Torren Martyn doesn’t ride a standard thruster. He certainly can ride one, but his tastes lean more toward the twin fin. They lean so hard, in fact, that Martyn’s name could be considered synonymous with the twin-fin resurgence in the last few years. His surfing fits a twin fin like a well-tailored suit: fluid and fast, no wasted movements, graceful and powerful. So when the news broke that Torren Martyn and his travel partner/best friend/filmmaker Ishka Folkwell would be releasing a series of short-ish films surrounding a road trip most people only dream of, I was excited. I like Martyn’s surfing very much, and I also like road trips very much.
Lost Track Atlantic is the name they landed on. Martyn and Folkwell flew from Australia to England and bought a 2008 Ford Transit van for peanuts. The plan was to outfit it so they could call it home and hit the road. Of course, the van was a lemon and multiple things went wrong with it — the clutch was on the verge of death, as were the timing chain and water pump — but that’s all to be expected when you buy a cheap van and attempt to drive it very long distances.
When all was sorted and the van was in good enough condition to drive it from Northern Scotland to West Africa, they set off and began a surfing road trip that every one in the world would be lucky to take.
Folkwell’s style of filming and editing is similar, in a way, to Martyn’s surfing. Epic, smooth, slightly dreamy and wistful. There’s a reason why the films they make together are so fantastic, and it’s because they’ve found in each other a partner whose talent showcases the other’s.
The whole thing was done at the tail end of 2019, before COVID shut the world down, and Lost Track Atlantic is both a look back at a supremely good surf trip and a refreshing reminder that we can do these things again soon. In the same vein as The Endless Summer, Lost Track Atlantic focuses on the important things in life: friendships, good times, and the never-ending quest for whatever it is that lies around the next bend in the road. This is part one of four. Follow along as the next episodes roll out on YouTube.
