Riding Giants
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:49:02
You feel like, "Oh, I made it."
Then you're getting sucked back.

:49:06
The feeling of going over
backwards is horrifying.

:49:09
It's the worst kind of beating.
:49:11
Oh, shit.
:49:14
There's a fiendish pleasure,
though...

:49:17
...of watching, one by one,
the people you started with...

:49:20
They get picked off,
don't quite punch through right...

:49:23
...and they're goners.
:49:40
Not only is the takeoff
the hardest part of big-wave surfing...

:49:44
...it's the most fun.
:49:46
It's entirely different
than any kind of normal surf...

:49:49
...because it's basically
one burst of energy.

:50:03
The wave comes out
of deep water...

:50:05
...but it just stops, and that whole
mass of that wave jacks up.

:50:10
The bottom of the wave
becomes the top in half a second.

:50:13
It rears up and pulls back
and sucks up...

:50:16
...and you really have to find your
niche where you can be under that.

:50:21
You thought you were paddling into
something maybe 20 or 30 feet.

:50:25
Now you're riding something
35 to 40 feet tall.

:50:27
You gotta put everything
you have into getting yourself...

:50:31
...as far down the face
before it picks you up.

:50:33
You have to jump off the cliff right
when the thing's about to jump on you.

:50:49
If you make haste in a takeoff...
:50:51
...your odds of you making
that wave are very low.

:50:56
The whole aspect is really
more mental than physical.


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