Surf photographer in Sri Lanka

Veronica is a surf photographer from Germany and when she asked me to share her story on Surfragette I was so excited to learn more about her experience! During her university break she decided to follow her passion and move for a little while to Sri Lanka. There she met amazing people and had the chance to live thrilling adventures, doing what she loves most!

Here's the story of her exciting experience!

"I first heard of Sri Lanka when I was a child. My parents traveled through this magical island during their honeymoon 24 years ago. Nine month later I was born! So, I had to go back there someday. During my semester break I am normally working at the seaside somewhere, in order to be able to surf every day. Two years ago I bought my camera waterhousing from my boss on the Canary Islands and it was love at first sight. Now it‘s hard to decide whether to go for a surf or shoot in the water. I love the feeling, the perspective in the water. You can see emotions, face expressions, body movements... There you learn so much about the ocean, waves and how to read body language. A while ago somebody told me (thanks Aiko!) that you have to be able to mentally surf the wave before guessing what could happen next. 

Moving to Ceylon for my semester break was an easy decision, to escape the cold, to shoot in crystal-clear water and beautiful light in a bikini… and I‘m madly in love with curries, palmtrees and coconuts! I’m living in the south in Madiha, 3 hour ride from Colombo. My home reef break is a right-hander with an easy seagrass entrance just 3 minutes’ walk, next to Coffee Point, a really beautiful coffee place, where Mysa serves the best coffee and cakes on the island. I get ask a lot about how is it to work as a female surf photographer. This is not easy to answer, as I just started. I normally shoot guys but I also joined Santosha Society on a couple of sessions and it‘s so much fun with just girls in the water! That makes me happy and I can’t stop smiling when some of them have a good ride. Sometimes people get scared when my head is popping out of the water in front of them eheh!

Here the locals are really friendly and even if you don’t speak the same language you can laugh a lot together. Tuktuk drivers can be pretty crazy when they are rushing through the streets and you have to get used to the Srilankan way. 

My typical daily routine looks like this. I‘m waking up at around 5:30 or 6 o’clock. I am living with other five people and someone has to get up early to go check the surf in the front yard, sipping an espresso. Then I go surfing or photo-shooting (the light is so amazing during the morning hours). After breakfast my flatmates are teaching surf, so I usually join them to get some nice shots. It‘s already lunchtime and super hot and I try to start editing or go for a quick nap haha. One of my flatmates is a yoga teacher so I sometimes join his classes and try to do some stretching. Otherwise I go for a coffee to Coffeepoint. At around 4 o’clock we usually check the front yard spot again to go for a sunset session before dinnertime. I love the different curries! I suggest banana cashew (even if it can get a bit spicy). After dinner, it’s nice to catch up with friends and go to one of the bars on the beach in the next village. If you are too lazy to go by scooter or tuktuk, you can just have a beer in the front yard, watching the ocean! What an amazing end of the day!

So if you don’t mind hectic traffic, I would totally recommend to explore this magical island! And I’m really excited to see how female surf photography will develop and in which direction it will lead us."

If you want to share your surf-inspired experience on Surfragette, you can drop me an email to surfragette@gmail.com. Can't wait to hear from you!