If there's such a thing as too much beauty in a film, the surfing documentary "Highwater" is guilty of it. Director-writer-narrator Dana Brown ("Step Into Liquid"), working with cinematographer Steve Matzinger, has crafted a compelling, thoroughly gorgeous look at late 2005's Triple Crown of Surfing, the granddaddy of big wave championships, which is held yearly on Oahu's famed North Shore.
Brown (son of "The Endless Summer" helmer Bruce Brown) passionately covers the 55-day, three-tiered event in all its athletic glory, incorporating awesome surfing footage, casual interviews with the contest's many competitors (including top pros such as Kelly Slater, Sunny Garcia, Chelsea Georgeson and teen sensation Jon-Jon Florence), plus an ample overview of the surfing lifestyle and the North Shore zeitgeist into one vivid, impressively edited package.
