Charly Martin interview
HUCK grabs a quick chat with one of surfing's most promising wave chargers.
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Don't be fooled by the bleached-blonde hair, this young surfer from Guadeloupe in the West Indies isn't your average surf stereotype. This Creole-speaking, hip hop head may well be a fierce competitor who has racked up a string of victories on the ASP Pro Junior circuit but he still insists that surfing is all about the glisse.
HUCK caught up with him at the opening of the Nike 6.0 Roundhouse in Hossegor, France to talk Hawaii, life in the Caribbean and why he doesn't consider himself French.
HUCK: You are 20 years old now but still competing in the Juniors. How long can you do that for?
Charly Martin: This is my last year, I’m just trying to get good and so next year, I can do the WQS. At the moment, I’m doing the European Pro Junior to qualify for the World Junior Champiuonships in Australia next January. It’s the main thing for me.
Are competitions something you enjoy?
Last year, I competed less than the others because I was trying to improve my surfing and travel to new places - surf contests don’t take place at the best places most of the time. I was away from comps and I felt there was something missing in my life. I’ve been competing since I was a kid and I’m a competitive person whatever I’m doing, whether it’s drinking, or when it comes to girls!
Nike 6.0 have released a new book about the teams trip to Hawaii in February, how was that experience?
I love that place. It’s the Mecca of surfing. There are big vibes around surfing there and it’s cool to see the place where your sport came from. It’s the best place to surf in the world: big swells, consistent and real tough guys. If you want to be someone in surfing, you’ve got to go there and prove yourself. It’s not about just doing it in Europe or the Caribbean, [Hawaii] is what it is all about. It was Michel [Bourez], Naum [Ildefonse] and Nic [Von Rupp], they are all good friends and I’ve known them for ages. We had two weeks to make this book and had to surf a lot.
You grew up in Guadeloupe, what’s the surfing like there?
Surfing back home is way different than anywhere. The waves are nothing special apart from a few reef breaks. We don’t get as much swell as France or Hawaii but the vibes and the spirit is different to anywhere else. Surfing is really small back home so not many people know about my surfing. Everywhere you travel, you can be someone in surfing but then you get home, you realise it’s not all about that. A lot of people just don’t care about it.
And what was it like growing up there?
I had the perfect childhood. It’s a small island but it still takes about two hours to go around it. Most of the people are black but I’m white and grew up in a European family who have been living there for forty years. You see life differently. There’s nothing superficial and people are very natural. We cruise in the Zion, as we say at home. We just chill so much. It’s weird when you come to Europe and everyone’s stressed and things move so fast.
where I’m from, we don’t listen to rock ‘n’ roll
Will you always live there?
I’m so proud to come from there. I love creole - our own language, my family, my friends, everything I know is there. If I have to move to Hawaii for my career, I’ll do it because my main thing is surfing, but I’ll be back there sometime.
You are often referred to as a French surfer, do you think of yourself as French?
I’ve spent so much time here in Hossegor. I’ve been coming here for almost ten years now, so it’s like my second home. But it’s odd being called French because I’m not like French guys. I don’t have the same culture although I do still eat baguettes and cheese. I feel different I would always tell people I’m not French but people still don’t tell the difference. I tell them I’m from Guadelopue and they are like ‘what? Guatemala?’ so I’m like ‘ok, I’m French, whatever’.
You are quite into hip hop, right? It seems a little odd because there’s never really been a strong association between surfing and hip hop?
Yeah but where I’m from, we don’t listen to rock ‘n’ roll. We listen to reggae music, soul music and all the Jamaican music. How people live back home, how they think, it’s closer to the USA. They like the whole gangster thing. I’ve listened to hip hop since I was a kid. I’m really in to Lil’ Wayne and Young Money. I used to like 50 Cent but not any more.
In ten years time, what do you expect the level of surfing to be?
Fuck! Like probably super-hard. Every kid is better than before but I hope surfing goes in the right way. Sometimes I feel it’s going in the wrong way: all about the tricks and no one cares about the tradition. Surfing is all about how you glisse [slide], you know? The carve and how you let it ride. And then you do whatever you want to. In a comp, you do an air and you get more points than the guy who did a huge carve. At the beginning, surfing is all about that, then the tricks come after.
Check out more from Charly Martin and the rest of the Nike 6.0 surf team this summer at the Nike 6.0 Roundhouse in Hossegor, France.
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Charly Martin interview (text) by Ed Andrews is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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