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‘The show is a true fluke': ‘100 Foot Wave' executive producer on how they chase big waves across the globe
HBO's 100 Foot Wave just aired its third season finale in May, which is pretty remarkable considering it wasn't originally supposed to last this long. "There was a lot we didn't know back then when we started," executive producer Joe Lewis tells Gold Derby. What began as a two-hour movie about surfer Garrett McNamara's attempts to ride a mythical 100-foot wave quickly morphed into a six hour docuseries, which then grew into a multi-season program encompassing McNamara's family, the town of Nazaré, Portugal, and the surfing culture that dominates it.
The realm of documentary filmmaking was new territory for Lewis, who has spent most of his career producing narrative shows like Fleabag, for which he won an Emmy. "The show is a true fluke," he says. As fate would have it, his wife's second cousins are McNamara's wife, Nicole McNamara, and brother-in-law, Cj Macias, both of whom feature prominently on the show. They approached their distant relative about an idea they had for a movie, and Lewis took it to documentarian Chris Smith, director of American Movie, Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, and Fyre, to name but a few. "Chris was on this incredible timeline of making ridiculously good documentary features independently." And that's how 100 Foot Wave began in 2019.
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"Originally, we thought we'd just shoot them until they got the 100-foot wave, and that would be the end of the movie," Lewis recalls. "When we were talking to potential financiers, the most common question was, 'Are they going to get the wave? And what happens if they don't get it?' Obviously, we thought that was super important to the story, and thought it would be much easier to get than it's turned out to be." Smith, Lewis, and their crew shot throughout the entirety of surf season from July 2019 into March 2020. As they were cobbling together a lengthy first cut, Smith, who had just produced Tiger King, had an epiphany. "The five-hour cut moved incredibly well," Lewis continues. "It was just all fascinating." So the decision was made to simply insert main titles and end titles at certain points throughout to create six episodes, and "it was just so obvious that was how it was supposed to be."
Considering no one ended up surfing the 100-foot wave by the end of Season 1, "it turned out that might have been beside the point, or the chase might actually be the exciting thing," Lewis says. "So the fact that no one ever reached this goal — maybe no one ever will, maybe someone will — gave them something to keep going towards." As well, "the further we got into Nazaré and big wave surfing, and the community and the world," the more "we found ourselves endlessly interested" and eager to return for more. "Every person that we'd interview or spend some time with all had their own stories that were all fascinating," Lewis adds. "So someone that might've been just an interview in Season 1 ends up having a whole storyline or arc" as the show goes on.
As the show's storytelling has expanded throughout each season, so too has its scope, and in the case of Season 3, it was out of necessity. "For the first time, we're out of Nazaré, maybe for most of the season," Lewis explains. "It wasn't planned that way; it naturally evolved. The big waves of the Atlantic were not very active during that surf season, so the surfers ended up going other places," such as Ireland, Morocco, Hawaii, and Cortez Bank. So while Season 1 is about the history of Nazaré and Season 2 is about the people who inhabit it, Season 3 concerns "the greater big wave community in the world. We would not have mapped it out that way, but it's the best way that it could have gone. It's fun, beautiful, and exciting to chase waves around the world. I get the high that the surfers get from it."
Even as the series continues to grow, it keeps its focus on McNamara and his Icarus-like mission. "Garrett never stops trying," Lewis says. "He's been trying to get this thing that might not exist, this 100-foot wave, for decades and decades. It's fascinating to watch someone try to do that. I just find Garrett so awesome and interesting and funny and determined, all of these things that if you asked me to make up a good character for TV, I would describe the adjectives that are Garrett." The same goes for his family and everyone in his community who "dedicates their lives to big waves. I'm always surprised by how good they are on TV and with cameras."
100 Foot Wave has garnered Emmy attention for its first two seasons, winning back-to-back prizes for cinematography and competing for writing, picture editing, sound editing, sound mixing, and documentary or nonfiction series. It speaks to the high level of craft that goes into making it, and Lewis hopes people recognize "what it takes to capture this show. We plan nothing, we script nothing, we shoot six months out of the year" with "between six and 15 cameras running everyday." The show is "a huge mission. We live with this large group of people for six months, shoot almost seven days a week," and "the result is thousands and thousands of hours of really intimate footage," which then gets whittled down. "For some of the seasons of the show, I think we've shot almost 3,500 hours, and it ends up as five and a half."
As the years have gone by, their methods have become more streamlined, and their ability to capture compelling footage has improved not just from a technical level, but from an intimate one as well. "The surfers have let us in more and more over the years because we've shown that we want to do right by them, or at least portray them authentically, and their world too," Lewis reveals. As they prepare for the next season and beyond, he remains "continually excited by the new stuff that pops up. Last year, we met some amazing characters who hopefully people will meet in Season 4. The year just gets more exciting."
100 Foot Wave is streaming on Max.
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