Review: Make or Break
Has there ever been a docuseries which felt like it had more riding on it?
The title is supposed to express the individual trajectories of pro surfers but for those of us outside the bubble it's a metaphor on the future of the sport itself.
How many more quixotic attempts to capture the mainstream, what CEO Erik 'Elo' Logan calls “mass market fans", does the WSL have left before it finally accepts reality and shrivels into the niche sport appealing to a tiny fan base it has always been?
Of course that existential question is not addressed by the seven-part series, nor any of the other big questions surrounding the sport, like the greenwashing which is at odds with the high carbon lifestyle of the surfers, the ambivalence or outright hostility of the recreational surfer base upon which the sport is reliant, its reliance on tourism funding, the half-sized women's tour etcetera.
It's all studiously ignored. The closest anyone comes to something which questions the existence of the sport itself is in the opening minutes when Tracks Ed Luke Kennedy asks the age old question of whether surfing is sport, artform, or lifestyle.
No, this is the view from inside the tent. There's conflict but it's sanitised conflict; a couple of bland statements about sexism/inclusion from Tyler Wright in Episode 1 which seem redundant now the women are surfing Pipe and Tahiti for equal prizemoney.
It's not exactly manufactured drama, but approved in advance. Elo is still Executive Producer: the people involved and the opinions stated are all company approved. Scrubbed of any real controversy. Like all reality TV shows, the parameters are set beforehand.
Old habits die hard. For the Woz one of the most deeply ingrained habits has been an instinctual, at times almost hysterical, reflexive self-censorship. Given that, the relative candour of Make or Break is a huge breakthrough for the portrayal of pro surfing.
Sure, we don't get any of the real juicy topics covered but we get plenty of swearing, pro surfer tantrums, and quite a few human moments - more than we've ever seen since newly-minted World Champ Gabe Medina swore on air after a heat with Glenn Hall at Snapper in 2015 and promptly had the mic ripped from his hand. Anything crass, controversial, or even remotely R-rated has been kryptonite for the Woz's fragile self image so to let the filmmakers show a more robust side of the sport must have taken a certain amount of bravery in the boardroom.
Or maybe not.
Much more likely, in fact almost certain, is the Woz wanted the extra eyeballs that came to Formula 1 racing after their reality show Drive to Survive. To get those eyeballs they needed to take the risk of showing the sport in a grittier fashion.
The big question is, will it work? Or more accurately, will it work this time?
What have we got to compare it with?
The last attempt to capture the mainstream was relatively recent. You may remember it, The Ultimate Surfer.
No?
It was pretty forgettable.
But the arguments that were trotted out as to how this was going to be the big watershed moment whereby pro surfing captured the mass market are instantly recognisable. Gushing in The Inertia, writer Zach Weisberg claimed TUS was “brilliant” and would encourage audience growth by being a “perfect tool for education and inclusion”. He went further, saying the cast “provides a reason to care about pro surfing” which would give new surf fans a reason to find the tour “compelling.”
I think we recognise those arguments and we know how it all worked out in the end. Another total failure to engage the mainstream and rotten tomatoes en masse from the core fan base.
Is Make or Break different? If so, what's different this time..?
Well, first up, it's in the ocean and it deals with the actual tour - not some contrived reality gig in the Tub. That alone is a huge step forward, at least for existing fans.
Will it pull in the golden unicorn mass-market audience?
They'll give it a go. Make or Break is incredibly slick entertainment. A half-hour heat where nothing much happens is condensed to a single five second edit, accompanied by stirring music. The storylines roll through seamlessly. Good looking guys and gals frolic in tropical locales - it's very easy on the eye.
Will they make the move from reality TV to hardcore fans the way they have done with F1?
I'm much less convinced of that.
Pro surfing fandom remains an incredibly arduous, onerous, and inscrutable pastime. Events last days, judging is often unfathomable, not much happens for long stretches, and your favourite surfer can be gone in half an hour having barely caught a wave.
Imagine a new fan tuning into the recent Sydney Surf Pro at Manly, a Challenger Series comp, and trying to make head or tail of the confusing melange of longboard, women, and men's events running for days and days and days with similar rides separated by hundredths of a point? The comprehensibility barrier remains as high and daunting as ever.
And where will all these new fans come from? Pro surfing is not just competing with F1 for new fans. Box to Box, the makers of Make or Break, are doing similar shows for golf, Tour de France, NBA, soccer, and tennis.
Pro surfing fans require a helluva commitment. It's hard to dabble, especially if you have no background in surfing. Other sports are much easier to follow.
For existing surf fans, Make or Break is a fun watch. The chief problem for us is we already know what is about to happen. We know who won the comps for example, and the basic plot points. It's hard to stay riveted on a show when you know what is going to happen next, which means the narrative heavy lifting has to be done by behind the scenes storylines.
Some of those storylines, particularly with 'B' characters are fascinating. My favourite was Medina coach Andy King. His story and interplay with Gabe Medina and his now ex-wife Yasmin Brunet had a strange parental quality to it which illuminated the weirdness of the coach/athlete relationship.
The Medina story carried the second episode of the series, the strongest by far for mine. Other storylines and episodes had less meat on the bone. In Episode 3, for instance, we learnt 20-year old rookie Morgan Cibilic likes getting on the piss with his mates in his hometown of Newcastle. No great revelation there.
We find out Filipe has struggled with his mental health, loves his family, and misses them terribly when away. The lack of results in big waves is mentioned and alluded to as a source of the depression but we go no further on that subject. Again it seems to lack substance and depth.
A constant theme is how hard life is for a pro surfer, with most of the visual drama of the series consisting in pro surfer tantrums. Destroying boards in locker rooms is a constant. Sage Erikson has a classic meltdown on the beach at Barra de la Cruz after getting stitched up by Tatiana Weston-Webb.
This hardship angle, I dunno, it doesn't quite ring true. Here in the Northern Rivers, I'm surrounded by people who have lost everything, so to see a pro surfer in a modern garage with a hundred boards telling us how hard it is to lose a heat...yeah, nah. By contrast, the Heavyweight UFC Champion of the World, Francis Ngannou, grew up dirt poor in West Africa and by ten years of age was working in a sand mine, before spending time living on the streets of Paris as a refugee.
It's always going to be a tough sell convincing an audience that (mostly wealthy) people who grew up at the beach are doing it tough getting paid to go surfing.
Still, even if the show is neither fish nor fowl - not hardcore and meaty for the true fans who already know the plot nor offering any real entry point into the sport for non-surfers - I still think it will be judged a blazing success and lead to a jump in the fan base.
Why?
Timing.
The sport is roaring right now. Anyone coming on board will get G-Land, J-Bay, Tahiti, El Salvador- all with reduced fields and manageable formats. The new fans won't be “mass market” Joes, however, just surfers who in the past have had zero interest in pro surfing. That's always been the real unicorn audience sitting right under the Woz nose.
Make or Break will be another brick in the wall for that development, but the real increase in interest has come from improvements to the sport itself. Somehow a bloke from Middle America - the very definition of the mass market Joe - has broken and re-made the sport into something enticing to surfers after years of moribund inertia.
Shift the Finals Day to Cloudbreak and we've got something close to a miracle.
// STEVE SHEARER
Comments
All it did for me was make me convinced the judging is rigged. Having the judges advisor in there telling them what to think and who’s turns were better.
My Mrs enjoyed it but not worth watching if you know the results. They can’t provide the dynamic camera angles of f1. That’s for sure
Thats about the only thing I thought was a behind the scenes look, and a thing I didn’t understand - there was a judge live judging a wave for all to hear? I thought there wouldn’t be too much communication if at all?
Nailed it as per usual FR. Great observations. And agree with all of them and also with @bashl above.
A couple of things. Not a single interview or interaction with a fan (that i can remember). You'd think they'd stick a mic in the face of some fans for some honesty and real feedback from the outside looking in. I guess they're scared that the truth will be ugly if voiced, so best left alone.
Also, Apple Plus, upon spending my 6 bucks appears to have a smattering of random originals, but nothing that i can see too many people subscribing to, if not for the motive of actually watching a specific show......it has a very small catalogue. So not sure how that's going to work out for the mass marketing.
Over all i gave it 1 and a half star. As bland and predictable as i guessed it was going to be.
I gave it 3.5 stars.
And yes the "directed" judging seemed incredibly bizarre to me.
Its normal - even down to club comps - head judges can and do direct panels to change scores.
Crazy
Is the star rating out of 5?
Sorry, trying hard to understand the judging criteria... :)
Yep 3.5798 out of 5.
I didn't watch it yet. I can't get myself to do it. I'm just not interested in these kids' lives. I love a good comp but I'm simply not interested in who had what for breakfast, who likes who, who hates who etc. I guess I'm one of these noninterested surfers that WSL is trying to lure in.
Could not have said it better!! Totally agree
The thing is it doesn't really differentiate surfing from other sports. You could cut and paste the various dramatic threads from MoB into a doco about most sports and not notice the difference.
"judges advisor" is commonly known as the head judge I believe. There to make sure every judge is on the same page hopefully,pointing out size of wave,where turns are performed etc......Reminding them of the criteria also I'm assuming which sometimes seems a little wayward......much like my grammar.
and spelling most likely....
I watched it a few weeks ago and ended up with a strange ambivalence toward it. I wanted it to be good, I wanted to be able to tell non-surfing friends of mine to watch it and better understand how I can spend all day in front of screen watching two people mostly bobbing around in the sea.
I haven't told anybody about it.
As you said Steve, the stakes just aren't there. Drive to survive is mega-millions. It is car crashes, it's super yachts and private jets, Sheiks and movie stars and people throwing what appears to be, genuine shade at each other. Bar the above mentioned melt-down from Sage, this is all too fucking nice.
I you don't make, you break... You have to surf somewhere else for a living against a few more people. Damn you might even have to fore-go your plywood locker and competitors portaloo.
As for coaches, Jay Thompson "Nick name? Urgh yeah it relates to a part of my anatomy". Seriously
I did not watch it.
i've been watching surfing contests for 37 or so years.
I've seen en come i've seen em go......
ill be tuning in to gland.
Sometimes im too busy surfing myself to bother with them.
red bull did a similar show eight or so years ago. it was quite good.
Thanks for the heads up.
Yeah but nah.
Was pretty shit and will not attract more people to surfing. I’ll watch a weetbix ad if it’s got surfing in it I’m that addicted to surf porn and I still couldn’t get through all the episodes. Can hardly imagine some non surfing landlubber looking up the tour schedule on the WSL website in order to catch the next event. More likely they might inadvertently come across the Manly Dogshit Pro on YouTube, watch two minutes and tap out forever more.
The idea that there’s a head judge telling them how to score reveals the whole thing to be stage managed theatre. Then there’s the “engaging “ storylines such as Tyler Wright claiming from her soapbox that women have never been “given” the opportunity to surf pipe, then we see her refusing to paddle out for a free surf at 4 ft pipe because it’s too hectic a wave whilst 60 recreational surfers take it on and JOB pushes Poopies into a set on a blow up dinosaur.
I give it 3/ 10.
On the other hand , I just saw Top Gun 2 which was surprisingly good. Very much so. It managed to dodge the cavalcade of shmaltz and nearly avoided the explicit homoerotica I was expecting to drown the movie. The storyline is respectful of the Top Gun legacy and it’s original faces - yep, a movie still culturally referenced four decades later has legitimate claim to a legacy whether you like it or not - whilst building a new narrative around fresh characters.
The movie has truly blistering action which isn’t just all CGI green screen rubbish. It’s refreshing to see a story which lauds heroism and bravery and manages to revert to the days of capturing the inherent military and technological might of the US without devolving into too much Team USA wankery.
To be fair, I’m a fighter jet fan and dreamt of being a pilot myself until the reality of lack of discipline and rejection of authority dawned heavily and surfing took over, so perhaps my opinion is skewed? Anyway ….I give Top Gun Two an 8.5/ 10.
It’s pretty nuts on the big screen. Particularly when it’s free on a government stimulus voucher.
"Pro surfing fandom remains an incredibly arduous, onerous, and inscrutable pastime. Events last days, judging is often unfathomable, not much happens for long stretches, and your favourite surfer can be gone in half an hour having barely caught a wave"
Sounds like test cricket -
"Cricket fandom remains an incredibly arduous, onerous, and inscrutable pastime. Events last days, judging is often unfathomable, not much happens for long stretches, and your favourite batter can be gone in half an hour having barely hit a ball"
Yet cricket has a large and loyal fan base worldwide, except for Americans -
Cricket is easy to understand.
Breath in Twenty years/40 Breath out Twenty year's. result : i can see your lip's move BLAH BLAH BLAH all I hear is.
"To be a champion..... you have to believe it! " Niki Lauda
meddling middle muddle management wont save sport or any of the worlds problems....
ask F1 world Champion Niki Lauda....
Steve. Plenty in that , good write up as usual.
I’d rather watch paint dry, seriously. How can a young lady like Sage Erickson throw such a tanty. She and others have way more than they’ll ever need in life. Might want to cast their eyes across to Eastern Europe and watch all the little kids fleeing with nothing, simply nothing. When that shit fight started it was -15c and kids were hanging onto life on a daily basis. The apathy.
Modern gladiators facing death in the sports arena
I liked it. Was cool to see someone like Steph going through frustration and emotions of losing etc.
I liked it. Was cool to see someone like Steph going through frustration and emotions of losing etc.
I liked it. Was cool to see someone like Steph going through frustration and emotions of losing etc.
WSL treats 'Manly' surfers with dis-'Steyne'
Here's 10 hrs of dribble
LOL Bird
"Between Govt taxes and the live show, it was a pretty a pretty successful broadcast..... aah ....we Have a Problem ...."
Give Shearer a raise. Also finals day Cloudbreak 100% yes
Great Article Steve!
I think the white elephant in the room is the fact that 99% of people don't surf, and therefor they can never truly relate to surfing.
All sports that have become successful in mainstream media are accessible by the general population no matter where you live.
F1 = Everyone has a car so we can relate.
Golf = Fucking world is covered in them
Tennis = People even build a tennis court for themselves if they have the money!
Football/soccer = Open space of ground
The list goes on and we all grew up with access to the above facilities.
Surfing is always going to fail to become mainstream until wave-pools become ubiquitous across the Globe.
Once this happens with wave pools (seems inevitable to me] I can't see why surfing won't be up there with the mainstream. when people start to get WHY we surf and how addictive it is, they will all become surf junkies like the rest of us. Once they realize how insanely difficult, dangerous and exhilarating surfing is, they will feel the need to watch more surfing, either to learn or simply appreciate it.
Surfing and surfers in general are very insular to the outside world and I think we need reminding most others do not have any Real knowledge of what surfing is. Considering it is not a part of their life experiences, how would we ever expect them to relate?
last thing surfing needs is more wankers taking up surfing...........
My take is surfing will always be a lifestyle which peaked decades ago in the mainstream and the judging in the challenger series was all over the shop depending on the surfers names
I did watch the first episode and as mentioned it did all seem like old old news ( in a time when yesterdays gland heats are already old news). After all the hype about Tylers political stands the "we dont get to surf pipe " turns immediately to "I dont want to surf pipe" , confusing and annoying which sums up Tyler and the wsl in general, especially when a year later and still before this show aired the girls didnt want to surf pipe again for the second time, historic or not. Unless they can run the show as the event plays out or very soon afterward its not going to work (for the surfer audience anyhow).
Pro surfing is a complete crock of dunnit.
The best thing they could do is ditch the hero shit and start making fun of themselves. Surfing is a lifestyle. Yes let’s see high performance but in the context of funny competitions… biggest air, craziest turn, most comedic wave. Dane Reynolds got it right. It’s all about thrills and fun.
The one thing serious about surfing is the occasional danger element which obviously only exists when head threatens to meet reef (and hold downs in big waves now made safe by pumpy vests)… and then more philosophical ‘appreciation of nature’ side of it, channeled best by cosy corner and his mate.
Finished it last night. I’m the guy who doesn’t make time to watch the webcasts (although I’m now addicted to FR’s rundowns), so enjoyed having it re-packaged into the shorter, more digestible format.
It was a great way to see where the performance level is now (way, way above mine) and the surfer’s personalities. It worked for me.
Oh, and the first season of Ted Lasso is worth checking out in Apple TV+, but don’t worry about season 2.
Nothing against cycling,(cough cough) but to see the Aussie cyclist plastered all over the news headlines today for a win of a race, and getting a run outside of the sports bulletins in the main headlines, as opposed to Robbo beating JJF at Margs making the last story of the sports report......sadly me thinks that's where surfing will always be.
Sadly for the WSL, they're stuck with a bunch of crusty salty highly critical surfers who only watch it cos it's free, as their sole audience ,....and that's about it!
Almost everyone rides a bike though.....
Driving home after a fun little surf the other day I pondered on how an outsider would view the pleasure / hassle ratio i just experienced.
Up early in the dark, drive, walk, find the best bank, hunt for the ones hitting the bank just right and in amongst a few peelers picked up one that sucked out and sped off for a long speed run.
A 10 second moment 3 hours in the making.
If a thousand maybe, wannabe surfers saw what i went into that one wave would they be frothing to get some of that surf stuff?
Probably not.
But for me it just hit a sweet spot in my brain planted 49 years ago. Not wow. But for me it was all worth it.
Surfing might have superficial mass market appeal based the seductive visuals but sticking with it as a participant or viewer ain't - and will never be.
Watched the first episode. Found it reasonably engaging but I was a bit shocked by the reaction, or rather lack of, to the shark attack at Honolua Bay. They didn’t express much sympathy for the victim or his family. Guess if you’re selling surfing you don’t want to dwell on sharks.
Watched the first episode. Found it reasonably engaging but I was a bit shocked by the reaction, or rather lack of, to the shark attack at Honolua Bay. They didn’t express much sympathy for the victim or his family. Guess if you’re selling surfing you don’t want to dwell on sharks.