“The best surfers on the planet, surfing the best waves on the planet,” is how the DVD Second to None bills itself. That terse description is not only accurate, but emblematic of the aesthetic of Second to None.
Second to None DVD
There’s almost no dialog, no explanations, no interviews and spotty identification of the surfers and waves they’re riding. What there’s a lot of is massive heaving walls and warping blue caverns layered over a soundtrack neo-metal and re-fried rap. Readers of surf mags will recognize Ours, Chopes, Pipe and G-land in fine form; non-surfers will probably tune out the relentless action after a few minutes.
Second to None is not trying to explain surfing to a wider audience, it’s addressed solely to the 15 to 25-year-old guys who hope to surf these waves one day. For that audience, it’s pure grunt leavened with almost subliminally short glimpses of girls in bikinis and demi-bikinis.
Nearly all the shots in the film are from land through a telephoto lens. You can’t blame the photographers — when conditions get this epic, you don’t want to be shooting from the water. The wipe-out section is correspondingly brutal — a reminder to would-be chargers that waves of consequence extract heavy taxes.
If you’re looking for a shot of adrenalin between swells, Second to None does the trick; if you’re looking for explanations, look elsewhere.
