Photography by Tom Lemoing, George Karbus, Nil Puissant & Yentl Touboul.
In an age of of iphone screens and ephemeral attention spans, getting the green light to produce a full length surf film is no easy feat, but that’s exactly what Adrien Toyon and Yentl Touboul just did (with a helping hand from Vans and Sunbum). North Stars; a 42 minute profile of Adrien Toyon depicts Adrien through the eyes of some of his closest friends, and those of the board makers who’ve inspired his dive into alternative designs. After two years in the making, and following the world premiere tour of this masterpiece (which even graced our doors earlier this year) we thought it apt to catch up with the wizard behind the creation – In conversation with Yentl Touboul:
How did the North Stars project first come to the table between you and Adrien?
Adrien and I have known each other since many years now, but we first got to properly hang out when going to Ireland for Hope Springs Eternal in 2021. I had filmed with him in France before, but it’s that time in Ireland that we properly connected. He really impressed me during that trip, especially when waves got bigger, and his personality was also intriguing: at the same time, he was really laid back and easy going, but he was also really driven, waking up earlier than anyone, keen to check out new zones everyday and get grindy when needed. As filmers, most of us are usually the ones pushing to maximise every bit of swell/light, so having someone like Adrien who’s always game and keen to be productive is really nice. Following that trip, we started chatting about doing a longer project together, and after a few months of brainstorming, plus a few more months of pitching the idea to Vans, we finally got a bit of budget from them to make it happen.
When you set out to make North Stars did you always envisage it to be a longer format piece?
Not at all actually. Originally, the plan was to make a 10-15mn video, filmed over a couple of trips with some backstory in between. We started shooting in Ireland in 2022, and then in Reunion Island where we invited Mikey February and Shane Sykes. Both trips were epic, although I could see the point where we’d max out our budget coming at us quickly, which was frustrating, as I felt there was potential for much more. That’s when Sun Bum came to the picture: they had heard we were working on something and asked if they could come onboard, which was a blessing. That’s when the project took another dimension, as there was now enough to do more trips and dive deeper into Adrien’s story.
North Stars has been out for just over a week on the worldwide web. How do you feel such well curated longer piece, which takes years to make holds its place in a world of disposable ‘here today and gone tomorrow’ IG clips, single session videos & vlogs?
Damn. I don’t know… it’s hard to answer that question about your own film. There is so much stuff (good and bad) out these days, that I personally don’t watch videos without some sort of story (wether it’s explicit or implicit), or some genuine creative intention behind them. I feel like one of the key feature of great films is leaving space to one’s imagination. I grew up in an age where so much in surf films (and surf storytelling in general) was left to your own interpretation, and to me vlogs and the over presence of social media—to the point of knowing where everyone is scoring at any given moment or what supplement is everyone taking for breakfast—goes at the complete opposite of that concept. I understand why some people enjoy this type of content, although I feel like they’re two different things.
You’ve hosted a bunch of premieres and screened the film at numerous film festivals. Do you feel audiences are more appreciative of seeing surf films on the big screen these days, with the norm now being a phone screen?
One hundred percent. The original plan was to have 2 premieres—one in the US, and one in Europe—and we ended up doing more than a dozen… From California, to Biarritz, Paris, London, Ireland, Lisbon, Reunion Island… The feedback at each was amazing, and opportunities to do more screenings kept on coming so… I feel like it’s a film that works well for a cinema type of setting, so having that many occasions to screen it was amazing.
To answer your question and the previous one all at once; growing up and getting to see films like Psychic Migrations, Joe G’s Globe flicks and Kai’s films on the big screen are experiences that stuck with me until today. It’s of course really hard to quantify the impact of something like that for a brand, but overall, I think it has a way longer lasting mark in people’s minds than seeing another clip on IG. Also the message and feelings you can get across when spending time properly building a film is so much more powerful and long lasting. Some of my favorite films (short and full length) are 10 years old or more, and I still revisit them several times a year… and I know I’m not the only one thinking that way. For that reason, I feel like long form films are more relevant than ever. I think the more reality TVey the vlogs will get, the more some people want to go the opposite way, and I feel that’s what happening in surfing at the moment. You’ve seen it in the past couple of years… Look at Harry and Dav’s Motel Hell, Noa making three full lengths in two years, Repeater, Vacuum, Eithan’s new film…etc. All these projects had sold out premieres after premieres and a huge success online. To me, all the filmmakers who are still holding on to clips to build something bigger and more meaningful than a bunch of likes are creating almost like a refuge to all the jokey, v-logey side of surfing. I’m really glad and thankful that brands like Vans and Sun Bum were able to see the value of that and enabled us to make that film, especially in Europe where these kinds of opportunities are even more rare than in Australia and the US.
Were there any particular standout screenings for you both?
Getting invited by Taylor Steele to premiere NS at his festival was super special. His films played a huge part in me falling in love with filmmaking in the first place, and eventually making it my life, so having him present our film, and interview us in front of 400 people was a surreal experience. Otherwise, the Biarritz one was awesome… Adrien and I are both based in the area, so most of our friends were there and loads of people who star in the film happened to be in town… so it was a great moment. After spending months locked in the edit bay without much feedback, it was pretty crazy to feel that energy in the room, and know that the thing you’ve spent two years of your life working on has an effect on people.
Was the narrative of having close friends and influential people within Adrien’s life always part of the films plan or something which fell into place as the project was maturing?
Our initial plan was always to include people that had an impact on Adrien’s life as a surfer and human. As I got to know him better, I was pretty intrigued by how curious he was with his friends, shapers, and even random people we’d meet on the road. He was always asking about their way of life, their jobs…etc. I found it pretty interesting how he has all these characters arounds him that are part of his life and who he’s learnt a lot from. There’s an expression that says that the people you surround yourself with tell a lot about who you are, and I thought it was a pretty interesting way to approach the film: to see who Adrien is through his friends’ eyes in a way. We also tried to invite people according to the locations we had in mind. For example with Reunion Island (where Adrien grew up), we knew Mikey and Shane were in South Africa, which is only a couple of hours aways, so it made sense to invite them. Koldo lives in Indonesia so visiting him was an easy one, and regarding Ireland, Seb lives right next door, and Kobe’s mom happen to be Irish, so it made a lot of sense to invite them.
You guys invited friends to join for certain surf missions baring the same stickers as Adrien. How did these guys get the call up, was it organic or a sponsor requirement?
Vans and SunBum were actually super chilled with the whole process, and I’m really appreciative of that. They were super open to have people who were not ridding for them part of the project, which was cool… Overall, our goal was to go on trips with people who are close to Adrien and inspired us both, and it happened that he shares sponsors with a lot of these people, so it worked well that way.
We’ve seen Adrien transition from classic thruster boards into riding different boards over the last few years. From a filmers point of view do you feel it’s made him approach riding waves a lot differently?
Not really honestly. I’ve always been into Adrien’s surfing, and even when he was riding modern thrusters I think his approach was already different than everyone else. He’s always had a more drawn out, smooth and paced way of surfing, which actually fits twins & old school boards. If anything, I feel like the stuff he’s done in the film ridding what people would call ‘alternative boards’ is actually gnarlier than a lot of people would do on modern ‘performance’ shapes. What he did with that orange and purple twin at that left slab in Ireland is actually insane… We got the board off Tom right before flying there, and this session was the first time he ever surfed that board and that spot. The rocker on that board is so flat… I literally don’t understand how he was sticking these drops. Anyways, I think Adrien can surf any type of boards well to be honest. Even when him and Shane swapped boards in Reunion, he was ripping on his comp stick. He’s good at figuring things out on the fly, and he’ll make anything work, but I feel like twins in particular fit the way he naturally surfs.
From a filmmakers point of view, what were the biggest challenges you came across whilst shooting this piece?
Being on my own to shoot and not having someone to secure a second angle a lot of the time was definitely a challenge. The choices you make when choosing an angle are so important with video, since you’re not as mobile as when shooting stills… the thought that if you miss a wave at these remote locations, it’s definitely gone with the wind is haunting. That becomes even trickier on sessions where I would decide to shoot water, as there’s so much more you can’t control… from your placement, to the way water moves, or even water drops… You just have to make the right choices, and definitely have a bit of luck come your way.
Of all the places you travelled for this project, was there one which was a highlight ? And why?
Ireland is a place we both really love and had spent a bit of time prior, so from the start, we knew it was always going to be a big part of the film. As soon as we got the budget signed off in winter 2022, a massive swell popped up, so that’s the first place we went to. It was a 5 day strike, and waves were pretty much 10ft+ all the time… 10°C water, 30+ knot winds, rain, mud… Adrien got one of the best wave of the film on the second day of that trip, although we didn’t have much else to build a sequence, so we knew we’d have to come back eventually. We ended up doing so the next year, and invited Kobe as well. That second trip was probably the highlight for me, as we got to surf spots that aren’t surfed much and got incredible waves with barely no one out most of the time. We stayed way longer as well, so it was cool to spend more time with our Irish friends, get a bit of help from João (Tudella) on some of the sessions and discover news zones. Appart from that, getting to meet Andrew Kidman and spend some time with his family at their house in Australia was amazing. He’s an inspiration on many aspects, and the place they live at is truly magical.
If you had to restart the North Stars project from scratch tomorrow would you do anything differently?
I’d definitely try to find someone to help me with the production and administrative side of things… It’s cool to have an eye on everything, but I’d rather just film and edit. Anyone’s who’s keen to put two and a half years of their lives in the bin feel free to email me!
