Big wave filmmaker Sachi Cunningham's TOP FIVE moments in the quest for equal pay for women

Despite its guts-n-glory high stakes visual appeal, big wave surfing has long struggled to receive the same backing and support as traditional competitive surfing. And the WOMEN of big wave surfing — despite riding the same conditions — have been almost entirely marginalized and under-appreciated. Until now.

What changed? Well, about five years back, a small group of dedicated big-wave charging females set out to demand equality in their sport. San Francisco-based filmmaker/journalist Sachi Cunningham was there every step of the way, documenting the victories and wipeouts for her upcoming film: “SheChange.”

Here, Cunningham shares some of the most significant moments from their shared journey and with some wonderful insights into the upcoming film.

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Reblogged 2 months ago from www.youtube.com

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Comments

@surfermag says:

19th September 2024 at 5:51 am

Read the article here: https://www.surfer.com/culture/sachi-cunningham-top-five-moments-shechange

@MikeListon-tk8ir says:

19th September 2024 at 5:52 am

Women flail at the Eddie, flail at the Jaws contest. There's literally no comparison between the performance in big waves between men and women. That's not to say it's not possible, there simply hasn't been a single woman who performs like any of the pro men ."Just doing it" (participating) doesn't warrant equal pay when most of them aren't even successfully paddling into and riding these waves at that level. From an economical standpoint it doesn't make any sense either, similar to how some actors and actresses get paid more or less because every film they star in usually brings in a huge draw (Leonardo di Caprio, Julia Roberts, etc).
Let's be realistic instead of woke and politically correct. Give us a woman who can take off steep, deep and pull into and make a tube at Mavs and Jaws and you've got your highly paid female rockstar surfer. Are you out there?

@Ryan-sd says:

19th September 2024 at 6:10 am

2:30 "the first time women had equal pay"

in case anyone hasnt noticed, the WSL has been touting "equal pay" for several years, but they keep the womens draw always about half the size as the mens. So, they end up having a prize purse for women that is 50% of what the men get.

The 2018 Peahi challenge had 24 men and 12 women. 12 women had a prize purse of ~$70K USD. 24 men had a prize purse of $100K USD. Not really equal pay and not something WSL should be proud of if women are still getting less opportunity and less pay overall.

This is the same on the QS, Challenger Series, and Championship Tour. The WSL constantly promotes their "equal pay" but at every level of surfing gives women about half the opportunity and half the total prize purse as men.