1:10:01
... giant outer-reef waves...
1:10:02
... traditional paddle-in surfing
had its limits.
1:10:05
Any time they talked about
the limitations of big-wave riding...
1:10:08
...it wasn't riding the wave,
it was catching the wave.
1:10:11
Because as waves
increase in size...
1:10:13
...they also increase in speed.
1:10:16
So the bigger the wave,
the faster it's moving...
1:10:19
...the faster you need
to be going to catch it.
1:10:21
Having already established himself
as a dominant force...
1:10:24
... in traditional Hawaiian breaks,
Laird Hamilton continued to explore...
1:10:28
... the boundaries
of extreme ocean sports...
1:10:31
...developing into
a world-class windsurfer.
1:10:34
Powered by the wind, Laird
and his fellow sailboarders...
1:10:37
... discovered the speed and mobility
necessary to access the outer reefs...
1:10:42
... and sail into waves previously
impossible to catch by hand.
1:10:45
But you had this sail. You weren't
surfing, you were windsurfing.
1:10:49
And it was so restrictive that you lost
the freedom that surfing had.
1:11:02
I had just done a GQ shoot
with Laird.
1:11:05
We both liked surfing.
1:11:08
So we started hanging out.
1:11:12
Buzzy and I had been playing around
in the Zodiac all summer...
1:11:15
...doing flat-water freeboarding.
1:11:17
We were freeboarding in the summer,
and there was a swell.
1:11:20
We were using swells for ramps,
and then we started...
1:11:23
...taking speed, catching waves,
and the light went off...
1:11:27
...and we were like:
1:11:28
"Oh, wow, we can catch waves. We
might be able to ride bigger waves."
1:11:56
In December of 1992, Laird Hamilton,
along with pro-surfer Buzzy Kerbox...