Billabong Womens ~ Shapes
Shapes: A bikini for every body.
Tall waves, short waves, round rollers and bumpy barrels. Wave shapes and women's shapes are all different, beautiful and unique in their own special way. Our Shapes series continues with four new women who inspire us to do what we love, and to love our shape. #ILoveMyShape
Director: Scott Wynn
Creative Director: Elley Norman
Agency: Patti Agency
DOP: Andrew Schoener
Photographer: me!!
Client: Billabong Womens
Surfers: Lexi Jorgensen, Mahina Florence, Kalei Fukuda and Gabi Turnbull
Billabong womens ~ my mexican roots
The idea behind involved Nique Miller connecting back to her Mexican roots with the help of local Mexican Female Surfers Mirian, Brenda and Patty. The imagery was carried out as a Social Media campaign, website product imagery and blog post for Billabong Womens. Read the blog post here: Billabong Womens blog Post ~ Mexican Roots: Reconnecting with Nique Miller and Friends
Surfers: Nique Miller, Mirian Ventura Esteban, Patty Valdovinos Ornelas and Brenda Flores Rodriguez
Chillies, Cacti and Suffocating hugs
This is something I celebrated back in December 2019. I was published in my first magazine, Pacific Longboarder Magazine. This was a dream of mine for a long time, to share my stories and images together and to be published in a magazine that I truly respect and admire. I wrote a piece about how I ended up in Mexico accompanied by images of my Mexican home, Sayulita. I’ve wanted to share this piece for a while now, I was waiting on the magazine to arrive in Mexico but in true Mexican postal style, it never arrived. Or it did, it’s now somewhere else in Mexico, who knows! I got ahold of the digital copy and pieced this together to celebrate and share one of my dreams coming true because if we don’t celebrate our dreams coming true, what’s the point of having them right?! Thanks Pacific Longerboard mag for this awesome opportunity. Enjoy the article below!
Chillies, Cacti and Suffocating hugs.
How did I end up in Mexico when I grew up in a small Australian coastal town? Good question! I guess I ended up here after following a 13-year fascination that one day I thought I’d like to live in Mexico after numerous conversations with my Mexican workmate. I spent many years doing laps between Australia and South America, not quite making it to Mexico. So finally for my 30th birthday, I bought myself a plane ticket. That’s when I realised those 13 years of fantasising weren’t for nothing. The rhythm, colour, heat, balmy waters, fire laced sunsets, endless waves, lines of palm trees, cacti, glowing smiles, rapid-fire Spanish, and endless supply of tacos – it grabbed me like it never wanted to let me go, embracing me like a suffocating hug, holding me so tight, I couldn’t breathe. But at the same time, I didn’t want it to let go, chaotic and calm all at the same time.
That sensory overload became my goal. To go back to Australia, build my photography business and return to the land of chillies, cacti and suffocating hugs. It took me 2 years to get back there but this time I was equipped with a dream, just no idea of exactly where or how long for. Without much thought, I decided at the last minute to follow my cousin’s suggestions of a surf trip along the Pacific Coast of Mexico. I decided to start in Sayulita, finish off some work and then continue on my journey. But I never left. One week in, I decided I was going to call Sayulita home with its enticing energy, full of mixed cultures, sweaty saltiness and lovely longboard waves. 1 year later, I’m still here.
Sayulita Mornings ~ buy print here
I’ve been blessed with so many magic moments since making Mexico my home away from home but one thing that sticks in my mind is the opportunities that have arisen once I took the leap and decided to follow my dreams. Traveling to countries I’ve always dreamt of, floating in the ocean, snapping away. But with every adventure comes those life lessons that hit you in the face when you least expect it, like my water housing leaking twice in 8 months, costing me a small fortune. And not to mention, communicating in my wonderful Spanish, asking if I can shit my telephone instead of charging, that I’m going to go look after the tits instead of tents, and calling doors whores. But I wouldn’t trade any of this journey for anything in the world. Because while I sit here and wonder if I’ll ever be able to communicate fluently in Spanish or keep my camera dry, I get to wear a smile that lights up every bone in my body, because I decided that one day, I’d like to live in Mexico and one day, I did just that.
Meet Mirian
I first noticed Mirian’s graceful style when I was out photographing early one morning in Sayulita. She glided past me on her beautiful turquoise board, dancing around in the waves. I immediately became mesmerised with capturing her in the glistening sun as it bounced around her.
As time went on, I got to know Mirian and her sweet lovely self mostly because of her help in the surf. Before I arrived in Mexico just over a year ago, I only surfed short boards and not that often. I’ve always loved the idea of longboarding, it’s beautiful and graceful and it combines two things I love most, surfing and dancing. Sayulita is a very popular tourist destination and the main break is often packed full of tourists and locals of all levels. Some days it’s a battlefield, fighting for a wave. When I was first learning to longboard, Mirian would catch waves with me, cruising along beside me, telling me what to do. With her help amongst many others, my love for longboarding grew rapidly. Her style and kindness in the waves made me curious about the story behind this beauty that graciously glides through my photos.
I think the most amazing part of Mirian’s story is before she moved to Sayulita 6 years ago, she’d never swam in the ocean or had seen a beach. She didn’t even know how to swim. For someone who now has such a graceful presence, it’s pretty impressive.
Mirian moved here from Guerrero when she was 18. She started working at one of the local surf shops where the guys would hassle her everyday to give surfing a go. She was scared of the ocean but eventually decided to try paddleboarding. From there, she moved onto surfing. When I watch Mirian surf, it blows my mind how she had never seen the ocean before she got to Sayulita and that she’s only been surfing for 3 and a half years. When she first started surfing, there wasn’t many women in the line-up in Sayulita or female role models to look up to. In international competitive surfing, most of the women are from the US, Europe, and Australia. Countries like Mexico aren’t strongly represented so women’s surfing here she feels is super important. I asked Mirian what it was like to surf in Sayulita, her response was she feels sometimes when you surf the point here, the men just go one wave after another, there’s no etiquette. Maybe it’s because of the culture? It’s like a war in the Sayulita, you have to play hard or go home. Despite this being the case, it makes you want to surf harder. Which led to my next question, how do we become part of the change, how do we encourage women’s surfing here? She feels by creating more opportunities, like groups, or girls go surfing days where we all get together, surfing and encouraging one another. Power in numbers.
After speaking to Mirian about women’s surfing in Mexico, I was asked a similar question about the challenges being a female surf photographer. And to be honest, I can’t say I’ve faced any, if anything, curiosity and encouragement but no misogyny. The one place I have experienced challenges is as a female surfer, and I don’t know if it’s because the breaks are crowded and there is more aggression in the water which results in fighting for waves, but I’ve definitely learnt to become more assertive in the waves, because my politeness doesn’t seem to cut here sometimes.
You can find Mirian in the main break here nearly every day. It’s surfers like Mirian that become an integral part of the local community here in Sayulita, weaving together the identity and encouraging more women to get out there and give it a go. Her parting words were simple yet so true, something I feel we all share when we’re in the waves, no matter where you’re from or who you are:
‘Cuando estoy en el agua siempre estoy feliz y como me siento diferente nunca estoy pensando nada. Solo estoy mirando las olas y me gusta más en la mañana por el amanecer. La Luz es muy bonita. Me siento más confiado y siento que puedo hacerlo, porque a veces si vas por él, te puede gustar mucho.’
‘When I'm in the water I'm always happy and as I feel different I'm never thinking anything. I'm just looking at the waves and I like it more in the morning by sunrise. The light is very pretty. I feel more confident and feel like I can do it, because sometimes if you go for it, you might really like it.’
