Soul of a Surfer, Skill of Deadwood

It's unlikely I'll ever take up surfing. The facts are: I'm not much of a swimmer; waterproof contact lenses don't exist; any ocean is a plane flight away. But I still love to watch other people surf. One of my favourite obsessions as a kid was North Shore, a movie about young Rick Kane who ends up the underdog in a Hawaii surfing championship. It was cheesy and melodramatic even then, but also really cool. I couldn't get enough of the wave shots and kind of wanted to move to Hawaii when I grew up so I could hang out with someone like Turtle, the half-zen, half-stoner local who befriends Rick in the movie. Consequently, Surfwise (trailer), out in May, is an obvious add to the must see list. It's about a doctor who left his practice behind to live the off the grid surf dream with his large family in a small camper. Sounds like a perfect piece of anti-9-5 escapism.

Other semi-recent surfing documentaries to watch are Step Into Liquid (trailer) and Riding Giants (trailer). North Shore for the 2000s is the girl-focused Blue Crush.