Riding Giants
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:07:02
...and couldn't understand
what good it did.

:07:05
Greg Noll's principal said, "What are
you guys doing on the beach?

:07:12
What exactly...?" Not just riding,
not going out to surf.

:07:15
But, "What are you doing
on the beach?"

:07:17
For the first time,
they had a group of guys...

:07:19
...that didn't give a rat's ass,
dropping out of the basketball team...

:07:23
...and just giving the whole thing
the finger...

:07:26
...going, "I don't give a shit.
I wanna go surfing."

:07:34
For this new generation of surfers...
:07:36
... surfing wasn't just something
you did, but something you became.

:07:40
Not just a sport, but a statement.
:07:43
I think getting radical was part
of the culture at that time.

:07:47
After a while it was expected of us...
:07:49
...and therefore we fulfilled
those expectations.

:07:52
Some guy's dad
had gotten back from the war...

:07:54
...and he had a closet
of Nazi stuff he brought back.

:07:57
Then they went over and took Flexies
and rode down a storm drain...

:08:01
...for a mile underneath the town
of Windansea.

:08:25
And that was just having a good time.
:08:27
But people see it and go,
"What's this all about?"

:08:29
That behavior wasn't mean-spirited.
It was playful.

:08:32
It was like turning a hearse
into a surf-mobile.

:08:35
Instead of dead bodies, it was all
about living life to the fullest.

:08:39
Amidst the mirth and mayhem
of the fledging surf scenes...

:08:42
... from Windansea to San Onofre,
to Malibu, much homage...

:08:46
... was given to the sport's
Polynesian roots...

:08:48
... with grass shacks, floral aloha
shirts and the playing of ukuleles.

:08:57
But on a winter morning in 1953,
another Hawaiian import...


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