Everyone can appreciate the spectacle of bigwave surfing, even if it’s in the safety of a cinema
Surf filmmaker Tim Bonython has been pointing a camera at surfers for 35 years and has spent the past five of those crafting what he hopes is the definitive documentary on big-wave surfing, The Big Wave Project.
“I’ve always wanted to make a film about big-wave surfing and how it evolved,” he says. “But I also wanted to make it in a way that meant getting all the footage first and then assembling it into a story. That way I could make sure the waves are the star.”
Bonython’s film spans the globe, taking in some of the world’s biggest breaks, including Tasmania’s Shipstern Bluff and Pedra Branca. He wanted the focus of his film to be on the close bonds forged between the big-wave surfers, who literally trust their comrades with their lives.
“It’s a bunch of guys all looking after each other because, no matter how you see it, this is a very dangerous sport,” he says. “You don’t try to catch the biggest waves in the world without people watching you – if someone does wipe out on these huge waves, it is vital that someone is waiting to make sure you come back up and paddle out.”
Growing up near the beach in Adelaide, the ocean was always Bonython’s playground and he has been a keen surfer all his life. But it was only when he picked up a Super-8 film camera as a teenager and started filming surfing comps he realised he had another calling as well.
He doesn’t ride the huge waves, preferring to ride along with a jet ski driver and film the action – but even doing this means getting perilously close to the waves, which can be almost five-metre high. But he loves the thrill and makes it his mission to share it with as many others as he can, especially those who don’t surf and can’t experience it for themselves.
“Each of these surfers might only get one highlight moment of his life, that one big wave where all his friends say, ‘Hey, you remember that one?’, and it might only last three or four seconds,” he says. “It’s my job to make sure I catch that moment. I get as much of a thrill from capturing that as the surfer gets from riding it.”