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Editor’s Note: Surfing Australia has since retracted the warning and issued an apology after finding that the contest wasn’t in violation. Read the apology, here.
In Queensland, Australia, the Noosa Malibu Club has come under fire for holding a competition in which it paid the women’s event winner 30 percent less than her male counterpart. Surfing Australia has issued them a “first and final warning” for breaching pay parity rules, and warns that the club could be disassociated if they do not compensate the female winner.
On the first weekend in May, the Noosa Malibu Club held the Noosa Logger event, a two-day longboarding competition. The winner of the open division, Augusto Olinto, was awarded $718, while Mason Schremmer, the winner of the women’s event, won $505.
The Surfing Australia rule book states, “In surfing competitions where there is prize money allocated, we require equal prize money and investment for both Women’s and Men’s surfing divisions.“ In regards to the Noosa Logger event, Surfing Australia CEO Chris Mater said, “It’s pretty straightforward. We have a rule book that says clubs must offer equal prize money to men and women in events affiliated with Surfing Australia. We’ve asked the club to compensate the female winner and rectify the situation.”
Noosa Malibu Club President Glen Gower protested, telling The Daily Telegraph that the Noosa Logger “treats everyone as equals” by allowing women to enter the “open” division alongside men. Furthermore, he told the outlet that the competition distributes prize money in proportion to the number of places offered in each division. Posted results of the event show that of the 22 competitors in the open division, there was only one woman, compared to 12 women in the open women’s event.
“You would be amazed at how many people that I have come up to me and say, ‘I’ve got two young boys but they’ve got to surf 10 times to even get a chance to get to a final, and your daughter can surf once [to get there],’” Gower said.
The female competitors did not share his perspective, saying they had approached the board of Noosa Malibu Club to make the prize money equal prior to the event, but that their requests were not heeded.
This is the latest in an ongoing debate surrounding parity for prize money in men’s and women’s surfing competitions. In 2018, the issue came to a head as a result of the big wave competition at Maverick’s, which previously had no women’s event at all. The Committee for Equity in Women’s Surfing successfully lobbied California state officials to require the inclusion of a women’s event with equal prize money as a condition of approval for the Maverick’s permit application.
Though the WSL has not stated that it was a direct response to the Maverick’s change, shortly afterwards they announced that, starting with the 2019 season, women would receive equal prize money for all their events. In a press release, WSL CEO Sophie Goldschmidt said, “This is a huge step forward in our long-planned strategy to elevate women’s surfing and we are thrilled to make this commitment as we reveal our new 2019 schedule. This is the latest in a series of actions the League has undertaken to showcase our female athletes, from competing on the same quality waves as the men, to better locations, and increased investment and support.”
The dominoes kept on falling when legislators in California passed Assembly Bill 467 in 2019. Called the Equal Pay for Equal Play bill, the legislation required that any competition held on California state land award equal equal prize money for all athletes regardless of gender, as a condition of receiving a lease or permit.
Though surfing has been taking gradual steps to address this issue for some time now, the pay gap for women’s athletes is not limited to the sport. Recently, the issue reared its head once again in tennis, when the Italian Open came under fire for its unequal pay of women’s competitors.
