Tsunami Rangers

“Men are confident but lack competence; women are competent but lack confidence.” – Tsunami Ranger Cmdr. Eric Soares, PhD. Business Communications, California State University East Bay 

Editor’s note: When I started attending the women-only Surf Sirens clinic founded by Capt. Deb Volturno and her crew, Ranger Scott Becklund asked me why it was necessary to exclude men from the event. Here, I try to answer Scott’s question.

This article has five parts: feedback from the Ladies of the Whitewater Facebook community who responded to my request for information; thoughts from a professional female triathlete; 3 real life examples of male behaviors that drive women to seek their own gender when looking for instruction in sports; results of research in an effort to define this behavior; and lastly, an interview with Captain Deb on this topic.

What the Ladies Had to Say

I personally think there is a lot of emotional learning in kayaking that is just not often considered when men are teaching. When I am working with women, I spend way more time on things like anxiety, fear, actual risk vs mental risk, etc. Women’s clinics create a space for much more than skill building and unfortunately we have a tendency to cater to men’s needs when they are involved… as in, we try to stay “skill based” because it feels more equal even if it’s not equitable to all students. – SB

A female instructor will be better able to and more likely to know how to adapt their teaching to women’s specific physiological needs. Just to name a few things: our boat fits are different, and our technique may need to take that into account. Our physical strengths are different and we can adapt our technique to use our strongest muscles and save the weaker ones for when they’re really needed. Physical comfort needs. Mental/emotional comfort needs. Etc. – ME

I had a female instructor help me get my first roll. I think it was a lot easier for me to relax with a woman instructor and not feel self conscious. Rolling hasn’t been easy for me to learn and a lot of my male friends have told me they just went out alone and got it in an hour or two which made that the expectation in my mind and it made me feel really inadequate when this didn’t work for me. Anyways shout out to Cat at Rocky Mountain Outdoor Center! – MH

I think women’s clinics are great because it’s a different energy. It feels supportive, not so competitive and comfortable to make mistakes, learn and express fears. – SL

Women-only clinics allow me to push myself at a pace more intensively than co-ed clinics. Sounds odd, but I know that men will do without concern for the safety of the group. Women tend to push just beyond their comfort with the understanding that we are keeping an eye out for each other. – LP

There are things that are best discussed in women-only environments, such as hygiene and best practices during periods. Tips on peeing in mixed company, speaking up for each other and standing together if and when men are out of line, etc. Basic self defense if assaulted. Lots of improvised defense items available on a river. – RM

The World of Triathlon

Triathlete Michelle Cooper wrote a great article about this topic as it relates to triathlon. Michelle points out that triathlon is one of the most equal opportunity sports around because both men and women have the same opportunities for participating and prize money at all levels. Nevertheless, she adds, not all women want to jump straight into that environment: “So what happens when we don’t provide an opportunity for them (the women) to learn in a safe and supportive environment? Simple. They don’t want to. They might switch to a different sport or take longer to join in the racing element of triathlon for example, or they try it with a less-than-ideal experience and exit the sport just as quickly as they entered.”

But what happens when women have the opportunity to learn and train with other women? Here’s Michelle: “There is something magical that happens when women come together with a shared goal of learning and developing together. When they know that everyone around them is just as nervous as they are, their guard drops and they start to believe that they can do whatever is in front of them… By providing an environment that is nurturing and supportive, women grow in confidence and in turn become advocates for other women to tackle their own challenges.”

Examples

Here are three specific examples of off-putting things that men do to women in sports. Two of the incidents happened to me in my martial arts career and one happened to a friend during a co-ed river whitewater clinic.

Example One: In martial arts there is a general rule that when two people are promoted to the same rank at the same time, the first student to receive their certificate outranks the second. Among other things, this protocol determines where the students stand in the lineup when bowing in and out of class. When I received my first black belt, another student was also promoted to the same rank. I received my certificate first. George received his second, but when we lined up at the end of class, George stood ahead of me. George knew the rules, but he broke them anyway and disrespected me by standing ahead of me in the lineup.

When I got home that night, I phoned our teacher to clarify the situation. Prof told me to phone George and ask him what number was on his certificate. All certificates are numbered, so if my number was lower than George’s, my rank was higher. I phoned George. He got his certificate, we compared numbers, and yes, I outranked him. It was an awkward moment. He never lined up ahead of me again, but in order to get him back in line I had to call him out. I doubt if I had been a guy this would have happened. In 27 years of martial arts, I only saw it happen one other time.

Example Two: Fifteen years later I was a third-degree black belt training at a different dojo. One day, a first degree black belt (I’ll call him “Dave”) randomly started standing ahead of me in the lineup. It felt oddly aggressive. This dojo had a different, more macho culture, and for various reasons I did nothing. No one said anything. Time passed.

One day, Brandon (his real name), a third degree black belt from an affiliated dojo, showed up to work out. I’d been promoted ahead of Brandon so when we lined up, he correctly lined up below me as he always did when visiting our dojo. When Dave showed up he went to his proper place in the lineup below Brandon and me. Because Brandon continued to come to our classes, Dave never lined up ahead of me again. He wanted to disrespect me for some reason, but he wasn’t going to challenge Brandon. It’s worth mentioning that Dave is a big guy, but Brandon is bigger, and badder. Shortly after this, Dave stopped coming to the dojo.

Example Three: Kathy is an excellent river whitewater kayaker who is competent up to Class V rapids. One time when Kathy attended a co-ed multi-day whitewater clinic, a male student took it upon himself to give her lots of “tips” to “help” her even though there was a competent instructor in charge. Kathy exerted extra effort to focus on her skills, but the other student’s comments and criticisms were distracting. The unwanted attention messed with her head and she ended up swimming. The other student continued to critique her performance, but when he swam too Kathy realized that his skills weren’t better than hers. She pulled herself together and ignored him for the rest of the clinic. And she did fine.

Intentional or not, these are some ways men sabotage women in sports, and it tears us down, pisses us off, and wears us out. Sometimes, it may lead us to abandon an activity or force us to take a different road. But when women get together we collaborate. We lift each other up. We encourage each other. The atmosphere is supportive, inclusive, and nurturing. We thrive.

Research

In an effort to define this type of masculine behavior, I asked Google: “What do you call the atmosphere created by a male-dominated gathering?” Here’s what manifested:

• Aggressive competitiveness.
• Excessive socializing around activities like drinking or sports.
• A “club-like atmosphere” that can feel exclusionary.

Androcentrism: This refers to placing a masculine point of view at the center of culture and history, potentially marginalizing femininity. It describes a social dynamic where male perspectives are prioritized, influencing the atmosphere of any space, including gatherings.

Patriarchal Dynamics: In a patriarchal system, men primarily hold power and authority. This broad concept can describe the underlying social structure that influences the atmosphere in any male-dominated environment, including gatherings, where traditional power structures may be more evident.

It’s ironic that men themselves become victims of this culture. Think of the label “FNG”, which stands for “f*cking new guy”. This derogatory term gained popularity in the U.S. Army and Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. It was used to refer to newcomers or new recruits, emphasizing their lack of experience and potential for mistakes.

A male-dominated gathering doesn’t automatically create a specific negative atmosphere. The atmosphere varies depending on the context and purpose of the group, and the individuals involved. To qualify for one of the three descriptors above, the specific effects on individuals or groups within a gathering may include:

• Marginalization or exclusion
• Lack of inclusion or belonging
• Increased stress or discomfort

Women may also be subjected to sexual innuendo or made to feel physically unsafe. I’ve experienced all these effects, and not just in sports. Because I was determined not to let myself get bullied out of doing things that were important to me, over the years I managed to earn a 4th degree black belt in jujitsu and a membership in the Tsunami Rangers, but it came hard. I cried buckets of tears and if I hadn’t had supporters and a defiant nature that gave me an inner fire to prevail, I might have quit.

What Captain Deb Had to Say

Deb: They mean well. It’s a biological thing that guys take care of women, and they take on that role, and a lot of women expect the guys to take care of them but when you’re learning in a high risk environment you don’t need that. When you’re in a high risk environment you need to get yourself through it, and women working together get themselves through it differently than how men get themselves through it. Together, men and women, it doesn’t tend to work seamlessly when you’re dealing with risk. It’s usually the men who are going to be in charge and the women take second role. But women together, they are collaborative, they’re thinkers, they’re problem-solvers, there’s a lot of trust, they see the big picture, and they support each other. It is really different.

And women tend to have a lot more fun than guys do too. Guys are just very serious, you know? When are you going to get guys giggling, laughing, and swearing at each other?

Nancy: And acting the fool.

Deb: Yes. And women do that all the time. They allow themselves to be vulnerable with each other, and that’s another big thing with women’s trainings. Guys aren’t allowed to be vulnerable in the same way, generally speaking. It gets covered with testosterone.

Guys will commit and women will commit but it’s a different path, and the women’s commitment is laced or interwoven with all kinds of things to reach that commitment. With guys, they’ll commit without the tapestry of decision-making and collaboration and trust and support. Vulnerability is a big one. Women are not vulnerable with men, and men don’t allow themselves to be vulnerable with men. And that’s just my experience teaching. But women, just women together, absolutely allow themselves to be vulnerable which makes it a tighter team.

Guys will become cohesive because of the chest beating kind of thing. They’re like, we’re all in this together, all for one, we’re going to do this!

Nancy: It’s kind of a battle mode thing.

Deb: Right. And there’s also hierarchy that’s already been pre-established, because they’ve figured out right from the beginning who’s the alpha, and that’s important with the guys in general. And other times when it’s more extreme, when it’s an expedition or something, the group that I’m with, because we’re already a tight group and we’ve planned to do this extreme expedition, before we go we always have the discussion of this is going to be collaborative, we’re going to make the decisions together, unless it has to be done in an instant and we don’t agree. Then we have to defer to one person and we agree who that one person is going to be, which almost always deferred to me because I was the most experienced one, but that decision was made as a group. It wasn’t just the alpha person and it wasn’t me saying I’m the one that’s going to be in charge because I’m the most experienced. The group had to agree on who that person was going to be because we had to be tight. Where with guys it doesn’t always work like that. With Shackleton, he had a way of working with everybody as a team and they were cohesive all the way around, but generally that’s not the way it happens with guys. And generally with women they will agree together who they will defer to if they need to.

It was an all-women’s incident management class, debacle control, and we had about 8 women in San Francisco and a planned incident unfolded and the women had to respond, right? And we had already talked about reacting and taking charge of an incident and doing the rescue. Well nobody did anything, they all just sat there in their kayaks and literally did nothing. And Cindy the other instructor and I just looked at each other and we’re like what is going on? And we chose who to go to facilitate the rescue. And then we debriefed and we couldn’t figure out why they just sat there and nobody responded and they said well, we’re never the first responders. So the women in the training were never the first responders. It’s always the guys. So that was interesting. They never thought about that. They never thought about going in and doing the rescue. Because they’d never had to do that before. Even though there weren’t any guys there. It was a real eye-opener. And then the next rescue unfolded, and there were two women that ran in to take care of the rescue and they were debating who was first and who was in charge but it was really different because guys would just go in. Now I have to qualify, this is generally speaking, right? Not all guys are the same, not all women are the same. But over and over and over doing these women’s classes and also teaching co-ed classes, this is generally what happens, that the men will respond quickly to an incident, and in fact, they may not even assess whether it’s safe enough to go in to facilitate a rescue, they just jump in and do it even though it could be creating more risk and another incident unfolding. Women on the other hand, will stop, think, and assess before they go in, generally speaking. So it’s a big difference.

So as far as sea kayaking, and going out in the ocean, ocean whitewater, rock gardens, sea caves, surf, women can do everything that the guys can do, but they approach the learning very differently. Women tend, and again, this is generally, to have to have support and even bigger than that is trust with the group, right? There’s collaboration and there must be trust, whereas guys on the other hand, generalizing, don’t need to have trust, they will just jump in and do whatever, they’ll learn any skill, they’ll jump into a rock garden, they’ll go through a surge channel without even thinking about it, and with or without success, with or without having the skills. They’ll just do it, and if their buddies are saying, “Yeah, go!” they’ll just go; whereas women, they want to have the support of the group and they want to have the trust of the group and they want to collaborate, watch, and generally this is what happens and then they will commit to doing something, right? Run the channel, take the drop on the wave, go into a sea cave, yeah, so just a very different approach.

Over and over again when I’ve worked with women I’ve ended up doing, sometimes not even planned, especially in the early days, multi-day instructional trips, that ended up to be just a women’s training of all different ages, from like 20’s, 30’s all  the way up to 80 years old, and over and over again, we would do navigation, we would do dead reckoning, we would do rescues, we would do surf, we would do multi-day training whether it was in the San Juans or the coast of Vancouver Island or the islands in Barclay Sound. Over and over again women would go and they would develop a cohesiveness among themselves so they were developing a team working day after day, increasing the skills, increasing the tightness of the team, which would mean that they were more willing to take risk because they trusted each other. And over and over again at the end of the trip in the debriefing the women would say it was the most empowering thing that they’d ever done in their life. And these are often professional women, educated women, successful in the work place, mothers raising families, all of that, yet they would say that this adventure, this instruction, this experience was the most empowering thing that they’d ever done. So really different from going out with guys, which is nothing to say bad about guys because they’re fun. It’s just a whole different way of learning and building a team. It’s just a different way of getting there.

Conclusion