The World Surf League has announced the 2025 tour schedule – and it’s generated a wave of disappointment.
Surfers are usually a pretty chilled bunch but the decision to schedule a stop in Abu Dhabi, where homosexuality is illegal, has angered queer surf communities around the world.
Fans and LGBTQIA+ athletes like bisexual Tyler Wright are endangered by the decision, campaigners said, due to human rights concerns in the country.
Queer Surf Club, Surf Equity and Wave Wahines CIC have launched a joint petition demanding the WSL removes Surf Abu Dhabi, located on Hudayriyat Island in the UAE, as the second stop.
Frazer Riley, Founder of Queer Surf Club, said: “We do not support the WSL’s selection of Abu Dhabi as a 2025 tour location, in a country where homosexuality is punishable by death and trans identities are not legally recognised.
“Against all of their supposed Diversity & Inclusion commitments, this decision by the WSL puts their LGBTQIA+ athletes, support teams and spectators at risk, and goes against everything we believe the sport of surfing stands for; peace, inclusivity and accessibility for all.
“We stand in solidarity with Tyler Wright and with all LGBTQIA+ people globally living under oppression.”
In the UAE, same-sex relationships are criminalised under both civil and Sharia law, leaving individuals vulnerable to severe penalties including capital punishment. Transgender identities also remain unrecognised in the country.
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Surf groups across the globe are uniting and amplifying their collective voice to call out the WSL. We hear from Mathilde Rineau, the founder of LNDN Surf Girls who states “As the founder of the LNDN Surf Girl Community, I am proud to stand with Queer Surf Club and other surf groups in opposition to this decision, especially considering the risks posed to LGBTQIA+ athletes and fans.”
The petition demanding Abu Dhabi is removed from the tour has garnered the support of over 55 surf groups from Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States, alongside more than 1500 individual signatories, and the numbers continue to grow.
The call for Abu Dhabi to be removed, they say, will continue until a safe environment can be guaranteed for every athlete and fan.
Sabrina Brennan, Founder and Director of Surf Equity, and Co-Founder of the Committee for Equity in Women’s Surfing, added: “By holding competitions in Abu Dhabi, the WSL is forcing LGBTQIA+ athletes to compete in a location where their identity could put them at risk of imprisonment.”
Yvette Cave, Founder of Wave Wahines CIC, added: “This petition was created from a place of inclusion and Aloha, something Wave Wahines was founded upon.
“The decision to hold a contest in an environment that disallows by law anyone to be their true self goes against the fundamental roots of surfing and is something that myself as a mother of three and surf mama and sister to hundreds if not thousands more – is not something I could stand by and just accept without showing the feelings of myself, my club.”
Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, was chosen due to the pending opening of the world’s biggest artificial wave.
Other stops include Hawaii’s Banzai Pipeline, Cloudbreak in Fiji, Bells Beach and Snapper Rocks in Australia, as well as Peniche in Portugal.
Nonchalant Magazine reached out to the World Surf League for comment but have yet to hear back. You can read and sign the petition calling for Abu Dhabi to be removed from WSL’s tour here
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