AS I SAY TO THE UNDERPRIVILEGED KIDS WHO LIVE IN THIS ENVIRONMENT: “YOU’RE GOING TO BE THE HERO OF YOUR LIFE STORY”


platform to demonstrate what they do. At the time, there wasn’t a very strong internet connection at any of the locations, nor was there much visibility for them to promote their own work.”


Pulling the three clubs together as a collective, Emi took a three-month break from her studies to visit one. Choosing Peru, her intention was to help, work with and nurture the kids, assisting them in making short videos that flipped the narrative on the poor fishing communities that scatter up and down Peru’s coastline. “I wanted to paint these kids as unique and cool, rather than subscribing to that stale ‘look at this poor child’ plot.


“When I went for the first time, there was nothing really there, hardly any buildings, with the desert– of which there is a lot of – almost just falling into the sea. It was very much like a ghost town. I mean, even now the Wi-Fi signal isn’t great and the only water we have gets pumped in about once a week, if we’re lucky. It’s not an easy place to live.


“And yet, there is so much magic here – the sunsets are incredible, the waves for a surfer are amazing, and it’s beautiful. And it’s home.”


There was even romance to be found on the coastal wilderness of Peru - in September 2020 Emi got engaged to her fiancée Nicolás, who she met there six years ago when he was putting on a workshop for local


54 | WINTER 2021 | ONBOARD


youths based around using surfing as a tool against social and environmental injustice.


There have been times when moving back to the US has been an option, but the elongated expanses of perfect beaches have always kept Emi’s anchor rooted.


And of course there’s real work still to be done – Lobitos, for all its part-beach shack vibe, part-derelict vibe that makes it one of the coast’s prime surfing spots, is in grave danger of being commercialised. At present, 70 per cent of Peru’s coastline is filled with fishing village communities. Fish are responsible for so many interactions, and represent a heritage that goes back hundreds of years. The worry is that these communities will die out as people head to the cities and developers eye up land. It is what terrifies the campaigner, and has inspired so much positive action in response.


“All our Beyond the Surface communities have a profound reliance on fish. We wondered how those villages would survive if the ocean ran out of fish – how would they be able to provide for their families, for themselves, for the wider community? “Our job here is to focus local people and show them how incredible their marine environment is,” says Emi. “It’s to prove to them there is so much more to their coastline and their home than just the fish, as important as that is.


“By providing what we like to call ‘edutainment’, we want them to see the extraordinary


in their ordinary, so that they are not looked down upon for wanting to remain in their villages. Sustainability, even through something as simple as surfing, is giving them a voice – a collective voice and, in turn, that’s also a voice for the ocean, too.”


The methods by which local people can utilise the ocean and their inherent seafaring skills are endless, and in ways that will conserve and preserve their communities. “It’s important people do not feel stuck – it shouldn’t be a case of them being reliant on one sole income: fishing. From surfing to becoming professional sailing instructors, there is so much more than can empower communities.


“As I say to the underprivileged kids who live in this environment: ‘You’re going to be the hero of your life story’. They need to be told this because many have grown up thinking they are too poor or too far off the beaten track to make a real difference in their future life.


“Just to be able to instil in them a positive self-image is so valuable.”


Emi’s work is now discussed globally - In 2018 she received the National Geographic award for Adventurer of the Year. While the adventurer is thrilled to get recognition, and it is credit she deserves as Beneath the Surface advances rapidly towards its first decade. The truest marker of her efforts comes from the communities and the children the organisation serves.


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