“Waiting for the wave”, the documentary that makes you want to catch your breath

Arnaud Lauqué is a lucky boy. The journalist from Bayonne, Bordeaux by adoption, had a fantastic demonstration of this between September 2023 and January 2024. Setting out to profile in a documentary the Basque surf foil prodigy, Matt Etxebarne Aguirregomezkorta, he achieved an unsuspected feat: filming the young man on the three biggest waves in the world in just four months. Alignment of the planets or beginner’s luck, whatever. Belharra, Jaws and Nazaré formed well. The final rendering of fifty-two minutes, “Waiting for the wave”, is a performance in itself, broadcast in preview on Saturday November 16 at the La Rochelle Adventure Film Festival.

Like all great stories, in the beginning, there wasn’t much. An idea suggested by Charles Bob, program coordinator on France 3 Nouvelle-Aquitaine, a meeting with a surf foiler, a 21-year-old kid at the time who still lives with his parents in Bidart. Arnaud Lauqué has more than fifteen years of experience in reporting for, among others, Canal+ and France TV. At 42, he knows how to sniff out the right customer. Matt Etxebarne already enjoys a great local reputation. And above all, he is not afraid of anything. “Fifty-two minutes on him and on the foil which was in its infancy, he welcomed the project as an opportunity,” remembers the director.

A subject never satisfied

For the first time, Arnaud Lauqué makes his documentary from A to Z. He writes, he shoots, he wets his shirt. In October 2023, when Belharra suddenly announces himself, he jumps on a boat in Hendaye, found at the last moment. “I stuff myself with anti-emetics. There, I was really scared. We took buckets of water. I see the wave coming, we go down into the hollow, we are facing a 10 meter wall. And then Matt starts. We sat down, the weather was nice, we could see the mountain, what a spectacle, it was fabulous. » This Belharra will be the only one of the year.

Carried away by Matt Etxebarne’s appetite, Arnaud Lauqué is suspended on the edge of the unexpected. He films him coming up against sea monsters, from the Basque Country to Portugal, and achieving feats that are still unrivaled. In Hawaii, the young Basque is the first to foil surf on the legendary Jaws, this jaw ready to crush. He enters the big leagues at 80 km/h. “After Hawaii, he became someone. For now, it’s the wave of his life. »

“I wanted us to feel the anxiety-inducing side, underwater, for the viewer to want to catch their breath. There, you can’t cheat.”

An immersion

Conducted like an action film, the documentary keeps us in suspense. We tremble when Matt Etxebarne lets go of the jet-ski rope and takes off. We shiver with him in front of this gigantic wall of water. We are touched by the confidences of our parents, our friends. He impresses surf stars. We also suffer when, in Hawaii, a wave throws the foil as sharp as a machete at the back of the head.

Between the magnificent images of Arnaud Lauqué and those of the surfer’s Go Pro, we are immersed. “This project had a special dimension because it was subject to a large element of chance. For me, it’s great to film a guy like that. I wanted us to feel the anxiety-inducing side, underwater, for the viewer to want to catch their breath. There, you can’t cheat. »

“Waiting for the wave”, previewed at the La Rochelle Adventure Film Festival, Saturday November 16, at 5 p.m., at Espace Encan in the presence of Arnaud Lauqué and Matt Etxebarne, and in December on France 3.