Adv 223 Yumpu

Ellie-Jean still surfing - Image supplied
The 16-second clip shows the
blonde beauty practicing her
surf training on a skateboard,
her enviable cleavage and super
fit body on display.”
From the infamous skating clip - Image supplied
of innocents that led her from one
promotional stage to another? My
guess looking at all the pieces of this
puzzle is that it was a mixture of all
three.
Ellie-Jean Coffey has always put
herself ‘out there’. She has been
vilified in chatrooms and websites
across the internet. She has been on
TV and questioned about her social
media and sexuality, she has been
on the front pages of newspapers
around the world because of
accusations and career choices. She
may not be seen an advocate for
women’s rights, but it was her who
voiced the issues within the male
dominated surf industry. She had
the courage to stand-up and make
a personal and revealing statement
and the reaction has been both
positive and negative.
From professional surfer to adult
entertainer, Ellie-Jeans career path
has always been one of performance
– but at least now ‘she’ is in control.
Thumb through any mag surf magazine of that era or any website (some
still even now) and the objectives are very clear, if not spoken.
The difference between the opening "News" page and the opening page for
their "Girls" section is all too clear to see in this online surf publication.
There was a lot of criticism that
what she was doing was just
soft porn. At age 21 she was
ranked 23rd in the world and was
thrown into the limelight when
a 16 second video clip of her
skateboarding went viral. It was
a little raunchy but harmless,
however it cemented her online
presence.
On the other side of the world the
Daily Mail in the UK described the
video;
“The 16-second clip shows the
blonde beauty practicing her surf
training on a skateboard, her
enviable cleavage and super fit
body on display.”
The surf industry continued to
spiral into its own recession and
only a few sponsored female
surfers, one of which was Ellie-
Jean, remained. Not because
she was the best surfer but
because she had the greatest
following. When discussing with
her previous sponsors they were
adamant that keeping Ellie-Jean
had nothing to do with her sexy
profile but because of her huge
social media following. But her
following was only marginally due
to her surfing and mostly due to
her ever declining bikinis and
ample cleavage.
Now that might be an indictment
on the surf industry, but since
marketing began, we have always
known sex sells. The sponsor
may not have been using sex
to sell products; however they
knew it is what fed the following.
But let me note here that Ellie-
Jean was still surfing great, she
still competed and was often
successful, she knew better
than anyone that her brand was
herself and she marketed herself
well.
As the tide of time came in
and out a few times, Ellie-Jean
started pushing the boundaries
of Instagram and the beach babe
surf shots became more lingerie
and mirrors and then slowly the
introduction and promotion of
other products and other brands
and she eventually distanced
herself completely from her
sponsor.
Ellie-Jean capitalised on her
nurtured Instagram exposure
and developed it. It gave her the
foundation of a huge following,
over a million. A following that
was marketed and fed by the surf
industry but eventually she simply
outgrew them. She led the way
into a new era of digital promotion
and left the surf industry in her
wake.
Ellie-Jean has never been
shy about her sexuality,
and alongside the ‘Me Too’
movement she has been vocal
about her negative experiences
as a young woman within that
industry. A lot of this came to
light in the media when she
launched her own website www.
ellieunlocked.com which is an
adult site, tagged ‘uncensored
content, private chat and more’.
She again was criticised that
her comments on the toxic
surf culture was just a stunt
to get promotion for the site.
Firstly, it does not matter if it
was, it happened and not only
to Ellie-Jean but to lots of the
other girls. We now live in an
era where there are a lot of
organisations and sports being
called to account for the way
things were done. We were
contacted by a few in the surf
industry and asked about this
editorial, and we were told that
any issues had been dealt at the
time ‘amicably’, ‘accusations were
made and people were fired’. But
just because you pull up one weed
you are naive to think that was the
only one.
The reveal from Ellie-Jean about
her experiences in the surf
industry were not leverage to
get attention; Ellie-Jean didn’t
need any sort of gimmick, just
the fact that a sports woman, a
professional surfer had moved
into the adult industry would
be exposure enough (no pun
intended).
Talking to her about this new
stage, about her adult site she
says that it is empowering, that
she has control over what she
says, shows and does and there is
no other ‘sponsor’ directing. Even
if you do not agree morally that
her path has been a positive one,
you must accept that her ability to
capitalise on her exposure both
literally and figurative has been
hugely successful.
Was it planned or was it just
luck? Was it just the right time,
right place? Or was it a string of
coincidences, linked to a loss
At one stage Ellie-Jean was ranked #23 in the world
Image supplied
64//WHERE ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS/#223