Our Mission: To engage young people from small-scale fishing communities in exploration of their ancient oceans and ancestral villages through accessible audiovisual mediums, new media, ArcGIS StoryMaps, and immersive edutainment tools that leverage students’ imaginations fortified by science, traditional knowledge, and impact storytelling for positive social-ecological change and sustainable futures.
Coast 2 Coast was established in 2014 when Nicolás Landa Tami, a cinematographer from Lima, Peru, and Emi Koch, a free surfer from San Diego, California met in Lobitos, Peru.
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Emi started the nonprofit, Beyond the Surface International, as a network of surfing for youth empowerment programs, offering virtual and on-the-ground support to organizations around the world. Through the Lobitos Cinema Project and his various projects, Nico facilitated audiovisual workshops for indigenous communities to share their stories through their own documentaries and photo series.
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Inspired by each other's passions, Nico and Emi began traveling the coastlines together, facilitating surfing and storytelling workshops in small-scale fishing villages around the world. Upon witnessing the ocean's collapse and climate change's impacts on the communities and listening to their experiences, Emi and Nico created Coast 2 Coast as a platform for vulnerable, small-scale fishing communities to celebrate their existence and share with the outside world about the unprecedented social and ecological challenges they are facing on a daily basis.
APPROACH
LOCAL COMMUNITY PARTNERS
A LIQUID FUTURE
ALF is a non-profit organization using creativity and the ocean to engage isolated coastal communities affected by tourism to take sustainable action in a local and global context.
Morotai Island, North Maluku, Indonesia
BODHI SURF + YOGA
Bodhi Surf + Yoga camps are week-long experiential learning vacations. Surfing, yoga, and community and nature immersion are the activities we use to facilitate memorable learning experiences for our guests.
BahÃa Ballena, Uvita, Costa Rica
FUNDACIÓN SINUMAR
Started by the daughter of a local fisherman, Fundación Sinumar champions local youth by providing them with opportunities to grow through embracing their own creativity and unique abilities.
San Bernardo del Viento, Colombia
GIVE & SURF
Give & Surf is an nonprofit providing substantive, hands-on, real world assistance and programs to community members living in remote communities along the coastlines.
Bocas del Toro, Panama
HRIDAYA YOGA CENTER
The Hridaya Yoga Center offers daily meditations, drop-in classes, Hridaya Silent Meditation Retreats, month-long yoga courses, workshops, and an annual Teacher Training Course.
Mazunte, Oaxaca, Mexico
LOBITOS CINEMA PROJECT
LCP is a intercultural audiovisual platform to promote the culture heritage and human rights of local Lobitanos through their own stories.
Lobitos, Peru
MANTA SAIL TRAINING CENTRE
MANTA Sail Training Centre is the first and only social enterprise in Vietnam that aims to promote human and environmental health via water sport. Olympic-trained fishermen teach water sport to guests, in turn guests support sustainable development goals and alternative livelihood for fishermen.
Mui Ne, Phan Thiet, Vietnam
SEBASTIAN INDIAN SOCIAL PROJECT
SISP is a nonprofit, charitable organization working to improve the standards of living among the financially and socially disadvantaged sections of the fishing societies in India.
Kovalam, Kerala, India