Trans activists are condemning a male surf coach from Santa Cruz after he participated in a women’s surf contest in protest of gender self-identification policies. Calder Nold, a respected local surf coach once highlighted for saving a baby sea lion, registered for Women on Waves to prove a point about allowing males to compete in women’s sport.
The Women on Waves (WOW) Surf Contest has been held annually in the community of Capitola, California, since 1996. The event is a charity fundraiser that gives female entrants the ability to raise money for the causes they support both through surfing and an open water swim race. But this year’s iteration of the event, which was held the last weekend of October, has left a debate lingering in Capitola after a surf coach admitted to entering simply to protest the competition’s rules and lack of transparency.
Calder Nold, a male surfer and surf instructor, was registered to the Master’s division of the contest by his student and friend, Dr. EmilyAnne Pillari, who told Reduxx that their intention was to challenge the contest’s lack of transparency surrounding its eligibility criteria.
Pillari explains that despite being a “women’s” contest, there were no questions on the WOW registration form pertaining to sex or gender, and that males who identified as transgender had previously been allowed to compete. As an act of protest, she encouraged Nold to participate, and submitted a registration on his behalf.
When Nold arrived at the contest site, he was “assailed with questions” about his “gender identity” by two event organizers. Speaking to Reduxx, Nold says he did not misrepresent himself at any point during the registration process, and instead followed the very vague guidelines the contest had established.
“We were not sneaking. We did not lie. We did not have to fabricate anything. I did not even have to identify as anything. I participated based on the exact requirements,” Nold says. “The only place the word ‘woman’ appears is in the contest title. Everything else referred to ‘people who love the water’ or ‘people who support women’s surfing.’ That’s me. I fit that bill!”
Nold continues by highlighting the fact that there was “no information given to [female] participants” on the contest allowing trans-identified males, prompting his concerns that some female participants would be placed in the position of unwittingly competing against men.
“If, for example, one of my physically small students entered the women’s competition to unknowingly face a man – of my stature and strength – who identifies as a woman, and then she loses… she risks becoming discouraged or losing her passion for surfing or competition. For her to feel that she wasn’t or wouldn’t be enough to compete. That thought, to me, is a horrible one.”
Pillari says Nold’s entry into the WOW contest immediately set off alarm bells amongst competitors and organizers alike.
“Everyone on the beach was wondering why the heck a dude was out there in the contest. From every conversation I heard among the spectators, the sentiment ranged from confusion to outrage. No one thought it was fair, people wanted him to get kicked out,” Plllari explains.
So upset over Nold’s presence, Pillari says that one of the women in the competition immediately sought to have him disqualified.
“There was one competitor watching his heat who called out with gleeful satisfaction when she thought he had interfered with another surfer’s wave, thereby disqualifying him. Knowing she was in his age group, I couldn’t help but hear the relief in her voice over his potential interference call — she didn’t want to surf against him.”
But after dominating both of the heats he participated in, easily out-paddling his female competitors, Nold was disqualified. Pillari and Nold explain that it was because judges claimed Nold was not wearing his jersey in compliance with a sudden, unannounced change in the competition’s jersey policies. Judges reportedly argued that because Nold was not wearing his jersey “properly,” they could not identify him for scoring.
“It is not in the contest rules that participants have to wear the jersey, and he was unable to wear the jersey appropriately because he is recovering from a shoulder injury,” Pillari says. “Hard to say that they couldn’t tell who he was.”
“In the conversations we had with the event organizers over the course of the weekend, it was very clear that they thought that if Nold identified as a female, then it would have been okay for him to be out there,” Pillari said in a statement she provided to Reduxx.
“This is why I entered him. Everyone who saw this spectacle could agree that he didn’t belong out there … His positivity and encouragement of the other girls in the lineup couldn’t make up for the undeniable fact that he is a man,” Pillari notes. “And so, I ask, would it be so different if he thought he was a woman? Would it change anything about his ability to out-paddle the strongest female in the lineup? If he had shaved his beard and painted his nails, would he have been any less male?”
Pillari concludes by stating that she is not opposed to trans-identified males participating in sports, but that they should not be permitted to enter events marketed as women-only.
“I am not calling for men to stop surfing. I am not hating them for existing. I just don’t want them competing in an event that is for women.”
Speaking to Reduxx, Nold emphasized that his intention was to draw attention to the hypocrisy of sporting contests that allow males to participate on the basis of identity, and to give women a platform to be able to air their grievances against gender ideology.
“The idea was to put myself out there to be a target, but also to serve as a platform and a base for women to exercise their freedom of speech. As much as I did not wish to stand on the winner’s podium at a women’s competition, it was discussed and decided to be a necessary action to make the point,” Nold explains.
“I sought to have women be able to direct at me everything they truly felt about these policies. Because they may not be allowed to, or may feel fearful to say it about males identifying as women competing or even know that that was a possibility. It was a way to open up speech to people that may feel bound in silence and to be able to speak up indirectly.”
Despite an increasing amount of negative media coverage from proponents of gender ideology, Nold says he has no regrets about what he did and no intention to walk anything back.
“I don’t do things I am ashamed of or regret. There is no shame in standing up for the rights women have fought so hard for. There is no ill-intent to what I did and no political agenda behind it. I put myself on the line for women and their right to women’s competition as a whole and [Pillari] did too. I wouldn’t have done that if I didn’t truly believe in what I was being asked to take part in, in the name of protecting women and their rights,” Nold says. “Any anger or frustration directed at myself or [Pillari] by event organizers is projection of their own frustration with themselves and their inability to be responsible about their lack of transparency and lack of ability to protect women’s competitive sports.”
Nold and Pillari’s action was not well-received by local trans activists and supporters of gender self-identification, one of whom took to local outlet Lookout Santa Cruz to express her anger.
“At first, the contest organizers had assumed perhaps Nold did identify as a woman. But then, as word got around the Esplanade that day, we learned he had been entered for nefarious reasons — a personal vendetta on the part of a competitor who opposes Women On Waves’ inclusion of trans women, at least two of whom competed in the contest,” local journalist and trans activist Liza Monroy wrote in a piece titled “Why did I have to surf with a cis man at Capitola’s Women On Waves?” Monroy had competed against Nold in the Master’s category prior to his disqualification.
“Her argument – that if trans women compete, so should cisgender men – shows zero empathy or subtlety. It offers no space for grace, complexity or understanding,” Monroy wrote.
Another WOW participant, Victoria Tatum, was quoted by Monroy as condemning Pillari, adding that Nold’s participation was wrong because he is male.
“What is wrong with having a male in the contest is that it’s a women’s contest, period,” Tatum said. “In my mind, this includes transgender women, but not males.”
Scotia Macgillivray, a trans-identified male who competed at WOW this year, similarly claimed that there was “no similarity” between males and trans-identified males participating in women’s surfing, adding that he had become so “weakened” by female hormones that he could “barely unscrew beverage container tops.”
In her article, Monroy also suggested that Pillari was simply bitter for having previously “lost” to a trans-identified male, something Pillari clarified to Reduxx was untrue.
Responding to Monroy’s article, Nold expressed confusion as to why some women continued to advocate for gender ideology.
“It is challenging to see some women just… give their hard-fought rights away and attack each other… And it’s interesting that some are so worried about hurting the feelings of trans-identifying people – but what about the women that are hurting and being forgotten? Women are not just fodder. In dismantling the guidelines of their sporting opportunities, we could potentially be creating traumatic moments in these women’s lives,” he says. “They work hard, train hard, and sacrifice to be in the position to reach their highest potential, and then have that jeopardized and pulled away from them. They are not less important than anyone else,” Nold says. “Any negative experience any other group has gone through and experienced- women have gone through, too… and continue to have to. Not just from men, but from themselves and a society disillusioned.”
This is not the first time a man has entered an “inclusive” women’s sport competition to protest policies which allow trans-identified males to compete.
Last year in Canada, a male powerlifting coach self-identified into the women’s category at the Heroes Classic Powerlifting Meet and broke the local women’s bench press record in an effort to protest gender self-identification policies in sport.
🏋️♂️ Team Canada powerlifting coach, Avi Silverberg just broke the Alberta WOMEN's bench press record in the 84+ kg category at the "Heroes Classic."
— ICONS (@icons_women) March 27, 2023
Former record holder, trans-identifying male, Anne Andres had a front row view as Silverberg mocked the discriminatory CPU policy… pic.twitter.com/ajhUJPB4gc
Avi Silverberg, a powerlifting coach who has worked with Team Canada, self-identified as a woman temporarily to participate at the meet, which was held in Lethbridge, Alberta. Silverberg was attempting to highlight the unfair advantage males have when competing in women’s athletics. In participating in the event, Silverberg unofficially broke the Alberta women’s bench press record for the 84+ kilograms category.
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