1:13:02
... came to be called "tow-in surfing."
1:13:04
You get the slingshot from
the tow rope, you let go...
1:13:07
...and there you are, on this beautiful
wave with no one anywhere near you...
1:13:11
...on this big, giant board,
there's no crowd there.
1:13:15
Bingo.
1:13:19
Progress came quick, as the trio
swapped the clumsy inflatable...
1:13:23
... for the faster
and more agile Jet Ski.
1:13:27
With the Jet Ski, you can catch waves
and not even get your hair wet.
1:13:32
Back in 1987, North Shore veteran
Herbie Fletcher...
1:13:35
... who for years had been exploring
the outer reefs on a Jet Ski...
1:13:38
... towed pro-surfer Martin Potter
into a wave at second-reef Pipeline.
1:13:44
An innovative idea that, surprisingly,
failed to inspire others...
1:13:48
...until five years later, when
Hamilton, Kerbox and Doerner...
1:13:51
... revealed tow-in surfing's
true potential.
1:13:56
In traditional big-wave surfing,
the boards were very large.
1:14:00
And the reason for the size
of the boards was to catch the wave.
1:14:04
Once you were in, you didn't need
a big board, you were fine.
1:14:08
We didn't visualize what actually
was gonna take place...
1:14:12
...until we went snowboarding.
1:14:16
And if we could ride
these giant mountains...
1:14:19
...on this tiny little board...
1:14:21
...well, why couldn't we
do that surfing?
1:14:25
Aided by renowned board-builders
Dick Brewer, Billy Hamilton...
1:14:28
... and Gerry Lopez...
1:14:30
...the trio chopped their boards
by three feet.
1:14:33
Then, drawing inspiration from
windsurfing and snowboarding...
1:14:36
... they strapped themselves
to their boards...
1:14:39
... providing control in the heightened
speed and turbulence...
1:14:42
... of riding waves over 30 feet.
1:14:45
The small board was really
the big breakthrough.
1:14:48
I think that's really
where we shifted gears.
1:14:50
All of a sudden,
now we really had the speed.
1:14:53
The liberation
of paddling by motor...
1:14:55
... suddenly opened up
big-wave surfing's next frontier.
1:14:58
Now it seemed
that riding any wave...