Bill Text: CA SCR45 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: Women’s Surf Day.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 52-17)
Status: (Passed) 2023-05-18 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Res. Chapter 56, Statutes of 2023. [SCR45 Detail]
Download: California-2023-SCR45-Chaptered.html
Senate Concurrent Resolution
No. 45
CHAPTER 56
Relative to Women’s Surf Day.
[
Filed with
Secretary of State
May 18, 2023.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SCR 45, Blakespear.
Women’s Surf Day.
This measure would recognize April 8, 2023, and every April 8 thereafter, as Women’s Surf Day.
Digest Key
Fiscal Committee: NOBill Text
WHEREAS, Surfing was first introduced in California in 1885, and surf culture sprouted in 1886 in Santa Cruz and became popular in the 1960s after the first West Coast Surfing Championship in Huntington Beach, giving it the nickname “Surf City.” However, the acceptance of women participating in the sport of surfing was slow to develop; and
WHEREAS, Due to the growth of surf culture and its close identity with the State of California, surfing became the official sport of California pursuant to the enactment of Assembly Bill 1782 of the 2017–2018 Regular Session (Chapter 162 of the Statutes of 2018), and the Legislature, pursuant to Senate Concurrent Resolution 122 of the 2017–2018 Regular Session (Chapter 68 of the Resolutions of 2018) declared September 20, 2018, and every year on that date thereafter, as “California Surfing Day;” and
WHEREAS, Women have been surfing since the 17th century, but even in the 1950s and 1960s were not accepted as serious athletes, and they experienced discrimination and exclusion from professional surfing tours; and
WHEREAS, Women surfers in the State of California led the effort to open professional surfing to women when the “California Golden Girls” became the first women’s professional surf team in the 1970s and 1980s, thus raising the recognition of women as serious athletes and accomplished surfers; and
WHEREAS, At the Association of Surfing Professionals’ 1977 World Tour, 24 men competed for a total prize purse of $16,000, while 12 women competed for one-tenth as much—$1,600. It took until 2019 for the World Surf League to decide that female competitors should be paid equally to their male counterparts; and
WHEREAS, Despite their growing presence, champion women surfers continued to experience discrimination and receive little attention, few opportunities to compete, and unequal compensation, thus creating barriers to the advancement of women in the sport; and
WHEREAS, In 2019, the World Surf League became the first American sports organization to implement equal pay for male and female athletes, due in part to the professional women surfers in California who paved the path to recognition through perseverance, and a longstanding fight against gender inequality, harassment, and exclusion to expand opportunities for women in the sport of surfing to compete; and
WHEREAS, Today, women make up approximately 35.2 percent of the 3,400,000 surfers in the United States and approximately 300,000 of the over 1,000,000 surfers on the west coast; and
WHEREAS, Women surfers have earned their place in surf lineups, crushing surf at California’s iconic surf breaks, including Trestles, Huntington Beach, Rincon, Mavericks, Swamis, La Jolla, Oceanside, Malibu, Santa Cruz Beach, Salt Creek, Zuma, Venice Beach, The Wedge, and Pacific Palisades; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby recognizes April 8, 2023, and every April 8 thereafter, as Women’s Surf Day, honoring women surfers and the challenges they have overcome to carve out a place for themselves in this sport while celebrating past, present, and future women surfers in their athletic abilities and strengths, and thereby encouraging future generations to grab a board, paddle out, join the lineup, and shred waves because the waves are inclusive of all its inhabitants; and be it further
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.
