Weekly Editorial: The equity that doesn't exist in the WSL (but is celebrated anyway)

And a huge hypocrisy; it will be equal when in the CT there are 32 and 32 and in the challengers 80 and 80, or whatever number it is, but it will be equal; until then please stop showing off.


March 8th, 2024
|EN Recent
|POR Pablo Zanocchi

Posts abound on the various WSL networks of women polishing their nails and showing them freshly painted, celebrating women's day and about how they are equitable when in fact they are not.

This is a column I'm going to write year after year until I die or until the WSL finally changes.

How can a league that opens 32 spots for men and 16 for women at its highest level be equitable?

How can a league that opens 80 spots for men and 48 for women in its second division be equitable?

Will surfing at the 2024 Paris Olympics have 24 men and 12 women? No! Because in a serious world, in a world that lives under the constant scrutiny of the public like the Olympics, such a thing could not happen!

How could we have come to this?

When it comes to explaining what the WSL is doing, it seems that there are not enough female surfers to reach the number of surfers with the necessary level.

What I think is that if someone proposes that there should be 32, the playing field opens up, the incentive is greater and women's sport grows, women's surfing grows and women grow and become equal to men, which is supposed to be what is wanted when we talk about equality, right?

How can they be so brazen in celebrating Women's Day by showcasing achievements if they persist in making such a huge gender difference as 32 versus 16.

It's sad, because the implicit message within that 32 versus 16 is disastrous: That is to say, there are no women to be elite, what other interpretation can you think of?

But the saddest thing is that we can see the evidence: Women withdraw from the world circuit at the peak of their active age because it ends up being an impossible tour in which only five enter and five leave, in which the same people always compete against the same people and in which a tournament ends in a couple of rounds.

Carissa Moore, Steph Gilmore, Malia Manuel, Bronte Macaulay, Nikki Van Dijk, Keely Andrew, are some of the surfers who have left professional surfing or who have taken a break from it at the peak of their competitive age.

It has been said 800.000 times on this website and it is being said once again: The WSL needs to do a huge self-criticism regarding gender equality and, above all, it needs to stop pretending that it is egalitarian when it is obvious that it is not.

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