Surf Cat

Every World Tour season is important for those who’ve committed their lives to chasing titles, but 2019 had a special kind of gravity when you throw Olympic qualification into the mix. “Breaking Waves” is a new mini-doc that follows Peterson, Carissa Moore and Caroline Marks through the final event of the 2019 season at Honolua Bay. All three entered the event with a chance to win the world title, and the top two would also qualify for the 2020 (now 2021) Olympics in Tokyo. Moore and Peterson — now established vets — appeared to feel the weight of the situation, while the young and newly qualified Marks seemed to take it all in stride, obviously aiming to win the world title and qualify for the Olympics, but was just as happy to simply be in the mix. While we all already know what happened — Moore and Marks qualified (with Moore also winning her fourth world title in the process) and Peterson suffered a crushing double blow (winning neither title nor olympic spot) — the behind-the-scenes footage above offers an intimate perspective on what the end of a uniquely-pressurized Tour season feels like for surfing’s most elite competitors.