In Bangladesh, where cricket and football dominate, a small group of surfers from Cox's Bazar is making waves on the international stage. Mohammad Mannan, 25, and Fatima Akhter, 16, are set to compete in surfing's debut at the Asian Games in Japan this September.
Their training ground is one of the world's longest beaches, a 120km stretch along the Bay of Bengal. The sport's unlikely journey here began in 2004 when American tourists left boards behind. Club founder Rashed Alam, who later trained in California, established Bangladesh's first surf club in 2013.
For Akhter, the journey has been particularly challenging. She has overcome intense stigma in the Muslim-majority nation to pursue her passion. "The moment I step onto the board, I forget everything else," she says.
The club, operating from a weather-beaten shack, relies entirely on donated equipment. Many of its members are street children, like 10-year-old Mehedi Hasan, who finds freedom in the waves.
Mannan, who started by selling seashell jewellery, believes the sport has a future in Bangladesh. "Surfing isn't lucrative now, but nobody can say it never will be," he states.
The surfers hope their Asian Games participation will prove that riding waves is more than a pipe dream for the next generation of Bangladeshis.