In our current pandemic, not many students are able to share their experiences outside of school, let alone discuss their passion as a dangerous hobby. The idea generation behind this story came from surf media exposing a massive swell globally increasing the size of many beaches’ waves substantially. Between my partner, Mason Lindh and I we knew little on the subject beforehand so getting acquainted with surfer media such as Surfer Today and Surfline became essential to telling an accurate narrative.
“I thought this story would not only be entertaining, but also show the risks involved with extreme sports. Being a surfer, I respect the ocean and understand how powerful it is, but I have never been able to harness big waves up to 20 feet. Anything over 15 feet is out of my comfort zone,” Mason said in acknowledging the comfort-level of the majority of surfers. Sets of waves, where three or more waves seem to appear out of nowhere and disappear just as fast, can be exceptionally harsh when over 10 feet consecutively.
Reader questions, what is essential to know about a subject, were drafted next. Why approach big waves, how it came about, and what goes through a big-wave surfer’s head came to be some of the more focused questions in our inquiries. Upon finding a source willing to talk with us, anonymously, we wanted to focus on the waves as a culture more-so than a profile of an individual surfer.
Our source mentions, “I know [my parents are] worried about me, but I’d be more nervous with my first-hand experience and seeing shit go down. Having days where you’re like I don’t know if I want to keep on doing this but then you catch a really good wave and that’s why I want to keep on doing it,” reflecting on the hazards he puts himself in.
In other conversations with surfers, many had questions on the physics of these massive waves which is a completely other can of worms. A challenge we faced was capturing a surfer in a big wave, as the source requested to stay anonymous. So that led to B-roll being the name of the game, and crushed the chances of this story getting published.
“Living in California over twenty years and having never picked up a surfboard, I felt this story was rightly needed in a time of hardship such as today. The story really illustrates the bigger picture finding individual calling,” writer Danny Loveless said.
This story is thought of as timely being that in such a strange era of modernity, such classic sports like surfing stand the test of time. The intersection of student and maniacal surfer, the elements of a very attention-grabbing story were connected but unfortunately unable to be presented to the public.