“It got us discussing on the way back that no one at that time [2017] was surfing waves of consequence on twinnies…”
TWIN, a film by Roger Sharp and Markie Lascelles, is an ode to solid wave surfing on the humble twin fin. “We were on a trip to Ireland to drop off some boards to Noah. Sharpy got some footage of him on a local slab out the front of his place on one of the first Arks. Noah was having a lot of success that winter. We hadn’t seen anyone surfing waves like that on twin fins, and on the way home Sharpy and I were like ‘shit - there’s something in this…’ It was the catalyst for the film.”
“It was December,” says Sharpy, talking about the Ireland trip to shoot Noah, “and we were getting super close to Christmas.” He explained how the conditions for this particular break needed to be perfect; “It has to be clean, and to get it clean is ridiculously rare. For this trip, we’d been keeping an eye on the charts for ages. One minute it’d look like it was on, and the next it would just go to hell. And then it opened, we went for it, and we got a three-day window. I shot this on the very first morning. I love it, because it’s solid evidence that the waves in Britain and Ireland, on their day, are totally world-class.”
“I had really been enjoying surfing twinnies for a long time.” Markie said, “I wanted to make myself some new and different versions.” With the film in mind, Markie shaped the first version of the Humbucker, 5’6” and bright orange, and called on Sharpy to accompany him to Thurso. “I paddled out and it was about 6ft, howling wind, and I went straight over the falls on my first wave on this little 5’6’’ twinny, and I thought ‘what have I done?’ - and then on the next wave I had a mental one and I was like, ‘oh, actually I love this thing!’”
The three boards featured in the film are the Ark, Humbucker and Flying-Vee. “The footage in TWIN is some of the first times these models have been surfed,” explained Markie, “None of it was really planned for the film, we just used bits of footage that we shot on the boards that we were liking. One of Noah’s clips in the film is one of his first ever sessions on the first ever Ark. Then the grey board Noah surfs later on [in the film] is a few years after, and a more developed version of the Ark.”
Sharpy and Markie also headed to Morocco to gather footage for TWIN. “We filmed most of it before COVID, but I wanted something to finish it off, which was originally Morocco. We went, and the waves were mental - as good as it gets in Morocco. But the government wouldn’t let Sharpy bring his cameras in. They confiscated his gear at the airport. We were also only there for 3 days, and my board bag didn’t turn up. So I had no boards or wetsuits, Sharpy had no camera gear. We managed to borrow a board and suit and camera, and managed to shoot one or two waves. The last day all of our kit arrived, but then I got super sick and couldn’t even get out of bed. So that was it, trip over, got on a flight home.” COVID hit, lockdown happened, and the film fell into editing stages without the final shots Markie had been hoping for. Sharpy was living up near London, the Cord factory was incredibly busy and lockdown put travel plans on hold. “It’s been a labour of love for Markie, Noah and I,” Sharpy said, “It’s our little very long term project.”
As luck would have it, after two years of lockdowns Markie headed out to the Maldives, armed with a few of his favourite twinnies, where they scored great waves which were captured by Maddie Meddings and used to finish the film off.
All the music was written, recorded and produced by Markie’s brother Sean. “He wrote the tune with Beau Young and produced it, and then he scored the rest of it to the surfing. They recorded it in Beau’s barn in Australia, and the next ones he wrote and made here in Cornwall whilst we were in lockdown.” The Lascelles’ and Young brothers go way back. “My dad and Nat [Young, Australian former professional surfer and 1966 world champion] grew up together and I’ve known Beau since I was tiny. He came over here a few times when I was about 18 and we surfed a lot. He’s good mates with my brothers. We’ve reconnected since he’s been coming back to the UK to shape
The film, sponsored by Vissla and shot across Scotland, Ireland, Morocco and the Maldives has been a long time coming, and will premiere at the London Surf / Film Festival on Friday 2nd December at the Genesis Cinema in East London. “I’m stoked and grateful to Sharpy and Sean and Beau for giving up their time to make the film,” said Markie, “I’m ready to go make another one now!”
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