Surfing after a war

A boy on a boogie board was the last thing Nicholai Lidow expected to see when he paddled out from the coast of a remote, beleaguered African country.

That young boarder became the inspiration for a film that has made waves at film festivals and resonated in viewers’ hearts: “Sliding Liberia.”

The film, which will screen on Lido Isle tonight, was directed by Britton Caillouette, a Newport Beach native who graduated from Stanford University.

“My good friend Nicholai from Stanford is a couple years older than me,” Caillouette said. “When he was a political science student, he spent a lot of time traveling in Africa and Southeast Asia. He was genuinely interested in developing countries that recently ended civil wars.”

As a Southern California surfer, Lidow was accustomed to bringing his surfboard while visiting far-flung, coastal locales.

One of those trips took him to Ghana; he ended up sharing an apartment with refugees from Liberia. Their country had freshly emerged from two civil wars and nearly 10 years of the brutal regime of Charles Taylor, who has since been charged with crimes against humanity. United Nations peacekeepers have moved into the tiny West African nation as it sought to reestablish itself.

“Nicholai thought it was a great opportunity for him as a student to get in on the ground level and see how things were rebuilding,” Caillouette said.

And also get in some surfing time.

“He stumbled upon something in a fishing village called Robertsport,” Caillouette said. “He went on the beach and saw a world-class series of waves that he had heard rumors about. The area had totally dropped off the map of the surfing world since the civil war. For 20 years, no one knew about it.”

Lidow went out surfing alone; he had never seen another Liberian riding the waves.

He was soon shocked to see a young boy paddling out on a boogie board. He asked the boy’s name.

“His name was Alfred,” Caillouette said. “He had found his boogie board during the civil war, while fleeing rebels. He kept it all the way through the siege of [Liberian capital] Monrovia, and brought it back to his village. He essentially just started riding the waves by himself.”

Alfred called the boogie board his sliding board.

“Nicholai was blown away by this pretty much independent discovery of surfing,” Caillouette said. “This kid had a world-class surf break that no one knew about.”

When Lidow returned, he showed his friend photos of his trip and told them Alfred’s story.

“We were both inspired to make something bigger of it,” Caillouette said.

So he combined his dual passions of surfing and filmmaking. The two collaborated, spending about six months writing and preparing a team that went out to shoot the film.

They invited Patagonia-sponsored surfers Crystal Thornburg, Dan Malloy and Chris Del Moro, as well as Hawaiian cinematographer Dave Homcy, on their trip.

“People are becoming more aware of their own actions,” Caillouette said. “Patagonia’s been doing it for 30 years now. We as a team making this movie wanted to align ourselves with people whom we knew shared the same values we did.”

The group reunited with Alfred and also filmed other locals, visiting various parts of Liberia.

“Our film does something different with the surf film genre that hasn’t been done before,” Caillouette said. “It’s a hybrid that lies somewhere between social documentary and surf film. We explore the people we meet on the journey, as well as show the waves.”

Liberians profiled in the film include taxi drivers, an orphanage owner and Alfred’s fellow townspeople.

“I think that the stories are really what’s affecting people,” Caillouette said. “There’s such intimacy when people tell about living as refugees during the civil war.”

Since its release, “Sliding Liberia” has received wide acclaim.

“We’ve been screening it since January at a number of film festivals, and it’s done really well,” Caillouette said. “We’ve won eight awards in international screenings.”

It also screened at this year’s Newport Beach Film Festival to Caillouette’s home crowd.

“That was incredible,” Caillouette said. “I grew up in Newport and have family and friends here, so it was quite an experience to be able to screen it in front of old friends. Every person from my past was there, it seemed like. We actually won the audience award for best documentary.”

Although the film doesn’t directly address the environment, it’s won an award for its affiliation with Patagonia surfers and the example it sets on how to be a green-savvy ecotourist.

“People are saying, ‘This is important stuff,’ ” Caillouette said. “Why aren’t we using the genre to explore some of this? The goal of the film was really to show how traveling at a local, more personal level can make a bigger difference. We were really reacting to a movement in surfing toward the opposite direction.”

He cited companies that offer yacht trips to remote islands that surfers don’t even have to set foot on, and all-inclusive hotspots with five-star meals that afford no opportunity to meet locals.

“Let’s get back in touch with the roots of surf adventure,” Caillouette said.

He is currently working on an environmental documentary series that he hopes to start developing in the coming months.

“This is definitely what I want to do for the rest of my life,” he said.

“Sliding Liberia” has been acquired by Jack Johnson’s surf label, Woodshed Films; the DVD will be available soon in Patagonia stores and local surf shops, as well as online.

ECOTOURISM TIPS

Film director Britton Caillouette shares some ways to be a “local” traveler.

 Spend your dollars locally with the individuals you meet, favoring small businesses.

 Be aware of the impact your method of travel has on the environment.

 Hire locals for transportation.

 Buy food where you visit, rather than at the hotel or in foreign-owned restaurants.

 Make an effort to immerse yourself in the people and the culture.

FILM TEAM’S GEAR

 180 rolls of film

 18 surfboards

 More than 150 pounds of rice and lentils

 Machetes

 Cameras

 Generators

 Filming equipment

 Rope

 Tarps

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “Sliding Liberia” screening, Q&A; and DVD release party

WHEN: 7:30 tonight, Aug. 14

WHERE: Regency Lido Theatre, 3459 Via Lido, Newport Beach; after party at eVocal, 814 W. 19th St., Costa Mesa

INFORMATION: (949) 673-8350 or slidingliberia.com

CANDICE BAKER can be reached at (949) 494-5480 or at candice.baker@latimes.com.