:43:04
Jeff Clark was sitting out there,
nobody in the bleachers...
:43:08
...no helicopters flying over,
no cheering crowds...
:43:12
...doing his shit by himself.
:43:30
He'd be like the equivalent
of a mountain man...
:43:32
...killing a grizzly in the Rockies,
doing a three-day battle...
:43:37
...sleeping inside the carcass,
and not having anyone to tell about it.
:43:43
My parents had no idea
I was riding waves like this.
:43:46
I believed in my ability
to go out there and ride it.
:43:49
It was my sanctuary.
I could leave the shore...
:43:52
...and go out there
and be so focused...
:43:56
...and so in tune and feel the ocean
with every fiber in my body...
:44:02
...and I was part of it.
:44:07
Jeff Clark's greatest challenge
was how he internalized...
:44:11
...all that emotion and all that drama
and all that adrenaline...
:44:15
...surfing that place alone
year after year after year.
:44:20
Jeff Clark surfed Mavericks
alone for 15 years.
:44:25
Until finally, in 1990, he was able
to convince two Santa Cruz surfers...
:44:30
... Dave Schmidt
and Tom Powers, to join him.
:44:33
They went back to Santa Cruz
with these tales of these waves.
:44:37
And the next time it broke,
there were photographers...
:44:41
...there were 10 guys.
:44:43
Suddenly it's like, "Wait a minute.
California is a big-wave place."
:44:52
The discovery of this monstrous
wave in Northern California...
:44:55
... produced an entirely new breed
of big-wave surfer.