Photographer Sachi Cunningham

"To see this mass of women, to see two heats of women, that were out on the biggest day, on the same day the men were out, to me, it was monumental," she says. "Just to be there, they had won before they even started."

"I wanted to take photos of women because I had never seen photos of women," she says.

Surfer Magazine executive editor Ashtyn Douglas Rosa says Cunningham has changed the narrative in big wave surf photography. Previously, there was a sense that "women didn't belong in these waves or they weren't strong enough, they weren't capable of it or they weren't ready to compete in these waves," Douglas Rosa says. But Cunningham was there documenting it.

"Can't be what you can't see," Cunningham says.

Surfing has long been a bro culture, but more photos of women surfing have encouraged more women to get in the water. Some have become photographers — lighter, more affordable cameras and the explosion of social media have helped women get their work seen.

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