A trailer for the new big-wave documentary Storm Surfers3D was released last week by its Australia-based producers. From the looks of it, the film will be a bonus-sized version of their TV show of the same name (it aired on FUEL TV here in the U.S. last year, but with FUEL’s format change it’s anyone’s guess if it will be picked up again).

The film stars 2-time ASP World Champion and 3-time Pipeline Masters Champion Tom Carroll (who also has his own remote control surfing action figure, click here) and Ross Clarke-Jones, aka RCJ.

Clarke-Jones is a legendary big wave hellman and star of one of the most wickedly, yet unintentionally(?), funny surf movies ever made–Mad Wax. (If you can find it on YouTube, do yourself a favor and watch it, you’ll be glad you did.)

Looking and sounding every bit like an old married couple or some post-modern Odd Couple (a really old TV show from the 1970s, kiddies), the interaction between Carroll and RCJ is pure comedy.

It takes larger-than-life characters to shine on the big screen, but the two Aussie blokes seem to fit the bill. Their hunt for spooky, massive surf in the Southern Hemisphere provides the dramatic backdrop, as do backstory sub-plots on Carroll hitting the big 5-0 and his recent acknowledgement of his own mortality.

Big wave surfing is generally the domain of young men risking their lives for glory, but Carroll’s certainly got nothing to prove. He cemented his legacy with perhaps the most defining moment ever during a Pipeline Masters, click here to witness ‘The Snap,’ so it should be interesting to witness how he and RCJ reconcile taking big risks versus family responsibilities now that they’re both well into middle age.

Storm Surfers 3D hits the big screen August 2012.