First all-female surf club is making waves in Sri Lanka

Achievers   By April 12, 2019, 13:34 IST

The Arugam Bay Girls Surfing Club in Sri Lanka is making waves, literally! The all-female surf club is shattering the stereotype that certain sports are meant only for men, and has become the country’s first officially-registered female surf club.

The club’s president, Shamali Sanjaya is a 30-year-old mother from Arugam Bay. She organises beach cleanups and coordinates surf trips for all the members. “No girls were surfing in the village at that time. My brother is the number one surfer in Sri Lanka and my father is also a good surfer. When my cousin taught me how to surf he said, ‘Shamali, I think you have surfing in your blood.’ Here in Sri Lanka, women stay home or go to school. Married women look after their husband and kids. People think only women tourists surf,” she told a portal.

Sanjaya happened to meet Tiffany Carothers — a California-based surfer who moved to Sri Lanka in 2011 — and learned surfing from her. Carothers  said, “Her brother was not keen on her surfing at all. To be one of the only woman out in the water, what that can do to a family and how that can make them look when you're being different from all the other women in the village…I know he just wanted to protect his family and not get a bad name.”

Carothers has also taught several other girls in the same village.  Eventually, they found support in the village. In 2018, Aragum Bay Surf Club became the first officially-registered female surf club, founded by Tifanny Carothers. “I feel like the girls walk with their heads high, knowing that people will still have their negative opinions, but being proud of what they've achieved. They’re an example to other women in the country, proving that the impossible is possible and no matter how many barriers come up, they can achieve their dreams and their goals for women's equality,” she added.

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