‘Teahupo’o is for the women after all’: flawless surfing vindicates push for gender equality

Progress was crystalised in Tahiti this week as elite female surfers fearlessly charged one of the globe’s most testing waves

BARREL: Vahine Fierro surfs a huge barrel at Teahupo’o on her way to winning the World Surf League’s Tahiti Pro. Pic: Thomas Bevilacqua/Reuters

ASKED two years ago about the advancement towards gender equality in surfing, Australia’s Tyler Wright told the New York Times that “it takes a lot of minor, small, minute shifts for progress to really happen”. But sometimes, those incremental steps culminate in a decisive moment. Change, to paraphrase Ernest Hemmingway, can come gradually and then all at once.

This week, that moment came for women’s surfing. In heaving eight to 10ft swell at Teahupo’o in Tahiti, renowned as one of the most fearsome waves in the world, the best female surfers put on a spectacular show. “Teahupo’o is for the women after all,” exclaimed event winner Vahine Fierro, following one of the most exhilarating days of competitive surfing in the sport’s history.