Australians are calling for a national boycott of iconic surf brand Rip Curl for using a transgender woman in their social media accounts, as the brand moves to scrub any trace of the promotion.
Rip Curl came under fire for using Western Australian professional longboarder and transgender woman Sasha Lowerson in a promotion for women’s surfing last week.
It comes just months after Rip Curl severed ties with pro-surfer and shark attack survivor Bethany Hamilton – one of the world’s most famous surfers – reportedly over her opposition to transgender people competing in women’s sport.
The post featuring Lowerson has since been deleted from the Rip Curl Women Instagram page, but hundreds of Australians kept attacking the company on other posts across its social media platforms.
Surfing, which will feature as a new sport at the Paris Olympics in 2024, adopted its International Surfing Association’s policy for transgender participation in early 2023.
It states that surfers that were born as biological males must maintain set standards of testosterone levels continuously for 12 months to be eligible to compete in a women’s event.
Hamilton and fellow Aussie surfing legend Kelly Slater have previously called for a separate transgender division in the sport.