Mr Bonython, an avid surfer and filmmaker, is deep into a two-month tour around Australia with his travelling Australian Surf Movie Festival, and will drop by Towradgi Beach Hotel and Warilla Hotel next week with two films showing off some of the biggest waves and best surfers on the planet.

"Surf movies have always been made for the big screen, not for TV or the internet," Mr Bonython said, explaining the movies would be shown on movie theatre-style screens at the hotels.

"When it's a story associated with big swell events, with 50-foot waves, the big screen is the place to see it."

Now into its 11th year of touring the country, the 2014 instalment of the ASMF features Encoded, the third instalment of Mr Bonython's series on the monster waves at Teahupoo, Tahiti. 

The break has some of the biggest and most dangerous waves on Earth, and Encoded focuses on a rare event where back-to-back big swells turned the ocean into a playground for the world's big-wave surfers.

"Teahupoo is the most exciting slab on the planet. In 2013, those back-to-back swells came after almost two years of no swell," he said.

He was lucky to be the only guy with a camera at the time, he said.

The second film is titled Wild Australia; The Journey, with world champion Kelly Slater and Ulladulla surfer Russell Bierke surfing huge waves off Tasmania's Shipstern Bluff. Mr Bonython, who has dedicated most of his life to documenting big-wave surfing, said it was as much a mental as a physical pursuit.

The Australian Surf Movie Festival will hit Towradgi on Wednesday, then Warilla Hotel on Friday.