You wouldn’t imagine the coast of Ireland is a place the world’s surfing elite might visit to find the ultimate wave. Strange, then, that surfing champion Kelly Slater describes it as “a cold paradise”, and that it’s become a Mecca for people who use phrases like “gnarly slates” with a straight face.
Initially, Waveriders looks like surf porn, but quickly reveals itself to be the story of the sport’s unlikely genesis, spurred on by an Irish/Hawaiian waterman called George Freeth, who made beautiful shapes on the water using what were basically giant coffin lids. He, like the rest of the remarkable cast in this equally remarkable documentary, is a cool exercise in grace under pressure.