
Boycott Backlash: Ripcurl on the Run After Replacing Women’s Ambassador with LGBTrans-Surfer
Boycott Ripcurl is ripping its way through social media after the surf and snow wear icons replaced a biological female with an LGBtrans activist.
The company ditched Bethany Hamilton, surfing legend and shark attack survivor, for trans-identifying Ryan Egan (aka Sasha Jane Lowerson).
News of Ripcurl (parent company Kathmandu) choosing Egan to promote women’s surfing, instead of Hamilton, broke out on January 26, and commentators soon went from just concern to justifiable indignation.
Going viral, Ripcurl’s deathly dip into the treacherous waters of DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) has rightly become both an embarrassment and a public relations nightmare.
Since then, all mention of the adult male, who identifies as female, appears to have been erased by the company.
R.I.P Gurl has silently dropped all mention of the trans-surfer ambassador for women’s surfing. 🏄♂️ Will #BoycottRipCurl let the ESG obsessed company of the hook, or is it too late?
— Rukshan Fernando (@therealrukshan) January 28, 2024
Double-Dipping
A competitive surfer, Egan/Lowerson has been competing for some time in both women’s and men’s events.
Egan won Australia’s West Coast Suspensions Longboard & Logger State Championships as a biological male in 2019.
Egan also won the women’s event at the same competition in 2022, after competing as a female.
This win earned Egan/Lowerson [notable] praise from the LGBTQ+ for how he ‘destroyed’ his biological female opponents.
Disgusted with Ripcurl choosing a man to promote women’s surfing, Riley Gaines – an outspoken victim of the trans takeover of women’s sports – protested,
“You mean to tell me @ Ripcurl dropped Bethany Hamilton for opposing men surfing in the women’s league then picked up male surfer who surf in the women’s league as a women’s ambassador? Crazzzzyyy.”
You mean to tell me @ripcurl dropped Bethany Hamilton for opposing men surfing in the women's league then picked up male surfer who surfs in the women's league as a women's ambassador?
Crazzzzyyy 🤯🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/GMvM5qfP0q
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) January 25, 2024
Becoming the inadvertent tip of the backlash – now in its seventh day – Gaines noted the backflip, writing,
“Ripcurl suddenly knows what a woman is. They’ve also since deleted all posts promoting a male surfer posing as a woman after dropping Bethany Hamilton. They want you to forget about their contempt for women. Don’t.”
Hahahaha Ripcurl suddenly knows what a woman is
They've also since deleted all posts promoting a male surfer posing as a woman after dropping Bethany Hamilton. They want you to forget about their contempt for women. Don't. #RIPcurl https://t.co/amScGX3wFs
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) January 28, 2024
Those in support of the Ripcurl boycott included Katherine Deves, Binary director Kirralie Smith, Women’s Forum Australia, The Spectator Australia’s Rowan Dean, and women’s pro-skateboarder Taylor Silverman.
According to @ripcurl this man is a “waterwoman”…reality is he’s just a mentally ill man making a complete mockery of actual women. pic.twitter.com/XeCSeLKyPF
— Taylor Silverman (@tmsilverman) January 26, 2024
Silverman has first-hand experience in facing the consequences of biological male LGBTrans competitors being allowed to compete against biological women.
The pro-skater has landed second place in three competitions, losing to biological males claiming to be females.
Personal Attacks
In May 2022, after speaking out, The NY Post reported that Silverman was maligned by the acronym army activists, and allies, as “transphobic” and being a “sore loser” for speaking out.
Ripcurl booting Bethany Hamilton almost lands on the one-year anniversary of her WSL protest.
Hamilton took the World Surf League to task in February 2023 for its DEI adoption of women-cancelling LGBTrans males in her sport.
The hate from activists was instantaneous, vile, and as manipulative as we’ve come to expect.
Well-organised rants went from “shut up woman” to anti-Christian slander.
Some gaslit Hamilton, accusing the homeschooling mum and openly devout believer in Christ of wanting “transgender people to die!”
All because she simply refused to give the far-left activists what they wanted: total compliance, an apology, and her re-education (read indoctrination) via “LGBTQ+ sensitivity training.”
These tantrums were in spite of Hamilton’s more than gracious approach and reasoned arguments.
Hamiton’s haters included BeachGrit, who – (laughably) lectured Hamilton on what it means to be a Christian by wrongfully confusing God’s love with the LGBT’s “love is love” fascist-forced-speak.
Backlash
All in all, woke Ripcurl is reaping the well-deserved wrath of many a biological woman it has now scorned.
Despite their applause for Ripcurl pivoting its brand towards the LGBTQ+, BeachGrit is right to ponder:
“How much is Kathmandu willing to lose to push the trans agenda?”
To be inclusive of the minority, Ripcurl has to exclude the majority.
Think about the lunacy of it all: Ripcurl has replaced a woman – a genuine heroine – with a man dressed as a woman, in order to advance women in sport.
May I say out loud what every man says in situations like this? Delusional men pretending to be women make very, very, UGLY delusional…men. https://t.co/0sdKw3DaNK
— 𝔚𝔥𝔦𝔱𝔢𝔅𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔡 (@HwsEleutheroi) January 28, 2024
At the end of the day, this isn’t about promoting women.
The goal is to advance the LGBTQ+ lifestyle and deplatform anyone who dares to disagree.
This is why cultural safetyism’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are so attractive to totalitarians, and so destructive for the rest of us.
Companies conforming to it are committing cultural and economic suicide by a thousand cuts.
___
Originally published at Caldron Pool.
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I won’t be walking into any Ripcurl store any time soon.
Bethany is a hero!
She is. Truely astonishing that Ripcurl did this to her. As equally tragic, the amount of church leaders who haven’t said an iota in her defence.
Deeply disturbing stuff, and it just keeps on coming at us.
I wouldn’t want to be in these people’s shoes.
Wicked perverse generation.
Problem is, Leonie, far too many people want to ignore it – preferring to live by lies, via “go along to get along.”
Others are so fearful, most of what I’ve said here, would never be published by legacy media.