Type of site | Social network |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| URL | gaysurfers |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Optional, required for some features |
| Users | About 6000 |
| Launched | 2010 |
| Current status | Active |
GaySurfers.net is a global online community that promotes diversity within the surfing community and provide the means for LGBTQ people who are surfers to connect. This social media website was featured in the award-winning [1] documentary film Out in the Lineup . [2]
GaySurfers.net was created in 2010 by Thomas Castets, who also produced the Out in the Lineup, a documentary that explores homophobia in the surfing community. [3] Castets, a surfer from Sydney, Australia, created the website hoping to find out if there were any other gay surfers. Within weeks of launching the website, more than 300 surfers contacted him. [1] [4]
The LGBTQ community is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning individuals united by a common culture and social movements. These communities generally celebrate pride, diversity, individuality, and sexuality. LGBTQ activists and sociologists see LGBTQ community-building as a counterweight to heterosexism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, sexualism, and conformist pressures that exist in the larger society. The term pride or sometimes gay pride expresses the LGBTQ community's identity and collective strength; pride parades provide both a prime example of the use and a demonstration of the general meaning of the term. The LGBTQ community is diverse in political affiliation. Not all people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender consider themselves part of the LGBTQ community.
Bethany Meilani Hamilton is an American professional surfer and writer. In 2003, she survived a shark attack in which her left arm was bitten off; ultimately, she returned to professional surfing and wrote about her experiences in the 2004 autobiography, Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board. The book was adapted into the 2011 feature film, Soul Surfer. Hamilton attributes her strength to her Christian faith.
Layne Collette Beachley is an Australian former professional surfer from Manly, New South Wales. She won the World Championship seven times. Currently she is the chair of Surfing Australia.
The Banzai Pipeline, or simply Pipeline or Pipe, is a surf reef break located in Hawaii, off Ehukai Beach Park in Pupukea on O'ahu's North Shore. A reef break is an area in the ocean where waves start to break once they reach the shallows of a reef. Pipeline is known for huge waves that break in shallow water just above a sharp and cavernous reef, forming large, hollow, thick curls of water that surfers can tube ride. There are three reefs at Pipeline in progressively deeper water farther out to sea that activate according to the increasing size of approaching ocean swells.
Surf movies fall into three distinct genres:
Surf culture includes the people, language, fashion, and lifestyle surrounding the sport of surfing. The history of surfing began with the ancient Polynesians. That initial culture directly influenced modern surfing, which began to flourish and evolve in the early 20th century, with its popularity peaking during the 1950s and 1960s. It has affected music, fashion, literature, film, art, and youth jargon in popular culture. The number of surfers throughout the world continues to increase as the culture spreads.
The Bra Boys are a gang centred on surf culture, founded and based in Maroubra, an eastern suburb of Sydney, in the 1990s. The gang has gained notoriety through violence and alleged links to organised crime, as well as some community activism. The Bra Boys achieved national and international media attention in 2007 with the release of a feature-length documentary entitled Bra Boys: Blood Is Thicker than Water, written and directed by members of the group, and narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Russell Crowe.
The Inside Out Film and Video Festival, also known as the Inside Out LGBT or LGBTQ Film Festival, is an annual Canadian film festival, which presents a program of LGBT-related film. The festival is staged in both Toronto and Ottawa. Founded in 1991, the festival is now the largest of its kind in Canada. Deadline dubbed it "Canada’s foremost LGBTQ film festival."
Feast Festival is an LGBTI Festival held annually in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. The event is one of Australia's four major queer festivals, alongside Perth's Pride Festival, Melbourne's Midsumma and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
The Frameline Film Festival began as a storefront event in 1976. The first film festival, named the Gay Film Festival of Super-8 Films, was held in 1977. The festival is organized by Frameline, a nonprofit media arts organization whose mission statement is "to change the world through the power of queer cinema". It is the oldest LGBTQ+ film festival in the world.
Koby Abberton, an Australian former professional surfer, is a member of the Australian surf gang the Bra Boys. He rose to local prominence in 2006, when he was found guilty of perverting the course of justice in an incident surrounding his brother Jai Abberton, who was charged but found not guilty of the 2003 murder of stand-over man Anthony 'Tony' Hines. Together with his brothers, Abberton achieved national and international attention in 2007 with the release of a feature-length documentary entitled Bra Boys: Blood is Thicker than Water, written and directed by members of the Bra Boys. In November 2008, Koby Abberton was jailed for three days by a US court after being found guilty of assaulting an off-duty police officer in a fight outside a nightclub in Honolulu, Hawaii. In 2021, Koby appeared on the TV show SAS Australia.
Sunny Abberton, is a founding member of the Australian surf tribe the Bra Boys. Together with his brothers, Koby, Jai, and Dakota, Sunny Abberton achieved national and international attention in 2007 with the release of a feature-length documentary entitled Bra Boys: Blood is Thicker than Water, that he wrote and co-directed with another member of the Bra Boys.
Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz was an American surfer and physician, who gave up practicing medicine for a living and decided to become a professional surfer. In 1972, he founded a surf camp run by his family, where campers could live alongside and surf with members of the Paskowitz family. He and his family have been referred to as the "First Family of Surfing".
Mark Robert Visser is an Australian professional big wave surfer, author, keynote speaker and ocean adventurer. Visser is best known for being the first person to surf Hawaii's most dangerous wave Jaws, Maui, at night in 2011. It was documented in a film called 'Night Rider'.
Matt Patrick Hill is the chief executive officer of Globe International and the producer and director of several feature films and documentaries, including Love the Beast (2009) and Down and Out with the Dolls (2001) as producer and Almost: Round Three (2004) and Opinion (2001) as director.
Stephen Hill is a former champion Australian skateboarder and the co-founder of Globe International, a multinational, youth culture, branded footwear, apparel and skate/surf business with his brother Peter Hill. Stephen Hill has also acted as an executive producer on over 30 international media projects including feature films and television specials. Hill has also been involved in several community action projects including promoting new skateboarding facilities and local environmental causes across several countries.
Peter Hill is a former champion Australian skateboarder and the co-founder of Globe International, a multinational, youth culture, branded footwear, apparel and skate/surf business with his brother Stephen Hill. Peter Hill has also acted as an executive producer on over 30 media projects, including feature films and television specials and a producer on Eric Bana's Love the Beast.
Mark Mathews is an Australian professional big wave surfer.
Chingusai is a South Korean gay men's human rights group founded in February 1994. It originated from Chodonghwe, the first organization that advocated for the human rights of the Korean LGBTQ+ community. Chingusai's main focus is to raise awareness on the importance of LGBTQ+ human rights and fight against the prejudices on sexual minorities in South Korea through social activism.
