When we’re asked to collaborate with a few inspiring women in Northern Costa Rica to support a project that elevates the reality of diverse lineups of female surfers, we immediately said YES.
Our friend Ivana + her team recently created a set of fine photography prints (soon to be transformed into a gorgeous coffee table book) that are being used to tell a different story about women’s surfing than traditional marketing tells. The project is meant to encourage girls and women around the globe to free themselves of stereotypes and limitations of their engagement in sports and recreation.
Below you can learn more about the project from Ivana herself-
I am the author and producer of the project Nature of Surf Women, which is a result of my passion of making a project about a new wave of female surfers that are breaking existing stereotypes of beauty, age, and strength.
I met the photographer, Gabriela Tellez, in 2020. She has a deep understanding of creating a narrative, so we did a test photoshoot in April 2020. Not only does Gabi have the artistic style I was envisioning for the project she also fits the profile of being a female photographer from Costa Rica with an international career. It was an instant match, so we decided to live and work together in Nosara for a year.In Nosara, there is a diversity of female surfers and many were happy to join the project and to evolve in their relationship with their bodies, with nature, the ocean and surfing. We have photographed a total of 33 women ages 12-67 years old representing all surfing levels.
We just published our website with a number of limited edition fine art photography prints. Buying the images will help us raise funds for the next stage of the project which is a coffee table book design and publication. It will be a multimedia book that will use QR codes with sounds of nature from Costa Rica, original songs from some of the surfers portrayed in the book as well as their life stories.
Our goal is to apply for Kickstarter to introduce the project to the broader audience of women who love nature, surfing, and adventure, while also encouraging girls and women around the globe to free themselves of stereotypes such as beauty standards and limitations of their engagement in sports and recreation.
We are honored that Holly Beck joined our team and that she will share her life story as an introduction to the book.
Stay tuned as we will post you when we launch the project on Kickstarter.
