:44:02
...and I was part of it.
:44:07
Jeff Clark's greatest challenge
was how he internalized...
:44:11
...all that emotion and all that drama
and all that adrenaline...
:44:15
...surfing that place alone
year after year after year.
:44:20
Jeff Clark surfed Mavericks
alone for 15 years.
:44:25
Until finally, in 1990, he was able
to convince two Santa Cruz surfers...
:44:30
... Dave Schmidt
and Tom Powers, to join him.
:44:33
They went back to Santa Cruz
with these tales of these waves.
:44:37
And the next time it broke,
there were photographers...
:44:41
...there were 10 guys.
:44:43
Suddenly it's like, "Wait a minute.
California is a big-wave place."
:44:52
The discovery of this monstrous
wave in Northern California...
:44:55
... produced an entirely new breed
of big-wave surfer.
:45:01
Once Mavericks came,
it was in our backyard.
:45:05
It really took time
to figure out what we had.
:45:08
It wasn't instantaneous,
even though it was gnarly.
:45:12
It took time for me
to conceptualize.
:45:14
It was taboo for us to say "20 feet."
:45:17
It was like, "20-foot waves
only happen in Hawaii."
:45:21
The thought was, "It can't be as big
and as gnarly as Waimea.
:45:24
This can't be as hard
as what they're doing there"...
:45:28
...when in fact it was way harder,
it was way more fearsome...
:45:31
...and it was way gnarlier.
:45:36
It's just so gnarly
and rocky and just violent...
:45:39
...and just hateful, it's hateful.
:45:41
I jumped in. I had the worst
ice-cream headache.
:45:45
Within 30 seconds,
I couldn't feel my hands or feet.
:45:48
How are you supposed to ride
30- to 40- to 50-foot faces?
:45:52
I'm out of here.
:45:55
You got sharks, you got rocks,
you got cold water, you got huge surf.