Watch: Chasing The Unicorn - A Mozambican Surf Story

Stu Nettle picture
Stu Nettle (stunet)
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From the crew who gave you Mirage - the surf history of Namibia's Skeleton Bay - comes a similar short doco, only this time from Africa's east coast.

After years of war, a truce was called in 1992 and the guns fell silent across Mozambique. The peace made it possible for South African surfers, mostly from Durban, to begin making forays up the coast of Mozam to find what they could.

What they found was a sandy coastline, not unlike Australia's East Coast, with the occasional sudden redirection that provided for long, if infrequent, sand-bottomed waves. "African Kirra" as Jordy Smith calls the most famous.

Meanwhile, peacetime made for prosperity and slowly Mozambique began producing its own surfers and surf culture.

Comments

Standupgoleft's picture
Standupgoleft's picture
Standupgoleft Wednesday, 26 Jul 2023 at 3:49pm

Great story, movie. Cooking ha ha! Really good to see the locals enjoying the fruits of Peace and happiness and not getting murdered. Great surfing i really hope it doesn't get ruined. Jordy rips good to see him free surf. Worth the watch. One question how big do you reckon the white pointers are around that coastline?

wallpaper's picture
wallpaper's picture
wallpaper Wednesday, 26 Jul 2023 at 3:52pm

Bull sharks are more in vogue there aren't they? I want to know how Sung Min Cho grows up poor in a poor village there and somehow speaks native speaker English and wins the Croyde club comp.

fitzroy-21's picture
fitzroy-21's picture
fitzroy-21 Wednesday, 26 Jul 2023 at 3:55pm

Sick

Balbero's picture
Balbero's picture
Balbero Wednesday, 26 Jul 2023 at 6:29pm

Lacker Bru

indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming Wednesday, 26 Jul 2023 at 6:30pm

That was an awesome watch.

Imagine how awesome it would have been to be the first small group of surfers to surf this wave with just your mates knowing there wont be any crowd suddenly hitting.

andy-mac's picture
andy-mac's picture
andy-mac Wednesday, 26 Jul 2023 at 7:20pm

Great film, enjoyed that.

wallpaper's picture
wallpaper's picture
wallpaper Thursday, 27 Jul 2023 at 7:46am

seconded

mattlock's picture
mattlock's picture
mattlock Wednesday, 26 Jul 2023 at 11:04pm

Excellant vid capturing the Mozanbique culture at a unique moment.
Although it didn't quite work as well with the night time magpies chatting around the house as the Bryce one.
Min Cho goes alright. We might see him at the lympics.
I wonder if he has ever gone left.

ryder's picture
ryder's picture
ryder Thursday, 27 Jul 2023 at 7:54am

Old fella at the end said it all...

Clam's picture
Clam's picture
Clam Wednesday, 9 Aug 2023 at 9:27am

the one saying "they will regret telling / selling the world" came as a surprise , legend bru

scrotina's picture
scrotina's picture
scrotina Thursday, 27 Jul 2023 at 6:56pm

leaving at 1am on a boat sailing into a cyclone. not for all the money in the world would i do that

Plasticspastic's picture
Plasticspastic's picture
Plasticspastic Thursday, 27 Jul 2023 at 7:34pm

sick, I visited Moz around 2006, ventured over the border from South africa to Ponto De ouro (point of gold). no road over the border then. had to cart our boards a few K's through the sand dunes. praying their were no landmines. hooked up with all of the marine biologists and dive crew there, and scored some epic sand bottom rights.... jsut us and the sharks........ spent time either surfing the point or diving with massive bull sharks. epic...

Dicky Roberts's picture
Dicky Roberts's picture
Dicky Roberts Friday, 28 Jul 2023 at 2:32pm

Travelled through Mozambique for a month in 1996, from Pemba right down to Maputo and never saw a rideable wave. We had no boards and weren't looking for surf, and had no clue where the waves were, and our visa was running out, so we missed Inhambane area and Ponte de Ouro.
Nice beaches, great diving, lots of onshore winds, guns, weed, thieves, minefields, poverty & potholes. No ATMs, malls, decent roads, tourists, waves, rules. Great trip.

2stroke's picture
2stroke's picture
2stroke Saturday, 29 Jul 2023 at 9:51am

Loved this! Beautiful footage and great music.

Great White Snark's picture
Great White Snark's picture
Great White Snark Monday, 31 Jul 2023 at 8:01am

Spent a month surfing Mozambique in 2002 .
There were no local surfers then .
Very cool to see the kids surfing there now

frog's picture
frog's picture
frog Monday, 31 Jul 2023 at 8:08am

The innocence of surf stoked kids in uncrowded lineups - hoping for more surfers!

t-diddy's picture
t-diddy's picture
t-diddy Wednesday, 2 Aug 2023 at 11:52pm

sic film

Clam's picture
Clam's picture
Clam Wednesday, 9 Aug 2023 at 9:31am

this area maybe one of the secret spots a well known durbanite & / big wave surfer & core traveller has kept his lips sealed for decades