The Sambal that everyone needs

Interview with Ainara Aymat about her new film that will be released soon


May 24, 2018
|EN Recent
|POR Pablo Zanocchi

Last weekend, during the Vans Duct Tape Joel Tudor Invitational & Festival, Sambal, the new film by Zarautz native Ainara Aymat, premiered. Always creative, she and the film's director, Kylian Castells, have created a campaign that makes you want to see it.

To kill the anxiety, we spoke with Ainara, who told us the following about her hair and her life:

What is the movie about?
The main objective was to break away from the image of a surfer girl and briefly show who I am and what my surfing is like. I think we have achieved this.

Please share some technical details, how long is it, who made it and how and when can we see it?
The video was shot and edited by Kylian Castells and lasts about three minutes. We shot it in Indonesia, around Bali and Sumbawa. We haven't yet decided when it will be online, but it will be out soon!

Sambal, according to Google here, is a condiment used in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka, made from a variety of common peppers... Why did you name your film that?
Yes, that's right! I've always liked spicy food, but ever since Kylian made me try Sambal, there was no meal that we didn't accompany with this (laughs). That's why we called it Sambal, because it was a very characteristic name for the trip.

Why did you decide to cut off that long hair and shave it all off? Did it have any significance?
A few years ago I started having problems with my neck because of the weight of my hair, and the idea of ​​shaving it had crossed my mind a couple of times, but the truth is that I was very scared of how it would look on me. In the end, since I had had so many changes last year, I didn't care so much anymore and decided to make one more change and without thinking twice I shaved it off.

What is Ainara's life like, more free surfing or more competition?
Since I was very young, I have always been focused on competitive surfing, since it is everyone's dream and it had to be mine too. But over time I came to hate the life of competitions, since the pressure on myself could get to me. And now that I have focused a little more on my studies and on enjoying the day to day at home, I have seen that there are more paths that can lead me to live off surfing. And after having made this trip to Indo with Kylian, I have seen that it could be the perfect combination to get away from the stress of the competitions.

So I'm already thinking about new projects for this year and also selecting the championships that I most want to do.

What's up with that wave that you apparently stole from someone else and used to present your film? What happened there?
I've never been one to fight for the peak, and even less to jump waves, since I like to take a quiet swim in the corner where nobody is going to touch my balls (laughs). But that guy you see behind me kept positioning himself to my left to get the lead, and since we didn't have many waves on the trip, I had to take advantage of every set that came. On one of those he came back and positioned himself again to my left when I had already been waiting for a while and I didn't think twice and I took it.

"A few years ago I started having problems with my neck because of the weight of my hair, and the idea of ​​shaving my head had crossed my mind a couple of times, but the truth is that I was really scared of how it would look on me," says Ainara. Photo: WSL
"In the end, like last year, I had many changes, I didn't care so much anymore and I decided to make one more change and without thinking twice I shaved it off," Ainara said about her small but great change. Photo: @kyliancastellsdelavega

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