For our latest collaboration, we teamed up with underwater photographer an ocean lover Mai Roper to create a Sea Coins hat inspired by one of Australia’s most incredible marine environments — Ningaloo Reef. Mai has spent years living and working in Coral Bay, photographing the reef and the manta rays, whale sharks, turtles and other marine life that call it home, so when we met on an all-girls trip to the Maldives earlier this year, a collaboration felt like a pretty natural fit.

Together, we wanted to create a hat that captured the colours, corals and iconic megafauna of Ningaloo while celebrating Mai’s connection to the place she calls home. The result is the Mai Roper x Sea Coins Ningaloo Hat — and to celebrate its launch, we sat down with Mai to chat about her life behind the lens, her love for the ocean and the stories that inspired the print.

Where did your love for the ocean begin?

I was fortunate enough to be raised on the beautiful east coast of Australia by two parents who shared a deep love for the ocean. My mum was a vet, volunteer marine animal carer, and passionate ocean advocate, while my dad was a scuba diver and surfer. From practically the moment I was born, my life revolved around the water — playing in it, curiously exploring it, and learning about it.

Growing up this way naturally fostered a deep personal connection with the ocean from an early age. Its sense of wonder, freedom, and calm became so familiar to me that it has always felt like a second home.

Do you remember the moment underwater photography became more than just a hobby for you?

Yes! At the time, I was working as a swim guide and deckhand for a snorkelling company at Nguthungulli (Julian Rocks) in New South Wales when my boss asked if I could also start capturing photos as an addition during the snorkel tours.

I remember being so excited that something I had been doing so passionately as a hobby for so long was finally becoming part of my job. I spent hours upon hours editing the images, making sure every detail was just right. I remember feeling so excited and lucky that I was getting paid to photograph one of my favourite dive sites, a place I already felt so connected to.

You made the move from the Gold Coast to Coral Bay to pursue underwater photography — what made you take that leap?

I first heard about Ningaloo Reef in my high school marine biology class. I remember thinking to myself, “How can somewhere this incredible exist in Australia that I’ve never even heard of? And why isn’t it talked about more?” It almost sounded too good to be true.

A few years later, I travelled across the country to see it for myself and I instantly fell in love. I fell in love with the reef, the incredible marine life it supported, the lifestyle, and most of all, a tiny, remote town called Coral Bay.

At the time, I was studying marine and wildlife biology at university on the Gold Coast, so although it became my regular holiday destination, my visits always felt way too short. But I made a promise to myself that I would push through my degree and, once I was finished and able to, I would move my entire life to that tiny slice of paradise.

And that’s exactly what I did.

I had no job lined up and no real plan beyond knowing that this was where I wanted to be. I just had a dream, and I decided to commit everything to it. I can’t really explain what made me take that leap
other than the fact that Coral Bay had this incredible pull on me, something I had never felt anywhere else. And gosh, am I glad I listened to it.

Is there a particular place, animal or moment on Ningaloo that still stops you in your tracks?

Anyone that knows me knows that I’m obsessed with manta rays, and I’m incredibly lucky to live in one of only two places in all of Australia that hosts a resident population. So I’ve been blessed to interact with them pretty much every single day for the past four years. And yes, I still get just as excited to see them today as I did the very first time — it never gets old. However, there is one particular individual that will forever hold a very special place in my heart.

“Freckles” is one of our most frequently sighted manta rays here in Coral Bay. She’s a huge female, measuring around 4.2 metres, and was first sighted and catalogued as #053 back in 2004. She was the very first Ningaloo Reef manta ray that I had the privilege of swimming with on my first visit back in 2019, and it feels like we’ve been building a bond ever since. Last year was my favourite year with Freckles, when she began to reciprocate the love and curiosity I had shown her over the years. There were multiple days where different photographers or crew members would swim with her, and she would continue on with her usual energy-efficient behaviour and cruising, but only when I would approach or take over would she flip and go belly-to-belly with me, looking straight up at me.

Anyone that has swum with manta rays knows that this behaviour is pretty rare, especially among mature individuals that have had a high level of human exposure, and it feels like such a deliberate and chosen interaction. Anyone who is lucky enough to have a manta ray flip for them knows the incredible feeling of having a wild animal choose to show you that kind of vulnerability. So you can imagine how incredibly special it feels for me to have my favourite individual repeatedly show me such a special display, and for some reason, seem to choose to do it only with me. It’s moments like these that remind me just how incredibly lucky I am to experience these animals in such a personal and meaningful way.

Has living somewhere so remote changed your relationship with the ocean?

For sure! Living in a remote town is definitely not for everyone. When you’re so isolated from everything, the environment around you naturally becomes a huge part of your day-to-day life. Thankfully for me, living in Coral Bay means that life revolves around the ocean and the reef, which is something I’ve always been used to and genuinely love, so it’s been a relatively easy adjustment to give up my normal urbanised life for a much simpler one where I get to dive and interact with marine life every day.

Living here has undoubtedly strengthened my love and connection to the ocean. Over time, I’ve watched being out on the water become such a huge part of my life that it’s almost become my entire personality — and honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What’s themost memorable thing you’ve ever photographed underwater?

I get asked this question by guests at work all the time, and I still don’t think I have the perfect answer. After spending so many years photographing the beauty of the ocean, there are simply too many incredible moments to choose from, and I don’t think I could ever pinpoint just one. My top three most memorable moments would have to include:

• Stumbling across three giant oceanic manta rays feeding in the densest tropical krill ball I’ve ever seen, right on the inside of the reef in only six metres of water. It was one of those completely unexpected encounters that felt almost too incredible to be real.
• Getting in the water with four whale sharks attempting to feed from the same bait ball and being able to document them as they circled for hours. Before this encounter, I had never seen more than one whale shark at a time, so witnessing four together was something I’ll never forget.
• A surprise visit from a giant endangered leatherback turtle on the inner reef, where I was lucky enough to photograph it as it slowly cruised across the crystal-clear sand flats. Seeing such a rare animal in such shallow, pristine water was incredibly special.

How did the idea for a Mai Roper x Sea Coins hat first come about?

Lucy came on one of my all-girls group trips in the Maldives earlier this year, and we clicked very quickly. As we started chatting about her ocean hat business and the beautiful designs she creates, the idea of a Ningaloo Reef design immediately came to mind. It felt like the perfect opportunity for a collaboration, especially as I practically live in ocean hats while working on the reef!

I loved the idea of creating a design dedicated to such a special place, incorporating the beautiful marine life and themes that make Ningaloo so unique. A hat that reflects the place I spend so much of my time in, and that I can quite literally wear while I’m there. A hat that matches the place I wear it, if you will!

When you look at the hat print, what parts of Ningaloo do you see in it?

I see all the best parts of Ningaloo Reef captured in the hat’s design. The vibrant blue waters, the incredible marine life that calls the reef home, and the iconic corals that make this place so special.

What did you want the design to capture about this part of the world?

I wanted the design to represent Ningaloo Reef as the incredible megafauna hotspot  that it is. That’s what makes the reef so unique and iconic, so it was really important to me that we could incorporate as many of its incredible marine species as possible.

You now lead group trips and expeditions as well as photographing them. What do you love about sharing these experiences with other people?

The passion behind my photography has always been the ability to share the beauty I experience with others and hopefully inspire a deeper appreciation for nature. My expeditions and group trips allow me to continue that passion, but on a different and much more involved level. I’ve always strongly believed in the saying, “We only protect what we love, we only love what we understand, and we only understand what we are taught,” and I believe that creating connection through both visual storytelling and real-life experiences is my way of contributing to that.

Finish the sentence: Life's too short to live in your comfort zone.

How do you chase the water? I chase the water by travelling the world to as many ocean-connected places as I can, driven by a desire to experience and document as many different marine environments and their inhabitants as possible. For me, it’s about following the ocean wherever it takes me and seeing how much of its incredible diversity I can experience and tell the story of in my lifetime.