My passion for surfing and filming came during my childhood, around 1998, in my home harbor town of La Rochelle. We were a group of friends surfing on the islands around La Rochelle, filming each other for fun with my dad’s VHS video camera.
Once in college, we all followed the thruster and digital movement without really trying anything else — it was trendy:you had to surf a thruster and digital camera to be cool. After a few years of riding thruster in a place where the waves were weak most of the time, I got frustrated. So I looked into the options available in terms of surfboard shapes. I realized that many traditional kinds were still available and that some independent shapers around the globe never actually stopped making them — longboards, hollow wooden boards, alaias, bellyboards, handplanes, twin fin and single fin — so many beautiful surfcrafts that we could use in different conditions, and have a lot of fun.
I did the same thing with photography. After stocking thousands of photos on a hard drive, and never watching them, I got bored of digital photography. I couldn’t find any satisfaction in my digital work. so I looked back to what my parents had, back in the sixties and seventies. I realized that most of their photos and videos had so much more soul, so I got my dad’s analog camera out and started to shoot on film again. It was a revelation: careful composition, shutter noise, light leaks, imperfections, processing, patience — and the not knowing what is going to come out.
A few years ago, my local shaper Renaud Cardinal from UWL Surfboards started to invite guest shapers to come to France and shape at his factory, to exchange ideas about shaping technics by working together. French clients could actually get boards from shapers around the globe, even having a chat with the shaper while getting their custom board. That’s when the paradigm (for me) started shifting.
The history of surfing is rich and I think that the surf’s technological evolution tried to go a little too fast. Now it seems like our generation is looking back into an authentic and much simple rway of living and surfing. When the internet came around, all we were seeing were big corporate sponsors such as Rip Curl or Quiksilver. One day I thought, what about the others, the independent shapers, artists, and unknown surfers that we don’t see because of lack of resources? People deserve to know what these independents do, too. After all, they were involved in the surf culture expansion as much as the bigger corporations.
So from the age of 21, I traveled for a few years , meeting some amazing individuals from different countries, individuals who were really passionate and involved in the culture by making things with their own hands. That was when I decided to make a film. The internet helps them a lot by giving them a platform to show their work, but I wanted to help even more. And that’s where my inspiration came from for the production of Behind The Tide.
What I love the most in filmmaking is the travel. You get to visit beautiful landscapes and see amazing wildlife — nature is what I live for. But you also get to meet fantastic people. That’s why I couldn’t be more grateful to be part of the surfing community. I’ve learnt a lot about film producing and editing since my first film For better, for worse. Having a precise scenario in mind is important even for a documentary, and taking your time to edit until you are fully satisfied is important too. Patience and rigor is the key.
I have to say, as a surfer, it is very frustrating sometimes to see your mates riding some amazing waves and yourself staying behind the lens all day to get the best footages. I feel like having a break from filming, and getting back more often in the water. But helping your friends with exposure is a really rewarding thing.
Behind The Tide will be a feature-length documentary and will be shown into surf festivals before being available on DVD and for download.
To see more of Romain’s work and inspiration, be sure to check out his website: www.romainjuchereau.com.
