Step Into Liquid is the sort of Blu-Ray DVD that only has two levels of appeal; first, as a niche title appealing to a small but devoted demographic, and second, as a showcase for the wonders of 1080p high-definition format media. Watch the film on standard definition and it’s nowhere nearly as impressive on a visual scale, although the cinematography is quite nice throughout.

Step Into Liquid is a mix of documentary and pro-surfing propaganda, since 90 percent of those interviewed seem on a mission to convert everyone within earshot into a devotee of surfing while somehow, by and large, still maintaining a somewhat elitist tone. That’s a feat.

In the annuls of the Cold War, one of the most honest moments that led to a breakthrough in diplomacy is when pro-military strength Cold Warrior Ronald Reagan sat down opposite Mikhail Gorbachev and said, without blinking, “Here is why we don’t trust you.”

In similar fashion, while at times a great and thrilling testament to the sport of surfing, Step Into Liquid allows those it interviews to go off on elitist rants about the wonders of surfing, how surfers are so misunderstood and how only surfers “get” surfing. As such, Step Into Liquid stands as Exhibit A when this reviewer sits down opposite a surfing devotee and tell them, “Here’s why we think you’re an elitist snob.”

The movie gets a bit surreal as one moment, you have a seemingly down-to-earth guy like X-Files creator Chris Carter talking cogently about how surfers get wrongly portrayed as flakes, followed up by a nameless surfing elitist who then goes on a flakey rant about how maybe if we all just surfed a couple hours a day, there would be no wars. Way to undercut the flakiness charge, there, guys!

Still, there are some high points to the movie, like the five minutes or so spent on the Great Lakes surfing community in Wisconsin – something new I’d never been aware of before. Or how there was a real-life Gidget who the 1950s surfing movies were based on, and who is still an active surfer today, even though she needs more wrinkle creams than ice creams these days.

If someone is big into surfing and doesn’t mind some pro-surfing proselytizing, Step Into Liquid should be of some interest. However, after seeing it once to show off some of the details visible at 1080p that other lower-def screens just can’t achieve, I can’t imagine this being a long-term part of very many people’s Blu-Ray libraries. Unless, of course, as I said before, they are surfers.