:12:01
But it was 23-year-old
George Downing...
:12:04
... who carved the mold from which
all other big-wave riders were cast.
:12:08
I think George Downing, in a sense,
is truly the original big-wave surfer.
:12:12
Downing designed and built
the first true big-wave surfboard...
:12:16
... and was instrumental in exploring
Oahu's other big-wave breaks.
:12:20
They wanted to ride
more big waves...
:12:22
...and Makaha doesn't
get big that often.
:12:25
And we had heard these fabulous
tales about, you know...
:12:28
...this deep, dark, foreboding place
called the North Shore.
:12:34
Fifteen miles up the coast
from Makaha was the North Shore...
:12:38
... a remote 13-mile stretch
of coastline backed up against...
:12:42
... a patchwork of pineapple fields
and taro farms.
:12:52
I can remember coming out
of the pineapple fields of Schofield...
:12:56
...and getting my first glimpse
of the North Shore.
:12:59
Here's this magical place
laid out in front of you.
:13:03
Suddenly they get to a place
where all those dreams live.
:13:07
You'd go another
couple hundred yards...
:13:10
..."Shit, here's another place."
:13:12
At first, we didn't have a clue
we had stumbled...
:13:14
...on something so fabulously
magical and powerful.
:13:19
They must have thought
that they'd found nirvana.
:13:25
The discovery of the North Shore
was surfing's equivalent...
:13:28
... of Columbus reaching
the New World.
:13:30
Nowhere else on Earth would there
be found so many world-class...
:13:34
... big-wave breaks
in such close proximity.
:13:37
What the Paris runways
are to fashion...
:13:39
...is what the North Shore
is to the world of surfing.
:13:42
We were among the first Californians
to dedicate themselves to surfing.