Recently I was invited to talk with Hannah Anderson and Nick Carroll on their podcast about all things surfing, We Shouldn’t Be Friends.
We got stuck into talking about the politics of lineups; how the “rules” were set, who benefits, who is marginalised, and how this doesn’t have to be the case.
Lineups, like all social and cultural politics, are not truths. Lineups can run in all kinds of ways and anyone who surfs knows how much they can change across a day, with the waves, and depending on who is there. Lineups can make surfing a lot of fun when you feel part them and when they’re generous, but for many folk they’re exclusionary, threatening, violent places that make it hard for folk to get waves.
I had a great time talking with Hannah and Nick about all this, and was pleased that the hope among us all is that lineups are changing.
