"When the Cuban kid paddled up on an Al Merrick I did a double take. I knew we weren't the first foreigners to surf Havana, but how in the hell does a poor kid in Communist Cuba get a board from the world's premier shaper? As he paddled closer and I beheld the gruesome plank beneath him, I realised what I was seeing."

What Jason Borte, who wrote that passage for Surfer Magazine in June 1999, was seeing was a homemade surfboard, Cuban style. Surfers on the communist isle couldn't get hold of surfboards due to the US-backed trade embargo so, necessity being the mother of invention, they were making their own out of refrigerator foam.

The process went as such: old fridges were salvaged, the foam cut into blanks and shaped by cheese graters, the blank was then covered with vinyl paint and wrapped in crude fibreglass. While the fibreglass was setting a heavy rock was placed near the nose to create rocker.

The final touch - to give the appearance of authenticity - were hand-drawn logos: Channel Islands, Town & Country et al. The Cuban surfers knew what surfboards they wanted even if they couldn't buy them.

The efforts of the early Cuban surfers were wonderfully inventive, however despite their ingenuity the resultant designs were limiting their progress. These days, despite the ongoing embargo, the need for this type of backyard boardmaking is largely unecessary in Cuba. And it's due to the work of one man; an Australian expat, Bob Samin.

Samin is the subject of a documentary that is due to play in Sydney this weekend. Havana Surf was filmed in 2008 and is the first feature length film by Spanish filmaker, Rodrigo Diaz. Diaz stumbled upon Samin after studying in Cuba. "I had just graduated high school from the American School of Madrid in Spain, and Cuba excited me," said the young filmaker. "So I moved to Cuba, surfed and studied at the University of Havana."

"The reason why I went to Cuba in the first place wasn't to make a film about surfing, it was simply to go to university there." Quickly immersing himself in Cuba's surf scene he kept hearing stories about Bob Samin, although having never met him. "I realised that all the surfers kept talking about this Bob guy like some kind of surf god that had made their lives so much easier and improved the level of surfing across the country." With an idea brewing Diaz wrote an email to Samin.

Samin was an obliging paricipant and Havana Surf, Diaz' unplanned documentary, began to take shape. Featuring colourful interviews with local surfers, it tells the story of Bob Samin and how his social programs have improved the plight of young Cuban surfers, as well as advancing the state of Cuban surfing.

It also features many Cuban waves, though Diaz keeps a check on what to expect. "Let's be real, Cuba is not Hawaii." Rather than overworked big-wave drama the young Spaniard has a different audience in mind for his film: "the type of surfers who appreciate culture and adventure when they go on surf trips."

Havana Surf is playing as part of the Sydney Latin American Film Festival. It screeens Sunday 12th September at Mu Meson Archives, Annandale. Tickets are $10 + booking fee.