Last night the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent ran a compelling report on Cape Town’s Waves for Change program, a non-profit organisation that takes kids from the poorest and most crime-stricken parts of the city and introduces them to surfing. Entitled Freedom Riders, the interactive half-hour report provides an honest and unflinching portrait of the effects Apartheid has had and continues to have on the city’s black population, and shows how this inspiring new social program is offering underprivileged kids an alternative to the usual avenues of drugs, violence and crime. Sydney-based surfer Matt ‘Sheepy’ Davis was the producer behind the program, and Tracks caught up with him to get the inside word on how the project came about and what it was like seeing the darker side of South Africa firsthand.
How did you first hear about Waves for Change and what inspired you to travel to Cape Town and produce a half-hour program on the organisation?
Matt: I’d been commissioned to make a film in South Sudan, and I had in mind that it would be a bit traumatic and not a very pretty story, so when I was asked to come up with a second story out of Africa I made a point of finding something with hope and optimism. I started looking around online about what was happening in South Africa around surfing and areas of social change and this Waves for Change program came up and it was in Cape Town and it was doing these good things and getting recognised by these philanthropic groups, so I did a bit of research into it and I just thought, mate, this is a great story.
How long did you spend in Cape Town making the program and what was it like to enter into these communities that were so impoverished and problematic?
We were on the ground for two and a half weeks all up. First we went down and met up with the program and the characters and built a bit of trust, and that required someone in our team having a surf with some of them, so that was a nice part of the job. The Waves for Change program actually works in three communities, but the one we went to was heavy. It’s a dangerous place. There’s tens of thousands of people living in absolute squalor, there’s drugs, there’s gangsters, there’s violence, sexual violence, lots of broken homes, kids not going to school and just a lot of social dysfunction. And then us being there, a couple of Australians with cameras, people don’t necessarily like that, they’re like what’re you doing here filming us? But when people saw we were with Waves for Change they got the idea that we were there to tell the story of why it’s important, and they were actually pretty stoked on it, which was cool.
As surfers in a stable, first-world country, we’re all prone to our moments of petty, self-righteous indignation. What does it do for your perspective when you see these kids who live in dangerous environments and have been through really traumatic experiences get such positive relief from a sport that we so often take for granted?
I’m living in the Eastern Suburbs these days and when I got back in the water here everyone was hassling and getting crazy about a couple of small waves coming through, so it does give you some perspective. Those kids might only get one or two waves in an hour but those couple of waves are everything for them. That being said, as a surfer I understand that when anyone’s in a dark place or has had a bad day that’s what surfing does for all of us, it’s what you do to let off some steam. But the main difference is you or I go home to a safe environment, have a meal, have a beer, life’s pretty easy, but after they finish surfing, they go straight back into what they just came from and that’s the dangerous part. I guess the stakes are just much higher where these kids are coming from.
Where is the Waves for Change program heading from here and do you think it has the potential to bring about lasting social reform?
They’re definitely doing something right. Tim, the founder, is actually now looking to expand into Somalia and Liberia and all other parts of Africa which are exponentially more hard-core in terms of what’s going on. Y’know, these are places where war and civil conflict are happening. So they’ve got these grand plans to expand into these places. I think they’re sending boards to Liberia at the moment. It’s a program that really is facilitating change.
As a surfer and producer, have you got any more projects in the works that combine these two passions?
There’s a story burning away inside me at the moment. I’m interested in the way tourism and surfing can either work together or work against each other in developing countries, so I’ll see where that takes me.
