Dan Norkunas and Albee Layer’s new documentary film gives us an extraordinary look under the hood at the big wave world’s focal point of progression: Pe’ahi.

“He’s just rogue…totally rogue,” said Albee Layer’s mom of her son in the new full-length documentary film, Nervous Laughter. He also rides an 8’8” at flexing Jaws, bailed on The Eddie and is continually discontent with his own feats.

That might sound negative, but it’s actually just a testament to how fascinating Albee Layer is, the reasons for those three actions all revealed in this film. Co-starring Dege O’Connell, Torrey Meister, Billy Kemper and Kai Lenny, with interviews from dozens of other notorious psychos, Nervous Laughter is an in depth, very personal look at the Jaws, the wave’s devotees and the season where everything climaxed.

Didn’t Ian Walsh just make a movie sort of like this? Yeah…sort of. And it’s hard not to compare the two. But Nervous Laughter is the rebel version, the truer take with a more manic protagonist and eclectic, homegrown cast of characters (and still, with the same caliber of action). Director Dan Norkunas fills us in on documenting that inimitable crew, wave and winter.

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