Over the weekend, a group of middle-aged men paddled out at Thurso during the GB Cup – as the women’s semi final heat was underway.
From what we understand, this ‘paddle-out’ had been planned. What I heard was some of the group were upset about the competition being held at Thurso. And the opportunity was given for freesurfers to enter the line-up from 3pm. But the GB Cup is only at Thurso once every four years and this group of people couldn’t wait 90 more minutes for an event to finish?
I’ve personally spent the last few days talking to a lot of people who were involved. What I cannot fathom is: why this group of middle-aged men interrupted the women’s semi final? Surely, out of all the times, they could let the women surf the competition in decent conditions, for 90 more minutes. Is this a stark case of misogyny? Something thousands of female surfers face every time they paddle out into the line-up.
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Some, not all, of this group of people who paddled out, became verbally abusive to the competitors — multiple eye-wtinesses confirmed this to me — and some of those competitors are just teenagers. One of the people who paddled-out has had a lot of social media attention cast their way, but has been confirmed to have not hurled any abuse (as we reported in our original story). They did collide with a competitor in the water though.
For those who did start directing anger towards the competitors; why? The audacity of middle-aged men and the nerve to attempt to intimidate young women, it’s abhorrent.
I’ve personally had correspondence sent in to me, claiming the female competitors ‘started it’. But should middle-aged men react to that? And if you’ve paddled out and are taking waves off competitors, then even if they did start it, that’s a justified reaction. And let’s not forget, the act of paddling out in the first place is what started it.
Since we broke the news about what happened, this whole scenario has weighed on my mind. The role of independent journalism is to remain impartial, that is training school 101. However, my personal opinion and professional etiquette are two different things – and I widely condemn the abuse of females, or anyone, in the line-up. There is no place for this on land, in the ocean or anywhere else. And those who paddled-out for the sake of it and didn’t hurl abuse, well, they have to own their own reasoning for doing so.
Other publications have taken what we’ve written and got these twisted, as it seems they didn’t spend their Sunday night digging through everything (we did, multiple phone calls, messages right up until 2.30am on Monday morning). Some of those who paddled out were not local surfers.
The event at Thurso isn’t going anywhere and whether you think it’s ‘your spot’ because you travel up there from London, South Africa or elsewhere, is besides the point.
What matters is integrity. Acting with dignity, and these went out of the window over the weekend. A sad day to be a surfer in the UK.
For too long, UK surfers have faced an uphill battle on the global scale. In terms of funding, in terms of creating a united front to better push the sport forward in a positive medium. We’re the under dogs, punching up to make a name for everything we do.
This single act, and it’s not the first time this has happened, punches the whole UK scene down, removing foundations from a robust go-forward plan that should be for the betterment of UK surfing vs the satisfaction of some middle-aged men’s sense of ego/entitlement/delete as applicable.
And let’s not also forget, the act of verbal abuse is disgusting. As soon as you begin hurling abuse; this is a 100-year step back in terms of surfing and progressive thinking. The fact you dropped in on teenage girls and used bullying and intimidation tactics is heinous and again, you should be held accountable for that.
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How do we move forward from here? Well, we cannot ignore the positive changes out of the culture over the years. We cannot let these acts define the way forward and undermine the positive work done by so many people across the UK, Europe and beyond to make the line-ups feel like an inclusive and welcoming place – but we will also call out this behaviour when it happens.
In the meantime, GB Surfing has rescheduled the event, and will be running the finals at a later date — to no small expense of everyone involved, I’m sure.
If you’d like to add your thoughts (and put your name to it!) you can email me; [email protected] and we will pop all of them into an article and run it as is.
