NO EXPIRY

FIFTY FEMALE SURFERS . OVER 50 . STILL FROTHING

A passion project

WHY I’M DOING THIS

I'm turning fifty next year. I didn't grow up surfing - I came to it later in life, stiff-shouldered, overthinking every pop-up, half-convinced I'd started too late to matter.

What I found out past the breakers wasn't just a new skill. It was something closer to healing — and a community of women already out there who pulled me into the lineup like I'd always belonged.

No Expiry began as a way of saying thank you to them. Fifty female surfers, fifty and over, photographed for my own fiftieth birthday - proof, mostly to myself, that none of us are anywhere near finished.

- Hilda

Fifty frames. Fifty names to come.

Fifty female surfers, aged fifty and over, photographed one by one between now and Hilda's fiftieth birthday — longboarders and shortboarders, log riders and competitors, all still out there.

The portraits will come together as a documentary exhibition and photobook in 2027/28.

Is this you, or would you like to nominate someone? Get in touch!

Who belongs here

Not a casting call. A recognition.

No Expiry isn't looking for the fastest, the most decorated, or the most photogenic. It's looking for women who've stayed in the water.

  • 01 Aged 50 or over, no upper limit.

  • 02 Surfs — longboard, shortboard, log, or foam, competitive or purely for the joy of it.

  • 03 Came to surfing early or late in life — what matters is she's still in it.

  • 04 Willing to be photographed twice: up close, and in the lineup or on the home break she surfs.

  • 05 Based anywhere — this project travels to its subjects.


The photographer

Hilda is the founder of DiP Underwater Studio, working across underwater, documentary, and community photography from Caves Beach, NSW.

Her past series — Skin, Home, Arrival, and Sea of Faces — return again and again to identity, belonging, and migration. No Expiry continues that thread closer to home.

She picked up a surfboard herself later in life, and on the cusp of her own fiftieth year, turns her camera toward the women who showed her it wasn't too late.

Follow the project @noexpiryproject