I’ve said it a thousand times: the subject matter of a good documentary is beside the point, Doesn’t matter. I have literally put a documentary about newspaper crossword puzzles in my Top Ten list before. It’s all about the storytelling and whether you care about the people (‘Characters”) in the story.
100 Foot Wave made me give a damn about people who surf giant waves year round. That’s admirable. That’s great filmmaking.
HBO’s series is now in its second season, but I didn’t see the first and didn’t need to. The point is that a half dozen or so surfers from every age, male and female, different parts of the world, have holed up together though everything from Covid to dislocated bones in order to spend hours waiting on one perfect wave.
The new season takes our guides from hurricane induced swells to a shut down of the sea by the Portuguese government (Covid) to family life in Hawaii, a romance, a few psyched out veterans of too many wipeouts and a fitting conclusion at the end of the 8th episode.
If I could make one complaint, it would be that the director should have included 3-d animation that shows the viewer how a swell forms, how a wave forms, what happens when it crashes? Also, what happens to the human body? Is he dragged to the bottom? Twisted around? The surfers have their own compelling ways of comparing scars and fishin’ stories, but to visualize what’s happening beneath the surface would raise the stakes for viewers.
Gorgeous photography, cool people and even a few lessons – I mean, I had no idea that this place in Portugal is one of the most famous for big waves in the world.
A few episodes are already out and new releases come weekly on HBO Max. Get on the ride, bro!
