Mason Schremmer, winner of the Noosa Logger women’s event.
Earlier this month, Surfing Australia issued a warning to the Noosa Malibu Club for paying out unequal prize money to men and women in their Noosa Logger longboarding competition. However, the organization has since retracted its statements and apologized to the club.
On the first weekend in May, the Noosa Malibu Club held the Noosa Logger, a two-day longboarding competition. There were three events in the competition: an open event (open to men, women and juniors), a women’s event, and an ‘Open Old Mal’ event (open to men, women, and juniors). Augusto Olinto received $718 for winning the open division, which was comprised of 21 men and 1 woman, while Mason Schremmer won $505 for winning the women’s division. As a result, the club received what the Surfing Australia CEO called a “first and final warning,” that if they did not compensate the female event winner to make up for the difference, they would risk disassociation.
Yesterday, Surfing Australia reversed its statements and issued an apology, saying that the club did not in fact violate their rulebook. As reported on the Surfing Australia site, CEO Chris Mater stated he regretted his earlier comments and the confusion and backlash they may have caused.
“I would like to offer my sincere apology to Noosa Malibu Club, its members and wider community,” said Mater. “I would also like to retract that I issued a ‘first and final warning’ and threatened to expel the club. The information I had at the time was wrong and I discovered that the club did not breach our rules.”
The cause of the confusion seems to be a conflation between an ‘open’ event and a ‘men’s’ event. Though the Noosa Logger open event was comprised almost entirely of men, it was open to female entrants and had one woman participant.
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