‘National disrepute’: Equal prizemoney advocate denied entry in surf competition

On Christmas Eve, longboarder and gender equality advocate Lucy Small received an email from John Finlay, chairman of the Noosa Festival of Surfing – a competition Small had been competing in, on and off, for 13 years.

In the email, Finlay wrote: “Thank you for your interest in competing in the 2025 Noosa Festival of Surfing. We note that you are currently ineligible to enter any surfing competitions where the Noosa Malibu Club is a stakeholder. Accordingly, we are unable to accept your entry.”

Lucy Small during the Bells Beach Longboard Classic in 2023.Credit: Getty Images

Small replied to the email the same day asking why she had been suspended, but hasn’t heard back from them. “They won’t actually give me any information about why I am suspended,” she said.

She posted a screenshot of the email to her Instagram account on Sunday morning, telling her followers that she was “sad and hurt” by her exclusion from next year’s competition.

Glen Gower is president of the Noosa Malibu Club, one of the organisers of the 2025 competition, and was copied into the email Small received on Christmas Eve.

Gower issued a statement to the Herald on Monday that read: “Ms Small is currently banned from all Noosa Malibu Club Events” due to her bringing the club into “national disrepute” for comments made “via media channels” that the club say were false.

Gower referred to an apology issued to the club by Surfing Australia following the publication of an article in the Daily Telegraph in 2023 about prizemoney at the Noosa Logger, a competition held by the club.

In response to questions from the Herald, Finlay referred to Gower’s statement and added that Small had made “erroneous statements about equal prizemoney at a club event”.

Small is co-founder of the Equal Pay for Equal Play gender equality campaign alongside sports journalist Kate Allman, who wrote the Daily Telegraph story. In the story, Small was quoted saying “It’s pretty disappointing really, to keep seeing this happen” of the competition which awarded $718 to the winner of the open division (referred to as the “open men” division on its website) and $505 to the winner of the women’s.

She told Allman, “We’re at a point where everyone just needs to accept equal prizemoney as the status quo. That’s where the expectation of the community and of the surfers, and of the media, is.”

Gower defended the competition in the article, saying that women had been free to enter the open division for a chance to earn the same prizemoney as male entrants. Of 22 entrants in the open division that year, only one woman entered – his daughter Jade Gower.

Surfing Australia CEO Chris Mater was also quoted, saying he’d issued the club with a first and final warning saying it had breached the organisation’s rules on equal prizemoney. He retracted the warning a week later and issued an apology as the event had not broken Surfing Australia’s regulations at the time.

The organisation changed its rules for 2024 so that competitions could no longer have a mixed open division and single gender division in the same competition unless prizemoney was equal for both.

Glen Gower filed a complaint to Surfing Australia about Small on December 6, 2023, saying she had breached Surfing Australia’s code of conduct. The complaint alleged in part that the club was brought into disrepute when she gave “inaccurate” information to the author of the Daily Telegraph article. It also alleged she brought the club into disrepute through commentary on her personal social media accounts.

Small said the December 6 complaint was not upheld.

Allman interviewed several surfers who competed in the Noosa Logger whom she said shared the same opinion as Small, and that both the classification of the open division as “open men”, and that it only had one female entrant, was information available to anyone online.

Small has gained a following online by advocating for equality in sport. Her winning speech at the Curly Maljam surfing competition in 2021, when she criticised her winnings of $1500 compared to the men’s prize of $4000, was widely viewed online. Last year, she spoke out about the Kirra Klassic’s refusal to split its prizemoney and hold a separate open women’s division of the competition.

Adrian Buchan, chair of the Surfing Australia board, commented on the post from his personal account on Sunday saying, “Thanks for continuing to advocate for equality Lucy. Fully behind you.”

The 2025 Noosa Festival of Surfing is being held collaboratively by the Noosa Malibu Club, World Surfaris (of which John Finlay is also chairman) and Event Generals. It lists Tourism and Events Queensland, Noosa Tourism and the World Surf League among strategic partners.

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