Riding Giants
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:33:00
Man, it just makes me puke.
:33:03
- Man, is he getting creamed.
- He's taking gas.

:33:06
They show the film.
:33:08
A guy's sitting in a fish pond
without a ripple.

:33:10
A big flat-out is coming!
:33:12
Then they cut to, you know,
a 25-foot wave.

:33:15
Guys are all pouring down
the face of the wave.

:33:21
Goddamn, man.
Who can believe that shit, you know.

:33:27
Hollywood's always had
a misconstrued view of surfing.

:33:31
So it was more or less offensive
to the surfing community.

:33:34
All these ancillary artistic
pursuits that surrounded surfing...

:33:38
...all came together in a rush.
:33:40
All of it happening
from 1960 to 1965.

:34:02
On December 4th, 1969...
:34:04
... big-wave surfing was hit
with what would become known...

:34:08
... as the greatest swell
of the 20th century.

:34:15
A massive low-pressure system
metastasized...

:34:18
... into one colossal storm system...
:34:20
... that consumed
the North Pacific Ocean basin...

:34:23
... resulting in the largest waves
ever recorded.

:34:29
The super-size storm
uprooted trees...

:34:32
... dislodged boats
onto Oahu's Kam Highway...

:34:35
... and blew houses
right off their foundations.

:34:38
Oahu's 13-mile stretch of stunning,
world-class surf breaks...

:34:42
... became a morass of turbulent,
six-story storm surf.

:34:52
At first light,
I was sitting at Waimea...

:34:54
...Iooking in disbelief
at what I was seeing.

:34:57
It was breaking so big that Waimea
was just full of white water.


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