RIDING GIANTS [2004] review

It was yet another rainy Sunday afternoon when I finally watched RIDING GIANTS, a movie given to me by Brady long ago.  This is a documentary chronicling the surprisingly long history of big wave surfing.  It takes us from the very origins of surfing, 1000 years ago in Hawaii, to the origins of big wave surfing in the early 20th century.  Who knew people were surfing huge waves in the 1940’s and 1950’s?

The stories and footage of these early pioneers in surfing was fascinating to me.  It’s no doubt the 1950’s are my favorite decade.  Seeing footage of Hawaii in those times was just so wonderfully analog.  

The things these early surfers did on boards without fins or even leashes, and no 911 to call in case of emergency was truly fearless. There are interviews with some of these guys and they are characters, but not overly so.  I was also surprised by just how much footage there was of them surfing, given how poor they said they were, basically living off the land and just surfing all the time!

As the documentary progressed to the 80’s, the most amazing thing to me was that one guy surfed what would come to be known as Mavericks all alone for 15 years!  No one would go out with him.  Then one day suddenly it became incredibly popular with the big surfing crowd, though not without tragedy.  

The film closes with big wave surfing as it is now, and as one might expect it is light years ahead of what the guys were capable of doing in the 50’s thanks to modern technology.

If you are into surfing, or surf culture, or just the Sea or the beach, this movie will make you totally stoked.  Even if you are not, this is a thoroughly entertaining documentary.  Watch it on a rainy afternoon when you can’t, yourself, get out to the beach. 

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