Strong East Coast winters are extremely rough on skateboarder’s moral. The combination of frigid temperatures and generous snowfall usually does one of two things; breaks a skater’s enthusiasm to push and/or ruins the physical terrain that they can physically skate on. Without a readily available indoor park or spot it’s an incredibly heart-wrenching time for many of us. But all is not lost when the temperature dips below freezing – somehow and someway, halfway across the globe there is a group of skaters that experience an even deeper freeze, battle with the elements and yet still find ways to skate and create.
“Northbound” is a cinematic short about four very determined skateboarders—Karsten Kleppan, Didrik Galasso, Henrik Lund, and Hermann Stene—who brave the powerful elements of Norway’s northern tundra coast with just their four wheels—and heavy outerwear, of course!
The eight-minute Turbin Film-produced visual captures the magnificence of the environment and landscape while the skate crew ingeniously invents ways to shred it.
Shot in 4K high-definition, the piece looks so unreal that it seems to exist more in a dreamstate than reality.. Not only that, but the skateboarding itself is no gimmick. A quarter-pipe made of frozen sand puts it to the climactic test. Watching the crew bust blunt stalls and bonelesses in front of an arctic horizon isn’t just skate-porn, it’s insanely poetic. This is truly some Nat Geo, Jack Cousteau, skater-versus-the-elements material executed really, really well.
If you’re intrigued by “Northbound” you should definitely check out the full Jørn Nyseth Ranum-directed documentary “On Thin Ice” for more insight on how skaters make due in the world’s harshest climate.
