Sea Together - About
Sea Together was a women’s surf magazine and global women’s surf platform I started in 2017 and it ended in 2023. The print magazine was designed by Angela Blumen, and copy edited by Mikaelea Horvath. I was the director and editor-in-chief of the publication, and ran the entire project from workshops, events both in person and online, to the social media and beyond. Instagram shut down my instagram of 10k devoted followers, so I am rebulidng and rebranding the project in 2025. I want to let other people talk about how the work impacted them:
Jenny, from Germany and Sri Lanka: “ I think for me, the most important thing with what Sea Together together actually created besides the magazine is that you created a movement, like you completely created, like Tara Ruttenberg already said, a new narrative on women's surfing. But for me, Sea Together has always been the movement that has helped a lot of girls find their spot and that spot is surfing and not posing and just being sexy. Being part of a community and supporting each other. You created something which is inclusive and there's not much inclusivity in the surf industry. That’s what gives me goosebumps--seeing everybody at Sea Together and not only a stereotype. “
Ariana, from California: “Saa Together really was the first place where I saw like cold water women surfers being represented.”
Chloe Kojima, VP, Global Communications at World Surf League (WSL): “[People went,] “Oh, wow, look what Sea Together's doing.” Sea Together has just inspired so much of the women's surf world in so many ways. Like not just in a publication, but showing people like, if you can't see it, you don't know it exists. Like you don't know, you can do it. Like if you see it, you can do it, you can see a role mode of how to do that. And I feel like you've just led kind of this whole movement of people just saying, I love that. I want to be a part of that, or I want to make something similar inspired by that...
I consider myself someone who kind of knows a lot about the surf industry. And you were introducing me through your magazine to all these new people and even in your social media, to all these new voices and people. Itis one of the most aspirational publications that I've seen because it does it from a place that's so genuine. It does it from a place that's so creative and yet just very thoughtful I just feel like everyone else is trying to do. Sea Together is leading the industry shift at this point. I almost feel that for women's surfing now, and your publication is at the helm of those changes that are happening and just showing everyone here's how you do it. I think everyone's wanting to be a part of it and support it speaks volumes to what it's done for us. It's clearly we feel like we're a part of it, even though, like I've never really done anything for the magazine or written anything for it or done anything, but I still like is almost a part of ...you've created something that I can say is like a part of my identity that I'm so proud to be a female surfer because people can look to publications like this.”
Sea Together - Print Magazine
Jenny, from Germany and Sri Lanka - “I think you inspired a lot of other women and girls to support other women and girls because you are featuring many girls of any kind of background. I'm half German and half Sri Lankan. And with my Sri Lankan background, I see a lot of movement and Sri Lanka because they were like, literally no women or girls surfing ever only like girls like me who are obviously not Sri Lankan who are coming from Europe or Australia or something. I think with the inclusivity you create with Sea Together, all of us also learn how to support each other, and we are also looking more to [opposing] the racism in surfing. Sea together kind of pushed a lot to not only focus the sport on shortboarding you focus on longboarding, mid-length, shortboarding--everything, everything included. And that's the inclusivity part--Like [the diversity you created in Sea Together was] not only where you come from, it [was also] where you live, what kind of surf you like.”
Sea Together - Retreats
Ariana, from California - “I want to talk about being a participant in a Sea Together retreat. It was lead by Bri and it was just incredible. So from a distance, she creates community for Sea Together remotely and everything. But like in person, I would just like to say like she is even more creative, and facilitating this in-person inclusive and community environment, and it is really special. Bri makes makes surfing super fun again, if you ever were disheartened by surfing, go surfing with Bri because of the environment she creates of connection, community, and going surfing with women of different backgrounds, and we're all at different surf levels, but feeling a sense of comradery while we're there. Being able to participate in that is something really special and something beautiful that Sea Together also has created. What Sea Together means to me is like connection on a really deep level, both from a distance and during those retreats.“
Sea Together - Workshops
Tara Ruttenberg, Surf Studies Scholar - “We have these things that kind of happened to us and they feel like isolated experiences. And then when we hear about them and see them in written form or talk about them through all of the platforms that you've created, it helps us feel like we're all connected and that our experiences are that much more validated, that they're real, you know, that we're not just kind of making these things up in our head, that these microaggressions are happening, that people are still objectifying our bodies in different ways through media, through surfing, in all the ways, and that we're not like crazy to be thinking about these things .It just feels so supportive. This feeling of solidarity to know that there are so many of us out there. And I think that Sea Together has been such an important piece of that. Kin of that commotion that's come up around women in surfing. When we start realizing that there are so many of us around the world and that we are having these very diverse experiences, but they're also representative of the struggles that we face, and the joys that we face, and the pleasures that we experienced, and also the challenges that we face every day.“
Sea Together - Events & More
Anna, former Editor in Chief at the WSL: “Brianna threw like a get together like a surf party at a surf shop right in Portland. She actually created a physical structure, built by her graduate school classmate Emma Dueher, that looked like a phone booth and put my phone number in there. I was like on call for an hour or something, and then women could go in and call the hotline that happened to be me and talk about their experience as a woman in the lineups. It was an amazing and validating experience for me.”
Bunny Hill - Grand Opening
Wild Bunny Meditation Tour
Other Workshops
University Teaching - Student Work
Other Conceptual Artwork
