Surfing is killing it. This $10 billion global industry – built on a clean, green, dream – has never been more popular. Surfing has set out its stall as the champion of environmental issues. But surfing has a dirty secret… and people are dying. The price of the perfect wave is greater than you think.

From filmmakers Lewis Arnold and Chris Nelson, The Big Sea is an independent documentary exposing surfing’s hidden links to Cancer Alley and the devastating impact of the wetsuit world’s toxic addition to Neoprene. Through the lens of surfing, and unwrapping issues of environmental racism, social justice, corporate responsibility and greenwashing, this life and death tale of two seemingly unconnected communities explores the power we have as individuals to effect change.

The majority of wetsuits on the market today are made of Neoprene – the commercial name for Chloroprene rubber. This synthetic material is born out of a carcinogenic chemical process so toxic that the California government requires them to carry health warnings.

There is just one chloroprene plant in the USA. Rising from the site of a former slave plantation in Cancer Alley, the chemical factory casts a deadly shadow over the community fighting for the right to breathe clean air, fighting environmental racism.

A 2015 EPA report revealed that due to chloroprene emissions, the cancer risk to residents here is the highest in the USA. It is 50 TIMES the national average.

While Neoprene is used across leisure, automotive and building industries, it is surfing’s image that is used to clean up and green up this dirty chemical compound. Confronted by its complicity as the poster-child for Neoprene and under pressure to substantiate “sustainable” and “ethical” claims, will the surf industry clean up its act? Will surfing lead the change to natural alternatives that are readily available and use its position to stem this toxic tide?

Director: Lewis Arnold
Other credits – Composer: CJ Mirra