Women in hitherto male-dominated sports activities (similar to soccer within the UK and basketball within the US) are lastly getting the mainstream recognition they deserve after years of tokenistic consideration from directors, sponsors and the media. But skilled feminine athletes nonetheless earn rather a lot lower than males in lots of fields. It’s a wrestle to equalise the pay scales, even when groups and people do higher in worldwide competitions than their male counterparts.
Lively documentary Girls Can’t Surf (directed by Christopher Nelius) is supposedly a common historical past of girls in browsing from the Seventies onwards, however its actual throughline is that very same wrestle for fairness and recognition. The stakes will not be as excessive as they’re in, say, tennis, however the challenges of endurance and dedication — to not point out sexism, consuming problems and homophobia — are simply as dramatic and stark.
Several of the interviewees right here recount how the competitors for sources wasn’t at all times about cash. Sometimes it was over the sphere of play itself, with the ladies combating for the best to surf on the appropriate time of day, a small window of alternative at some seashores. Tales are advised of being jostled within the water throughout coaching by male athletes who take manspreading to a complete new stage. But though aggressive browsing largely pits athletes moderately than groups in opposition to one another, the ladies managed to affix forces, at one level staging a sit-down strike on the seaside throughout a contest.
These girls have been additionally scrappy and sharp-elbowed with each other. Wendy Botha recollects being comfortable for one long-term rival when the latter lastly took a title from her, a sense of generosity that was memorable as a result of Botha felt it so hardly ever. It’s hanging too how most of the girls right here recount how browsing was an escape from impoverished and abusive childhoods.
For some, touring was a form of semi-sponsored homeless way of life, eked out within the backs of broken-down property automobiles and vans. But even viewers who’ve by no means set foot on a board can respect how thrilling all of it was once they see the surfers in motion within the many minutes of grainy, salt-smeared archive footage, skimming the swells with beautiful grace and tenacity.
★★★☆☆
In UK cinemas from August 19
