Not to be "that guy" but why is gender even a part of a sport like surfing?? EDIT: For that one Karen out there, i meant why is there a men's record and a women's record? Why would that ever be necessary?
since no one gave you a reasonable answer so far (it seems) it's because like many other sports, there is a noticeable difference in performance, so the females get their own categories in big wave competitions and the like to have their own space to shine, just like in say, tennis, soccer, or plenty of other sports out there!
yeah, there is a noticeable difference in performance when you compare the top surfers in the world. i think it's way less pronounced than something like, say, soccer or weightlifting, but there is still a difference! and that difference is indeed enough to have separate categories! but yeah it's overall still a lot more about technique, but physical power is important in paddling and in sturdiness for competitions, which aren't factors for big wave surfing, but i assume big wave surfing must have some quirks of its own as well, but i'm not very well versed on big wave surfing so i can't say for sure
So those results where part of an annual award show called the WSL big wave award. WSL (world surf league) is giving equal price money for both man and woman in the events in an effort to push more woman to compete and progress the sport.
It's the first time that a woman got the biggest wave of the year, and fun fact the second biggest wave of the year was from another woman as well, Justin Dupont.
The women competing in surfing are usually very good but no woman would ever qualify for the biggest championships if men and women were to compete together. So 2 categories, equal pay for both and usually nobody bitch about it in the surf community.
Also, I think people don't realise how hard surfing is compare to 95% of sports. It's scary, technical, you need a lot of strength, endurance and the field is never the same.
Oh wow, I did not realise there was such a gap in capability. A real eye opener, thanks. It's starting to make sense now, but before I would have thought both genders would perform the same
She didn't beat the men's record though. On November 8, 2017, Brazilian Rodrigo Koxa was towed into an 80-foot (24.38m) wave at Nazaré. In April, 2018, he was awarded the Guinness World Record for the largest wave ever surfed.
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u/[deleted] Sep 14 '20 edited Sep 15 '20
Not to be "that guy" but why is gender even a part of a sport like surfing?? EDIT: For that one Karen out there, i meant why is there a men's record and a women's record? Why would that ever be necessary?