Nature of Surf Women is a photography project featuring an ocean-minded community of women surfers who represent a new type of heroine in the surf world. The women featured in this project stand out for their connection to the ocean environment and for their holistic, grounded, and vibrant approach to life. In many different ways, they have all experienced transformation and found release in surfing.

Ivana and Gabriela found a powerful synergy in their collaboration—two women, a surfer and a photographer, with a shared vision: to capture nature and water from the female perspective, to tell the story of women surfers outside mainstream media portrayal, and to celebrate women exactly as they are.

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Nosara sits on Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula, which is one of the world’s five Blue Zones—regions in which people tend to live much longer than average. This place has powerful female energy, rooted in the legend of the indigenous princess for whom the village is named, and the community of women surfers is one of the most diverse and inspiring in the world.

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The beaches of Nosara are the setting for the photography project Nature of Surf Women, a collaboration between producer Ivana Bajic and photographer Gabriela Téllez. As co-authors, Ivana and Gabi combine their talents to tell a powerful story about the unique and timeless relationship between women and water.

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Their work captures the spirit of women surfers of all ages, ethnicities, body types, and skill levels. These surf women are beginners who just got the surf bug and salty ladies who have been marinating in the ocean for decades. They are not just dewy young teens, but also mothers and grandmothers whose laugh lines, scars, and silver tresses are a window into lives well-lived.  

Using her experience from the film industry, Ivana envisioned creating a deep connection between readers and surf women by merging a wide variety of media and technology. Her vision shaped Nature of Surf Women into a one-of-a-kind coffee table book that includes photographs, sounds of nature, and real-life stories of women surfers. The result is an immersive and multimedia experience that will inspire you to go surfing.

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Nature of Surf women challenges the mainstream representation of female surfers by centering, rather than hiding, life’s imprints on the body. It brings a rare and powerful focus to the ways in which all female bodies exist in continual symbiosis with nature. And above all, it reveals the Nature of Surf Women: Athleticism, courage, camaraderie, and the peace and freedom of riding the waves.