Adv 223 Yumpu

Ellie-Jean in Tahiti at the start of her surfing career
Image by Steve Dickinson
Shooting Ellie-Jean in action in Tahiti back in our Curl days when she was all
about surfing - mage by Steve Dickinson
Putting yourself out there
By Steve Dickinson
From a young age she was aware she was cute, the quintessential surfer
girl, long blond hair, dark tan, huge smile, and a feminine shape.
Kicking over a can of worms; as
a journalist sometimes you do it
on purpose but other times you
just stop and go ‘whoa, I didn’t
expect that.’
After I put down the phone
for the fifth time, listening to
someone from the surf industry
nervously want to know more
details about this story, I went
‘whoa, I didn’t expect that.’
About 12 years ago I met Ellie-
Jean Coffey when she was
about fourteen; she was fresh
faced and lived in a bus with
her sisters and parents. Her
mother had had a skateboarding
accident and needed care, so
her father gave up his job as a
builder, sold the house, bought
a bus and the family travelled
around Australia fishing and
surfing. A somewhat idyllic
lifestyle and the perfect breeding
ground for a young girl wanting
to become a good surfer, which
she did.
She started to compete at the
age of ten and was soon picked
by Billabong and sponsored
onto the world surfing stage.
She got to travel and surf some
of the best destinations in the
world and at one stage was
ranked in the top 23 in the world.
It was during this time that I
worked with Ellie-Jean, shooting
in Australia, Tahiti, and Hawaii.
From the very beginning she
was aware she was cute, the
quintessential surfer girl, long
blond hair, dark tan, huge smile,
and a feminine shape.
Everything seemed to be
going perfectly at first, the
surf industry seemed to be
strong and in 2005 to 2008, her
sponsors began to expand their
portfolio. They acquired several
expensive brands; Von Zipper
eyewear, Element Skateboards,
Honolua Surf Company,
Nixon watches, action sports
accessories label DaKine and
Canadian action sports retailer
West 49. Unfortunately, it was a
poorly timed move that left them
with rapidly depreciating assets
just as the global economic
crisis hit and sales and the
whole surf industry began to
nosedive.
As all the major surf industry
brands began to lose traction
so sponsored surfers began
to lose contracts. This period
was like Armageddon for the
surf industry, there were more
people than ever surfing, but the
masses turned more towards a
counterculture and away from
those foundation surf brands like
Billabong, Quiksilver, Rip Curl,
Volcom. These big brands were
still making money but not on
the same scale, the glory days
were gone.
The first area of financial
restructure to feel the bite were
the sponsored surfers, the
seemingly most expendable
were the female surfers and
they were the first to lose their
contracts, but not Ellie-Jean.
During this unsettled time Ellie-
Jean began to capitalise more
on her looks than her surfing
achievements. Her Instagram
images showed more cleavage,
A young Ellie-Jean on the
left with her family
Image supplied
her bikinis became smaller, her
images and small video clips
more engaging.
At the same time social media
started to get a real foothold
and Ellie-Jean was one of the
first to jump on the Instagram
bandwagon and her following
rocketed, (currently she has
over a million followers).
But it was not all plain sailing
for Ellie-Jean. Being young and
away from home a lot made
her very vulnerable. She has
recently been in the world press
voicing her experiences with the
abuse, mental and physically,
that she suffered, in her words,
“by those in power in the surf
industry”. She does not go so
far as to name names, but it
does not surprise me in the
slightest. At that time we ran
Curl Magazine, which was a
magazine created for female
surfers and it was via that
platform that we heard a lot of
ugly stories about the pressures
that some of these young
women were under in terms of
how they looked, their sexuality,
how they performed, plus all the
normal teenage pressures.
At one stage, while shooting
in Tahiti, we were asked if the
industry employed photographer
could join us. I was shooting
Paige Hareb (the now Kiwi
legend) and Ellie-Jean from a
small boat. We welcomed the
photographer along and straight
away there was a different
feel to the shoot, it just felt
uncomfortable. Our focus was to
show how amazing these girls
surfed. He thought his job was
to shoot how they looked. He
shot more of the girls paddling
in bikinis than he did them riding
waves. At one stage he asked
could the girls hold hands while
surfing, which we said no to
as it was demeaning; these
were young sports women not
performing seals.
Later he produced a branded
towel and ask Ellie-Jean to take
her top off and wrap herself in
the towel, again we stopped that
from happening but it brought
into focus the attitude of some
of the industry and the pressure
the girls were under. I discussed
this recently with some in the
industry and they were adamant
that was not the directive from
the sponsors and that was the
photographer’s own choice.
But just thumb through any surf
magazine of that era or any
website (some still even now) and
the objectives are very clear, if
not spoken.
As the surf industry continued to
shrink, so the scramble for the
sponsorship dollars increased.
Ellie-Jean had focused more
and more on her social media,
developing a real and engaged
following.
One of Ellie-Jean's
latest Instagram posts
Image supplied
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