[This article originally appeared in our “Scions of Style” feature in our style issue. If you don’t already get the mag delivered to your door, click here to subscribe.]
In the freesurfing realm, the logical fallacy “style over substance” gets turned on its head. Just look at Ozzie Wright; the erratic air game, the DIY garage rock tunes, the quirky artwork—it all contributes to our perception of Wright as one of surfing’s most dynamic and enduring icons. We love our freesurfers for the distinctive ways in which they express themselves in and out of the water. The substance is the style, in other words.
Queensland freesurfer Jaleesa Vincent has so much substance that to describe her requires multiple hyphens. And while “surfer-artist-musician-tap dancer” might do for now, it’s clear that the 21 year old is just getting started.
Vincent can ride anything. After previously giving the ‘QS grind a go on the thrusters de rigueur, these days she’s just as likely to be found drawing smooth, steezy lines on mid-lengths and twinnies as she is being spontaneous and free of friction on a finless softie.
It’s that juxtaposition between the deliberate and improvisational that makes Vincent’s surfing so fun to watch.
“I think flow is really beautiful in surfing,” says Vincent. “However, I also love unpredictable, spontaneous surfing. A mixture of the two would be ideal, like Buttons Kaluhiokalani—super smooth and flowing, however erratic and exciting.”
Photo Credit: Grant Ellis
When she was young, Vincent’s parents moved her and her older brother Jake—another surfer who marches to the beat of his own drum—from the bush to the Sunshine Coast, where the kids taught themselves how to surf. “I believe having parents who didn’t surf helped us just surf how we wanted,” says Vincent. “We didn’t have anyone telling us what to do.”
Vincent adopts a similar mix of spontaneity and intentionality into creative endeavors outside the water as well. As an imaginative and skillful visual artist and in-demand drummer (as well as tap dancer, a skill she’s been spotted incorporating into hard rock performances), Vincent’s multifarious skillset and fashion sense draw comparisons to free-spirited freesurf icon Alex Knost.
“I’d say nearly every kid loved finger painting and scribbling with crayons,” says Vincent of her development as an artist. “I just never stopped. I thought I was too mature to play with toys [laughs]. I wore red lipstick, dressed up in fancy dress and drew or made collages.”
Vincent’s visual artwork of late—a mix of playful, ghoulish illustrations, surrealist imagery, and accurate representational paintings—is as distinctive as her surfing.
View this post on Instagram
Leopards allowed 2019 Acrylic on canvas More paintings for sale on my website ??
A post shared by @ jaleesavincent on
“My art is always adapting depending on what is inspiring me at the time,” she says. “I love creepy things—blood and bones, things that would make people uncomfortable and wonder why on earth I would make something like that. But I also love painting these beautiful, elegant, intelligent and strong women from the 1920s. I want women to see these paintings and see a piece of themselves in it in their own way.”
In the water, Vincent’s been experimenting as of late, riding as many different craft as she can get her feet on. “I love change. It keeps me on my toes, learning and striving. I love getting on a new board and working it out. Feeling how it wants to be surfed and in what conditions. Plus, you’re never bored that way. Instead of ‘QS-grinding 1-foot slop on a shortboard, take out a foamie or bodyboard and have a hell time.”
No doubt Vincent will continue to experiment both in and out of the water, having a hell time and keeping us transfixed by the predictably unpredictable results all the while.
Recent Comments