From skateboarding to surfing, there is only one step. Florian Meca took it a few years ago, during his studies in Brest (Finistère) then in Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine). Since then, the call of the waves has never left this lover of surfing. I had a blast exploring the richness of the coast
remembers the Paris-based designer. And I still have lots of things to discover!
As soon as he has the opportunity, the young man returns to the Breton coast for a few surfing sessions. And by dint of parking discussions
with other amateurs, year after year, he ended up questioning his practice.
This is how the project of a documentary dedicated to Breton surfing and its “stormy culture” was born, which gives its title to the film. Is it destined to follow in the footsteps of the Basque Country and the Landes, its illustrious neighbors? What are the particularities of its coastline? What impact does the maritime culture in the region have on it?
A two-month road trip
To find the answers, Florian Meca went to road-trip in the four corners of Brittany, with his “van-workshop”, to meet ten local surfers. Director, shapers (craftsmen-creators of boards) or simple practitioners… Engine profiles in their respective scene
explains Florian, keen to respect parity. Everyone wants to align their practice with their values, their life principles.
Passion, ethics and gender equality are at the heart of these plural stories, contemporary photography of surfing “made in Breizh”. Where discipline becomes an art of living.
Read also: STORY. The rise of surfing in Brittany, from the 1970s to today
The native of Marseilles has put himself in the picture, as a common thread, documenting the stages of the creation of his alaïa, this traditional Hawaiian board. A work made with local wood, adapted to the waves of the territory and cut with the minimum of manual tools… This experience allowed Florian to better understand what characterizes the Breton environment and thus, to affirm
his own view of this regional scene.
Selected in festivals
The first public screenings of Rough culture in the South West delighted the self-taught director. Many have discovered that surfing is making its way to Brittany. This has given some the desire to move to the region
he confides. We still stick to this caricatured image of a territory with wind, storm clouds and waters as cold as Antarctica.
Read also: “We don’t have to be ashamed of our landscapes”: for this surf photographer, Brittany is worth Tahiti
Selected at the International Surf Film Festival in Anglet and at the last Surf & Skate Culture Festival in Lorient, the film has been online on YouTube since the beginning of the year. And it joins the exhibition Sporting objectives: nautical photographs from J. de Thézac at the Breton Departmental Museum in Quimper, from 1is July, with several screenings followed by conferences on the program.
Florian Meca does not have a new production project in mind, but he wants to continue to quench his thirst for meetings. At the end of his first shoot, he co-founded the Clapot collective, with other enthusiasts, to offer alternative and unifying cultural events around Breton surfing.
