Through the lens of Olav Stubberud.

Olav Stubberud x Kora Yachts

From the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony to our VO65 Sisi

A photographer who's toured with Justin Bieber, shot the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, and never set foot on a race boat — until now.

Olav Stubberud is a Norwegian photographer and filmmaker with over 230,000 Instagram followers and a client list that reads like a festival lineup: Justin Bieber, Kygo, The Chainsmokers, Halsey, G-Eazy, Martin Garrix. He was Kygo's personal tour photographer for three years, the official photographer of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, and has worked on Super Bowl productions. He picked up a camera at 11, was published in a snowboarding magazine at 12, and has spent 200+ travel days a year behind the lens ever since. Backstage, onstage, private jets, arena floors — Olav has seen it all. But a VO65 in the Aegean Sea at 45 degrees of heel? That was new.

Aegean 600: Through Olav's Lens

600 miles around the Greek islands with no sailing experience.

Olav had never sailed before. He didn't watch the YouTube links. He didn't want to know what he was walking into. His goal was simple: stay on the boat, don't be in the way, and capture everything. What he found was something he couldn't have prepared for — three days of nonstop racing around the Cyclades on a 65ft carbon fibre race boat, starting under the Temple of Poseidon, sailing past Santorini at night, broaching at 45 degrees without a camera running, eating freeze-dried Indian food, sleeping in 90-minute bursts, and shooting on film because the light was too good not to.

The race was brutal and beautiful in equal measure. An A4 sail blew out early, costing the team their best downwind weapon. The crew — a mix of professionals and guests who'd trained together for just two days — adapted, improvised, and kept racing. There was a moment of silence when news came through that a sailor on another boat had been lost overboard. And through it all, Olav kept filming, kept shooting, and somewhere around hour 48, stopped trying to explain the experience and just let it wash over him. In his own words: "It's such an extreme way of being friends with nature. It's brutal and beautiful at the same time."

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Thank you Olav & Will

A huge thank you to Olav Stubberud for bringing his eye, his energy, and his willingness to step into the complete unknown aboard Sisi. And to Will Mayer from Cult Holdings, who made the whole project possible.

Follow Olav on Instagram