Surfer Lucy Small is no stranger to calling out injustices. Last June, she triggered a mini-uprising at the Kirra Longboard Klassic, calling on female surfers to enter and fill up the open division after her request for a separate women’s division was rejected by organisers. Eventually, the organisers caved, agreeing to hold a dedicated women’s division with equal prize money.
“I just had no idea that it would be controversial,” Small said at the time.
“It’s like, anyone can enter, so women all entered but then it was really controversial and it just went all over the news. Which is just so nuts that women entering a pro, open division would be controversial because those divisions are full of men all the time.”
Last week, Small, the campaign co-founder of Equal Pay for Equal Play NSW mobilised around another sexist incident in the surfing world. Her target? Billabong — one of Australia’s most iconic surfing brands.
The company’s latest campaign is a partnership with Bondi swimwear brand “It’s Now Cool” and promotes their new women’s apparel line. The campaign materials sent out days before the official launch were accompanied by the tagline: “Where surf culture meets sex appeal.”
The promotional videos and photos show lithe models wearing thin-strapped bikinis, often showing their bare torsos, and even close-ups of their exposed backside.
On her socials, Small expressed her dismay, describing the campaign as “incredibly infuriating and so disappointing.”
“Women surfers have just made so many gains over the last few years towards having our bodies valued for what we can do, and not how they make other people feel,” she said.
“Why does there have to be this kind of representation? This kind of advertising sends a message to all of us women surfers and young women that in order to be valued as a surfer and have a place in this industry that you have to have sex appeal.”
Small added that Billabong has had a “pretty bad track track record” in the past few years regarding positive female representation of surfers, recalling an ad campaign where a woman’s buttocks were “severely photoshopped” to be free from wrinkles, and their historical lack of diversely shaped models.
“Sometimes it just feels like Billabong’s advertising is trapped in the early 2000s,” Small said. “What about just being valued as being a surfer? Can we just have surf appeal? Can we just send a message that being a surfer is just enough and you don’t have to have some kind of sexy body if you want to surf?”
On Instagram, many women agreed with Small’s sentiments, with one user describing a campaign photo as “a playboy ad” and another saying “What is this new thirst trap campaign? Show us some badass female athletes!”
One female surfer however dissented to the chorus of complaints, responding to one of the campaign photos on Instagram by asking “Since when did girls wanting to look and feel sexy become a problem!!”
Northern beaches surfer and content creator Blaze Angel described herself as “a competitive surfer/beauty pageant finalist” who believes “it’s awesome to showcase a beautiful healthy lifestyle. One where the girls can wear what they want!“
In Angel’s opinion, Billabong are not promoting this new range as athletic swimwear, but rather, as lounge on the beach and “feel good swimwear.”
“Why wouldn’t they show confident beautiful girls doing exactly that,” she asked. “I for one, love to feel sexy when I’m surfing!! I don’t want to cover up head to toe and have to hide my body just because I’m a girl. This whole campaign was shot by women, for women. And these shots kick ass.”
In her video last week, Small made a point of saying that her complaint was “not to throw shade on anybody that wants to be sexy or have sex appeal.”
“If that’s what you want to do, by all means, do it.”
Surf Equity, a California-based organisation of female surfers working to enhance the access and inclusion of women in Pro Surfing, commented on one of the posts, writing: “Stop exploiting women athletes.” The organisation, which is founded by surfer and advocate Sabrina Brennan, reposted Small’s video last week, calling out Billabong’s latest campaign.
The campaign was headed by photographer, Josephine Clough, who is also the creative director of It’s Now Cool. According to her company, the apparels were designed by women, for women, and was inspired by 90’s nostalgia.
The partnership with Billabong is not their first — in fact, it’s their fourth. It features two female models, and the professional surfer and former World Surf League contender, Grace Kama — although barely any images show Kama actually surfing.
After the release of her video, Small, posted a list of the Billabong’s shortcomings on her Instagram stories, which include: “Their swimwear and clothing is made in East Asian factories and they have no transparency or certification on the conditions of these factories (some pretty terrible, unregulated working conditions.)”
“There is no evidence they are taking meaningful action to reduce their climate/environment/health impacts. They pay their models more than their surfers.”
“They have some diversity in their women’s surf team but this seems to lack in their men’s team and some people attribute this to racial stereotyping.”
Small received a curt response from a male designer at Billabong, who told her to: “Get a life mate”.
The over-sexualisation of women’s bodies – especially in water sports
The over-sexualisation of women’s bodies in the world of surfing is not new. It’s a debate that’s been churning since women have taken to the waves. The conversations gained momentum within the past decade, with several commentators noting the way female surfers were garnering attention through their sex appeal and sexuality.
In 2018, Australian writer Holly Isemonger wrote a story about the growing prevalence of the sexualisation of the world’s top female pro-surfers, decrying the way Stab Magazine was publishing “heinous sexualised content—at a much faster frequency than their pro-women content.”
“I adore surfing, many of my formative experiences occurred in the ocean,” Isemonger wrote. “Despite this, I never felt free, I never felt authentic and surf culture constantly reinforced it.”
The sexualisation of female beach volleyball players also has a long history. As does women in water polo, diving, swimming and synchronised swimming.
Over the weekend, Small posted some words of encouragement on her socials, recounting the incident last year where she was issued a warning from Surf Australia for speaking out against the Kirra Klassic.
“If we stay silent nothing changes,” she wrote. “If we want to leave this sport, this community and this planet in a better place than when we arrived, we have a responsibility to contribute. Otherwise we just arrive, take our waves and then die I guess.”