About
Cori Schumacher: world champion surfer, social justice advocate, author, and former American politician.
As a three-time world champion surfer, I used my platform to work toward greater justice, diversity, and inclusion for women, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ people in surfing. In 2010, I won my third world title and became the first openly gay world surfing champion. I was featured in OUT in the Line-Up (2014), a film about the challenges of being LGBTQIA+ in the world of surfing. In 2011, I stopped surfing competitively and focused on researching and publishing about the gender inequities in professional surfing, the lack of visibility and representation of LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC surfers, and the manufacturing and labor practices of the surf industry in China, India, Bangladesh, and beyond.
In 2012, I co-founded the Inspire Initiative and the History of Women’s Surfing project, an online archive of women’s surfing “in our own words.” In 2013, I launched a successful international campaign challenging the hyper-sexualization of elite female professional surfers, while highlighting the extreme gender pay gap in competitive surfing. This effort informed my work with a California Assemblymember in the development of California’s “Equal Pay for Equal Play Act”, which Governor Newsom signed into law in 2019.
I was elected to the Carlsbad City Council in 2016 and served as the city’s first LGBTQIA+ City Councilmember until 2021. While on council, I spearheaded projects including a regional municipal-owned community choice energy initiative to ensure participating cities reach 100% clean energy by 2035; Carlsbad’s first ocean lifeguard program; Carlsbad’s first ethics ordinance; a comprehensive municipal code and council policy update; and Carlsbad City Council’s standing committee governance structure. In addition, I served on regional boards and commissions developing and implementing public policy addressing transportation, inclusive and sustainable labor practices, land use, watershed restoration, and water quality.
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Recently published work:
August 2024
“Ocean Matters: Surfing as Posthuman Political Praxis” in Roll and Flow: The Cultural Politics of Skateboarding and Surfing, (San Diego, CA: San Diego State University Press), 365-389.
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CV available here.