CINEMA: Waveriders
For most people, Ireland is not the first location that comes to mind when you mention surfing, but as this stunning documentary shows, riding the waves and the Emerald Isle have more in common than you might think.
Waveriders is a story about one man from the past, and how his legacy now impinges on the present and the future – and no this isn’t an April Fool’s joke, it’s absolutely true.
George Freeth was an extraordinary man; the son of an Irish father and Hawaiian mother, during the early 1900s he was almost single-handedly responsible for launching surfing as a leisure activity. A strong swimmer and all-round waterman he lived to surf and helped introduce the sport from his native Hawaii to California where it really took off. As the film traces Freeth’s footsteps to some of the best known surfing locations, present day surfers such as Kelly Slater talk about his legacy and it is at this juncture that the movie takes a surprising detour and adds a twist to the tale. For the one thing Freeth didn’t know was along the coast of Donegal are some of the most dramatic waves just waiting to be surfed. At one time they were thought to be too dangerous to ride but as modern day surfers Gabriel Davies and Richard Fitzgerald have since proven, a new generation of extreme surfers are now catching monster waves of over 50 feet in the icy waters around Ireland.
With stunning action footage of the surfers on the ocean and an almost lyrical voiceover from Cillian Murphy, this is a documentary that seems to lift itself out of the genre to become a movie of myth and legend. Even if you don’t know the first thing about surfing what you see here will not only impress but also inspire. This film is as important as Big Wednesday as far as surfing films are concerned and watching this will make you want to jump on a board immediately. Dee Pilgrim
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