PPG Women's vs Men's Board Sizes

[Califoilia]

Just out of curiosity I went looking at the PPG website, and when I got to the pricing/registration page, noticed that all of the women's races have a board limit of 12'6" while them men's were "14' & Under"...which I thought was quite interesting given the recent thread here wrt the "WSL announces equal pay for women", and the following discussion about "equality" in the competition venues.

Seems to me that the PPG is (intentionally or not) stating that women can't handle or compete on the larger boards which I think is a big mistake for more than one reason.

So any idea on why they wouldn't just use the same "14' & Under" stipulation, and let the competitors choose which length board they're comfortable on, and feel would give them the best chance against the competition?

[pdxmike]

Yes, it makes sense to let competitors choose the board that works for them.   Around here, women were mostly on 12-6s until a couple years ago, but have been moving to 14s rapidly, especially as more narrow, light boards become available.  They use them for racing and for recreation.  Another thing is that in an event like PPG, longer boards aren't necessarily better for everyone, and even for someone who chooses one, there may be parts of the race (surf, turns, etc.) where the 12-6 might work better for them.  So it's not necessarily true that a 14' will always be better for everyone than a 12-6, or vice versa.  So why not let people choose?  We're now also at the point (at least in the NW) where there are plenty of women who don't have (and even never did have) a 12-6 race board.

I might feel differently if it turns out that women competing strongly prefer a 12-6 limit, for whatever reason.

[SaMoSUP]

The Open Women's class has a 14' division but no age category. I think all of the Pro women are on 12'6. But I think the Pro women would want to ride a 14' in the distance race?
Or is there some rule that they have to ride the same board for both tech & distance to qualify for overall prize?

[Area 10]

Idiotic. Let it be "maximum 14ft" for everyone. That is equality. People can then choose whatever they want - some men (especially smaller ones) might even choose 12-6 if the surf is big.

Stop patronising women. Let them choose. How can they *posdibly* justify giving men a choice but giving women NO choice, in this day and age?

[JEG]

That is not right to tell a woman your limited to 12'6 board.

[pdxmike]

So PPG is going up to the table where the racers are sitting, and asks the guy sitting closest, "What type of board for you?" and the guy answers, "I'll have a 14 footer".  Then PPG sees the woman racer sitting there, and turns back to the guy and asks him, "And for the lady?"  Sort of.

[burchas]

I would not be surprised if this is the last PPG. Good fu*king riddance to the morons at the helm!

[PonoBill]

I'm kind of done with it. I like the people that run it, nice folks, but there have always been some very strange choices made that I never understood.

Of course, I don't understand "maximum is 14' for everyone" either, how about "race whatever works for you" but I'm not going to be heading down that rathole again. I also won't be heading down to Cali for the PPG. Too bad, I've done a lot of them. But there's no way that it's as much fun as when it was the BOP. That was an amazing time, and I'm glad I could be a part of it. I always raced what I wanted to race, which was NEVER a 14, except for one year when I borrowed a 14' Bullet wideboy with a rudder for the distance race from the SIC crew--because the conditions were so turbulent I couldn't stand on the board I brought. I generally raced unlimited or surfboard.

And Salt Creek was the most awesome BOP ever. What a way to end the run. I can still picture coming in from the distance race on my 17 Bullet being chased by a well overhead wave. Holy buckets that was cool. Of course I got creamed but I rode it almost all the way to the beach before it turned into death by whitewater.

[PT Woody]

Seems to be a lot of middle aged male outrage over this latest setback to women's rights. Has anyone checked with the pro women to find out what board length they want at this event? Is it possible that PPG did this and arrived at 12'6" as a consensus?

[PonoBill]

Even though I'm disconnected from this stuff, yes, I have, though not in this context. Unsurprisingly the strong women paddlers want 14's.

[burchas]

All the strong women paddlers I know (one is an actual contender in this race) want 14'.

I'm more outraged by the stupidity of the organizers more than anything else.
These strong women can fend for them selves, I know they don't need me for that.

I would be happy if they boycott this race all together, render it dead and put the
last nail in the coffin for this circus. It seems the spectators for the most part has
done that already judging by the dwindling crowds year over year.

HanoHano on the other hand seems to pickup quite nicely.

[Area 10]

Seems to be a lot of middle aged male outrage over this latest setback to women's rights. Has anyone checked with the pro women to find out what board length they want at this event? Is it possible that PPG did this and arrived at 12'6" as a consensus?

It's not about the board lengths. It's about the principle of the men being given a choice where the women have none. It's about treating the genders equally. It could be pretty much any sport and pretty much any issue, and it would still be wrong.

[ukgm]

Seems to be a lot of middle aged male outrage over this latest setback to women's rights. Has anyone checked with the pro women to find out what board length they want at this event? Is it possible that PPG did this and arrived at 12'6" as a consensus?

It's not about the board lengths. It's about the principle of the men being given a choice where the women have none. It's about treating the genders equally. It could be pretty much any sport and pretty much any issue, and it would still be wrong.

I agree. This is crap decision and I'm amazed the social media hadn't picked up on it and helped kick this into the long grass.

[SaMoSUP]

I'm kinda wondering when/if the APP tour will include PPG or Doheny event to its schedule or maybe outright take it over. Pretty cool what they're doing in NY with distance race around Statue of Liberty, then Sprint race and surf comp in Long Beach. I think adding surf comp to PPG would be fun.

[SoFloSupChick]

I'm not a Pro, but this certainly is silly. They need to get with the times.

A couple of big races not too long ago made it the same policy for men and women (up to 14'), and Pro female racers seem to be applauding the decision: https://www.supthemag.com/news/two-major-sup-races-allow-allow-female-racers-pick-board-size/