Beautiful surfing at Byron Bay
March 18, 2012 9:31 AM   Subscribe

Surfing at Byron Bay: Jorgelina "Lina" Reyero shows off the beauty of Wategos Beach at Byron Bay, Australia with a camera mounted to her surfboard.
posted by quin (38 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
That was really cool to watch.

I keep almost buying a GoPro and then remembering that the real reason I'm not producing videos of myself doing awesome things is that I don't do enough awesome things.
posted by brennen at 9:38 AM on March 18, 2012 [3 favorites]


Likeable things about this video:

20% slick production
40% pretty girl
38% Fleet Foxes
2% Byron Bay and surfing skill
posted by jimmythefish at 10:12 AM on March 18, 2012 [3 favorites]


Another like-able thing: it is not Seattle in March.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 10:13 AM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


the real reason I'm not producing videos of myself doing awesome things is that I don't do enough awesome things.

I'm sure that's true, but mostly what jimmythefish says is correct. I have gopro surfing footage I've taken in better waves than this, but my video isn't as cool because I'm not very good at video editing, I'm not a pretty girl, and I didn't set it to a pretty song (because last time I tried that YouTube disabled my video for copyright violation).
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 10:19 AM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


Haters gonna hate.

What you see here is not a "pretty girl," but an athletic woman, and the point is not that she's the world's best surfer but rather that she is capturing a beautiful environment.
posted by mai at 10:25 AM on March 18, 2012 [5 favorites]


I'm not hating...it's nice to look at but just not terribly exceptional in any way. It's irritating, the form over substance nature of this. Primarily, it's not doing either thing that it says on the box:

- it's not really showing any thing exceptional in terms of surfing skill (not good enough to be a FPP anyways); and
- it's not showing the beauty of Byron Bay in anything other than an incidental way.

It mainly opens and closes with a good soft-core ass shot.
posted by jimmythefish at 10:31 AM on March 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


For a second I thought the most productive thing about this thread would be that we'd reunited Mai with her lost sandal - alas, it is not to be. So close.
posted by jimmythefish at 10:35 AM on March 18, 2012


point is not that she's the world's best surfer but rather that she is capturing a beautiful environment.

Whether that's the point or not I don't know, but I don't think it's the effect. If you like, you can substitute "athletic woman" for "pretty girl" in my last post. I'm happy to give you that, but I think for most viewers of this video the difference between those will be semantics.

She is actually a pretty good surfer. Better than most average people you'll see out in the water on any given day. But like jimmythefish says, not really exceptional. And the beauty of Byron bay is sort of barely visible in the background. Besides, beautiful surroundings are sort of par for the course at surfing destinations. Byron Bay doesn't really stand out when compared to the north shore of Oahu, in Hawaii, or Bali in Indonesia, or even the Monterey Bay here in California where I am. They are all beautiful destinations, but lots of (most?) surfing videos feature them.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 10:38 AM on March 18, 2012


Agreeing with the above. It was a small, uneventful day...and yes, it was made pretty. I actually wish the waves were bigger and the camera was turned 180. I want her perspective, not male gaze.
posted by iamkimiam at 10:39 AM on March 18, 2012 [4 favorites]


I don't think this is high art or anything, but the reason I enjoyed it is not that she's attractive. I mean, that doesn't hurt by any means, but I liked the video because she's obviously enjoying herself at something I literally couldn't do to save my life. I'm sure it's entirely run-of-the-mill surfing. My mind is not blown. But it's a pleasantly constructed window into an experience I'm unlikely to have.
posted by brennen at 10:39 AM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


I actually wish the waves were bigger and the camera was turned 180. I want her perspective, not male gaze.

here's a video I shot where the waves are bigger and the camera is rotated 180 degrees, but it's not as nice looking as hers. Not the least of which is because a fisheye lens on the nose of your board makes the wave look smaller than it is (which is a problem looking back as well, and makes the surfer look bigger in comparison tho the wave).
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 10:43 AM on March 18, 2012


Instead, I keep thinking a Corona logo will show up at the end of the video with a "Change your latitude" slogan.

Well, it did open and close with an ad for the Rest Your Eyes film production company. I think we're just so used to being manipulated in that regard that we don't realize we're being marketed to.

It's not 'her' video. She was almost certainly hired for the job.
posted by jimmythefish at 10:46 AM on March 18, 2012


I liked this because of how little she does. It's a longboard. Its beauty is its simplicity. The way I saw it the aesthetic of the video matched up entirely with what one supposes she thinks when she takes her board out at daybreak and glides back into the beach.

I loved seeing the little details like her changing her stance, the simple elegance of the pop, and imagining the sensation of water running over one's feet.
posted by MuffinMan at 10:47 AM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


I encouraged quin to post this, because I specifically felt it was not overly OMG Hot Girl on a Surf board. Full Disclosure: I am a woman. I thought it looked neat, the way the horizon rolled with the camera, a perspective I've not seen as well as watching the way she moves to balance the board. (Though in fairness, I don't generally watch surfing videos, so maybe its a common type of video). I think the woman is incidental, it would be a really cool video had it been a guy.

Frankly, I don't think there is anything wrong that is is a woman, or that she is wearing activity appropriate clothing. I kind of hate the idea that if something contains an attractive woman that it's necessarily male gazing, and not just a beautiful woman, you know, doing her thing.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 11:01 AM on March 18, 2012 [5 favorites]


she is, not is is. My kingdom for an edit option.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 11:03 AM on March 18, 2012


[insert clever name here] - I don't think anything you said is wrong. It is not just "hot girl on a surfboard", it's a pretty typical video of a female longboarder. Just look at the related videos on YouTube. There's plenty of others that are all but identical. That's the thing - as surfing footage goes, this is fairly cliché.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 11:09 AM on March 18, 2012


...that we'd reunited Mai with her lost sandal - alas, it is not to be.

To be fair, it turned out it wasn't actually her sandal to begin with.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 11:10 AM on March 18, 2012


I kind of hate the idea that if something contains an attractive woman that it's necessarily male gazing

Oh, I agree. However, the slick nature of the sexuality in the video makes it such that it's not specifically highlighted.

THIS IS A COMMERCIALLY-PRODUCED VIDEO DESIGNED TO MARKET THEIR COMPANY. Of course they're going to add sex. It was done well enough that a lot of people seem to think that this was a casually-produced amateur surfing video. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Also, does anyone else just despise this knee-jerk fucking 'haters gonna hate' bullshit that gets thrown out when an objection to something like this is made? This is not Facebook. This is not a video of your newborn baby. I am not your yoga-doing friend that should be skin-peeled alive if I do anything but gush over your perfect life.

It's an affront to critical thought.
posted by jimmythefish at 11:13 AM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


Also, does anyone else just despise this knee-jerk fucking 'haters gonna hate' bullshit that gets thrown out when an objection to something like this is made? This is not Facebook. This is not a video of your newborn baby. I am not your yoga-doing friend that should be skin-peeled alive if I do anything but gush over your perfect life.

I think I'm still stuck on being irritated that approx. 3/4 of all MetaFilter comment threads devolve into this comment thread.

I think I'll go outside in the sun now.
posted by brennen at 11:21 AM on March 18, 2012


I liked it because I know nothing about surfing and this is the first time I've seen a video of modern surfing that wasn't all HUGE WAVES and EXTREME ACTION. It was peaceful and actually looked like fun, unlike watching people get pummeled by 50 foot waves. It's nice that she was cute, but you could put some grandpa on the surfboard and I would have liked it at least as much -- the pleasure was in seeing something different, not in checking out her ass.

Googling the name of the surfer led me, via several steps, to these videos of non-pervy films of women surfers. Probably nothing new to anyone who follows these things, but totally new to me.
posted by Forktine at 11:22 AM on March 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


videos of non-pervy films of women surfers

There are lots of non-pervy videos of women surfers. Here's a video from the final of a women's professional contest last year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-JPi3y2xko

There could be a pretty good FPP on the state of women in surfing. I even think the original video in this thread is "non-pervy". It's a nice video. It's just not really a remarkable video.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 11:34 AM on March 18, 2012


It's nice that she was cute, but you could put some grandpa on the surfboard and I would have liked it at least as much

That's probably true for many people - myself included. However, my cynical side says that if the surfer so featured hadn't been an attractive young woman, this video would never have been made (nor become a FPP).

Debaters gonna debate...
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:34 AM on March 18, 2012


Here's another entry in the "awesome girls surfing awesome waves in awesome places, sans male gaze" pool.

Forktine's link has some great stuff too.

(The first link in Forktine's post, and my link, are both ads, but contra jimmythefish, neither add sex.)
posted by louie at 12:17 PM on March 18, 2012


I was actually surprised by quite how much she was moving around on the board. The most forward and furthest aft positions were a long way apart. That was pretty impressive.

I'd have had enough trouble standing on the thing (from experience) so moving around that much on it blows my mind.
posted by Brockles at 12:23 PM on March 18, 2012


Brockles: That was really interesting to me too. Take a look at some of the videos in Forktine's link, you'll see some of the same from a different angle.

(Don't get me wrong, surfing videos where you can actually see the surfer move and do their thing are pretty cool, and inevitably with female surfers involves either T or A. But you don't have to wrap it between the walking-up-the-beach-focused-on-nothing-but-ass shots.)
posted by louie at 12:30 PM on March 18, 2012


Athleticism makes people attractive: this is a natural human body that has been built through her sport. It is a mistake to hide your eyes and say "porn"! Ideally we'd all be surfers, and why aren't we? This made me think about human happiness and priorities.
posted by niccolo at 12:54 PM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


I actually wish the waves were bigger

I don't know, these are the conditions I see most of the time, and I found it inspiring. One thing I love about longboarding is that with a little digging you can ride almost anything, which means you don't spend much time fretting about conditions, you spend your time out in the water. Ask not what your ocean can do for you.
posted by eddydamascene at 12:58 PM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


What you see here is not a "pretty girl," but an athletic woman, and the point is not that she's the world's best surfer

My guess is that people who call grown women "girls" have either never dated a woman, or haven't dated in at least 10 years.
posted by KokuRyu at 1:32 PM on March 18, 2012


But, yeah, I'm pretty certain that the allure of this video is Reyero in a swimsuit.
posted by KokuRyu at 1:33 PM on March 18, 2012


Well, it made me go look up Joel Tudor videos, and that's usually a good thing.
posted by Relay at 1:42 PM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


And for anyone who'd like a different sort of surfing video, here's Dane Reynolds' latest.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 3:21 PM on March 18, 2012


But, yeah, I'm pretty certain that the allure of this video is Reyero in a swimsuit.

That's just like, your opinion, man.

If you ask me her long sleeve one piece black suit is the opposite of exploitative. Don't see a lot of those in the SI swimsuit edition.

I'm currently in the process of getting into shape for a surfing trip next month, which will be my first time out since I was a teenager. All I really noticed about this was how interesting it is to see the fixed camera isolate the movements of the surfer relative to the movement of the board. And secondly, holy hell I'm excited for my trip.

Also that shot of her walking toward the beach with the board on her head was more Endless Summer poster homage than "hey look at her butt". I've seen that shot a bunch of times, with guys, girls, old and young.
posted by billyfleetwood at 7:08 PM on March 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


I just came in to bitch about how over-developed Byron has become. I'll wait up the back till the gender politics is sorted.
posted by bystander at 7:48 PM on March 18, 2012


lake michigan surfing - well, he's not that great a surfer, the waves aren't that impressive

but he's doing it in january - that should count as something
posted by pyramid termite at 8:30 PM on March 18, 2012


i like this one from lake superior better, though - i think the ice in his hair adds something to the performance
posted by pyramid termite at 8:37 PM on March 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


Maybe it's because I love those gentle wave days in Byron, and because she has a zen, happy aura about her, but I LIKED IT. I was in quite a chilled mood listening to that after a day in the waves myself - she's healthy, happy, enjoying the moment.
posted by honey-barbara at 2:47 AM on March 19, 2012


This was a nice, relaxed look at someone enjoying the waves. No, not groundbreaking or anything, and I initially was hoping for a forward-facing video (nice video, by the way, tylerkaraszewski), but hey - enough to get my wheels spinning waiting for the water to get past 55 degress so I can start getting wet again. (especially since the snowboarding season sorta imploded this year)

Definitely some Endless summer hommage, and as a FPP, could have used a bit more, but still happy the post was made.
posted by rich at 7:20 AM on March 19, 2012


I thought that the sunrise lighting was better than almost any surf video I've seen, which is what made it remarkable to me.
posted by Four Flavors at 11:17 AM on March 19, 2012


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