Quick Take
Longtime Santa Cruz surfer Alaya Vautier has spent three decades in the water and says sexism, racism and exclusion remain deeply embedded in local surf culture. While she respects the intentions behind a female surf statue – now proposed for Capitola – she believes symbolism alone cannot address those problems and might even reinforce narrow ideas about who belongs in the lineup.
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A group of Santa Cruz surfers and non-surfers has been working on a proposal for a bronze statue of a female surfer to match the famous male surfer that stands on West Cliff Drive. The statue is intended to honor women in the water. I understand and respect the intention behind this project, but as a woman who has spent more than 30 years in the water, I can tell you firsthand that a statue of a female surfer, no matter where it is located, will not make me safer in the water.
In fact, it risks doing the opposite.
This statue, originally proposed for the Dirt Farm in Pleasure Point, and now likely being relocated to Capitola, may or may not “honor” women in the water, but it will definitely define who is worthy of being honored. Public monuments shape the public imagination of who belongs. This statue risks reinforcing the belief that surfing belongs to only certain kinds of women and people.
Which women will this statue represent?
Most likely, this statue will represent a very particular kind of woman surfer: young, conventionally attractive, fit, feminine, long-haired and white. The kind of woman who is already accepted, celebrated and made visible within mainstream surf culture. Meanwhile, those of us who may be older, darker-skinned, fat, visibly queer, disabled or otherwise outside that narrow image will remain unseen and unsafe.
Recently, three friends and I — all women surfers — were violently harassed at a local beach because we were not perceived as surfers and were told we did not belong there. For over an hour, a local surfer and his friends threatened us with physical violence, told us to get off “their” beach, and made it clear that in their eyes, the ocean and beach did not belong to us because we were “not surfers.”
Just as the (white, fit, young) male surfer statue on the Westside makes it very clear who is welcome in the water, a statue of a white, fit, feminine, young female surfer will continue to reinforce this toxic culture of which women belong and which do not. This statue will further reinforce the actions of the men on the beach who violently threatened us for simply existing outside their preferred aesthetic.
I cannot help but feel this statue potentially puts me at risk of more violence.
That experience is not separate from surf culture. It is surf culture. West Coast surf culture has long been shaped by localism, exclusion, racism, sexism, homophobia and violence. Certain people are welcomed while others are treated as outsiders no matter how much time they spend in the water. Recently an acquaintance of mine – a Black, female surfer – was getting back in the water after taking some time off because the racism in the lineup had become unbearable.
This is the current surf culture in Santa Cruz. Surfing does not need another statue, another “honor” or to be put on a pedestal.
I do not doubt that the people behind this project have good intentions. But symbolism without action won’t keep me safe. If this project truly wants to honor women in the water, then it should follow the example of the Black Lives Matter mural in Santa Cruz. The mural was not created just as an ego project. It came with a call for organizations and community members to actively engage in the difficult work of addressing racism that is alive and well in this community.
That is what it looks like to “be about it,” not just talk about it.
While I would rather not have the statue at all, if those behind this statue want it to truly stand for something, then pair it with real, visible action. Show the community what you are doing — year after year — to make the water safer and more inclusive. Stand up to the sexism and racism in the water and on the cliffs. Stand up to the groms who tell beginner surfers to go home. Stand up to the obvious elitism, entitlement and privilege in the water.
Put your money where your mouth is and support Black Surf Santa Cruz and other organizations that are actively working hard every day to make the water safer and more inclusive.
This statue will clearly signal who is welcome; therefore, the designers need to be exceedingly thoughtful of who they are representing and who they are excluding. Strongly consider making this statue in the likeness of an old woman with wrinkles from years in the sun, older body, short hair, and dark-skinned. Let it come with a commitment to confronting the exclusion and violence that continue to define so much of surf culture today.
Without action, this statue will just be an empty ego booster that actually causes more harm than good.
Alaya Vautier lives in Santa Cruz and has been surfing for more than 30 years.
