Surfing

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Viva Gidget

By Elisabeth Gause

April 24, 2006

San Diego--My favorite surf flick is not The Endless Summer, Big Wednesday or even Blue Crush; it’s Gidget. Yeah, the movie where they aren’t even really surfing. My love for the movie is as pure as Gidge’s love for surfing. You see, while her girlfriends are strategically tossing a beach ball to catch a few boys, Gidget is going ga-ga over the surfing—not the surfers, the surfing. This I can relate to. I am Gidget. However, there’s something else I can relate to in this schmaltzy film. Fifty years after it was made, the boy-girl dynamic in the water is exactly the same.

In the beginning of the movie, the surfer guys don’t take Gidget too seriously when she says she wants to learn to surf, (Heck, even the nickname of “Gidget” is mocking.) but when she almost drowns and wants to go back out for more, suddenly they love her (and her nickname takes on a note of endearment.) They want to teach her, help her, adopt her or date her. That’s not too far from the truth in the water. However, Gidget only tells the beginning of the story.

It doesn’t show you what happens to girls once they can surf.

Even though boys outnumber girls like stars do planets, there’s something more important than mathematical odds: skill. When a girl is first learning to surf, she’s approachable. A guy can, and often does, offer her a tip or a bit of encouragement. Some guys are just trying to be nice; others are definitely flirting. Whatever, they’re chatty.

As the girl gets better, something happens. The boys back off. Now she doesn’t need their help, her Bambi eyes are gone, and she’s no longer tentative. She doesn’t wait for a guy to give her a wave because she’s charging after them fearlessly. Things are more equal now, … though not really.

But before I get to the inequality, let’s take a look at what happens when a girl gets really good. Think Anne Marie in Blue Crush. In that movie, the only guys who hit on her are stellar surfers and NFL quarterbacks. That’s slim pickings—good pickings, but slim. Why? Because what guy is going to hit on a girl who can surf better than he can? And even if his ego can handle it, he’s still not going to hit on her. Why again? Because, as one guy surfer told me, “She’s obviously not out there to be hit on."

“Let me get this straight,” I said, “She’s cute, loves to surf and is good at it, so you’re not going to talk to her?”

He nodded.

Before I could say it, he did. “Yeah, it’s messed up, but it’s true.”

It’s worse than that. It’s chauvinistic.

Now, we’re back to the inequality. And Gidget.

In the movie, the Big Kahuna is the best surfer. Hence, all the guys want to be him and all the girls want to be with him. Then there’s Moondoggie who is a young Kahuna in training and the object of young Gidge’s crush. But this isn’t just a Hollywood movie; this is how it really is. The better a guy surfs, the more chicks he gets.

It’s easy and socially acceptable for a girl to watch a guy shred a wave and compliment him on his paddle back out. No one thinks the less of her for being an “inferior” surfer. In fact, there’s a serious undercurrent of expectation that the guy is going to be the better surfer. I say “undercurrent” because most surfers won’t readily admit this.

But if the really good girl surfers are in the water to surf and not to be hit on, isn’t that true for the boys? Maybe. But they don’t seem to mind too much when girls flirt. It’s understood that it’s inevitable. In fact, it’s practically an acknowledgment of how good they really are.

So, sure, it’s unfair for chicks, but a recent conversation with a non-surfing friend of mine eased the frustration of inequality for me.

“Don’t you get hit on all the time?”

“I used to,” I told him. “The better I get, the less they flirt—unless they’re really good. They’re the only ones who will hit on me now.”

My friend, with a furrowed brow, asked, “Isn’t that who you want? I mean, you don’t want a guy who isn’t really good, do you?”

Every once in a while, those non-surfers make a valid point.

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Elisabeth Gause is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to Vyuz.