There are few sports that capture the imagination quite like surfing. The idea of a person riding a wave, working with the natural power of the ocean in order to perform incredible feats, is one that appeals to people whether they have ever set foot on a board or not.
Much like with other sports, however, doing it at the very top level requires an extraordinary level of dedication and skill, which is where documentaries can be turned to in order to give you a sense of just how much time and effort those who surf have to dedicate to their craft.
Anything that takes on Mother Nature can end up being extremely risky, as these films look to show.
The Endless Summer
If you want to understand the culture of surfing and the way in which it captured the imagination of a generation, there are few better places to start than with The Endless Summer. Directed by Bruce Brown, the film follows two surfers, Mike Hynson and Robert August, as they travel the world in search of the perfect wave.
Over the course of their journey, they visit countries including South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii and California, meaning that this ends up being part documentary, part travelogue. What makes it stand out, particularly given the era in which it was made, is the warmth and wit of Brown’s narration.
The film is also narrated by Brown, which gives it a joyful, carefree quality that was quite unlike anything that had been made before it. Many still consider it to be the best bit of filmmaking about the world of surfing, which is why it sits at the top of our list.
If you have never watched a surfing documentary before, this is the place to start, especially thanks to the fact that the two protagonists introduce locals in the likes of Ghana and Nigeria to a sport that they haven’t experienced before. As a result, we get to learn all about it and why they love it so much at the same time as others, all to the background of a soundtrack provided by The Sandals.
Riding Giants
If The Endless Summer is a documentary that looks to capture the joy of surfing, then Riding Giants is the one that tries to capture its sheer terror. Directed by Stacy Peralta, who also made the acclaimed skateboarding documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys, this is a film about big wave surfing and the extraordinary individuals who dedicate their lives to conquering some of the largest and most dangerous waves on the planet.
The documentary traces the history of the discipline through three different figures, beginning with Greg Noll, who pioneered the sport in Hawaii’s Waimea Bay in the 1950s and 1960s.
Then it moves on to talk about Jeff Clark and the legendary big wave spot at Mavericks in California, eventually arriving at Laird Hamilton and his development of tow-in surfing. The cinematography is breathtaking, with waves of a size and power that are truly difficult to comprehend.
For anyone who has ever wondered what drives a person to surf a 70-foot wall of water, this documentary offers as good an answer as you are likely to find. There is a combination of archive footage and ‘reenactments’, as well as home lives and interviews with some of the biggest names in surfing in order to tell the full story of the sport.
Bustin’ Down the Door
One of the more fascinating aspects of surfing’s history is the way in which the sport transformed from a relaxed, freewheeling lifestyle activity into a fiercely competitive global enterprise. In Bustin’ Down the Door, Jeremy Gosch looks to tell that story of the move towards professionalisation.
Narrated by Edward Norton, the film focuses on the arrival of a group of young Australian and South African surfers to Hawaii’s North Shore during the winter of 1975, explaining the hostility that they encountered from the locals who had previously dominated the waves there. That group included Ian Cairns, Mark Richards and Michael Tomson.
Bustin’ Down the Door a documentary on mid 1970s surfers that changed the sport http://www.bustindownthedoor.com
— Malcolm Brooks (@MalcolmBrooks) August 18, 2009
The conflict that arose, as well as the manner in which it ultimately led to the formation of a professional surf league, is a compelling story in its own right. The director tells it with a real sense of drama, all to a soundtrack of tunes from the likes of David Bowie, Leonard Cohen the Eels.
It is worth noting that the film was only released in 2008, despite the events it depicts taking place more than three decades earlier, largely because of the considerable difficulty Gosch faced in tracking down the necessary archival footage. That persistence was very much worth it, offering a film that is considered amongst the best on the sport.
Andy Irons: Kissed by God
There are sports documentaries that entertain, then there are those that genuinely move you, with Andy Irons: Kissed by God very much fitting into the latter category. It tells the story of Andy Irons, the Hawaiian surfer who won three consecutive world titles between 2002 and 2004 and was widely considered to be one of the greatest surfers of his generation.
What gives the film its emotional weight, however, is the unflinching honesty with which it addresses the darker aspects of his life, including his struggles with drug addiction and mental health issues, which ultimately contributed to his death in 2010 at the age of just 32.
Made with the full involvement of those who knew and loved him, the documentary contains stories and footage that many of those involved believed would never be made public. That gives it an intimacy that is quite rare, being a raw, honest and deeply moving portrait of a complicated man, and one of the most remarkable sports documentaries of recent years.
There are some that believe that Irons’ life is a big part of the reason why the Association of Surfing Pros became the World Surf League, largely because of liability to the families of surfers like Irons. He left the sea far sooner than he should’ve, with this film being a fitting epitaph.
Momentum Generation
HBO has a long and distinguished history of producing outstanding sports documentaries and Momentum Generation is one of the finest examples of that tradition. The film looks at a group of young surfers who came of age together on Hawaii’s North Shore in the early 1990s, going on to become some of the most celebrated figures in the history of the sport.
The names involved will be familiar to anyone with even a passing interest in surfing, with the likes of Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, Shane Dorian, Sunny Garcia, Taylor Knox and Kalani Robb all featuring prominently. The film is as much about friendship, rivalry and the difficulties of growing up as it is about surfing itself.
7 Things You’ll Learn From the New “Momentum Generation” Documentary – The soon-to-be-released New School biopic will give you an inside look at the surfers who defined an entire generation https://t.co/zg4MPSH67D pic.twitter.com/VSEIirGlzx
— World Surfing News (@surfingnews) November 15, 2018
What is perhaps surprising, given how successful most of them went on to become, is just how turbulent and uncertain their early lives were. Those who know the sport well will find much to enjoy here, but it is also a film that works well as a piece of human drama for those who know nothing about surfing at all.
The Momentum Generation, after which the film is named, lived together in Hawaii in a house that was open to all surfers, turning to their home in order to rest and recover before heading back out into the waves. This was a group that looked to take surfing seriously, becoming as successful as anyone in the history of the sport.
Girls Can’t Surf
For much of its history, professional surfing was a sport in which women were paid a fraction of what their male counterparts received, competing in shorter events with smaller prize money and receiving considerably less attention from the media and the public. If that sounds familiar to you around countless other sports, at least you’ve been paying attention.
In Girls Can’t Surf, director Christopher Nelius tells the story of the group of women who decided to fight back against that inequality during the 1980s and 1990s, exploring the remarkable impact that they had on the sport as a result, tackling the innate misogyny that was rife.
Featuring interviews and archive footage involving a number of prominent female surfers from the era, such as Jodie Cooper, Frieda Zamba and Layne Beachley, the documentary does not shy away from the extent of the prejudice that these women faced nor the personal sacrifices that they were required to make in order to be taken seriously.
It is an inspiring and, at times, infuriating watch, being a timely reminder that the progress which has been made in terms of gender equality in sport has been hard-fought every step of the way. It is also a documentary that reveals the truth, which is that there is still a long way to go in almost every sport.
