1:09:03
It took Greg Noll and Mike Stang two
hours to make the long paddle out.
1:09:07
They waited another two hours,
until Greg finally caught...
1:09:11
... one of the most epic rides
in North Shore history.
1:09:34
Another ambitious attempt occurred
30 years later, in 1993...
1:09:38
... when North Shore surfer
Alec Cook...
1:09:40
... armed with an 11-foot board...
1:09:43
... an emergency scuba tank
and a helicopter...
1:09:45
...had himself dropped in the path
of a six-story swell...
1:09:48
...off Oahu's Ka'ena Point.
1:09:51
He made a valiant effort,
actually making the drop...
1:09:53
... on one massive wall,
before being swallowed.
1:09:57
Episodes like this made it clear
that when it came to riding...
1:10:01
... giant outer-reef waves...
1:10:02
... traditional paddle-in surfing
had its limits.
1:10:05
Any time they talked about
the limitations of big-wave riding...
1:10:08
...it wasn't riding the wave,
it was catching the wave.
1:10:11
Because as waves
increase in size...
1:10:13
...they also increase in speed.
1:10:16
So the bigger the wave,
the faster it's moving...
1:10:19
...the faster you need
to be going to catch it.
1:10:21
Having already established himself
as a dominant force...
1:10:24
... in traditional Hawaiian breaks,
Laird Hamilton continued to explore...
1:10:28
... the boundaries
of extreme ocean sports...
1:10:31
...developing into
a world-class windsurfer.
1:10:34
Powered by the wind, Laird
and his fellow sailboarders...
1:10:37
... discovered the speed and mobility
necessary to access the outer reefs...
1:10:42
... and sail into waves previously
impossible to catch by hand.
1:10:45
But you had this sail. You weren't
surfing, you were windsurfing.
1:10:49
And it was so restrictive that you lost
the freedom that surfing had.