Riding Giants

[David]

Stacy Peralta's "Riding Giants" (2004) is the most purely enjoyable nonfiction film I've seen in well over five years. It's also one of the most astonishing films of modern times, filled with the "passion for filmmaking" which Truffaut so keenly sought. I highly recommend the film to you NetFlixers or renters.


Jaws (Peahi) on Maui's North Shore




Another shot of Jaws




The hydraulically fiendish Teahupoo (pronounced "CHOH-poo") in Tahiti, considered impossible to surf until Laird Hamilton surfed it in 2000 (that's Laird in the photo)--this beast has a 15-foot-thick lip that would pulverize a human body if he fell




Teahupoo swelling up in a 180-degree arc




Maverick off Northern California--many a pro surfer has died in these waters

[becca]

This was a very special film for me as I saw it in Seatle with my fiance' just days after he was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. it was very very inspirational for us, riding giants... and there was a surfing Oncologist or something in there who treats cancer patients, that part near the end, it was just a wonderful moment in a bad time. His brother (who surfs at Yakutat in Alaska) was with us. Later Rich bought two copies. This and Step Into Liquid we must've watched a dozen times each on DVD. They kept us stoked! "Those waves are huuuuge, they really must have a third testical!" (Plus I like seeing Laird's tawny chest fur)

Riding Giants has been on one of the cable movie channels. Fuel TV also shows a fair number of surf films.