Surfing Australia has been awarded $1 million in federal funding to develop the “New Wave of Female Boardriders” project.
In an announcement made this morning at the Hyundai HPC by local MP Justine Elliot, alongside key females from Australia’s surf community, the grant will be delivered over the next three years. The grant aims to make surfing more accessible to women and girls throughout the country.
The funding will allow Surfing Australia to establish 50 new women’s boardrider clubs, create female judging, coaching and officials courses – that are free, host an annual women’s development camp at the Hyundai Surfing Australia High Performance Centre (HPC), and a range of other initiatives designed to support women’s surfing at every level.
“The ‘New Wave of Female Boardriders’ is a self-sustaining program that fosters a culture of respect and gender equality, inclusion in sport and physical activity at local, state, and national levels, and a strong sense of community belonging,” Ms Elliot said.
The funding comes from the Albanese Government’s Play Our Way program, which is designed to remove barriers to women and girls participating in sport and physical activity.
“This investment is a game-changer for women’s surfing,” said Surfing Australia Chief of Sport – Events, Participation & Community, Luke Madden. “We’re creating a pathway that will see more women involved in surfing at every level – from beginners in local boardrider clubs to female coaches on the beach. It’s all about opening doors for more women to embrace surfing and stay connected, making the sport more inclusive for everyone.”
The Play Our Way funding will also enable Surfing Australia to establish a full-time National Women’s Participation & Club Development Officer and part-time Women’s Club Development Officers across the states. Surfing Queensland, Surfing NSW, Surfing Victoria, Surfing Western Australia, Surfing South Australia and Surfing Tasmania welcomed the funding.
Performance Coach, Belen Alvarez-Kimble, who founded Australia’s first all-female surf school Salty Girls Surf School in 2008, agrees the funding will create more opportunities for women to enter the water in a safe space, learn the rules, and then transition into boardrider clubs. “It will open up so many great opportunities for women to progress their surfing to the next level.”
“We’ve seen a huge growth in women’s surfing, especially on the Gold Coast,” added Hannah Jessup, co-founder of the first all-female boardriders club on the Gold Coast, Surf Witches Boardriders Club. “Our memberships sell out every year, which reflects the demand for more clubs like ours. Women from all over Australia reach out to us, asking how they can start their own clubs, so I think this grant will have an incredible impact on the women’s surf community across the country.”
Phoebe Kane, one of Australia’s top female judges, said the funding for judging programs would definitely encourage more young women to get involved in judging and officiating in surfing. “This will make a big difference in boosting female participation in these roles.”
In many ways, after Aussie Rules, of course, surfing is as close as Australia gets to having a national sport. It’s no surprise to see the sport growing so strongly and with a broad catchment, too. From microgroms to WCT aspirants Australia has huge depth. That’s testament to the people guiding the sport, the investment over the years and the pool of knowledge that has been distilled in part due to surfing becoming an Olympic sport.
The funding is in stark contrast to the government funding we see here in New Zealand. In Surfing New Zealand’s 2023 Annual Report the organisation received a total of $111,609 in government funds. That came from two tranches of funding: $35,000 from Sport NZ and $76,609 from High Performance Sport New Zealand. That government funding equates to almost 17% of Surfing New Zealand’s total operating income and less than half the $231,234 salary component for the year ending 30 June 2023.
In a cycle of extraordinary living costs on both sides of the Tasman it does seem like our counterparts across the ditch are getting things right … in surfing at least. Is this surfing’s next wave of the Australian-storm? It’s certainly fuel to an already intensifying fire.
