In a collaboration between HBO and Teton Gravity Research, a media firm dedicated to covering extreme sports, a new sport-centric docu-series entitled Edge of the Earth is set to be released on July 12, with new episodes airing every Tuesday.
The four-part documentary will cover all things outdoor-related, including adventure sports, traveling, and nature. Edge of the Earth chronicles four groups of professional action-adventure enthusiasts as they embark on four unprecedented challenges. Each chapter shows a different group of adventurers entering the great wilderness to try their hand at completing the challenges they are confronted with. Their physical and mental strength and resilience will be tested. As the show takes place on four continents, seldom captured natural landscapes provide a beautiful backdrop to the often harrowing experiences of the elite athletes.
The sports-documentary-adventure realm is not new territory for HBO as the streaming giant has found recent success in prior sporting documentaries that have included 2019’s surfing-centric Momentum Generation, which won the 2019 Sports Emmy for Best Long Sports Documentary, and a behind-the-scenes look into the last season of famed skier Lindsay Vohn entitled Lindsey Vohn: The Final Season, which was also a collaboration between Teton Gravity Research and HBO.
With less than a month until the show’s premiere, HBO shared a new look into the elite sporting adventure in the official trailer in which we hear many of the professional athletes talking about their love for their respective sports and see sweeping visuals of gigantic glaciers, enormous ocean waves, and treacherous rivers. The show will star snowboarders Jeremy Jones and Elena Hight, kayakers Ben Stookesberry, Nouria Newman, and Erik Boomer, climbers Emily Harrington and Adrian Ballinger, and surfers Ian Walsh and Grant “Twiggy” Baker.
The first episode is entitled, “Into the Void” and follows a skier and snowboarder within the treacherous Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska. Airing the following July 19 is “Raging Torrent,” which includes the never-before-attempted kayaking trip in Ecuador’s Chalupas River, which sits amidst the jungle of the Llanganates National Park. The third installment is titled “Reaching for the Sky,” which spotlights two climbers in their ascent of the Pik Slesova in Kyrgyzstan, a nearly unclimbable granite tower. The final chapter is “The Great Unknown,” and follows the two surfers as they try to ride the West Coast waves of South Africa.
Edge of the Earth is directed by Steve Jones and Todd Jones of Teton Gravity Research, produced by Drew Holt, and executive produced by HBO’s Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller and Bentley Weiner, with Abtin Matia acting as coordinating producer. It premieres July 12 at 9/10pm ET/PT. It will first launch on HBO and be streamable on HBO Max. Check out the trailer below: