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The ancient Hawaiian sport
of surfing can be traced back...

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...as far as 1000 years ago,
as men, women, children...

3
00:02:29,566 --> 00:02:31,859
...and even Hawaii's
great King Kamehameha...

4
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...enjoyed the thrill of riding waves.

5
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In the earliest description
of the sport by a visiting European...

6
00:02:41,620 --> 00:02:44,956
...Captain James Cook observed
upon watching a surf rider...

7
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...in the year of 1777:

8
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"I could not help concluding this man
felt the most supreme pleasure...

9
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...while he was being driven on
so fast and so smoothly by the sea."

10
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Then in the 1800s,
the waves fell flat...

11
00:03:01,348 --> 00:03:04,767
...with the arrival
of the Calvinist missionaries.

12
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Shocked and outraged
by the state of undress...

13
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...and the easy mixing of the
sexes that surfing fostered...

14
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...the missionaries banned the sport.

15
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The extinct Polynesian pastime
was then reintroduced...

16
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...in the early 20th century
by Alexander Hume Ford...

17
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...a globetrotting promoter, who set
about reviving island tourism...

18
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...by romanticizing surfing at Waikiki.

19
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In 1912 came surfing's
first international icon...

20
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...Waikiki beach boy and celebrated
Olympic swimming champion...

21
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...Duke Kahanamoku, the only surfer
to ever appear on a U.S. stamp.

22
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While traveling the globe
giving swimming demonstrations...

23
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...Duke became surfing's
Johnny Appleseed...

24
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...introducing his favorite sport
to far-flung places like California...

25
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...New York and Australia.

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One of the fans enthralled by
the Duke was a young Wisconsin...

27
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...swimming champion
named Tom Blake.

28
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Relocating to Hawaii,
Blake would go on to become...

29
00:04:07,623 --> 00:04:10,416
...one of the 20th century's
most influential surfers...

30
00:04:10,584 --> 00:04:14,170
...through his innovative surfboard
design, but most importantly...

31
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...through his advocacy
of surfing as a way of life.

32
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By 1948, surfing had taken root
along the California coast...

33
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...where a skinny 10-year-old from
Hermosa Beach named Greg Noll...

34
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...found himself immersed
in the emerging subculture.

35
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Following in the footsteps
of pioneers like Pete Peterson...

36
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...and Lorrin Harrison,
Noll eagerly joined the ranks...

37
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...of these eccentric sportsmen,
carving out an entirely new...

38
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...and free-spirited lifestyle.

39
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Those guys were all
kind of gentlemanly.

40
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It was a different era.

41
00:04:59,257 --> 00:05:01,592
Something went to hell
in the early '50s.

42
00:05:01,760 --> 00:05:04,720
It's like somebody threw
a light switch. With the advent...

43
00:05:04,888 --> 00:05:07,640
...of the lightweight longboard,
something happened.

44
00:05:16,066 --> 00:05:18,651
It was the introduction
of lightweight balsa wood...

45
00:05:18,819 --> 00:05:21,904
...and the newly discovered
aerospace material, fiberglass...

46
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...that cut the weight of surfboards
and paved the way...

47
00:05:25,450 --> 00:05:29,328
...for a younger generation to begin
picking up the offbeat sport.

48
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There was a feeling
of individuality and freedom...

49
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...from being able to ride this wave.
It made us feel free...

50
00:05:37,838 --> 00:05:39,588
...and I think almost rebellious.

51
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The ride itself is such
a bitchen deal, so rewarding....

52
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It becomes so important to you
that it becomes the object...

53
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...around which you plan your life.

54
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Everyone else is planning
around money.

55
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A bunch of guys
come along and they go:

56
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"Screw the money, I'm having
all the fun I can possibly have.

57
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Girls are loving it." Here we are...

58
00:06:01,278 --> 00:06:04,113
...a bunch of scroungy surfers.
The shittier you dress...

59
00:06:04,281 --> 00:06:07,700
...and the funnier you talk-- Which
nobody understood the stuff...

60
00:06:07,868 --> 00:06:10,286
...we were saying, because
it was surf jargon...

61
00:06:10,454 --> 00:06:13,289
...the more fun we had,
the more it pissed off society.

62
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With the devotion to riding waves
came the creation of a new lifestyle...

63
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...centered around all things beach.

64
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This emerging lifestyle went in direct
opposition to mainstream values...

65
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...as surfers were often regarded
as nothing more than beach bums.

66
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My parents never saw me surf.

67
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You know, they couldn't come
to the game...

68
00:06:59,836 --> 00:07:02,505
...they couldn't see the score
up on the board...

69
00:07:02,672 --> 00:07:05,591
...and couldn't understand
what good it did.

70
00:07:06,009 --> 00:07:09,428
Greg Noll's principal said, "What are
you guys doing on the beach?

71
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What exactly--?" Not just riding,
not going out to surf.

72
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But, "What are you doing
on the beach?"

73
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For the first time,
they had a group of guys...

74
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...that didn't give a rat's ass,
dropping out of the basketball team...

75
00:07:23,652 --> 00:07:26,112
...and just giving the whole thing
the finger...

76
00:07:26,279 --> 00:07:29,073
...going, "I don't give a shit.
I wanna go surfing."

77
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For this new generation of surfers...

78
00:07:36,581 --> 00:07:40,334
...surfing wasn't just something
you did, but something you became.

79
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Not just a sport, but a statement.

80
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I think getting radical was part
of the culture at that time.

81
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After a while it was expected of us...

82
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...and therefore we fulfilled
those expectations.

83
00:07:52,055 --> 00:07:54,348
Some guy's dad
had gotten back from the war...

84
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...and he had a closet
of Nazi stuff he brought back.

85
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Then they went over and took Flexies
and rode down a storm drain...

86
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...for a mile underneath the town
of Windansea.

87
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And that was just having a good time.

88
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But people see it and go,
"What's this all about?"

89
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That behavior wasn't
mean-spirited. It was playful.

90
00:08:32,596 --> 00:08:35,097
It was like turning a hearse
into a surf-mobile.

91
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Instead of dead bodies, it was all
about living life to the fullest.

92
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Amidst the mirth and mayhem
of the fledging surf scenes...

93
00:08:42,606 --> 00:08:45,983
...from Windansea to San Onofre,
to Malibu, much homage...

94
00:08:46,151 --> 00:08:48,611
...was given to the sport's
Polynesian roots...

95
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...with grass shacks, floral aloha
shirts and the playing of ukuleles.

96
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But on a winter morning in 1953,
another Hawaiian import...

97
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...landed like a bomb
on the front porch of California.

98
00:09:05,879 --> 00:09:07,963
I remember I was
a 14-year-old paperboy...

99
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...delivering the Evening Outlook.

100
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I got to work--
I had looked at the front page...

101
00:09:15,138 --> 00:09:17,640
...and there it was: Buzzy Trent,
George Downing...

102
00:09:17,807 --> 00:09:22,478
...and Wally Froiseth coming down
what looked like a 30-foot wave.

103
00:09:26,983 --> 00:09:31,111
This simple image sent shock waves
through California's surf culture...

104
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...triggering the first migration
of West Coast surfers...

105
00:09:34,491 --> 00:09:38,661
...to the Hawaiian Islands
and Oahu's Makaha Beach.

106
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It was Makaha's combination
of smooth...

107
00:09:46,878 --> 00:09:50,631
...crystal-blue warm water,
and large, gently tapered waves...

108
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...that helped create surfing's first
accessible big-wave riding paradise.

109
00:09:59,557 --> 00:10:03,519
At Makaha, if we had 10 guys
on a good day, that was a lot.

110
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You knew every one.
They were there every time.

111
00:10:06,523 --> 00:10:08,357
To us, that was a crowd at the time.

112
00:10:08,525 --> 00:10:11,485
You'd be out there for maybe
about two, three hours...

113
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...and you would only catch,
like, five waves.

114
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You don't wanna mess up.
You don't have no leash...

115
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...and you're way out there. When
you get wiped out, there's nobody.

116
00:10:38,138 --> 00:10:41,056
In the early days, we lived
on the beach. We had tents.

117
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Then later on, we all got together
and rented a Quonset hut...

118
00:10:44,602 --> 00:10:48,522
...for 25 or up to 50 bucks, and
10 guys would be in the Quonset hut.

119
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It was cheap. That was an upgrade.

120
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It was easygoing.
No problems, no hassles.

121
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And we used to leave
our board on the beach there...

122
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...go to Waikiki for two days,
come back, it'd be there.

123
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Nobody would touch it.

124
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The Californians were mentored...

125
00:11:28,938 --> 00:11:31,774
...by Makaha's first generation
of big-wave riders.

126
00:11:31,941 --> 00:11:35,402
Surfers like Woody Brown,
along with Wally Froiseth...

127
00:11:35,570 --> 00:11:38,197
...George Downing and Buzzy Trent,
had spent much...

128
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...of the previous decade
challenging Makaha's giant surf.

129
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They were the astronauts
of their era.

130
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They were conquering waves
no one had.

131
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To me, those guys
were bigger than life.

132
00:11:51,252 --> 00:11:56,298
That trio of guys were
the first really hardcore...

133
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...big-wave riders that set
the blueprint for the next generation.

134
00:12:01,763 --> 00:12:04,014
But it was 23-year-old
George Downing...

135
00:12:04,182 --> 00:12:08,268
...who carved the mold from which
all other big-wave riders were cast.

136
00:12:08,436 --> 00:12:12,648
I think George Downing, in a sense,
is truly the original big-wave surfer.

137
00:12:12,816 --> 00:12:16,276
Downing designed and built
the first true big-wave surfboard...

138
00:12:16,444 --> 00:12:20,656
...and was instrumental in exploring
Oahu's other big-wave breaks.

139
00:12:20,824 --> 00:12:22,783
They wanted to ride
more big waves...

140
00:12:22,951 --> 00:12:24,993
...and Makaha doesn't
get big that often.

141
00:12:25,161 --> 00:12:27,996
And we had heard these fabulous
tales about, you know...

142
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...this deep, dark, foreboding place
called the North Shore.

143
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Fifteen miles up the coast
from Makaha was the North Shore...

144
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...a remote 13-mile stretch
of coastline backed up against...

145
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...a patchwork of pineapple fields
and taro farms.

146
00:12:52,689 --> 00:12:56,442
I can remember coming out
of the pineapple fields of Schofield...

147
00:12:56,609 --> 00:12:59,695
...and getting my first glimpse
of the North Shore.

148
00:12:59,863 --> 00:13:03,657
Here's this magical place
laid out in front of you.

149
00:13:03,867 --> 00:13:07,828
Suddenly they get to a place
where all those dreams live.

150
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You'd go another
couple hundred yards...

151
00:13:10,290 --> 00:13:11,999
..."Shit, here's another place."

152
00:13:12,167 --> 00:13:14,668
At first, we didn't have a clue
we had stumbled...

153
00:13:14,836 --> 00:13:18,005
...on something so fabulously
magical and powerful.

154
00:13:19,924 --> 00:13:22,551
They must have thought
that they'd found nirvana.

155
00:13:25,513 --> 00:13:28,348
The discovery of the North Shore
was surfing's equivalent...

156
00:13:28,516 --> 00:13:30,392
...of Columbus reaching
the New World.

157
00:13:30,560 --> 00:13:33,854
Nowhere else on Earth would there
be found so many world-class...

158
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...big-wave breaks
in such close proximity.

159
00:13:37,025 --> 00:13:39,026
What the Paris runways
are to fashion...

160
00:13:39,194 --> 00:13:42,112
...is what the North Shore
is to the world of surfing.

161
00:13:42,614 --> 00:13:47,284
We were among the first Californians
to dedicate themselves to surfing.

162
00:14:10,099 --> 00:14:13,477
We were spending eight,
10 hours a day in the water...

163
00:14:13,645 --> 00:14:15,771
...doing nothing but
surfing our guts out.

164
00:14:15,939 --> 00:14:17,481
There wasn't any home life.

165
00:14:17,649 --> 00:14:20,442
We spent our days
on the beach. That's what we did.

166
00:14:20,610 --> 00:14:24,279
We surfed all day, every day,
no matter what.

167
00:14:24,447 --> 00:14:26,782
In those days, we never saw girls.

168
00:14:28,409 --> 00:14:31,703
If you brought a date and sat her
in the car while you surfed...

169
00:14:31,871 --> 00:14:34,122
...you never had that date again.

170
00:14:36,960 --> 00:14:38,919
These guys came to surf.

171
00:14:39,087 --> 00:14:41,922
And it was kind of unheard of.
You don't have a job...

172
00:14:42,090 --> 00:14:44,800
...you're gonna spend
a couple of months here to surf.

173
00:14:44,968 --> 00:14:48,804
No watch, no money,
no car, no nothing.

174
00:14:48,972 --> 00:14:51,390
Just shorts and a T-shirt.

175
00:14:51,558 --> 00:14:54,268
There were no hotels.
There was a place in Hale'iwa...

176
00:14:54,435 --> 00:14:56,061
...that was a set of cubicles--

177
00:14:56,229 --> 00:14:59,189
You'd have guys sharing
the place and getting mattresses...

178
00:14:59,357 --> 00:15:02,317
...from the Salvation Army
and throwing them on the floor.

179
00:15:02,485 --> 00:15:05,988
And, I mean, it was a scene
to try to make ends meet.

180
00:15:06,364 --> 00:15:09,241
There wasn't a lot of money,
so if we wanted to eat...

181
00:15:09,409 --> 00:15:12,578
-...we had to go diving.
-We'd dive every day...

182
00:15:12,745 --> 00:15:15,831
...and get fish and lobster,
and turtle in those days.

183
00:15:15,999 --> 00:15:18,667
They would pick coconuts
and papayas, and go fishing.

184
00:15:18,835 --> 00:15:20,836
In those days, you could live
off the land.

185
00:15:21,337 --> 00:15:23,130
Guys would come
from the mainland...

186
00:15:23,298 --> 00:15:26,508
...they'd patch our surfboards
for a peanut-butter sandwich.

187
00:15:27,051 --> 00:15:31,138
Pat Curren and I, we'd get in trouble.
We'd steal chickens or something.

188
00:15:41,608 --> 00:15:44,109
I mean, the whole thing
was waiting for waves.

189
00:15:44,319 --> 00:15:47,279
We would do anything
to amuse ourselves and each other...

190
00:15:47,447 --> 00:15:52,200
...so somewhere I had learned about
how to put lighter fluid in your mouth...

191
00:15:52,410 --> 00:15:57,831
...and torch it off. Actually, I did
set the side of that house on fire.

192
00:15:59,834 --> 00:16:02,711
They're just spending their days
living in the sun...

193
00:16:02,879 --> 00:16:06,506
...and living a life that's not the '50s,
gray-flannel-suit thing.

194
00:16:06,716 --> 00:16:10,385
It's like an alternative thing
the way Kerouac was...

195
00:16:10,553 --> 00:16:13,472
...and bikers were,
except they're having fun.

196
00:16:13,640 --> 00:16:15,557
That was the counterculture
of its day.

197
00:16:15,725 --> 00:16:17,893
You know, you were
bucking the system...

198
00:16:18,061 --> 00:16:20,437
...and you went to Hawaii,
and you rode waves.

199
00:16:23,900 --> 00:16:26,693
They were the pioneers,
not only of riding big waves...

200
00:16:26,861 --> 00:16:28,779
...but of the culture of surfing.

201
00:16:28,946 --> 00:16:31,865
They set the pace, this kind of
free-and-easy lifestyle.

202
00:16:32,033 --> 00:16:34,034
That really was a unique period
in history.

203
00:16:34,202 --> 00:16:37,788
They were doing something so unique
in the 20th century...

204
00:16:37,955 --> 00:16:39,748
...and there was a handful of them.

205
00:16:39,916 --> 00:16:42,751
It wasn't like jazz, where there
was the Chicago scene...

206
00:16:42,919 --> 00:16:46,421
...the New York scene. This was it.
That tiny little epicenter...

207
00:16:46,589 --> 00:16:50,759
...those two dozen intrepid men,
and the women that went with them...

208
00:16:50,927 --> 00:16:53,345
...living that life.
It only lasted a few years.

209
00:16:53,721 --> 00:16:56,765
What a remarkable time
that must have been.

210
00:18:19,474 --> 00:18:23,518
As these surfers rode more and more
of the North Shore's fantastic waves...

211
00:18:23,686 --> 00:18:26,146
...the biggest wave of all
still eluded them.

212
00:18:26,355 --> 00:18:30,859
The spot, Waimea Bay,
which began to break...

213
00:18:31,027 --> 00:18:34,321
...when the rest of the North Shore
was too big to surf.

214
00:18:40,536 --> 00:18:43,705
But Waimea Bay was riddled
with taboos and fears...

215
00:18:43,873 --> 00:18:47,459
...as surfers of the '50s were haunted
by the memory of Dickie Cross...

216
00:18:47,710 --> 00:18:51,296
...a young California surfer
who, in December of 1943...

217
00:18:51,672 --> 00:18:54,132
...became trapped
by a fast-rising storm swell...

218
00:18:54,342 --> 00:18:56,718
...while surfing Sunset Beach.

219
00:18:57,929 --> 00:19:01,264
Unable to reach the shore,
he and fellow-surfer Woody Brown...

220
00:19:01,432 --> 00:19:04,684
...elected to paddle three miles
to the safer, deep-water...

221
00:19:04,852 --> 00:19:06,561
...Waimea Bay.

222
00:19:06,729 --> 00:19:09,064
But 50-foot waves
were closing out the bay...

223
00:19:09,232 --> 00:19:12,192
...and while attempting
to reach shore, both were caught...

224
00:19:12,360 --> 00:19:15,612
...by mountains of white water
and ripped from their boards.

225
00:19:16,489 --> 00:19:19,032
Brown eventually washed up
on shore naked...

226
00:19:19,242 --> 00:19:22,911
...while 17-year-old Cross
was never seen again.

227
00:19:23,079 --> 00:19:26,414
It spooked everybody. They
were like, "You can't ride there.

228
00:19:26,582 --> 00:19:29,751
It's a killer. We're not gonna
go out there. You're gonna die."

229
00:19:30,044 --> 00:19:33,088
Along with the death of Dickie Cross,
Waimea's reputation...

230
00:19:33,256 --> 00:19:35,382
...was steeped in superstition
and dread...

231
00:19:35,591 --> 00:19:38,260
...with tales that ranged
from haunted houses...

232
00:19:38,427 --> 00:19:41,054
...to human sacrifices at the heiau...

233
00:19:41,222 --> 00:19:43,932
...or Hawaiian burial ground,
overlooking the bay.

234
00:19:44,100 --> 00:19:46,518
All of these things
were whizzing around...

235
00:19:48,229 --> 00:19:49,938
...like a bunch of ghouls.

236
00:19:50,106 --> 00:19:52,440
People really believed
if you paddled out...

237
00:19:52,608 --> 00:19:54,734
...there was gonna be
this goddamn vortex.

238
00:19:54,902 --> 00:19:58,113
It'd be like flushing a toilet,
and there go the haoles.

239
00:19:58,281 --> 00:20:00,615
People thought you couldn't ride
Waimea Bay.

240
00:20:00,783 --> 00:20:03,743
They watched it, and they said,
"Can't be done."

241
00:20:03,911 --> 00:20:05,620
You'd look at Waimea and wonder...

242
00:20:05,955 --> 00:20:08,123
...can the human body
survive the wipeout?

243
00:20:13,754 --> 00:20:16,381
But the lure of riding Waimea
was unrelenting...

244
00:20:16,591 --> 00:20:19,467
...as during each swell,
surfers would find themselves...

245
00:20:19,635 --> 00:20:24,055
...standing spellbound on the shore,
transfixed by the sight of the huge...

246
00:20:24,223 --> 00:20:26,892
...perfectly shaped waves
exploding off the point.

247
00:20:31,355 --> 00:20:34,232
We'd go by there when it
was breaking, and you're going:

248
00:20:34,400 --> 00:20:36,318
"That looks like a ridable wave."

249
00:20:36,485 --> 00:20:40,238
You could see that this had all the
potential of being a great surf spot.

250
00:20:40,406 --> 00:20:45,911
And at some point you just had to go,
"To hell with it, we can do this thing."

251
00:20:46,579 --> 00:20:49,664
On a fall day in October of 1957...

252
00:20:49,957 --> 00:20:52,542
...a handful of surfers
converged on Waimea...

253
00:20:52,710 --> 00:20:56,171
...as a 20-foot swell
began lighting up the bay.

254
00:21:02,845 --> 00:21:05,513
Sitting on the point,
watching the huge, empty waves...

255
00:21:05,681 --> 00:21:08,516
...with his buddy Mike Stang,
19-year-old Greg Noll...

256
00:21:08,684 --> 00:21:10,226
...had finally seen enough.

257
00:21:10,478 --> 00:21:13,229
He unstrapped his board,
and with Mike Stang in tow...

258
00:21:13,397 --> 00:21:15,857
...walked down
to the water's edge.

259
00:21:16,734 --> 00:21:20,153
Moments later, they were joined
by fellow-surfers Pat Curren...

260
00:21:20,321 --> 00:21:24,783
...Micky Munoz, Del Cannon,
Fred Van Dyke, Harry Church...

261
00:21:24,951 --> 00:21:27,869
...Bing Copeland and Bob Bermel...

262
00:21:29,205 --> 00:21:30,872
...who with Noll and Stang...

263
00:21:31,040 --> 00:21:34,250
...paddled out
to attempt the impossible.

264
00:21:41,926 --> 00:21:44,386
It was obvious
where the waves were breaking...

265
00:21:44,553 --> 00:21:47,514
...and we'd all had enough
experience so that...

266
00:21:47,807 --> 00:21:50,308
...you know, you knew pretty much
where to paddle to.

267
00:21:50,476 --> 00:21:52,394
I remember paddling
into the lineup...

268
00:21:52,561 --> 00:21:55,230
...and your balls were
in your stomach, you know...

269
00:21:55,398 --> 00:21:57,732
...thinking the bottom
was gonna fall out...

270
00:21:57,900 --> 00:22:00,193
...and something was
gonna eat you alive.

271
00:22:02,029 --> 00:22:04,572
I'm thinking,
"I don't wanna get wiped out"...

272
00:22:04,740 --> 00:22:06,741
...because I know
there's sharks here...

273
00:22:06,909 --> 00:22:09,995
...and I'm not into swimming
with sharks, exactly.

274
00:22:10,162 --> 00:22:12,247
We got out there,
it was a big surprise.

275
00:22:12,415 --> 00:22:15,375
It's, you know-- It's not
an easy takeoff.

276
00:22:29,807 --> 00:22:32,600
I took off on a wave
and went down the side...

277
00:22:32,768 --> 00:22:34,894
...and popped out
the other end and went:

278
00:22:35,104 --> 00:22:37,605
"Shit, I'm still alive.
Nothing's happened."

279
00:22:37,898 --> 00:22:39,357
After we got
a couple waves...

280
00:22:41,068 --> 00:22:43,820
...we go, "Hey we can do this,"
you know.

281
00:22:43,988 --> 00:22:46,114
They broke the taboo.
They went and did it.

282
00:22:46,282 --> 00:22:50,285
And once it was done, opened up
the floodgates and it's like, "Okay...

283
00:22:50,453 --> 00:22:52,120
...now how far do we take it?"

284
00:22:54,707 --> 00:22:56,416
The following year of 1958...

285
00:22:56,584 --> 00:23:00,837
...Waimea Bay blew big-wave surfing
wide open as another migration...

286
00:23:01,005 --> 00:23:04,215
...of surfers came charging
onto Hawaii's North Shore...

287
00:23:04,383 --> 00:23:06,801
...to campaign the huge surf.

288
00:23:10,014 --> 00:23:12,140
They were out to ride
the biggest swells...

289
00:23:12,391 --> 00:23:16,269
...nature could produce. So they built
what came to be known as "guns":

290
00:23:16,437 --> 00:23:19,105
Long, narrow surfboards
designed exclusively...

291
00:23:19,273 --> 00:23:22,317
...for catching the fast-moving,
25-foot waves of Waimea.

292
00:23:25,529 --> 00:23:27,155
I rode an 11-6.

293
00:23:27,448 --> 00:23:31,159
It was first and foremost
a wave-catching machine...

294
00:23:31,327 --> 00:23:34,662
...because if you can't catch
a wave, nothing else matters.

295
00:23:35,331 --> 00:23:37,832
Unlike the somewhat easy
takeoff of Makaha...

296
00:23:38,042 --> 00:23:42,003
...Waimea was a fear-inducing,
25-foot elevator drop...

297
00:23:42,171 --> 00:23:45,882
...sometimes requiring
more faith than skill.

298
00:23:53,307 --> 00:23:56,226
It almost doesn't help to know
what you're doing out there.

299
00:23:56,393 --> 00:23:58,311
If you know too much,
it intimidates you.

300
00:24:01,023 --> 00:24:03,108
Everything is moving.
Nothing is constant.

301
00:24:03,317 --> 00:24:06,653
It's so dynamic
that you can't pre-plan it.

302
00:24:06,821 --> 00:24:09,739
Not only are you riding this mountain,
it's chasing you...

303
00:24:09,907 --> 00:24:12,367
...and you have to use
your skill and ability...

304
00:24:12,535 --> 00:24:14,452
...to get away from this mountain...

305
00:24:15,830 --> 00:24:18,206
...but at the same time,
use it to your benefit.

306
00:24:18,374 --> 00:24:21,709
When you come down the face
of a mountain, you're on fire.

307
00:24:21,877 --> 00:24:25,296
Your heart is exploding, endorphins
are busting out in your brain...

308
00:24:27,216 --> 00:24:31,386
...and you want to not just prove
that you can do it...

309
00:24:31,554 --> 00:24:34,180
...but discover
what you're made out of.

310
00:24:37,726 --> 00:24:40,395
Apart from the challenge
of learning to ride Waimea...

311
00:24:40,604 --> 00:24:45,233
...was the even greater challenge
of surviving the horrifying wipeouts.

312
00:24:45,901 --> 00:24:48,695
You feel like a piece of lint
in a washing machine...

313
00:24:48,863 --> 00:24:51,072
...because the force of nature
you're in...

314
00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:55,451
...is so quantum
beyond comprehension.

315
00:24:55,911 --> 00:24:59,581
I can remember
fracturing my neck at Waimea.

316
00:25:01,083 --> 00:25:04,502
I went over the falls. I hit the water
and my neck went back...

317
00:25:04,670 --> 00:25:07,172
...in a whiplash
and fractured my neck.

318
00:25:07,339 --> 00:25:09,591
Lost all feelings
in my arms and legs.

319
00:25:09,758 --> 00:25:12,802
I was like a seagull full of oil...

320
00:25:12,970 --> 00:25:15,722
...just fluttering in the white water,
out of control.

321
00:25:22,188 --> 00:25:24,439
And some guys came over
and helped me in.

322
00:25:24,690 --> 00:25:28,109
I'm lucky to be alive. And I think
every single big-wave surfer...

323
00:25:28,277 --> 00:25:30,361
...could tell you a story like that.

324
00:25:34,783 --> 00:25:37,952
We didn't have flotation devices,
we didn't have leashes...

325
00:25:38,162 --> 00:25:41,122
...we didn't have helicopters
waiting to scoop you out...

326
00:25:41,290 --> 00:25:43,833
...so if you fucked up,
you were on your own.

327
00:25:59,475 --> 00:26:03,645
By 1959, Waimea had become
the epicenter of big-wave surfing...

328
00:26:03,854 --> 00:26:06,481
...fostering a new crew
of big-wave talents:

329
00:26:06,649 --> 00:26:12,237
Pat Curren, Peter Cole, Ricky Grigg,
Fred Van Dyke, Jose Angel...

330
00:26:12,404 --> 00:26:17,242
...Kealoha Kaio and Greg Noll,
whose big-wave obsession...

331
00:26:17,409 --> 00:26:20,662
...and even bigger-wave personality,
would forever link him...

332
00:26:20,871 --> 00:26:23,081
...with Waimea Bay.

333
00:26:31,507 --> 00:26:34,968
Waimea was my gal, man.
She was like--

334
00:26:35,177 --> 00:26:38,304
I mean, I surfed
with this beautiful woman...

335
00:26:38,472 --> 00:26:41,683
...who allowed me
to get away with shit...

336
00:26:41,850 --> 00:26:46,688
...as long as I didn't act
too outrageously towards her.

337
00:26:59,827 --> 00:27:02,036
There was times...

338
00:27:02,371 --> 00:27:04,539
...where the surf would get perfect...

339
00:27:04,873 --> 00:27:07,458
...and you'd go out
and catch a wave....

340
00:27:07,918 --> 00:27:11,129
You just make this thing
and just have your adrenaline...

341
00:27:11,297 --> 00:27:14,257
...dripping out of your ears.
Paddle back out, do it again.

342
00:27:14,425 --> 00:27:17,176
You get too cocky,
you get your ass slapped a bit...

343
00:27:17,344 --> 00:27:20,305
...she'd let you know it.
But for the most part...

344
00:27:20,514 --> 00:27:26,477
...there was just this full-on love affair
that took place for 25 years.

345
00:27:43,078 --> 00:27:45,997
Nicknamed "The Bull"
for his charging style...

346
00:27:46,248 --> 00:27:49,751
...and clothing himself in a pair
of loud jailhouse-striped trunks...

347
00:27:49,918 --> 00:27:52,879
...Noll emerged as surfing's
first big-wave celebrity.

348
00:27:53,047 --> 00:27:56,132
He looked like a big-wave rider
with that big, thick neck...

349
00:27:58,135 --> 00:28:01,929
...and he had the black-and-white
striped trunks, which was genius.

350
00:28:06,727 --> 00:28:09,687
Surfing needed Greg Noll.
When you look at those surfers...

351
00:28:09,897 --> 00:28:13,066
...they were a stoic bunch. Greg Noll
introduced flamboyance...

352
00:28:13,233 --> 00:28:17,195
...he introduced showmanship.
He introduced that colorful aspect...

353
00:28:17,363 --> 00:28:20,031
...that most people associated
with hot-doggy Malibu.

354
00:28:20,199 --> 00:28:22,909
Not just the way he surfed,
but just the spirit of it.

355
00:28:23,077 --> 00:28:25,078
He introduced that
into big-wave riding.

356
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:31,918
He wanted to ride the biggest wave.

357
00:28:33,587 --> 00:28:37,799
Greg made his reputation on taking off
on the biggest, heaviest wave.

358
00:28:37,966 --> 00:28:40,802
He stuffed himself into positions
no one else would want.

359
00:28:40,969 --> 00:28:44,931
He'd sit over deeper, take off later.
He'd spin around at the last minute.

360
00:28:45,099 --> 00:28:48,726
I mean, he was surfing's,
like, first hell-man.

361
00:28:52,147 --> 00:28:53,898
He just liked confrontation.

362
00:28:54,066 --> 00:28:57,693
He sought it out, in human terms
and in big-wave terms.

363
00:28:59,113 --> 00:29:01,489
I was really a young, skinny kid...

364
00:29:01,657 --> 00:29:05,118
...and I got my ass kicked
from the time I can remember.

365
00:29:05,327 --> 00:29:07,286
I went to school
and had my ass kicked.

366
00:29:07,454 --> 00:29:10,957
I went to high school and had
my ass kicked. And in some ways...

367
00:29:11,125 --> 00:29:14,794
...maybe there was something there
that drove me to want...

368
00:29:15,003 --> 00:29:17,672
...to pursue big-wave riding,
to make a statement.

369
00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:19,674
I'm not a psychologist,
I don't know.

370
00:29:19,842 --> 00:29:23,678
All I know is, once you get into it,
there's an adrenaline, a stoke...

371
00:29:23,846 --> 00:29:27,682
...and that high is so addictive
that once you have a taste of it...

372
00:29:27,850 --> 00:29:29,934
...it's very difficult to not want more.

373
00:29:31,645 --> 00:29:34,188
But for Greg Noll,
big-wave surfing became more...

374
00:29:34,356 --> 00:29:37,108
...than just an adrenaline fix.
It became his identity...

375
00:29:38,485 --> 00:29:40,236
...his way of life and his business.

376
00:29:40,404 --> 00:29:43,030
He was doing it to promote
his surfboard business...

377
00:29:43,198 --> 00:29:45,158
...and worked to promote himself.

378
00:29:45,325 --> 00:29:49,078
Greg was a good hurdy-gurdy man.
He knew how to self-promote himself.

379
00:29:51,290 --> 00:29:53,958
As well as being a successful
surf filmmaker...

380
00:29:54,126 --> 00:29:57,378
...the surfboard business
Noll began in his parents' garage...

381
00:29:57,546 --> 00:30:01,090
...had, by 1965,
become a 20,000-square-foot...

382
00:30:01,258 --> 00:30:04,677
...surfboard factory
built around his big-wave image.

383
00:30:04,845 --> 00:30:07,346
I had a big building,
I had 67 employees...

384
00:30:07,514 --> 00:30:09,390
...I made 150 boards a week.

385
00:30:09,641 --> 00:30:13,394
I was just turning money over
because I was selling them so cheap.

386
00:30:13,562 --> 00:30:15,730
We were all competing
with each other.

387
00:30:16,356 --> 00:30:19,901
He was a board designer. He was
a really influential manufacturer.

388
00:30:20,068 --> 00:30:23,821
He was the most complete surfer
of the '50s and '60s, by far.

389
00:30:23,989 --> 00:30:25,198
No one could come close.

390
00:30:27,534 --> 00:30:31,746
Despite the dramatic exploits of Noll
and the other Waimea Bay surfers...

391
00:30:31,914 --> 00:30:34,790
...it was a naive 15-year-old girl
from California...

392
00:30:35,042 --> 00:30:37,418
...and her desire to join
the Malibu surf set...

393
00:30:37,628 --> 00:30:40,171
...that launched surfing
into mainstream America.

394
00:30:40,422 --> 00:30:43,508
Surfing is out of this world!
You can't imagine the thrill...

395
00:30:43,717 --> 00:30:47,887
...of shooting the curl. It surpasses
every living emotion I've ever had!

396
00:30:50,766 --> 00:30:52,600
Hey! This is the ultimate!

397
00:31:00,692 --> 00:31:03,319
When you look at surfing's history...

398
00:31:03,487 --> 00:31:07,406
...everything has to be perceived
as either pre-Gidget or post-Gidget.

399
00:31:07,574 --> 00:31:09,951
-You can't mean....
-I'm a surf bum.

400
00:31:10,118 --> 00:31:13,496
You know, ride the waves, eat,
sleep, not a care in the world.

401
00:31:13,747 --> 00:31:16,749
From the movie Gidget in '59,
when there was fewer...

402
00:31:16,917 --> 00:31:21,128
...than 5,000 surfers, to 1963,
there was probably 2 million surfers.

403
00:31:21,338 --> 00:31:25,633
So in five years it went from 5,000
to 2 or 3 million people doing it.

404
00:31:33,308 --> 00:31:35,393
Following the film release
of Gidget...

405
00:31:35,561 --> 00:31:37,853
...surfing underwent
a radical transformation.

406
00:31:38,021 --> 00:31:39,897
Surf shops opened doors
up and down...

407
00:31:40,065 --> 00:31:42,066
...America's West and East coasts.

408
00:31:42,901 --> 00:31:46,612
John Severson's Surfer Magazine
began publication...

409
00:31:46,863 --> 00:31:52,076
...and in 1962, surf-music pioneer
Dick Dale sold 75,000 copies...

410
00:31:52,244 --> 00:31:56,330
...of his album Surfers' Choice
in Southern California alone.

411
00:32:06,883 --> 00:32:10,886
Suddenly surfing was perceived
as hip. People assumed surfers...

412
00:32:11,054 --> 00:32:13,848
...were in the know. Look at
the life they were leading.

413
00:32:14,016 --> 00:32:19,437
The sun, the bikinis, that sort of aura
of sex, beach blankets and fires...

414
00:32:19,605 --> 00:32:22,148
...and then all that
golden flesh in the sun.

415
00:32:25,277 --> 00:32:29,238
Hollywood followed Gidget with
a medley of surf exploitation films.

416
00:32:29,406 --> 00:32:34,952
Then, in 1964, the Hollywood film
Ride the Wild Surf turned its lens...

417
00:32:35,120 --> 00:32:38,956
...on Hawaii's big-wave surfers
challenging Waimea Bay.

418
00:32:39,207 --> 00:32:42,043
Man, I've been hot to surf Waimea
since I was 13.

419
00:32:42,794 --> 00:32:46,547
But the question is, can we do it
without winding up in traction?

420
00:32:51,053 --> 00:32:52,678
The theme is all the same.

421
00:32:52,846 --> 00:32:56,015
Chicks in bikinis wringing
their hands that their boyfriends...

422
00:32:56,183 --> 00:33:00,519
...are gonna go out and risk his life
for some big wave. It just--

423
00:33:00,687 --> 00:33:03,314
Man, it just makes me puke.

424
00:33:03,482 --> 00:33:06,025
-Man, is he getting creamed.
-He's taking gas.

425
00:33:06,193 --> 00:33:07,902
They show the film.

426
00:33:08,070 --> 00:33:10,446
A guy's sitting in a fish pond
without a ripple.

427
00:33:10,614 --> 00:33:12,573
A big flat-out is coming!

428
00:33:12,741 --> 00:33:15,701
Then they cut to, you know,
a 25-foot wave.

429
00:33:15,869 --> 00:33:19,622
Guys are all pouring down
the face of the wave.

430
00:33:21,416 --> 00:33:24,335
Goddamn, man.
Who can believe that shit, you know.

431
00:33:27,839 --> 00:33:31,384
Hollywood's always had
a misconstrued view of surfing.

432
00:33:31,551 --> 00:33:34,553
So it was more or less offensive
to the surfing community.

433
00:33:34,930 --> 00:33:38,265
All these ancillary artistic
pursuits that surrounded surfing...

434
00:33:38,433 --> 00:33:40,476
...all came together in a rush.

435
00:33:40,644 --> 00:33:44,271
All of it happening
from 1960 to 1965.

436
00:34:02,124 --> 00:34:04,750
On December 4th, 1969...

437
00:34:04,918 --> 00:34:07,878
...big-wave surfing was hit
with what would become known...

438
00:34:08,046 --> 00:34:10,881
...as the greatest swell
of the 20th century.

439
00:34:15,470 --> 00:34:18,305
A massive low-pressure system
metastasized...

440
00:34:18,473 --> 00:34:20,516
...into one colossal storm system...

441
00:34:20,684 --> 00:34:23,352
...that consumed
the North Pacific Ocean basin...

442
00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:27,189
...resulting in the largest waves
ever recorded.

443
00:34:29,067 --> 00:34:31,819
The super-size storm
uprooted trees...

444
00:34:31,987 --> 00:34:35,072
...dislodged boats
onto Oahu's Kam Highway...

445
00:34:35,240 --> 00:34:37,825
...and blew houses
right off their foundations.

446
00:34:38,869 --> 00:34:42,830
Oahu's 13-mile stretch of stunning,
world-class surf breaks...

447
00:34:42,998 --> 00:34:47,168
...became a morass
of turbulent, six-story storm surf.

448
00:34:52,591 --> 00:34:54,675
At first light,
I was sitting at Waimea...

449
00:34:54,843 --> 00:34:57,470
...looking in disbelief
at what I was seeing.

450
00:34:57,637 --> 00:35:03,517
It was breaking so big that Waimea
was just full of white water.

451
00:35:05,937 --> 00:35:09,523
So I decided to go around
Ka'ena Point and look at Makaha...

452
00:35:09,691 --> 00:35:11,859
...because that would be
the last spot...

453
00:35:12,027 --> 00:35:15,196
...that would still have
some chance of holding up.

454
00:35:16,198 --> 00:35:18,532
Noll set off west to Makaha...

455
00:35:18,700 --> 00:35:21,160
...the birthplace of modern
big-wave surfing...

456
00:35:21,328 --> 00:35:24,371
...thinking the huge swells
slamming into the North Shore...

457
00:35:24,539 --> 00:35:25,790
...would be tempered...

458
00:35:25,957 --> 00:35:29,877
...as they wrapped around
the island's far western bend.

459
00:35:30,045 --> 00:35:34,381
On the drive west, he stopped briefly
at Ka'ena Point to snap this picture...

460
00:35:34,549 --> 00:35:36,801
...which Surfer Magazine
later claimed...

461
00:35:36,968 --> 00:35:39,970
...was the largest wave
ever photographed.

462
00:35:42,599 --> 00:35:45,684
When we got to Makaha,
the cops were going around...

463
00:35:45,852 --> 00:35:49,355
...with blare horns on their cars
telling people to evacuate...

464
00:35:49,523 --> 00:35:51,732
...the homes on the point.

465
00:35:51,900 --> 00:35:55,945
Makaha was the only big-wave break
on Oahu considered ridable...

466
00:35:56,112 --> 00:36:01,116
...as Noll and a handful of daring
surfers attempted the huge swells.

467
00:36:02,786 --> 00:36:04,245
As the morning progressed...

468
00:36:04,412 --> 00:36:07,498
...the hundred-year swell
surging out of the North Pacific...

469
00:36:07,666 --> 00:36:11,418
...was giving rise
to bigger and bigger waves.

470
00:36:11,586 --> 00:36:15,673
Finally, everybody was out
of the water. I was the only one left.

471
00:36:15,841 --> 00:36:20,427
And I was having a real hard time
trying to gear myself for this thing.

472
00:36:20,595 --> 00:36:23,264
Because I knew that basically
it was a situation...

473
00:36:23,431 --> 00:36:27,101
...where your chances of surviving one
of these waves was about fifty-fifty.

474
00:36:27,853 --> 00:36:29,603
And I'm thinking to myself:

475
00:36:29,771 --> 00:36:32,773
"Is it worth giving up the farm
for a stupid wave?"

476
00:36:32,941 --> 00:36:38,112
I finally had to just paddle
outside the lineup a hundred yards...

477
00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:40,447
...and sit on my board
with my head down...

478
00:36:40,615 --> 00:36:43,951
...and kind of go into another gear.

479
00:36:44,119 --> 00:36:48,539
And the final decision was that
I would never have forgiven myself...

480
00:36:48,707 --> 00:36:51,458
...if I had allowed
this day to go by...

481
00:36:51,626 --> 00:36:53,919
...without at least trying for a wave.

482
00:36:55,046 --> 00:36:56,463
Noll turned and paddled...

483
00:36:56,631 --> 00:37:00,593
...for what was then considered
the biggest wave ever attempted.

484
00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:03,721
No photographers were on hand
to capture his wave.

485
00:37:03,889 --> 00:37:07,600
Not a single shot or a single
frame of footage exists.

486
00:37:07,767 --> 00:37:11,061
All that remains are the memories
of the handful of surfers...

487
00:37:11,229 --> 00:37:14,940
...who were there that day
to witness his momentous ride.

488
00:37:15,859 --> 00:37:19,069
Greg Noll starts to paddle,
and we're all in our cars just going:

489
00:37:19,237 --> 00:37:20,821
"Oh, my God, look at this."

490
00:37:20,989 --> 00:37:24,909
He's starting to paddle into this thing.
It's this huge, black, massive wall.

491
00:37:25,076 --> 00:37:27,077
We watch him.
He takes off, stands up.

492
00:37:27,245 --> 00:37:29,955
He's this little speck.
You're going, "Oh, my God."

493
00:37:30,123 --> 00:37:33,667
And he drops in, and he looks like
a little tiny cartoon figure.

494
00:37:33,835 --> 00:37:35,377
He gets that Greg Noll stance...

495
00:37:35,545 --> 00:37:38,172
...where he gets into this thing
and goes, "I'm going."

496
00:37:38,340 --> 00:37:40,799
Drops down, drops down
and gets to the bottom.

497
00:37:40,967 --> 00:37:44,345
The whole thing's already starting
to come over on top of him.

498
00:37:44,512 --> 00:37:46,972
And he just kind of, like,
stepped off the rail.

499
00:37:47,140 --> 00:37:49,016
There was nowhere to go.
That was it.

500
00:37:49,184 --> 00:37:52,186
The fact that he made the drop,
got to the bottom of the wave--

501
00:37:52,354 --> 00:37:56,190
It was, like, oblivion after that.
The whole thing just:

502
00:38:01,529 --> 00:38:04,281
Along with the birth
of my sons and my daughter...

503
00:38:04,449 --> 00:38:07,701
...it was probably the most
significant day of my life.

504
00:38:07,869 --> 00:38:11,872
Even though it wasn't photographed
and people have argued since then:

505
00:38:12,040 --> 00:38:13,791
"How big was it?"
It doesn't matter.

506
00:38:13,959 --> 00:38:16,543
In our imaginations,
it just was huge.

507
00:38:16,711 --> 00:38:20,464
Because on that classic day
of the biggest swell ever seen...

508
00:38:20,632 --> 00:38:23,717
...he essentially rode alone
and faced it when it came to him.

509
00:38:23,885 --> 00:38:27,888
That's what every surfer does in their
own life. Everyone can relate to that.

510
00:38:38,149 --> 00:38:40,734
As Greg Noll's giant wave
broke and vanished...

511
00:38:40,902 --> 00:38:44,071
...so too did the popularity
of traditional big-wave surfing...

512
00:38:44,239 --> 00:38:45,489
...at Waimea Bay.

513
00:38:45,657 --> 00:38:49,034
As it was broadsided by
the late '60s shortboard revolution...

514
00:38:49,744 --> 00:38:52,162
...where the longer,
heavier big guns...

515
00:38:52,330 --> 00:38:57,001
...were phased out in favor of shorter
and more maneuverable surfboards.

516
00:38:57,752 --> 00:38:58,961
By the early '70s...

517
00:38:59,129 --> 00:39:02,089
...the great Waimea had been
usurped by two spectacular...

518
00:39:02,257 --> 00:39:04,550
...more performance-oriented
North Shore breaks:

519
00:39:04,718 --> 00:39:08,262
The Bonzai Pipeline,
led by surfers like Gerry Lopez...

520
00:39:08,430 --> 00:39:09,888
...and at Sunset Beach...

521
00:39:10,056 --> 00:39:13,851
...by surfers like Jeff Hackman
and Barry Kanaiaupuni.

522
00:39:15,854 --> 00:39:17,646
All this changed in the mid-'80s...

523
00:39:17,814 --> 00:39:20,232
...first with the emergence
of Ken Bradshaw...

524
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:21,734
...and then Mark Foo.

525
00:39:21,901 --> 00:39:23,610
Two professional big-wave riders...

526
00:39:23,778 --> 00:39:26,822
...determined to reintroduce
personality and showmanship...

527
00:39:26,990 --> 00:39:29,450
...to the challenge
of riding giant Waimea.

528
00:39:29,617 --> 00:39:31,035
Then came The Eddie...

529
00:39:31,202 --> 00:39:34,121
...Quiksilver's big-wave
riding contest at Waimea Bay...

530
00:39:34,289 --> 00:39:38,876
...held in memory of the late,
great big-wave rider Eddie Aikau.

531
00:39:39,794 --> 00:39:43,547
Together, Ken Bradshaw,
Mark Foo and The Eddie...

532
00:39:43,715 --> 00:39:46,884
...wrenched the surfing world's
attention back to Waimea Bay...

533
00:39:47,052 --> 00:39:51,221
...then still considered the
Mount Everest of big-wave surfing.

534
00:40:04,819 --> 00:40:10,574
Mavericks wasn't supposed to exist,
it wasn't supposed to be there.

535
00:40:15,038 --> 00:40:18,582
It was a mystery that it was just
suddenly found in this area...

536
00:40:18,750 --> 00:40:22,836
...that's 20-something miles
away from San Francisco.

537
00:40:27,550 --> 00:40:32,387
In Half Moon Bay, who's formerly
famous for its annual pumpkin festival.

538
00:40:32,555 --> 00:40:35,849
It's as if they discovered
Mount Everest behind Mount Whitney.

539
00:40:44,192 --> 00:40:46,151
Teenage surfer Jeff Clark grew up...

540
00:40:46,319 --> 00:40:48,403
...along Half Moon Bay's
secluded coast...

541
00:40:48,571 --> 00:40:52,032
...riding homemade boards in the
region's powerful, rugged waves...

542
00:40:52,200 --> 00:40:54,535
...where he carved out
a frontier existence...

543
00:40:54,702 --> 00:40:58,205
...far removed
from surfing's mainstream.

544
00:40:58,706 --> 00:41:00,457
I was a freshman in high school.

545
00:41:00,625 --> 00:41:03,961
You could see this place exploding
from out behind the building...

546
00:41:04,129 --> 00:41:05,838
...where we'd all congregate.

547
00:41:06,005 --> 00:41:08,382
I was with my childhood friend,
and I'd go:

548
00:41:08,550 --> 00:41:12,970
"Brian, we've gotta go
check that out."

549
00:41:14,055 --> 00:41:17,850
We'd sit up on a cliff and watch
this place go, and one day it was like:

550
00:41:18,017 --> 00:41:20,060
"Brian, today's the day."

551
00:41:21,229 --> 00:41:22,980
I go, "Bring your board."
He's like:

552
00:41:23,148 --> 00:41:25,899
"There's no way I'm paddling
a half a mile offshore...

553
00:41:26,067 --> 00:41:28,026
...to a place I've never been."

554
00:41:28,194 --> 00:41:30,863
And so he sat here at the end
of the cliff and said:

555
00:41:31,030 --> 00:41:35,075
"I'll call the Coast Guard,
tell them where I last saw you."

556
00:41:37,078 --> 00:41:41,248
The year was 1975, and the wave
Clark intended to ride...

557
00:41:41,416 --> 00:41:46,253
...broke a half a mile offshore into
a veritable graveyard of jagged rocks.

558
00:41:48,214 --> 00:41:52,050
The wave was considered more a
navigational hazard than a surf spot.

559
00:41:54,095 --> 00:41:59,516
I just remember a wave jacking up,
I'm in the vein, and total commitment.

560
00:42:00,894 --> 00:42:02,895
If I eat it, I eat it. But I'm going.

561
00:42:04,439 --> 00:42:06,273
And I hit my feet...

562
00:42:06,441 --> 00:42:11,945
...and I've never felt water pass across
the bottom of a surfboard so fast.

563
00:42:12,113 --> 00:42:15,866
The fastest I've ever gone,
and I made it.

564
00:42:16,034 --> 00:42:19,203
And I just thought,
"Man, I want another one of those."

565
00:42:41,601 --> 00:42:44,811
Jeff went out there for the first time
and rode it by himself...

566
00:42:44,979 --> 00:42:48,190
...and couldn't get anyone
to go back out with him.

567
00:42:50,193 --> 00:42:52,527
There just weren't
any takers around here.

568
00:42:52,695 --> 00:42:54,279
People just didn't believe me.

569
00:42:54,447 --> 00:42:56,657
They just thought,
"He's out of his mind.

570
00:42:56,824 --> 00:42:58,825
He doesn't know
what he's talking about."

571
00:42:58,993 --> 00:43:02,412
I said, "It's the best big wave
you'll ever surf."

572
00:43:04,832 --> 00:43:08,043
Jeff Clark was sitting out there,
nobody in the bleachers...

573
00:43:08,211 --> 00:43:12,297
...no helicopters flying over,
no cheering crowds...

574
00:43:12,465 --> 00:43:15,842
...doing his shit by himself.

575
00:43:30,358 --> 00:43:32,776
He'd be like the equivalent
of a mountain man...

576
00:43:32,944 --> 00:43:36,655
...killing a grizzly in the Rockies,
doing a three-day battle...

577
00:43:38,199 --> 00:43:42,953
...then sleeping inside the carcass,
and not having anyone to tell about it.

578
00:43:43,121 --> 00:43:46,081
My parents had no idea
I was riding waves like this.

579
00:43:46,249 --> 00:43:49,084
I believed in my ability
to go out there and ride it.

580
00:43:49,252 --> 00:43:52,713
It was my sanctuary.
I could leave the shore...

581
00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:56,300
...and go out there
and be so focused...

582
00:43:56,467 --> 00:44:02,681
...and so in tune and feel the ocean
with every fiber in my body...

583
00:44:02,849 --> 00:44:04,891
...and I was part of it.

584
00:44:07,645 --> 00:44:11,398
Jeff Clark's greatest challenge
was how he internalized...

585
00:44:11,566 --> 00:44:15,277
...all that emotion and all that drama
and all that adrenaline...

586
00:44:15,445 --> 00:44:19,906
...surfing that place alone
year after year after year.

587
00:44:20,074 --> 00:44:23,618
Jeff Clark surfed Mavericks
alone for 15 years.

588
00:44:25,246 --> 00:44:29,833
Until finally, in 1990, he was able
to convince two Santa Cruz surfers...

589
00:44:30,001 --> 00:44:33,545
...Dave Schmidt
and Tom Powers, to join him.

590
00:44:33,838 --> 00:44:37,632
They went back to Santa Cruz
with these tales of these waves.

591
00:44:37,800 --> 00:44:41,636
And the next time it broke,
there were photographers...

592
00:44:41,804 --> 00:44:43,347
...there were 10 guys.

593
00:44:43,514 --> 00:44:48,018
Suddenly it's like, "Wait a minute.
California is a big-wave place."

594
00:44:52,273 --> 00:44:55,400
The discovery of this monstrous
wave in Northern California...

595
00:44:55,568 --> 00:44:59,154
...produced an entirely new breed
of big-wave surfer.

596
00:45:01,657 --> 00:45:03,784
Once Mavericks came,
it was in our backyard.

597
00:45:05,620 --> 00:45:07,996
It really took time
to figure out what we had.

598
00:45:08,164 --> 00:45:11,041
It wasn't instantaneous,
even though it was gnarly.

599
00:45:12,418 --> 00:45:14,294
It took time for me
to conceptualize.

600
00:45:14,462 --> 00:45:16,254
It was taboo for us to say "20 feet."

601
00:45:17,632 --> 00:45:20,050
It was like, "20-foot waves
only happen in Hawaii."

602
00:45:21,636 --> 00:45:24,805
The thought was, "It can't be as big
and as gnarly as Waimea.

603
00:45:24,972 --> 00:45:27,891
This can't be as hard
as what they're doing there"...

604
00:45:28,059 --> 00:45:31,395
...when in fact it was way harder,
it was way more fearsome...

605
00:45:31,562 --> 00:45:33,355
...and it was way gnarlier.

606
00:45:36,150 --> 00:45:39,403
It's just so gnarly
and rocky and just violent...

607
00:45:39,570 --> 00:45:41,530
...and just hateful, it's hateful.

608
00:45:41,697 --> 00:45:44,116
I jumped in. I had
the worst ice-cream headache.

609
00:45:45,660 --> 00:45:48,412
Within 30 seconds,
I couldn't feel my hands or feet.

610
00:45:48,579 --> 00:45:51,832
How are you supposed to ride
30- to 40- to 50-foot faces?

611
00:45:51,999 --> 00:45:54,000
I'm out of here.

612
00:45:55,670 --> 00:46:00,173
You got sharks, you got rocks,
you got cold water, you got huge surf.

613
00:46:00,341 --> 00:46:04,010
Five-millimeter wet suits, fog banks,
you can't see two feet in front of you.

614
00:46:05,847 --> 00:46:09,641
Oversized boulders
from the Land of the Lost.

615
00:46:10,935 --> 00:46:12,686
They extend across the length...

616
00:46:14,063 --> 00:46:15,897
...of where the wave is breaking.

617
00:46:23,030 --> 00:46:24,823
To reach the waves at Mavericks...

618
00:46:24,991 --> 00:46:26,783
...surfers paddle
over 45 minutes...

619
00:46:26,951 --> 00:46:29,536
...through a maze of rocks,
rip currents...

620
00:46:29,704 --> 00:46:34,416
...and frigid open-ocean chop
until they finally reach the lineup.

621
00:46:37,378 --> 00:46:41,131
The sacred thing in big-wave surfing
is: What are the lineups?

622
00:46:42,508 --> 00:46:46,553
Lineups are a means of triangulating
your position in the ocean.

623
00:46:46,721 --> 00:46:51,975
So you find two reference points
on land at about 90 degrees.

624
00:46:52,143 --> 00:46:55,103
Mainly what I use is this
positioning on hillsides.

625
00:46:55,271 --> 00:46:58,231
I mean, there's a big mountain
behind and a closer cliff.

626
00:46:58,399 --> 00:47:00,859
There's a satellite dish
you can line up.

627
00:47:01,027 --> 00:47:03,069
Line them up so you know
within a few feet...

628
00:47:03,237 --> 00:47:06,490
...where you are in reference
to the reef and the coastline.

629
00:47:06,657 --> 00:47:09,159
Just looking at waves,
you don't know the right spot.

630
00:47:09,327 --> 00:47:12,204
It's very important
to be in the right spot at Mavericks.

631
00:47:12,371 --> 00:47:15,165
If you're too deep,
you won't make it.

632
00:47:16,042 --> 00:47:17,918
You're not just
waiting for a wave.

633
00:47:19,295 --> 00:47:22,923
You're constantly paddling,
trying to maintain your position.

634
00:47:23,090 --> 00:47:27,636
The worst thing that can happen out at
Mavericks is getting caught inside.

635
00:47:29,764 --> 00:47:33,725
There's sets that come
that are on a regular basis...

636
00:47:33,893 --> 00:47:37,771
...and people get used to that,
sitting where those are coming.

637
00:47:37,939 --> 00:47:40,148
Then a sneak set will
come out of the blue.

638
00:47:40,316 --> 00:47:43,193
It's literally just like in those
beach-blanket movies.

639
00:47:43,361 --> 00:47:45,445
There's nothing happening,
you're sitting.

640
00:47:45,613 --> 00:47:47,614
Sometimes,
corny though it may sound...

641
00:47:47,782 --> 00:47:50,784
...someone actually yells,
"Outside!"

642
00:47:50,952 --> 00:47:53,411
And you turn and you go,
"Oh, my!"

643
00:47:56,707 --> 00:48:00,710
Your adrenaline's running,
everything is full rpm.

644
00:48:00,878 --> 00:48:04,005
And you just wanna stroke
as hard as you can.

645
00:48:05,466 --> 00:48:08,218
Heart in your throat,
paddling as if catching a wave...

646
00:48:08,386 --> 00:48:12,138
-...only you're trying to get out.
-It's just a total survival thing.

647
00:48:12,306 --> 00:48:14,808
Nobody cares about
the other guy at that point...

648
00:48:14,976 --> 00:48:17,143
...you just wanna get over it.

649
00:48:20,982 --> 00:48:24,067
Each successive wave
will be bigger than the one before.

650
00:48:24,235 --> 00:48:29,739
You pray the one you barely made it
over is gonna get you to the next one.

651
00:48:29,907 --> 00:48:32,701
The next one's twice as big
as the wave you just saw.

652
00:48:32,868 --> 00:48:35,829
-It's gonna land right on you.
-Then the sinking feeling.

653
00:48:35,997 --> 00:48:38,707
"I'm caught, I'm caught,
and I'm not gonna get away."

654
00:48:38,874 --> 00:48:41,293
Oh, that guy's in the impact zone.

655
00:48:49,176 --> 00:48:51,928
There's a point
where it gets so critical...

656
00:48:52,096 --> 00:48:55,515
...you have to either commit,
and you'll make it out the back...

657
00:48:55,683 --> 00:49:01,646
...or you slide off your board
and swim into a vertical face of water.

658
00:49:02,273 --> 00:49:06,610
You feel like, "Oh, I made it."
Then you're getting sucked back.

659
00:49:06,777 --> 00:49:09,362
The feeling of going over
backwards is horrifying.

660
00:49:09,530 --> 00:49:11,489
It's the worst kind of beating.

661
00:49:11,657 --> 00:49:13,533
Oh, shit.

662
00:49:14,827 --> 00:49:16,870
There's a fiendish pleasure,
though...

663
00:49:17,038 --> 00:49:19,914
...of watching, one by one,
the people you started with--

664
00:49:20,082 --> 00:49:23,001
They get picked off,
don't quite punch through right...

665
00:49:23,169 --> 00:49:25,462
...and they're goners.

666
00:49:40,186 --> 00:49:44,606
Not only is the takeoff
the hardest part of big-wave surfing...

667
00:49:44,774 --> 00:49:46,066
...it's the most fun.

668
00:49:46,233 --> 00:49:49,194
It's entirely different
than any kind of normal surf...

669
00:49:49,362 --> 00:49:53,406
...because it's basically
one burst of energy.

670
00:50:03,417 --> 00:50:05,460
The wave comes out
of deep water...

671
00:50:05,628 --> 00:50:10,048
...but it just stops, and that whole mass
of that wave jacks up.

672
00:50:10,216 --> 00:50:13,510
The bottom of the wave
becomes the top in half a second.

673
00:50:13,678 --> 00:50:16,096
It rears up and pulls back
and sucks up...

674
00:50:16,263 --> 00:50:19,933
...and you really have to find your
niche where you can be under that.

675
00:50:21,769 --> 00:50:25,063
You thought you were paddling into
something maybe 20 or 30 feet.

676
00:50:25,231 --> 00:50:27,732
Now you're riding something
35 to 40 feet tall.

677
00:50:27,900 --> 00:50:30,944
You gotta put everything
you have into getting yourself...

678
00:50:31,112 --> 00:50:33,613
...as far down the face
before it picks you up.

679
00:50:33,781 --> 00:50:38,785
You have to jump off the cliff right
when the thing is about to jump on you.

680
00:50:49,505 --> 00:50:51,756
If you make haste in a takeoff...

681
00:50:51,924 --> 00:50:55,885
...your odds of you making
that wave are very low.

682
00:50:56,637 --> 00:50:59,889
The whole aspect
is really more mental than physical.

683
00:51:00,057 --> 00:51:01,725
You have to believe.

684
00:51:01,892 --> 00:51:04,269
I know when I'm gonna
make a wave or I'm not...

685
00:51:04,437 --> 00:51:06,062
...before I even paddle for it.

686
00:51:06,230 --> 00:51:10,608
I have to overcome that safety
mechanism that wants to rise up...

687
00:51:10,776 --> 00:51:13,695
...and to keep me from doing
something that could kill me.

688
00:51:13,863 --> 00:51:18,658
So this fear of the unknown becomes,
like, something you have to confront.

689
00:51:18,826 --> 00:51:22,662
Because there is no way
to turn back your decision.

690
00:51:29,920 --> 00:51:31,838
I've just wiped out.

691
00:51:32,006 --> 00:51:34,507
I'm getting just worked.

692
00:51:34,675 --> 00:51:39,679
Fluttering down the face,
getting sucked back over the face.

693
00:51:39,847 --> 00:51:41,890
Then you basically become the lip.

694
00:51:46,103 --> 00:51:50,648
Back flips, front flips, McTwists,
every which way underwater...

695
00:51:50,816 --> 00:51:54,027
...real fast over, like,
a football field.

696
00:51:54,195 --> 00:51:58,323
You don't know which direction
is up or down or right or left.

697
00:51:58,491 --> 00:52:01,242
It's black. It's dark.
I can feel the pressure in my ears.

698
00:52:01,410 --> 00:52:03,203
You're sure you're near
the surface...

699
00:52:03,370 --> 00:52:06,664
...then what you have perceived
to be up is actually the bottom.

700
00:52:06,832 --> 00:52:10,543
And the leash is pulling hard on you,
the board is tombstoning up there.

701
00:52:10,711 --> 00:52:14,297
And I realize that if there
was another wave that was coming...

702
00:52:14,465 --> 00:52:16,257
...I'm finished.

703
00:52:16,425 --> 00:52:19,135
At one point, it started to stop,
and I thought, "Okay...

704
00:52:19,303 --> 00:52:20,678
...I'm gonna live," you know.

705
00:52:20,846 --> 00:52:23,556
-I started to swim up--
-And the next wave hit.

706
00:52:23,724 --> 00:52:27,560
Then it started all over again,
every bit as bad as the first part of it.

707
00:52:31,065 --> 00:52:35,360
I remember feeling underwater,
like going over a waterfall underwater.

708
00:52:35,528 --> 00:52:37,403
Literally getting sucked into a hole.

709
00:52:37,571 --> 00:52:41,032
Here I am 30 feet down, and now
it takes me another 15, 20 feet down.

710
00:52:41,200 --> 00:52:44,536
And I slam into the bottom down there.
And you think:

711
00:52:44,703 --> 00:52:47,664
"Oh, my God. I'm deeper
than anyone's ever been."

712
00:52:49,917 --> 00:52:52,335
You get to a point
when you're down there, like:

713
00:52:52,503 --> 00:52:54,462
"Okay, this is not
happening anymore."

714
00:52:54,630 --> 00:52:57,298
You know, you gotta
get to the surface to get air.

715
00:52:57,466 --> 00:53:03,596
Finally, when I come up to the surface,
I remember it being so bright.

716
00:53:03,764 --> 00:53:06,724
It was like being in a dream
and all of a sudden:

717
00:53:08,185 --> 00:53:12,021
Back to, "Okay, this is real.
This is live now."

718
00:53:36,171 --> 00:53:39,883
Almost every traumatic thing
that can happen to you at Mavericks...

719
00:53:40,050 --> 00:53:41,509
...is due to the leash.

720
00:53:43,220 --> 00:53:46,556
Leashes are dangerous things
in any surf spot over 20 feet.

721
00:53:49,143 --> 00:53:52,562
There's those few critical situations
where leashes are a hindrance.

722
00:53:53,939 --> 00:53:57,984
After the first wave, Flea found
himself on the wrong end of his leash.

723
00:53:58,152 --> 00:53:59,736
When entangled in a crevice...

724
00:53:59,904 --> 00:54:01,988
...the urethane cord
held him in place...

725
00:54:02,156 --> 00:54:05,783
...while he was repeatedly battered
by incoming white water.

726
00:54:06,577 --> 00:54:09,662
The leash wrapped around rocks.
I was stuck for eight waves.

727
00:54:11,040 --> 00:54:15,209
-How come you couldn't get it off?
-The water current was so strong...

728
00:54:15,377 --> 00:54:18,671
...it's like doing a sit-up
with 200 pounds on your chest.

729
00:54:30,851 --> 00:54:34,520
Flea eventually worked himself loose.
But in a more dramatic incident...

730
00:54:35,898 --> 00:54:38,816
...Jeff Clark was hurled
into Mavericks' rocky Boneyard...

731
00:54:38,984 --> 00:54:42,737
...and was trapped when his leash
became hooked onto Sail Rock.

732
00:54:42,905 --> 00:54:44,948
I can't get the leash off my ankle.

733
00:54:45,115 --> 00:54:48,117
The broken half of my board
is dragging me into the rocks.

734
00:54:48,285 --> 00:54:52,872
Finally, I'm getting swirled around,
I got my hands out, and I feel the rock.

735
00:54:53,040 --> 00:54:55,041
I'm hanging onto
the side of this rock.

736
00:54:55,209 --> 00:55:01,130
I'm underwater and the water starts
to drain, and I am high and dry.

737
00:55:02,466 --> 00:55:04,842
Next thing you know,
another wave came over the rock.

738
00:55:05,010 --> 00:55:08,096
I'm underwater again.
The tension from my leg rope relieved.

739
00:55:08,263 --> 00:55:11,683
I climbed on the rock,
and I got rid of that damn anchor...

740
00:55:11,850 --> 00:55:14,060
...that was around my leg.

741
00:55:14,228 --> 00:55:19,065
It's funny that Mavericks surfers value
their surfboards more than their lives.

742
00:55:19,233 --> 00:55:20,441
It's like a lifeline.

743
00:55:20,609 --> 00:55:23,486
If you get held down,
the only thing that I know...

744
00:55:23,654 --> 00:55:26,906
...is at the end of this is something
that floats more than I do.

745
00:55:27,074 --> 00:55:29,492
So if I wait and hold onto it,
that's up.

746
00:55:29,660 --> 00:55:31,536
So I reach around
and grab my leash...

747
00:55:31,704 --> 00:55:34,372
...and climb it back to the top,
back to the surface.

748
00:55:34,540 --> 00:55:37,625
I know, in my experience,
there were times when...

749
00:55:37,793 --> 00:55:41,421
...if I didn't have a leash,
I'm not sure I would have lived.

750
00:55:42,715 --> 00:55:44,424
In May of 1992...

751
00:55:44,591 --> 00:55:48,219
...two years after Clark shared his
spot with Powers and Schmidt...

752
00:55:48,387 --> 00:55:50,513
...Surfer Magazine
took Mavericks public...

753
00:55:50,848 --> 00:55:53,558
...with a cover story
titled "Cold Sweat."

754
00:55:56,103 --> 00:55:58,271
As if to back up
the front-page headline...

755
00:55:58,439 --> 00:56:03,609
...in 1994, California was bombarded
by a series of epic north swells...

756
00:56:03,777 --> 00:56:07,989
...announcing to surfing's big-wave
fraternity Mavericks was the real deal.

757
00:56:08,490 --> 00:56:10,950
That's when the entire,
you know, surf world...

758
00:56:11,118 --> 00:56:15,288
...converged on Mavericks, like,
"Okay, this place is legitimate.

759
00:56:15,456 --> 00:56:18,291
We're gonna really see
what it's worth here."

760
00:56:20,919 --> 00:56:23,963
On December 23rd, the sudden arrival
of three of Hawaii's...

761
00:56:24,131 --> 00:56:25,923
...most famous
Waimea Bay surfers...

762
00:56:26,091 --> 00:56:29,093
...Ken Bradshaw,
Brock Little and Mark Foo...

763
00:56:29,511 --> 00:56:32,305
...created the biggest stir
and gave the impression...

764
00:56:32,473 --> 00:56:34,891
...that something momentous
was taking place.

765
00:56:40,856 --> 00:56:42,774
That day was amazing...

766
00:56:42,941 --> 00:56:47,820
...to have the Hawaiians paddling out:
Brock Little, Mark Foo, Ken Bradshaw.

767
00:56:47,988 --> 00:56:51,908
My gosh, I was like a proud parent
or something like that, you know...

768
00:56:52,076 --> 00:56:56,162
...because they gave the spot
that I've surfed for so many years...

769
00:56:56,330 --> 00:56:58,831
...the credibility
to actually come and surf it.

770
00:56:58,999 --> 00:57:01,876
Helicopters were hovering,
and photographers...

771
00:57:02,044 --> 00:57:05,088
...from all the mags were there,
and it was just crazy.

772
00:57:05,255 --> 00:57:06,506
We knew it was the day.

773
00:57:06,673 --> 00:57:10,134
This was one of the best days
of surfing I've ever had out there.

774
00:57:20,312 --> 00:57:24,690
Then at approximately 11:20 a.m.,
during a beautiful medium-sized set...

775
00:57:24,858 --> 00:57:27,193
...Mark Foo paddled,
hopped to his feet...

776
00:57:27,361 --> 00:57:31,280
...and dropped into
his second wave of the day.

777
00:57:52,261 --> 00:57:54,595
I went to lunch.
I came back out to the point.

778
00:57:54,763 --> 00:57:59,016
I saw Brock in the parking lot,
and there was this guy, Greg, eerily:

779
00:57:59,184 --> 00:58:01,144
"Have you seen Mark Foo?"

780
00:58:01,311 --> 00:58:03,688
And that was just....

781
00:58:08,193 --> 00:58:13,322
We were headed back in the boat
toward the harbor, and I saw some--

782
00:58:13,615 --> 00:58:16,409
It kind of looked like
a big clump of something...

783
00:58:16,577 --> 00:58:18,703
...as we were, you know,
passing it.

784
00:58:18,871 --> 00:58:20,663
And I pointed it out and said:

785
00:58:20,831 --> 00:58:24,417
"Hey, that looks like a body,"
you know.

786
00:58:24,585 --> 00:58:28,171
And, you know, sure enough,
we stopped the boat...

787
00:58:28,338 --> 00:58:33,217
...and just realized that it was,
you know, Mark Foo.

788
00:58:38,390 --> 00:58:43,853
I dove off and grabbed him
and just rushed to the harbor.

789
00:58:44,021 --> 00:58:46,147
It was a--

790
00:58:46,315 --> 00:58:50,443
It was a really eerie, eerie,
you know, experience...

791
00:58:50,611 --> 00:58:53,029
...and just so chilling.

792
00:58:57,618 --> 00:59:01,787
It went from the most pleasant,
beautiful, plate-glass sunshiny day...

793
00:59:01,955 --> 00:59:05,082
...to the clouds moved in,
it got dark...

794
00:59:05,250 --> 00:59:08,419
...the wind came up,
and it was just, you know...

795
00:59:08,587 --> 00:59:10,880
...like we lost a great warrior.

796
00:59:11,298 --> 00:59:15,343
One of our surfers,
one of our own, was gone.

797
00:59:18,013 --> 00:59:21,140
To have that winter when
Mark Foo passed away, that was--

798
00:59:21,308 --> 00:59:24,310
That was a heavy hit
to everybody.

799
00:59:26,271 --> 00:59:29,690
What added to the shock
of Foo's death were its circumstances.

800
00:59:29,858 --> 00:59:33,361
An innocuous wipeout
on a less-than-death-defying wave...

801
00:59:33,528 --> 00:59:35,446
...in the middle
of a crowded lineup.

802
00:59:35,614 --> 00:59:38,950
I think he fell on his stomach,
knocked the wind out of himself...

803
00:59:39,117 --> 00:59:42,495
...and was fatigued from the flight
the night before, you know.

804
00:59:42,663 --> 00:59:44,830
I think he got caught
on the bottom.

805
00:59:44,998 --> 00:59:48,167
The reason I think his leg rope
got caught in the rocks...

806
00:59:48,335 --> 00:59:49,961
...is that on the next wave...

807
00:59:50,128 --> 00:59:53,172
...Brock Little
and Mike Parsons wipe out.

808
00:59:58,845 --> 01:00:03,182
Parsons comes up,
and Brock was behind him.

809
01:00:03,350 --> 01:00:05,518
In later interviews, Parsons said:

810
01:00:06,895 --> 01:00:09,313
"I felt Brock trying
to get to the surface."

811
01:00:10,691 --> 01:00:12,984
But what he didn't realize
at the time...

812
01:00:13,151 --> 01:00:15,569
...Brock was up and, you know...

813
01:00:15,737 --> 01:00:18,072
...it was Foo trying to get
to the surface.

814
01:00:18,240 --> 01:00:19,573
Which kind of--

815
01:00:19,741 --> 01:00:24,120
It kind of confirms that he was being
held down by something.

816
01:00:27,749 --> 01:00:30,584
I went and examined
his body, actually.

817
01:00:30,752 --> 01:00:33,713
There really wasn't
any discernible injury.

818
01:00:33,880 --> 01:00:36,424
He had a slight scratch
on his forehead.

819
01:00:38,802 --> 01:00:40,845
His countenance, actually...

820
01:00:41,013 --> 01:00:44,307
...was not that of one
who had sort of struggled...

821
01:00:44,474 --> 01:00:46,559
...or who had been in anguish.

822
01:00:49,146 --> 01:00:52,565
I felt, surfing at Mavericks
the years prior to that...

823
01:00:52,733 --> 01:00:56,235
...that someone would die.
I didn't think it would be Mark Foo...

824
01:00:56,403 --> 01:00:58,946
...but somebody who didn't
know what they were in for.

825
01:00:59,114 --> 01:01:03,659
Mark Foo was this guy who was
larger than life to us, you know.

826
01:01:03,827 --> 01:01:08,497
A guy more invincible than any of us,
with more experience than any of us.

827
01:01:08,665 --> 01:01:11,584
He's the guy that said,
"To catch the ultimate thrill...

828
01:01:11,752 --> 01:01:14,253
...you gotta be willing
to pay the ultimate price."

829
01:01:14,421 --> 01:01:18,549
Everyone wanted to understand
what killed him. That was important.

830
01:01:18,717 --> 01:01:21,052
Because they were trying
to assess the risk...

831
01:01:21,219 --> 01:01:23,429
...in the face
of their sudden mortality.

832
01:01:23,597 --> 01:01:26,515
As it sunk in,
I didn't think that could happen.

833
01:01:26,683 --> 01:01:29,852
-I didn't think that could happen.
-I thought I was invincible.

834
01:01:30,020 --> 01:01:33,981
You know, I didn't think-- I thought
I could huck myself over any ledge...

835
01:01:34,149 --> 01:01:36,275
...and pop back up laughing,
you know.

836
01:01:36,443 --> 01:01:39,945
And I think a lot of big-wave
riders have that belief.

837
01:01:40,614 --> 01:01:44,325
When it comes down to it,
it's up to me whether I live or die.

838
01:01:44,493 --> 01:01:47,370
It's up to me whether
I go on a wave or not.

839
01:01:48,538 --> 01:01:51,665
While an extravagant funeral
was planned for Foo in Hawaii...

840
01:01:51,833 --> 01:01:54,418
...surfers from up and down
the California coast...

841
01:01:54,586 --> 01:01:59,131
...gathered at Mavericks for a quiet
tribute to their fallen comrade.

842
01:02:07,641 --> 01:02:10,893
It turned the clocks back
to 10 years before...

843
01:02:11,061 --> 01:02:15,314
...when I'm sitting out there
at the peak, by myself...

844
01:02:15,482 --> 01:02:17,983
...with my own thoughts.

845
01:02:21,863 --> 01:02:24,156
I wasn't sure I wanted
to surf Mavericks.

846
01:02:24,324 --> 01:02:27,827
So when I went back out there,
I wasn't sure if I'd be spooked or not.

847
01:02:27,994 --> 01:02:31,163
I ended up-- You know, the wave
came to me and it was like, "Yes."

848
01:02:31,331 --> 01:02:34,083
Mavericks said, "You wanna
be here, here's your wave."

849
01:02:34,251 --> 01:02:36,293
I caught a great one,
everything was good.

850
01:02:36,461 --> 01:02:39,630
It's the way I thought it was.
But I always knew it could kill me.

851
01:02:39,798 --> 01:02:41,590
That it can kill anyone.

852
01:02:53,353 --> 01:02:57,314
A year to the day after Foo's death,
during a memorial tribute session...

853
01:02:57,482 --> 01:02:59,650
...held in Foo's honor
at Waimea Bay...

854
01:02:59,818 --> 01:03:03,279
...California surfer Donny Solomon
was caught by a close-out set...

855
01:03:03,447 --> 01:03:05,114
...and drowned.

856
01:03:06,950 --> 01:03:09,452
Then in February of 1997...

857
01:03:09,619 --> 01:03:11,871
...well-known big-wave rider
Todd Chesser...

858
01:03:12,038 --> 01:03:16,542
...perished in 30-foot surf at a remote
North Shore outer-reef break.

859
01:03:29,389 --> 01:03:33,642
In 1968, in the thick of that era's
shortboard revolution...

860
01:03:33,810 --> 01:03:36,729
...a fatherless 4-year-old boy
named Laird Zerfas...

861
01:03:36,897 --> 01:03:39,607
...accompanied his mother,
Joann, on a chance visit...

862
01:03:39,774 --> 01:03:42,401
...to Hawaii's North Shore.

863
01:03:43,987 --> 01:03:47,198
He couldn't have known at the time,
but he'd grow up to become...

864
01:03:47,365 --> 01:03:49,909
...the greatest big-wave rider
of his generation.

865
01:03:50,076 --> 01:03:53,579
Perhaps the greatest
the world has ever known.

866
01:03:54,915 --> 01:03:58,250
After my dad left my mom,
before I could even remember...

867
01:03:58,418 --> 01:04:01,337
...I was in search
for a masculine figure in my life.

868
01:04:03,089 --> 01:04:06,800
And my mom needed a husband,
but I needed a dad.

869
01:04:06,968 --> 01:04:08,636
My friend Greg MacGillivray...

870
01:04:08,803 --> 01:04:11,639
...who is, like, the father
of the IMAX films...

871
01:04:11,806 --> 01:04:14,350
...he was making
a surfing movie at the time.

872
01:04:14,518 --> 01:04:16,060
I was helping him make movies.

873
01:04:16,228 --> 01:04:18,437
So I was walking down
the beach to see him.

874
01:04:20,398 --> 01:04:23,609
Here's this little kid playing
around the ocean, so I dove in.

875
01:04:23,777 --> 01:04:26,153
I said, "What's your name?"
"My name's Laird."

876
01:04:26,321 --> 01:04:28,989
I said, "What are you doing?"
He said, "Bodysurfing.

877
01:04:29,157 --> 01:04:30,449
You wanna bodysurf?"

878
01:04:30,617 --> 01:04:32,117
I said, "Sure."

879
01:04:32,285 --> 01:04:35,663
I said, "Why don't you hang
onto my neck, we'll bodysurf."

880
01:04:37,082 --> 01:04:39,291
It was love at first sight
with him and I.

881
01:04:39,459 --> 01:04:41,627
We had this physical
connection instantly.

882
01:04:41,795 --> 01:04:44,547
It was a physical, spiritual, mental--

883
01:04:44,714 --> 01:04:48,300
It was, like, "I love this child" thing.

884
01:04:48,468 --> 01:04:51,136
It was just, "I love this child."

885
01:04:51,304 --> 01:04:53,138
And we were just, like, partners.

886
01:04:54,266 --> 01:04:56,600
When we finished,
he grabbed my hand, he says:

887
01:04:56,768 --> 01:04:59,061
"I want you to come up
and meet my mom."

888
01:04:59,229 --> 01:05:02,106
I don't know if he had a choice.
"You're coming with me."

889
01:05:02,649 --> 01:05:07,194
And there was his mother, beautiful
brown-haired, brown-eyed gal.

890
01:05:07,362 --> 01:05:09,488
I went, "Oh, my God."

891
01:05:09,656 --> 01:05:12,074
Mom was like, "Who's this?"
"This is Bill."

892
01:05:12,242 --> 01:05:14,785
You know, give him the nudge,
you know.

893
01:05:15,328 --> 01:05:18,163
Shortly thereafter,
Billy Hamilton, who was known...

894
01:05:18,331 --> 01:05:21,375
...as one of the sport's
most popular and stylish surfers...

895
01:05:21,543 --> 01:05:24,587
...married Joann,
becoming Laird's adopted father...

896
01:05:24,754 --> 01:05:26,672
...and giving him his name.

897
01:05:28,300 --> 01:05:31,385
I was known for being the kid
that ran around and said:

898
01:05:31,553 --> 01:05:33,596
"My dad's Bill Hamilton.
Know who he is?"

899
01:05:33,763 --> 01:05:36,181
These guys are like--
Guys like Gerry Lopez.

900
01:05:36,349 --> 01:05:38,684
"I know who your dad is.
I see him every day."

901
01:05:38,852 --> 01:05:40,936
"No, but do you know
now it's my dad?"

902
01:05:41,104 --> 01:05:43,188
Like, you know,
they knew who he was...

903
01:05:43,356 --> 01:05:46,817
...but I wanted them to know he was
connected to me. This is my dad.

904
01:05:46,985 --> 01:05:50,237
Because if you don't, you might get
a soda can full of sand...

905
01:05:50,405 --> 01:05:52,197
...in the side of your head or--

906
01:05:54,367 --> 01:05:58,287
The young Hamilton family
set about making a life in Hawaii...

907
01:05:58,455 --> 01:06:01,206
...where, despite the paradisiacal
island setting...

908
01:06:01,374 --> 01:06:04,209
...the initial years took on
a rough edge.

909
01:06:04,377 --> 01:06:07,296
Being a blond Caucasian...

910
01:06:07,505 --> 01:06:11,550
...I kind of represented
the stereotypical person...

911
01:06:11,718 --> 01:06:13,761
...that destroyed
the culture of Hawaii.

912
01:06:13,928 --> 01:06:16,180
A lot of people hated me,
wanted to fight...

913
01:06:16,348 --> 01:06:17,765
...because of my skin color.

914
01:06:18,224 --> 01:06:21,560
The way he learned to fight,
because he was so big and powerful...

915
01:06:21,728 --> 01:06:26,482
...was he'd slap an opponent so hard
it would shock and embarrass them.

916
01:06:26,650 --> 01:06:30,736
It wouldn't injure them, but it would
hurt so bad mentally and physically...

917
01:06:30,904 --> 01:06:33,197
...that he won the fight
right at that minute.

918
01:06:33,365 --> 01:06:35,908
The reputation was,
"Don't f*** around with Laird."

919
01:06:37,535 --> 01:06:40,579
-So he looked after you as well?
-Of course, I was his brother.

920
01:06:40,747 --> 01:06:44,333
He took care of me. I mean, he was
the only one giving me beatings.

921
01:06:44,501 --> 01:06:47,670
Let's put it that way.
It was a privilege deal.

922
01:06:52,008 --> 01:06:53,884
He wanted to be Hawaiian.

923
01:06:54,052 --> 01:06:57,429
He used to dream of wishing that
he had brown skin, to be Hawaiian.

924
01:06:58,973 --> 01:07:04,144
Because for him, that was
what was sort of beautiful and strong.

925
01:07:04,312 --> 01:07:05,771
That's what was around him.

926
01:07:08,108 --> 01:07:11,568
Couldn't get girlfriends,
didn't have a lot of friends.

927
01:07:12,112 --> 01:07:13,445
What did he do?

928
01:07:13,613 --> 01:07:17,574
He spent and put all that energy
into the water.

929
01:07:19,786 --> 01:07:21,954
In the face of this
youthful alienation...

930
01:07:22,122 --> 01:07:24,832
...Laird precociously turned
to an older generation...

931
01:07:24,999 --> 01:07:27,876
...for inspiration and camaraderie.

932
01:07:28,044 --> 01:07:32,256
Laird Hamilton was around the
legendary big-wave riders of the '60s...

933
01:07:32,424 --> 01:07:35,467
...who were moving into the '70s,
his dad being one of them.

934
01:07:35,635 --> 01:07:39,138
During that time period, Pipeline
Beach was the mecca of surfing...

935
01:07:39,305 --> 01:07:43,767
...and anybody who was anybody
in surfing came and surfed Pipeline.

936
01:07:43,935 --> 01:07:45,561
So I got to see all the guys.

937
01:07:45,729 --> 01:07:49,815
His dad was making boards
for Peter Cole, Warren Harlow...

938
01:07:50,066 --> 01:07:54,319
...Jose Angel, the pioneers
of big-wave surfing.

939
01:07:54,487 --> 01:07:58,031
And Laird was just this little sponge
soaking all this stuff up.

940
01:07:59,617 --> 01:08:03,829
I aspired to be like these pioneers
of big-wave riding.

941
01:08:03,997 --> 01:08:07,040
They were going out on days
when people were evacuating.

942
01:08:07,208 --> 01:08:10,169
Considering his pedigree,
a traditional pro surfing career...

943
01:08:10,336 --> 01:08:11,837
...was Laird's for the taking.

944
01:08:12,005 --> 01:08:14,673
But from a young age,
his imagination was captured...

945
01:08:14,841 --> 01:08:17,885
...by the mythic canvas
of riding giant waves.

946
01:08:18,052 --> 01:08:21,305
I was young and impressionable
in 1969.

947
01:08:21,473 --> 01:08:25,017
So I understood the volume
of what was possible.

948
01:08:25,185 --> 01:08:28,479
I understood there was stuff
out there that hadn't been tapped...

949
01:08:28,646 --> 01:08:32,399
...and that the ocean was capable
of producing places and things...

950
01:08:32,567 --> 01:08:34,485
...that no one had really done.

951
01:08:34,986 --> 01:08:37,112
What Laird and the other
big-wave riders...

952
01:08:37,280 --> 01:08:39,281
...from as far back as the '50s knew...

953
01:08:39,449 --> 01:08:42,826
...is that lying far beyond
the traditional breaks like Waimea...

954
01:08:42,994 --> 01:08:45,496
...were another set of remote
offshore reefs...

955
01:08:45,663 --> 01:08:49,666
...capable of producing waves
of unimaginable size.

956
01:08:51,878 --> 01:08:53,670
Even before 1969...

957
01:08:53,838 --> 01:08:57,841
...the amazing third-reef Pipeline
broke once in 1963...

958
01:08:58,009 --> 01:09:01,720
...as a result of a freak storm
that awoke the sleeping giant.

959
01:09:03,807 --> 01:09:07,684
It took Greg Noll and Mike Stang two
hours to make the long paddle out.

960
01:09:07,852 --> 01:09:10,979
They waited another two hours,
until Greg finally caught...

961
01:09:11,147 --> 01:09:13,899
...one of the most epic rides
in North Shore history.

962
01:09:34,712 --> 01:09:38,507
Another ambitious attempt occurred
30 years later, in 1993...

963
01:09:38,675 --> 01:09:40,717
...when North Shore surfer
Alec Cook...

964
01:09:40,885 --> 01:09:42,845
...armed with an 11-foot board...

965
01:09:43,096 --> 01:09:45,597
...an emergency scuba tank
and a helicopter...

966
01:09:45,765 --> 01:09:48,684
...had himself dropped in the path
of a six-story swell...

967
01:09:48,852 --> 01:09:50,310
...off Oahu's Ka'ena Point.

968
01:09:51,104 --> 01:09:53,772
He made a valiant effort,
actually making the drop...

969
01:09:53,940 --> 01:09:56,441
...on one massive wall,
before being swallowed.

970
01:09:57,819 --> 01:10:00,863
Episodes like this made it clear
that when it came to riding...

971
01:10:01,030 --> 01:10:02,364
...giant outer-reef waves...

972
01:10:02,532 --> 01:10:04,825
...traditional paddle-in surfing
had its limits.

973
01:10:04,993 --> 01:10:08,161
Any time they talked about
the limitations of big-wave riding...

974
01:10:08,329 --> 01:10:11,290
...it wasn't riding the wave,
it was catching the wave.

975
01:10:11,457 --> 01:10:13,792
Because as waves
increase in size...

976
01:10:13,960 --> 01:10:16,086
...they also increase in speed.

977
01:10:16,254 --> 01:10:18,964
So the bigger the wave,
the faster it's moving...

978
01:10:19,132 --> 01:10:21,633
...the faster you need
to be going to catch it.

979
01:10:21,801 --> 01:10:24,678
Having already established himself
as a dominant force...

980
01:10:24,846 --> 01:10:28,557
...in traditional Hawaiian breaks,
Laird Hamilton continued to explore...

981
01:10:28,725 --> 01:10:30,934
...the boundaries
of extreme ocean sports...

982
01:10:31,102 --> 01:10:33,812
...developing into
a world-class windsurfer.

983
01:10:34,898 --> 01:10:37,774
Powered by the wind, Laird
and his fellow sailboarders...

984
01:10:37,942 --> 01:10:41,904
...discovered the speed and mobility
necessary to access the outer reefs...

985
01:10:42,071 --> 01:10:45,490
...and sail into waves previously
impossible to catch by hand.

986
01:10:45,658 --> 01:10:48,952
But you had this sail. You weren't
surfing, you were windsurfing.

987
01:10:49,120 --> 01:10:53,624
And it was so restrictive that you lost
the freedom that surfing had.

988
01:11:02,884 --> 01:11:05,469
I had just done a GQ shoot
with Laird.

989
01:11:05,637 --> 01:11:07,012
We both liked surfing.

990
01:11:08,681 --> 01:11:10,015
So we started hanging out.

991
01:11:12,602 --> 01:11:15,771
Buzzy and I had been playing around
in the Zodiac all summer...

992
01:11:15,939 --> 01:11:17,606
...doing flat-water freeboarding.

993
01:11:17,774 --> 01:11:20,692
We were freeboarding in the summer,
and there was a swell.

994
01:11:20,860 --> 01:11:23,570
We were using swells for ramps,
and then we started...

995
01:11:23,738 --> 01:11:26,865
...taking speed, catching waves,
and the light went off...

996
01:11:27,033 --> 01:11:28,241
...and we were like:

997
01:11:28,409 --> 01:11:31,870
"Oh, wow, we can catch waves. We
might be able to ride bigger waves."

998
01:11:56,729 --> 01:12:01,984
In December of 1992, Laird Hamilton,
along with pro-surfer Buzzy Kerbox...

999
01:12:02,151 --> 01:12:04,194
...and legendary
North Shore lifeguard...

1000
01:12:04,362 --> 01:12:06,488
...and Waimea Bay rider
Darrick Doerner...

1001
01:12:06,656 --> 01:12:08,532
...launched the surf
at Sunset Beach...

1002
01:12:08,700 --> 01:12:11,660
...in a 16-foot inflatable Zodiac.

1003
01:12:12,120 --> 01:12:16,081
Neither of the three could've imagined
that by the time they got back...

1004
01:12:16,249 --> 01:12:18,875
...big-wave surfing
would be changed forever.

1005
01:12:52,744 --> 01:12:55,620
They weren't riding waves
that were significantly bigger...

1006
01:12:55,788 --> 01:12:58,957
...than guys had ridden. It was
how they were surfing the wave.

1007
01:12:59,125 --> 01:13:01,960
This radical new approach
of being whipped into a wave...

1008
01:13:02,128 --> 01:13:04,296
...came to be called "tow-in surfing."

1009
01:13:04,464 --> 01:13:07,257
You get the slingshot from
the tow rope, you let go...

1010
01:13:07,425 --> 01:13:11,303
...and there you are, on this beautiful
wave with no one anywhere near you...

1011
01:13:11,471 --> 01:13:14,056
...on this big, giant board,
there's no crowd there.

1012
01:13:15,933 --> 01:13:17,142
Bingo.

1013
01:13:19,812 --> 01:13:23,065
Progress came quick, as the trio
swapped the clumsy inflatable...

1014
01:13:23,232 --> 01:13:25,400
...for the faster
and more agile Jet Ski.

1015
01:13:27,820 --> 01:13:30,989
With the Jet Ski, you can catch waves
and not even get your hair wet.

1016
01:13:31,991 --> 01:13:35,035
Back in 1987, North Shore veteran
Herbie Fletcher...

1017
01:13:35,203 --> 01:13:38,580
...who for years had been exploring
the outer reefs on a Jet Ski...

1018
01:13:38,748 --> 01:13:42,959
...towed pro-surfer Martin Potter
into a wave at second-reef Pipeline.

1019
01:13:44,420 --> 01:13:47,964
An innovative idea that, surprisingly,
failed to inspire others...

1020
01:13:48,132 --> 01:13:51,510
...until five years later, when
Hamilton, Kerbox and Doerner...

1021
01:13:51,677 --> 01:13:55,430
...revealed tow-in surfing's
true potential.

1022
01:13:56,140 --> 01:14:00,310
In traditional big-wave surfing,
the boards were very large.

1023
01:14:00,478 --> 01:14:04,689
And the reason for the size
of the boards was to catch the wave.

1024
01:14:04,857 --> 01:14:08,026
Once you were in, you didn't need
a big board, you were fine.

1025
01:14:08,194 --> 01:14:12,197
We didn't visualize what actually
was gonna take place...

1026
01:14:12,365 --> 01:14:15,325
...until we went snowboarding.

1027
01:14:16,536 --> 01:14:19,204
And if we could ride
these giant mountains...

1028
01:14:19,372 --> 01:14:21,623
...on this tiny little board...

1029
01:14:21,791 --> 01:14:24,209
...well, why couldn't we
do that surfing?

1030
01:14:25,253 --> 01:14:28,839
Aided by renowned board-builders
Dick Brewer, Billy Hamilton...

1031
01:14:29,006 --> 01:14:30,549
...and Gerry Lopez...

1032
01:14:30,716 --> 01:14:33,385
...the trio chopped their boards
by three feet.

1033
01:14:33,553 --> 01:14:36,513
Then, drawing inspiration from
windsurfing and snowboarding...

1034
01:14:36,681 --> 01:14:38,849
...they strapped themselves
to their boards...

1035
01:14:39,016 --> 01:14:42,102
...providing control in the heightened
speed and turbulence...

1036
01:14:42,270 --> 01:14:43,895
...of riding waves over 30 feet.

1037
01:14:45,898 --> 01:14:48,316
The small board was really
the big breakthrough.

1038
01:14:48,484 --> 01:14:50,735
I think that's really
where we shifted gears.

1039
01:14:50,903 --> 01:14:53,280
All of a sudden,
now we really had the speed.

1040
01:14:53,447 --> 01:14:55,407
The liberation
of paddling by motor...

1041
01:14:55,575 --> 01:14:58,577
...suddenly opened up
big-wave surfing's next frontier.

1042
01:14:58,744 --> 01:15:01,204
Now it seemed
that riding any wave...

1043
01:15:01,372 --> 01:15:05,041
...breaking anywhere, at any size,
was possible.

1044
01:15:05,209 --> 01:15:06,585
Then came the idea...

1045
01:15:08,462 --> 01:15:09,838
...of this thing on Maui...

1046
01:15:10,131 --> 01:15:12,883
...where Gerry sat down
with Laird and said:

1047
01:15:13,050 --> 01:15:15,260
"I got something
you might wanna see."

1048
01:15:15,511 --> 01:15:17,888
When he understood
what we had going...

1049
01:15:18,055 --> 01:15:21,141
...he was like: "Hey," you know,
"young man, come over here.

1050
01:15:21,309 --> 01:15:22,767
I got something to show you."

1051
01:16:08,022 --> 01:16:11,524
We knew that we had discovered...

1052
01:16:11,692 --> 01:16:14,236
...the real un-ridden realm.

1053
01:16:26,832 --> 01:16:29,376
Located on Maui's remote
North Coast...

1054
01:16:29,543 --> 01:16:33,338
...and requiring a long, dangerous
approach by sea, is Peahi...

1055
01:16:33,506 --> 01:16:35,298
...also known as Jaws.

1056
01:16:38,719 --> 01:16:42,222
Peahi revealed itself as
the big wave of the future.

1057
01:16:42,390 --> 01:16:44,474
And within its awesome
size and power...

1058
01:16:44,642 --> 01:16:46,518
...tow-in surfing came of age.

1059
01:17:00,950 --> 01:17:04,703
The difference between this wave and
Waimea is this is about five Waimeas.

1060
01:17:05,079 --> 01:17:09,374
You take Makaha, Waimea, Sunset,
Pipeline, Ka'ena Point, Mavericks...

1061
01:17:11,043 --> 01:17:13,586
...put them together in a pot,
that's what you get.

1062
01:17:16,632 --> 01:17:18,383
Like Waimea and Mavericks...

1063
01:17:18,551 --> 01:17:22,012
...Peahi featured its own crew
of groundbreaking pioneers.

1064
01:17:22,179 --> 01:17:24,723
In addition to Hamilton,
Doerner and Kerbox...

1065
01:17:24,932 --> 01:17:27,225
...were windsurfing champion
Dave Kalama...

1066
01:17:29,895 --> 01:17:33,315
...then Mike Waltze, Pete Cabrinha,
Mark Angulo...

1067
01:17:33,482 --> 01:17:36,901
...Rush Randle and Brett Lickle.
Known as "The Strap Crew"...

1068
01:17:37,069 --> 01:17:40,947
...these boys rewrote the rules of
big-wave surfing by riding waves...

1069
01:17:41,115 --> 01:17:44,868
...in a manner that was once
the realm of sheer fantasy.

1070
01:17:52,835 --> 01:17:55,545
Things that, previously,
they only dreamed of doing.

1071
01:17:55,713 --> 01:17:58,757
Things we only saw in animation,
suddenly, surfers were doing.

1072
01:17:59,091 --> 01:18:00,425
Now you're riding waves...

1073
01:18:00,593 --> 01:18:02,927
...with greater speed
than you ever dreamed of.

1074
01:18:03,095 --> 01:18:05,930
I mean, it's like a dream.
It's just like, "Oh, my God.

1075
01:18:06,098 --> 01:18:09,142
I'm on the perfect wave,
I'm going 35 miles an hour."

1076
01:18:09,310 --> 01:18:12,771
It's so fun that it's just-- I--

1077
01:18:12,938 --> 01:18:15,607
I better shut up.

1078
01:18:20,279 --> 01:18:23,740
Coming up on the Ski and seeing
plumes of water 100 feet in the air.

1079
01:18:23,908 --> 01:18:26,451
You can hear the drone of the Skis
in the distance.

1080
01:18:26,619 --> 01:18:29,579
You have these things in your head,
like, "What's going on?

1081
01:18:29,747 --> 01:18:32,207
What waves are guys riding?
What have people done?

1082
01:18:32,375 --> 01:18:34,376
How bad were wipeouts?
Is anyone dead yet?"

1083
01:18:37,046 --> 01:18:39,047
The first time that I surfed at Peahi...

1084
01:18:39,215 --> 01:18:41,591
...I remember getting
so uptight on the way out...

1085
01:18:43,135 --> 01:18:46,679
...just going, "Oh, man,"
you know, so much anxiety...

1086
01:18:46,847 --> 01:18:48,515
...that I was thinking:

1087
01:18:48,682 --> 01:18:52,352
"Jesus, I'm just-- I'm not
gonna be able to surf."

1088
01:18:52,520 --> 01:18:57,148
And I remember finally
having to go, "Okay.

1089
01:18:57,316 --> 01:18:59,067
Shit.

1090
01:18:59,235 --> 01:19:01,444
I guess this is a good day to die."

1091
01:19:03,864 --> 01:19:06,408
Challenging waves in
the 50- and 60-foot range...

1092
01:19:06,575 --> 01:19:09,828
...obliterated the concept of surfing
as a solitary pursuit...

1093
01:19:09,995 --> 01:19:11,913
...and rewired the rules
of engagement.

1094
01:19:12,081 --> 01:19:14,332
You gotta have eyes
in the back of your head.

1095
01:19:14,500 --> 01:19:17,252
I got eyes, Dave and Darrick.
They see what I need to see.

1096
01:19:17,420 --> 01:19:20,588
I'll just kind of balance
right on the crest of the shoulder...

1097
01:19:20,756 --> 01:19:23,508
...so I can see what Laird's doing
and what's behind us.

1098
01:19:25,719 --> 01:19:27,512
It's a three-man operation.

1099
01:19:27,680 --> 01:19:30,181
Laird and Kalama will be paired up.

1100
01:19:30,349 --> 01:19:32,016
I'll be in the channel
for safety.

1101
01:19:33,436 --> 01:19:37,230
Performing as a team is the key
to survival in 50-foot-plus waves...

1102
01:19:37,398 --> 01:19:39,816
...where every wipeout
becomes life-threatening.

1103
01:19:44,530 --> 01:19:47,824
When things go wrong,
they go wrong real quick.

1104
01:19:49,577 --> 01:19:53,788
You're getting brutalized so severely,
you don't know when it's gonna end.

1105
01:19:53,956 --> 01:19:56,875
You're an insignificant little rag doll...

1106
01:19:57,042 --> 01:20:01,421
...trying to keep your limbs in
so that nothing gets ripped off.

1107
01:20:01,589 --> 01:20:05,717
Anybody who looks at that shit goes:
"How can that guy live through that?"

1108
01:20:13,893 --> 01:20:15,935
The greatest threat
is getting trapped...

1109
01:20:16,103 --> 01:20:18,396
...in the impact zone
and held underwater...

1110
01:20:18,564 --> 01:20:21,858
...as successive 10-story waves
explode overhead.

1111
01:20:23,611 --> 01:20:25,570
Out of sheer necessity of survival...

1112
01:20:25,738 --> 01:20:28,406
...tow-in surfing introduced
the big-wave rescue...

1113
01:20:28,574 --> 01:20:32,202
...with the Ski driver ready and willing
to put himself in harm's way...

1114
01:20:32,369 --> 01:20:35,121
...to come to the aid
of his fallen partner.

1115
01:20:37,541 --> 01:20:40,251
I'm thinking about the next wave
that's gonna hit him.

1116
01:20:40,419 --> 01:20:43,379
And how much time I have
from where I am to get to him...

1117
01:20:43,547 --> 01:20:45,924
...get him on the Ski
and get out of there.

1118
01:20:46,759 --> 01:20:49,219
Sometimes you're not able
to get him immediately.

1119
01:20:50,763 --> 01:20:53,515
He might have to take
two or three on the head.

1120
01:20:58,395 --> 01:21:01,814
You've gotta dash in there,
and hopefully the timing is right...

1121
01:21:01,982 --> 01:21:06,402
...that the guy's gonna pop up just as
you're coming by, and you get him.

1122
01:21:06,570 --> 01:21:10,532
Otherwise, you gotta get out, and the
guy's gotta take another on the head.

1123
01:21:13,827 --> 01:21:17,205
Because, you know, if you lose a Ski,
then both of you are screwed.

1124
01:21:17,373 --> 01:21:20,458
You can rush into a situation
where a person is drowning.

1125
01:21:20,626 --> 01:21:22,293
Now there's two persons drowning.

1126
01:21:33,806 --> 01:21:38,768
On a rescue situation where you're
really in peril, and it's a real situation...

1127
01:21:38,936 --> 01:21:40,311
...there's that connection.

1128
01:21:41,689 --> 01:21:44,357
You can see it in the eyes,
where, "We need to do this.

1129
01:21:44,525 --> 01:21:47,235
And we need to do it right now.
Nothing else matters."

1130
01:22:01,041 --> 01:22:04,419
But as soon as that moment passes,
it's pure love.

1131
01:22:04,587 --> 01:22:06,838
It is pure love: "Thank you, buddy.

1132
01:22:07,006 --> 01:22:10,133
I love you. Thank you
for getting me out of here."

1133
01:22:12,177 --> 01:22:17,181
If one of those guys go down,
I will put myself on the line every time.

1134
01:22:17,349 --> 01:22:20,435
And each of those guys,
they'll put themselves on the line...

1135
01:22:21,812 --> 01:22:24,439
...for guys they don't even know,
or might not like.

1136
01:22:24,607 --> 01:22:27,692
But it's part of their personality,
it's part of their nature.

1137
01:22:27,860 --> 01:22:29,485
So when they go home at night...

1138
01:22:29,653 --> 01:22:33,406
...they sleep well because they don't
think, "I could have, why didn't I?"

1139
01:22:33,574 --> 01:22:34,824
They do it.

1140
01:22:46,045 --> 01:22:48,046
When you're underwater,
you know:

1141
01:22:48,213 --> 01:22:51,591
"Okay, I'm here by myself
right now, underwater.

1142
01:22:51,759 --> 01:22:56,220
But I know there's somebody up there
doing everything they can to help me."

1143
01:22:56,388 --> 01:23:00,725
Even if he can't help you,
the confidence that's instilled...

1144
01:23:00,893 --> 01:23:03,269
...by believing in that person...

1145
01:23:03,437 --> 01:23:04,687
...buys you time.

1146
01:23:04,855 --> 01:23:07,899
It gives you confidence
to just make it to the surface.

1147
01:23:08,067 --> 01:23:12,403
It really makes survival
a whole different story...

1148
01:23:13,113 --> 01:23:17,742
...than if you're out there on your own,
swimming around in the water...

1149
01:23:17,910 --> 01:23:19,869
...with no one but yourself.

1150
01:23:29,129 --> 01:23:34,967
The experiences that you have there,
the friendships that are formed...

1151
01:23:35,135 --> 01:23:37,887
...going through those experiences...

1152
01:23:38,055 --> 01:23:42,350
...are ones that are very deep
because there's times where...

1153
01:23:42,518 --> 01:23:45,520
...you call upon or you experience...

1154
01:23:45,688 --> 01:23:49,440
...the most-- Deepest sense
of who you are.

1155
01:24:15,259 --> 01:24:19,554
There's something about riding
a 60- to 80-foot-face wave...

1156
01:24:19,722 --> 01:24:23,641
...that draws something out of you.

1157
01:24:23,809 --> 01:24:26,352
The wave commands so much focus,
so much attention.

1158
01:24:26,520 --> 01:24:30,481
It's the only thing that matters for
a few seconds, and it's very purifying...

1159
01:24:30,649 --> 01:24:35,153
...because as far as you're concerned,
nothing else exists.

1160
01:24:47,791 --> 01:24:50,334
You're not doing this
for your own glory.

1161
01:24:50,502 --> 01:24:52,795
You're caught up
in this great act of nature.

1162
01:25:05,684 --> 01:25:07,810
Ironically, the biggest challenge...

1163
01:25:07,978 --> 01:25:11,981
...facing these professional
big-wave riders is not the wave itself.

1164
01:25:17,529 --> 01:25:20,448
You can't just go get it on Sunday
at 12:00...

1165
01:25:20,616 --> 01:25:22,867
...like you can most anything else.

1166
01:25:23,035 --> 01:25:25,536
When the ocean is not making
the waves available...

1167
01:25:26,997 --> 01:25:30,374
...Laird suffers, like a lot of
the other guys do.

1168
01:25:30,626 --> 01:25:34,045
Oh, I get so depressed, it's like:

1169
01:25:37,299 --> 01:25:40,551
We get frustrated, depressed
and bitchy...

1170
01:25:40,719 --> 01:25:43,554
...and grouchy and-- You know.

1171
01:25:43,722 --> 01:25:45,890
You really don't wanna be
around us like that.

1172
01:25:46,725 --> 01:25:50,228
Laird was trying to explain what
it was like when there was no waves.

1173
01:25:50,813 --> 01:25:53,356
And he said, you know,
"lt would sort of be like...

1174
01:25:53,524 --> 01:25:56,442
...if you were a dragon slayer,
and there were no dragons.

1175
01:25:56,610 --> 01:26:00,238
Then you wonder, like, who am l
and what am I doing here?"

1176
01:26:00,405 --> 01:26:02,532
And I question that all year long...

1177
01:26:02,699 --> 01:26:05,409
...except when it's 30 feet
and I'm out surfing.

1178
01:26:37,276 --> 01:26:38,734
Laird's the king out there.

1179
01:26:38,902 --> 01:26:42,947
I mean, he was the one that,
like Greg at Waimea...

1180
01:26:43,115 --> 01:26:45,825
...you know, dragged the guys
out there.

1181
01:26:57,838 --> 01:27:00,423
You just watch him surf,
and there's no one...

1182
01:27:00,591 --> 01:27:03,885
...that comes close to his abilities.

1183
01:27:06,805 --> 01:27:10,308
He has the ability to actually
slow himself down...

1184
01:27:10,475 --> 01:27:14,228
...where everybody else just wants
to run like hell.

1185
01:27:23,530 --> 01:27:26,657
The reason why I'm able
to ride waves the way I do...

1186
01:27:26,825 --> 01:27:29,827
...is because I have partners
like Dave and Darrick.

1187
01:27:29,995 --> 01:27:31,746
I'm only arriving at this level...

1188
01:27:31,914 --> 01:27:35,583
...because I'm being driven
by these guys to this level.

1189
01:27:41,256 --> 01:27:45,051
There's no question this guy is the
best big-wave rider the world has seen.

1190
01:27:52,517 --> 01:27:54,435
In August of 2000...

1191
01:27:54,811 --> 01:27:58,606
...Hamilton took another giant leap
by riding a wave so treacherous...

1192
01:27:58,774 --> 01:28:00,775
...and so outrageous...

1193
01:28:00,943 --> 01:28:04,612
...that it affected the course
of big-wave surfing history.

1194
01:28:05,489 --> 01:28:08,115
The wave broke 3000 miles
south of Maui...

1195
01:28:08,283 --> 01:28:10,701
...on the French Polynesian island
of Tahiti...

1196
01:28:10,869 --> 01:28:14,997
...at a reef pass known simply
as Teahupoo.

1197
01:28:25,717 --> 01:28:29,261
Who ever thought that a wave
could suck so much water off the reef?

1198
01:28:29,429 --> 01:28:32,890
That a wave could be so powerful
and cylindrical?

1199
01:28:35,060 --> 01:28:37,228
The wave Laird encountered
at Teahupoo...

1200
01:28:37,396 --> 01:28:39,438
...is a freak of hydrodynamics.

1201
01:28:39,606 --> 01:28:42,400
Unlike the deep-water
big-wave breaks of Waimea...

1202
01:28:42,567 --> 01:28:44,068
...Mavericks and Peahi...

1203
01:28:44,361 --> 01:28:46,237
...Teahupoo explodes laterally...

1204
01:28:46,405 --> 01:28:50,282
...onto an extremely shallow,
razor-sharp reef.

1205
01:28:53,370 --> 01:28:56,122
The result is an extraordinary wave...

1206
01:28:56,289 --> 01:28:58,165
...that, while not as high as Peahi...

1207
01:28:58,333 --> 01:29:04,130
...is almost unfathomable in its mass,
power and ferocity.

1208
01:29:14,391 --> 01:29:18,728
Teahupoo's reputation was fearsome,
but neither Laird nor Doerner...

1209
01:29:18,895 --> 01:29:21,439
...could've imagined
the once-in-a-lifetime wave...

1210
01:29:21,606 --> 01:29:23,733
...that eventually appeared
on the horizon.

1211
01:29:25,694 --> 01:29:28,029
I towed him onto this wave.

1212
01:29:28,905 --> 01:29:31,449
It was to the point where
I almost said:

1213
01:29:31,616 --> 01:29:33,034
"Don't let go of the rope."

1214
01:29:33,201 --> 01:29:34,952
When I looked back, he was gone.

1215
01:29:58,977 --> 01:30:02,271
I think it's the single heaviest thing
I've ever seen in surfing.

1216
01:30:04,107 --> 01:30:05,316
What could be heavier?

1217
01:30:07,152 --> 01:30:09,320
Laird's wave at Teahupoo
was the most...

1218
01:30:09,488 --> 01:30:12,490
...amazing, single most significant ride
in surfing history.

1219
01:30:12,657 --> 01:30:13,949
More than any other ride.

1220
01:30:14,117 --> 01:30:17,787
Because what it did is it completely
restructured, collectively...

1221
01:30:17,954 --> 01:30:21,457
...our entire perception
of what was possible.

1222
01:30:21,875 --> 01:30:25,503
Go through a surf magazine, you've
seen Pipeline, Off the Wall, Waimea.

1223
01:30:25,670 --> 01:30:28,756
You've seen everything,
and none of it has any impact.

1224
01:30:28,924 --> 01:30:31,008
But when that photo came out...

1225
01:30:31,176 --> 01:30:33,511
...it stopped everyone's heart,
and they went:

1226
01:30:34,888 --> 01:30:36,097
"Where and what is that?"

1227
01:30:37,015 --> 01:30:40,851
I remember picking up that magazine,
and looking and just going:

1228
01:30:41,144 --> 01:30:44,230
"Man, that shit's impossible.

1229
01:30:44,397 --> 01:30:46,190
You don't do that."

1230
01:30:47,818 --> 01:30:50,361
In my absolute prime,
there's absolutely no way...

1231
01:30:50,529 --> 01:30:52,196
...I could ride a wave like that.

1232
01:30:52,364 --> 01:30:55,199
Normally, surfers are dragging
this hand along the face.

1233
01:30:55,367 --> 01:30:58,035
Laird had to drag his right,
his back hand...

1234
01:30:58,203 --> 01:31:00,204
...on the opposite side of his board...

1235
01:31:00,372 --> 01:31:04,375
...to keep himself from getting
sucked up in that hydraulic.

1236
01:31:04,543 --> 01:31:07,002
You know, in the middle
of that maelstrom...

1237
01:31:07,170 --> 01:31:10,464
...how did his mind say,
"This is what I have to do"?

1238
01:31:10,632 --> 01:31:13,509
No one had ever ridden as Laird rode
on that wave before.

1239
01:31:13,677 --> 01:31:15,261
And so it was the imagination...

1240
01:31:15,428 --> 01:31:18,180
...of dealing with
that unimaginable energy...

1241
01:31:18,348 --> 01:31:20,808
...and coming up with
the plan spontaneously.

1242
01:31:20,976 --> 01:31:22,226
He couldn't practice.

1243
01:31:27,440 --> 01:31:31,068
I asked Laird, I said, "Laird,
why do you ride waves like this?

1244
01:31:31,236 --> 01:31:34,613
Why do you risk your life riding waves
like this?" He looked at me--

1245
01:31:35,991 --> 01:31:39,493
This is a week after he did this, and
he was drained from the experience.

1246
01:31:39,661 --> 01:31:41,579
He was very mellow and very--

1247
01:31:41,746 --> 01:31:44,915
I think he was humbled by
the experience, and he goes:

1248
01:31:45,083 --> 01:31:47,251
"Dad, I've trained my whole life
for this.

1249
01:31:48,086 --> 01:31:51,380
I don't wanna miss
an opportunity like that."

1250
01:32:02,726 --> 01:32:08,063
I don't wanna not live because
of my fear of what could happen.

1251
01:32:16,114 --> 01:32:20,159
It softened some hard corners
in my life, I would say.

1252
01:32:20,327 --> 01:32:24,496
And I felt honored to be awarded...

1253
01:32:24,664 --> 01:32:27,124
...with something so...

1254
01:32:27,834 --> 01:32:31,045
...magnificent that it just
made me appreciate...

1255
01:32:31,213 --> 01:32:34,882
...what I've been able
to have, experience, do.

1256
01:33:17,842 --> 01:33:20,636
One of the things I love about
my work as a physician...

1257
01:33:20,804 --> 01:33:25,683
...and I work with cancer patients,
people with life-threatening illnesses...

1258
01:33:25,850 --> 01:33:31,188
...is to see what often takes place,
which is, literally, transformation.

1259
01:33:31,523 --> 01:33:35,025
Where they just begin to, sort of,
eliminate the bullshit...

1260
01:33:35,193 --> 01:33:39,697
...and they begin to actually live,
truly live, almost for the first time.

1261
01:33:39,864 --> 01:33:42,950
And those kind of
life-changing events...

1262
01:33:43,118 --> 01:33:46,036
...can come from illness...

1263
01:33:46,204 --> 01:33:48,330
...they can come from revelation...

1264
01:33:48,498 --> 01:33:52,835
...they can actually come from,
for me, anyway, big-wave surfing.

1265
01:33:53,378 --> 01:33:57,172
That's the thing about it, it's that
ultimate big wave that you ride...

1266
01:33:57,340 --> 01:34:00,342
...that you remember
for the rest of your life.

1267
01:34:00,510 --> 01:34:04,305
They're engrained in your brain,
just like your child being born.

1268
01:34:11,813 --> 01:34:15,065
I haven't missed a swell in 55 years.

1269
01:34:15,233 --> 01:34:18,319
I'm still as excited about surfing
as I've ever been.

1270
01:34:18,486 --> 01:34:23,490
I literally run to the water with my
board, hooting, laughing and giggling.

1271
01:34:28,330 --> 01:34:31,540
Centuries ago, a young Hawaiian
stood up on his surfboard...

1272
01:34:31,708 --> 01:34:35,461
...and slid gently across the face
of a breaking wave.

1273
01:34:36,796 --> 01:34:39,173
That same wave
has rolled through time...

1274
01:34:39,341 --> 01:34:42,259
...crossing many oceans,
bearing the giants of surfing...

1275
01:34:43,345 --> 01:34:46,263
...from King Kamehameha
to Duke Kahanamoku...

1276
01:34:46,931 --> 01:34:49,433
...from George Downing
to Greg Noll...

1277
01:34:50,310 --> 01:34:53,479
...from Jeff Clark to Laird Hamilton...

1278
01:34:53,646 --> 01:34:56,523
...sweeping them all toward
that most supreme pleasure...

1279
01:34:56,691 --> 01:35:00,903
...driven on so fast and smoothly
by the sea.

1280
01:36:31,453 --> 01:36:33,162
Scene one, take one. Here we go.

1281
01:36:33,329 --> 01:36:35,456
When I was in school,
I was flunking French.

1282
01:36:35,623 --> 01:36:38,333
Then my French teacher said,
"What are you gonna do...

1283
01:36:38,501 --> 01:36:41,295
...when you graduate school?
You have to pass this.

1284
01:36:41,463 --> 01:36:43,338
What are you gonna do,
go to college?"

1285
01:36:43,506 --> 01:36:46,216
I says, "No, I'm gonna go surfing,
to the North Shore.

1286
01:36:46,384 --> 01:36:49,052
I'm gonna make my pilgrimage
to the North Shore.

1287
01:36:49,220 --> 01:36:50,429
And if I don't die...

1288
01:36:50,597 --> 01:36:53,974
...then I'll figure out what I do.
This is a noble thing I'm doing.

1289
01:36:54,142 --> 01:36:58,395
I'm going there to ride big waves,
to find out who I am."

1290
01:36:59,564 --> 01:37:01,648
The big waves are more fascinating
to me...

1291
01:37:01,816 --> 01:37:04,234
...than all the other natural wonders
in the world.

1292
01:37:04,402 --> 01:37:06,945
And I wanna see the biggest swells
every year.

1293
01:37:07,113 --> 01:37:10,157
Is this a natural wonder...

1294
01:37:10,325 --> 01:37:13,202
...as much as, say,
the Grand Canyon is?

1295
01:37:13,369 --> 01:37:18,457
To me, I mean, the Grand Canyon
pales compared to, like, Mavericks.

1296
01:37:18,625 --> 01:37:21,752
The Grand Canyon is just this
sort of erosion gully.

1297
01:37:22,587 --> 01:37:26,256
People accuse us of having ego,
but it's not all about ego.

1298
01:37:26,424 --> 01:37:30,219
It's too thrilling to be
an egocentric thing.

1299
01:37:49,197 --> 01:37:51,448
Sam George, reel one.

1300
01:37:51,699 --> 01:37:54,785
If you applied the same amount
of devotion...

1301
01:37:54,953 --> 01:37:57,287
...to a religious pursuit...

1302
01:37:57,455 --> 01:38:01,625
...do you think anyone would call
you a religious bum? Probably not.

1303
01:38:01,793 --> 01:38:05,629
When you consider that surfing really
is, more than anything else, a faith...

1304
01:38:05,797 --> 01:38:09,967
...and devotion to that faith
becomes paramount in your life...

1305
01:38:10,134 --> 01:38:12,135
...there's no such thing
as a surf bum.

1306
01:38:29,070 --> 01:38:31,071
At Teahupoo,
I had the little voice going:

1307
01:38:31,239 --> 01:38:33,949
"Jump off right now.
You're not gonna make this wave."

1308
01:38:34,117 --> 01:38:35,701
And another side of me going:

1309
01:38:35,868 --> 01:38:38,662
"Well, I can't make it
unless I just stay on."

1310
01:38:38,830 --> 01:38:41,999
What is it inside him
that lets him do that?

1311
01:38:42,166 --> 01:38:45,669
It was the third testicle
we had added at birth.

1312
01:38:54,220 --> 01:38:56,555
Cut. Roll them.

1313
01:38:57,682 --> 01:38:59,641
Action.

1314
01:39:19,454 --> 01:39:22,623
The main thing is, you need
to be able to get rid of the leash...

1315
01:39:22,790 --> 01:39:26,043
...if you get wrapped up on
the bottom or on somebody else.

1316
01:39:26,252 --> 01:39:29,296
So we've dealt with it,
with having a quick-release.

1317
01:39:29,464 --> 01:39:31,923
Before 1994, it wasn't
really widely used.

1318
01:39:32,091 --> 01:39:35,969
After Mark Foo, everybody
out there has adapted to this...

1319
01:39:36,137 --> 01:39:39,431
...and we all use leashes,
and we all have a quick-release.

1320
01:39:50,943 --> 01:39:54,363
Even today, when I go
over there, to Waimea...

1321
01:39:54,530 --> 01:39:56,907
...you know, it just blows me away.
It's like...

1322
01:39:57,075 --> 01:40:00,410
...here she is,
the same beautiful woman...

1323
01:40:00,578 --> 01:40:04,748
...only now, she's snuggling up
to the next generation...

1324
01:40:04,916 --> 01:40:06,583
...and the next generation.

1325
01:40:06,751 --> 01:40:08,919
But l-- Last time I went,
I swear to God...

1326
01:40:09,087 --> 01:40:11,296
...I looked out, man, and I could--

1327
01:40:11,464 --> 01:40:14,132
I think she winked at me.

1328
01:40:14,300 --> 01:40:16,468
You know, when one of them
big sets came...

1329
01:40:16,636 --> 01:40:18,470
...and the sun was dancing off...

1330
01:40:18,638 --> 01:40:20,722
...the face of that wave, and...

1331
01:40:20,890 --> 01:40:24,351
...the wind was blowing the top up,
some guy was streaking, she went:

1332
01:40:24,519 --> 01:40:26,603
"Hey, Greg Noll. I remember you."

1333
01:40:29,899 --> 01:40:31,566
It makes me almost goddamn cry...

1334
01:40:31,734 --> 01:40:34,736
...and I'm not a very emotional guy,
you know.