Pack a suitcase

More from author

She plays as beautiful

PoetryBefore battle she brushes her hair /a hundred strokes and sour breath/ Unfolds a vintage blue teal dress from lady beetle tissue Throws two...

More from this edition

Batagine

GR OnlineYARRIE GREW UP in a refugee camp in Guinea. She started university this year. Aminata was kidnapped by rebels in war in Sierra Leone....

Is it hard to surf with boobs?

ReportageWhen she was reigning World Champion, Layne Beachley was also the female surfers' official representative. This meant that even on mornings she wasn't competing, she'd be on the beach at 5.30 am, the only woman, battling it out on behalf of the other female surfers. 'The female surfer representative has to be very strong willed,' says Beachley. 'I remember arguing constantly with the male surfer rep, the male head judge and the guys' sponsors, arguing about which conditions we were going to get.'

On the rigs

MemoirThe environment is unapologetically male. It is also isolated and basic: all everyone does is sleep-eat-work. I found it relatively easy to acclimatise given my studies and interests, but I underestimated the impact that being the only woman for most of my time, in a group of between twenty and sixty men, would have on me. I found it more challenging than I expected to navigate work/life nuances on the rigs. There are not many other places in the world where a woman is made more aware of her gender: where you must learn to find the balance as a woman in such an overwhelmingly male world.