• Adventurous
• Intense

‘100 Foot Wave’

I’ve never stepped on a surfboard, nor do I ever plan to, but damn if I don’t love documentaries about surfing. Step Into Liquid? Mesmerized. Riding Giants? Awestruck. The Endless Summer? Magical. All of which is to say that I don’t know how I missed 100 Foot Wave, the HBO docuseries about the treacherous surfing locale of Nazare, Portugal, when it first debuted back in July 2021, but I’m thrilled that the recent release of Season 2 of the show hipped me to its existence. The series primarily follows Garrett McNamara, a quirky fiftysomething surfer who became a global sensation when footage of him surfing a then-record 78-foot wave was recorded in 2011, and how he almost singlehandedly turned a sleepy, beachside Portuguese town into a mecca of surf culture. Scored by the legendary Philip Glass, this spellbinding show spotlights a brigade of brave (foolhardy?) souls who risk their lives attempting to tap into the immense power the ocean possesses in search of, you guessed it, the mythical 100 foot wave.