Surfer Denied Entry Into Competition After Gender Equality Work

Gender equality advocate and longboarder, Lucy Small, has been denied entry to a surfing competition after speaking out about unequal prize money for men and women.

A cofounder of equality group Equal Pay For Equal Pay, Small received an email on Christmas Eve from chairman of the Noosa Festival of Surfing, John Finlay, who rejected her entry to next year’s competition.

“Thank you for your interest in competing in the 2025 Noosa Festival of Surfing,” the email read. “We note that you are currently ineligible to enter any surfing competitions where the Noosa Malibu Club is a stakeholder. Accordingly, we are unable to accept your entry.”

When Small questioned why she was suspended, the club failed to return her email.

President of the Noosa Malibu Club, Glen Gower, issued a statement to the Sydney Morning Herald on 30 December, in which he said “Ms Small is currently banned from all Noosa Malibu Club Events” due to her bringing the club into “national disrepute” for comments made “via media channels” that the club claim were false.

When questioned by the Herald, Finlay said that Small had made “erroneous statements about equal prize money at a club event”.

Comments made in 2023 article brought club into ‘disrepute’

The event in question, the Noosa Logger in 2023, was written about by Equal Pay for Equal Play co-founder and sports journalist, Kate Allman. Allman claimed the prize money was unequal, with women receiving more than $200 less than the men.

“It’s pretty disappointing really, to keep seeing this happen,” Small was quoted as saying in the article. “We’re at a point where everyone just needs to accept equal prize money as the status quo. That’s where the expectation of the community and of the surfers, and of the media, is.”

In the article, Gower defended the competition, saying that women had been free to enter the open division for a chance to earn the same prize money as male entrants.

Later, an apology was issued to the club by Surfing Australia after it found the event hadn’t broken Surfing Australia’s regulations at the time.

On December 6 2023, Gower filed a complaint to Surfing Australia against Small, saying she had breached the group’s code of conduct by giving “inaccurate” information to Allman, and brought the club into disrepute on her personal social media accounts.

Small said the complaint was not upheld.

“Is this the culture of surfing we’re aspiring to? Is this the kind of event surfers and sponsors want to be part of?” Small wrote in a post on her Instagram.

“I think people in the world of surfing who have never had their views challenged or questioned don’t like it when someone is forthright and defiant, but I don’t think those who are should be prevented from competing.”