Adventure Magazine

paige hareb
our kiwi superstar
privileged to be part of the journey
Words by Steve Dickinson | Images by WSL
Intimacy in sport is rare. Sports people hold everyone at arms-length for
a number of reasons; often they just want to be judged by their results
alone. However, one Kiwi sports star that we have watched grow up and
have been privileged to be part of their journey is Paige Hareb. The stars
simply aligned; we were there when she got her first big break at Piha,
and I clearly remember the day she walked out of the water at Log Cabins
in Hawaii, and it was confirmed she was on the World Tour. We have
been there through the wins and the losses, the highs and the lows, the
elation and the disappointments. In a sport dominated by men – Paige,
and women like her, have been on the cutting edge of the push for
equality for women which has created the platform for today’s successes.
I first met Paige Hareb when she was about 12, long
white ponytail, little skinny arms and already on her
way to being a Kiwi surfing superstar. As Paige’s
career started it coincided with Pacific Media (us,
Adventure) launching Curl, a female surf magazine. In
hindsight, we did see the birth and growth of women’s
surfing as a credible sport, but when we started it
was clear that there was no equality in the sport for
women. I clearly recall at Piha that the women’s bikini
contest winner got more money than the winner of
the female surf competition, prize money given by
the same sponsor! Local and international surfing
associations would openly send the women out to
compete when the surf was at its worst. When women
paddled out, I would often be the only cameraman still
standing on the beach shooting.
As we became friends with Paige and her family and
watched first-hand as she dealt with and struggled
with all the issues of sponsorship, costs and sexism
as a female surfer, those inequalities became very
apparent. It seems most sports; soccer, ice hockey,
and tennis all struggled with this same issues; quality
of competition, recognition and equity in prize money
and coverage.
If you roll back annuls of time you have plenty of
examples that women deserve equality; the likes
of Billy Jean King (female) beating Bobby Riggs
(male) in 1973 (which was in fact the most attended
tennis match in US history with over 30,000 people),
Kathrine Switzer No. 261, who tried to join in the
all-male Boston Marathon course in 1967, Venus
Williams pushing Wimbledon for equality which they
eventually got. And in surfing the list is long; Keala
Kennelly, Lane Benchley, Steph Gilmore all had their
part to play in gaining that equality.
The pay equality in surfing reached boiling point
when this photo was published after the Ballito Pro
Junior Series event in South Africa in June 2018 on
Facebook. Here it shows Indonesia's Rio Waida with
a cheque for 8000 rand and home surfer Zoe Steyn
holding a cheque for half that amount!
The subsequent furore on social media intensified the
pressure on the surfing authorities and WSL made
their announcement two months later of equity across
the board.
Steph Gilmore talking to InStyle magazine said: "We
had just announced equal prize pay. And I realised,
world titles are awesome, but what this stood for
meant more. That was badass.”
But equality is not just about sex, it’s about race and
age and social standing. Surfing seems to be at the
forefront of those battles and winning. We have had
surfers on the world tour who grew up in poverty
learning to surf on a piece of wood. We have the likes
of Kelly Slater who at 50 is still winning major events
against competitors that are a quarter his age. And as
pay parity and equal opportunity have blossomed for
women in surfing so has their competitive edge and
quality of competition.
Our own Paige Hareb is now 32 in a sport that is
marketed at youth, Paige is still winning at a top level
and looks to others like Kelly Slater as an example of,
"if you want it bad enough you can just keep going".
We caught up with Paige between sets and
destinations to ask her about her latest win and life
on tour...
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