Cuba is a land of contradiction. A little over a hundred miles of tepid Caribbean waters stand between Havana and Key West, and yet the Cuban reality couldn’t be further from the lives of surfers stateside. A 1950s-era U.S. embargo has cut Cuba off from countless conveniences Americans take for granted: steady access to newly-produced American automobiles, running a Visa or MasterCard to pay for a meal, expansive internet access, limitless entertainment, and for surfers and surfboard shapers, access to materials and equipment to practice your passion.
For many Cuban predicaments, there exist workarounds. The Cuban black market is thriving with sales of all sorts of contraband – including USB drives packed with popular movies, TV shows, and information simply referred to as el paquete (the package). A thriving surf scene has also spawned surfboard shapers and repairmen who often fix broken boards or attempt to make them into something new entirely.
The idiosyncrasies of Cuba’s surf scene, which continues to grow against all odds, are the subject of a new short film from Zak Noyle called Ola Cubana that’s shot entirely on an iPhone, and it’s absolutely transfixing.
You may remember Noyle’s cover image on The Surfer’s Journal (shot on an iPhone) that got a shout out from Tim Cook? Well, apparently there’s no better advertisement for the smartphone’s camera capabilities than simply showing what it’s capable of. And since then Apple apparently commissioned Noyle for the short above.
Here’s a little behind the scenes of the making of Ola Cubana:
