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
Contents:
- THIS GAY PRO SURFER ME OUT TO HIS "MAT" WHEN A GROCERY CLERK H ON HIM
- THIS GAY SURFER STARTED AN ONLYFANS PAGE TO FEEL SEXY, AND ’S WORKG
- THIS GAY MEXIN SURFER ED HULA-HOOPG TO START HIS NEW LIFE
- SURFG: THE SPORT OF EEDOM? NOT IF YOU’RE GAY
THIS GAY PRO SURFER ME OUT TO HIS "MAT" WHEN A GROCERY CLERK H ON HIM
* gay surfboard *
Many of fd pri nightlife; others meet fellow LGBTQ people through gay sports leagu, an opportuny to fd chosen fay while playg kickball or water polo. So the recently blossomg ttage dtry of gay surf muni marks another, much-need space that allows queer people to be their thentic selv—while also gettg traed a sport they might have long been terted but never felt like they uld be a part ’s still early days for the LGBTQ surf world, but visible muni of queer surfers have begun to bubble up recent years, spac welg everyone om longtime thrill-seekers who’ve felt the need to keep their sexualy unr wraps to those seekg the joy of ridg a wave for the first time their Brazil native Marta Dalla Chia is jt one advote spearheadg this changg current.
One of their most buzzed-about packag is lled, simply, Gay Surf Brazil; ’s a weeklong retreat that nnects LGBTQ+ people terted surfg while also helpg to fight homophobia surfg by simply existg wh the space. It was started 2013, origally partnership wh Thomas Castets, the founr of the social work and producer of Out the Le-up, a documentary about what ’s like to be gay the world of surfg. “I had never realized the extent of homophobia surfg, ” Dalla Chia says “I always had the imprsn surfers are so chill, that they wouldn't be bothered about this.
THIS GAY SURFER STARTED AN ONLYFANS PAGE TO FEEL SEXY, AND ’S WORKG
When Thomas lled me and talked about his film, you see how homophobic [thgs n be], pecially at the profsnal level.
In the Stat or Atralia, I thk the homophobia is there even if 's subdued.
”Out the Le-up offers a sweepg overview of the challeng that gay surfers around the world have faced, cludg fdg kship wh people like themselv—a mon stggle the LGBTQ muny—and a lack of sponsorships as out gay surfers at the profsnal level. In a 2014 terview wh The Guardian, Castets explaed surfg’s ep-rooted homophobia more pth. There have never really been any gay surfers out there, so I would jt ll that ignorance and a lack of visibily.
THIS GAY MEXIN SURFER ED HULA-HOOPG TO START HIS NEW LIFE
Marketg for popular surfer brands also ntue to be heteronormative, rercg archaic genr rol—Billabong land hot water back 2017 for an ad that many lled sexist bee while showed a male surfer shreddg wav, the female was featured posg sensually on the beach a biki wh no surfboard the past few years hostg Gay Surf Brazil, Dalla Chia has heard stori om people who didn’t feel fortable divg to the sport bee of s “macho culture.
”In the Uned Kgdom, London-based actor Mattie Stewart and his iend Kris Cilak have been planng trips they’ve dubbed Gay Surf Week for the past three years. Stewart only started surfg three years ago while on a trip to Fuerteventura Spa’s Canary Islands and fell love wh the sport, so he and Cilak cid to turn to a hashtag (#GaySurfWeek) and a yearly travel statn.
Now, anizg Gay Surf Week has bee a retreat of sorts, givg him the opportuny to fd mararie wh other gay surfers.
SURFG: THE SPORT OF EEDOM? NOT IF YOU’RE GAY
While same-sex marriage is legal and Brazil's Supreme Court voted favor of makg homophobia and transphobia crim, vlence agast LGBTQ people ntu. In 2018, 420 LGBT people were killed across Brazil acrdg to the rights group the Gpo Gay da Bahia. Addnally, Jair Bolsonaro, the untry’s current far-right print and a self-clared homophobe said earlier this year that “we n’t let this place bee known as a gay tourism paradise.