“If you’ve already surfed the 100-foot wave, you’ll have to look for bigger waves”

With the premiere of the third season of ‘100 Foot Wave’ on HBO Max on May 1, the documentary series that follows the obsession of top big-wave surfers to reach impossible limits once again challenges the familiar. After years of pursuit, this new installment suggests that the dream of surfing a 100-foot wave (about 30.4 meters) could be closer to reality… if it hasn’t already been achieved.

This season, the cameras follow the iconic Garrett McNamara and other key names like Justine Dupont, Lucas “Chumbo” Chianca, and Kai Lenny in new locations that expand the focus beyond Nazaré, the epicenter of the series in its early seasons. The attention shifts to locations like Mavericks (California) and, especially, Cortes Bank, an underwater mountain more than 100 miles off the coast of San Diego, where historic sessions were recorded.

“The mission to Cortes was crazy; everything went perfectly: conditions, wind, equipment. It’s possibly my favorite episode,” acknowledged Joe Lewis, the series’ executive producer. He revealed that the episode features one of the largest sessions ever documented.

However, the eternal question remains: has a 100-foot wave actually been surfed? The official measurement, complicated and subject to controversy, has yet to confirm a concrete figure, although several waves—such as Alo Slebir’s at Mavericks last December—have approached that mark.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s already been achieved, because if it’s been done, the next step is to go for something bigger,” Lewis says. And in that infinite logic of big-wave surfing, the series finds its narrative engine: as long as there are those who want to surf the impossible, there will be stories to tell.

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