Surf’s up in Sierra Leone

Excellent documentary on how a fishing village in Sierra Leone took up surfing as a way of life.

Post the Ebola epidemic, a fishing village in the coast of Sierra Leone took up surfing in a big way when they a espied a NGO worker surfing in the waves. Curious, they developed the sport with a lone instructor and also formed a surf club, called Burah Beach Surf Club.

There was politics also with the Club members, but all that got amicably solved and the surfers got an invitation to visit neighbouring Liberia which had better surfing facilities. These eager boys, 7 of them went to Liberia to learn and make friends and learnt some life lessons as well.

Surfing is a rich man’s sport and its also a tourist sport. So all that happens is good for the poor country. Later on Sierra Leone was also admitted as a member of the International Surfing Association, which got them recognition and some scholarship for their students to learn surfing and instructor coaching sessions as well.

Its a nice documentary which flows with the normal lives in Sierra Leone and they discuss their family, country, poverty just like any normal person conversation. Music is very bewitching and also the camera shots and cinematography are qutie splendig.

You can watch the documentary here

Fiji Islands

Breathtaking documentary on Fiji Islands, an archipelago of more than 330 islands of which only about 110 are inhabited.

The documentary touches upon the lives of three persons – one Manasa, a local Fijian a respected member of the community who just loves to live in Fiji and follow its traditions to the full, because this is where he finds his peace and happiness. They follow him underwater where he dives to feed the sharks who the community believes to be their protector, their God kind of.

Second there is Anna a proficient surfer and she also loves to be with the ocean and surf whenever possible, not fighting against the waves but going along with it. She shuttles between California and Fiji Islands, where she is studying on international trade.

Thirdly there is Frank, a French speaking rugby coach who comes down to Fiji Islands to teach rugby to the locals, spot talents and get them exposure to play in foreign leagues. They also strive to play rugby for their national team. Rugby is a popular sport in the Fiji Islands and they are serious contenders on the world rugby stage.

There are some breathtaking visuals of the islands, its vegetation, flora and fauna, seas, ocean, underwater, mountains, sunrise, sunset – all magnificently shot. You can watch the documentary here.

Dogtown & Z Boys

Dogtown & Z Boys, a documentary made in 2001 about the sport of skateboarding which evolved sometime in the 70s in America. Basically the sport emerged out of ocean surfing because the boards were more or less the same and the moves also got inspired from surfing. The documentary shows one team Zephyr in Dogtown in Santa Monica which produced probably the best and most daring skate boarders with many innovative moves. What happened was that during one period of drought in California in the 70s, the swimming pools got dried out, so the empty pools were like magnets for young kids to practice skate boarding. Subsequently the sport gained in prominence with many sponsors, national competitions, TV times, magazines, interviews, international competitions and the like. There were rankings and ratings and the roll of honour and the like. Young & daring skate boarders started going one better than the others and raising the bar all the time. It was an exciting time for the kids those days with lots of money coming in, name & fame. Dogtown did pioneer in a lot of ways with their Zephyr team and people like Jeff Adams and Tony Alva were considered like Michael Jordan of skateboarding. Nice documentary with lots of live video footages from the 70s and interviews with probably the entire Zephyr team.

Where i do my morning runs there are a group of young kids who learn skating (not the skate boarding) and it is quite exciting to watch them pass by.

This documentary can be watched at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YKPEDayb_U

Picture above taken from the internet and not with an intention to violating copyright.