True Films 3.0 - Kevin Kelly

Billabong Odyssey •
Riding Giants • Step into Liquid
Sons of The Endless Summer (p.54). All three of these recent documentaries
are very satisfying overviews of surfing today. Step Into Liquid is
actually made by the son of the filmmaker of the original Endless Summer
surf-fest – the granddaddy of all surf movies and road-trip documentaries.
It’s a fun roundup of how surfing has blossomed to become
mainstream and recently technologically innovative. It presents some
offbeat surfers, like the ones who ride behind oil tankers. Riding Giants,
on the other hand, is a quick history of how surfers were seduced by bigger
and bigger waves, and delves into the subculture of big wave surfers
today. But for my money, the best of the three is Billabong Odyssey, which
is The Endless Summer on steroids. The film follows a crack team of big
wave surfers as they fly around the world seeking out really HUGE waves
(60 plus feet), with the hope of (and prize for) first successfully surfing a
100-foot wave. It is hard to describe how monstrous and punishing these
waves are, but with helicopters, water jets, rescue teams, and coast guard
boats in support, you get an awesome view of giant wave surfing, and by
all accounts a peak human moment. One gets a sense that surfing has
just begun.
By Philip Boston
2003, 92 min.
Available from Amazon
Rent from Netflix
By Stacy Peralta
2004, 101 min.
Available from Amazon
Rent from Netflix
Surfers are swung into a
towering wave via a water
jet tow, which is racing
away (above). Smaller
waves created in the bow
of incoming tankers (left)
are less intimidating but
will last for 20 minutes or
longer.
By Dana Brown (II)
2003, 87 min.
Available from Amazon
Rent from Netflix
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