Garrett and Nicole McNamara cherish authenticity of ‘100 Foot Wave’

A significant conversation around sports documentaries and docuseries is the amount of control their subjects have. Many recent projects have been criticized for athlete, team, or league involvement and overly positive and sanitized versions of their stories.

As Garrett and Nicole McNamara (stars of HBO’s 100 Foot Wave big-wave surfing docuseries) revealed in a recent interview with Awful Announcing, there’s a good reason that the series they’re featured on takes the opposite approach.

Currently in its third season (the third episode premieres Thursday night at 9 ET on HBO and HBO Max), 100 Foot Wave has been remarkable for its willingness to show the highs and lows of the surfers it follows. The McNamaras are certainly an illustration of that.

The series, nominated for eight Emmys across its two seasons so far, winning two, captures incredible moments of Garrett surfing and working to build the surfing community. That’s especially notable in Nazaré, Portugal (where the then-Guinness World Record 78-foot wave he caught in 2011 was featured in Season 1). But it’s shown elsewhere, including with the trip to offshore break Cortes Bank, which he helps organize in Thursday’s episode.

But the show also honestly depicts the challenges that Garrett and the others sometimes face. That includes interactions with other surfers, significant crashes, injuries, and recoveries (S3’s second episode has a remarkable look at Garrett’s battles with concussions and their ongoing effects), and even dealing with deaths in their community.

To that point, 100 Foot Wave frequently features voices like Nicole (Garrett’s wife and business manager), who sometimes questions perilous decisions. It also shows that everything isn’t always smooth, from arguments to personality clashes to crashes and injuries. Nicole told AA it was essential that the series was committed to showing the accurate picture of their lives.

“I just think there’s so much in the world right now that isn’t real,” she said. “There’s just too much of it. I think we all need more realness, and we all need permission to be ourselves. And hopefully, if somebody sees us just being us and being raw, they’re going to feel a little bit more comfortable being raw and real when they step out into the world. So many people have inspired us in so many ways, and we just want to do the same.”

‘I’m going to pretend that that cameraman doesn’t exist.’

That even extended to how 100 Foot Wave came about. Garrett said he initially saw the project concept only as a way to further his surfing career and passion.

“In the beginning, the number one goal for me was to be able to keep surfing. I figured if I had a TV show, I could keep surfing. And it evolved into this.”

But Nicole was reluctant to embrace the idea at first. She said she only got on board with the docuseries project this turned into (we’ll get to more on that below) if it was genuine rather than made-for-TV.

“I said, ‘I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to have my life filmed.’ I’m a very private person. But I said if I’m going to do it, I’m going to pretend that that cameraman doesn’t exist, and I’m just going to be me. I’m not going to do my hair, I’m not going to put makeup on, I’m not going to change the way I parent my children. Or if Garrett and I get into an argument, we just have to have it. And we can just be completely genuine and authentic and true to who we are.”

Garrett said with a laugh Nicole’s key to maintaining that authenticity.

“To be transparent. I try to get the cameraman to turn off the camera when she’s mad at me, but she goes, ‘No, no, no.’”

But he added that showing the ups and downs of life perhaps makes the series more relatable.

“We hope to inspire people as well to live in a good way and be themselves.”

‘Looking for the crash’

Along those lines, many surfing films have mainly been highlight-focused, serving as edited collections of surfers catching spectacular wave after spectacular wave and riding them perfectly. That approach of emphasizing the good is seen in many other extreme sports projects.

But while 100 Foot Wave certainly has many remarkable highlights, it also shows many times when things don’t go well for its surfers. Garrett said he thinks there’s audience demand for that, and he and the other surfers involved are willing to show off when they fail and when they succeed.

“The viewer really, in my mind, mainly likes the crashes in all sports. All the news is looking for the crash. So they love the wipeout, they love the injuries, they love the trials and tribulations. They love what it takes.

“And luckily in our sport and in our little world, there’s a lot of that. And we are totally willing to share it and hopefully inspire people that nothing should stop you from following your dreams and nothing should hold you back. No matter where you come from, no matter where you start, everything is possible. We really want the world to know that everything’s possible.”

Those wipeouts can have serious consequences. This season’s discussion of concussion, including footage of Garrett’s meetings with doctors and cognitive tests, fits with conversations that have been seen in the worlds of other physical sports, including football, hockey, rugby, and more.

But while many extreme sports can pose similar concussion risks, those discussions seem less familiar in that world. Garrett said he wasn’t setting out to try and make a wider point with his honesty in addressing his concussion battles here. Still, if it winds up inspiring others to take concussion precautions and address concussions that do happen, he’ll be thrilled with that.

“I just want everybody to be happy and healthy and strong,” he said. “If we can shine the light somewhere…it was not my intention to bring it anywhere, do anything, but if it is going to and people are going to think about it and do the necessary precautions to not get head trauma, not take concussions, and to overcome them if you already have them, and make sure you’re preparing and make sure you’re doing the right things to combat the possible concussions, I’m really happy to share.”

‘People connect to adversity’

Garrett said the concussion discussion fits into a larger focus for him, as he sees sharing the down moments as part of getting to the eventual triumphs.

“I always love sharing my journey and what I’ve been through and the challenges and the solutions. The main thing I like to bring to the table is solutions. And if I can bring some solutions and if it benefits people in a good way, then I’m on the moon. I am so happy.”

For Nicole, viewers outside the extreme sports world can relate to the honesty involved in showing those lower moments. She said that builds the ability to empathize with these athletes, which she thinks has been key to the show’s success.

“I think it goes to that connection again. People connect to failure, people connect to adversity and hitting resistance in something they want to do. So if they can connect to the story, if they can connect to the character of the person, it’s more involved than just watching some guy that they don’t know on a wave or anything and that being it. It’s a long journey with somebody you feel you know, because you see yourself in that person.”

An example of that adversity is shown with another featured surfer, Nicole’s brother, CJ Macias. Macias’ brutal 2022 wipeout at Nazaré led to a broken arm and other injuries. But it also led to mental challenges he had to address when he tried surfing big waves again. And the journey he goes on around surfing or not surfing is a key focus of this season.

100 Foot Wave: From movie to docuseries

Speaking of the journey, that’s certainly been the case for 100 Foot Wave. The project started with Nicole’s idea for a movie based on their home footage, which focused on Garrett, Macias, and their close friend, English surfer Andrew Cotton. She followed that with a draft script, which led to executive producer Joe Lewis acquiring it, Lewis bringing in director Chris Smith and his team, and the concept expanding well beyond that.

“She wrote a script, and it was me, CJ, and Cotty overcoming, if possible,” Garrett said. “We all have horrific injuries, and we’re all told not to surf, or to maybe hang it up. And we shared with them what we had, what she drafted. And they were like, ‘Yes, let’s do it,’ And it’s probably a 1.5-hour movie. And Joe Lewis got it, brought in Chris Smith, and then they got our hard drive [of footage], and they said ‘This is a docuseries.’

Garrett said it wasn’t hard to convince Macias and Cotton to be involved in this as an ongoing project.

“They were already excited because, like me, they want to keep surfing and they want to inspire the world to live in a good way, Cotty and CJ both. They don’t want to go to a nine-to-five, they want to be in the water. And it’s a spiritual practice. And we love being in the water more than anything. So what better way to keep surfing and inspiring people, and being inspired by each other?”

Nicole said it’s been easy to get other surfers to sign on, especially given the spotlight the series can provide.

“I don’t think it was a convincing,” she said with a laugh. “It’s a gift because it gives everyone a platform.”

Nicole said part of what’s worked well for 100 Foot Wave is how Smith and his team have approached the surfing world with curiosity and with a desire to present it to viewers new to the sport as well as long-time surfing fans.

“They were so outside of the surf world that it gave it a good perspective of fresh eyes, really telling the depths of the story, because they were telling it from an outsider’s perspective.”

Garrett said the 100 Foot Wave team’s commitment to diving into this world has been impressive.

“They’re genuinely interested because they genuinely don’t know, and they dig deep. Chris digs deep, and really wants to know what, why, and how, and who, and where over and over again.”

He added with a laugh that Smith’s far from the initial outsider at this point, though.

“He’s getting to know everybody now, so I’m glad that they’re able to still keep fresh eyes on it somehow.”

‘Whatever they’re doing is working.’

The crew figuring this world out along the way has led to the series diverging from what the McNamaras initially had in mind, including a broader focus on many other surfers. Garrett said that surprised them initially, but seeing how it’s played out has been impressive.

“The first season was exactly the one hour, 1.5-hour script she wrote, but in six episodes. The second season, we really thought, ‘Okay, just stick with us.’ And when people come into our lives, they go follow that guy.  …They kinda went and got all these different characters and stick with them, people that are in our lives. It’s very similar to what we envisioned, but it’s a little more outside of us. And they’re masterminds, so whatever they’re doing is working.”

For Garrett, the results of 100 Foot Wave’s approach speak for themselves. The show has produced fans who identify with many of the different featured surfers. He said that helps illustrate why it’s worked well that he and Nicole weren’t tightly controlling this series.

“They have hit it out of the park again and again and again. So, I am on the moon. The only thing is they went a little further out of our world and had a few characters that we probably wouldn’t have focused on. But you know, everybody has different characters that they like, and everybody is different. And now we have all these different people that maybe we wouldn’t have had and it’s working. And I’m so grateful.”

Nicole said that has been hard for her at times, though, especially around the second season.

“The first season was really our personal 10 years of archived footage. That was our story, that was it, that was our vision that they formulated into these episodes. So that was great. And then it started present day, you know, Season 2 for present day. And I think in that season they were really focusing on a lot of characters.”

She said that was particularly difficult for her when it came to the pregnancy-related health challenges she faced during the time covered in the second season.

“That was really one of the hardest times of my life, so I was really attached to that. Other than, that you could go this way or that on a normal day. But right when I was having my own personal dark night of the soul, and almost dying, possibly my baby dying, I was very attached with how that was going to come across. And yeah, I mean, I feel some of my story was left out, but it still is great.”

Nicole also wondered where this season would go, with fewer obviously dramatic moments in the timeframe covered. But she’s amazed and impressed at how it turned out.

“Season three, I really thought, ‘Wow, our life was so dramatic,’ with the birth in Season 2 and then us losing CJ [to a broken arm]. And our life wasn’t that exciting for season 3. How are they even going to make this better? And they did. And I love Season 3. I think it’s incredible, it’s beautiful. Cinematic but also so emotional and so true and deep. And it’s real. It’s great.”

Garrett said he shares that endorsement of how the third season turned out.

“It’s the best one yet.”