Surfers in LA get excited when the waves are over five feet, but that’s not even a ripple compared to Mavericks in Northern California, Jaws in Maui, and Nazaré in Portugal, where waves can reach up to 100 feet tall and can pose serious injury or death to professionals. And yet, some elite athletes are undeterred. They are the subject of HBO’s documentary series 100 Foot Wave — its third season premieres May 1.
Garrett McNamara, star of the series and a former world record holder for biggest wave ever surfed, tells KCRW that he got into big wave surfing when he was 16 years old, at Sunset Beach on Oahu: “A friend of mine literally grabbed me by the neck, and he said, ‘Punky, you're coming with me.’ … I was literally kicking and screaming, going, ‘No, no.’ And he said, ‘Don't worry, I'm going to give you the perfect board, and I'm going to show you where to paddle out, and I'll show you where to catch the wave, and you're going to be safe. You're going to have fun.’ Sure enough, all of that happened, and it was the best day of my life, and I lived for big waves from that day forward.”
The lure of the sport is its rush and sense of being alive and belonging in the ocean, he says.
Still, hundreds of 50 to 60-foot waves have crashed on him, plus thousands of 40-foot ones.
“Every wipeout is different,” McNamara explains. “Each wave hits you differently, and either gives you some kisses and takes you down for a little while and spits you out the back without any challenges at all; and other ones hit you so hard and so violent that it feels Mike Tyson's punching you, and then he stuck you in a washing machine on spin cycle, and then King Kong grabbed it and shook it up all different directions.”
The ride you have no control over - the wipeout - is the most exhilarating experience in surfing, he says.
To have some safety when there’s no control, McNamara rides with an inflation vest, which has built-in oxygen canisters similar to car airbags. The vests allow you to quickly get to the surface in an emergency.
He adds, “If you're doing it safe, you [also] have flotation built into your wetsuit. So even if you get hit so hard you can't pull, you're going to come to the surface. Now, if you're down there getting pounded and you're feeling really weak and you're feeling like, ‘Okay, I want to save my energy, or I just got to get up,’ and then you pull, and then you come to the surface really quick. But if you're knocked out, you can't pull, so you should always have some type of flotation built into your wetsuit.”
However, Marcio Freire, the first surfer to paddle out at Jaws’ biggest peak, possibly didn’t have an inflation vest under his small flotation vest when he was tow surfing at Nazaré (a partner drives a jet ski and tows you out). Tragically, Freire was the first surfer to die at Nazaré.
The death influenced McNamara to think deeply about what’s actually important, including spending more time with family, he says.
In 100 Foot Wave, McNamara’s wife says she’s “over him not being intentional with his life” after a neurologist diagnosed him with brain damage following a crash at Nazaré. By then, he had suffered more than 100 concussions from surfing.
McNamara says of his injuries: “If I get caught in stitches, they don't really even slow me down. I might stay out of the water for a few hours. And when it comes to strains and sprains and breaks … I'm out of the water, and I can't really do what I want to do all day … with my family on the land. But didn't really realize that I had had so many concussions, and that they could have possibly taken a toll on me.”
He continues, “When I came out on the other end, [the neurologist] said, ‘Yeah, you're okay, as long as you … take care of yourself … moving forward.’ And I went to Abu Dhabi and got another hit on the head.”
Chris Smith, director of 100 Foot Wave, describes McNamara as “going to will things into existence in the way that he wants them to be.” Smith says McNamara’s wife appreciates what he does, but is also very concerned for him and his family.
Smith says that the most interesting surfers have a simple need to be in the ocean and on their surfboards “because it’s in their DNA.”
He adds that the show’s third season is the most human, focusing more on relationships with loved ones and with the ocean and less on pursuing the biggest wave.
Plus, big wave surfing doesn’t draw only men. 100 Foot Wave highlights France’s Justine Dupont. Smith says, “I don't think anyone looks at her as a woman in the sport. They just look at her as another athlete. She's just out there for all the right reasons, and is as hard-charging as any of the other guys.”
He adds, “One of the things that I love about the show is just the disparate backgrounds of the characters that we're focused on. … We have Cotty [aka Andrew Cotton], who's from the U.K., and surfs a lot in Ireland … a whole contingent of people from Brazil. … It's like the island of misfit toys. … It was something that we didn't really expect when we started, but it was something that we discovered and have stuck with for that reason.”