Stream It Or Skip It: ‘100 Foot Wave’ Season 2 on HBO Max, Where Things Get Gnarly In Waves and Life For Professional Surfers

100 Foot Wave returns to HBO Max for its second season with some new hardware to show off, having won a 2022 Emmy for Outstanding Cinematography in the Nonfiction Program category and received a nomination for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series. Directed by Chris Smith (Fyre, Bad Vegan), the six episodes of 100 Foot Wave Season 2 will toggle between Portugal, Hawaii, and Spain as big wave surfers chase towering swells, address the pandemic’s effect on the sport, and profile a world champion and his wife as they expect their third child together.    

100 FOOT WAVE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: The impossible volume of the sea, turning over and in on itself off the coast of Nazare, Portugal, where local kid Antonio “Tony” Laureano was surfing the area’s famously giant waves by the young age of 12. “The impact of growing up with waves like this, it’s just amazing.”

The Gist: Laureano, 18, is just one of the big wave surfers 100 Foot Wave introduces us to as its second season kicks off. The documentary series is still centered around big wave surfing champion Garrett McNamara, his wife Nicole, and their young children. But as a guy who’s already accomplished so much in the sport — he owns the Guinness world record for largest wave ever surfed, a near-100-footer off the coast of Nazare — and as someone who, at age 55, has dealt with major injuries and become more selective about which waves he catches, McNamara this time around is playing more of a support role for his peers and the next generation. In October 2020, as Hurricane Epsilon is creating conditions for “the swell of the century” in Nazare, and the big wave surfing season is just kicking off, the McNamaras decamp from their home in Oahu and head to Portugal. And yeah, Garrett’s gonna do some surfing. But he says he’s mostly there to support his pal Andrew “Cotty” Cotton, a British big wave surfer who once towed him into some truly huge waves. McNamara, as Cotton’s jet ski driver, wants to return to the favor. “To give Cotty the wave of his life.” 

Once the insane waves started brimming at Nazare, the call went out worldwide, and surfers answered. There is Justine Dupont, a world champion surfer from Bordeaux, France; Lucas “Chumbo” Chianca and Ian Cosenza from Brazil; American Kai Lenny; and French-Brazilian champion surfer Michelle des Bouillons, who these days is based in Bali. And a short time before Epsilon makes landfall, all of these pros are dealing with anticipation, anxiety, and heavy doses of adrenaline. “A storm like this, it might not ever happen again,” Cotty says. It’s both the promise of ripping the biggest run of their lives on these waves, and the utter unknowns, that keep all of them fretting and hungry. 

Once the big day arrives, the water is almost as crowded as the throng of spectators gathered on the shore. For every surfer, there is a jet ski driver, and surface traffic backs up as people compete for waves. There is tension, and safety concerns. But there is also Kai Lenny busting huge air off a 60-foot swell, McNamara towing Cotton into a run where he hits 50mph on his surfboard, and Cosenza sling-shotting Chianca onto the biggest wave of his life. 

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The docu-series Life of Kai profiled big wave surfer Kai Lenny. And in Netflix’s 14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible, mountaineer Nimsdai Purja harbors a drive similar to these professional surfers as he pushes himself to summit all of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks in just seven months. 

Our Take: Season 2 of 100 Foot Wave begins in 2020, as COVID chaos is in full swing and big wave riders are dealing with the marketplace for sponsorship money cratering and even being locked out of the ocean entirely by authorities. Certainly not the most joyous of storylines, but it’s one that helps the documentary series emphasize one of its continuing themes: that Garrett McNamara isn’t the only individual driven by an urge to surf the gnarliest waves that borders on the primal. As Andrew “Cotty” Cotton says, big wave surfing has always been an expensive undertaking – COVID fallout just added another layer of difficulty. But it never crosses his mind to quit, and like his surf world peers he answers the call when Nazare, Portugal beckons. To a person, they are committed to unlocking that moment on the waves when it becomes their biggest ever challenge, and nothing will stop their pursuit of a very personal kind of glory. Both Justine Dupont and Kai Lenny describe it as such, the fulfillment of personal goals over anything like winning competitions and collecting world records. The mythical 100 foot wave is mentioned more than once. But the journey to find it and ride it successfully must be earned on the inside.

Sex and Skin: None. But there is plenty of footage of big wave surfers climbing into specialized, vaguely futuristic impact wetsuits that feature integrated flotation panels and protection against the severe body-buffeting effects of heavy surf. Sometimes it looks like Red Bull slapped some sponsorship on the stillsuits from Dune.

Parting Shot: With all of the surfers and their support teams clogging the routes to big waves, Tony Laureano and Ramon, his father and jet ski driver, decide it’s too dangerous to continue surfing. And before it cuts to black 100 Foot Wave features two surfers’ lines converging at speed on the spine of a particularly enormous swell.

Sleeper Star: It seems like drone technology and Go-Pro cameras have become more advanced and more fully integrated into big wave surfing even since the first season of 100 Foot Wave aired. These days most of the surfers have board and helmet-mounted cameras, and a local drone operator uses his rig to fly in close proximity to the riders as they curl through the canyons of humongous waves. The increased perspectives on the sport are a great addition to a doc that was already known for its exquisite cinematography.

Most Pilot-y Line: “You often want to imagine limitless possibilities,” Justine Dupont says of her mentality and nerves once the big wave season starts. “If there haven’t been many big waves, maybe there will be a supercharged winter which will start later. But you really don’t know.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. 100 Foot Wave continues to combine its personal touch with the lives and careers of a unique and driven group of world-class athletes with gorgeous, award-winning cinematography. Like the big wave surfers themselves, it has a healthy respect for the majesty and danger of the sea.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges