New documentary film follows a champion surfer as she explores her Ecuadorian roots
By Lucy Small
Ecuador wasn’t always on the global surfing map, with neighbors like Peru claiming the spotlight when it comes to South American surfing, but women like Dominic “Mimi” Barona have brought it to the foreground, dominating the Latin American competition circuit over the last 10 years and representing Ecuador at the Tokyo Olympics.
Pacha Light rides a wave on the Ecuadorian coast.
With this foundation in place, surfers like Pacha Light, who has recently joined the Ecuadorian surf team, have a pathway in front of them to follow Mimi’s lead and grow Ecuador’s reputation as a South American surfing force. Pacha is the main protagonist in the new documentary film “Ceibo,” which explores some of her journey as she rediscovers her Ecuadorian roots.
Pacha was born in the Ecuadorian Andes and lived with her mom and brother off grid in the forest until she was three when the family moved back to Australia. Her father Marcelo, who is Ecuadorian, remained in Ecuador and Pacha came back to spend time there intermittently over her childhood.
In Australia, Pacha grew up to become a professional surfer, competing on the WSL Qualifying Series, landing a Billabong contract and immersing herself in the world of competitive surfing. But, In the midst of the pandemic, she went through something of a burn out, left Billabong, decided to stop competing, and around the same time her father passed away. When the borders opened Pacha knew she needed to go on a journey to fill the missing pieces in her identity, to reconnect with her surfing and figure out the life she wanted to live. So she travelled back to Ecuador to get to know her dad’s family and to join the growing surf scene. By 2024 she was representing Ecuador at the ISA World Championships and fully immersed in the surf community.
“At the end of the day it pushed me to really take a big jump into the unknown and leave a lot of the comfort, leave Australia.” Pacha says in the new film “Ceibo.” “I knew I needed to travel, I needed to come back here, it was like this kind of free-falling. But it was through the process of retracing the steps of who I am, I found a deeper love for the ocean.”
“Ceibo” explores Pacha’ quest, retracing her steps from her first home in the forest, visiting her father’s reserve which is dotted with Ceibo trees. Ceibo trees are the thick trunked cottonwood trees that reach into the skyline that are protected across Ecuador. They are thought to connect the afterlife with this one and have historically been used for their soft cotton to stuff pillows and mattresses and are deeply intertwined with the history of Ecuador.
Pacha Light surfaces after another successful run.
The film features the pioneering work of Mimi Barona, but also shares the tragedy of the loss of her brother, Israel, who died in El Salvador in 2023. Israel had been with Mimi for the entire journey. They have pushed each other and helped each other take Ecuadorian surfing to the next level. His loss has clearly been felt deeply across their hometown of Montañita
and the wider Latin American surf community.
“Ceibo” also explores some of the important environmental issues that Ecuador faces. Ecuador is the first country in history to have recognized the rights of nature in its constitution, bringing in these groundbreaking reforms in 2008. This has provided the legal frameworks for communities to push back against mining companies and Indigenous communities have led the struggles against extractivism that have defined Ecuadorian history. Nature is a centerpiece for many Ecuadorians, with so many of the world’s most important natural wonders within its borders.
Ecuador is like a microcosm of South America, home to the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest, the northern Andes and of course the Galapagos Islands. “Ceibo” journeys across these landscapes, sharing some of the battles to protect them communities have undertaken over the years, sharing the stories of women who have been involved in this vital work.
This exploration of activism in its different forms links to Pacha’s own life, having grown up in the environmental movement with her mom who has been deeply involved in struggles to protect the planet everywhere from Borneo, to Tasmania and Japan. As Pacha grows her own identity, she is also exploring what her own form of change-making might be.
“I’m really lucky to be raised by my mom, who is an environmental activist and my father also worked in forest conservation,” Pacha says. “But it was really when I started surfing that this relationship with nature became my own.”
“It was a pretty normal thing for my family to do to go and show up for the coastlines that we loved, but when I started surfing, it just added that kind of next layer of importance.”
“Ceibo” is a feature-length documentary filmed and edited by British filmmaker Maddie Meddings. It has an all-female cast and crew and is produced by the author of this article (hehe) and co-produced by Pacha. It is set to premiere in Sydney on April 8 followed by national tours of Australia and the UK. Screenings in the US and Ecuador to follow.
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Credit: Surfer
