The female winner, Zoe Steyn, was awarded an oversized cheque with ZAR4000 (AUD$400) printed on it, while Rio Waida, the male winner, had ZAR8000 (AUD$800) on his.
The photo sparked outrage on social with comments like:
Ballito Pro attempted to stop the criticism by saying the World Surf League (WSL), who is the governing body of the event, determines all prize money and they have now brought the pay disparity to their attention.
“The World Surf League (WSL) is the sanctioning body for WSL-aligned surfing events such as The Ballito Pro,” they wrote on the Ballito Pro Facebook page.
“The WSL implements certain criteria to determine surf ratings and prize money, and we have formally requested a detailed outline of this process for future discussion.”
The WSL told Hack that men get double the money because there are double the amount of the competitors.
Heres how the ABC explained it: if there are 10 surfers competing for a total pot of $100 in prize money. That works out to a ratio of $10-per-surfer and the winner gets $50, and the runners-up get the rest.
For the female competition, if there is a field of…
