Educational Media Reviews Online

It Ain’t Pretty is the first full-length documentary about female surfers, specifically women in the “big wave” surfing movement. The film focuses primarily on a group of women professional athletes who surf Ocean Beach near San Francisco, and other big wave surfing destinations such as Mavericks, near Half Moon Bay, California. Some of these surfers include: Bianca Valentti, Monique Kitamora, Rebecca Wunderlich, Suzie Yang, Sarah Martins, Savannah Shaughnessy, Sara Gerhardt, Paige Alms, Andrea Woller, and Emi Erickson.

While the film attempts to include some of the history of the women surfing in the United States in order to explain the roots of the current big wave movement, the historical references are unfocused and need to be fleshed out with identifiable sources and dates. Much of the history seems to be passed down by oral tradition and in a genuine effort to capture this history before it is lost, the filmmakers interview some of the mid-twentieth century women surfers, such as Carol Schuldt, a Kelly’s Cove body surfer, at Ocean Beach circa 1950s, and women from the 1960s and 1970s generations. There is also some original home movie footage of Schuldt at the beach, and of Dorothy Diane “Dottie” Scott, the first woman to surf at Kelly’s Cove circa 1946 and to whom the film is dedicated.

A large portion of the film is about athletic competitions and the extreme sport of surfing, including documenting the difficulties women have faced in breaking into major surfing competitions on the West Coast of the United States. The film makes clear that in the twenty-first century, sexism remains prevalent in the surfing community and in the surfing industry, and sexuality is often used to sell surf-related products. The female surfers interviewed and the filmmakers take a stand against the way that female surfers have been, and continue to be portrayed as sex objects in the media and advocate for recognition of women’s contributions and athletic abilities in the sport of surfing. The film illustrates how women’s heats within surfing competitions are still rare and women’s awards are often not equal to those given to men.

While much of the film showcases fabulous aerial and board footage of women’s surfing skills, some of the more captivating segments of the documentary relate to the film’s inspiring message to young girls and women through “global surf work” and social change projects. These projects include Dr. Easkey Britton Day’s nonprofit, Waves for Freedom, which “uses surfing as a method of empowerment, transforming marginalized and vulnerable members of society.” Britton and local women and girls, all wearing the hijab, were the first people to surf in Iran’s remote province of Baluchestan and provided the media a different image of women who surf. Two other important social change projects include Brown Girl Surf, begun by Farhana Huq in South India; and The Wahine Project, founded by Dionne Ybarra, a US camp that provides young girls with the opportunity to explore the ocean through surfing.

It Ain’t Pretty occasionally comes across as a little disjointed and disorganized, trying hard to be too many things at once. While the narrative could have been clearer and stronger, this film still remains a good documentary of the little-known history and present-day challenges of American women on the West Coast in competitive surfing, as well as some of the grassroots efforts women have undertaken to employ surfing as a tool for empowerment.

Awards

• Audience Choice Award, Santa Cruz Film Festival 2016