Gender equality increasing for surfing in Hawaii, but is not like the dominance women had when surfing began, local surfers say BY NICHOLE WHITELEY
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ixty-two percent of college-aged students in an April Instagram survey said they think of surfing as a male sport. Kinsey Hippolite, a resident of Kahuku, said the way to change this perception is for women to talk more about being surfers and support other female surfers. She said as women are proud to be surfers and bring it into the conversation, others will start to do the same, and people will begin to recognize surfing as a sport for both men and women. In Hawaiian lore, Mamala, a kupua or demigod who is half woman and half shark, was the first female surfer, according to the article “Women Making Waves” on the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center website (shacc.org). The article says she “skillfully danced on the roughest waves.” The article continues saying the oldest surfboard ever found, dating back to the 1600s, belonged to Princess Kaneamuna, and it was discovered in her burial cave in Ho’okena on the Big Island in 1905. The article says this finding confirms women were prominent and respected surfers since the beginning of the sport.
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MISSIONARIES AND THE DECLINE OF WOMEN’S SURFING The History website states, “The arrival of American missionaries in the 19th century disrupted the mixed-gender sport as they disapproved of baring skin and gambling during surf contests.” BYU–Hawaii Academic Vice President Isaiah Walker, who is a surfing historian, explained when the Calvinist missionaries arrived in Hawaii, they saw Hawaiian traditions such as hula and surfing as sexual in nature. The missionaries tried to replace Hawaiian traditions with their own, says the History website. Walker added while the missionaries frowned upon these traditions, “There wasn’t really an official ban on surfing, and a lot of Hawaiians just didn’t listen to them.” One of these Hawaiians was Princess Ka‘iulani, a prominent female surfer in the late 1800s who brought surfing to England when she surfed the English Channel. The History website says she played a key part in keeping surfing alive for people to enjoy today. The missionaries’ disapproval was not the main factor in the decline of surfing
among Hawaiians, Walker explained, but it did contribute largely to surfing becoming a male-dominated sport. “I think what the missionaries may have had more impact on is the decline of women’s surfing,” Walker said. He added diseases brought over through colonization caused almost 90 percent of the Hawaiian population to perish. This meant there were less Hawaiians to surf, which led to the decline in surfing as a whole.
GENDER ROLES IN HAWAII The results of the Instagram survey also showed 78 percent of college-aged students think surfing culture, in regards to gender equality, is more equal today than when it started. However, when Hawaiian surfing began, men and women were seen as equals on the water, according to an article from the Magicseaweed website. “In pre-contact Hawaii, surfing was for everyone: mothers, grandfathers, warriors, princesses, children. In fact, historians of Ancient Polynesia acknowledge that it was women who seemed to stand in the highest regard for their skill, grace and poise as surfers.”
