This Woman Surfed the Biggest Wave of the Year
September 12, 2020 12:49 PM Subscribe
One more angle, where you can see Maya Gabeira exiting the wave successfully
posted by chavenet at 2:05 PM on September 12, 2020 [8 favorites]
posted by chavenet at 2:05 PM on September 12, 2020 [8 favorites]
Maya made it to the images of the day on front of probably the most important german tagesschau news yesterday (Kai didn't).
posted by flamewise at 3:01 PM on September 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by flamewise at 3:01 PM on September 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
Women surfed the two tallest waves, but the dude that surfed the third-tallest one got his award weeks earlier, and phrased as if it were the tallest.
Sigh.
posted by FallibleHuman at 3:14 PM on September 12, 2020 [15 favorites]
Sigh.
posted by FallibleHuman at 3:14 PM on September 12, 2020 [15 favorites]
The XXL Biggest Wave award season is March 21-March 20, so that ride would be in competition for the 2021 award.
Also that is Maya Gabeira's surf partner, she may have been out there watching on the jet ski!
posted by muddgirl at 3:40 PM on September 12, 2020 [4 favorites]
Also that is Maya Gabeira's surf partner, she may have been out there watching on the jet ski!
posted by muddgirl at 3:40 PM on September 12, 2020 [4 favorites]
Badass.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:06 PM on September 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by kirkaracha at 6:06 PM on September 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
My coworkers judged this! It’s not a secret that surfing is still a long way from gender equality despite pay equality, but I thought the framing was a bit disingenuous- there isn’t really a way to combine this competition after the fact, that’s not how a tour works. Justine Dupont was actively disputing the results which probably contributed to the delay - here’s a good article in Surfline. They should have delayed the mens’ announcement, and given both women their due.
Maya Gabeira surfed this wave despite literally breaking a limb and nearly drowning at Nazaré previously - the amount of bravery on display is incredible.
posted by q*ben at 7:51 PM on September 12, 2020 [4 favorites]
Maya Gabeira surfed this wave despite literally breaking a limb and nearly drowning at Nazaré previously - the amount of bravery on display is incredible.
posted by q*ben at 7:51 PM on September 12, 2020 [4 favorites]
Awesome. I can get behind women surfing a blue wave this year....on many different levels.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 10:04 PM on September 12, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by inflatablekiwi at 10:04 PM on September 12, 2020 [4 favorites]
Interesting that a separate competition for women was only added in 2018. I get the argument for a women's competition, but if common sex-based body morphology differences aren't really a factor in surfing - then an alternate solution to under-participation by women is is supporting the hell out of young women going into surfing and keeping it one competition. I recognize this specific issue - of women competetive surfing - is something I know precisely zero about, minus what I just learned in this article.
posted by latkes at 12:37 PM on September 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by latkes at 12:37 PM on September 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
There’s actually a pretty solid case for combining into a single competition - women were locked out of this for bs misogynist reasons until 2018, and it’s such a small pool of people that dividing It again seems foolish. Hopefully the results this year will give the WSL impetus to combine.
The general leagues are a little more tricky - there are two leagues for essentially the same reason as other sports - smaller pool of women’s contestants and a younger history due to Societal Reasons. There are a lot of eyes on the steadily closing gap in surf progression between men’s and women’s surfing, and a lot of speculation about how x would do against y among fans. It would be complicated for sure to handle the merge but I think over the long term it’s inevitable. The WSL event before this awards announcement, the “battle in the basin” was a mixed doubles type thing and that aspect of it went over just fine. Also, the new 2020 season has the women surfing Teahupoo which is a first in official competition and another step to making the tours essentially identical.
posted by q*ben at 3:33 PM on September 13, 2020 [3 favorites]
The general leagues are a little more tricky - there are two leagues for essentially the same reason as other sports - smaller pool of women’s contestants and a younger history due to Societal Reasons. There are a lot of eyes on the steadily closing gap in surf progression between men’s and women’s surfing, and a lot of speculation about how x would do against y among fans. It would be complicated for sure to handle the merge but I think over the long term it’s inevitable. The WSL event before this awards announcement, the “battle in the basin” was a mixed doubles type thing and that aspect of it went over just fine. Also, the new 2020 season has the women surfing Teahupoo which is a first in official competition and another step to making the tours essentially identical.
posted by q*ben at 3:33 PM on September 13, 2020 [3 favorites]
I have long wondered why, for some sports, they don't mimic dog shows and award like a Best of Year and Best of Opposite Sex.
posted by muddgirl at 7:26 PM on September 13, 2020
posted by muddgirl at 7:26 PM on September 13, 2020
« Older "It's pure manipulation of the consumer." | Next Ordinal Level is at ψ(Ω^(Ω^2+ω)) Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:47 PM on September 12, 2020 [2 favorites]