The Double-Up

When the Margaret River Pro kicked off a couple weeks ago a little-known historical note for professional surfing was also taking place; two women were hired to be the main event photographers for the first time ever. 

While women have been an integral part of the WSL's photography team for a while now, two had never been paired together until Be Ryder and Cait Miers joined forces in Western Australia.

In the aftermath of the co...

We have arrived at the midway point of a whirlwind WSL Championship Tour season, with six events down and six to go. Three CTs have run in the few weeks since we last recorded and there's only one more chance for the women on Tour to make the Mid-season Cut.

This episode we delve into the rankings to catch up with where each of the women are currently sitting and what their year has looked like so far. We also delve into the WS...

For those who follow our Instagram, you may have seen or engaged with a conversation we started relating to a comment from the booth at the recently wrapped Portugal CT. It wasn't necessarily an offensive comment - it was intended as a huge compliment - but it tapped into a theme we brought up on our collab episode with The Lineup regarding how performance is viewed between genders.

This episode we recap the ensuing discussion ...

In a first for The Double-Up, The Lineup reached out with the opportunity to join in on a special collab epsiode to discuss the current state of women's surfing. 

Never ones to pass up an opportunity to dig in deep on their favorite subject, Shan and Rach joined Lineup host Dave Prodan for a conversation that spanned topics from moving beyond an era where the highest compliment a woman could receive was that she surfs like a ma...

In theory the two major surfing events that ran back-to-back in mid-February could not have been more different - one held at a man-made wave in a place no surf contest deserves to be, seemingly at odds with the nature of surfing; the other at the furthest ends of the surf exploratory world, seemingly embodying the nature of surfing. 

It was surprising then that the two events actually shared a few similarities that get at the heart...

Growing up on the Hawaiian island of Maui, Annie Reickert has spent her life embedded in the harsh elements of the windy isle, embracing them to grow into a waterwoman of the highest order.

After receiving her first full invite to the 2024/2025 Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational, the 23-year-old placed highest out of the ten women who took part, despite surfing Waimea for the very first time in her opening heat.

This episode we catch-...

It took some time to get there but the 2025 CT season is off and running with Pipe run and won by two-time World Champion Tyler Wright, who is now wearing the yellow jersey for the first time in nearly two years...headed into Abu Dhabi.

It wasn't peak Pipe (for the women!), but wow did they have some moments. This episode we debrief that event, talk about Abu Dhabi as a CT venue, and preview the fast-approaching conte...

Vahine Fierro needs no introduction. As one of the most beloved figures in modern-day surfing, Vahine has carried herself throughout her career with an air of joy and beauty, buoyed by her frank honesty. She won the 2017 WSL World Junior Championship in a small beachbreak and the 2024 SHISEIDO Tahiti Pro as a wildcard at large, barreling Teahupo’o.

In this episode we chat with Vahine about her unique upbringing, her long r...

From Margo to Molly, Sofia to Steph, Chelsea and Carissa to Caity and Caroline, Sandy to Sally, Pam to Paige, Lynne to Layne, the Championship Tour has provided us an incredible array of women across three different organizations over nearly 50 years.

As deep as the list of amazing women to grace the Tour is, their numbers have been capped at 18, at best, for the entirety of its existence, compared with 48 and above for th...

It's a bumper episode this week, delving into all the news we've missed in recent times.

We start by catching up on the end of the Challenger Series, talking through each of the qualifiers for the 2025 CT, before delving into a Lazer Breathing Dragons tangent, which leads straight into the ISA World Masters, for which we talk to two of the three Australian women on their team, the 1993 and 1995 ASP Rookies of the...

In a surprise to no-one, we have dedicated this entire episode to the incredible feat that our co-host has accomplished in winning her second World Title.

Having recently interviewed Rach after her US Open win, Shan approached this one differently, taking a holistic look at Rach's career. The two talk through her first World Title and the many changes the Longboard Tour has gone through in the period of time since sh...

The Longboard Tour has reached its pinnacle for 2024, with the inaugural Abu Dhabi Longboard Classic being wrapped and the Top 8 decided for El Salvador. Our very own Rachael Tilly sits in prime position to challenge for her second World Title later this week when the Longboard Finals kick off.

This episode Shan and Rach catch up on Abu Dhabi and preview El Salvador, while also checking in on the Challenger Series and gett...

Another season is now officially in the books and, at 18-years-old, Caity Simmers is your new World Champion.

As predicted by Rach and Shan last episode, an initial loss to defending World Champion Caroline Marks fired Caity up. Fueled by support from her crew of sand children, she delivered some of the best surfing of the year and put a solid stamp on an incredible season.

This episode we talk through everything ...

We're nothing if not wildly inconsistent. No episodes for two months and then two in a week? Welcome to the show.

With an extremely quick turnaround from Fiji into the Finals, and with the only real swell of the Finals waiting period expected on day one, we've hustled to make sure Fiji gets its due and that our Finals picks are in just in time for them to probably be wrong.

We are also joined by Erin Br...

This episode our co-hosts are front and center after a major return to the top of the podium for Rach and a big second Olympic Games opportunity for Shan. With the two events happening almost simultaneously, we figured the best plan was for them to interview each other about their experiences, covering all the rest of the action in each event along the way. We also finish with some discussion around Shan's recent post and anno...

Two big things for 2024 are presently getting underway and we've returned from the cliff we fell off to give you a glimpse of the excitement that awaits competitive women's surfing in the coming days.

It's as straightforward an episode as the title suggests. We take a peek at the draw for the Bells Beach Longboard Classic which Rach is competing in right now, as well as looking at the overall 2024 Longboard ...

The Western Australia Margaret River Pro is always a captivating event, with all kinds of variables thrown at surfers in the wild west, especially now with the dreaded Mid-Season Cut. This year's epic Finals Day almost washed away the many short and strange days that led up to it, with a forecast that provided stunning lay days, but only small pockets of 'contestable' surf.

All of that provided our favorite...

Who knew that as we started the conversation in our last episode, Stab were already deep in production of the latest episode in their How Surfers Get Paid series, covering exactly the same topic - the sexualization of women's surfing.

This time around we further the conversation covering the subjects raised in Stab's series, plus breakdown the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach (presented by Bonsoy!) and preview the Wester...