Just when you thought 2018 had its fill of sexist crap, something like this comes along.

Billabong, sponsors of the Ballito Pro surfing event outside Durban, has come under fire by irate social media users, who are calling them out for “blatant sexism”.

It all started after a photo of the women’s u18 winner and her male counterpart emerged on Tuesday.

Take a look:

Spot the difference? Check the cheques and the prize money.

According to The Citizen:

Thousands of angry social media users have reacted to what has been called ‘blatant sexism’ when it was discovered that the two winners, Rio Waida from Indonesia [left] and South Africa’s own Zoe Steyn [right], were awarded dramatically different prizes for surfing the same ocean, with the same equipment and judged by the same criteria.

Waida is seen holding up a cheque for R8 000, while Steyn’s is for R4 000, exactly half of what the male counterpart won in the surfing battle.

The surf competition tried to save face by releasing an official response on Facebook, where they shifted the blame and said they had not decided on what the prize money would be.

Not that people are buying it:

Unimpressed Tweeps are also calling organisers out:

Yes to all of this.

It’s not the first time that unequal pay for surfers has surfaced, either:

At the Las Americas Pro Tenerif event earlier this year, Mikaela Greene received $6 000 [R81 954] for winning the women’s event, while the men’s winner, Ruben Vittoria, took home $10 000 [R136 591].

“It costs the same amount of money to travel here for the women’s and the men’s, and it’s hard to fund. So I think it would be nice to be rewarded the same as the guys,” said Greene at the time.

You and me both, Greene.

Hey world, if you can just get with the programme already, that would be fantastic.

[sources:citizen&facebook]