1:03:03
... and drowned.
1:03:06
Then in February of 1997...
1:03:09
... well-known big-wave rider
Todd Chesser...
1:03:12
... perished in 30-foot surf at a remote
North Shore outer-reef break.
1:03:29
In 1968, in the thick of that era's
shortboard revolution...
1:03:33
... a fatherless 4-year-old boy
named Laird Zerfas...
1:03:36
... accompanied his mother,
Joann, on a chance visit...
1:03:39
... to Hawaii's North Shore.
1:03:43
He couldn't have known at the time,
but he'd grow up to become...
1:03:47
... the greatest big-wave rider
of his generation.
1:03:50
Perhaps the greatest
the world has ever known.
1:03:54
After my dad left my mom,
before I could even remember...
1:03:58
...I was in search
for a masculine figure in my life.
1:04:03
And my mom needed a husband,
but I needed a dad.
1:04:06
My friend Greg MacGillivray...
1:04:08
...who is, like, the father
of the IMAX films...
1:04:11
...he was making
a surfing movie at the time.
1:04:14
I was helping him make movies.
1:04:16
So I was walking down
the beach to see him.
1:04:20
Here's this little kid playing
around the ocean, so I dove in.
1:04:23
I said, "What's your name?"
"My name's Laird."
1:04:26
I said, "What are you doing?"
He said, "Bodysurfing.
1:04:29
You wanna bodysurf?"
1:04:30
I said, "Sure."
1:04:32
I said, "Why don't you hang
onto my neck, we'll bodysurf."
1:04:37
It was love at first sight
with him and I.
1:04:39
We had this physical
connection instantly.
1:04:41
It was a physical, spiritual, mental...
1:04:44
It was, like, "I love this child" thing.
1:04:48
It was just, "I love this child."
1:04:51
And we were just, like, partners.
1:04:54
When we finished,
he grabbed my hand, he says:
1:04:56
"I want you to come up
and meet my mom."
1:04:59
I don't know if he had a choice.
"You're coming with me."