‘Chasing Mavericks’ fails to make waves

Maverick’s, the big wave surfing spot in Northern California, is the stuff of legend. Many a surfer has been injured or even killed trying to tackle the 25-plus-foot swells for which the spot is known. The place was originally shrouded in secrecy until Surfer magazine ran a feature exposing it to the world and causing amateurs from everywhere to flock to the area.

Chasing Mavericks attempts to exploit those myths in telling the true story of Jay Moriarty (Jonny Weston), an ambitious young teenager who trained hard so that he could hang (ten) with the elite group of surfers who frequented Maverick’s in its under-the-radar days. The movie begins with a scene in which legendary local surfer Frosty (Gerard Butler) rescues young Jay from drowning. The boy immediately makes Frosty his hero and, as he grows up and begins surfing,  the two develop a friendship.

When Jay informs his mentor that he wants to surf the big waves at Maverick’s, Frosty sends him through a rigorous training program that even includes writing personal essays about overcoming fear. The guy’s a real guru and Butler plays him as a gentle giant who speaks in platitudes. It doesn’t come off as true to life. And Jay is portrayed as such a one-dimensional good guy, you wonder to what extent co-directors Curtis Hanson (8 Mile, In Her Shoes) and Michael Apted (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) took liberties with the truth.

While the surfing scenes are remarkably realistic (Butler even injured himself during the filming of one scene), the storyline centers a little too much on Jay’s difficult family issues around his parents’ divorce.