Down the Barrel

It's every surfer's dream to control the uncontrollable, catch the perfect wave and find peace in the fury.

Follow the world's top surfers, Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, Kalani Robb, and Joel Parkinson, around the globe in the surfing video "Down the Barrel," ESPN's first in-depth look at what makes surfing the most exhilarating sport on the planet.

For over a year, surfer Steve Lawrence documented the lives of these four surfers for this electrifying epic.

He lived, traveled, filmed, surfed, ate, and rapped with them, capturing their relationship with the sport from tense competition situations to their inspiration and free form philosophy.

Lawrence chose to present the sport through the perspectives of Joel, Kalani, Kelly, and Rob for a nice balance - two regular-footers, two goofy, representing surfing's epicenters of Hawaii, California, Florida, and Australia.

While all are well-established rippers, Kelly and Parko provide a tight focus for the ASP's World Championship Tour battle.

Conversely, Kalani Robb and Machado, both ex-Tour vets but very much involved in today's scene, now surf without the ASP weight on their shoulders.