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Mayuranga is the film\u2019s central and largely solitary surfer, chosen for a style that feels quietly timeless. \u201cHe rides old-school boards,\u201d Dempsey explains. \u201cFishes, mid-lengths, twin-fins, logs stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite its cinematic quality, Eastbound was never meant to be an overly constructed surf film. Dempsey initially considered adding voiceovers and a heavier narrative structure, but the idea quickly gave way to something simpler: documenting Mayuranga doing what he loves most. \u201cI just wanted to show him surfing,\u201d he says. \u201cWe had a shot list and we planned the surfing, but everything else was pretty loose.\u201d The result is a film that leans into rhythm rather than storytelling – minutes of unbroken surfing along Sri Lanka\u2019s east coast. Even the soundtrack evolved through an easy back-and-forth between the two. Mayuranga would send songs, Dempsey would add a few of his own and they experimented with edits set to different tracks. \u201cHe\u2019d send me something and I\u2019d cut a version to it,\u201d Dempsey recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked whether capturing the cultural life around Arugam Bay was important to him, Dempsey doesn\u2019t hesitate. It was, but he was also cautious. Having spent most of his time on Sri Lanka\u2019s south coast, the east was still unfamiliar territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI didn\u2019t really know the community there yet,\u201d he admits. \u201cIn the south I know people a lot better, but the east was new to me. We saw so many cool things, but this time I mostly just wanted to show the surfing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What he did notice, however, was the tight-knit surf culture that thrives along the coast. \u201cThe community there is incredible,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s such a small place and everyone knows each other. It would be amazing to tell more stories about the people there – how they started surfing, like Malinda (a local photographer) and that whole crew. There are young kids out surfing almost every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Dempsey, those stories may well shape a future film. He even imagines grounding the next project more deeply in the island\u2019s soundscape. \u201cI told Tilly, next time, we should use an old Sri Lankan band. It would mix in way better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I asked about the process of editing the film and if something didn\u2019t make the final cut, Dempsey realised there was little he felt compelled to leave out. \u201cI wasn\u2019t doing it for anyone,\u201d he says. \u201cI was just doing it for us, so I could make it however I wanted.\u201d In the end, only one sequence failed to make the final cut: footage from a lesser-known break north of Arugam Bay. The waves, he remembers, were firing. The footage, unfortunately, wasn\u2019t. \u201cWe actually scored this really good wave up north of Arugam,\u201d he says. \u201cBut the footage just didn\u2019t come out the way we wanted, so we didn\u2019t put it in. That\u2019s probably the only one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dempsey\u2019s time in Sri Lanka has also sparked a growing curiosity about the rest of the region\u2019s surf landscape. Among the places high on his list are India\u2019s more obscure island breaks, as well as the Maldives – particularly the famed wave near Mal\u00e9\u2019s harbour known as Jailbreaks. \u201cThe Maldives is obviously covered a lot,\u201d he says, \u201cbut I\u2019ve heard there are still islands and waves people don\u2019t really know about yet.\u201d For now, the trip remains more of a dream than a plan, an expensive luxury unless work takes him there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Featuring local surfer, style enthusiast and alternative craft connoisseur Thillina Mayuranga. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10848,"featured_media":125326,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[82,1,341,332],"tags":[5933,237,5932,2025,1508],"class_list":["post-125308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","category-general","category-slider-film","category-slider-home","tag-arugam-bay","tag-film","tag-south-asia","tag-sri-lanka","tag-surf-films"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tracksmag.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Still-2026-03-11-212118_1.31.1-1024x429.jpg\")
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\n