Justin Cuevas, & Dr. Lindsey Trimble O’Connor
Surfing has been a male dominated sport since its inception in the United States in the early 1900’s and has continued that trend even as women’s participation in sports has become more equitable. The gendered differences in sports are expanded in surfing by a lack of representation for women and lack of access to resources. There has not been a study that examines self-perceived ability which is important because a higher self-rated ability shows confidence and a feeling of being accepted. My research question was how does gender and years spent surfing impact a surfer’s self-rated ability? I hypothesized that women will have a lower self-rated ability than men regardless of time spent surfing. The research was conducted using secondary data analysis from data collected using the online Surfing Access Disruption Survey conducted from April 2020 through April 2021. The sample size included a total of 921 men and women that surf with experience ranging from beginners less than a year to 66 years. A means comparison test was conducted between women and men that have surfed from 0-2 years, 3-5 years, 6-10 years, 10-19 years and 20+ years. I found that there were significant differences in women and men’s self-rated ability among people that surfed 0-2 years as well as 11 to 20+ years with females having a significantly lower self-rated assessment of their abilities. There was no significant difference in self-rated ability the between men and women that have been surfing from 3 to 10 years. By identifying the differences in self-rated ability among men and women this research is able to call attention to the disparities between men and women that surf bring the community closer to equality in and out of the water.