Women in RI surfing tour - Headline

The Jakarta Post, Kuta, Bali

The organizers of Indonesian Surfing Championships (ISC) announced Saturday that they would include a women's division in its tour season this year.

Spokesman for the organizers, Tim Hain, said that three sponsors had already committed to including the women's division in their events this year.

"Incredibly, without any formal announcement being sent out, six women have already come to the ISC office and signed up to get their ISC membership cards this week," he said in a statement.

The first event will be the Roxy Open at Keramas Beach in April during the Quiksilver Open, the second will be at Legian Beach in mid-October at the Villa Mana Charity Surf event, and the season closer will be during the Rip Curl Surf and Music Festival at Kuta Beach in late October.

"The point's leader at the end of the year will receive the women's championship trophy at the ISC awards presentation scheduled for early November," he added.

With the rapidly growing popularity of the sport of surfing in Indonesia, more and women are getting into it and finding that the thrill of riding waves is not only for the guys. The stigma of surfing being a purely man's sport in Indonesia is being blunted by the alluring images of women at the beach and in the water, from the young daughters of famous Australian, American, and Hawaiian surfers in magazine ads to movies like Blue Crush and the MTV series Boarding House-North Shore.

"Not to mention movie stars like Cameron Diaz seen taking surfing lessons from Rizal Tanjung at Dreamland Beach in Bali," Tim added.

According to him, some major international surfwear companies have created brands exclusively for the women's market, such as Quiksilver/Roxy, Rip Curl Girl, Billabong Girls and Rusty Chix.

Bali's own Surfer Girl is a company dedicated exclusively to providing surfing and beachwear products to women of all ages, recently adding a surfing school as well.

Rip Curl holds "Girls Go Surfing" days several times per year at their Rip Curl Surf School, inviting women and girl celebrities from Jakarta to give surfing a try alongside tourists and locals.