Photo: Needessentials
Torren Martyn is known for riding unconventional boards and going on wild, globe-trotting adventures. The Ugly Duckling, a new project from filmmaker Kelly Foote, explores how the second of those pursuits influenced the first in an unexpected way.
The whole thing came about while making another film, actually. In 2023, Torren Martyn starred in Calypte, a film that followed him and Aiyana Powell as they took a 35-foot sailboat (from which the film took its name) up the Malacca Strait and around to Sumatra. Since neither had much sailing experience, they recruited sailor and filmmaker Kelly Foote to help. While he showed them the ropes, Kelly began filming what would become The Ugly Duckling.
The film documents the development of one particular board, the Calypte. Torren and Simon Jones, the shaper with whom he has been a longtime collaborator, had been developing a performance twin fin to tackle shallow reef passes and atolls. However, over the course of Calypte’s journey, the design went in a radically unconventional direction neither expected. It all started off with a shape the pair jokingly dubbed “the ugly duckling,” which eventually evolved from a peculiar offshoot into what Foote calls Jones’ “most refined board yet.”
It’s a beautifully shot film that documents how surfboard design is often influenced by the deep connection between surfer and shaper. Check it out below.
