40 People, 20 Terrabytes, And Seven Challenges In One Big Fucking Country

The Surf100 Challenge Series episodes are straightforward. 

Each episode opens with a snippet of action that we’ll build up to as the show goes on. Then Josiah appears, kindly reminding us what happened in the last episode before introducing the new challenge and explaining how it’ll work. We get a little taste of the vibe on the beach and some thoughts from the surfers who are about to subject themselves to our strange games. 

Then off they go, into the water, while Josiah, Yadin, and the local guest judge provide insights from the beach and interact with the surfers during the intermissions, or once they’re safe from elimination on the sand. 

The flag waves one last time, and we head into a cafe to execute a surfer around ceremonial Menhirs of Pacifico. 

Easy to watch, but fucking gruesome to pull off. 

“For this year’s Challenge Series, we could essentially go anywhere in the US,” said producer Garret James. “We had two weeks to run seven challenges, and we just wanted to get surfers in the best conditions possible in that window. That meant booking last-minute flights, houses, cars, and guest judges while traveling around with a massive crew. I started working on the project last November, and we didn’t start shooting until February. We tried to pick a gap in WSL Challenger Series events so we could get the best surfers possible, but it was still pretty hectic to get eight surfers 100% committed to it.”

The bridge from Episode 4 to Episode 5 provided perhaps the biggest logistical challenge of the series. They’d just sent Jackson home, and it was pissing rain in Santa Cruz. They saw a swell lining up for the Outer Banks, which meant Garrett had to get fourteen people across the country in a hurry. Then book rental cars. And accommodation. And 7-mil boots.

“All up, between our crew and all the different filmers and guest judges we had in each location, we worked with 40 people on the ground this season,” says Garrett.

Editing-wise, the production crew left with 20TB of footage,” said editor Will Stiles. “We figured a lot out last year, so editing was a little more straightforward. But we still had six to seven cameras running at one time. It was a massive crew, so just getting everyone on the same page when we were about to run challenges was hard — especially when you’re trying to get it going before the wind or the tide changes. We recorded long takes, so each filmer probably shot about four hours for each challenge. We had these long stringouts and had to sync everything up. It was a lot.”

Anyway, we’ve got two more episodes coming. The Surf 100 Finale — where we invite some big-name prize fighters and cut the check for $100k — is its own beast. So, for now, do you have any questions about the series? 

Tis the time to ask. Nothing’s out of bounds. Hit us with your weirdest, dumbest, or most thoughtful questions you have. We’ll pick the best ones, find the surfer or member of the production team best suited to answering them, then reveal it all in another piece.

Have at it here.