Good for Her

There was an article in The New York Times about the current Women's World Longboard Champion, Cori Schumacher.

Cori is taking a stand for women. Currently, she's "boycotting" the Women's World Tour because a contest on the Tour is being held in China where women don't have many rights. But that's only part of what she's done. For years she has competed without sponsors. She's done this to create an image for herself that she feels comfortable with and that promotes women's professional surfing in a good light.

Some of the complaints about the Women's World Tour is the low salary and poor contest locations. It's hard for women to make a living from professional surfing. Also in general, there is still a lack of respect for women in the water.

First I think that it's super cool that an article about surfing was in the New York Times. Surfing is definitely a sport that doesn't receive the publicity it deserves. Although some would argue that less publicity is better; the beaches are crowded enough.

Second, its always good to see star athletes willing to risk their success and careers to fight for something bigger than themselves. I think in almost every sport, surfing included, women have to fight for equal respect and credibility when compared to men. It's been a problem in our society for a long time but I think that  we're making strides to change this.

One of the problems is that at the moment, there is just not as much money in women's surfing as in men's. It's unfortunate for these large surf companies because in fact, there is a lot of money to be made. People need to be more exposed to the sport and given opportunities to learn how to surf.