by Reka Borcz and Lily Plume

.jpg — Nathan Sadoun

on his Moroccan playground

There’s not many people who can say they started surfing before they were even born. But this was the case for Nathan Sadoun, a talented longboarder from Marseille, just 20 years old, already with a hefty run of competition wins under his belt. His parents have surfed their whole life, starting when they were around his age now, and they’ve never stopped since. He doesn’t remember the first wave he surfed; he was in his mother’s womb. So you could say, he’s a natural.

From surfing the mediocre waves the Mediterranean throws over to Marseille, he has gone on to win and be placed at a number of competitions all over the world, including a win at Wheels and Waves in Biarritz earlier this year. And he’s already making a name for himself in the world of classic longboard surfing; an invitation from Joel Tudor to surf at the Vans Duct Tape in Zarautz last year saw the young Marseillais out there competing with the big dogs. We catch up with Nathan on one of his many trips to Imsouane, where he is now at home and part of the Olo Family.

Hey Nathan, good to have you back in Imsouane! What have you been up to since we last saw you?

At the moment I’m spending my time between school and surfing. I’m studying engineering in Lyon, which is even worse for surfing than Marseille because there’s just no sea! There’s a wave on the river actually, I surfed it like 3 times but it’s not like a real wave. But yeah, I went to Lyon because there’s a special program just for athletes, so I can still surf regularly. This course is a bit longer than usual, it’s 7 years when normally it takes you 5 years to finish it. The week is pretty short though, so if I have a contest or training I can just miss classes and go do it.

Have you got any projects that you’re working on at the moment?

I’m working on some video projects at the moment, which started in the summer, two different surf edits, one longboard and one short board edit. I’m working with two friends of mine, one is from Nice but he’s living in Biarritz, he’s called Jeremy Soma and he’s a photographer, and my other friend who I’ve known for a long time, Martin Malnoe, who went to a cinema school. The first time I came to Olo was with him, actually! We’ll be releasing them pretty soon, hopefully. I guess they’ll be my first two proper films, because I’ve done others before but they were maybe a bit less professional and more fun. So these films will be a sort of introduction to me and my surfing.

What boards have you been surfing recently?

This year I’ve been riding more shortboards than longboards actually, just because I’m really not as good at shortboarding than longboarding, so I have a bigger spectrum of improvement. I was enjoying shortboarding a lot this summer, but I’m just going back and forth between longboards, single fins, short boards. What I like about surfing is using a lot of different boards, different sizes and different fin types. I try to change every session, because every wave is different so you can ride a different board for every wave.

And did you start off longboarding or shortboarding?

Both. I’ve always been surfing both because my parents were putting me on the right board at the right moment, so when it was small I would surf a longboard and when it was bigger I would surf a shortboard, so I was always changing like that. So yeah I’m very lucky with that.

What boards did you bring to Imsouane?

Two years ago I brought a longboard with me and it got super dinged up in the plane, so I just left it here because my dad didn't want to ding it even more so we decided to leave it at Olo. It’s the Christenson Dead Sled 9’5 in the living room, it’s a pretty good board that I bought in California on my first trip there and it works really well in the Bay. I usually use boards from Hamid’s quiver, but this time I brought with me 2 shortboards, my parents’ boards, because they’re coming a couple of times this winter so now they don’t have to bring boards with them. We really like these boards, but we don’t get to use them a lot at home because the waves are too small and they were made for Morocco, for our past trips here, so we just decided to leave them here. It’s a 5’7 shortboard quad and a 6’8 kinda mid length quad from Gary Linden who’s an old Californian shaper.

You’re currently with Black Rose Manufacturing - when did you start working with them?

That was I think 3 years ago, I’ve been getting 3 or 4 batches of boards so almost 4 years now. I was looking at Justin Quintal, who’s the designer of the brand, and his shaper Ricky Carroll, who’s an old shaper from the East Coast of the US, in Florida. The guy has been shaping for Takayama and Surfboards Hawaii and a lot of different brands… when you watch him he’s so fast. And Justin is one of the best longboarders in the world, he has won like 9 out of the 20 Duct Tapes or something, so almost half the Duct Tapes. He’s the current longboard tour leader at the WSL, so I was watching him a lot. I really loved his surfing because he’s from Florida, which is sort of the equivalent of the Mediterranean Sea for the USA, they have better waves than us there, but still they’re kinda weird compared to California on the west coast, so we surf the same kind of waves, more short beach breaks not really long point breaks like here. So I thought maybe the board he’s designing could fit my surfing in Marseille and in France in general, and it actually did fit me really well. So we started talking and now every time we do a new board I ask for everything I want, all the details of the board, and he translates it to his shaper and so every board is exactly how I wanted, and I can improve in the exact element of surfing I wanted to. So yeah, I’m super stoked about the boards, I’ve never surfed so well and every time I get a new board I ride it better so I’m super glad about that deal.

Sounds like you’ve got a good relationship, you understand each other pretty well!

Yeah definitely, he understands me at least, when I try to explain what I see… And it’s also interesting for me because there’s not a lot of surfers of his level around me when I surf in France, so I’ve been trying to follow him on trips as much as I can. That’s how you learn really, being with people who are better than you, and he’s definitely better than me! So everytime I’m with him I’m just learning more, and also everytime I’m with other Californian or Australian guys I Iearn more about surf culture in general. Even the way they talk about surfing is different than in Europe, it’s even more of a cultural thing there and they have different references so it’s always super interesting and refreshing.

Do you have any other ‘surf heroes’ who you look to for inspiration?

My parents, first, for sure. And there’s a lot more. I have some periods where I look at one surfer in particular, then I just watch all of his videos and know him by heart and then I move to another surfer. But definitely I think Joel Tudor, because he’s done so many things for longboarding like with the Duct Tape, I mean he brought back the style of the 60’s and 70’s to nowadays and that’s pretty much what we are doing, and he’s also kind of the first guy to say ride a different board for every different kind of wave. So that’s like my mantra with surfing now I guess. He’s my biggest inspiration but there’s a lot of other surfers out there…

How do you incorporate the surfing you like into your own style?

Of course I have like one part of my natural style and one part of - I mean, nothing is natural I think, you’re always inspired by something. But I’m definitely more inspired by Joel, and Justin. Those are the two that you can really see in my surfing, but there are so many others like Alex Knost, Harrison Roach, Tyler Warren, those are all the guys I’ve been watching so many videos of, so for sure there is a part of their surfing in my surfing. But then I guess I always come back to Joel.

He is the man.

Haha yeah he’s the man.

So when you’re at home in France, where do you usually surf?

I surf in Marseille, you can surf a lot there but it’s not really that good, but it does teach you how to surf bad waves, so if you manage to do something in bad waves you’ll be able to do it in perfect waves. In the winter I prefer to stay in Marseille because it’s warmer than Biarritz, and the waves are alright because there’s a lot of storms so you can surf very often. From April till October, I try to go to Biarritz more just because it gets warmer and it’s not so crowded, so you can sneak some waves before the crowds arrive in the summer.

What’s your favourite spot in France?

I still don’t know how to choose, but I guess when I’m in Marseille I’m dreaming of the spots in Biarritz, and when I’m in Biarritz I’m dreaming of the spots of Marseille. I have a favourite spot in Marseille which is actually in Toulon, an hour away from Marseille, it’s a left hand point break and I’m not gonna say the name... It’s the wave I learned to surf on and it’s just super fun. On the west coast I like to go to Les Landes, in the forest, because when you walk a little bit you can sometimes manage to be alone and get a little wave for yourself, so what I like is just going there with some friends.

How about in Morocco?

The left here… But we’re just gonna say Cathedral, let’s not say where exactly haha…

I mean the left is really good because it’s a left - I’m goofy - so I like to go backside in the Bay but then if there’s a left I have to surf it! So this one is kinda good, not everyone sees it when it’s on, so you can, yeah... let’s just say Cathedral...

Where’s next on your surf bucket list?

I wanna surf other empty waves in Morocco for sure, because there’s a big coastline that I really want to explore. And New Zealand. Because I’ve been travelling a lot to right hand wave countries but not to lefts, so I need a left one now. So I guess New Zealand, Indonesia, Peru or Chile. I wanna get barrelled a lot. That’s my thing at the moment. I wanna get better at getting barrelled. But it’s hard because there’s not a lot, and it’s usually crowded. Sometime you have perfect sessions but they were not planned. Like all summer I tried to get barrelled in Hossegor, I was waking up super early and driving a lot but it just didn’t work out because it was too much of a plan and actually, every time I get barrelled in Hossegor it’s always when I don’t plan it. I just go for a random surf, I have no cameraman with me, no photographer, and you get there and it’s ahhhh... perfect. I still gonna enjoy it, but I wish someone was there to shoot it.

Are the best sessions when there’s no-one filming you?

It’s always like that, the best session is never filmed. And even when you’re filming, and shooting, the best wave is never recorded. Never. Like last time, one month ago, we got maybe one of the best days of the year in Hossegor, during the final of the Quick Pro. We were down South and I waited from 7am till 1pm on the beach, and when the wave finally came I went by myself, I had two cameramen on the beach, from 2 different angles, and then all the pros arrived. I got a really good bomb, and they missed it. Because they were both having a sandwich. And they missed my best wave. So yeah, it’s always like that.

Do you prefer free surfing or contests?

I don’t really know what I prefer between free surfing and contests. I mean both are really interesting for me and at this point it’s also super easy for me to go to contests because I can officially miss school for them. So every contest I use as a surf trip too, I work as much on the contest side of surfing as the free surfing side. I’m still not paid for surfing - I can barely pay for my trips - so my parents help out a lot because they are okay for me to travel as long as I’m studying. But if I stop school, I have to work!

When did you start entering competitions?

The first time I went to Australia in 2015 was a major trip for me because I did a big international contest there. Even though I didn’t really do well, I met a lot of people there and when I came back I really wanted to go on more trips, so that’s when I started to want to go everywhere.

What’s been your favourite competition?

I loved the Olo Magic Bay because it wasn’t a contest it was really fun! But I like real contests with real pressure I guess. I really like the one in San Sebastian, it’s called the Single Fin Classic, it’s organized by the surf shop over there called Hawaii, every June. I think it’s my favourite because there’s no money involved and it’s just like old friends and it’s super fun. We’re still fighting for the win every time but then at night we all have dinner together, on a huge table, like 50-70 people, and they also book a club for us after the dinner, so you get unlimited drinks and really good Spanish food, it’s a huge party. I try not to drink during the day to stay focused, but then yeah it’s just a big party afterwards. San Sebastian is a really nice city, you’re eating tapas all day, I love it! I think this is my favourite contest, but I also like the contests I win.

How was it winning Wheels and Waves this year?

Yeah, that’s also my other favourite. There are 2 contests one week apart, so the 2nd and 3rd weekend of June. I love both of them because it’s the same thing, a lot of friends and parties too, and it’s also the beginning of summer so I’m just finishing school and I’m super relaxed and ready to enjoy the summer. And I finally won this time, I think that was my 4th year. The first one was not so good, there were a lot of big names like Harrison Roach and Mikey de Temple. It was kind of a big one but I didn’t do well, and the second year I made the final, I was pretty stoked. The third year I didn’t do anything, and then this year, the 4th year I won.

Where’s next for you now?

I’m coming back to Morocco for winter after school, because it’s warmer than home, super close, just perfect. Also the WSL has just changed a lot of things in the World Longboard Tour. It’s getting way more classic and way more closer to the style of longboard I do because they changed the boss. I mean, I don’t think there was a boss before but Devon Howard, who’s an old Californian surfing legend, like Joel - same age, same generation, same level. He just started last year to create a real tour with different stops, so something more serious. I did one part of it in Spain in August to see how it is and if the criteria really changed, and I feel I could do something with that tour so I’m gonna try to do a proper tour next year. It starts in Noosa, Australia in February, so maybe I’ll go back there maybe. It’s definitely a good trip but it’s also one of the most expensive ones. So we’ll see. I’m gonna try to focus on that tour because it’s also easy with school, you know, it’s the world championships so I can easily get the time off! It will be a good way for me to travel as well. Last year it was Noosa, Spain, New York and Taiwan. But you have to be qualified, and I’m not. So if I have the chance to do the tour and I go to Noosa, New York, and I’ve never been to New York and Taiwan so that would be a good way to discover these places. So that’s how I see it, I try to focus on the contest and then enjoy the travel part of it too. Because that’s the beauty of our sport, we get to travel to perfect places. A lot of my friends from my school, when they go to a contest they go to a really shitty part of France where it’s raining and snowing and it’s cold… and when I go to a contest it’s always a beautiful place, at the beach, with the sun, coconuts, palm trees… It’s the dream!

Imsouane is kind of your second home now. How did you end up here and what brings you back from time to time?

It’s the people. I love the waves of course, but I actually don’t surf a lot in Imsouane, I always go for a little surf and catch two waves, I surf for like one km ahah. I have a lot of friends here, I love the vibes, I love staying here at Olo it’s such a cool vibe. I like surfing in other places, I also like driving a little bit, but Imsouane is like my base in Morocco. I like Morocco in general, and all my friends are in Imsouane so I just come back for them really. Imsouane is also the best longboard place in Morocco, so I feel at home because it’s related to my culture.

FAST AND CURIOUS ROUND!

Cathedral or the Bay?
Cathedral

French beach break or Moroccan point break?
French beach break

Quads or twin fins?
Twin fins

Left or right?
Left

Insight to Nathan Sadoun's life