‘Killing waves’: surfing, space and gender

This article is concerned with the changing relationships between space, gender and surfing bodies. To examine how gender and surf space are mutually constituted, this paper draws on empirical materials from qualitative research carried out with young people who surf the breaks of the Illawarra, New South Wales, Australia. The article is framed within theoretical works relating to Elspeth Probyn's spatial imperative of subjectivities and the performance of corporeal femininities and masculinities. The results suggest while diversities, complexities and contradictions are present within the gendered attributes of surfing spaces, the power of dualistic ideas continue to play an important role in framing the relationships between space, gender and surfing bodies.