Storm Surfers 3D (Justin McMillan and Chris Neilus, 2012): Australia

Reviewed by Jian Gedrick at the Arlington Theater, Santa Barbara CA

What do most people do as they near their fifties? Retire early? Settle down with family? Take it easy? Pioneer surfers Tom Carroll and Ross Clark Jones take a different route. They are two surf legends with respectable careers continuing to surf the most intense surf spots as well as the unknown. Not to benefit their image, but simply because it’s what they love to do.

Caroll and Jones are two best friends and surf legends from Australia, although now middle aged, 50 and 45 respectively, they show no signs of ever letting up on the extreme sport of ‘big wave surfing’ (where surfers ride waves 20 feet or higher). In the beginning of the movie a prologue explains Caroll and Jones are surfing an unexplored area 75 kilometers off the shores of Australia. It isn’t the most difficult place they’ve surfed, it’s an area that has never been surfed before and is so unknown there has been no picture of the area yet.

Caroll and Jones’ skill may bring those with no experience in surfing to learning the sport, but there is a fair share of violent wipeouts from both of them throughout the movie, including one on a jet ski with Caroll, where the jet ski comes incredibly close to landing on his head. The moments where they speed down a mountain of water or through the vortex of the barrel though, is absolutely magical. The movie shows the experience of riding a monster wave by using several camera angles and never relies on any one particular shot. These include: helicopter shots, various go pro and hand held shots. My favorite one was a helicopter shot of Caroll surfing in Turtle Dove Shoal, conquering the beastly wave with incredible speed, while Jones is talking about how he’s pushing 50.

The seriousness of falling while surfing waves like these is nothing to take lightly. There is no sense of equilibrium from the violent thrashing and surfers can be pushed several meters down underwater, and another wave could push them down further without warning. Any longer than a minute under the thrashing water most likely means death for the surfer. Caroll’s climactic wipeout at Turtle Dove Shoal gives an opportunity of sharing the experience. Besides the camera telling the inexperienced of what it is like to surf and wipe out on gigantic waves, the two legends share their experience in their own comical and unique way. Jones explains that he is able to to endure the ordeal of being thrashed underwater by finding similarities between this experience and that of dancing in a nightclub. This explanation is depicted by Jone’s himself humorously dancing all out in a night club, disoriented, out of control, and letting his body get thrown around like a rag doll while he’s surrounded by dozens of people and deafening music.

This is a good indicator of how playful, likable and childish Jones is. In fact both of them seem like two rowdy college kids. They are both responsible family men, but they are still incredibly young at heart. And while there’s plenty of surf footage there’s also several scenes of them messing around. In one scene they’re operating a toy helicopter while blowing fire at it laughing in their energetic Aussie voices. During the Q and A session after the film both directors, Justin McMillan and Christopher Neilius, say that because they’ve been together so long documenting Jones and Caroll’s adventure, they describe themselves as a married couple with two rambunctious sons (James and Caroll)

While the movie is filled with spectacular shots of surfing that will entrance any viewer even those uninterested in surfing, the attitude and spirit of the two adventure-seekers is also one of the main delights of this film. With the narrator stating “Caroll and James maturity stopped at the age of 17” these two are an inspiration for younger generations. Not just because of what they’ve accomplished in their earlier years, but because they’re still living life to the fullest twenty five years later. They show that getting older shouldn’t prevent you from living life and enjoy doing what you love most and as James puts it, “age is just a number.”