32 Pontoon^ & Deck Boat February^2019 http://www.pdbmagazine.com
Features |
Making Waves Initiative
A
By Heather Magda Serrano
Making Waves Initiative
Empowering women to rock the boat
At the Recreational Boating
and Fishing Foundation (RBFF),
they believe everyone should have
the opportunity to experience
and enjoy the beloved sports
of boating and fishing. For over
20 years they’ve promoted and
encouraged people to climb into
the captain’s seat, grab a fishing
rod, and head off to reel in that
big one. For this reason, when they
discovered that a lot of women
were joining the sport of fishing
but dropping out at an alarming
rate, they knew they had to do
something to keep them active.
Thus, the Making Waves
initiative was born—a campaign
designed to empower girls and
women to shrug off the perceived
norms and rock the boat with
rods and tackle boxes in hand.The RBFF launched the campaign
in May of last year and they’ve
gained nothing but momentum
ever since.Changing The Image
Stephanie Vatalaro, the vice
president of communications at the
RBFF, explained that over the past
several years they’ve seen a trend
in growing participation of fishing
among women that makes up as
much as 45 percent of newcomers
to the sport. However, women also
have one of the highest dropout
rates after their first year.
“So clearly it’s not sticking,”
concluded Stephanie. This
realization prompted the RBFF to
pull in some other data points to
find out why this was, and they
discovered only 19 percent ofwomen actually see themselves in
the sport.
Rachel Piacenza, the director of
marketing for the RBFF, pointed
out that women could go to
the tackle shop or to their local
sporting goods store and feel
out of place because angling is
typically marketed towards males
and avid anglers who already fish.
Debbie Hanson, a contract
blogger for the RBFF, agreed and
explained that even though women
are one of the fastest-growing
demographics in terms of fishing
and boating, they generally only
see men portrayed in traditional
fishing roles which can make them
feel out of place on the water.
“So we really wanted to try
and change the image of what
you see when you think of the