A second take at Torren Martyn's sailing trip on the good ship Calytpte.

The first film, also called Calypte, documented the whole journey from learning to sail on Lake Ainsworth to avoiding nightmare scenarios in the seas off Sumatra, and plenty of surfing of course.

In contrast, The Ugly Duckling hones in on one small detail of the trip: the odd shaped board Torren lugs onto the boat. If all surfboards are essentially the same to you then The Ugly Duckling might not be your film - look at the pretty waves instead.

For everyone else, particularly those whose own surfing evolves through various designs, the film is inspiration to stay the course; keep on seeking those new feelings.

When, early in the film, Torren claims that all Simon Jones' boards have a common template, it's easy to think the big fella has spent too long at sea. Simon's sleek pintails - such as his Fiji model - appear to have no common ground with the stubby Ugly Duckling - which Simon admits finding so ugly it's hard to look at.

Yet remarkably, they're born from the same template.

It's not unlike the development of Ben Aipa's Da Sting in the early-70s. Aipa liked the planshape of his mini-guns but they were too long for hot-dogging in Hawaii's South Shore waves. His solution was to ostensibly cut out a foot or so from the rear third of the board and rejoin the planshape, though now with a step on the bottom and a sharp flyer on the sides - a six foot board with a seven foot planshape.

Fifty years later Simon Jones has done something similar yet removed both nose and tail. So there's a method to his madness, though it's only a stepping off point for new ideas. A second version of the board gets delivered to Torren, less ugly, but better performing. To my eyes it surfs more 'in' the water rather than 'on' it. The idea evolves.

I don't recall too many films devoted solely to board design - On The Edge Of A Dream by Kidman and Ericson the only one that comes to mind - yet surfers are more educated than ever about board design. The Ugly Duckling fills a void, and whether you like the design or not it hopefully gets you thinking about shapes moving through water and the feelings that arise.

As with Calypte, The Ugly Duckling is presented by needessentials. Created and directed by Kelly Foote.