Spotlight On: Women’s Longboarding

The Sport, Gender & Media team was delighted to have the chance to get in touch with Georgia Young, 23, of Perth, Australia, professional women’s longboarder. Georgia is a highly accomplished longboarder, with her titles including: two 2nds and 3^rd in the Australian Longboard Titles; 1^st in the ASP Australasian Professional Women’s Rankings (2011); 1^st in the Whalebone Classic; 2^nd in Newquay Boardmasters; as well as three 17ths in the World Longboard Titles held in Biarritz.

Georgia became interested in the sport at age 11 and by age 14, began competing in local surf club competitions, gradually advancing to state competitions. As a teen, she looked up to both men’s and women’s professional surfers in both Western Australia as well as the country as a whole, including Claire Finucane and Chelsea Williams, for inspiration. In particular, Claire Finucane befriended and encouraged Georgia in taking her longboarding to the next level, pushing her to do more competitions across Australia and taking her on surfing trips around Western Australia.

Generally, there is a divide between traditional and progressive longboarding. In traditional longboarding, maneuvers favour “nose-riding”, and this method is usually considered to be more style-oriented. Progressive longboarding, on the other hand, is similar to shortboarding, involving radical and powerful turns as well as aerial moves. Men’s competitions generally combine the two styles, whereas women’s surfing focuses more on the traditional side. Women’s boards, therefore, are a bit bigger, heavier, with their competitions focus more on the traditional-style rather than the more progressive styles of surfing. About this difference, Georgia feels that “It’s very important to keep this traditional element to women’s longboarding, but I think there needs to be more room for progression in the competitions”. 

 

In Georgia’s opinion, women’s surfing has hit a plateau regarding sponsorship, in both long and shortboarding, with funding seeming to fluctuate between continents and from year to year. Recently, huge controversies occurred when many professional surfing events, including the World Shortboard Tour competitions, were cancelled due to lack of funding. At the same time, progress is being made in women’s longboarding, where a second World Title event was held in China in 2011, marking the first time the Women’s World Title was determined by more than one event. It is generally felt among the community that the sport is quite marketable, due to the unique style of women’s longboarding as well as the culture and lifestyle of surfing. Competitions are frequently sold as festivals, such as Roxy Jam in Biarritz this past July, with art exhibits, music concerts and surfing demonstrations, culminating in the actual competition. Such events attract a variety of people and generate a lot of interest to the sport as a whole, and Georgia hopes that this type of sponsorship continues for major events.

Such discrepancy in funding is evident when examining other extreme sports in Europe, such as skiing and snowboarding, where events are sponsored by large motor companies, and other non-sport related corporations—obviously not related to the competition at hand. Surfing, according to Georgia, would really benefit from such recognition from larger companies, which would help generate funding and greater media recognition, particularly for female competitors. As such a marketable sport, with the athleticism involved and culture and lifestyle being promoted, interest in the sport is apparent, it just needs to be highlighted. Georgia hopes that in the future, other companies outside the realm of surfing will take on sponsorship of female athletes. 

                                                                       

Personal sponsorship remains an ongoing obstacle to the general acceptance of the sport. Women’s longboarding remains one of the lowest sponsored sports within the world and few companies, other than a few surfing ones, including Roxy, take an interest in supporting the sport. Georgia herself is sponsored by Roxy, Sticky Feet Wax and Clearwater Surfboards. Very few women are paid to compete at the professional level, with all 32 of the world top women having jobs or other careers that enable them to compete. Although there are some women who are paid to compete, few can make a living out of their passion for the sport. According to Georgia, Roxy is one of the most supportive companies, sponsoring both athletes and events across several continents as well as really encouraging the surfing lifestyle.

Georgia hopes that in terms of funding, the future holds better for women’s longboarding and more opportunities for women longboarders continue to grow. She would really like to encourage more young women to try longboarding at the competitive level as well. Personally, she hopes to finish in the Top Ten World Longboarding and win an Australian Longboard title.

The Gender, Sport & Media Team wishes you the best of luck, Georgia!