I love this beautiful, strong shot of Crystal Dzigas. In this article she says that “the modeling thing never came natural to me. I am naturally pretty muscular and it does not turn out well in photos. The male surf industry uses surfers in their ads, the female industry uses models.” In my opinion, this is about as balanced and beautiful as surfing gets.
I just came across an article in Slide Magazine from 2011 that features “some of Hawaii’s best female longboarders.” I was so excited to see a men’s surfing magazine run an article about female surfers outside of the standard one or two page feature on one woman, per issue.
I was also interested to see the interviewer ask about comparing men’s and women’s surfing and it made me wonder what other perspectives surfing women and men had about this issue in particular, especially as it relates to the massive pay gap between male and female surfers.
But “what if there were one parameter that clearly provided an advantage in sports, with levels that did not overlap between men and women and could entirely explain why men did better than women in elite sports? Would this substance meet enough criteria to be a valid way of separating men and women on the field, and only on the field? And what should be the threshold for the level of this substance above which female athletes would have all the physical advantages of men and therefore would unfairly compete with other women?……
The reality is that there is a pretty good candidate for such a substance: testosterone.”
(from the New York Times).
Anyway, this is what some of the best female surfers from Hawaii had to say:
That kind of skill, grace and sense of fun is so much more beautiful (and sexy) than any kind of body (“model” or no). Sounds like she finds her muscles to be a bit of a drawback in the Biz, and that’s just a shame. This might be one of my favorite surfing shots ever.
Agreed Mr. Logan MB! It’s what she does that makes her so amazing/sexy, not just how she looks. It’s one of my favorite shots, too. Thanks for chiming in. Hope to see you somewhere on the planet soon…..
Reminds me of Pink Floyd’s “Balanced on the biggest wave, rest your arms it’s an early grave.” And I do agree – one of the most poetic surfing shots I have seen. Now my wall paper. Up close and big makes it even more dynamic. Balanced at the edge of our life space – defying gravity. Poise and grace tanscends beauty… but she just happens to have all three.
Agreed, Bryan.
Thanks for writing.
muscle are beautiful!!!
I think the pay gap stems from the amount of interest generated in each sport. Male surfing has been publicized a lot longer than female, male surfing is well established in society. that’s where publicity, advertising and ultimately money arises. Comparing men and women’s surfing is like comparing footy and soccer.