52. Becoming My True Self: A Womxn's Journey Towards Authenticity and Inclusion

Confessions of a Surf Lady | The First Women's Surfing Podcast™

With a single call to "the big dogs," Sasha Jane Lowerson set in motion a revolution for equality in competitive surfing. Despite her success in numerous competitions under her former identity of Ryan Egan, Sasha feared competing as a transgender surfer. Instead of letting fear take over, she embraced her true self and championed groundbreaking inclusion policies for surfers of diverse genders.

Join us for this episode as we peel back the layers of "bullshit" and explore what it means to live authentically. Sasha and I discuss the challenges within a predominantly cisgender, white, male-dominated surf industry and the cultural differences between the Australian and Californian surf scenes. We’ll also delve into Sasha’s evolution as a surfboard designer and shaper, as well as her future plans for advocacy and continued work on diversity and inclusion in the surfing community and so much more!
Main Themes:

• Advocating for Inclusion in Surfing: "I think I just want to let you know I'm here and I'm me and I'm scared to surf, but if I can say something and do you think we can put something in place to, like, make it safe for, like, 3% of the population? There's going to be more than me. I had looked up soccer Australia and I'd seen that they'd had a policy, I'd looked up a whole bunch of other sporting organizations that had gender identity inclusion and surfing just hadn't done it. And it was I started to believe that, like, I was like, Well, are we ran by the old dinosaurs still, or are we going to move forward?"
  Navigating Competitive Events: "You got to really choose your events. Some girls who are like, some of the best loggers in the world are like, "Yeah, we just don't go to that event because such and such, They go to that one and we go to this one"
  Breaking Barriers in the Surfing Industry: " I think that old saying, time heals all wounds. And I think that's, I'd love to be able to wave a wand and, and say 50% of the industry around all now we've got half the jobs in the industry are for all us girls, too."

Resources:

• Try a membership at The Surf Société with 7 days free.
• Shop Dip and get 15% OFF with the code "confessionsofasurflady" at checkout at Dipalready.com
• Follow Sasha: @sasha_jane_lowerson
• Follow us your host Laura Day: @confessionsofasurflady
• Follow The Surf Société: @surfsociete for surf lady tips from #thesurflab inside the membership

Confessions of a Surf Lady is supported by our amazing partners and listeners like you. This means we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you when you make a purchase through the links provided. Thank you for being a part of our community and supporting the podcast.

Send me a Message! Be sure to leave your contact info.

Support the show

Confessions of a Surf Lady, women's surfing podcast, is supported by The Surf Société, our unique digital women's surfing platform where we come together to Learn More. Surf Better. Live Happy. Learn more at Surfsociete.com