Are surfboards designed for female bodies?
The number of women surfing has increased steadily over the years, but are their boards designed for female bodies?
Surfing has been a male-dominated sport for decades, and experts who shape and distribute boards said the majority of off-the-rack boards are designed for men.
Female surfers said they felt forgotten by the industry and more diversity for different body shapes is needed.
BBC Wales has contacted six surfboard manufacturers for comment.
Rachael Lee, 33, from Porthcawl, started surfing when she was 13 on her dad's boards.
She said she did not know other options existed until she tried her friend's "female board".
"The difference is insane, you are so much quicker, your pop ups are a lot smoother."
"A board is not just a board," she added.
Ms Lee said the "industry has been monopolized by men and women have always been an afterthought".
She said it feels like "someone's making extra money" due to the fact she has to buy a "specific board for me".
Jess Blake, 33, from Swansea said she has an 8ft 2in (2.5m) and 9ft (2.7m) board which are "really heavy" and "frustrating".
"I do like surfing it but it's a nightmare to get to the sea. It's so big my arms don't wrap around it."
She said by the time she gets to the water her arms hurt, and sometimes she has to carry the board on her head which can be "quite painful".
Ms Blake said she is saving up for a custom board but the cost is a barrier.
Gwenno Haf Hughes, 34, from Bridgend surfed a "big 9ft monstrosity foamy" for two years before buying a custom female-specific surfboard.
Ms Hughes said despite her boyfriend's shoulders being twice as broad as hers, they did not realise they would need different boards.
When she tried a board made for women she said she went "so fast with so little effort", yet when her boyfriend tried, he sank and could not balance.
Stephanie Smailes, 34, from Ogmore-by-Sea, said her first board was custom-made rather than from a factory.
She is the chair for the inclusive line ups committee for Surfing England which helps the organisation with equality, diversity and inclusion - there is no Welsh equivalent at the moment, she said.
Ms Smailes said she understands why board shaping for women is "taking off" as it "takes that barrier away" and says "surfing is for you and you belong".
But she said her body type, height, arm-span, and the weight of the board and manoeuvrability "[has nothing] to do with my sex assigned at birth or my gender".
"When we say a board is made for a woman we make assumptions about what a woman’s body is," she said.
Ms Smailes said there should be more conversations about how to choose a board based off your body and goals.
Adam Williams, 60, from the Gower Peninsula, designs and shapes surfboards and noticed many female surfers were unable to paddle as their boards were too wide for their shoulders.
He began researching and discovered if both sexes lay on the same wooden board on a foam roller, they would have to lie on a different part of the board to balance effectively.
The surfboard shaper began experimenting by altering the template, thickness and width of the boards.
Jacob Arnold, 26, from the Gower shapes boards and said while female clients "tend to be smaller and lighter", this is not always the case.
Mr Arnold said the issue is specific to the longboarding community as shortboards are small and light enough for most people to carry.
Boards bought from surf shops and online are "generally made for guys by guys", Mr Arnold said.
He added that the number of female surfers has risen and so "if you're not making stock that will suit girls you are definitely missing a trick".
Mr Arnold said he worried that if shops had gendered board racks, surfers may feel forced into buying a board that does not suit their body type because of the label.
Mark Kelly, chief executive of distributor Global Surf Industries, said he collaborated with women's surf wear brand Salt Gypsy in 2017 when he realised boards were not designed with women in mind.
Mr Kelly said brands "don't think" about making boards designed for women aside from "dropping a pink board and expecting women to gravitate to that".
When designing and adapting their boards, Mr Kelly said they took "four different men and women" and found "typically men are about 20-25% heavier than women".
The company decided to "drop the volume" by that percentage and make them narrower.
Dr Elisabeth Williams, senior lecturer of applied biomechanics at Swansea University and editorial board members of the Sports Engineering journal, said: "The rules and [sports] equipment are set up around male bodies, they always have been.
"It still is a man's world and sporting equipment design is just a symptom of that."
