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Sacred Surf
(cont.) "The Leucadia Blog" would like readers to believe that she didn't go to the surfer's at swami's to get the event... approved? blessed? ?? But she did. At the beginning of summer 2009, she approached the president of the Swami's Surfing Association with her idea. Though, in this readers opinion, this is an outrageous request to demand. We are a community, not a tribe who must go to its elders to ask permission before going to the City to get permits to run an event. Do marathon organizers go to each runner on the 101 for their blessing? Women don't need to ask permission to walk onto the grounds of Oxford and Cambridge anymore. This is the 21st century. We do things differently now. As to the concerns the opposition has to the "token" charity contributions, the events Linda has run in the past have a history of charitable contributions, the most notable of which was, in my opinion, the $35,000 she raised for the San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy which directly affected the beach she ran her event at. "The Leucadia Blog"'s concerns are misdirected. This event has become a scapegoat for issues that have nothing to do with Linda Benson, women longboarders or The World Women's Longboard Championships. Cori Schumacher Current Women's ASP representative 2x World Champion 2x North American Champion Spokesperson for Surf For Life (Surf For Life is a non-profit organization designed to connect surfers and non-surfers with community service activities to create impact on an international level.) www.surfforlife.org— November 7, 2009 9:26 p.m.
Sacred Surf
"The Leucadia Blog" would like readers to believe that women's longboarding is a highly profitable venture that has raked in a ton of money in the past and has the potential to bring in a profit for Linda Benson. Unfortunately, this historically hasn't been the case. And nothing has changed except the current economic climate bringing the possibility of even less. What opponents can't wrap their heads around is why an event like this would be run... it must be about the money! Right? Women's longboarding includes one of the most unique groups of athletes on the planet. A group of women who have been marginalized, silence, trivialized and shoved in the backseat of surfing for a long time. The one thing that keeps these women coming back time and time again is the camaraderie we share. We love our events because they are a chance for all of us to get together, some of us who haven't seen each other in years, to celebrate our sport. Linda has become a huge part of this with us. In 2005 we asked her to run the Women's World Longboard Championships. While men's shortboarding rakes in money in the billions and women's shortboarding's prize money lingers somewhere in the hundreds of thousands, our biggest event (the women's world longboard championship) totals a $30,000 prize purse. This may seem like a lot but let me tell you this... contest directors will stretch this prize purse for the ladies so that the many of us who have to pay their own plane ticket (very few sponsors pay women longboarders) can be reimbursed for their travels. The result is that those women who make it past one round of surfing are given money and the winner of the event makes only about $7,500. Money enough so she can pay for a couple more boards and some of her rent over the next year. Perhaps "The Leucadia Blog" feels that he knows something we, who have surfed with Linda Benson for years, do not. Perhaps "The Leucadia Blog" feels that he is "protecting" us from an evil we cannot possibly know... and that our opinions must all be somehow not clear... that this man must have some privileged position that we do not share. (cont.)— November 7, 2009 9:25 p.m.