A crack team of surfing superstars (including arch-rivals Brad Gerlach and Mike Parsons) embark on an epic, globe-spanning quest. Their mission: to locate and ride "the biggest wave in history" and make it back alive. Along the way, the self-proclaimed Delta Force of surfing explore the personal attractions (and dangers) the sport holds for them. We're also introduced to the very latest in cutting-edge surfing technology in Billabong Odyssey, an uneven but occasionally exhilarating mix of docu-soap and public information broadcast.
A lone surfer glides beneath an immense, ever-replicating wall of water, as it suddenly explodes into crystalline fragments and he disappears into its roiling heart. There's a moment of doubt - how could anybody possibly survive such an onslaught? - but we've barely had time to catch our breath before Mike Parsons, like some latter-day Moses, sails smoothly into view again and straight into the history books, with a perfect '10'.
"MARVEL AT THE STUNNING CINEMATOGRAPHY"
As surf-safety expert Brian L Keaulana dryly observes, "Surfing's the easy part - surviving's the hard part." And Billabong Odyssey is partly concerned with pointing out the risk factors of this thrilling, if potentially life-threatening, sport. Here are "contests that could change lives - or end them": obvious perhaps, but it's still strangely shocking to see a sudden spurt of crimson amid the oceanic greens and blues.
Elsewhere we're introduced to a roll-call of the biggest names in surfing: Layne Beachley may be a female surfer in a male-dominated subculture, but in 2003 she became World Surfing Champion for the sixth consecutive time. And the times they are a-changin' - you can now buy all-women surfing magazines. Hardcore surf fans, at whom this is mostly targeted, will groove on the more specialist aspects, while the rest of us can only marvel at Mike Prickett's stunning cinematography. We might even learn a little too.
Billabong Odyssey (2004)
