About

My name is River Martin and I am a sophomore at Purdue University. I use he/him/his pronouns to describe myself. I am originally from Virginia Beach and moved to Indiana when I was sixteen years old. My parents now currently live in Illinois which is where my current place of residence is because I do not have enough money. I love water sports such as surfing, sailing, and water skiing and cannot wait to move to a coast after college. Surfing is something that I am passionate about. I wanted to choose something that I was familiar with and find interesting. In general, I feel that surfing, specifically surfing-related gender issues, are not often spoken about in the Midwest. I wanted to use this opportunity to spread knowledge about the movement for equality in surfing. My online gallery exposes anthropological thought regarding gender as both performative and as a social construct. I wish for site viewers to pay attention to the fact that even though there have been laws passed to ban gender discrimination, it is still  happening in sports such as competitive surfing. There are not a lot of competitors in surfing and that is why this inequality has been overlooked for so long. However, with more people joining the community of surfing, the tides have changed toward equality in surfing. Equality and diversity in our surfing community will only enhance the enjoyment of surfing. Women who competitively surf are fierce competitors who deserve to be recognized.