professional surfer, but among big-wave riders听she needs no introduction. In 1999,听Gerhardt听was the first woman to drop in at Mavericks, the monster break off the Northern California coast.听Just a few weeks later, Quicksilver held the inaugural surf contest there,听calling it听“Men Who Ride Mountains.鈥澨齀n fact, no woman was invited听until 2016,听when the contest was forced to add a women's heat听in order to receive a permit from the California Coastal Commission.

Being a听pioneer in a male-dominated sport is never easy, but听听Gerhardt听had a particularly challenging road. Growing up in San Luis Obispo, California, she and her sister cared for their mother, who suffered from severe muscular dystrophy, while their father was at sea for months at a time as a merchant marine. The family often struggled financially and she was bullied in school. But Gerhardt鈥檚 dad gave her a surfboard and wetsuit for her 13th birthday and she found refuge in the ocean.听On a trip to Hawaii in college, she fell in with a crew of surfers that included big-wave icon Ken Bradshaw, and听quickly found herself tackling bigger and bigger waves.听

Now a chemistry professor at Cabrillo College, Gerhardt continues to ride huge swells.听On a recent episode of the听国产吃瓜黑料 Podcast, she听spoke with correspondent Stephanie May Joyce听about her mentors, her hecklers, and what it鈥檚 like to ride mountains. Below is an edited transcript of their conversation.

The Woman Who Rides Mountains

Listen to our podcast interview with Sarah Gerhardt

Listen now

OUTSIDE: Were you immediately hooked on surfing as a teenager?
SARAH GERHARDT:听I had a love-hate relationship with surfing. The equipment I was riding was terrible, so it was very difficult for me to learn and I was on my own and just kind of thrashing around in some pretty brutal conditions. Sometimes I would get really frustrated and just, 鈥淚 never want to surf again,鈥� and then I'd be back at the beach and be like, 鈥淚'm gonna try it again.鈥� So I wasn't hooked immediately on surfing, but I was definitely immediately hooked on the ocean. I loved the way it smells on a big day. It's actually a little ozone smell, it smells kind of sweet.

Surfing was a way to be part of that experience, so I kept at it. And then eventually when I did figure out how to stand up on a wave and go down the line, the feeling was just like flying on water, and I just kept wanting that feeling over and over again.

What drew you to big-wave surfing?
There鈥檚 the social component. I did have a lot of negative energy from men. I got a lot of heckling, like 鈥淵ou鈥檙e a chick, you can't surf.鈥� When I went out on to bigger and bigger waves, all those men who were naysayers were on the beach kicking dirt, and I could leave them behind.

I could leave everything on the beach. I could leave how crazy life was, I could leave poverty, I could leave illness, all my worries. Being out and in bigger surf requires so much attention and so much focus. It really kind of distills life down to its experiential essence and just for those brief moments in time鈥攎aybe an hour, or maybe ten seconds on a wave鈥攊t was just the kind of thing that kind of liberated me, so that I could go back to the beach and face life.

You surfed Mavericks for the first time in February 1999. What was it like?
I鈥檇 really gotten slapped around trying to paddle out.听I'd seen how terrifying it is. So I had open expectations of whatever's going to happen is going to happen.听I was just kind of fooling around, like, 鈥淗ey, is this where I sit? Is this where I go?鈥� Colin Brown, who's become a lifelong friend of ours, was saying, 鈥淎ctually, this is the perfect spot, and here comes a wave, and you're going to catch it.鈥� So I spun around and caught a wave right then and I was completely blown away, it was such an incredible experience. I kicked out and said, 鈥淚 want more of that.鈥� So that's what I did鈥擨 went and got more.

The next swell that broke was in March, and my husband and I paddled out together. It was kind of big and stormy, and it wasn't crowded. There was a photographer on a cliff that I didn't notice, which is good, because I actually don't like being in front of a camera. I was able to go out and free surf, and I got some more waves that day. It was a really amazing experience.

I had a message on my phone when I got home from that session, from Surfer magazine, wanting to do an interview. I was like, 鈥淗ow the heck do they even know I got a wave?鈥�

What is like to suddenly be a surfing celebrity?
I wasn't prepared for the attention. I didn't want it and didn't really know how to handle it. At the time, there was an online forum called Agroville, and a lot of people had pseudonyms, and so they could hide behind anonymity. A lot of people started ripping me apart. They were saying said I was stupid and I couldn't surf and and I was going to get worked and would I ever come back.听I read those comments听and I never read it again.

I did get positive feedback, too. A lot of people were really excited to see that a woman had surfed Mavericks. The interesting thing is even that was difficult to deal with听because I've never thought of myself as amazing. I'm just a normal human being听and I've spent a lot of time with my face just in the dirt, though听I've picked myself back up and kept going.听

Did you ever consider becoming a pro surfer?
I thought about it at the end of high school and听beginning of college, but there were very few opportunities for professional female surfers then. There were some women who were making a living on the tour, but mostly it wasn't really an option.

I got to surf with the top women in the world when I was in Hawaii. A lot of them were incredible surfers听but they didn't have any sponsors because they didn't look the part. They weren't a size two听with long blond hair and big boobs. I don't look like that, either, so there was no way I was going to get a sponsor. I saw the struggle, and it was just sad. And I had other had other aspirations anyway.

You were included as an alternate for an all-male听Mavericks competition in the early 2000s. How did you feel about that?
I was last on the list鈥攖here was听no way I was going to get in the contest.听But it was definitely a nod and recognition that I'd been out there, and I appreciated that honor. Interestingly enough, I didn't feel like I was worthy of it. I didn't feel like I could stand up in the same waves that men could and in the way that they were charging, so it felt a little awkward.

Do you feel differently now?
I think even after being out there for 20 years, it's still a man鈥檚 place. When there are 50 people in the water, and maybe there are only one or two women in the water, it doesn't feel like I belong there. I have a lot of really great friends that I just love and respect, and I'm excited to watch them surf. So on one hand I feel like this is my tribe, but on the other hand, I'm still an outsider and I think that it's probably awkward for the guys when they're all having fun, and they're carrying on with their banter, and, 鈥淥h, here comes a woman. Okay, everybody tighten up, and start acting nicer.鈥� I don't know that I'll ever experience a time when it's not like that.

There just aren't that many women involved in big-wave right now. I don't know how long it's going to take for that to change, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to stop going out. It just might always feel a little awkward.

Are you disappointed that the organizers have scrapped the Mavericks contest both years since听the all-women's heat was announced?听
I have mixed feelings about the contest. I've never been interested in competing against other people. I'd rather just go free surf. My heart isn't set on on the event happening, but I'm really looking forward to women听having their moment to shine at Mavericks.听And I am definitely the oldest person on the list, so I also feel like I'm ready to pass that torch onto to the next generation.

Listen to our conversation with Sarah Gerhardt on the 国产吃瓜黑料 Podcast.

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鈥淕irls do fine when it comes to housework, raising children, doing office work, doing the twist and even riding the ankle snappers at Malibu,鈥� wrote big-wave surfing pioneer Buzzy Trent in a 1963 article in Surf Guide magazine. 鈥淏ut one thing I can鈥檛 stand is girls riding (or attempting to ride) big waves.鈥�

He went on: 鈥淵ou see, girls are much more emotional than men and therefore have a greater tendency to panic. And panic can be extremely dangerous in big surf. …Girls are weaker than men and have a lesser chance for survival in giant wipeouts.鈥�

Finally, he concluded by writing: 鈥淕irls are intended to be feminine, and big-wave riding is definitely masculine鈥� Girls are better off and look more feminine riding average-sized waves.鈥�

Sure, that sounds like classic 1960s sexism, but has much听changed in the intervening 55 years?

According to two big-wave pros I spoke with鈥�, a professional surfer from the Bay Area, and , a Maui local and big-wave world champion鈥攖he answer鈥檚 no. Both Valenti and Alms have been invited to surf in the , which if it goes off in the next month, will be the first time women have ever surfed in the event. They also co-founded the along with fellow big-wave surfers Keala Kennelly and Andrea Moller. Here鈥檚 what they had to say about Buzzy, sexism, and the future of their sport.听

On Shitty Things They鈥檝e Heard in the Lineup

Valenti: 鈥淲hile paddling out to a Northern California surf break, a guy yelled, 鈥楾his is a man鈥檚 playground. I don鈥檛 want to see you unless I鈥檓 going out on a date with you, because you鈥檙e kind of cute.鈥�

On Fighting for Their Place

Valenti: 鈥淎s a woman, you have to constantly prove yourself, whereas a guy鈥攅ven of lesser experience鈥攚ill paddle out and no one will say anything. Now I get cheered on [by the guys], but it took me a while. Psychologically, it was hardest thing to deal with that hungry pack of wolves while I earned my place.鈥� 听

Alms: 鈥淢en will look at women and be like, 鈥榃ho does she think she is?鈥� A lot of the time they don鈥檛 say anything, but you can feel it. The male bravado, the ego.鈥�

On Muscling Out to a Wave

Valenti: 鈥淚t takes a tremendous amount of hard work to be out there鈥攆or anyone. But if you鈥檙e a woman, you have exponentially more work, mentally and physically. To catch waves, you have to be able to match the speed of the wave and most men have an easier time with this, with more muscle mass up top and a longer wingspan. For every man鈥檚 paddle-stroke, I have to do three.鈥�

On the Lack of Women Role Models in Surfing

Valenti: 听鈥淭here鈥檚 a young, up-and-coming male big-wave surfer at Mavericks who has older male surfers basically fighting over him, wanting to his mentor. Most girls don鈥檛 have that sort of opportunity.听For most women, without mentors, the questioning and looks by men is enough to keep them from trying. Women really have to be willing to blaze their own trail.鈥�

On the Feminism of Big-Wave Surfing

Alms:听鈥淵eah, big-wave surfing is dangerous and scary, but I don鈥檛 see why that makes it more masculine. Women birth people鈥攖hat鈥檚 pretty much the gnarliest thing you can go through and no one鈥檚 calling that 尘补蝉肠耻濒颈苍别.鈥�

Valenti:听鈥淚鈥檓 a female and I鈥檓 a surfer, therefore surfing is feminine. Men feel like we鈥檙e trying to take something away from them, but we鈥檙e not. We鈥檙e all in this together. Let鈥檚 celebrate men and 飞辞尘别苍.鈥�

On Fighting for Pay and Airtime Equality

Alms: 鈥淲e鈥檙e at a time and place in our country, and in our world, and in this sport where we [women] are in a place of power, where we need to speak up.鈥�

Valenti:听鈥淚t鈥檚 exciting right now. Women are getting media exposure, and competitive opportunities, and the overarching conversation in our society of is focused on equality.鈥�

The post Sexism in Big-Wave Surfing Isn鈥檛 Dead Yet appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

It only took nineteen years, countless advocates, dozens of letters,听a bankruptcy and change of ownership,听plus听one particularly tenacious public official, but women鈥攆or the first time ever鈥攈ave been invited to compete at one of the world鈥檚 most famous big-wave breaks: Mavericks. After intense lobbying, political maneuvering, and negative press, the historically all-male contest has invited six female pros to compete in a single women鈥檚 heat, which will take place sometime between now and the middle of February, conditions permitting.听

鈥淭his is a huge step forward,鈥� says Bianca Valenti, a San Francisco-based big-wave surfer slated to compete in this year's event. 鈥淔inally, we鈥檝e got a foot in the door. But we have a long way to go.鈥�

The ferocious wave, off the coast of Half Moon Bay in northern California, has long been an icon of big-wave surfing. It has also become a focal point in the growing fight for gender equality in a sport with a long and colorful history of machismo. 鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing more beautiful than a well-shaped girl riding a six-foot wave with the wind blowing through her hair,鈥� wrote . 鈥淏ut one thing I can鈥檛 stand is girls riding (or attempting to ride) big waves.鈥�

Flash-forward 45 years. While that attitude has eroded, it鈥檚 far from gone.

鈥淪urfing is 20 years behind other sports,鈥� Valenti says on a drive home from surfing Mavericks. 鈥淥ne day a guy told me, 鈥楾his is a man鈥檚 playground. I don鈥檛 want to see you out here, unless I鈥檓 going out on a date with you, 鈥榗ause you鈥檙e kinda cute.鈥欌��

Big-wave contests have run at Mavericks since 1999, when the made fliers promoting the event and the 鈥淢en Who Ride Mountains.鈥� That was the same year that became the first woman to surf the monstrous wave, five years after bodyboarder Sarah Lucas busted the gender barrier. But competition was strictly open to dudes, who were the only ones getting invites. Contest founder Jeff Clark, a big-wave pioneer who surfed Mavericks alone for 15 years before anyone would join him, didn鈥檛 think women were good enough. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a gender thing. It鈥檚 a performance thing,鈥� Clark told CBS鈥攊n 2016. 鈥淲omen just aren鈥檛 there yet.鈥澨齛 year after Keala Kennelly won Barrel of the Year at the WSL Big Wave听Awards, the so-called Oscars of big-wave surfing. She was chosen鈥攐ver hundreds of men鈥攊n a season with a historic number of supersized rides, barrels, and wipeouts. In her acceptance speech, Kennelly thanked “…. Because that drove me to dedicate my life to proving you wrong, and it's been so damn fun.”

As if women aren鈥檛听already out there with men in the lineup for any big swell. 鈥淥n any given day, we鈥檙e competing with the men,鈥� Valenti says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not like a tennis court.鈥�

The simple truth is, women have been surfing big waves for decades, despite the cultural undertow of a brotherhood that really would rather they didn鈥檛. 鈥淲omen have been expected to look good on the beach and hand the boy his towel when he gets out of the water,鈥� says Matt Warshaw, author of the . 鈥淲omen were not encouraged to go out and surf big waves during the 1960s. But there were women who did.鈥�

In 1959, as Joan Cleaver was still cleaning the house in a dress and pearls, Linda Benson, who would later be called the , became the first woman听to surf Waimea.听Around the same time, Marge Calhoun, a mother of two who didn鈥檛 pick up a surfboard until she was almost听30, was winning the Makaha International, on the west side of Oahu, Hawaii. 鈥淚 loved a wave that was dramatic,鈥� Calhoun said. 鈥淚 wanted something that could knock me around.鈥�

In the 1970s, Margo Oberg, often credited as the original female big-wave surfer, became a regular on the monstrous winter swells at Sunset Beach on Oahu鈥檚 North Shore. She raised the ante to 15-foot waves. After winning four world championships, she fell just shy of a fifth, placing second in 1982鈥攖hree months after giving birth. Then came Phyllis Dameron, one of the most fearless bodyboarders (of either gender) in the history of the sport. She paddled into waves higher than 20 feet and bounced down them like a skipping stone, often passing the men below her. 鈥淚鈥檒l go right over them, in the air if I have to,鈥� she said.听

In the 1990s, Layne Beachley听and听Sarah Gerhardt became tow-in pioneers. After mastering 20-footers at a North Shore break called Phantoms, Beachley听had a Jet Ski sling-shot her into 25-foot waves in Todos Santos, in Baja California, and 国产吃瓜黑料 Log Cabins, in Hawaii. She became the first woman to conquer the 鈥渄eath slab鈥� barrels at a freakish Sydney break, which pounds into a rocky shelf.听

Yet during all that time, invite-only contests were closed to women. Finally, in 2010, Oregon鈥檚 Nelscott Reef Big Wave Classic became the first major event to invite听women to compete. But even then there was a catch: it was only an exhibition,听. Three women surfed听in a one-hour heat, in conditions that blew out one male competitor鈥檚 eardrum and sent him staggering to shore, warning about the conditions. Keala Kennelly took home the win鈥攁nd a prize purse of…$0.听

Finally, in 2016, the first paying women鈥檚 division was added to a big-wave contest. The Peahi Challenge, one of three stops on the , invited women to compete on the 30-foot-plus waves at the Maui break听Jaws. It was a bona-fide division: 12 women, plus six alternates, competing in three heats鈥攖wo semi-finals and a final. Hawaii鈥檚 Paige Alms, who does construction and ding repair to supplement her pro-surfer income, landed air-drops in the howling wind and became the first women鈥檚 big-wave champion. She won . (The men鈥檚 champ bagged .)

The world of big-wave surfing appeared to be shifting, with many male pro surfers expressing support for their female counterparts. But the Mavericks door remained slammed shut. It took a politically savvy local official to pry that one open.

Sabrina Brennan, an elected member of the San Mateo County Harbor Commission, which also grants event permits, teamed up with several female pros, including Bianca Valenti and Keala Kennelly, to form the . She argued that public resources could not be used for discriminatory activities鈥攁 key legal point. In response to their lobbying efforts, the California Coastal Commission required Titans of Mavericks to include women competitors as a condition for renewal of the event's permit.

Here鈥檚 how Titans founder Jeff Clark responded to that news in a TV interview: 鈥淚 understand what the Coastal Commission wants is more women involved in Mavericks. We鈥檝e had women judges, we鈥檝e had women in our water patrol, and water rescue鈥︹�� Actually, no. They want to see women on the board鈥攏ot the board of directors.

The contest organizer, Cartel Management, grudgingly responded by agreeing to 鈥渞each out鈥� to female pros and allow them to compete鈥攚ith the men, if they qualified. Four women made the 56-person first cut. Days later, not a single woman made the 38-surfer second cut, selected by an all-male committee. Calling B.S. on Cartel鈥檚 pseudo-meritocracy, the Committee for Equity in Women鈥檚 Surfing demanded that women compete against women, as they do in pretty much every other sport. They asked for a standard women鈥檚 division: six women, three heats.听

To make a long story short, Cartel was then sued by sponsors and . The 2016-2017 Titans of Mavericks never happened.听The next season, the event was picked up by the World Surf League, which invited six women to compete鈥攁gainst each other鈥攊n the 2017-2018 contest, renamed the Mavericks Challenge. This added a second women鈥檚 contest鈥攁nd a fourth event鈥攖o the Big Wave Tour. 鈥淭he timing was right,鈥� says CEO Sophie Goldschmidt, who has held executive roles with the NBA, Adidas, and several mainstream sports. She expects the WSL to add more women鈥檚 big-wave surfing events鈥攇radually. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to rush. We鈥檙e going to be very thoughtful about this. Over time, I expect us to add further events as the women and the sport are ready for it, from a performance and a safety standpoint.鈥�

The female pros say they鈥檙e stoked to compete at Mavericks, but they wish it was a legitimate multi-heat division. It鈥檚 six women and one heat鈥攐ne golden hour on the waves. Compared to the three-heat, 24-man contest, it feels to some like a footnote. What they鈥檇 like to see is a multi-heat competition, where women have to surf against one another to make it to the finals.听As听it is, 鈥渋t鈥檚听a token,鈥� Brennan says. 鈥淪ix women, one heat? That鈥檚 nowhere near equality.鈥�

Given the sport鈥檚 history of machismo, that should surprise no one.听

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On August 27, 2014鈥攁 day surfers would later call Big Wednesday鈥擫aird Hamilton carving sweeping lines across the face of a perfect 12-foot wave near Malibu Pier. His style, as always, was mesmerizing, but it was the fact that he was J-stroking through double overhead surf on a hulking paddleboard that raised eyebrows. The most exciting moment came at the end of the ride when Hamilton 鈥渟hot the pier,鈥� threading his 10-foot-plus board through its pillars at high speed. A few waves later, he did it again.

Since stand-up paddleboards were first popularized two decades ago, the bulging foam planks have become associated with old men and young kooks鈥斺�渃ustodians,鈥� they鈥檙e derogatorily called by cynics, due to their sweeping paddle motion鈥攑icking off ankle-swipers in knee-high surf. But in the last few years, some of the best surfers in the world have proven that SUPs are good for something else: charging the biggest waves on the planet. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just a more efficient way to be in giant water and in control of big boards,鈥� says Hamilton, who regularly does . 鈥淚t gives you a legitimate advantage.鈥�

鈥淚鈥檓 surprised there aren鈥檛 more people pursuing big-wave stand-up,鈥� Hamilton adds.

The best known big-wave breaks already have stand-up ambassadors: Raimana Van Bastolaer at Teahupoo in Tahiti; Kai Lenny, the 24-year-old wunderkind out of Maui, at Jaws; and Jeff Clark, the Godfather of Mavericks in Northern California, who has been paddleboarding in monster surf there for about eight years. 鈥淚 paddle out into the gnarliest peak on the planet,鈥� Clark says, 鈥渁nd my equipment is on par with what I want to do.鈥�

Despite the cohort of heavy hitter devotees, however, stand-up paddleboarding remains an activity derided by surfers the world over. In 2014, surfers tried (and failed) to听. Browse the digital pages of any surf blog or magazine and SUP jokes are unavoidable鈥斕齬eads one recent headline.听“[S]tand up paddle boards, roller blades, segways, cross fit, vegans, all things the world could do without,”听听on big-wave听paddleboarding.听

Why the acrimony? According to Hamilton and other leading big-wave paddleboarders we talked to, it鈥檚 a problem of mindset and marketing.

Surfers are a conservative, defensive bunch and, as Hamilton points out, most of the people into stand-up are novices. That makes it easy for hardened surfers to dismiss the custodians crowding their lineups. Furthermore, SUPs are big and unwieldy鈥攃argo ships in a sea of small skiffs鈥攁nd getting domed by a 12-foot board is significantly more dangerous than taking a shot from an errant short board. (Another factor that compounds the traditional surfer鈥檚 irritation: a SUP鈥檚 huge berth lets riders catch waves significantly earlier and many paddleboarders take advantage, effectively hogging the waves.)

鈥淚 think it comes down to arrogance,鈥� says Haley Fiske, one of the handful of surfers who regularly tackles Mavericks on a SUP, on why prone surfers refuse to pick up paddleboarding. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like, 鈥楢ll people on paddleboards are kooks and therefore they鈥檒l never be as good as me.鈥欌��

Kai Lenny laughs when I ask him about this debate. 鈥淚鈥檝e had this conversation with a lot people,鈥� he says. Lenny looks at it like this: prone surfers don鈥檛 realize how effective of a tool a SUP can be. Like Hamilton, Lenny is a genuine waterman. He excels at surfing and at SUP, and has won championships for his SUP surfing and long-distance SUP races, too. To watch him surf Jaws is a masterclass in riding big waves鈥攔egardless of board type.

鈥淲hen you鈥檙e already standing up, you can take off on waves much later, you can really stall and put yourself in more critical positions,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hen it鈥檚 windy and surfers get spray in their face, you鈥檙e above all that. When you have a paddle in your hand, it acts like a crutch. If you hit chop and you鈥檙e going to fall, you can put the paddle in the water and catch yourself. And you can give yourself one more stroke to catch the wave or use it to pivot the board around the paddle.鈥�

Lenny says being up high also lets him see waves materializing further out, allowing him to get into position earlier. 鈥淲hen people see me paddle toward the horizon, they immediately start following now,鈥� he says.

In terms of market forces steering surfers away from SUP, the multibillion-dollar surfing industry revolves around traditional prone wave riding. So if you want to get sponsored, you need to stick to the discipline that鈥檚 getting the most attention and exposure. 鈥淎 lot of these guys, myself included, are trying to figure out how to make a living doing your passion,鈥� Hamilton says. 鈥淎nd that means you kind of have to participate in the system.鈥�

Fiske, who knows the crowd of Mavericks riders well, agrees. 鈥淚f you want to be a pro and you want to get sponsors, you鈥檝e got to follow the money,鈥� he says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 really no money in big-wave stand-up paddling.鈥�

Lenny, for his part, doesn鈥檛 worry why he鈥檚 the only person at Jaws on any given swell trying to paddle into 30-foot waves standing upright. 鈥淭he only thing I am surprised and perplexed about is why nobody else would want to do it鈥攊t鈥檚 so much fun,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 almost feel bad for people who shoot it down. You have no idea, dude!鈥�

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