:19:01
... elected to paddle three miles
to the safer, deep-water...
:19:04
... Waimea Bay.
:19:06
But 50-foot waves
were closing out the bay...
:19:09
... and while attempting
to reach shore, both were caught...
:19:12
... by mountains of white water
and ripped from their boards.
:19:16
Brown eventually washed up
on shore naked...
:19:19
... while 17-year-old Cross
was never seen again.
:19:23
It spooked everybody.
They were like, "You can't ride there.
:19:26
It's a killer. We're not gonna
go out there. You're gonna die."
:19:30
Along with the death of Dickie Cross,
Waimea's reputation...
:19:33
... was steeped in superstition
and dread...
:19:35
... with tales that ranged
from haunted houses...
:19:38
... to human sacrifices at the heiau...
:19:41
... or Hawaiian burial ground,
overlooking the bay.
:19:44
All of these things
were whizzing around...
:19:48
...like a bunch of ghouls.
:19:50
People really believed
if you paddled out...
:19:52
...there was gonna be
this goddamn vortex.
:19:54
It'd be like flushing a toilet,
and there go the haoles.
:19:58
People thought you couldn't ride
Waimea Bay.
:20:00
They watched it, and they said,
"Can't be done."
:20:03
You'd look at Waimea and wonder...
:20:05
...can the human body
survive the wipeout?
:20:13
But the lure of riding Waimea
was unrelenting...
:20:16
... as during each swell,
surfers would find themselves...
:20:19
... standing spellbound on the shore,
transfixed by the sight of the huge...
:20:24
... perfectly shaped waves
exploding off the point.
:20:31
We'd go by there when it
was breaking, and you're going:
:20:34
"That looks like a ridable wave."
:20:36
You could see that this had all the
potential of being a great surf spot.
:20:40
And at some point you just had to go,
"To hell with it, we can do this thing."
:20:46
On a fall day in October of 1957...
:20:49
... a handful of surfers
converged on Waimea...
:20:52
... as a 20-foot swell
began lighting up the bay.