Big Wednesday

1962. Friends Matt Johnson, Jack Barlow and Leroy Smith are generally regarded the surfing kings of their Southern California beach, it a time of their life when the future holds so much promise despite they arguably thinking solely of the here and now. They are under the unofficial mentorship of Bear, a slightly older beach bum who gladly provides them with the use of his surf boards. Their lives and that of some of their closest friends at key points over the next twelve years are shown, the transitions into adulthood with their implied responsibilities, including to family, and the transitions with relationship to the period, which include the Vietnam War and the counterculture movement, not always smooth ones and not always holding their friendship together in how each deals with those transitions. Although past their surfing primes, they, if their pasts are any indication, may be reunited at the big swell of 1974 as the lure of this monumental surf may be too big despite its potential dangers.