We’re beyond stoked to have Nicolas Landa and Emi Koch on the team as official WAVES Advocates. These two have been friends and colleagues of WAVES for a long time whether it’s been through donating time, energy, supplies and funds to leading audio visual workshops or organizing programs as WAVES partners.
Nico and Emi have traveled all over the globe to share their passion and collaborate with small coastal communities to share their stories. From our home base in Lobitos, Peru to Indonesia to Panama, India and beyond, they are using their love of storytelling and the sea to create change.
While in college, the styling long boarder, Emi, started the NGO, Beyond the Surface International. Pretty much from the beginning WAVES was a beneficiary of the movement. In May 2014, while in Lobitos for an Audiovisual session to launch Lobitos Cinema Project, she met Nico, a cinematographer from Lima, Peru, and the two creatives decided to partner to create the audiovisual workshop-focused org, Coast 2 Coast.
With the support and influence of many Lobitos locals and travelers, the Lobitos Cinema Project is the brainchild of Nico. This community photography and cinematography program offers many workshops including one led by local photographer/surfer and WAVES staff member, Henry Espinoza.
During that epic May 2014 Audiovisual Session held in Lobitos, participants and local young people teamed up to collaboratively produce a 1-minute videos. The Environmental Health program (whose goal is to create a health-supportive environment) was chosen as the topic for a team – capturing the process from start to finish during the session. This one, featuring local participant, and past WAVES staff, Fidho, shows the process and installation of concrete floors in the homes of families who have dirt ones.
Environmental Health with WAVES from WAVES International on Vimeo.
This power couple works together to spread the grass-root movement by hosting participatory audiovisual storytelling workshops and creative-learning projects for ocean conservation and empowered coastal communities. We’re happy to have them on the WAVES team and look forward to doing more rad projects together!
