“Representation isn’t just about visibility, it’s about belonging,” Tahitian longboarder Vaimiti Teiefitu says in her new short film “ Malla Moda ,” which follows Vai to India to meet and surf with pioneer Ishita Malaviya. The duo longboard across India’s coastline, sharing some of Ishita’s ethos behind her work promoting surfing in India and their shared experiences of womanhood. Vai and Ishita first connected when they were both on the ambassador team of the same brand a few years ago, but never met in person until they landed in the Andaman Islands to shoot Malla Moda in early 2025. The plan was to find some perfect waves together in the isolated island chain, but things did not go to plan. The only ferry to the island with surf wasn’t departing for a week, meaning they would lose a large chunk of their shoot window. So they flew back to mainland India to seek out a pointbreak on the east coast.…