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As we welcome International Women’s Day, we’ve rounded up some of our favourite female surf stories that showcase incredible women of the waves. From battling icy barrels in Canada to pioneering wins at Pipeline, these sisters of the sea well and truly set the bar.
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The Rad Women’s Surf Communities of Scandinavia
First up, three doggedly determined women from the coastal wilds of Scandinavia; Norway’s Lofoten Islands in the Arctic Circle, Klitmøller in Denmark and Varberg in Sweden take on their local icy waters. If your first thoughts are of small surf, howling onshores and 6mm’s, you’re only partially wrong. However, as we find out, the rawness of the region and the rare gifts delivered by the stormy waters of the North Sea make it a surf experience like no other.
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The Drop in Sessions: Steph Gilmore
“You can win a bunch of trophies, but if you leave people with a genuine sense of inspiration for themselves to go out there and achieve their dreams and goals then that’s really the main point of this”
We welcome Steph fresh off claiming her record breaking 8th World Title following her mind blowing performance at the 2022 Rip Curl WSL Finals at Lower Trestles, California. The iconic victory, which she describes as her best ever, makes her the greatest of all time in women’s professional surfing, and boy, did it deliver some epic watching!
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Key Moments in Women’s Surfing in 2022
2022 was a truly vintage year for women’s surfing. We saw a host of incredible events, developments, cultural happenings and more as the world fully emerged from the pandemic. Here, we dissect some of the key moments in women’s surfing in 2022.
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The Women’s Surf Community of Tofino with Hanna Scott
Tofino has gone through a considerable metamorphosis from its inception as a hardy fishing and logging hub to the tourist adored, year-round surf town it exists as today.
Located on the western edge of Vancouver Island, it receives consistent storm swells from the North Pacific which roll into its sandy beaches and rocky coves, breaking against unparalleled snowy mountain vistas. And with primordial rainforests, rich fauna and atypical crystalline Canadian lakes to sweeten the deal, it’s no wonder the area has been drawing surfers in since the early ’60s.
We pay a visit to the cold water mecca of Tofino, Canada’s surf capital, catch up with local surfing supernova Hanna Scott.
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The Drop In Sessions: Jodie Cooper
Western Australia born and bred Jodie Cooper is quite simply straight up synonymous with being not just a trailblazing icon in women’s surfing. From her powerful big wave surfing which totally re-defined the limits of what women were doing at the time, winning 13 international surfing events, with titles in Australia, Japan, Hawaii and the United States, to being made a Life Member of the Association of Surfing Professionals in 1994 and being inducted into the Western Australian Hall of Champions. But her career and life in surfing has been multi-faceted.