Turning their backs on the big breaks of Hawaii, a team of professional surfers, photographers and cinematographers hit Seychelles recently to film the local surf conditions.

Spending 12 days filming the waves off the inner islands, the film trip organisers said that the aim of the trip was to shoot an independent art based movie and develop several surfing feature articles, all based around a “Garden of Eden” theme.

Among the group were two of the world's leading female surfers, Holly Beck and Mary Osborne.

Having appeared in numerous surfing videos, Holly Beck is now considered one of the best female surfers around and is sponsored by the world's biggest surfboard maker, Rusty Surfboards.

Mary Osborne is the winner of the MTV Surf Girls reality show and a world-class professional longboarder. She has been featured in a wide range of surfing magazines, as well as surf films such as Longboard Magic.

The team was led by renowned surf photographer David Pu'u. Pu'u has established himself as a leading editorial photographer, with work regularly appearing in publications around the world, ranging from magazines such as Surfer and Surfers' Journal to mainstream concerns like Sports Illustrated, National Geographic and the New York Post.

The filming trip was split between the best surf spots on the three main islands, with five days spent on Mahé, four on Praslin and three on La Digue.

The shoot was the first time that David Pu’u had filmed in Seychelles and he said that he had, "never seen such an amazing location, place and colours," in his 35 years of filming.

The filming trip was organised by local destination management company (DMC) Creole Holidays.

Creole Holidays' Public Relations Executive Guillaume Albert said that he was optimistic about the success of the trip adding that, "Seychelles will benefit from massive exposure via the numerous media links."

In addition to assistance from Creole Holidays, the Plantation Club, The Marechiaro Hotel and the Seychelles Tourism Marketing Authority, the group were also helped out by the Seychelles Island Foundation, who halved the filming fee for the crew to shoot in the Vallee de Mai.

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