Feminists Around the World: Legends of Hawaiian Surfing

We highlight some of the Hawaiian women making waves in the surfing world. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this Scenny and Samantha and welcome to Stuff whe
Never Told You production of I Heard Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
And welcome back to another episode a Feminist around the World,
and we are dedicating this episode to some of the
legends of Hawaiian surfing, the Hawaiian wahine as we have
referenced before, who have and continue to change the sport
and do some amazing things within their community. Of course,
as with most of our episodes, when it comes to

(00:39):
who we are talking about and who is making an impact,
it's a giant list. So the list we have is
very small compared to the many who deserve to be
recognized and given their flowers. And one day, maybe if
we just keep going for the next ten thousand years,
we can talk about all of them, all of them. Yeah, sure, sure, sure,
sure sure, But yes, this is just a small, very

(01:02):
small list for a very short segment that we wanted
to talk about. But also with kind of a content warning,
I guess, not necessarily content warning, just a heads up.
As per usual, we try our best with pronunciations. I
don't think there's anything big this time around, but we
can get pronunciations wrong, and there's a lot of times
where we figured out that we don't say some of

(01:23):
these words out loud, yes, and have to figure out
how to pronounce them, even though they might be common.
But what was common in our heads is not actually
how it's said.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
This is true. This is true. This is one of
the biggest lessons of podcasting.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
It's true. It really threw me off how little I
knew how to say things so that way I say it.
And also with this, there is a lot of controversy
that is happening within the surfing community, especially when it
comes to trans athletes. There was a whole band on
one trans athlete Sasha Jane Loewerson. She was barred from competing,

(01:59):
and I think they got Huntington Beach one. But I
know there's been new conversations and new rules and new
opinions I guess that have come about, and there it
is ongoing and continuing. And with that, of course, we're
trying our best to exclude transphobic people, because I think
that's really important that when we show our allyship to

(02:22):
those in the trans community, that we are not trying
to highlight people who are damaging our trans sisters. So
with that, we are purposely leaving some people off of
our list. If we added someone that is up making
or have been known to make trans phobic remarks, please
let us know, because I tried. We tried diligently to

(02:45):
research as much as we could, but in the end
we found out that, not surprisingly, the surfing community is
pretty small and they are a lot of interlinking and
associations between people. And we know this just because someone
has an association with someone does not mean they have
the same opinions. A lot of people have fallen out

(03:06):
because of these opinions, but it wasn't known until much later.
Like we've talked about how Trump really let us know
who people were. Yeah, and I was like, that's one
of the good things. We saw them for who they were.
But they were friends with us, you know, we were
friends with them for so long and we never saw
that side quote unquote, not to give excuses, so but
just say we are trying to be very conscient just

(03:27):
of that. So please let us know. And we do
apologize if we do include someone that is really hurtful,
and we don't want that to be but again, we
do want to celebrate those who are making a difference
in our activists in these communities. So with that, we
are starting off the list with the legend herself, carrisam
Moore Caarisa Moore is an Olympic champion surfer who won
the gold medal in women's shortboard surfing in twenty twenty

(03:50):
and has qualified for the twenty twenty four Olympic gains. Yeah,
she started surfing with her dad at the age of
five in Honolulu. And yeah, this woman has won all
of the awards. Well, at least it feels like it.
As I was looking at the list, I'm like, that's
a lot, So I'm just gonna leave it there. But
she is a five time world champion and is still

(04:13):
making waves obviously in the surfing world. And with all that,
she founded the More Aloha nonprofit, which quote supports young
women through scholarships, mentorships, and annual events centered on surfing.
We found that out on Britannica dot com. Thank you
very much.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
And she recently opened up about her own mental health
struggles and the need to care for herself and her
well being. She told Pop Sugar quote earlier this year,
I made a huge decision to step away from competing
on the Championship Tour full time. It is something that
I had thought about for a few years. I was exhausted.
Competing at the top level is very intense. I needed

(04:51):
some time to shift focus and follow the joy, follow
my heart. It's been a fun last couple of months.
I'm busy in a different way and a little bit
less stress, which is awesome. It's gotten me to be
creative and think about other things aside from surfing.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
Right. But of course again, she's coming back for the Olympics,
and she did say this would be her last big
competition for a while. Anyway, I think that's a really
big competition to end on.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
I I know then we have Coco Ho. Ho has
been surfing since the age of seven and even earned
her first sponsorship at the age of eight. She has
won countless competitions and she was the youngest woman to
qualify for the World Surfing League at the age of
seventeen and a bit more from Forbes dot com quote,

(05:40):
Hoe was the youngest woman to ever qualify for the
World Surf League Women's World Tour at age seventeen, and
prior to the WSL, she tore up the youth circuit,
winning her first major event in pro surfing in two
thousand and five, when she became the Open Women's Regional
champion for Hawaii. In two thousand and seven alone, Hoe

(06:00):
won the VQS Championship and the Triple Crown Rookie of
the Year award and napped the US Open Junior Pro
Champion in two thousand and eight. Nearly every year after
that until twenty sixteen, Hoe won multiple surf championships across
the globe, from the Pacific to the Iberian coast.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Right and with all her success, she has recently launched
our own surfboard brand, XO Coco Oh. And also she
was a part of the only surfing movie I ever watched,
Blue Crush? Is that true? I probably watched other surfing movies,
but none of them left an impact like Blue Crush.
Well centered around It wasn't centered around women competing, so

(06:41):
so it was centered around a white woman competing. But
it is what it is. She also has become a
fierce advocate for those who suffer from types of skin disorders,
as some one who suffers from atopic dommatitis AD. She's

(07:03):
been working alongside medical professionals to not only educate people,
but helping people to get treatment so they can navigate
the challenges of doing outdoor activities like surfing, and she
was talked about how painful it can be. So yes,
that's an amazing thing to be a part of. Oh
and here are a few girls that were featured in
the twenty twenty three documentary from Amazon. Yes, I need

(07:23):
to put this on your list. Kai Kai Na Surf Girls.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
Yes, Okay. Starting with Pua de Soto. DeSoto has been
surfing most of her life with her family, who are
also legends in the community. DeSoto has said that she
has been surfing since she was five months old, and
it was at the age of eleven she decided to
go professional. According to Free Surf magazine quote, DeSoto grew

(07:47):
up surfing and learning from the best under their guidance.
She began competing in local HASA and NSSA contest when
she was eleven. By age thirteen, she was doing w
s L, Junior pros and QS events. Now, at age sixteen,
Desto has seven national titles under her belt.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Right, and this article was from two years ago, so
she's lacking now, she's still a baby, but she's still
winning all the awards. And then we have Brianna Cope,
a surfer who has recently begun to embrace her disability
and who has always been a tough and fears competitor
in the sport. In twenty twenty three, she made the
USA national team for the ISA World Surfing Game, and
has been surfing since the age of four, and was

(08:29):
in her first competition just six years later at age ten.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
She talked about her past experiences of being bullied for
her disability. She was born with the physical impairment of
her hand and trying to hide it from the world.
She told Olympics dot Com growing up, it's always so
hard to be labeled as different. When I was a kid,
I thought everyone was different, and I was the one
with the normal hand. Being born with a birth defect

(08:54):
and having kids pick on you, it really is so tough.
I was always so shy, so embarrassed. So that taught me, though,
to overcome. I bring it back to competing because I
have the drive and the tenacity from being bullied and
from being pushed down so much that I'm able to overcome.
I feel like it translates into my surfing and how
I am as a person.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
Right And I believe she has a different documentary as well,
specifically about her career, so that's something to look up
as well. And then we have a ul Ulay Wang
who started surfing at the age of two and began
competing at the age of nine years old. Yeah, I
feel like I definitely have missed the boat on surfing.
He at the end of the window, completely missed it.

(09:39):
And according to the inertia dot Com quote, in twenty
twenty two, Wang finished third at the Sunset Pro, fourth
at the Hallewa Challenger, and one goal at the ISA
World Junior Surfing Championships, helping Hawaii bring home the overall
team gold. Yeah. And in that same article they ask
about her childhood and surfing, which she said, something my
parents always told me was it's not just about you,

(10:00):
is about a bigger picture. You're not just surfing for yourself.
You're surfing for your people and your culture. That's always
been a big part of the reason for why I serf,
especially going to a Hawaiian emerging school where we learn
to speak the language and about our culture. Surfing as
a cultural practice and learning about the language kind of
came hand in hand, which is an amazing idea. So

(10:21):
with that we're going to end because I know that's
just so short and sweet, but we are going to win.
With a shout out to the ladies on the twenty
twenty four US Olympics surfing team, including Carissa Moore, Caroline
Marx from Florida and Katie Simmers from California, good luck.
We can't wait to see what you do.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
Yes, Yes, just yes. And we have done past episodes
on how kind of recent women in the Olympics is actually,
so check those out if you would like again let
us know there's anything we missed. You can email us
at Stuphandia mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You can
find us on Twitter at mom Stuff podcast, or on

(11:00):
Instagram and TikTok at Steffone Never Told You. We're also
on YouTube. We have a tea public store, and we
have a book where we talk about the Olympics. You
can get wherever you want to get your books wherever
you would want to Yes, thanks as always, you are
super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya and our contributor Joey.
Thank you and we're sorry. Yes, and thanks to you

(11:23):
for listening. Steffone Never Told You is protection by Heart
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