Watch: Oxbow’s Laura Coviella in ‘Untamed’
Feat round waves in the Ments.
When I ask Laura Coviella whether the title of her new film, Untamed, has a more personal meaning, she whips off her beanie to reveal a buzz cut dyed leopard print. “I’m really unpredictable. You never know what I’m going to do,” she says, laughing. “This time, I shaved my head.”
Laura grew up in Tenerife, 45 minutes from the closest wave, and no one in her family surfed. She couldn’t surf on her own terms until she got her driver’s license at 18. “For me, everything came late. But I was really motivated, and I was probably the only one who saw that it could really happen.”
She did juniors and the QS, but never quite felt at home there. “When I discovered adrenaline and surfing could go together, I knew that was my thing,” she says.
Getting into big waves meant overcoming the same barriers many women face. “I didn’t have the equipment, and I didn’t know anyone.” She bugged Vilaita, one of the Canaries’ big-wave legends, until he finally took her out, and she quickly caught a bomb. He became her mentor, and when he moved to Lanzarote, she followed.
On big days at home, she’s usually the only woman in the lineup. Ask her what it would take to get more women out there, and she doesn’t pretend it’s easy. “I think it’s in your blood. You can’t force it.”
Her new edit with Oxbow, Untamed, included little of the meticulous planning that usually works its way into heavy water content. Instead, Laura let things fall into place over almost two months in the Mentawais. “When I go in with a plan, it never works out, and that stresses me out,” she admits. “So this trip was about enjoying the moment.”
Every time she was about to leave, another swell kept her there. “Maybe I’d have to extend my ticket four times, but no problem. I know the moment will come, and I know I want to be there when it does.”
Letting go helps her surfing. “When I’m thinking, ‘Fuck, I need to get a wave, I need to get barreled,’ it never happens. It’s usually when I almost give up that something good happens.” In Spanish, there’s a phrase for that: cambiar el chip, to switch the chip. “I already go into the water with another chip,” she says.
She once sat through a big-wave session for nearly six hours without getting a wave. “In the sixth hour, just as I was about to go in, I caught my best wave of the year.”
In the Mentawais, the payoff came on the biggest swell of the season. Everyone else went in for lunch, but their guide convinced them to stay. “A storm came through, the wind changed, and suddenly every wave was perfect,” she says. “Just me and three friends. It was really magic. It was only one hour, but it made the whole trip.”
Young girls sometimes ask if she has fear. She tells them yes. “When I was younger, I had no fear. But I’ve lost friends in the water, and that changes how you think about things.” When they ask how she deals with it, she’s just as honest: she works through it with a psychologist.
“One day, I’d like to take girls with me, for sure,” she says, even though she doesn’t see herself as a mentor yet. “In such a masculine world, I’m always comparing myself to the guys, so you always feel smaller.” The other women she’s talked to have felt it at some point. “Everyone believes in you, but you don’t really feel it.” She’s quick to add, “It’s something I’m working on.”
As for who inspires her, it’s moms like Justine Dupont who keep charging big waves. “They’re from another planet.”
For now, Laura’s just happy to be where she’s at. That grom hitching rides to the beach in Tenerife would certainly be impressed. “I’m living my dream. My younger self would be really proud,” she concludes.
Watch Untamed above.
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