ATLANTA, Georgia/USA (Thursday, April 11, 2013) – Reigning five-time ASP Women’s World Champion Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), 25, embodies power, style and elegance both in and out of the water. Gilmore has already become an icon at a young age, breaking barriers in the surfing world to reach out to a new audience. Recently, the Australian sat down with American news giant CNN to discuss Women’s surfing and surf stereotypes, which was featured in CNN’s ‘Human to Hero’ campaign. This… is their story…
Forget Point Break’s party animals, modern surfing is more about professionalism.
That’s the mantra of reigning women’s world champion Stephanie Gilmore, who raises an eyebrow at the mention of the famous film that became a seismic signpost for surfing in the early 1990s.
The 25-year-old Australian says the seaside sphere she inhabits is a world away from the society showcased by Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze, stuffed with wavy-haired folk who all referred to each other as “dudes.”
“The biggest misconception about surfers is they all talk the surf lingo,” she told CNN’s Human to Hero series.
Gilmore: Surfing can be feminine
“Not everybody does and I think Hollywood portrays a pretty scary image of how surfers go about their language. Not all of us talk like that.
“It’s probably been 30 years now that it has been a professional sport and it hasn’t grown too much. But now it’s really turned into this phase where it’s about treating the surfers as professional athletes and not just party animals.
“The industry boomed for so long, then it finally plateaued and crashed and right now it’s in a phase of rebuilding itself, trying to get back to its core and really find that market again that everybody loves so much — the surfing brands, the industry…
