The Momentum Generation: 99% Great, 1% Reprehensible
How a surfing documentary managed to wipe out in its final moments
I’ll admit it, I had a Jack Johnson phase. It was sometime around the end of high school. I’d discovered weed, and the mellow acoustics of a tropical guitar made a good soundtrack for forgetting about the gloom of Seattle. Plus, enough girls liked him that I figured I could get a decent prom date if I could emulate his style. I never wore a fedora. I did make banana pancakes once.
Like most of my high school phases, it didn’t take long before the Jack Johnson thing seemed juvenile. What once sounded like carefree melodies emanating from a po-dunk beach shack, now sounded like a Sandals commercial. Every kitschy chorus, a marketing-meeting-come-to-life. Selling something tropical? Slap some Jack Johnson on that shit. It’s upbeat and soothing and wha– what’s that I hear? Is that ukulele?
I can practically smell the coffee-breath of the marketing executive saying, “See this segment? (Rotates laser pointer vigorously in small circles over a pie slice labeled ‘Teenage Girls’). That’s our honey hole! Get into their headphones and next stop is mom’s purse. How do we do that? Two words: Bubble! Toes!”
Nowadays I hear Jack Johnson and cringe.
Of course, I might have his music all wrong. He might honestly be an artist divinely possessed to translate the soothing sounds of a sandy shore-break to acoustic guitar. He might, in his heart of hearts and soul of souls, live to be a portal through which tropical bliss travels in the form of three-and-a-half-minute jingles. His sound might have been coopted, against his will, by corporate America to sell short-shorts at Old Navy. But it’s all I can think of.
Enter The Momentum Generation:
So when the minds behind The Momentum Generation — the HBO documentary created by the Zimbalist brothers, about Kelly Slater, Rob Machado and their crew of surfing phenoms who revolutionized the sport — decided to play Jack Johnson’s “Better Together” over the ending credits, I cringed. I yelled “Noooooooo!” loud enough to stir the person living on the floor above me.
An hour and forty-five minutes of riveting, inspirational cinema was suddenly soured. “Is this some type of elaborate joke?!” I thought to myself.
The entire rest of the film was seamless. The creators wove together a truly compelling story — doubly compelling for 90’s babies who grew up alongside the explosion of action sports.
Here are the spark notes: Disillusioned American youth use surfing to escape from broken homes and the monotony of suburbia. While realizing their respective passion and talent for the sport, their paths intersect. Eventually, inevitably, they coalesce in Hawaii, the American surfing mecca, where their young careers as teenage professional surfers grow and they become an inseparable group of best friends. They all live in one beach house on Hawaii’s iconic Pipeline break, surfing and sharpening their skills. After a groundbreaking surf film and victories on the World Surfing Tour propel them to international fame, they’re forced to navigate the minefield of success. Do they make it through intact? You’ll have to watch the movie to find out.
The Momentum Generation is the preeminent surfing documentary of our time chronicling the most culturally impactful surfers to have ever hung ten. It’s visually entrancing. It’s scary and motivating and thoughtful and heartwarming and yet, it has, for some unconscionable reason, Jack Johnson playing over the final credits.
This criminal act will live on, forever.
In much the same way the Momentum Generation defined 20 years of surf culture, “Better Together” will define the memory of this documentary.
Think I’m being hyperbolic? No, no. This is backed by 100% USDA certified science.
Enter the “Peak-End Rule”:
The Peak-End Rule was popularized by the Nobel Prize winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman in his book, “Thinking Fast and Slow” as an explanation for why certain moments stick in our memories.
Here’s how it works: The way a given experience ends determines the happiness we ascribe to it. For whatever reason, the human brain has evolved to hold on to the final moment of each experience, letting it define the overall experience while the other moments slip away. This is why we “save the best for last”. It’s why finales tend to be grand. It’s why the final sentence of a speech tends to be so emphatic, or an awkward goodbye so uncomfortable. It’s also why you never, ever, unironically play Jack Johnson over the final credits of a movie that’s not about Jack Johnson.
The Momentum Generation is a first-rate, non-fiction motion picture. In a world flooded with documentaries (four new Netflix documentaries have been released since you started reading this article), The Momentum Generation stands out for its quality — the singular nature of its story, its cultural relevance and its ability to feel like a 60-minute movie when it’s actually closer to 120. Unfortunately it also stands out for the music that plays over the final credits.
The Zimbalist brothers decided to throw the ball from their opponent’s one-yard line with the clock ticking down, the score tied, and Marshawn Lynch in the backfield. Jack Johnson Malcom-Butler-ed that shit. Game over.
