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Riding Giants

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This programme contains some strong language.

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MUSIC: "Messe Solonelle: Sanctus" by The Orpheus Chamber Ensemble

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MUSIC: "Don't Stay" by Linkin Park

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MUSIC STOPS

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The ancient Hawaiian sport of surfing can be traced back

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as far as 1,000 years ago, as men, women, children

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and Hawaii's great King Kamehameha enjoyed the thrill of riding waves.

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In the earliest description of the sport by a visiting European,

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Captain James Cook observed upon watching an Hawaiian surf rider

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in the year of 1777:

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"I could not help concluding

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"that this man felt the most supreme pleasure

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"while he was being driven on so fast and so smoothly by the sea."

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Then in the 1800s,

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the waves fell flat with the arrival of the Calvados missionaries.

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Shocked and outraged by the state of undress

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and the easy mixing of the sexes that surfing fostered,

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the missionaries banned the sport.

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The extinct Polynesian pastime

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was then reintroduced in the early 20th century by Alexander Hume Ford,

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a globetrotting promoter who set about reviving Island tourism

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by romanticising surfing at Waikiki.

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In 1912, came surfing's first international icon.

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Waikiki beach boy and celebrated Olympic swimming champion,

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Duke Kahanamoku.

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The only surfer to ever appear on a US stamp.

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While travelling the globe giving swimming demonstrations,

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Duke became surfing's Johnny Appleseed,

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introducing his favourite sport to far-flung places like California, New York and Australia.

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One of the fans enthralled by the Duke

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was a young Wisconsin swimming champion named Tom Blake.

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Relocating to Hawaii, Blake would go on to become

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one of the 20th-century's most influential surfers through his innovative surfboard design,

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but most importantly, through his advocacy of surfing as a way of life.

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By 1948, surfing had taken root along the California coast,

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where a skinny, 10-year-old kid from Hermosa Beach named Greg Noll

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found himself immersed in the emerging subculture.

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Following in the footsteps of pioneers like Pete Peterson and Lorrin Harrison,

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Noll eagerly joined the ranks of these eccentric sportsmen,

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carving out an entirely new and free-spirited lifestyle.

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Those guys were all gentlemanly.

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It was a different era, a different time.

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Something went to hell in the early '50s. It's like somebody threw a light switch.

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When the lightweight longboard came in, something happened.

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# Hey babe

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# I don't feel like going to school no more

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# Me neither. #

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It was the introduction of lightweight balsawood

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and the newly discovered aerospace material fibreglass

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that suddenly cut the weight of surfboards in half,

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and paved the way for a younger generation to begin picking up the offbeat support.

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There was this great feeling

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of individuality and freedom

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from being able to ride this wave, and it made us feel free and I think maybe almost rebellious.

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the ride itself is such a bitching deal. So rewarding.

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It becomes so important to you that it becomes

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the object around which you plan the rest of your life,

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and everyone else is planning around money and acquisition of money.

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And all of a sudden, a bunch of guys come along and go, "Screw the money,

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"I'm having all the fun I could possibly have, girls are loving it,

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"we're a bunch of scroungy surfers."

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The shittier you dress and the funnier language you talk,

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nobody understood half the stuff we were saying because it was surf jargon,

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the more fun we were having, the more it would piss off society.

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# Well you're sexy and 17

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# My little rock a boat queen

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# That's a little bit I seen

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# Gotta let off a little steam. #

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With a devotion to riding waves came the creation of a new lifestyle,

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centred around all things beach.

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# Shake it around your body, body, body. #

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This emerging lifestyle went in direct opposition to mainstream values.

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Surfers were often regarded as nothing more than beach bums.

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My parents never saw me surf. They thought it was a disease.

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They couldn't come to the game, they couldn't see the score up on the board,

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and couldn't understand what good it did.

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Greg Noll talks about his principal calling him into the office saying,

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"What are you guys doing down there on the beach,

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"what exactly are you doing?"

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Not just going at the surf, what are you doing on the beach?

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For the first time ever, they had a group of guys who didn't give a rat's ass

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dropping out of the basketball team and football team, giving the whole thing the finger,

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and going, I don't give a shit, I want to go surfing.

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For this new generation of surfers,

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surfing wasn't just something you did, but something you became.

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Not just a sport, but a statement.

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I think getting radical was part of the culture at that time.

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After a while, it was expected of us and therefore we fulfilled those expectations.

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Some guy's dad had got back from the war and had a closet full of Nazi stuff that he brought back,

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and then they went over and took flexes and rode down a storm drain for a mile underneath Windansea.

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And that was just, you know, having a good time, but people see it and go, "Oh, what's this all about?"

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That behaviour was not mean-spirited. It was playful. It was like turning a hearse into a surf mobile.

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Instead of dead bodies, it was all about living life to the full.

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Amidst the mirth and mayhem of the fledgling surf scenes,

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from Windansea to San Onofre to Malibu,

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much homage was given to the sport's Polynesian roots,

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with grass shacks, floral Aloha shirts and the playing of ukuleles.

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But on a winter morning in 1953, another Hawaiian import

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landed like a bomb on the front porch of California.

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I can remember I was a 14-year-old paperboy

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delivering papers in Santa Monica -

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it was the Evening Outlook and I got to work that afternoon

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I looked at the front page

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and there was Buzzy Trent, George Downing and Wally Froiseth

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coming down the face of what looked like a 30-foot wave.

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This simple image sent shockwaves through California's emerging surf culture,

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triggering the first migration of West Coast surfers

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to the Hawaiian Islands and Oahu's Makaha Beach.

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# Wind and wave and sand and sunshine... #

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It was Makaha's combination of smooth,

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crystal-blue warm water and large, gently-tapered waves

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that helped create surfing's first accessible big-wave riding paradise.

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# Just to ride Makaha waves... #

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At Makaha, if we had ten guys on a good day, that was a lot.

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You knew every one of them - they were there every time.

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To us, that was a crowd at that time.

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You'd be out there for about two, three hours.

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And you'd only catch, like, five waves.

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Cos you don't want to mess it up.

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You don't have no leash and you were out there.

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When you wipe out, there's nobody.

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# And the surfers ride their high boards

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# Toward the bright Makaha shore... #

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In the early days, we lived on the beach. We had tents.

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Then, later on, we all got together and rented quonset huts -

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for 25-50 bucks - ten guys would be in the quonset hut.

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You know, so it was cheap, that was an upgrade.

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It was easygoing, no problems, no hassles.

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You know, we used to leave our board on the beach there, go into Waikiki

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for two days, come back - it'd still be there, nobody'd touch it.

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# Let them love at old Makaha

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# On the bright Makaha shore. #

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The young Californians were mentored by Makaha's

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first generation of big wave riders.

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Surfers like Woody Brown, along with Wally Froiseth, George Downing and Buzzy Trent

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had spent much of the previous decade challenging Makaha's giant surf.

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They were the astronauts of their era,

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conquering big waves that no-one had conquered before them.

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To me, those guys were bigger than life before I went over there.

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That trio of guys were the first really hardcore big wave riders

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that set the blueprint for the next generation.

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But it was 23-year-old George Downing who carved the mould

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from which all other big wave riders were cast.

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I think that George Downing in a sense is truly the original big-wave surfer.

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Downing designed and built the first true big-wave surfboard.

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It was instrumental in exploring many of Oahu's other big wave breaks.

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They all wanted to ride more big waves

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and Makaha doesn't get big that often.

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We had heard these fabulous tales about this deep, dark,

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foreboding place called the North Shore.

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15 miles up the coast from Makaha was the North Shore -

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a remote, 13-mile stretch of coastline backed up against

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a patchwork of pineapple fields and taro farms.

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I can remember coming out of the pineapple fields of Schofield,

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and getting my first glimpse of the North Shore.

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Here's this magical place laid out in front of you.

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Suddenly they get to a place where all those dreams live.

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Every time you'd go another couple of hundred yards, "Shit, there's another place! Look at this!"

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At first, we didn't have a clue that we had stumbled on something

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so fabulously magical and powerful.

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Just taking the waves into consideration,

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they must have thought that they'd found Nirvana.

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The discovery of the North Shore was surfing's equivalent of Columbus reaching the New World.

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Nowhere else on Earth would there be found

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so many world-class big wave breaks in such close proximity.

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What the Paris runways are to fashion,

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is what the North Shore is to the world of surfing.

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We're among the first groups of Californians to live out there

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and just dedicate themselves to surfing.

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MUSIC: "Rudy's Rock" by Bill Haley and The Comets

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We were spending, eight, ten hours a day in the water,

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doing nothing but surfing our guts out.

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There wasn't any home life, so, you know,

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we spent our days on the beach and that's what we did.

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We surfed all day. Every day - no matter what.

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In those days, we never saw girls.

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And if you brought a date out

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and sat her in the car while you surfed four or five hours, you never had that date again.

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These guys came to surf, and it was kind of unheard of...

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"You don't have a JOB? You spend a couple of months here to surf?"

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No watch. No money. No car. No nothing.

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Just shorts and a T-shirt.

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There were no hotels - there was one place in Haleiwa that was a set of cubicles.

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You'd have guys sharing the place and getting mattresses

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from the Salvation Army and throwing 'em on the floor.

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I mean, it was a scene to try to make ends meet.

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There wasn't a lot of money, so if we wanted to eat, we had to go diving.

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We'd dive every day and get fish and lobster - and turtle, in those days.

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They'd go pick coconuts and papayas and go fishing -

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in those days, you could live off the land.

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Guys'd come over from the mainland, they'd patch our surfboards for us for a peanut butter sandwich.

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Pat Curren and I, we'd get in a bit of trouble -

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we'd steal chickens, or something like that.

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MUSIC: "Parchman Farm" by John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers

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I mean, the whole thing was waiting for waves.

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You know, we would do anything to amuse ourselves and each other,

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so somewhere I'd learned about how to put lighter fluid in your mouth

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and torch it off!

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Actually, I did set the side of that house on fire!

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They're just spending their days living in the sun,

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and living a life that's not the '50s men-in-a-grey-flannel-suit thing.

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It's like an alternative thing the way Kerouac was

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and bikers were, except they're having fun.

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That was the counter-culture of its day.

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You were bucking the system and you went to Hawaii and you rode waves.

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They were the pioneers, not only of riding big waves, but of the culture of surfing.

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They're the ones who set the pace, this free-and-easy lifestyle.

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That really was a unique period in history.

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They were doing something so unique in the 20th century.

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The fact was, there was a handful of them - it wasn't like jazz,

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where there was the Chicago scene and the New York scene, this was IT.

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That tiny little epicentre - those two dozen intrepid men

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and the women that went with them living that life.

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It only lasted a few years.

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What a remarkable time that must have been.

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MUSIC: "Glass Off" by Bankok Starters

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As these surfers rode more and more of the North Shore's fantastic waves,

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the biggest wave of all still eluded them.

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The spot? Waimea Bay, which began to break

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when the rest of the North Shore was too big to surf.

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But Waimea Bay was riddled with taboos and fears

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as surfers of the '50s were haunted by the memory of Dickie Cross,

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a young California surfer who in December of 1943

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became trapped by a fast-rising storm swell while surfing Sunset Beach.

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Unable to reach the shore, he and fellow surfer Woody Brown elected to paddle three miles south

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to the safer, deep water at Waimea Bay.

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But 50-foot waves were closing out the bay

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and while attempting to reach the shore, both were caught

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by mountains of white water and ripped from their boards.

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Brown eventually washed up on shore naked,

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while 17-year-old Cross was never seen again.

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I mean, it spooked everybody. They were like, "You can't ride there. It's a killer.

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"We're not going to go out there - you're going to die."

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Along with the death of Dickie Cross, Waimea's reputation

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was steeped in superstition and dread,

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with tales that ranged from haunted houses on the Point

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to human sacrifices at the heiau, or Hawaiian burial ground, overlooking the bay.

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All of these things were whizzing around this place

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like a bunch of ghouls and people really believed

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that if you paddled out, there was going to be this goddamn vortex -

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it'd be like flushing the toilet and there go the holidays for the season.

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People thought you couldn't ride Waimea Bay - they watched,

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looked at it and said, "Can't be done".

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You'd look at Waimea and you'd wonder,

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can the human body survive the wipeout?

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But the lure of riding Waimea was unrelenting,

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as during each big swell, surfers would find themselves

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standing spellbound on the shore, transfixed by the sight

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of these huge, perfectly-shaped waves, exploding off the point.

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We'd go by there when it was breaking and go, "Jeez,

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"that looks like a ride of a wave."

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You could see that this had all of the potential of being a great surf spot.

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And at some point, you just had to go, "To hell with it.

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"We can do this thing."

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On a fall day of October 1957, a handful of surfers

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converged on Waimea as a 20-foot swell began lining up the bay.

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MUSIC: "Rumble" by Link Wray

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Sitting on the point, watching the huge empty waves with his buddy,

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Mike Stang, 19-year-old Greg Noll had finally seen enough.

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He unstrapped his board, and with Mike Stang in tow,

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walked down to the water's edge.

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Moments later, they were joined by fellow surfers

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Pat Curren, Micky Munoz, Del Cannon,

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Fred Van Dyke, Harry Schurch, Bing Copeland and Bob Bermell...

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..who, together with Noll and Stang,

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paddled out to attempt the impossible.

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It was obvious where the waves were breaking and we'd all had

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enough experience so that you knew pretty much where to paddle to.

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I remember paddling into the line-up

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and your balls were just in your stomach, you know?

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Thinking that the bottom was going to fall out

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and something was going to eat you alive.

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I'm thinking to myself, I don't want to get wiped out,

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cos I know there's sharks here and I'm not into swimming with sharks, exactly!

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We got out there, it was a big surprise -

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it's not an easy take-off.

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I took off on a wave and went down the side and popped out the other end.

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Went... "Shit! I'm still alive, nothing's happened."

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After we got a couple of waves, that kind of took, you know,

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"Hey, we can do this".

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They broke the taboo - they went out and did it and once it was done,

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opened up the floodgates, like, "OK, now, how far do we take it?"

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MUSIC: "Pipeline" by Matter Music

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The following year of 1958, Waimea Bay blew big wave surfing wide open

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as another migration of ambitious surfers

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came charging onto Hawaii's North Shore to campaign the huge surf.

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These surfers were out to ride the biggest swells nature could produce,

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so they built what came to be known as "guns" - long, narrow surfboards

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designed exclusively for catching the fast-moving 25-foot waves of Waimea.

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I rode an 11'6". It was first and foremost a wave-catching machine,

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because if you can't catch a wave, nothing else matters.

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Unlike the somewhat easy take-off of Makaha, Waimea was a fear-inducing

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25-foot elevator drop, sometimes requiring more faith than skill.

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It almost doesn't help sometimes to know what you're doing out there,

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because if you know too much, it intimidates you.

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Everything is moving, in flux.

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Nothing is constant. It's so dynamic that you can't pre-plan it.

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Not only are you riding down this mountain,

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but this mountain is chasing you and you have to use all your skill

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and all your ability to get away from this mountain,

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but at the same time,

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use it to your own benefit.

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When you come down the face of a mountain,

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you're on fire, your heart is exploding.

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Endorphins are just busting out in your brain and you want to...

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not just prove that you can do it,

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but discover what you're made out of.

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Apart from the challenge of learning to ride Waimea,

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was the even greater challenge of surviving the horrifying wipe-outs.

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You'd feel like a piece of lint in a washing machine,

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because the force of nature that you're in the middle of

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is so quantum beyond comprehension.

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I can remember fracturing my neck at Waimea.

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I went over the falls, I hit the water,

0:23:210:23:24

my neck went back in whiplash and fractured my neck.

0:23:240:23:27

Lost all feelings in my arms and legs.

0:23:270:23:30

I was like a seagull full of oil.

0:23:300:23:32

Just fluttering in the white water, out of control.

0:23:320:23:35

Some guys came over, helped me in. I'm lucky to be alive.

0:23:420:23:45

And I think every single big wave surfer

0:23:450:23:47

could tell you a story like that.

0:23:470:23:49

We didn't have flotation devices, we didn't have leashes,

0:23:530:23:56

we didn't have helicopters waiting to scoop you out.

0:23:560:23:59

So if you fucked up, you were on your own.

0:23:590:24:02

By 1959, Waimea had become the epicentre of big wave surfing,

0:24:180:24:21

fostering a new crew of big wave talents - Pat Curren, Peter Cole,

0:24:210:24:26

Ricky Grigg, Fred Van Dyke,

0:24:260:24:29

Jose Angel, Kealoha Kaio

0:24:290:24:31

and Greg Noll, whose big wave obsession

0:24:310:24:34

and even bigger wave personality

0:24:340:24:36

would forever link him with Waimea Bay.

0:24:360:24:39

MUSIC: "Sleep Walk" by Matter Music

0:24:390:24:42

Waimea was my gal. She was like...

0:24:480:24:52

I mean, I surfed with this beautiful woman

0:24:520:24:54

who allowed me to get away with shit

0:24:540:24:58

as long as I didn't act too outrageously towards her.

0:24:580:25:02

There were times when the surf would get perfect, you know,

0:25:150:25:20

and you'd go out and catch a wave...

0:25:200:25:23

just make this thing and have your adrenalin dripping out of your ears,

0:25:230:25:27

paddle back out and do it again.

0:25:270:25:30

You get a little too cocky, you'd get your ass slapped a little bit.

0:25:300:25:33

She'd let you know it but, for the most part,

0:25:330:25:36

it was just this full-on love affair that took place for 25 years.

0:25:360:25:41

Nicknamed the Bull for his charging style,

0:25:560:25:59

and clothing himself in loud, jailhouse-striped trunks,

0:25:590:26:03

Noll emerged as surfing's first big wave celebrity.

0:26:030:26:06

He had the perfect big wave persona. He looked like a big wave rider

0:26:060:26:09

with that big, thick neck,

0:26:090:26:11

and he had the black-and-white striped trunks, which was genius.

0:26:110:26:15

MUSIC: "Rumble in Brixton" by Stray Cats

0:26:150:26:18

Surfing needed Greg Noll.

0:26:180:26:21

Some of those surfers, they were a stoic bunch.

0:26:210:26:23

Greg Noll introduced flamboyance to it.

0:26:230:26:26

He introduced showmanship, he introduced that colourful aspect

0:26:260:26:29

that most people associated with Malibu. Not just the way he surfed,

0:26:290:26:33

but the spirit of it. He introduced that into big wave riding.

0:26:330:26:37

He wanted to ride the biggest wave anybody had ever ridden.

0:26:410:26:45

Greg made his reputation on taking off on the biggest wave, the heaviest wave.

0:26:450:26:49

He stuffed himself into positions nobody else would want. He'd sit over deeper,

0:26:490:26:53

he'd take off later, he'd spin around at the last minute.

0:26:530:26:56

He was surfing's first hell man.

0:26:560:26:58

He just liked confrontation. He sought it out.

0:27:030:27:06

In human terms and in big wave terms.

0:27:060:27:09

I was really a young, skinny kid

0:27:090:27:11

and I got my ass kicked from the time I can remember.

0:27:110:27:15

I went to school and had my ass kicked. I went to high school, I had my ass kicked.

0:27:150:27:19

And in some ways, maybe there was something there that drove me

0:27:190:27:24

to want to pursue big wave riding to make some kind of a statement.

0:27:240:27:27

I'm not a psychologist, I don't know.

0:27:270:27:30

All I know is, once you get into it, there's an adrenalin, a stoke

0:27:300:27:33

and that high is so addictive that, once you have a taste of it,

0:27:330:27:36

it's very difficult to not want more.

0:27:360:27:39

But for Greg Noll, big wave surfing became more than just an adrenalin fix.

0:27:400:27:45

It became his identity, his way of life and his business.

0:27:450:27:49

He was doing it to promote his surfboard business

0:27:490:27:51

and worked actively to promote himself.

0:27:510:27:54

Greg was a good hurdy gurdy man. He knew how to self-promote himself.

0:27:540:27:59

As well as being a successful surf film-maker,

0:27:590:28:01

the nickel and dime surfboard business Noll began in his parents' garage

0:28:010:28:05

had, by 1965, become a 20,000 square foot surfboard factory

0:28:050:28:10

built around his big wave image.

0:28:100:28:12

I had a big building, I had 67 employees,

0:28:120:28:14

I made 150 boards a week and, for the most part,

0:28:140:28:17

I was just turning money over because I'd sell them so cheap.

0:28:170:28:20

You know, we're all competing with each other.

0:28:200:28:24

He was a board designer, a really influential manufacturer.

0:28:240:28:28

He was the most complete surfer of the '50s and '60s. No-one else even came close.

0:28:280:28:32

Despite the dramatic exploits of Noll and the other Waimea-based surfers,

0:28:320:28:37

it was a naive 15-year-old girl from California

0:28:370:28:41

and her desire to join the Malibu surf set that launched surfing into mainstream America.

0:28:410:28:46

Surfing is out of this world!

0:28:460:28:48

You can't imagine the thrill of shooting the curl!

0:28:480:28:51

It positively surpasses every living emotion I've ever had!

0:28:510:28:54

Hey! This is the ultimate!

0:28:570:28:59

# She acts sort of teenage

0:28:590:29:01

# Just in-between age

0:29:010:29:02

# Looks about 4 foot 3... #

0:29:020:29:05

When you look at surfing's history from the '50s into the '60s,

0:29:050:29:08

everything has to be perceived as either pre-Gidget or post-Gidget.

0:29:080:29:13

-You can't mean...?

-I'm a surf bum.

0:29:130:29:16

You know, ride the waves, eat, sleep, not a care in the world.

0:29:160:29:19

From the movie Gidget coming out in '59, when there was fewer than 5,000 surfers,

0:29:190:29:23

to 1963, there was probably 2 million surfers.

0:29:230:29:26

So, in five years, it went from 5,000 to 2 or 3 million people doing it.

0:29:260:29:30

MUSIC: Miserlou by Dick Dale

0:29:300:29:33

Following the film release of Gidget,

0:29:370:29:39

surfing underwent a radical transformation.

0:29:390:29:42

Surf shops opened doors up and down America's west and east coasts.

0:29:420:29:46

John Severson's Surfer magazine began publication.

0:29:460:29:50

In 1962, surf music pioneer Dick Dale

0:29:500:29:54

sold 75,000 copies of his album Surfers' Choice in Southern California alone.

0:29:540:29:59

Suddenly, surfing was perceived as hip.

0:30:080:30:11

People assumed that surfers were in the know. Look at the life they were leading - living on the beach,

0:30:110:30:16

the sun, bikinis, that sort of aura of sex, beach blankets,

0:30:160:30:20

fires and then all that golden flesh in the sun.

0:30:200:30:24

Hollywood followed Gidget with a medley of surf exploitation films.

0:30:270:30:31

Then, in 1864, the Hollywood film Ride The Wild Surf

0:30:310:30:36

turned its lens on Hawaii's big wave surfers challenging Waimea Bay.

0:30:360:30:41

I've been hot to surf Waimea since I was 13!

0:30:410:30:43

But the question is, can we do it, without winding up in traction?

0:30:430:30:48

MUSIC: "Ride The Wild Surf" by Jan & Dean

0:30:480:30:50

The theme is always the same -

0:30:500:30:52

a bunch of chicks in bikinis wringing their hands that their boyfriends

0:30:520:30:57

are going to go out and risk their lives on some big wave and it just...

0:30:570:31:01

Man, it just makes me puke!

0:31:010:31:04

-Man, is he getting creamed.

-He's cooking gas!

0:31:040:31:06

They show the film of a guy sitting in a fish pond without a ripple...

0:31:060:31:12

Hey! It's coming!

0:31:120:31:14

..and then they cut to a 25-foot wave, guys all pouring down the face of the wave.

0:31:140:31:18

I mean, who can believe that shit?

0:31:210:31:24

Hollywood's always had a misconstrued view of surfing

0:31:270:31:30

so it's more or less offensive to the surfing community.

0:31:300:31:34

All the ancillary artistic pursuits that surrounded surfing,

0:31:340:31:37

they really did all come together in a rush and all of it happening from 1960 to 1965.

0:31:370:31:42

THUNDER CRASHES, WIND ROARS

0:31:480:31:50

SIREN WAILS

0:31:500:31:53

On December 4th 1969, big wave surfing was hit

0:32:000:32:03

with what would become known as the greatest swell of the 20th century.

0:32:030:32:07

A massive low pressure system metastasised

0:32:130:32:16

into one colossal storm system that consumed the North Pacific Ocean basin,

0:32:160:32:20

resulting in the largest waves ever recorded.

0:32:200:32:24

The super-size storm uprooted trees,

0:32:260:32:29

dislodged boats onto Oahu's Kam highway

0:32:290:32:32

and blew houses off their foundations.

0:32:320:32:34

Oahu's 13-mile stretch of stunning, world-class surf breaks

0:32:360:32:39

became a morass of turbulent, six-storey storm surf.

0:32:390:32:43

I was sitting at Waimea looking in disbelief at what I was seeing,

0:32:490:32:53

that it was breaking so big that Waimea was just full of white water.

0:32:530:32:58

So I decided to go round Kaena Point

0:33:010:33:03

and look at Makaha because that would be the last spot

0:33:030:33:06

that would still have some chance of holding out.

0:33:060:33:10

Noll set off west to Makaha, the birthplace of modern big-wave surfing,

0:33:120:33:16

thinking the huge swells slamming into the North Shore

0:33:160:33:19

would be tempered as they wrapped around the island's far western bend.

0:33:190:33:24

On the drive west,

0:33:240:33:26

he stopped briefly at Kaena Point to snap this picture

0:33:260:33:29

which Surfer magazine later claimed was the largest wave ever photographed.

0:33:290:33:34

When we got to Makaha, the cops were going around with their blare horns

0:33:370:33:41

on their cars telling people to evacuate their homes on the Point.

0:33:410:33:46

Makaha was the only big wave break on Oahu considered rideable,

0:33:460:33:50

as Noll and a handful of daring surfers attempted the huge swells.

0:33:500:33:54

As the morning progressed, the 100-year swell

0:33:560:33:59

surging out of the North Pacific

0:33:590:34:01

was giving rise to bigger and bigger waves.

0:34:010:34:05

Finally, everybody was out of the water, I was the only one left.

0:34:050:34:08

I was having a real hard time trying to gear myself for this

0:34:080:34:13

cos I knew that, basically, it was a situation

0:34:130:34:16

where your chances of surviving one of these waves was about 50/50.

0:34:160:34:19

I'm thinking to myself,

0:34:190:34:21

"Is it worth giving up the farm for a stupid wave?"

0:34:210:34:24

And I finally had to just paddle outside the line of 100 yards

0:34:240:34:30

and sit on my board with my head down and kind of go into another gear.

0:34:300:34:34

And the final decision was that I would never have forgiven myself

0:34:340:34:39

if I'd allowed this day to go by without at least trying for a wave.

0:34:390:34:45

Noll turned and paddled for what was then considered the biggest wave ever attempted.

0:34:450:34:50

No photographers were on hand to capture his wave.

0:34:520:34:55

Not a single shot or a single frame of footage exists.

0:34:550:34:58

All that remains are the memories of the handful of surfers

0:34:580:35:02

who were there that day to witness his momentous ride.

0:35:020:35:05

Greg Noll starts to paddle and we're all in our cars going,

0:35:050:35:09

"Oh, my God, look at this!" He's starting to paddle into the sea.

0:35:090:35:12

It's this huge, black, massive wall

0:35:120:35:14

and we watch him and he takes off, stands up.

0:35:140:35:17

He's this little speck on this gigantic wall.

0:35:170:35:20

And he drops in and he looks like a little tiny cartoon figure.

0:35:200:35:24

He gets that Greg Noll stance... "Rrrr, I'm going!"

0:35:240:35:27

And he drops down, drops down, drops down

0:35:270:35:29

and he gets to the bottom of the wave and the whole thing's already to come over the top of him.

0:35:290:35:34

And he just kind of stepped off the rail. There was nowhere to go, that was it.

0:35:340:35:38

The fact that he made the drop, got to the bottom of the wave

0:35:380:35:41

and it was like oblivion after that. The whole thing just...

0:35:410:35:44

Along with the birth of my sons and my daughter,

0:35:490:35:52

it was probably the most significant day of my life.

0:35:520:35:55

Even though it wasn't photographed

0:35:550:35:57

and even though people have argued since then, "How big was it?"

0:35:570:36:01

It doesn't matter. In our imaginations, it just was huge.

0:36:010:36:04

Because on that classic day of the biggest swell ever seen,

0:36:040:36:07

he essentially rode alone and he faced it when it came to him.

0:36:070:36:11

And that's what every surfer does in their own life. Everyone can relate to that.

0:36:110:36:15

As Greg Noll's giant wave broke and vanished,

0:36:250:36:27

so too did the popularity of big wave surfing at Waimea Bay

0:36:270:36:31

as it was broadsided by the late '60s shortboard revolution

0:36:310:36:35

where the longer, heavier, big guns were phased out

0:36:350:36:39

in favour of shorter and more manoeuvrable surfboards.

0:36:390:36:42

By the early '70s, the great Waimea had been usurped

0:36:420:36:45

by two spectacular, more performance-oriented North Shore breaks -

0:36:450:36:50

the Banzai Pipeline led by surfers like Gerry Lopez,

0:36:500:36:53

and at Sunset Beach by surfers like Jeff Hakman and Barry Kanaiaupuni.

0:36:530:36:58

All this changed in the mid-'80s,

0:37:000:37:02

first with the emergence of Ken Bradshaw and then Mark Foo,

0:37:020:37:06

two professional big wave riders determined to reintroduce

0:37:060:37:10

personality and showmanship to the challenge of riding giant Waimea.

0:37:100:37:14

Then came the Eddie, Quiksilver's big-wave riding contest at Waimea Bay

0:37:140:37:18

held in memory of the late, great, big wave rider Eddie Aikau.

0:37:180:37:23

Together, Ken Bradshaw, Mark Foo and the Eddie

0:37:240:37:27

wrenched the surfing world's attention back to Waimea Bay,

0:37:270:37:30

then still considered the Mount Everest of big wave surfing.

0:37:300:37:35

MUSIC: "Toccata and Fugue" by Christopher Herrick

0:37:430:37:48

Mavericks wasn't supposed to exist, it wasn't supposed to be there!

0:37:480:37:52

It was a mystery that it was just suddenly found in this area

0:37:580:38:01

about 20 miles from San Francisco.

0:38:010:38:04

In Half Moon Bay, formerly famous for its annual pumpkin festival!

0:38:100:38:14

It's as if they discovered Mount Everest behind Mount Whitney.

0:38:140:38:18

MUSIC: "Stay" by David Bowie

0:38:180:38:21

Teenage surfer Jeff Clark grew up along Half Moon Bay's secluded coast

0:38:240:38:28

riding home-made boards in the region's powerful rugged waves.

0:38:280:38:33

He carved out a frontier existence

0:38:330:38:35

far removed from surfing's mainstream.

0:38:350:38:38

I was a freshman in high school.

0:38:390:38:41

You could see this place exploding from out behind the building where we'd all congregate.

0:38:410:38:46

I was with my childhood friend and I said, "Brian! We've got to go check that out!"

0:38:460:38:53

We'd sit up on a cliff and watch this place go.

0:38:530:38:57

One day, it was like, "Brian, today's the day. Bring your board."

0:38:570:39:02

He's like, "There's no way I'm paddling half a mile offshore

0:39:020:39:07

"to a place I've never been."

0:39:070:39:08

So we sat here and he said, "I'll call the coastguard and tell them where I last saw you!"

0:39:080:39:13

The year was 1975

0:39:160:39:18

and the wave Clark intended to ride broke half a mile offshore

0:39:180:39:22

into a veritable graveyard of jagged rocks.

0:39:220:39:25

The wave was considered more a navigational hazard than a surf spot.

0:39:270:39:31

I just remember a wave jacking up, I'm in the vein and total commitment.

0:39:320:39:38

If I eat it, I eat it, but I'm going.

0:39:380:39:40

And I hit my feet

0:39:430:39:44

and I've never felt water pass across the bottom of a surfboard so fast.

0:39:440:39:50

Fastest I've ever gone!

0:39:500:39:51

And I made it. And I just thought, "I want another one of those!"

0:39:520:39:57

MUSIC: "Hayling" by FC Kahuna.

0:40:020:40:05

Jeff went out there for the first time and rode it by himself

0:40:180:40:21

and couldn't get anyone to go back out with him.

0:40:210:40:24

There just weren't any takers around here.

0:40:260:40:29

People just didn't believe me. They just thought,

0:40:290:40:31

"Oh, yeah, he's out of his mind, he doesn't know what he's talking about."

0:40:310:40:35

I said, "It's the best big wave you'll ever surf."

0:40:350:40:38

Jeff Clark was sitting out there, nobody in the bleachers,

0:40:410:40:44

no helicopters flying over, no cheering crowds.

0:40:440:40:47

Doing his shit by himself.

0:40:470:40:50

# Don't think about all those things you fear

0:40:500:40:56

# Just be glad to be here. #

0:40:590:41:02

He'd be like the equivalent of a mountain man

0:41:050:41:07

killing grizzly in the Rockies.

0:41:070:41:09

Doing a three-day battle and then sleeping inside the carcass

0:41:090:41:12

that night, not having anyone to tell about it.

0:41:120:41:15

My parents had no idea I was riding waves like this.

0:41:170:41:20

I believed in my ability to go out there and ride it.

0:41:200:41:23

It was my sanctuary. I could leave the shore and go out there

0:41:230:41:28

and be so focused and so in tune

0:41:280:41:31

and feel the ocean with every fibre in my body

0:41:310:41:36

and I was part of it.

0:41:360:41:37

Jeff Clark's greatest challenge was how he internalised

0:41:410:41:44

all that emotion and all that drama and all that adrenaline.

0:41:440:41:48

Surfing that place alone year after year after year.

0:41:480:41:53

Jeff Clark surfed Mavericks alone for 15 years.

0:41:530:41:56

Until finally in 1990, he was able to convince two Santa Cruz surfers,

0:41:580:42:02

Dave Schmidt and Tom Powers to join him.

0:42:020:42:05

They went back to Santa Cruz with these tales of these waves.

0:42:050:42:10

And the next time it broke, there were photographers,

0:42:100:42:14

there were ten guys.

0:42:140:42:15

Suddenly it's like, wait a minute, California is a big wave place.

0:42:150:42:18

MUSIC: "My Wave" by Soundgarden.

0:42:180:42:23

The discovery of this monstrous wave in Northern California

0:42:230:42:27

produced an entirely new breed of big wave surfer.

0:42:270:42:29

# Take, if you want a slice... #

0:42:290:42:33

Once Mavericks came about, it was like right in our backyard.

0:42:330:42:36

It took time to figure out what we had. It wasn't instantaneous.

0:42:360:42:40

Even though we knew it was heavy and gnarly,

0:42:400:42:42

it took time for me to conceptualise what we had.

0:42:420:42:45

It was taboo for us to say 20 feet.

0:42:450:42:47

It was like 20 foot waves only happen in Hawaii.

0:42:470:42:50

The thought was, it can't be as big as Waimea,

0:42:500:42:53

it can't be as gnarly as Waimea.

0:42:530:42:55

This can't be as hard as what they're doing there

0:42:550:42:58

when in fact, it was WAY harder.

0:42:580:43:00

It was way more fearsome and way gnarlier.

0:43:000:43:02

# Just keep it off my wave. #

0:43:020:43:06

Just so gnarly and rocky and...just violent and hateful. It's hateful.

0:43:060:43:11

I jumped in the water there and I had the worst ice cream headache

0:43:110:43:14

and within 30 seconds, I couldn't feel my hands or feet.

0:43:140:43:17

How are you supposed to ride 30, 40, 50 feet faces? I'm out of here.

0:43:170:43:22

-# Keep it off my wave.

-#

0:43:220:43:24

You've got sharks, you've got rocks,

0:43:240:43:26

you've got cold water, you've got huge surf.

0:43:260:43:29

Five millimetre wetsuits,

0:43:290:43:31

fog banks you can't see two feet in front of you.

0:43:310:43:34

Oversized boulders from the Land of the Lost.

0:43:340:43:39

They extend across the whole length of where the wave is breaking.

0:43:390:43:43

ONLOOKERS: Whoa! LAUGHTER

0:43:470:43:48

To reach the waves at Mavericks,

0:43:500:43:52

surfers must paddle over 45 minutes through a maze of rocks,

0:43:520:43:56

rip currents and frigid open ocean chop

0:43:560:43:58

until they finally reach the line-up.

0:43:580:44:01

The sacred thing in big wave surfing is, "What are the line-ups?"

0:44:030:44:07

Line-ups are a means of triangulating your position in the ocean

0:44:090:44:13

so you find two reference points on land at about 90 degrees.

0:44:130:44:18

Mainly what I use is positioning

0:44:180:44:21

on hillside. There's a big mountain behind and then a closer cliff

0:44:210:44:24

and there's a satellite dish you can line up.

0:44:240:44:27

You line them up so you know within a few feet

0:44:270:44:29

where you are in reference to the reef and the coastline.

0:44:290:44:32

If you just look at waves, you don't know if you're right.

0:44:320:44:35

It's very important to be in the right spot

0:44:350:44:37

at Mavericks because if you're too deep, you won't make it.

0:44:370:44:40

You're not just sitting there waiting for a wave.

0:44:400:44:43

The currents are so strong, you constantly paddle,

0:44:430:44:46

trying to maintain your opposition.

0:44:460:44:48

The worst thing that can happen out at Mavericks is getting caught inside.

0:44:480:44:52

There's sets that come that are on a regular basis.

0:44:550:44:58

And people get used to that, you know what I mean?

0:44:580:45:01

Sitting right where those come, then a sneak set will just come out of the blue.

0:45:010:45:05

It's literally just like in those beach blanket movies.

0:45:050:45:07

There's nothing happening, you're sitting on your board and sometimes,

0:45:070:45:11

corny though it may sound, someone actually yells, "Outside!"

0:45:110:45:15

And you turn and you go, oh, wow!

0:45:150:45:17

MUSIC: "Them Bones" by Alice in Chains.

0:45:170:45:20

Your adrenaline's running, everything is full RPM.

0:45:200:45:24

And you just want to stroke as hard as you can.

0:45:240:45:26

Your heart in your throat, paddling as if you're trying to catch a wave

0:45:280:45:31

-only you're trying to get out.

-It's just a total survival thing.

0:45:310:45:35

Nobody really cares about the other guy at that point,

0:45:350:45:39

you just want to get over it.

0:45:390:45:40

Each successive wave will be bigger than the one before.

0:45:430:45:47

And you pray that the one you just barely made it over

0:45:470:45:50

will get you to the next one.

0:45:500:45:52

The next one's twice as big as the wave you just saw and will land right on you.

0:45:520:45:56

Then... Oh, man, the sinking feeling.

0:45:560:45:58

I'm caught, and I'm not going to get away.

0:45:580:46:00

CAMERAMAN: Oh, that guy's in the impact zone.

0:46:000:46:03

# I feel so alone

0:46:030:46:04

# Gonna end up a big ol' pile of them bones. #

0:46:040:46:08

There's a point where it gets so critical

0:46:110:46:13

you have to either commit and you'll make it out the back

0:46:130:46:17

or you slide off your board and swim into a vertical face of water.

0:46:170:46:22

You feel like, "Oh, I made it," and then all of a sudden, you're getting

0:46:220:46:26

sucked back and the feeling of going over backwards is just horrifying.

0:46:260:46:31

It's the worst kind of beating.

0:46:310:46:32

Oh, shit.

0:46:320:46:33

There's a fiendish pleasure though

0:46:350:46:37

of watching one by one the people you started with, they get

0:46:370:46:41

picked off, they don't quite punch through right, and they're goners.

0:46:410:46:44

# I feel so alone

0:46:440:46:47

# Gonna end up a big ol' pile of them bones. #

0:46:470:46:51

Not only is the take-off the hardest part of big wave surfing,

0:46:590:47:04

it's the most fun.

0:47:040:47:05

It's entirely different to any kind of normal surf

0:47:050:47:09

because it's basically one burst of energy.

0:47:090:47:12

MUSIC: "Go" by Pearl Jam.

0:47:120:47:17

The wave comes out of deep water but it just stops

0:47:220:47:26

and that whole mass of that wave jacks up.

0:47:260:47:28

The bottom of the wave becomes the top in half a second.

0:47:280:47:32

It rears up and holds back and sucks up

0:47:320:47:34

and you really have to find your niche where you can be under that.

0:47:340:47:38

You thought you were paddling into something maybe 20 or 30 feet.

0:47:390:47:43

Now you're riding something that's 35, 40 feet tall.

0:47:430:47:45

You have to put everything you have into getting yourself as far

0:47:450:47:49

down the face as you can before it picks you up.

0:47:490:47:51

You have to jump off the cliff right when the thing's about to jump on you.

0:47:510:47:56

If you make haste in a take-off,

0:48:060:48:08

the odds of you making that wave are very low.

0:48:080:48:11

The whole aspect is really more mental than physical. You have to believe you'll make it.

0:48:130:48:18

I know when I'll make a wave or not before I even paddle for it.

0:48:180:48:22

I have to overcome that safety mechanism that wants to rise

0:48:220:48:26

up in me and to keep me from doing something that could kill me.

0:48:260:48:29

So this fear of the unknown becomes something

0:48:290:48:32

you absolutely have to confront.

0:48:320:48:34

Because there is no way to turn back your decision.

0:48:340:48:37

MUSIC: "Don't Give Up" by Basement Jaxx

0:48:410:48:44

I've just wiped out. I'm getting just worked.

0:48:440:48:48

Fluttering down the face getting sucked back over the face

0:48:490:48:53

then you basically become the lip.

0:48:530:48:55

Backflips front flips, big twists,

0:49:000:49:04

every which way underwater real fast over, like, a football field.

0:49:040:49:08

You don't know which direction is up or down or right or left.

0:49:080:49:12

It's black, it's dark, I can feel the pressure in my ears.

0:49:120:49:15

You're sure you're near the surface. Then what you perceived to be up is actually the bottom.

0:49:150:49:20

The leash is pulling hard on you. The board is tombstoning up there.

0:49:200:49:24

I realised if there's another wave coming, I'm finished.

0:49:240:49:29

At one point, it started to stop. I thought, "OK, I'm going to live."

0:49:290:49:33

And I started to swim up.

0:49:330:49:35

And the next wave hit.

0:49:350:49:36

Then it just started all over again, just every bit as bad as the first part.

0:49:360:49:40

THROBBING BASS

0:49:400:49:43

I remember feeling like going over a waterfall underwater.

0:49:430:49:47

Like literally getting sucked into a hole.

0:49:470:49:50

Here I am 30 feet down, it takes me another 15, 20 feet down.

0:49:500:49:52

I get slammed into the bottom down there.

0:49:520:49:55

You think, "Oh, my God, I'm deeper than anyone's ever been."

0:49:550:49:58

You get to a point when you're down there,

0:50:010:50:03

"OK, this is not happening any more."

0:50:030:50:06

You have to get to the surface to get air.

0:50:060:50:09

Finally when I come up to the surface

0:50:090:50:11

I remember it being so bright,

0:50:110:50:14

it was like being in a dream and all of a sudden...

0:50:140:50:17

WHOOSHING SOUND

0:50:170:50:19

..back to, "OK, this is real, this is live now."

0:50:190:50:22

PIANO PLAYS SOFTLY

0:50:230:50:25

THUNDER ROLLS

0:50:270:50:30

Almost every traumatic thing that can happen to you at Mavericks

0:50:460:50:50

is due to the leash.

0:50:500:50:51

I think leashes are one of the most dangerous things

0:50:510:50:54

in the line-up in any surf spot over 20 feet.

0:50:540:50:57

There's those few critical situations where leashes become

0:50:570:51:00

more of a hindrance than a help.

0:51:000:51:02

After going down on the first wave of the set,

0:51:020:51:04

Flea found himself on the wrong end of his leash.

0:51:040:51:07

When entangled in a crevice, the urethane cord held him in place

0:51:070:51:11

while he was repeatedly battered by incoming white-water.

0:51:110:51:14

The leash wrapped round the rocks and just...

0:51:140:51:17

I was stuck for, like, eight waves.

0:51:170:51:19

How come you couldn't get the leash of your foot?

0:51:190:51:21

Cos the water current was so strong.

0:51:210:51:23

It's like doing a sit-up with 200 pounds on your chest.

0:51:230:51:27

Flea eventually worked himself loose

0:51:380:51:40

but in an even more dramatic incident,

0:51:400:51:43

Jeff Clark was hurled into Mavericks' rocky boneyard

0:51:430:51:46

and was trapped when his leash became hooked onto Sail Rock.

0:51:460:51:50

I can't get the leash off my ankle and this broken half of my board

0:51:500:51:53

is dragging me right into the rocks and finally

0:51:530:51:56

I'm getting swirled around. I got my hands out and I feel the rock

0:51:560:52:00

and I'm hanging onto the side of this rock and I'm underwater

0:52:000:52:03

and the water starts to drain and I am high and dry.

0:52:030:52:06

Next thing I know, another wave came over the rock.

0:52:080:52:11

I'm underwater again, the tension from my leg rope relieved,

0:52:110:52:15

I climbed on the rock

0:52:150:52:16

and I got rid of that damn anchor that was around my leg.

0:52:160:52:19

It's so funny that the Mavericks surfers value their surfboards

0:52:200:52:23

more than their lives.

0:52:230:52:25

It's like a lifeline. If you get held down,

0:52:250:52:28

the only thing I know is at the end of this is something that floats a lot more than I do

0:52:280:52:32

so if I wait and hold onto it, that's up.

0:52:320:52:35

So I reach around and grab my leash

0:52:350:52:36

and climb it back to the top, back to the surface.

0:52:360:52:39

I know for sure in my personal experience, there are times

0:52:390:52:42

when if I didn't have a leash, I'm not sure I would've lived.

0:52:420:52:47

In May of 1992, two years after Clark shared his secret spot

0:52:470:52:52

with Powers and Schmidt, Surfer Magazine took Mavericks public

0:52:520:52:55

with a cover story titled "Cold Sweat".

0:52:550:52:57

MUSIC: "Babylon's Burning" by The Ruts.

0:52:570:53:01

As if to back up the front-page headline, in 1994,

0:53:010:53:04

California was bombarded by a series of epic north swells

0:53:040:53:07

announcing to surfing's big wave fraternity

0:53:070:53:10

that Mavericks was the real deal.

0:53:100:53:12

That's when the entire surf world kind of converged on Mavericks.

0:53:120:53:16

It was like, "OK, this place is legitimate,

0:53:160:53:19

"we'll see really what it's worth here."

0:53:190:53:21

On December 23, the sudden arrival of three of Hawaii's most famous

0:53:240:53:28

Waimea-based surfers - Ken Bradshaw, Brock Little and Mark Foo -

0:53:280:53:32

created the biggest stir and gave the impression

0:53:320:53:35

that something momentous was taking place.

0:53:350:53:37

# Babylon's burning, baby Can't you see?

0:53:370:53:40

# Babylon is burning with anxiety. #

0:53:400:53:43

That day was amazing.

0:53:430:53:45

To have the Hawaiians paddling out. Brock Little,

0:53:450:53:48

Mark Foo, Ken Bradshaw.

0:53:480:53:50

My gosh, I was like a proud parent or something like that.

0:53:500:53:54

Because they gave a spot that I'd surfed for so many years

0:53:540:53:58

the credibility to actually come and surf it.

0:53:580:54:01

Helicopters were hovering and photographers from all the mags were there.

0:54:010:54:05

It was just crazy, we knew it was, like, THE day.

0:54:050:54:08

One of the best days of surfing I ever had out there.

0:54:080:54:10

# Babylon's burning Babylon's burning

0:54:150:54:18

# Babylon is burning. #

0:54:180:54:21

Then at approximately 11:20 am,

0:54:210:54:23

during a beautiful medium-sized set, Mark Foo paddled, popped to his feet

0:54:230:54:27

and dropped into his second wave of the day.

0:54:270:54:30

# Babylon's burning. #

0:54:300:54:31

I went to lunch, I came back out to the point, I saw Brock

0:54:510:54:54

in the parking lot. And there was this guy,

0:54:540:54:58

"Have you seen Mark Foo?" And that was...

0:54:580:55:01

We were headed back in a boat toward the harbour

0:55:070:55:10

and I saw...it kinda looked like a big clump of something.

0:55:100:55:15

You know, as we were passing it.

0:55:150:55:17

I pointed it out and I said, "Hey, that looks like a body." You know?

0:55:170:55:23

And, sure enough, we stopped the boat

0:55:230:55:26

and just realised that it was...Mark Foo.

0:55:260:55:31

I dove off and grabbed him and just rushed to the harbour and...

0:55:360:55:42

It was a really eerie experience and just so chilling.

0:55:430:55:49

It went from the most pleasant, beautiful,

0:55:540:55:56

plate-glass sunshine day to...the clouds came in and it got dark,

0:55:560:56:01

the wind came up and it was just...

0:56:010:56:05

like we lost a great warrior.

0:56:050:56:07

One of our surfers, one of our own, was gone.

0:56:070:56:11

To have that winter when Mark Foo passed away,

0:56:140:56:16

that was a heavy hit to everybody.

0:56:160:56:18

What added to the shock of Foo's death were its circumstances -

0:56:220:56:25

an innocuous wipe-out on a less than death-defying wave

0:56:250:56:28

in the middle of a crowded line-up.

0:56:280:56:30

I think that he fell on his stomach, knocked the wind out of himself

0:56:300:56:34

and was fatigued from the flight the night before, you know?

0:56:340:56:37

I think he got caught on the bottom.

0:56:370:56:40

The reason I think his leg-rope got caught in the rocks is that

0:56:400:56:43

on the next wave, Brock Little and Mike Parsons wiped out.

0:56:430:56:48

Parsons comes up and Brock was behind him.

0:56:530:56:57

In later interviews, Parson said, "I felt Brock trying to get

0:56:570:57:02

"to the surface," but what he didn't realise at the time was Brock was up.

0:57:020:57:08

And it was Foo trying to get to the surface,

0:57:080:57:11

which kind of confirms that he was being held down by something.

0:57:110:57:17

I went and examined his body actually.

0:57:210:57:24

There really wasn't any discernible injury.

0:57:240:57:26

He had a slight scratch on his forehead.

0:57:260:57:29

His countenance actually was not that of one who had struggled

0:57:310:57:37

or who had been in anguish.

0:57:370:57:39

I felt surfing at Mavericks the years prior to that

0:57:410:57:45

that someone was going to die. I didn't think it would be Mark Foo.

0:57:450:57:48

I thought it would be somebody who didn't know what they were in for.

0:57:480:57:51

Mark Foo was this kind of guy who was larger than life to us,

0:57:510:57:55

more invincible than any of us, with more experience than any of us.

0:57:550:58:00

He's the guy that said, "To catch the ultimate thrill,

0:58:000:58:03

"you have to be willing to pay the ultimate price."

0:58:030:58:05

Everyone wanted to understand what killed him.

0:58:050:58:08

That was important because they were trying to assess

0:58:080:58:11

the risk in the face of their sudden mortality.

0:58:110:58:14

As it sunk in, I didn't think that could happen.

0:58:140:58:17

I literally didn't think it could.

0:58:170:58:19

I thought I was invincible.

0:58:190:58:21

I thought I could just huck myself over any ledge

0:58:210:58:25

and pop back up laughing, you know?

0:58:250:58:27

And I think a lot of big wave riders have that belief.

0:58:270:58:31

When it comes down to it, it's up to me whether I live or die.

0:58:310:58:34

It's up to me whether I go on a wave or not.

0:58:340:58:37

While an extravagant funeral was planned for Foo in Hawaii,

0:58:380:58:41

surfers from up and down the California coast

0:58:410:58:44

gathered at Mavericks for a quiet tribute to their fallen comrade.

0:58:440:58:47

It turned the clocks back to ten years before when I'm sitting

0:58:570:59:00

out there at the peak, by myself, with my own thoughts.

0:59:000:59:06

I wasn't sure I wanted to surf Mavericks after that

0:59:100:59:13

so when I went back out there, I wasn't sure if I'd be spooked or not

0:59:130:59:16

and I ended up, the wave came to me, and I was like, "Yes."

0:59:160:59:18

Mavericks said to me, "You want to be here. Here's your wave."

0:59:180:59:22

I caught a great one, everything was good.

0:59:220:59:24

It's the way I thought it was but I always knew it could kill me. It could kill anyone.

0:59:240:59:28

A year to the day after Foo's death

0:59:400:59:42

and during a memorial session held in Foo's honour at Waimea Bay,

0:59:420:59:46

California surfer Donnie Solomon was caught by a close-out set

0:59:460:59:50

and drowned.

0:59:500:59:51

Then in February of 1997, well-known big wave rider Todd Chesser

0:59:530:59:58

perished in 30-foot surf at a remote off-shore outer-reef break.

0:59:581:00:02

In 1968, in the thick of that era's short board revolution,

1:00:151:00:18

a fatherless 4-year-old boy named Laird Zerfas

1:00:181:00:22

accompanied his mother Joann on a chance visit to Hawaii's North Shore.

1:00:221:00:27

He couldn't have known it at the time but he would grow up to be

1:00:291:00:32

the greatest big-wave rider of his generation.

1:00:321:00:35

Perhaps the greatest the world has ever known.

1:00:351:00:37

After my dad left my mom, before I could even remember,

1:00:391:00:43

I was in search for a man, a masculine figure in my life

1:00:431:00:47

and my mom needed a husband but I needed a dad.

1:00:471:00:52

My friend Greg MacGillivray, who was like the father of the IMAX films,

1:00:521:00:55

was making a surfing movie at the time and I was helping him

1:00:551:00:59

make movies, so I was walking down the beach to see him

1:00:591:01:02

and here's this little kid playing around in the ocean.

1:01:021:01:06

I dove in, I said, "What's your name?" He said, "My name's Laird."

1:01:061:01:10

I said, "What are you doing?" He said, "I'm body surfing.

1:01:101:01:13

"You want to body surf?" I said, "Sure."

1:01:131:01:16

I said, "Why don't you hold onto my neck, we'll body surf."

1:01:161:01:20

It was love at first sight with him and I. We had this physical connection, instantly.

1:01:201:01:24

It was a physical, spiritual, mental, like, "I love this child."

1:01:241:01:31

It was just, "I love this child." And we were just like partners.

1:01:311:01:35

When we finished, he grabbed my hand and said,

1:01:361:01:39

"I want you to come up and meet my mom."

1:01:391:01:41

I don't know if he had a choice. I was like, "You're coming with me."

1:01:411:01:44

And there was his mother, beautiful brown-haird, brown-eyed gal,

1:01:441:01:47

and I went, "Oh, my God..."

1:01:471:01:51

Mom was like, who's this. I'm like, "This is Bill."

1:01:511:01:54

And I like give him the nudge, you know?

1:01:541:01:56

Shortly thereafter, Billy Hamilton, who was known

1:01:561:01:59

as one of the sport's most popular and stylish surfers, married Joann,

1:01:591:02:03

becoming Laird's adopted father and giving him his name.

1:02:031:02:07

I was known for being the kid who ran around saying,

1:02:081:02:12

"Hey, my dad's Bill Hamilton, you know who he is?"

1:02:121:02:15

And they'd be like, guys like Gerry Lopez, were like,

1:02:151:02:18

"Yeah, I see him every day!"

1:02:181:02:19

No, but do you know now it's MY dad?

1:02:191:02:21

They knew who he was but I wanted them to know, like, he was connected to me.

1:02:211:02:27

This is my dad. Because if you don't,

1:02:271:02:29

you might get like a soda can full of sand inside your head or...

1:02:291:02:32

The young Hamilton family set about making

1:02:341:02:36

a life for themselves in Hawaii where, despite the paradisiacal island setting,

1:02:361:02:40

the initial years took on a rough edge.

1:02:401:02:44

Being a blonde Caucasian, I kind of represented the stereotypical

1:02:441:02:50

person that destroyed the culture of Hawaii, so a lot of people

1:02:501:02:53

hated me, wanted to fight with me, just because of my skin colour.

1:02:531:02:56

The way he learned to fight, because he was so big and powerful,

1:02:561:03:01

was he'd slap an opponent so hard that it would shock them and embarrass them.

1:03:011:03:05

It wouldn't injure them but it would hurt them so bad mentally

1:03:051:03:08

and physically that he just won the fight right at that minute.

1:03:081:03:11

After a while, the reputation was there that

1:03:111:03:14

you don't muck around with Laird.

1:03:141:03:16

-He looked after you as well?

-Of course. I was his brother.

1:03:161:03:18

He took care of me. I mean, he was the only one giving me beatings!

1:03:181:03:22

Let's put it that way. It was a privilege deal.

1:03:221:03:26

He wanted to be Hawaiian.

1:03:291:03:31

He used to dream, he said, of wishing he had brown skin, to be Hawaiian.

1:03:311:03:36

Because, for him, that was what was sort of beautiful and strong,

1:03:361:03:40

because that's what was around him.

1:03:401:03:42

Couldn't get girlfriends, didn't have a lot of friends. What did he do?

1:03:451:03:50

He spent and put all that energy into the water.

1:03:501:03:54

In the face of this youthful alienation, Laird precociously

1:03:561:03:59

turned to an older generation for inspiration and camaraderie.

1:03:591:04:03

Laird Hamilton was around the legendary big-wave riders

1:04:031:04:06

of the '60s, who were moving through into the '70s,

1:04:061:04:10

his dad being one of them.

1:04:101:04:11

During that time, Pipeline Beach was the Mecca of surfing

1:04:111:04:14

and anybody who was anybody in surfing came to Pipeline and surfed Pipeline.

1:04:141:04:19

So I got to see all the guys.

1:04:191:04:21

His dad was making boards for Peter Cole,

1:04:211:04:24

Warren Harlow, Jose Angel, the pioneers of big-wave surfing,

1:04:241:04:29

and Laird was just this little sponge soaking all this stuff up.

1:04:291:04:34

I aspired to be like these pioneers of big-wave riding

1:04:341:04:38

because they were going out on days when people were evacuating.

1:04:381:04:41

Considering his pedigree, a traditional pro-surfing career

1:04:411:04:44

was Laird's for the taking but from a young age

1:04:441:04:47

his imagination was captured by the mythic canvas of riding giant waves.

1:04:471:04:52

I was young and impressionable in 1969

1:04:521:04:55

so I understood the volume of what was possible.

1:04:551:04:58

It was like, I understood that there was stuff out there

1:04:581:05:01

that hadn't been tapped and that the ocean was capable of producing places

1:05:011:05:04

and things that no-one had really done.

1:05:041:05:07

What Laird, and the other big-wave riders from as far back

1:05:071:05:11

as the '50s knew is that lying far beyond the traditional breaks

1:05:111:05:14

like Waimea were another set of remote off-shore reefs

1:05:141:05:18

capable of producing waves of unimaginable size.

1:05:181:05:22

Even before 1969, the amazing Third Reef Pipeline broke once

1:05:241:05:28

in 1963 as a result of a freak storm that awoke the sleeping giant.

1:05:281:05:33

It took Greg Noll and Mike Stang two hours to make the long paddle out.

1:05:351:05:39

They waited another two hours until Greg finally caught

1:05:391:05:43

one of the most epic rides in North Shore history.

1:05:431:05:45

Another ambitious attempt occurred 30 years later in 1993,

1:06:041:06:08

when North Shore surfer Alec Cooke, armed with an 11-foot board,

1:06:081:06:13

an emergency scuba tank and a helicopter, had himself

1:06:131:06:16

dropped in the path of a six-storey swell off Oahu's Kaena Point.

1:06:161:06:20

He made a valiant effort, actually making the drop on one massive wall before being swallowed.

1:06:211:06:26

Episodes like this made it clear that when it came to riding giant, outer-reef waves,

1:06:271:06:32

traditional paddle-in surfing had its limits.

1:06:321:06:35

When they talked about the limitations of big wave riding,

1:06:351:06:38

it wasn't riding the wave, it was catching the wave.

1:06:381:06:40

Because, as waves increase in size, they also increase in speed,

1:06:401:06:46

so the bigger the wave, the faster it's moving,

1:06:461:06:48

the faster you need to go in order to catch it.

1:06:481:06:51

Having already established himself as a dominant force in traditional

1:06:511:06:54

Hawaiian breaks, Laird Hamilton continued to explore the boundaries

1:06:541:06:57

of extreme ocean sports, developing into a world-class windsurfer.

1:06:571:07:02

Powered by the wind, Laird and his fellow sail-boarders discovered

1:07:021:07:06

the speed and mobility necessary to access the outer reefs and sailed

1:07:061:07:11

into waves previously impossible to catch by hand.

1:07:111:07:13

But then you had this sail and you weren't really surfing,

1:07:131:07:16

you were wind-surfing,

1:07:161:07:17

and it was so restrictive that you lost the freedom that surfing had.

1:07:171:07:21

I had just done a GQ shoot with Laird

1:07:301:07:33

and we both liked wind-surfing and surfing so we started hanging out.

1:07:331:07:37

Buzzy and I had been playing around in the Zodiac all summer

1:07:391:07:42

doing flat-water freeboarding and we were freeboarding in the summer

1:07:421:07:45

and there was a little swell and we were using swells for ramps

1:07:451:07:49

and all of a sudden we started like taking speed and catching waves

1:07:491:07:52

and that's when the light went off, one summer day, and we're like, "Oh, wow, we can catch waves."

1:07:521:07:56

"We might be able to ride bigger waves."

1:07:561:07:59

In December of 1992, Laird Hamilton, along with pro-surfer Buzzy Kerbox,

1:08:211:08:27

and legendary North Shore lifeguard and Waimea Bay rider Darrick Doerner

1:08:271:08:31

launched into the surf at Sunset Beach in a 16-foot inflatable Zodiac.

1:08:311:08:36

Neither of the three could have imagined that by the time

1:08:361:08:38

they got back to the beach that afternoon,

1:08:381:08:41

big wave surfing would be changed forever.

1:08:411:08:43

They weren't riding waves that were significantly bigger than guys had ridden.

1:09:151:09:19

It was how they were surfing the wave.

1:09:191:09:21

This radical new approach of being whipped into a wave

1:09:211:09:24

came to be called tow-in surfing.

1:09:241:09:26

You get the sling-shot from the tow rope, you let go of the rope

1:09:261:09:29

and there you are on this beautiful, giant wave with no-one near you,

1:09:291:09:33

on this big giant board,

1:09:331:09:35

there's no crowd there.

1:09:351:09:36

Bingo.

1:09:371:09:38

Progress came quick as the trio swapped the clumsy inflatable

1:09:411:09:44

for the faster and more agile jetski.

1:09:441:09:47

With the jetski, you can catch waves all day long and not even get your hair wet.

1:09:491:09:53

Back in 1987, North Shore veteran Herbie Fletcher,

1:09:531:09:56

who for years had been exploring the outer reefs on a jetski,

1:09:561:09:59

towed pro-surfer Martin Potter into a wave at Second Reef Pipeline.

1:09:591:10:03

An innovative idea that surprisingly failed to inspire others

1:10:051:10:08

until five years later, when Hamilton, Kerbox

1:10:081:10:11

and Doerner revealed tow-in surfing's true potential.

1:10:111:10:15

In traditional big wave surfing, the boards were very large

1:10:161:10:20

and the reason for the size of the board was to catch the wave.

1:10:201:10:24

Once you were in, you didn't need a big board. You were fine.

1:10:241:10:27

We didn't visualise what actually was going to take place

1:10:271:10:31

until we went snowboarding.

1:10:311:10:33

Bing!

1:10:341:10:35

And if we could ride these giant mountains on this tiny little board,

1:10:351:10:40

well, why couldn't we do that surfing?

1:10:401:10:43

Aided by renowned board builders Dick Brewer, Billy Hamilton

1:10:441:10:48

and Jerry Lopez, the trio chopped their boards by three feet,

1:10:481:10:52

then, drawing inspiration from windsurfing and snowboarding,

1:10:521:10:55

they strapped themselves to their boards, providing control

1:10:551:10:57

in the heightened speed and turbulence of riding waves over 30 feet.

1:10:571:11:01

The small board was really the big breakthrough.

1:11:041:11:07

That was where we really shifted gears.

1:11:071:11:09

All of a sudden, we had the speed.

1:11:091:11:11

The liberation of paddling by motor suddenly opened up

1:11:111:11:14

big wave surfing's next frontier.

1:11:141:11:16

Now it seemed that riding any wave, breaking anywhere,

1:11:161:11:20

at any size was possible.

1:11:201:11:23

Then came the idea of this thing on Maui, where Gerry sat down

1:11:231:11:28

with Laird and said, "I got something you might want to see."

1:11:281:11:32

When he understood what we had going, he was like, "Hey, young man.

1:11:321:11:37

"Come over here. I got something to show you."

1:11:371:11:40

MUSIC: "Jaws Main Theme" by John Williams

1:11:401:11:43

We knew that we had discovered the real unridden realm.

1:12:231:12:28

Located on Maui's remote north coast, and requiring a long,

1:12:401:12:44

dangerous approach by sea, is Peahi, also known as Jaws.

1:12:441:12:49

Peahi revealed itself as the big wave of the future

1:12:521:12:55

and within its awesome size and power, tow-in surfing came of age.

1:12:551:13:00

The biggest difference between this wave

1:13:131:13:15

and Waimea is that this was about five Waimeas.

1:13:151:13:18

You pick Makaha, Waimea, Sunset, Pipeline, Kaena Point, Mavericks,

1:13:181:13:22

put them all in a pot and mix them all together

1:13:221:13:24

and that's what you get, and more.

1:13:241:13:27

Like Waimea and Mavericks, Peahi featured its own crew

1:13:281:13:31

of ground-breaking pioneers.

1:13:311:13:34

In addition to Hamilton, Doerner and Kerbox were windsurfing champion Dave Kalama...

1:13:341:13:38

..then Mike Waltz, Pete Cabrinha, Mark Angulo,

1:13:411:13:44

Rush Randle and Brett Lickle.

1:13:441:13:47

Known as the Strap Crew,

1:13:471:13:48

these boys rewrote the rules of big wave surfing by riding

1:13:481:13:51

giant waves in a manner that was once the realm of sheer fantasy.

1:13:511:13:54

Things that previously we only dreamed of doing, things we

1:14:031:14:06

only saw in animation, suddenly, these surfers were doing it.

1:14:061:14:09

Now, you're riding waves with greater speed than you ever dreamed of.

1:14:091:14:13

I mean, it's like a dream.

1:14:131:14:15

"Oh, my God, I'm on a perfect wave, going 35 miles an hour",

1:14:151:14:18

it's just so fun.

1:14:181:14:20

Like, I better shut up.

1:14:221:14:25

Coming up on the ski and seeing plumes of water

1:14:291:14:31

going 100 feet in the air, and you can kind of hear the drone

1:14:311:14:34

of the skis in the distance and stuff and it looks like Waterworld

1:14:341:14:37

and you have things in your head, "What's going on?

1:14:371:14:40

"What waves are guys riding? How bad have wipe-outs been today?

1:14:401:14:42

"Like, is anyone dead yet?"

1:14:421:14:44

The first time I surfed at Peahi, I remember getting

1:14:441:14:49

so uptight on the way out, just going, "Oh, man," you know?

1:14:491:14:52

So much anxiety, that I was thinking,

1:14:521:14:57

"Jesus, I'm not going to be able to surf."

1:14:571:15:00

And I remember finally having to go,

1:15:001:15:03

"OK...

1:15:031:15:05

"Shit.

1:15:051:15:07

"I guess this is a good day to die."

1:15:071:15:09

Challenging waves in the 50 and 60 foot range obliterated the concept

1:15:111:15:15

of surfing as a solitary pursuit and rewired the rules of engagement.

1:15:151:15:18

You've got to have eyes in the back of your head and I've got eyes - Dave and Derrick.

1:15:181:15:22

They see what I need to see.

1:15:221:15:24

I'll just kind of balance right on the crest of the shoulder

1:15:241:15:27

so that I can see what Laird's doing and I can also see what's behind us.

1:15:271:15:31

It's a three-man operation - Laird and Kalama will be paired up,

1:15:321:15:36

I'll be in the channel for safety.

1:15:361:15:38

Performing as a team is the key to survival in 50-foot plus waves

1:15:391:15:42

where every wipeout becomes life-threatening.

1:15:421:15:46

When things go wrong, they go wrong real quick.

1:15:501:15:53

They're getting brutalised so severely.

1:15:551:15:57

You just don't know when it's going to end.

1:15:571:15:59

You're an insignificant little rag doll,

1:15:591:16:02

trying to keep your limbs in, so that nothing gets ripped off.

1:16:021:16:06

I mean, God almighty, anybody looks at that shit and says,

1:16:061:16:10

"How can that guy live through that?"

1:16:101:16:12

The single greatest threat is getting trapped in the impact zone

1:16:181:16:22

and held under water, as successive ten-storey waves explode overhead.

1:16:221:16:26

Out of sheer neccessity of survival, tow-in surfing

1:16:281:16:30

introduced the big wave rescue, with the ski driver ready and willing

1:16:301:16:34

to put himself in harm's way to come to the aid of his fallen partner.

1:16:341:16:38

I'm thinking about one thing - the next wave that's going to hit him

1:16:401:16:44

and how much time I have from where I am to get to him, get him on the ski and get out of there.

1:16:441:16:49

Sometimes you're not going to be able to come in and get him

1:16:491:16:52

immediately, and he might have to take two or three on the head.

1:16:521:16:56

You've got to dash in there

1:17:011:17:02

and hopefully the timing's right that the guy's going to pop up

1:17:021:17:06

just as you're coming by and you get him, otherwise you got to get

1:17:061:17:09

out of there and the guy's got to take another one on the head.

1:17:091:17:13

Because, you know, if you lose the ski then both of you are screwed.

1:17:161:17:19

You can rush into a situation where a person is drowning

1:17:191:17:22

and now there's two persons drowning.

1:17:221:17:24

In a rescue situation where you're really in peril and it's for real

1:17:351:17:39

and it's a real situation,

1:17:391:17:40

there's that connection

1:17:401:17:42

and you can see it in the eyes where,

1:17:421:17:44

"We need to do this and we need to do it right now.

1:17:441:17:46

"Nothing else matters."

1:17:461:17:48

But as soon as that moment passes, it's pure love. "Thank you, buddy.

1:18:011:18:07

"I love you. Thank you for getting me out of here."

1:18:071:18:10

If one of those guys go down, I will put myself on the line every time.

1:18:111:18:17

And each one of those guys,

1:18:171:18:19

they'll put themselves on the line for guys they don't even know,

1:18:191:18:22

or guys they might not even like, but it's part of their personality.

1:18:221:18:26

It's part of their nature, so when they go home at night,

1:18:261:18:28

they sleep well, because they don't think,

1:18:281:18:31

"I should have, I could have, why didn't I?" They do it.

1:18:311:18:33

When you're underwater and you know, "OK, I'm here by myself right now

1:18:441:18:48

"underwater but I know there's somebody up there

1:18:481:18:51

"who's doing everything they can to help me right now."

1:18:511:18:54

Even if he can't help you, the confidence that's instilled

1:18:541:18:58

by believing in that person buys you time.

1:18:581:19:02

It gives you confidence to just make it to the surface.

1:19:021:19:05

It really makes survival a whole different story than if you were

1:19:051:19:11

out there on your own, swimming around in the water, you know?

1:19:111:19:15

With no-one but yourself.

1:19:151:19:16

The experiences that you have there,

1:19:251:19:28

the friendships that are formed, going through those

1:19:281:19:32

experiences are ones that are very deep, cos there's times where

1:19:321:19:38

you call upon or experience the most deepest sense of who you are.

1:19:381:19:44

MUSIC: "Trois Gymnopedies" by Austin Peralta

1:19:441:19:48

There's something about riding a 60, 80 foot face wave,

1:20:101:20:14

that draws something out of you.

1:20:141:20:17

The wave commands so much focus and so much attention

1:20:171:20:20

that it's the only thing that matters for a few seconds,

1:20:201:20:23

and it's very purifying, because as far as you're concerned,

1:20:231:20:26

nothing else exists.

1:20:261:20:29

You're not doing this for your own glory, you're doing this

1:20:401:20:43

because you're caught up in this great act of nature, you know.

1:20:431:20:47

Ironically, the biggest challenge

1:20:581:21:00

facing these professional big wave riders is not the wave itself.

1:21:001:21:04

You can't just go get it on Sunday at 12 o'clock,

1:21:091:21:12

like you can most anything else.

1:21:121:21:15

When the ocean is not making

1:21:151:21:16

some of the waves available, Laird suffers.

1:21:161:21:20

Like a lot of the other guys do.

1:21:201:21:22

Oh, I get so depressed, it's like...

1:21:221:21:24

HE SIGHS DEEPLY

1:21:241:21:26

We get frustrated and depressed, and bitchy and grouchy, you know.

1:21:281:21:34

You really don't want to be around us when it's like that.

1:21:341:21:37

Laird was trying to explain to me what it was like

1:21:371:21:41

when there was no waves, and he said, "It would sort of be like,

1:21:411:21:44

"if you were a dragon slayer and there just were no more dragons.

1:21:441:21:47

"And then you wonder, who am I and what am I doing here?"

1:21:471:21:50

And I question that all year long, except when I'm out surfing.

1:21:501:21:55

Laird's the king out there.

1:22:261:22:27

I mean, he was the one that, like Greg at Waimea,

1:22:271:22:31

dragged the guys out there.

1:22:311:22:33

You just watch him surf,

1:22:461:22:48

there's no-one that comes close to his abilities.

1:22:481:22:51

He has the ability to actually slow himself down,

1:22:551:22:58

where everybody else just wants to run like hell.

1:22:581:23:00

The reason why I'm able to ride waves the way I do is because

1:23:111:23:14

I have partners like Dave and Eric.

1:23:141:23:16

I'm only arriving at this level

1:23:161:23:18

because I'm being driven by these guys to this level.

1:23:181:23:21

There's just no question that this guy

1:23:271:23:30

is the best big wave rider the world's ever seen.

1:23:301:23:32

In August of 2000,

1:23:381:23:40

Hamilton took another giant leap by riding a wave so treacherous

1:23:401:23:44

and so outrageous, that it affected the course

1:23:441:23:47

of big wave surfing history.

1:23:471:23:50

The wave broke 3,000 miles south of Maui

1:23:501:23:52

on the French Polynesian island of Tahiti.

1:23:521:23:56

At a reef pass known simply as Teahupo'o.

1:23:561:23:59

Who ever thought that a wave could suck so much water off the reef,

1:24:101:24:13

that a wave could be so powerful and cylindrical?

1:24:131:24:16

The wave Laird encountered at Teahupo'o

1:24:181:24:20

is a freak of hydrodynamics.

1:24:201:24:23

Unlike the deep water, big wave breaks of Waimea, Mavericks and Peahi,

1:24:231:24:27

Teahupo'o explodes laterally onto an extremely shallow, razor-sharp reef.

1:24:271:24:32

The result is an extraordinary wave, that while not as high as Peahi,

1:24:361:24:40

is almost unfathomable in its mass, power and ferocity.

1:24:401:24:46

Teahupo'o's reputation was already fearsome,

1:24:561:24:59

but neither Laird nor Derek could have imagined the once-in-a-lifetime wave

1:24:591:25:04

that eventually appeared on the horizon.

1:25:041:25:06

I towed him onto this wave,

1:25:061:25:10

and it was to the point where I almost said,

1:25:101:25:13

"Don't let go of the rope". When I looked back, he was gone.

1:25:131:25:16

I think it's the single heaviest thing I've ever seen in surfing.

1:25:391:25:44

What could be heavier than that?

1:25:441:25:45

Laird's wave at Teahupo'o was the single most significant ride in surfing history,

1:25:471:25:53

more than any other ride, because what it did is it completely restructured,

1:25:531:25:57

collectively, our entire perception of what was possible.

1:25:571:26:01

You go through a surf magazine, you've seen Waimea,

1:26:011:26:05

you've seen everything, and none of it has any impact.

1:26:051:26:08

But when that photo came out, it stopped everyone's heart,

1:26:081:26:12

and they went, "Where and what is that?!"

1:26:121:26:15

I remember picking up that magazine, looking at that magazine

1:26:151:26:19

and just going, "Man, that shit's impossible! You don't do that."

1:26:191:26:25

In my absolute prime, there is no way I could ride a wave like that.

1:26:251:26:30

Normally surfers are dragging this hand along the face.

1:26:301:26:33

Laird had to drag his back hand on the opposite side of his board,

1:26:331:26:38

to keep himself from getting sucked up in that hydraulic.

1:26:381:26:43

In the middle of that maelstrom, how did his mind say,

1:26:431:26:46

"This is what I have to do."

1:26:461:26:48

No-one had ever ridden as Laird rode on that wave before,

1:26:481:26:51

so it was the imagination of dealing with that unimaginable energy,

1:26:511:26:55

and coming up with the plan spontaneously. He couldn't practice!

1:26:551:26:59

I asked Laird, "Why do you ride waves like this?

1:27:041:27:08

"Why do you risk your life riding waves like this?"

1:27:081:27:11

And he looked at me.

1:27:111:27:12

This was a week after he did this, and he was kind of drained from the experience,

1:27:121:27:16

he was very mellow, and I think he was humbled by the experience.

1:27:161:27:20

And he goes, "Dad, I've trained my whole life for this.

1:27:201:27:23

"I don't want to miss an opportunity like that."

1:27:231:27:26

I don't want to not live because of my fear of what COULD happen.

1:27:381:27:42

It softened some hard corners in my life, I would say.

1:27:511:27:54

And I felt honoured to be awarded with something so...

1:27:541:28:00

..magnificent, that it just made me appreciate

1:28:021:28:05

what I've been able to have, experience, do.

1:28:051:28:08

MUSIC: "Ka Pua U'l" by Kahauana Lake Trio

1:28:201:28:23

One of the things I love about my work as a physician,

1:28:491:28:53

I work with cancer patients, and people with life-threatening illnesses,

1:28:531:28:58

is to see what often takes place, which is transformation, literally,

1:28:581:29:03

where they just begin to eliminate the bullshit.

1:29:031:29:05

And they begin to actually live, truly live, almost for the first time.

1:29:071:29:11

And those kind of life-changing events can come from illness,

1:29:111:29:17

they can come from revelation,

1:29:171:29:19

they can actually come, for me anyway, from big wave surfing.

1:29:191:29:24

That's the thing about that, it's that ultimate big wave that you ride,

1:29:241:29:28

that you remember for the rest of your time.

1:29:281:29:31

They're ingrained in your brain, just like your child being born.

1:29:311:29:35

I haven't missed a swell in 55 years,

1:29:421:29:45

I'm still as excited about surfing as I've ever been.

1:29:451:29:48

I mean, I literally run to the water with my board, hooting and laughing and giggling.

1:29:481:29:53

Centuries ago, a young Hawaiian stood up on his surfboard,

1:29:581:30:01

and slid gently across the face of a breaking wave.

1:30:011:30:04

That same wave has rolled through time, crossing many oceans,

1:30:051:30:10

bearing the giants of surfing.

1:30:101:30:12

From King Kamehameha to Duke Kahanamoku,

1:30:121:30:15

from George Downing to Greg Noll,

1:30:151:30:18

from Jeff Clark to Laird Hamilton,

1:30:181:30:22

sweeping them all toward that most supreme pleasure,

1:30:221:30:25

driven on so fast and smoothly by the sea.

1:30:251:30:29

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

1:30:591:31:02

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1:31:021:31:06

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