Surfing’s path to becoming an Olympian already has its movie

The phrases of famous protagonists of world surfing follow one another during The Impossible Wave, the film that portrays “the very long rowing” of 27 years made by Fernando Aguerre, the dreamer from Mar del Plata who managed to get his beloved sport to the Games. Olympics. “It was like that, something that was not going to happen. That is why the soul of the film is for people to understand that there are no impossible things. The impossible is a kind of ploy to not feel bad for not trying something. Trying implies not achieving it, so what better than not trying so as not to feel bad.

Life is that, sometimes it goes well for you and sometimes badly. We surfers know it well: when we lose a wave, we paddle back in to look for another. This is life. Because in life there is always another wave and a new opportunity,” he reflects today, at age 65, while he is excited to learn that the film has already been at 13 festivals, winning the best award at three (International Ocean Film Festival, Shanghai Short Film Festival and LA Independent Film Festival) and being nominated in four others. Now, in addition, it was released to be seen all over the world, with Spanish subtitles, after making a premiere in California with 250 guests, and another in Chapadmalal, with another 220.

“I really like how it turned out, especially because very close people speak, like my brother, and others who don’t, like Olympic surfers, world champions and leaders. People who realized things about me that I hadn’t even realized. We are all united by the common thread that is the love of the waves and by doing things that make us happy. I have lived trying that, creating communities, and Olympic surfing is something that makes me feel proud. This is the story of a lifelong love because, for me, the sea saved my life”, admits Aguerre, who prioritizes giving thanks at this time of harvest. “I have enormous gratitude for the people who helped me. My resilience and persistence were the engine, but the fuel was the support of all the people. Even from people who thought I was a lunatic, which I thought myself…”he explains, smiling.

When I was a boy, aguerre he wasn’t that good at sports and focused on other things. And when in adolescence he put aside his introverted profile -as he recounts in the film- to show his current entrepreneurial and exotic essence, already as a DJ and organizer of surf tournaments. In 1979 he went one step further, founding a surf shop (Ala Moana) with his brother Santiago and his mother Norma. He then went to California, created a brand that became global (Reef) and, at the same time, began his history as a manager. Elected in 1994, he is about to celebrate 29 years as president of the International Surfing Association.

There began a dream that gained strength when he read that the Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku had had before, in 1920. “Someone, someday, will take surfing to the Olympics”, predicted the father of modern surfing. Aguerre set out to be that person. “There was never a master plan, it was always changing, because the people with whom I had to talk and convince, from federation leaders to managers of the Olympic movement, kept changing.

But the compass always pointed there. Sometimes I did not have time, I dedicated myself to the afternoon, after my work. But I was able to surround myself with capable people, without fear of difficulties and who do not escape in adversity ”, he recounts. Today the lights fall on him. It seems unusual that a lawyer from Mar del Plata, from a Third World country, and far from the history of others, has achieved what none of the priests of the first surfing world have even dreamed of. “It’s crazy, yes, but I never feel more than anyone. It is true that we are not a power nor do we have the tradition of others, but we have other things that make us special”reflect.

aguerre He recounts examples of how he overcame obstacles, especially when many looked at him as a freak in the Olympic environment and didn’t even pay attention to him. “I had many rejections. I went to all the IOC meetings, but I was at the foot of the Olympic pyramid. I looked for a room in the hotels where the leaders stayed and I would appear in the lobby or the bar, to eat, have a beer and thus get closer to chat with them and tell them my dream. Once a leader got me an invitation to a gala, but I told him ‘no thanks’. I didn’t want a card, I wanted them to invite me. And little by little it happened. When I arrive Thomas Bach as president, a door was opened”, he describes.

Today, after the experience in Tokyo, everyone looks at it differently. “Now they know the value of surfing, the boost it gave to the Olympic movement. They are all happy and they love it because, in Tokyo, it was top 10 in sports and top 5 in social media. They know it to such an extent that not only did they keep it on the calendar for the next two Games, but they also accepted that in the next Olympic event surfing would be the second sport in history to be played in a venue on another continent. All because of the importance it has and the growth it has reflected”account.

Exactly, a month ago, in El Salvador, aguerre enjoyed the second ISA World Cup of the second Olympic cycle, with a record of countries (63) and the presence of the best in the world. “It was exciting, because the top surfers were there, there were incredible waves and we continue to witness the growth of the sport, with diversity and gender equality. For example, there was a team from Saudi Arabia for the first time and the first woman participated in Iran ”, he summarized about the tournament that delivered the first Olympic tickets (eight) and had Peru as the team champion. The American qualifiers will leave the Pan American Games that will be held in Chile, starting on October 20.

But Fernando does not stop. He now devised, organized and obtained funding from the IOC so that the less experienced surfers who qualified go to Teahupoo to train this month, where the Olympic competition will take place. Sure, because it won’t be done in Paris. The IOC authorized surfing to be held in Tahiti, in French Polynesia.

An ideal place to take surfing to another level of recognition because if there is a place that represents the popular collective imagination of what this sport is, that is Chopo, as they say. It is a break that is as famous and beautiful as it is challenging and terrifying. “An earthly paradise, the best field where a tournament of this importance can be played. It will be something dreamed of and no one will have any doubts that surfing is here to stay and promote the Olympic movement”. A wave that, in the end, has been possible.

Watch full movie here

https://theimpossiblewave.com