Few people have the surf skills, or the guts, needed to paddle out into the world’s biggest, heaviest waves.
But for people who have always dreamed of getting up close to the bombing barrels in Tahiti or the building-size surf at Nazare in Portugal, here’s a way to do it – without risking your life.
“Big Wave: No Room for Error” will premiere March 15 at Cosm in Inglewood, a “shared reality theater” that opened to the public last year. The 60-minute film will bring big-wave surfing to the big screen with an up-close look at jaw-dropping waves filmed by Manhattan Beach surf photographer and artist Bo Bridges.
It’s the first surf project to team with Cosm, an immersive, 65,000-square-foot entertainment venue that has already showcased sporting events such as basketball and hockey games, music concerts, Cirque du Soleil performances, mixed-marshall arts and boxing matches.
“Big Wave: No Room for Error” follows Tahitian surfer Heimiti Fierrotakes to the crystal clear water at Teahupo’o, where the last Olympic surf competition was held, the lush forest in the background with glimpses under the ocean surface at the razor-sharp reef.
There’s also footage from Nazare, the location of the hit HBO series “100-Foot Wave,” as well as scenes from big waves in Hawaii, shown on the 87-foot-diameter, 12K+ LED dome that immerses viewers into the action.
“It takes a long time for your mind to register everything that’s going on,” Bridges said. “You feel like you’re there. This is as close as you’re ever going to be to feeling like you’re in the water with the surfers diving under the waves. I still get chills.”
Bridges is no stranger to shooting surfing, he is one of the most well-known action-sports photographers who has spent decades documenting snowboarding, surfing and nature around the world. His work can be found throughout the South Bay, including the 2017 Hermosa Beach Mural Project that depicts a volleyball scene and a piece on Manhattan Beach City Hall dubbed “Midnight Blues” done in 2023.
Bridges, who was raised in Florida, got his start in photography when he got a pilot’s license to shoot high-end hotels and homes from the air.
But he was always drawn to action sports, so on a whim, he moved to Vail, Colorado, documenting his first X Games in 1998.
“In my heart, I loved it – but I also loved the water,” he said.
He hooked up with Vans and started shooting the Triple Crown Series, an event that had snow, skate and BMX events. That morphed into a gig shooting the Triple Crown of Surfing on the North Shore of Oahu.
It was in 1998 that he got his first glimpse of the famous Pipeline, off Oahu’s north shore, a hollow barrel known for its steep drops and the razor-sharp reef below. For years following, he bounced between ski resorts and surf breaks around the globe, documenting the world’s best athletes.
Bridges moved to the South Bay in 2000, needing to be close to an international airport but also wanting to be near a thriving beach scene.
“Manhattan, this little bubble, seemed like the perfect mix because you had waves, you had the beach, but you had the airport 15 minutes away. I could get anywhere in the world in a day, and had access to Hollywood, L.A. and production, everything else that I needed,” said Bridges, who also has a fine art gallery in town.
Focusing his lens on the water gave Bridges a deep understanding and appreciation for the ocean, he said.
It wasn’t long before he was chasing the big waves: Jaws in Hawaii, Tahiti, Nazare and Mavericks in Northern California.
In 2004, he earned a XXL Big Wave nomination for an image he captured of big-wave rider Garrett McNamara riding a 68-foot wave.
He was far from the ocean when the collaboration with Cosm popped up.
Bridges was shooting an event at Park City, Utah, when he was invited to an NBA All Stars after party with Olympic snowboarder Shawn White and musician Travis Scott at the Cosm R&D facility in Salt Lake City.
He remembers being taken aback by the technology.
“I was like ‘What is this screen I’m looking at?’ It was like IMAX on steroids. I just about lost it,” he recalls thinking. “We gotta shoot big waves and put this on the big screen.”
Cosm in Los Angeles wasn’t yet up and running, so Bridges used a test facility in Culver City to cut and edit surf footage gathered during a year’s span.
“All this stuff, it’s just brand new technology,” he said. “No one had ever made a live-action movie for a canvas this large. I would say we’re definitely the first ever to do it, and at the forefront of the movement and that technology.”
It was all made with one single-wide angle lens — called a fish eye — allowing him to get close to the action.
For surfing, that meant getting right into the danger zone, especially risky in building-size surf.
“You can only dive so deep with the amount of time that you have before the wave hits you,” Bridges said. “It’s a nasty impact.”
His favorite footage came from Teahupo’o, where imagery taken from above and below the surface turned out stunning, he said.
“I can’t think of anything else in the world right now that it gives you this effect of being there — feeling like you’re rocking on the boat, feeling like you’re riding on the jet ski, like you’re sitting and swimming in the channel, and then you’re diving into the waves hitting you on the head,” he said. “All that is going to come into play when you watch this movie.”
Bridges said he’s eager to have viewers see the film on a massive screen and excited to use such a large canvas to showcase his work.
“It kind of takes your breath away,” he said. “The way that it’s shown at Cosm will just bring all these viewers into that world, without putting them in harm’s way.
“They’re going to sit in the comfort of a booth, but at the same time, they’re going to see the sharks swimming around, they’re gonna see the stingrays,” he said. “They’re gonna see the big waves, the razor-sharp reefs, all the boats clanking together. They’re gonna just get to see and feel the vibe of what it’s like to be out there on a big day.”
The project — as well as others from the Cosm Studio Creators Program — aims at giving people a deep emotional connection they can share, said Neil Carty, head of Cosm Studios.
“It’s all about giving people access to experiences that they may not otherwise have by themselves,” he said.
Carty called the project with Bridges a “no brainer.”
“The piece with Bo really demonstrates how people can feel closer to waves … it’s one of those things you kind of want to see to believe,” Carty said. “He’s been able to capture big waves and surfers in such an epic way, through his photography and his film. To be able to bring people into that world has been incredible.”
The premiere is scheduled for March 15, with general showings from March 19 through April 24. Find more information at cosm.com.