Tag: surfing
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strange imperialism and neoliberal ethos of the Surf Industrial Complex
Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net “Surfing is good for the world.” -Fernando Aguerre When I decided to boycott the women’s longboard championship in China last year, I received an email from the then ASP World Tour CEO, Brodie Carr, who suggested that I “proactively go there [China] as an ambassador of a sport that possesses…
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China and Big Surfing
“Sports themselves are not political, but they have important political functions. The close connection between sports and national identity takes different forms in different countries at various stages of development, and in China it has special significance. The phrase ‘a weak country has no sports’ has particularly painful associations for Chinese people [owing to China’s…
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Newest! Sponsored! Imagined bliss
“Separation is the alpha and omega of spectacle (Debord, 1967).” The first, most important single element to grasp about today’s state of affairs, the reality we are currently entrenched in, is the ubiquity of alienation, that is, separation from our food, others, and ourselves: the subject-object duality. The second essential idea to grasp, is that…
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a mutiny of thoughts
I’ve been taking my 6’0″ out the past couple of mornings. I enjoy the feeling of quick, sharp turns, lip-snaps and the weight/unweight a shortboard offers when the waves have push and a certain steepness to them. I really like messing with my body, confusing my muscles out of their usual neuronal firings in order…
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“Standing Her Ground”: Curl Magazine #31
(This interview about women in surfing and my decision to boycott the ASP World Tour, was just published in the summer issue of Curl Magazine. There is no online access to this article so it is being reprinted here, with the images and captions provided in the article. I have also added links throughout the…
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“little hoss” and a call to action
Since writing “embracing their femininity”, I stumbled upon a photo feature of surfer Erica Hosseini in STAB Magazine’s Hard Cover Book, December 2011, that pushes Big Surfing’s fetishized “feminine” to it’s most hyper-sexualized yet. STAB ostensibly tries to get away with this image by using a play on Hosseini’s last name, a double entendre, a…
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“embracing their femininity”
Three of the top five ladies chosen in this year’s Surfer Poll Awards have bared glistening, bronzed bodies to the world in nearly naked poses that range from playful and flirty to sexual and seductive. The only reason Alana trumped Sally Fitzgibbons in the polls is because Fitzgibbons didn’t get her skin-show on before…
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Champions in China and Meaning-Making Machines (link)
Swatch Girls Pro China, 2011 Some of my thoughts on the recent ASP Women’s World Longboard Championship in China, the first significant event to be held in China by the Association of Surfing Professionals. Champions in China and Meaning-Making Machines For more information about why I was not in attendance at this event:Why I’m…
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the presentation: what we can do (Women in Boardsports, 2011, part 2)
Photo Credit: Alba Pardo I woke early the day I was to give my presentation at the Women in Boardsports retreat in Saas Fee. I had stayed up quite late the night previous in order to ensure I had noted the elements I most wanted to communicate. I had taught myself Keynote in the process…
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getting there (Women in Boardsports 2011, part 1)
Last night I arrived home, exhausted but inspired and teeming with ideas, from a retreat nestled at the base of an ancient glacier in Saas Fee, Switzerland. The drive from Geneva to Saas Fee was easily one of the most beautiful I have undertaken. From fields of hay, corn and apple trees, to the expansive…
