Riding Giants
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:28:06
Surfing needed Greg Noll.
When you look at those surfers...

:28:09
...they were a stoic bunch. Greg Noll
introduced flamboyance...

:28:13
...he introduced showmanship.
He introduced that colorful aspect...

:28:17
...that most people associated
with hot-doggy Malibu.

:28:20
Not just the way he surfed,
but just the spirit of it.

:28:23
He introduced that
into big-wave riding.

:28:30
He wanted to ride the biggest wave.
:28:33
Greg made his reputation on taking off
on the biggest, heaviest wave.

:28:37
He stuffed himself into positions
no one else would want.

:28:40
He'd sit over deeper, take off later.
He'd spin around at the last minute.

:28:45
I mean, he was surfing's,
like, first hell-man.

:28:52
He just liked confrontation.
:28:54
He sought it out, in human terms
and in big-wave terms.

:28:59
I was really a young, skinny kid...
:29:01
...and I got my ass kicked
from the time I can remember.

:29:05
I went to school
and had my ass kicked.

:29:07
I went to high school and had
my ass kicked. And in some ways...

:29:11
...maybe there was something there
that drove me to want...

:29:15
...to pursue big-wave riding,
to make a statement.

:29:17
I'm not a psychologist,
I don't know.

:29:19
All I know is, once you get into it,
there's an adrenaline, a stoke...

:29:23
...and that high is so addictive
that once you have a taste of it...

:29:27
...it's very difficult to not want more.
:29:31
But for Greg Noll,
big-wave surfing became more...

:29:34
... than just an adrenaline fix.
It became his identity...

:29:38
... his way of life
and his business.

:29:40
He was doing it to promote
his surfboard business...

:29:43
...and worked to promote himself.
:29:45
Greg was a good hurdy-gurdy man.
He knew how to self-promote himself.

:29:51
As well as being a successful
surf filmmaker...

:29:54
... the surfboard business
Noll began in his parents' garage...

:29:57
... had, by 1965,
become a 20,000-square-foot...


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