Riding Giants (2004) - full transcript

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

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

...and even Hawaii's
great King Kamehameha...

...enjoyed the thrill of riding waves.

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

...Captain James Cook observed
upon watching a surf rider...

...in the year of 1 777:

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

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

Then in the 1 800s,
the waves fell flat...

...with the arrival
of the Calvinist missionaries.



Shocked and outraged
by the state of undress...

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

...the missionaries banned the sport.

The extinct Polynesian pastime
was then reintroduced...

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

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

...by romanticizing surfing at Waikiki.

In 1 91 2 came surfing's
first international icon...

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

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

While traveling the globe
giving swimming demonstrations...

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

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

...New York and Australia.



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

...swimming champion
named Tom Blake.

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

...one of the 20th century's
most influential surfers...

...through his innovative surfboard
design, but most importantly...

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

By 1 948, surfing had taken root
along the California coast...

...where a skinny 1 0-year-old from
Hermosa Beach named Greg Noll...

...found himself immersed
in the emerging subculture.

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

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

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

...and free-spirited lifestyle.

Those guys were all
kind of gentlemanly.

It was a different era.

Something went to hell
in the early '50s.

It's like somebody threw
a light switch. With the advent...

...of the lightweight longboard,
something happened.

It was the introduction
of lightweight balsa wood...

...and the newly discovered
aerospace material, fiberglass...

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

...for a younger generation to begin
picking up the offbeat sport.

There was a feeling
of individuality and freedom...

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

...and I think almost rebellious.

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

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

...around which you plan your life.

Everyone else is planning
around money.

A bunch of guys
come along and they go:

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

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

...a bunch of scroungy surfers.
The shittier you dress...

...and the funnier you talk-- Which
nobody understood the stuff...

...we were saying, because
it was surf jargon...

...the more fun we had,
the more it pissed off society.

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

...centered around all things beach.

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

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

My parents never saw me surf.

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

...they couldn't see the score
up on the board...

...and couldn't understand
what good it did.

Greg Noll's principal said, "What are
you guys doing on the beach?

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

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

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

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

...and just giving the whole thing
the finger...

...going, "I don't give a shit.
I wanna go surfing."

For this new generation of surfers...

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

Not just a sport, but a statement.

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

After a while it was expected of us...

...and therefore we fulfilled
those expectations.

Some guy's dad
had gotten back from the war...

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

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

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

And that was just having a good time.

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

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

It was like turning a hearse
into a surf-mobile.

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

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

...from Windansea to San Onofre,
to Malibu, much homage...

...was given to the sport's
Polynesian roots...

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

But on a winter morning in 1 953,
another Hawaiian import...

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

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

...delivering the Evening Outlook.

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

...and there it was: Buzzy Trent,
George Downing...

...and Wally Froiseth coming down
what looked like a 30-foot wave.

This simple image sent shock waves
through California's surf culture...

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

...to the Hawaiian Islands
and Oahu's Makaha Beach.

It was Makaha's combination
of smooth...

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

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

At Makaha, if we had 1 0 guys
on a good day, that was a lot.

You knew every one.
They were there every time.

To us, that was a crowd at the time.

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

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

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

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

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

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

...for 25 or up to 50 bucks, and
1 0 guys would be in the Quonset hut.

It was cheap. That was an upgrade.

It was easygoing.
No problems, no hassles.

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

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

Nobody would touch it.

The Californians were mentored...

...by Makaha's first generation
of big-wave riders.

Surfers like Woody Brown,
along with Wally Froiseth...

...George Downing and Buzzy Trent,
had spent much...

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

They were the astronauts
of their era.

They were conquering waves
no one had.

To me, those guys
were bigger than life.

That trio of guys were
the first really hardcore...

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

But it was 23-year-old
George Downing...

...who carved the mold from which
all other big-wave riders were cast.

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

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

...and was instrumental in exploring
Oahu's other big-wave breaks.

They wanted to ride
more big waves...

...and Makaha doesn't
get big that often.

And we had heard these fabulous
tales about, you know...

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

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

...a remote 1 3-mile stretch
of coastline backed up against...

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

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

...and getting my first glimpse
of the North Shore.

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

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

You'd go another
couple hundred yards...

..."Shit, here's another place."

At first, we didn't have a clue
we had stumbled...

...on something so fabulously
magical and powerful.

They must have thought
that they'd found nirvana.

The discovery of the North Shore
was surfing's equivalent...

...of Columbus reaching
the New World.

Nowhere else on Earth would there
be found so many world-class...

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

What the Paris runways
are to fashion...

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

We were among the first Californians
to dedicate themselves to surfing.

We were spending eight,
1 0 hours a day in the water...

...doing nothing but
surfing our guts out.

There wasn't any home life.

We spent our days
on the beach. That's what we did.

We surfed all day, every day,
no matter what.

In those days, we never saw girls.

If you brought a date and sat her
in the car while you surfed...

...you never had that date again.

These guys came to surf.

And it was kind of unheard of.
You don't have a job...

...you're gonna spend
a couple of months here to surf.

No watch, no money,
no car, no nothing.

Just shorts and a T-shirt.

There were no hotels.
There was a place in Hale'iwa...

...that was a set of cubicles--

You'd have guys sharing
the place and getting mattresses...

...from the Salvation Army
and throwing them on the floor.

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

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

-...we had to go diving.
-We'd dive every day...

...and get fish and lobster,
and turtle in those days.

They would pick coconuts
and papayas, and go fishing.

In those days, you could live
off the land.

Guys would come
from the mainland...

...they'd patch our surfboards
for a peanut-butter sandwich.

Pat Curren and I, we'd get in trouble.
We'd steal chickens or something.

I mean, the whole thing
was waiting for waves.

We would do anything
to amuse ourselves and each other...

...so somewhere I had learned about
how to put lighter fluid in your mouth...

...and torch it off. Actually, I did
set the side of that house on fire.

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

...and living a life that's not the '50s,
gray-flannel-suit thing.

It's like an alternative thing
the way Kerouac was...

...and bikers were,
except they're having fun.

That was the counterculture
of its day.

You know, you were
bucking the system...

...and you went to Hawaii,
and you rode waves.

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

...but of the culture of surfing.

They set the pace, this kind of
free-and-easy lifestyle.

That really was a unique period
in history.

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

...and there was a handful of them.

It wasn't like jazz, where there
was the Chicago scene...

...the New York scene. This was it.
That tiny little epicenter...

...those two dozen intrepid men,
and the women that went with them...

...living that life.
It only lasted a few years.

What a remarkable time
that must have been.

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

...the biggest wave of all
still eluded them.

The spot, Waimea Bay,
which began to break...

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

But Waimea Bay was riddled
with taboos and fears...

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

...a young California surfer
who, in December of 1 943...

...became trapped
by a fast-rising storm swell...

...while surfing Sunset Beach.

Unable to reach the shore,
he and fellow-surfer Woody Brown...

...elected to paddle three miles
to the safer, deep-water...

...Waimea Bay.

But 50-foot waves
were closing out the bay...

...and while attempting
to reach shore, both were caught...

...by mountains of white water
and ripped from their boards.

Brown eventually washed up
on shore naked...

...while 1 7-year-old Cross
was never seen again.

It spooked everybody. They
were like, "You can't ride there.

It's a killer. We're not gonna
go out there. You're gonna die."

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

...was steeped in superstition
and dread...

...with tales that ranged
from haunted houses...

...to human sacrifices at the heiau...

...or Hawaiian burial ground,
overlooking the bay.

All of these things
were whizzing around...

...like a bunch of ghouls.

People really believed
if you paddled out...

...there was gonna be
this goddamn vortex.

It'd be like flushing a toilet,
and there go the haoles.

People thought you couldn't ride
Waimea Bay.

They watched it, and they said,
"Can't be done."

You'd look at Waimea and wonder...

...can the human body
survive the wipeout?

But the lure of riding Waimea
was unrelenting...

...as during each swell,
surfers would find themselves...

...standing spellbound on the shore,
transfixed by the sight of the huge...

...perfectly shaped waves
exploding off the point.

We'd go by there when it
was breaking, and you're going:

"That looks like a ridable wave."

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

And at some point you just had to go,
"To hell with it, we can do this thing."

On a fall day in October of 1 957...

...a handful of surfers
converged on Waimea...

...as a 20-foot swell
began lighting up the bay.

Sitting on the point,
watching the huge, empty waves...

...with his buddy Mike Stang,
1 9-year-old Greg Noll...

...had finally seen enough.

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

...walked down
to the water's edge.

Moments later, they were joined
by fellow-surfers Pat Curren...

...Micky Munoz, Del Cannon,
Fred Van Dyke, Harry Church...

...Bing Copeland and Bob Bermel...

...who with Noll and Stang...

...paddled out
to attempt the impossible.

It was obvious
where the waves were breaking...

...and we'd all had enough
experience so that...

...you know, you knew pretty much
where to paddle to.

I remember paddling
into the lineup...

...and your balls were
in your stomach, you know...

...thinking the bottom
was gonna fall out...

...and something was
gonna eat you alive.

I'm thinking,
"l don't wanna get wiped out"...

...because I know
there's sharks here...

...and I'm not into swimming
with sharks, exactly.

We got out there,
it was a big surprise.

It's, you know-- It's not
an easy takeoff.

I took off on a wave
and went down the side...

...and popped out
the other end and went:

"Shit, l'm still alive.
Nothing's happened."

After we got
a couple waves...

...we go, "Hey we can do this,"
you know.

They broke the taboo.
They went and did it.

And once it was done, opened up
the floodgates and it's like, "Okay...

...now how far do we take it?"

The following year of 1 958...

...Waimea Bay blew big-wave surfing
wide open as another migration...

...of surfers came charging
onto Hawaii's North Shore...

...to campaign the huge surf.

They were out to ride
the biggest swells...

...nature could produce. So they built
what came to be known as "guns":

Long, narrow surfboards
designed exclusively...

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

I rode an 1 1 -6.

It was first and foremost
a wave-catching machine...

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

Unlike the somewhat easy
takeoff of Makaha...

...Waimea was a fear-inducing,
25-foot elevator drop...

...sometimes requiring
more faith than skill.

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

If you know too much,
it intimidates you.

Everything is moving.
Nothing is constant.

It's so dynamic
that you can't pre-plan it.

Not only are you riding this mountain,
it's chasing you...

...and you have to use
your skill and ability...

...to get away from this mountain...

...but at the same time,
use it to your benefit.

When you come down the face
of a mountain, you're on fire.

Your heart is exploding, endorphins
are busting out in your brain...

...and you want to not just prove
that you can do it...

...but discover
what you're made out of.

Apart from the challenge
of learning to ride Waimea...

...was the even greater challenge
of surviving the horrifying wipeouts.

You feel like a piece of lint
in a washing machine...

...because the force of nature
you're in...

...is so quantum
beyond comprehension.

I can remember
fracturing my neck at Waimea.

I went over the falls. I hit the water
and my neck went back...

...in a whiplash
and fractured my neck.

Lost all feelings
in my arms and legs.

I was like a seagull full of oil...

...just fluttering in the white water,
out of control.

And some guys came over
and helped me in.

I'm lucky to be alive. And I think
every single big-wave surfer...

...could tell you a story like that.

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

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

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

By 1 959, Waimea had become
the epicenter of big-wave surfing...

...fostering a new crew
of big-wave talents:

Pat Curren, Peter Cole, Ricky Grigg,
Fred Van Dyke, Jose Angel...

...Kealoha Kaio and Greg Noll,
whose big-wave obsession...

...and even bigger-wave personality,
would forever link him...

...with Waimea Bay.

Waimea was my gal, man.
She was like--

I mean, l surfed
with this beautiful woman...

...who allowed me
to get away with shit...

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

There was times...

...where the surf would get perfect...

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

You just make this thing
and just have your adrenaline...

...dripping out of your ears.
Paddle back out, do it again.

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

...she'd let you know it.
But for the most part...

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

Nicknamed "The Bull"
for his charging style...

...and clothing himself in a pair
of loud jailhouse-striped trunks...

...Noll emerged as surfing's
first big-wave celebrity.

He looked like a big-wave rider
with that big, thick neck...

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

Surfing needed Greg Noll.
When you look at those surfers...

...they were a stoic bunch. Greg Noll
introduced flamboyance...

...he introduced showmanship.
He introduced that colorful aspect...

...that most people associated
with hot-doggy Malibu.

Not just the way he surfed,
but just the spirit of it.

He introduced that
into big-wave riding.

He wanted to ride the biggest wave.

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

He stuffed himself into positions
no one else would want.

He'd sit over deeper, take off later.
He'd spin around at the last minute.

I mean, he was surfing's,
like, first hell-man.

He just liked confrontation.

He sought it out, in human terms
and in big-wave terms.

I was really a young, skinny kid...

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

I went to school
and had my ass kicked.

I went to high school and had
my ass kicked. And in some ways...

...maybe there was something there
that drove me to want...

...to pursue big-wave riding,
to make a statement.

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

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

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

...it's very difficult to not want more.

But for Greg Noll,
big-wave surfing became more...

...than just an adrenaline fix.
It became his identity...

...his way of life and his business.

He was doing it to promote
his surfboard business...

...and worked to promote himself.

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

As well as being a successful
surf filmmaker...

...the surfboard business
Noll began in his parents' garage...

...had, by 1 965,
become a 20,000-square-foot...

...surfboard factory
built around his big-wave image.

I had a big building,
I had 67 employees...

...l made 1 50 boards a week.

I was just turning money over
because I was selling them so cheap.

We were all competing
with each other.

He was a board designer. He was
a really influential manufacturer.

He was the most complete surfer
of the '50s and '00s, by far.

No one could come close.

Despite the dramatic exploits of Noll
and the other Waimea Bay surfers...

...it was a naive 1 5-year-old girl
from California...

...and her desire to join
the Malibu surf set...

...that launched surfing
into mainstream America.

Surfing is out of this world!
You can't imagine the thrill...

...of shooting the curl. It surpasses
every living emotion I've ever had!

Hey! This is the ultimate!

When you look at surfing's history...

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

-You can't mean....
-I'm a surf bum.

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

From the movie Gidget in '59,
when there was fewer...

...than 5000 surfers, to 1 963,
there was probably 2 million surfers.

So in five years it went from 5000
to 2 or 3 million people doing it.

Following the film release
of Gidget...

...surfing underwent
a radical transformation.

Surf shops opened doors
up and down...

...America's West and East coasts.

John Severson's Surfer Magazine
began publication...

...and in 1 962, surf-music pioneer
Dick Dale sold 75,000 copies...

...of his album Surfers' Choice
in Southern California alone.

Suddenly surfing was perceived
as hip. People assumed surfers...

...were in the know. Look at
the life they were leading.

The sun, the bikinis, that sort of aura
of sex, beach blankets and fires...

...and then all that
golden flesh in the sun.

Hollywood followed Gidget with
a medley of surf exploitation films.

Then, in 1 964, the Hollywood film
Ride the Wild Surf turned its lens...

...on Hawaii's big-wave surfers
challenging Waimea Bay.

Man, I've been hot to surf Waimea
since I was 1 3.

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

The theme is all the same.

Chicks in bikinis wringing
their hands that their boyfriends...

...are gonna go out and risk his life
for some big wave. It just--

Man, it just makes me puke.

-Man, is he getting creamed.
-He's taking gas.

They show the film.

A guy's sitting in a fish pond
without a ripple.

A big flat-out is coming!

Then they cut to, you know,
a 25-foot wave.

Guys are all pouring down
the face of the wave.

Goddamn, man.
Who can believe that shit, you know.

Hollywood's always had
a misconstrued view of surfing.

So it was more or less offensive
to the surfing community.

All these ancillary artistic
pursuits that surrounded surfing...

...all came together in a rush.

All of it happening
from 1 960 to 1 965.

On December 4th, 1 969...

...big-wave surfing was hit
with what would become known...

...as the greatest swell
of the 20th century.

A massive low-pressure system
metastasized...

...into one colossal storm system...

...that consumed
the North Pacific Ocean basin...

...resulting in the largest waves
ever recorded.

The super-size storm
uprooted trees...

...dislodged boats
onto Oahu's Kam Highway...

...and blew houses
right off their foundations.

Oahu's 1 3-mile stretch of stunning,
world-class surf breaks...

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

At first light,
I was sitting at Waimea...

...looking in disbelief
at what I was seeing.

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

So l decided to go around
Ka'ena Point and look at Makaha...

...because that would be
the last spot...

...that would still have
some chance of holding up.

Noll set off west to Makaha...

...the birthplace of modern
big-wave surfing...

...thinking the huge swells
slamming into the North Shore...

...would be tempered...

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

On the drive west, he stopped briefly
at Ka'ena Point to snap this picture...

...which Surfer Magazine
later claimed...

...was the largest wave
ever photographed.

When we got to Makaha,
the cops were going around...

...with blare horns on their cars
telling people to evacuate...

...the homes on the point.

Makaha was the only big-wave break
on Oahu considered ridable...

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

As the morning progressed...

...the hundred-year swell
surging out of the North Pacific...

...was giving rise
to bigger and bigger waves.

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

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

Because I knew that basically
it was a situation...

...where your chances of surviving one
of these waves was about fifty-fifty.

And I'm thinking to myself:

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

I finally had to just paddle
outside the lineup a hundred yards...

...and sit on my board
with my head down...

...and kind of go into another gear.

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

...if I had allowed
this day to go by...

...without at least trying for a wave.

Noll turned and paddled...

...for what was then considered
the biggest wave ever attempted.

No photographers were on hand
to capture his wave.

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

All that remains are the memories
of the handful of surfers...

...who were there that day
to witness his momentous ride.

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

"Oh, my God, look at this."

He's starting to paddle into this thing.
It's this huge, black, massive wall.

We watch him.
He takes off, stands up.

He's this little speck.
You're going, "Oh, my God."

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

He gets that Greg Noll stance...

...where he gets into this thing
and goes, "I'm going."

Drops down, drops down
and gets to the bottom.

The whole thing's already starting
to come over on top of him.

And he just kind of, like,
stepped off the rail.

There was nowhere to go.
That was it.

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

It was, like, oblivion after that.
The whole thing just:

Along with the birth
of my sons and my daughter...

...it was probably the most
significant day of my life.

Even though it wasn't photographed
and people have argued since then:

"How big was it?"
It doesn't matter.

In our imaginations,
it just was huge.

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

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

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

As Greg Noll's giant wave
broke and vanished...

...so too did the popularity
of traditional big-wave surfing...

...at Waimea Bay.

As it was broadsided by
the late '60s shortboard revolution...

...where the longer,
heavier big guns...

...were phased out in favor of shorter
and more maneuverable surfboards.

By the early '70s...

...the great Waimea had been
usurped by two spectacular...

...more performance-oriented
North Shore breaks:

The Bonzai Pipeline,
led by surfers like Gerry Lopez...

...and at Sunset Beach...

...by surfers like Jeff Hackman
and Barry Kanaiaupuni.

All this changed in the mid-'80s...

...first with the emergence
of Ken Bradshaw...

...and then Mark Foo.

Two professional big-wave riders...

...determined to reintroduce
personality and showmanship...

...to the challenge
of riding giant Waimea.

Then came The Eddie...

...Quiksilver's big-wave
riding contest at Waimea Bay...

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

Together, Ken Bradshaw,
Mark Foo and The Eddie...

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

...then still considered the
Mount Everest of big-wave surfing.

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

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

...that's 20-something miles
away from San Francisco.

In Half Moon Bay, who's formerly
famous for its annual pumpkin festival.

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

Teenage surfer Jeff Clark grew up...

...along Half Moon Bay's
secluded coast...

...riding homemade boards in the
region's powerful, rugged waves...

...where he carved out
a frontier existence...

...far removed
from surfing's mainstream.

I was a freshman in high school.

You could see this place exploding
from out behind the building...

...where we'd all congregate.

I was with my childhood friend,
and l'd go:

"Brian, we've gotta go
check that out."

We'd sit up on a cliff and watch
this place go, and one day it was like:

"Brian, today's the day."

I go, "Bring your board."
He's like:

"There's no way l'm paddling
a half a mile offshore...

...to a place I've never been."

And so he sat here at the end
of the cliff and said:

"l'll call the Coast Guard,
tell them where I last saw you."

The year was 1 975, and the wave
Clark intended to ride...

...broke a half a mile offshore into
a veritable graveyard of jagged rocks.

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

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

If l eat it, l eat it. But I'm going.

And I hit my feet...

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

The fastest I've ever gone,
and l made it.

And I just thought,
"Man, l want another one of those."

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

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

There just weren't
any takers around here.

People just didn't believe me.

They just thought,
"He's out of his mind.

He doesn't know
what he's talking about."

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

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

...no helicopters flying over,
no cheering crowds...

...doing his shit by himself.

He'd be like the equivalent
of a mountain man...

...killing a grizzly in the Rockies,
doing a three-day battle...

...then sleeping inside the carcass,
and not having anyone to tell about it.

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

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

It was my sanctuary.
I could leave the shore...

...and go out there
and be so focused...

...and so in tune and feel the ocean
with every fiber in my body...

...and I was part of it.

Jeff Clark's greatest challenge
was how he internalized...

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

...surfing that place alone
year after year after year.

Jeff Clark surfed Mavericks
alone for 1 5 years.

Until finally, in 1 990, he was able
to convince two Santa Cruz surfers...

...Dave Schmidt
and Tom Powers, to join him.

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

And the next time it broke,
there were photographers...

...there were 1 0 guys.

Suddenly it's like, "Wait a minute.
California is a big-wave place."

The discovery of this monstrous
wave in Northern California...

...produced an entirely new breed
of big-wave surfer.

Once Mavericks came,
it was in our backyard.

It really took time
to figure out what we had.

It wasn't instantaneous,
even though it was gnarly.

It took time for me
to conceptualize.

It was taboo for us to say "20 feet."

It was like, "20-foot waves
only happen in Hawaii."

The thought was, "It can't be as big
and as gnarly as Waimea.

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

...when in fact it was way harder,
it was way more fearsome...

...and it was way gnarlier.

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

...and just hateful, it's hateful.

I jumped in. l had
the worst ice-cream headache.

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

How are you supposed to ride
30- to 40- to 50-foot faces?

I'm out of here.

You got sharks, you got rocks,
you got cold water, you got huge surf.

Five-millimeter wet suits, fog banks,
you can't see two feet in front of you.

Oversized boulders
from the Land of the Lost.

They extend across the length...

...of where the wave is breaking.

To reach the waves at Mavericks...

...surfers paddle
over 45 minutes...

...through a maze of rocks,
rip currents...

...and frigid open-ocean chop
until they finally reach the lineup.

The sacred thing in big-wave surfing
is: What are the lineups?

Lineups are a means of triangulating
your position in the ocean.

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

Mainly what I use is this
positioning on hillsides.

I mean, there's a big mountain
behind and a closer cliff.

There's a satellite dish
you can line up.

Line them up so you know
within a few feet...

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

Just looking at waves,
you don't know the right spot.

It's very important
to be in the right spot at Mavericks.

If you're too deep,
you won't make it.

You're not just
waiting for a wave.

You're constantly paddling,
trying to maintain your position.

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

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

...and people get used to that,
sitting where those are coming.

Then a sneak set will
come out of the blue.

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

There's nothing happening,
you're sitting.

Sometimes,
corny though it may sound...

...someone actually yells,
"Outside!"

And you turn and you go,
"Oh, my!"

Your adrenaline's running,
everything is full rpm.

And you just wanna stroke
as hard as you can.

Heart in your throat,
paddling as if catching a wave...

-...only you're trying to get out.
-It's just a total survival thing.

Nobody cares about
the other guy at that point...

...you just wanna get over it.

Each successive wave
will be bigger than the one before.

You pray the one you barely made it
over is gonna get you to the next one.

The next one's twice as big
as the wave you just saw.

-It's gonna land right on you.
-Then the sinking feeling.

"l'm caught, l'm caught,
and l'm not gonna get away."

Oh, that guy's in the impact zone.

There's a point
where it gets so critical...

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

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

You feel like, "Oh, I made it."
Then you're getting sucked back.

The feeling of going over
backwards is horrifying.

It's the worst kind of beating.

Oh, shit.

There's a fiendish pleasure,
though...

...of watching, one by one,
the people you started with--

They get picked off,
don't quite punch through right...

...and they're goners.

Not only is the takeoff
the hardest part of big-wave surfing...

...it's the most fun.

It's entirely different
than any kind of normal surf...

...because it's basically
one burst of energy.

The wave comes out
of deep water...

...but it just stops, and that whole mass
of that wave jacks up.

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

It rears up and pulls back
and sucks up...

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

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

Now you're riding something
35 to 40 feet tall.

You gotta put everything
you have into getting yourself...

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

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

If you make haste in a takeoff...

...your odds of you making
that wave are very low.

The whole aspect
is really more mental than physical.

You have to believe.

I know when I'm gonna
make a wave or l'm not...

...before I even paddle for it.

I have to overcome that safety
mechanism that wants to rise up...

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

So this fear of the unknown becomes,
like, something you have to confront.

Because there is no way
to turn back your decision.

I've just wiped out.

I'm getting just worked.

Fluttering down the face,
getting sucked back over the face.

Then you basically become the lip.

Back flips, front flips, McTwists,
every which way underwater...

...real fast over, like,
a football field.

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

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

You're sure you're near
the surface...

...then what you have perceived
to be up is actually the bottom.

And the leash is pulling hard on you,
the board is tombstoning up there.

And I realize that if there
was another wave that was coming...

...l'm finished.

At one point, it started to stop,
and l thought, "Okay...

...l'm gonna live," you know.

-I started to swim up--
-And the next wave hit.

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

I remember feeling underwater,
like going over a waterfall underwater.

Literally getting sucked into a hole.

Here I am 30 feet down, and now
it takes me another 1 5, 20 feet down.

And I slam into the bottom down there.
And you think:

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

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

"Okay, this is not
happening anymore."

You know, you gotta
get to the surface to get air.

Finally, when I come up to the surface,
I remember it being so bright.

It was like being in a dream
and all of a sudden:

Back to, "Okay, this is real.
This is live now."

Almost every traumatic thing
that can happen to you at Mavericks...

...is due to the leash.

Leashes are dangerous things
in any surf spot over 20 feet.

There's those few critical situations
where leashes are a hindrance.

After the first wave, Flea found
himself on the wrong end of his leash.

When entangled in a crevice...

...the urethane cord
held him in place...

...while he was repeatedly battered
by incoming white water.

The leash wrapped around rocks.
I was stuck for eight waves.

-How come you couldn't get it off?
-The water current was so strong...

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

Flea eventually worked himself loose.
But in a more dramatic incident...

...Jeff Clark was hurled
into Mavericks' rocky Boneyard...

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

I can't get the leash off my ankle.

The broken half of my board
is dragging me into the rocks.

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

I'm hanging onto
the side of this rock.

I'm underwater and the water starts
to drain, and I am high and dry.

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

I'm underwater again.
The tension from my leg rope relieved.

I climbed on the rock,
and l got rid of that damn anchor...

...that was around my leg.

It's funny that Mavericks surfers value
their surfboards more than their lives.

It's like a lifeline.

If you get held down,
the only thing that I know...

...is at the end of this is something
that floats more than l do.

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

So l reach around
and grab my leash...

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

I know, in my experience,
there were times when...

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

In May of 1 992...

...two years after Clark shared his
spot with Powers and Schmidt...

...Surfer Magazine
took Mavericks public...

...with a cover story
titled "Cold Sweat."

As if to back up
the front-page headline...

...in 1 994, California was bombarded
by a series of epic north swells...

...announcing to surfing's big-wave
fraternity Mavericks was the real deal.

That's when the entire,
you know, surf world...

...converged on Mavericks, like,
"Okay, this place is legitimate.

We're gonna really see
what it's worth here."

On December 23rd, the sudden arrival
of three of Hawaii's...

...most famous
Waimea Bay surfers...

...Ken Bradshaw,
Brock Little and Mark Foo...

...created the biggest stir
and gave the impression...

...that something momentous
was taking place.

That day was amazing...

...to have the Hawaiians paddling out:
Brock Little, Mark Foo, Ken Bradshaw.

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

...because they gave the spot
that I've surfed for so many years...

...the credibility
to actually come and surf it.

Helicopters were hovering,
and photographers...

...from all the mags were there,
and it was just crazy.

We knew it was the day.

This was one of the best days
of surfing I've ever had out there.

Then at approximately 1 1 :20 a.m.,
during a beautiful medium-sized set...

...Mark Foo paddled,
hopped to his feet...

...and dropped into
his second wave of the day.

I went to lunch.
I came back out to the point.

I saw Brock in the parking lot,
and there was this guy, Greg, eerily:

"Have you seen Mark Foo?"

And that was just....

We were headed back in the boat
toward the harbor, and l saw some--

It kind of looked like
a big clump of something...

...as we were, you know,
passing it.

And I pointed it out and said:

"Hey, that looks like a body,"
you know.

And, you know, sure enough,
we stopped the boat...

...and just realized that it was,
you know, Mark Foo.

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

It was a--

It was a really eerie, eerie,
you know, experience...

...and just so chilling.

It went from the most pleasant,
beautiful, plate-glass sunshiny day...

...to the clouds moved in,
it got dark...

...the wind came up,
and it was just, you know...

...like we lost a great warrior.

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

To have that winter when
Mark Foo passed away, that was--

That was a heavy hit
to everybody.

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

An innocuous wipeout
on a less-than-death-defying wave...

...in the middle
of a crowded lineup.

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

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

I think he got caught
on the bottom.

The reason l think his leg rope
got caught in the rocks...

...is that on the next wave...

...Brock Little
and Mike Parsons wipe out.

Parsons comes up,
and Brock was behind him.

In later interviews, Parsons said:

"l felt Brock trying
to get to the surface."

But what he didn't realize
at the time...

...Brock was up and, you know...

...it was Foo trying to get
to the surface.

Which kind of--

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

I went and examined
his body, actually.

There really wasn't
any discernible injury.

He had a slight scratch
on his forehead.

His countenance, actually...

...was not that of one
who had sort of struggled...

...or who had been in anguish.

I felt, surfing at Mavericks
the years prior to that...

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

...but somebody who didn't
know what they were in for.

Mark Foo was this guy who was
larger than life to us, you know.

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

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

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

Everyone wanted to understand
what killed him. That was important.

Because they were trying
to assess the risk...

...in the face
of their sudden mortality.

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

-I didn't think that could happen.
-I thought l was invincible.

You know, I didn't think-- l thought
I could huck myself over any ledge...

...and pop back up laughing,
you know.

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

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

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

While an extravagant funeral
was planned for Foo in Hawaii...

...surfers from up and down
the California coast...

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

It turned the clocks back
to 1 0 years before...

...when I'm sitting out there
at the peak, by myself...

...with my own thoughts.

I wasn't sure l wanted
to surf Mavericks.

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

I ended up-- You know, the wave
came to me and it was like, "Yes."

Mavericks said, "You wanna
be here, here's your wave."

I caught a great one,
everything was good.

It's the way I thought it was.
But l always knew it could kill me.

That it can kill anyone.

A year to the day after Foo's death,
during a memorial tribute session...

...held in Foo's honor
at Waimea Bay...

...California surfer Donny Solomon
was caught by a close-out set...

...and drowned.

Then in February of 1 997...

...well-known big-wave rider
Todd Chesser...

...perished in 30-foot surf at a remote
North Shore outer-reef break.

In 1 968, in the thick of that era's
shortboard revolution...

...a fatherless 4-year-old boy
named Laird Zerfas...

...accompanied his mother,
Joann, on a chance visit...

...to Hawaii's North Shore.

He couldn't have known at the time,
but he'd grow up to become...

...the greatest big-wave rider
of his generation.

Perhaps the greatest
the world has ever known.

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

...l was in search
for a masculine figure in my life.

And my mom needed a husband,
but I needed a dad.

My friend Greg MacGillivray...

...who is, like, the father
of the IMAX films...

...he was making
a surfing movie at the time.

I was helping him make movies.

So l was walking down
the beach to see him.

Here's this little kid playing
around the ocean, so I dove in.

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

I said, "What are you doing?"
He said, "Bodysurfing.

You wanna bodysurf?"

I said, "Sure."

I said, "Why don't you hang
onto my neck, we'll bodysurf."

It was love at first sight
with him and I.

We had this physical
connection instantly.

It was a physical, spiritual, mental--

It was, like, "I love this child" thing.

It was just, "I love this child."

And we were just, like, partners.

When we finished,
he grabbed my hand, he says:

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

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

And there was his mother, beautiful
brown-haired, brown-eyed gal.

I went, "Oh, my God."

Mom was like, "Who's this?"
"This is Bill."

You know, give him the nudge,
you know.

Shortly thereafter,
Billy Hamilton, who was known...

...as one of the sport's
most popular and stylish surfers...

...married Joann,
becoming Laird's adopted father...

...and giving him his name.

I was known for being the kid
that ran around and said:

"My dad's Bill Hamilton.
Know who he is?"

These guys are like--
Guys like Gerry Lopez.

"l know who your dad is.
I see him every day."

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

Like, you know,
they knew who he was...

...but l wanted them to know he was
connected to me. This is my dad.

Because if you don't, you might get
a soda can full of sand...

...in the side of your head or--

The young Hamilton family
set about making a life in Hawaii...

...where, despite the paradisiacal
island setting...

...the initial years took on
a rough edge.

Being a blond Caucasian...

...l kind of represented
the stereotypical person...

...that destroyed
the culture of Hawaii.

A lot of people hated me,
wanted to fight...

...because of my skin color.

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

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

It wouldn't injure them, but it would
hurt so bad mentally and physically...

...that he won the fight
right at that minute.

The reputation was,
"Don't f*** around with Laird."

-So he looked after you as well?
-Of course, I was his brother.

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

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

He wanted to be Hawaiian.

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

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

That's what was around him.

Couldn't get girlfriends,
didn't have a lot of friends.

What did he do?

He spent and put all that energy
into the water.

In the face of this
youthful alienation...

...Laird precociously turned
to an older generation...

...for inspiration and camaraderie.

Laird Hamilton was around the
legendary big-wave riders of the '60s...

...who were moving into the '70s,
his dad being one of them.

During that time period, Pipeline
Beach was the mecca of surfing...

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

So l got to see all the guys.

His dad was making boards
for Peter Cole, Warren Harlow...

...Jose Angel, the pioneers
of big-wave surfing.

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

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

They were going out on days
when people were evacuating.

Considering his pedigree,
a traditional pro surfing career...

...was Laird's for the taking.

But from a young age,
his imagination was captured...

...by the mythic canvas
of riding giant waves.

I was young and impressionable
in 1 969.

So l understood the volume
of what was possible.

I understood there was stuff
out there that hadn't been tapped...

...and that the ocean was capable
of producing places and things...

...that no one had really done.

What Laird and the other
big-wave riders...

...from as far back as the '50s knew...

...is that lying far beyond
the traditional breaks like Waimea...

...were another set of remote
offshore reefs...

...capable of producing waves
of unimaginable size.

Even before 1 969...

...the amazing third-reef Pipeline
broke once in 1 963...

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

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

They waited another two hours,
until Greg finally caught...

...one of the most epic rides
in North Shore history.

Another ambitious attempt occurred
30 years later, in 1 993...

...when North Shore surfer
Alec Cook...

...armed with an 1 1 -foot board...

...an emergency scuba tank
and a helicopter...

...had himself dropped in the path
of a six-story swell...

...off Oahu's Ka'ena Point.

He made a valiant effort,
actually making the drop...

...on one massive wall,
before being swallowed.

Episodes like this made it clear
that when it came to riding...

...giant outer-reef waves...

...traditional paddle-in surfing
had its limits.

Any time they talked about
the limitations of big-wave riding...

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

Because as waves
increase in size...

...they also increase in speed.

So the bigger the wave,
the faster it's moving...

...the faster you need
to be going to catch it.

Having already established himself
as a dominant force...

...in traditional Hawaiian breaks,
Laird Hamilton continued to explore...

...the boundaries
of extreme ocean sports...

...developing into
a world-class windsurfer.

Powered by the wind, Laird
and his fellow sailboarders...

...discovered the speed and mobility
necessary to access the outer reefs...

...and sail into waves previously
impossible to catch by hand.

But you had this sail. You weren't
surfing, you were windsurfing.

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

I had just done a GQ shoot
with Laird.

We both liked surfing.

So we started hanging out.

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

...doing flat-water freeboarding.

We were freeboarding in the summer,
and there was a swell.

We were using swells for ramps,
and then we started...

...taking speed, catching waves,
and the light went off...

...and we were like:

"Oh, wow, we can catch waves. We
might be able to ride bigger waves."

In December of 1 992, Laird Hamilton,
along with pro-surfer Buzzy Kerbox...

...and legendary
North Shore lifeguard...

...and Waimea Bay rider
Darrick Doerner...

...launched the surf
at Sunset Beach...

...in a 1 6-foot inflatable Zodiac.

Neither of the three could've imagined
that by the time they got back...

...big-wave surfing
would be changed forever.

They weren't riding waves
that were significantly bigger...

...than guys had ridden. It was
how they were surfing the wave.

This radical new approach
of being whipped into a wave...

...came to be called "tow-in surfing."

You get the slingshot from
the tow rope, you let go...

...and there you are, on this beautiful
wave with no one anywhere near you...

...on this big, giant board,
there's no crowd there.

Bingo.

Progress came quick, as the trio
swapped the clumsy inflatable...

...for the faster
and more agile Jet Ski.

With the Jet Ski, you can catch waves
and not even get your hair wet.

Back in 1 987, North Shore veteran
Herbie Fletcher...

...who for years had been exploring
the outer reefs on a Jet Ski...

...towed pro-surfer Martin Potter
into a wave at second-reef Pipeline.

An innovative idea that, surprisingly,
failed to inspire others...

...until five years later, when
Hamilton, Kerbox and Doerner...

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

In traditional big-wave surfing,
the boards were very large.

And the reason for the size
of the boards was to catch the wave.

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

We didn't visualize what actually
was gonna take place...

...until we went snowboarding.

And if we could ride
these giant mountains...

...on this tiny little board...

...well, why couldn't we
do that surfing?

Aided by renowned board-builders
Dick Brewer, Billy Hamilton...

...and Gerry Lopez...

...the trio chopped their boards
by three feet.

Then, drawing inspiration from
windsurfing and snowboarding...

...they strapped themselves
to their boards...

...providing control in the heightened
speed and turbulence...

...of riding waves over 30 feet.

The small board was really
the big breakthrough.

I think that's really
where we shifted gears.

All of a sudden,
now we really had the speed.

The liberation
of paddling by motor...

...suddenly opened up
big-wave surfing's next frontier.

Now it seemed
that riding any wave...

...breaking anywhere, at any size,
was possible.

Then came the idea...

...of this thing on Maui...

...where Gerry sat down
with Laird and said:

"l got something
you might wanna see."

When he understood
what we had going...

...he was like: "Hey," you know,
"young man, come over here.

I got something to show you."

We knew that we had discovered...

...the real un-ridden realm.

Located on Maui's remote
North Coast...

...and requiring a long, dangerous
approach by sea, is Peahi...

...also known as Jaws.

Peahi revealed itself as
the big wave of the future.

And within its awesome
size and power...

...tow-in surfing came of age.

The difference between this wave and
Waimea is this is about five Waimeas.

You take Makaha, Waimea, Sunset,
Pipeline, Ka'ena Point, Mavericks...

...put them together in a pot,
that's what you get.

Like Waimea and Mavericks...

...Peahi featured its own crew
of groundbreaking pioneers.

In addition to Hamilton,
Doerner and Kerbox...

...were windsurfing champion
Dave Kalama...

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

...Rush Randle and Brett Lickle.
Known as "The Strap Crew"...

...these boys rewrote the rules of
big-wave surfing by riding waves...

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

Things that, previously,
they only dreamed of doing.

Things we only saw in animation,
suddenly, surfers were doing.

Now you're riding waves...

...with greater speed
than you ever dreamed of.

I mean, it's like a dream.
It's just like, "Oh, my God.

I'm on the perfect wave,
I'm going 35 miles an hour."

It's so fun that it's just-- I--

I better shut up.

Coming up on the Ski and seeing
plumes of water 1 00 feet in the air.

You can hear the drone of the Skis
in the distance.

You have these things in your head,
like, "What's going on?

What waves are guys riding?
What have people done?

How bad were wipeouts?
Is anyone dead yet?"

The first time that l surfed at Peahi...

...l remember getting
so uptight on the way out...

...just going, "Oh, man,"
you know, so much anxiety...

...that l was thinking:

"Jesus, I'm just-- I'm not
gonna be able to surf."

And I remember finally
having to go, "Okay.

Shit.

I guess this is a good day to die."

Challenging waves in
the 50- and 60-foot range...

...obliterated the concept of surfing
as a solitary pursuit...

...and rewired the rules
of engagement.

You gotta have eyes
in the back of your head.

I got eyes, Dave and Darrick.
They see what I need to see.

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

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

It's a three-man operation.

Laird and Kalama will be paired up.

I'll be in the channel
for safety.

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

...where every wipeout
becomes life-threatening.

When things go wrong,
they go wrong real quick.

You're getting brutalized so severely,
you don't know when it's gonna end.

You're an insignificant little rag doll...

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

Anybody who looks at that shit goes:
"How can that guy live through that?"

The greatest threat
is getting trapped...

...in the impact zone
and held underwater...

...as successive 1 0-story waves
explode overhead.

Out of sheer necessity of survival...

...tow-in surfing introduced
the big-wave rescue...

...with the Ski driver ready and willing
to put himself in harm's way...

...to come to the aid
of his fallen partner.

I'm thinking about the next wave
that's gonna hit him.

And how much time l have
from where I am to get to him...

...get him on the Ski
and get out of there.

Sometimes you're not able
to get him immediately.

He might have to take
two or three on the head.

You've gotta dash in there,
and hopefully the timing is right...

...that the guy's gonna pop up just as
you're coming by, and you get him.

Otherwise, you gotta get out, and the
guy's gotta take another on the head.

Because, you know, if you lose a Ski,
then both of you are screwed.

You can rush into a situation
where a person is drowning.

Now there's two persons drowning.

On a rescue situation where you're
really in peril, and it's a real situation...

...there's that connection.

You can see it in the eyes,
where, "We need to do this.

And we need to do it right now.
Nothing else matters."

But as soon as that moment passes,
it's pure love.

It is pure love: "Thank you, buddy.

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

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

And each of those guys,
they'll put themselves on the line...

...for guys they don't even know,
or might not like.

But it's part of their personality,
it's part of their nature.

So when they go home at night...

...they sleep well because they don't
think, "I could have, why didn't I?"

They do it.

When you're underwater,
you know:

"Okay, I'm here by myself
right now, underwater.

But l know there's somebody up there
doing everything they can to help me."

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

...by believing in that person...

...buys you time.

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

It really makes survival
a whole different story...

...than if you're out there on your own,
swimming around in the water...

...with no one but yourself.

The experiences that you have there,
the friendships that are formed...

...going through those experiences...

...are ones that are very deep
because there's times where...

...you call upon or you experience...

...the most-- Deepest sense
of who you are.

There's something about riding
a 60- to 80-foot-face wave...

...that draws something out of you.

The wave commands so much focus,
so much attention.

It's the only thing that matters for
a few seconds, and it's very purifying...

...because as far as you're concerned,
nothing else exists.

You're not doing this
for your own glory.

You're caught up
in this great act of nature.

Ironically, the biggest challenge...

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

You can't just go get it on Sunday
at 1 2:00...

...like you can most anything else.

When the ocean is not making
the waves available...

...Laird suffers, like a lot of
the other guys do.

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

We get frustrated, depressed
and bitchy...

...and grouchy and-- You know.

You really don't wanna be
around us like that.

Laird was trying to explain what
it was like when there was no waves.

And he said, you know,
"lt would sort of be like...

...if you were a dragon slayer,
and there were no dragons.

Then you wonder, like, who am l
and what am I doing here?"

And I question that all year long...

...except when it's 30 feet
and l'm out surfing.

Laird's the king out there.

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

...you know, dragged the guys
out there.

You just watch him surf,
and there's no one...

...that comes close to his abilities.

He has the ability to actually
slow himself down...

...where everybody else just wants
to run like hell.

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

...is because l have partners
like Dave and Darrick.

I'm only arriving at this level...

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

There's no question this guy is the
best big-wave rider the world has seen.

In August of 2000...

...Hamilton took another giant leap
by riding a wave so treacherous...

...and so outrageous...

...that it affected the course
of big-wave surfing history.

The wave broke 3000 miles
south of Maui...

...on the French Polynesian island
of Tahiti...

...at a reef pass known simply
as Teahupoo.

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

That a wave could be so powerful
and cylindrical?

The wave Laird encountered
at Teahupoo...

...is a freak of hydrodynamics.

Unlike the deep-water
big-wave breaks of Waimea...

...Mavericks and Peahi...

...Teahupoo explodes laterally...

...onto an extremely shallow,
razor-sharp reef.

The result is an extraordinary wave...

...that, while not as high as Peahi...

...is almost unfathomable in its mass,
power and ferocity.

Teahupoo's reputation was fearsome,
but neither Laird nor Doerner...

...could've imagined
the once-in-a-lifetime wave...

...that eventually appeared
on the horizon.

I towed him onto this wave.

It was to the point where
I almost said:

"Don't let go of the rope."

When l looked back, he was gone.

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

What could be heavier?

Laird's wave at Teahupoo
was the most...

...amazing, single most significant ride
in surfing history.

More than any other ride.

Because what it did is it completely
restructured, collectively...

...our entire perception
of what was possible.

Go through a surf magazine, you've
seen Pipeline, Off the Wall, Waimea.

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

But when that photo came out...

...it stopped everyone's heart,
and they went:

"Where and what is that?"

I remember picking up that magazine,
and looking and just going:

"Man, that shit's impossible.

You don't do that."

In my absolute prime,
there's absolutely no way...

...l could ride a wave like that.

Normally, surfers are dragging
this hand along the face.

Laird had to drag his right,
his back hand...

...on the opposite side of his board...

...to keep himself from getting
sucked up in that hydraulic.

You know, in the middle
of that maelstrom...

...how did his mind say,
"This is what l have to do"?

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

And so it was the imagination...

...of dealing with
that unimaginable energy...

...and coming up with
the plan spontaneously.

He couldn't practice.

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

Why do you risk your life riding waves
like this?" He looked at me--

This is a week after he did this, and
he was drained from the experience.

He was very mellow and very--

I think he was humbled by
the experience, and he goes:

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

I don't wanna miss
an opportunity like that."

I don't wanna not live because
of my fear of what could happen.

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

And I felt honored to be awarded...

...with something so...

...magnificent that it just
made me appreciate...

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

One of the things l love about
my work as a physician...

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

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

Where they just begin to, sort of,
eliminate the bullshit...

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

And those kind of
life-changing events...

...can come from illness...

...they can come from revelation...

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

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

...that you remember
for the rest of your life.

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

I haven't missed a swell in 55 years.

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

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

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

...and slid gently across the face
of a breaking wave.

That same wave
has rolled through time...

...crossing many oceans,
bearing the giants of surfing...

...from King Kamehameha
to Duke Kahanamoku...

...from George Downing
to Greg Noll...

...from Jeff Clark to Laird Hamilton...

...sweeping them all toward
that most supreme pleasure...

...driven on so fast and smoothly
by the sea.

Scene one, take one. Here we go.

When l was in school,
I was flunking French.

Then my French teacher said,
"What are you gonna do...

...when you graduate school?
You have to pass this.

What are you gonna do,
go to college?"

I says, "No, I'm gonna go surfing,
to the North Shore.

I'm gonna make my pilgrimage
to the North Shore.

And if l don't die...

...then I'll figure out what l do.
This is a noble thing I'm doing.

I'm going there to ride big waves,
to find out who l am."

The big waves are more fascinating
to me...

...than all the other natural wonders
in the world.

And I wanna see the biggest swells
every year.

Is this a natural wonder...

...as much as, say,
the Grand Canyon is?

To me, I mean, the Grand Canyon
pales compared to, like, Mavericks.

The Grand Canyon is just this
sort of erosion gully.

People accuse us of having ego,
but it's not all about ego.

It's too thrilling to be
an egocentric thing.

Sam George, reel one.

If you applied the same amount
of devotion...

...to a religious pursuit...

...do you think anyone would call
you a religious bum? Probably not.

When you consider that surfing really
is, more than anything else, a faith...

...and devotion to that faith
becomes paramount in your life...

...there's no such thing
as a surf bum.

At Teahupoo,
I had the little voice going:

"Jump off right now.
You're not gonna make this wave."

And another side of me going:

"Well, l can't make it
unless l just stay on."

What is it inside him
that lets him do that?

It was the third testicle
we had added at birth.

Cut. Roll them.

Action.

The main thing is, you need
to be able to get rid of the leash...

...if you get wrapped up on
the bottom or on somebody else.

So we've dealt with it,
with having a quick-release.

Before 1 994, it wasn't
really widely used.

After Mark Foo, everybody
out there has adapted to this...

...and we all use leashes,
and we all have a quick-release.

Even today, when I go
over there, to Waimea...

...you know, it just blows me away.
It's like...

...here she is,
the same beautiful woman...

...only now, she's snuggling up
to the next generation...

...and the next generation.

But l-- Last time I went,
I swear to God...

...l looked out, man, and I could--

I think she winked at me.

You know, when one of them
big sets came...

...and the sun was dancing off...

...the face of that wave, and...

...the wind was blowing the top up,
some guy was streaking, she went:

"Hey, Greg Noll. l remember you."

It makes me almost goddamn cry...

...and I'm not a very emotional guy,
you know.