:37:00
No photographers were on hand
to capture his wave.
:37:03
Not a single shot or a single
frame of footage exists.
:37:07
All that remains are the memories
of the handful of surfers...
:37:11
... who were there that day
to witness his momentous ride.
:37:15
Greg Noll starts to paddle,
and we're all in our cars just going:
:37:19
"Oh, my God, look at this."
:37:21
He's starting to paddle into this thing.
It's this huge, black, massive wall.
:37:25
We watch him.
He takes off, stands up.
:37:27
He's this little speck,
and you're going, "Oh, my God."
:37:30
And he drops in, and he looks like
a little tiny cartoon figure.
:37:33
He gets that Greg Noll stance...
:37:35
...where he gets into this thing
and goes, "I'm going."
:37:38
Drops down, drops down
and gets to the bottom.
:37:40
The whole thing's already starting
to come over on top of him.
:37:44
And he just kind of, like,
stepped off the rail.
:37:47
There was nowhere to go.
That was it.
:37:49
The fact that he made the drop,
got to the bottom of the wave...
:37:52
It was, like, oblivion after that.
The whole thing just:
:38:01
Along with the birth
of my sons and my daughter...
:38:04
...it was probably the most
significant day of my life.
:38:07
Even though it wasn't photographed
and people have argued since then:
:38:12
"How big was it?"
It doesn't matter.
:38:13
In our imaginations,
it just was huge.
:38:16
Because on that classic day
of the biggest swell ever seen...
:38:20
...he essentially rode alone
and faced it when it came to him.
:38:23
That's what every surfer does in their
own life. Everyone can relate to that.
:38:38
As Greg Noll's giant wave
broke and vanished...
:38:40
... so too did the popularity
of traditional big-wave surfing...
:38:44
... at Waimea Bay.
:38:45
As it was broadsided by
the late '60s shortboard revolution...
:38:49
... where the longer,
heavier big guns...
:38:52
... were phased out in favor of shorter
and more maneuverable surfboards.
:38:57
By the early '70s...
:38:59
... the great Waimea had been
usurped by two spectacular...