The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Where to catch the new wave
In this strangest of years, surfing is more popular than ever because of its ability to heal and bring people together through a shared sense of fun – and women are leading the way. Lauren L Hill examines the trend and picks her best surf spots from Tofino to Tahiti
Surfing has been part of Hawaiian culture since the fourth century, when Polynesians arrived by canoe, settled the islands and brought wave riding with them. From its earliest mass swelling in the fertile heart of Polynesia, the culture of surfing grew as a playful device for altering, informing, and reinforcing cultural values.
Early surfing cultures adopted wave riding for its ability to create camaraderie and provide physical challenge, cultural cohesion, and experiential spirituality. The origins of surfing in Polynesia made it clear that this was a cultural practice of deep and meaningful play for everyone: mothers, grandfathers, warriors, princesses, children.
Play and travel were, and still are, entwined with the definitions of what it means to be a surfer. As our ancient ancestors did, we modern wave riders devote our lives to the pursuit of the vibrant edge that surfing offers – a deeply nourishing, and highly addictive, perpe t ual passion f or one-more-wave that begs us on to both the most crowded and most remote swathes of sand by the planet’s oceans.
The sport and art of surfing was of such value to early Hawaiians that it was forbidden to work or wage war during prime surf season – everyone took a full three months off over winter for the Makahiki Festival, a period of spiritual cleansing and sport.
The ancients knew what we have forgotten: play is part of what makes us human. Working too hard or too often doesn’t necessarily lead to increased productivity or happiness, or to a sense of community. Neoteny – the retention of playful, childlike characteristics – is an essential part of human evolution because it opens up doors to creativity, spontaneity and visions of new ways of being in the world. Most human cultures have tended to have more leisure time than work time.
In Hawaii, a culture rich in aquatic lore and myth abounded before the threats of colonisation. Surfing was part of a sensuous way of life that also included hula dancing, chanting, and outlets for play entwined with spirituality. But when European notions of religiosity, gender and the Protestant work ethic came to govern Polynesia and beyond, the wild freedom of wave riding was nearly lost, and later assumed as an endeavour only for men.
Historians of Ancient Polynesia acknowledge that it was women, in fact, who seemed to stand in the highest regard for their skill and poise as surfers. Woven deep into the chants and lore of surfing culture are the stories of revered women – such as Pele, the goddess of volcanoes, and Princess Kelea – who rode the waves with the utmost grace and athleticism.
Right now, women are reclaiming our natural place in the global sport, art and culture of surfing. While men’s performances and perspectives have tended to dominate in surfing, the past
three decades have seen women’s participation increase exponentially. Women now make up between 20 and 30 per cent of surfers, and that number continues to grow.
As girls are given the opportunity and support to engage with sport, and as accessibility to boards and beaches increases, we will make up for lost decades in getting back to surfing’s legacy of inclusivity. As we work to catch up – not to men’s surfing, but to what our own minds, hearts and bodies are capable of and long for in the water – we are witnessing the depth and diversity of a truly global women’s surf culture.
In 2019, surfing became one of the first sports to provide equal pay for women and men at the elite competitive level. While athletes such as Stephanie Gilmore and Caroline Marks are globally visible “womanifestations” of the potential for women’s sport in cultures of economic privilege, radical change is also bubbling up from the fields and streets of emerging surf cultures around the globe: India, Sri Lanka, Iran, Morocco, Brazil, Gaza, and more. Women in these countries are not only shaping their local communities and cultures, they are rewriting the rules of femininity and womanhood, a by-product of pursuing their passion for slipsliding across a watery wave face. Looking forward, regionally adapted surfing cultures, guided by fresh perspectives – those of women, indigenous people and people of colour – might reshape the impact of surfing on beaches and communities.
A rare story of optimism, business has hardly ever been better for surfboard builders than in 2020. While so many of us have been crushed by job loss, financial hardship, illness and worse, the surfers and surf-curious among us have also relished in the unexpected, unsolicited gift of rediscovering the freedom that the waves have to offer in a year full of restrictions. For some of us, 2020 has also allowed us to rediscover what it means to have leisure time once again, time out from the inhuman pace of life, to connect again with the elements, our families and our communities – on surfboards.
It is only a matter of time before those freshly glossed and polished boards become objects of wanderlust once again, calling us forth toward new waves and new ways.