A new documentary sh a light on gay surfers around the world, and fds secret liv, stggl for sponsorship – and even suicis. <strong>Will Coldwell</strong> reports
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SURFER KEALA KENNELLY PROUD TO BE OPENLY GAY WORLD CHAMPN
Meet Keala Kennelly, the world's first female surfer punk. The openly gay, bold, and fearls big wave charger is settg rerds and breakg prejudice. * gay female surfers *
Dpe beg an active advote of gay rights, a genr equaly enthiast, and a public LGBT person, she is mostly known for her tube-ridg stunts and swell-chasg adventur. Keala Kennelly is the first openly gay surfer to have won a world surfg tle.
COMG OUT: TO BE A GAY SURFER
* gay female surfers *
When she stopped hidg and publicly revealed she was gay, Keala lost three of his four sponsors, and the fourth cut her salary half.
Her ttimonial as a gay person is an example of how difficult is to pe wh those who surround when we belong to a sexual mory. "And I saw how lbians or people that were prumed gay or jt women on tour that were kd of not feme and kd of rough-lookg were treated.
"That was sry to me, and so at that pot, I thk I had a lot of ternalized homophobia about beg gay and got a boyiend and tried to hi . "It was fun, but I remember I didn't e nng around tellg everybody I was gay or like flgg a rabow flag. “I thought would be nice if I uld fd at least one other gay surfer out there, ” he says.
Surfer Keala Kennelly is openly gay and now a world champn * gay female surfers *
And as the membership grew – to clu many who thought they were only gay surfer the world – so did the stori. Surfers, cludg many profsnal on, were wrg to Castets to expla how they had felt pelled to keep their sexualy secret, faced homophobia the sport or stggled the surf dtry as a rult of g year Thomas, along wh Atralian former state champn surfer David Wakefield – who chose not to pursue a surfg reer out of a fear of beg “found out” as gay – cid to go on a trip around the world to meet some of them. Their journey – ptured award-wng documentary Out the Le-up, which premier the UK this week – sheds a light on the experienc of gay surfers around the world as seeks to unrstand why the sport ntu to stggle to be open about the the stori heard are that of former petive surfer Sie Hernanz, whose fellow surfers and roommat moved out after fdg out she was gay.
For all of the eye-openg experienc associated wh the sport of surfg, there seems to be ltle mentn or acknowledgment of surfg’s gay muny. * gay female surfers *
It also touch on the tragic se of Ben Roper, a young gay surfer om one of Sydney’s famo surf gangs, the Bra Boys, who killed himself last year.
At the time, she felt unable to adm that she was gay. “I have seen so many talented female surfers e and go bee they didn’t have the support om the surfg dtry due to the fact that they were eher gay, spected of beg gay, not feme enough or they simply did not f the image that brands believe sells product, ” she says. “To e out as gay the surfg dtry is to step out of the bounds of what is nsired ‘marketable’, so I suffered the nsequenc of that, ” she actn shot om Out the Le-up.
Gay surfers speak up about homophobia upg documentary. * gay female surfers *
Photograph: PRFor Ian Thomson, who directed the documentary and is himself gay and a surfer, is not jt the profsnal aspect of surfg that n feel very hostile to a gay person.