"Wilem Banks has caught some of the best paddle waves at Mavericks, no doubt," said filmmaker Tucker Wooding. "His big-wave style is super unique—I've never seen anyone surf like him. From the cliffs at Mavs, you usually can’t tell who’s who, but the second he drops in, I know it’s Wilem. His approach is that distinctive. He’s been wanting to come over to Maui and get one at Jaws forever. His perspective blew me away—especially his mindset after the wave." Frame Vincent Kardasik

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Watch: Deep Blue ft. Albee Layer, Russell Bierke, Tyler Larronde, Torrey Meister + Wilem Banks

“Wilem’s wave might be the biggest ever successfully paddled into. Aaron Gold’s 2016 El Niño monster was likely bigger, but he didn’t make it. Wilem did.”

cinema // Apr 1, 2025

Words by Ethan Davis

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Deep Blue by Tucker Wooding and Take Shelter Productions — Albee Layer and Dan Norkunas’ company that brought us Rainbows in the Rearview and Nervous Laughter, among others — is an appropriately navy-hued montage of the heaviest waves surfed at Jaws this season. And maybe ever…

Yes, hyperbole is gross. Take Albee’s words for it, not mine. “The day of the Eddie was the largest conditions I’ve ever seen paddled. The size, the thickness, and that 24-second interval were unreal. Sitting out there, you felt so insignificant. The fact that we caught waves was a huge leap.”

“It’s funny—I’ve surfed three Eddie swells and a bunch of Jaws days, and every time the Eddie runs, it feels like Jaws gets ignored. You can’t really call what we’re doing at Jaws the pinnacle of big wave surfing when almost all the best guys are over on another island.
The whole industry wants the Eddie to be the focus—it’s better for everyone that way. No one’s going to jump on the mic and say, ‘Hey, by the way, Maui’s twice as big today.’ And I get it. I’m not trying to downplay the Eddie—it’s insane. But for that one day, everyone sort of pretends there’s nothing happening anywhere else.”

Australia’s Kipp Caddy may have won the inaugural Peʻahi Challenge — a grassroots digital contest started by commercial fisherman Daniel Goldberg — but something felt odd when I first scrolled through their feed. Namely: where the hell were all of Albee’s clips? The guy never passes up an opportunity to give his loved ones more grey hairs with his hellman antics.

As it turns out, not everyone wanted to hand over their best clips for the chance to win some shaved ice vouchers.

Drones often confer the unflattering visual effect of making waves appear smaller than they are—flattening the drama, the scale, and the gut-churning steepness. Here’s SEOTY winner Russell Bierke on a monster that, from the water, would appear as a sheer, seething mountain… It’s a recurring problem in surf cinematography: technology can capture the shot, but not always the feeling.

“There’s some history there,” cinematographer Tucker Wooding said carefully, alluding to why a handful of the core crew chose to abstain. Code for: there have been clashes among the rank and file. Allegations of jetskis being driven recklessly through the paddle lineup. Social media spats. Burner accounts. Thinly veiled threats.

“It got weird,” says Tucker, without elaborating. “Real weird.”

Of course, Wooding was there to capture it. He hasn’t really missed the past few years. And not because someone flew him in first class (they didn’t) and sprayed him with the money gun, but because he’s built like a sockeye salmon captain — which, coincidentally, he is. Grew up in Washington. Spent years on commercial fishing boats in Alaska hauling nets out of the Bering Sea and Aleutian chain.

Now, when he’s not running his own charters, he’s shooting the best surfers on earth with a drone — and just enough quiet resentment to make it interesting. “I actually kind of hate drones,” he laughs. “I just happened to get good at flying them and noticed how underutilized they were in surf.”

Clink, clink: May I propose a toast to Tucker for documenting the full rides of Jai Glindeman, Soli Bailey, Billy Kemper, and more at Cloudbreak last year from the Fiji firmament? Or capturing the only angle of Shion Crawford’s foamball levitation at OTW where you can actually see into the pit?

Anyhows, I digress…

Receiving this text from Waimea on the morning of the Eddie was “the biggest mind fuck of my film career so far” laughed Tucker. “I heard a rumor the Eddie was going to be placed on hold and was kicking myself for missing the swell at Jaws… But then it ended up running and being a sick day.”

“I wasn’t there the day it peaked,” Wooding admits. “I had to shoot the Eddie. The morning of, I got an iPhone clip from Albee from the channel at Jaws and just wanted to throw my gear into the sea.”

Only someone who’s been dialled into every historic XXL swell of the past two years could see shooting the Eddie as a little lackluster. Still, in the days leading up to the crescendo, Tucker and his lens captured three days of immense, unrelenting ocean, showcasing the crew of misfits who’ve shifted their proving ground from the “Mecca” at Pipeline in Oahu to 120 miles (193 kilometers) ESE in Peʻahi. And thanks to Slater Neborsky and Tim Bonython, the cameras were still rolling when it peaked.

“The wave I fell on, if it had thrown, would’ve been one of the best waves I’ve ever ridden,” Albee told Stab. “If I had made it, I think it would’ve been the pinnacle of surfing, as gross and claimy as that sounds. There’s nothing gnarlier than paddling into a barrel on the biggest day at Jaws. Shane’s wave back in the day was one of the most impressive I’ve seen, but if you make a barrel at Jaws on a big day, it’s nearly unbeatable.” Frame Tim Bonython.

On that note: Albee, Kipp, and Tucker — all of whom we’ve spoken with over the past few months — at one point uttered damn near the exact same sentence: “Jaws is the peak of what’s possible in big wave paddle.” Give or take a few words.

Which feels like a perfect segue to give credit where it’s due — to the core crew of misfits who’ve made it their north star to push the boundaries of big wave paddle, despite the region getting substantially less fanfare than their counterparts on Oʻahu.

“It’s cool that these guys can actually surf small waves too. You see a lot of tow surfers who can’t even handle a three-foot wave at places like Nazare. But when these guys paddle into big waves, you can tell they’re legit. They’re core surfers first, all really lovely guys, just with a screw loose that makes them want to hurl themselves over 60-foot ledges,” concludes Wooding.