100 Foot Wave (Season 3)

⭐ 10/10

This has quickly become my favourite show on TV the past few years. Its a documentary on big wave surfers, and it is the most beautifully filmed thing you can watch. Season 1 follows Garrett McNamara as he establishes the big wave surfing scene in Nazare Portugal, and Season 2 follows the lives of many of the surfers that have come to Nazare to take part in what Garrett built. Season 3 is the same cast of characters, and seeing how their lives have changed is really fascinating. In 2 Garrett is getting older and fighting the desire to surf with his own mortality, suffering many injuries that should probably end his career and struggling to see other surfers overtake him. In 3 he is essentially retired, and he's like a caged beast. He still surfs, but he picks his spots, and when anything goes wrong his wife is furious. They have kids to think of!

This is a 5 episode season and the final 3 were some of the best of the whole series. One of them is a trip a handful of them take to the Cortez Bank, massive waves that pop up in the middle of the ocean. The photography of this show is phenomenal, and it is really on display in the middle of the ocean with no beach in sight. The waves every episode are breathtaking, and I get an adrenaline rush every time. Episode 4 follows a prestigious competition in Hawaii that surfers wait their whole life to be invited to. The episode plays like a reality TV show, where I already have favourites I am rooting for, but then new surfers are introduced that steal my heart. The final episode is a trip to surf in Morocco, and its where this show becomes fully about fathers and sons. It's super clear which surfers are doing this because they are psychos that don't feel alive unless their are sliding down a wave that could kill them, and which are doing it because its what they love and its how they provide for their families. And we see that balance shift for many of them! Lucas Chumbo was a Brazillean reality show contestent turned big wave hunter, and now he is a dad! Seeing him say goodbye to his daughters and wife before flying out to the next location broke my heart, him crying in the elevator saying its time to go to work. And then his dad who he never sees is surfing with him, saying that time on the water with his adult son after many years apart was the best day of his life. I couldn't believe how moved I was, to see these real people with desires I will never understand grapple with real life and what really matters.

Contrasting that with someone like Cotty, who has been on all 3 seasons, is what makes this show powerful and also supplies a lot of laughs. He is perpetually dissatisfied, will surf the best wave of his life and then the next day be completely disappointed and feel like his career is over. He has a young son we have seen in past seasons who we never see anymore, and he is with another girl, so it feels like he has gone the complete opposite direction emotionally from Chumbo.  Justine, our french female presence with a heart of gold but a lack of confidence, ends the season pregnant, so I can't wait to see how her life has changed assuming she now has a child. And Garrett! He has a couple kids and they end the season dramatically changing their life so that he can focus on family but also be close enough to travel to big swells.

The season ends with a beautiful Christmas dinner in Italy, Garrett with his entire family (including his adult son that we just meet this season), saying how much his head has been cleared and he has found his peace and purpose. The final shot is him lying on a couch on his phone watching the swell radar and planning the next trip. Couldn't have been closer to the end of Mad Men if they had tried, this guy is a goldmine of irony and passion and I savour every single moment with this aging psycho.

It reminds me a lot of Free Solo, but Alex Honnold is a true psycho that doesn't feel fear. These people have things to lose, and they experience and feel the danger and loss that comes with this sport they love. But I have always been drawn to the Michael's and Kobe's, who forsake everything in pursuit of perfection, and we have a cast of surfers all doing this. Seeing them seek healthy balance, fight through slumps and injuries, enjoy family and connection, all while relentlessly pursuing that next wave, its everything I could ever want in a show. I love every person on this cast, from Garrett's hippy brother-in-law who found peace outside the ocean but is now jumping right back in, to Justine's supportive husband who loves her more than I've seen anyone love someone. This show has given me real people to love, and I will be watching their journeys for the rest of my life.