An eight-minute film unleashed in 2016, Northbound is an under celebrated and overly beautiful piece of film making that you can’t not enjoy. As director Jørn Nyseth Ranum found out, frozen sand is a surprisingly perfect surface to skate on. And there’s something poetic about that when taken in to consideration that sand and water fundamentally work against skateboards generally.
Shot in RED on the Norwegian coast the scenes are insanely beautiful. The four skaters were filmed across ten days, with two days prior dedicated to building the frozen halfpipe that appears in the back part of the film. As much of a highlight as that presents, watching them trick off makeshift street boxes such as boats and pipes that have washed ashore is king.
In the spirit of Spike Jonze blowing up skate parks, setting boards on fire and making them disappear, Ranum is presenting skateboarding in a new and more cinematic light, experimenting with the wider concept of film making as much as the sport itself.
And it didn’t even come from Red Bull.
Head over to Turbin Film to learn more about the production company behind it and over to Northbound official site for more information on the film itself. You can also rent or buy On Thin Ice which is the full length documentary on the making of Northbound.
Ice, driftwood, foamy waves and … skateboards? Four skaters head north to the cold Norwegian coast, applying their urban skills to a wild canvas of beach flotsam, frozen sand and pastel skies. The result is a beautiful mashup — biting winds and short days, ollies and a frozen miniramp.