When I first met Elina Nakoba on the North Shore, I had little idea of how much of a creative force she was. We didn’t get to spend much time together before she was heading back to New Jersey, but it didn’t take long to realize she’s exactly what we need more of in surfing.
As a woman from Ukraine, she didn’t exactly have a built-in network to the surf or creative scenes in the US, but it didn’t take her long to form connections through her passion for photography and filmmaking and her hardworking ethos. Even in epicenters of California surf culture, you don’t find many women constantly putting together multi-faceted projects, let alone ones who have done so across three continents.
Here at SURFER, we genuinely hope that changes because the best way for our sport, culture, and industry to stay healthy and resilient, is to ensure everyone with passion and respect has a seat at the table.
Ashton Goggans, founder of the Center of Radical Education (CORE) says, “Elina is exactly what the surf world needs more, a talented and driven woman who brings a unique perspective to the table and works just as hard, if not harder, than all the men.”
How it all started
“Surfing is too boring of a subject.”
That, or something along those lines, is what Elina Naboka’s filmmaking teacher told her. She was 25 and taking a course to learn how to work with motion pictures. One of her projects had been a short surf sketch, that she made after she had spent two months in Indonesia. The teacher suggested she shoot something indoors instead, so the class could see how she handled light and different gear.
By then, Elina already knew what she wanted to do. “Film in nature, close to the elements.”
Today, the surf films she has directed, shot, and edited have been featured by all the major players in surf media (ourselves included, see here), screened on Oahu’s North Shore, and premiered in theaters on the Jersey Shore. She has filmed huge hurricane swells on the East Coast, curated an international art exhibition at one of Europe’s best-known surf film festivals, and shot campaigns for brands including Levi’s Shoes, Vissla, Salomon Sverige, and Faherty.
She has done it in a field where, as she puts it, “women are still a minority and men make up the majority.”
Related: Watch: Simon Hetrick & Elina Naboka Score Pumping Morocco in “Camel Milk”
See You Next Time
Together with East Coast hammer Simon Hetrick, the two have worked on a series titled, “See You Next Time”.
In a nod to their sense for the times, the duo’s latest episode is called “Marketplace”. The premise was simple, all of the surfing would be filmed on boards purchased used from online marketplaces with a special focus on blades from the 90’s.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’d know that the 90’s look is one of the biggest trends, not just in surfing, but across youth culture as a whole. Even large brands like Adidas and Oakley have jumped on board by offering new versions of the wraparound ‘fast guy’ shades of the era.
Elina says, “Marketplace was a long-term project for me. We filmed it over almost two years, across the USA. The project consists of three parts. For the second part, we flew to Hawaii to film there,
while Parts 1 and 3 were filmed on the mainland. While in Hawaii, we screened Episode 2
‘Camel Milk’ film at C.O.R.E. during the soft opening of the Center Of Radical Education, Oahu,
Hawaii.
Episode 3 ‘Marketplace’ premiered this summer at the ShowRoom theater in Asbury Park, NJ.
It was great to see the entire community come together and show us so much support.
We sold out all the tickets, and had to put some extra chairs. Big shout out to NJ surf community! The movie also premiered in two other cities, Margate and Ocean City, NJ, and was recently accepted into the Sheveningen Surf Film Festival in The Hague, Netherlands.”
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