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.’
