Pumping Swell in the Sahel

The voice of a Thai/French teenager recounts the arrival of his family from Thailand to Mauritania (West Africa) in 2018 where they met a small community of local surfers. Some of them have been surfing for 4 decades in the country. We discover the members of this small community who describe the different spots and the evolution of surfing in Mauritania. Among these surfers, two female surfers participated in the project. Cristina de Las Rivas, the first Spanish woman to surf in Mauritania, and Sachiko Nishioka, the first japanese citizen to surf in Mauritania. Sachiko also filmed and photographed a number of scenes.

The Islamic Republic of Mauritania is located in the Sahel between Morocco and Senegal. This nation is discreet but it has its magic: the eye of Africa, ancient cities, natural parks and the Atlantic Ocean which embraces the Sahara on a wild and endless coastline. The documentary highlights this unprecedented contrast between the ocean and the desert. As part of the documentary, local surfers invite explorer/surfer Erwan Simon to join a surf trip to Lagwira. 14 years after the Surf Explore expedition, Erwan is once again exploring the Sahelian desert to re-explore the Lagwira spots in depth with local surfers. A big swell is expected. Artist and surfer Tylan Lambert from Australia is also featured in the documentary while he was going through Mauritania during a surf expedition from Dakar to Dhakla. But why is surfing in Mauritania so little known? Are there really waves to surf? The protagonists of the film reveal that surfing in Mauritania can be of very good quality but it is demanding because many conditions must be met. There is, however, one exception: the ghost town of Lagwira; the forbidden with its multitude of spots. Lagwira is located in the north of Mauritania. It has been a militarized zone since the emergence of the territorial dispute relating to Western Sahara in the 1970s, and it is forbidden to go there. It can only be accessed with authorization issued by the authorities.

En exclusiva, el documental ofrece las primeras imágenes en vídeo del surf en los spots legendarios de Lagwira: El Castillo, Météorite y Boum Boum. El documental contiene cinco años de material de vídeo y archivos de los años 70, 90 y 2000.