Australian Longboarder Requests Pay Parity for Winning Event, Retroactively Receives it

Lucy Small is a longboarder from Australia’s east coast.

This past weekend, Lucy won a long boarding event at North Curl Curl, the prize for which was $1,500. The men’s winner, in comparison, received $4,000.

“Thank you to the sponsors for the money they’ve put into the event, but I would say it’s a bittersweet victory knowing that our surfing is worth half of the men’s prize money,” Lucy said when receiving her prize.

“It took the same amount to drive here, flights were the same cost to fly here, accommodation cost the same and our surfing is worth half [as] much. So maybe we can think about that for next time.”

That’s when Global Surf Industries (GSI) came to the table, offering to cover the difference between the men’s and women’s prize purses. GSI’s chief executive Mark Kelly transferred $4,850 to the event organizers to make sure all the women finalists received the same pay as their male counterparts.

“I did this for two reasons,” Mr Kelly said.

“Firstly, it was a very brave move by Lucy to speak up and two, it was great to see the club own the issue and say that they would change from next year. I thought that was great, but this year’s winners missed out. So I thought we would help rectify the situation.”

Read the rest of the story here, courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald.