La historia del surf es como un largo viaje en el que los surfistas se pasan el testigo unos a otros a lo largo de los años en una ola única e interminable. Para entender cómo esta ancestral tradición polinesia fue capaz de recorrer el mundo y las épocas, hasta convertirse en un deporte de competición y acabar ganándose un puesto en los Juegos Olímpicos, nos sumergiremos en su historia a través de los excepcionales relatos de quienes permitieron su supervivencia y su reinvención.
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00:00Surfing is one of the few sports that is much more than a game, it is the expression of a
00:27culture, that of the people of the water, the Polynesians. It is the art of sliding on the
00:34waves in the heart of the folds of the world and its ancestral heritage. Surfing was about
00:40to disappear about a century ago. Its resurrection is the work of an American native, of a handful
00:48of fugitive young men, businessmen and rebellious young men from all over the world.
00:56Known today by millions of fans, surfing has built its mythology on the foundations
01:02of feats, the search for freedom and the conquest of wild spaces. A global epic told
01:09by those who discovered it and those who keep it alive on all the waves of the planet.
01:14Surf, the sacred fire.
01:26Welcome to the paradise of surfing. In Tahiti, the wave of Teahupo is one of the most beautiful
01:42in the world. It is a mythical wave. It is like a wild animal, a tiger. It is a wave
02:04that breaks in the reef, where there is only one meter deep. You know that the thing is
02:12serious, Teahupo can scare you. The wave is pushed by all the ocean mass, which unfolds
02:21powerfully. It is an impressive wave. When you get there, you have to be very humble,
02:29because you never know what can happen. Bahine Fierro and Kauli Bast are among the best
02:38surfers in the world. Born in Polynesia, they have been surfing in Teahupo since they were
02:43teenagers. There are very few people on the planet who know how to tackle it. You have
02:50to wait a long time, be patient. Everyone wants their wave, and then there is the priority
02:56wave . So it is a mutual respect that we all have. And suddenly the first wave arrives,
03:06the wave that you were waiting for. When you start rowing, you have to do it
03:16with force. And all you see is the whole ocean receding. And the coral waiting for you.
03:26You have the feeling that your center of gravity is moving a little, as if it were
03:31twisted. You go down and down, thinking you can't fall. And then, when you get into
03:42the tube, you rise again. And you are trapped inside a roller. The ocean sways
03:49over you, and you have the impression that time is stopping. You don't move for a few
03:54seconds, and suddenly ... you come out with a blow that pushes you from behind. And that's
04:03the best feeling of all. You know it's a good wave when you come out with the blow.
04:11They are very intense moments that you can only experience if you are there. I think
04:15Teahupo is also very spiritual. The wild world of the ocean is the universe of the only
04:26town in the world that knows how to walk on water, the Polynesian people. And to understand
04:34the surf, you have to understand its beauty, its depth, and its spirituality. My family
04:46taught me the art of traditional wooden boards. It's a new way of reviving the spirit of
05:03the tree.
05:10With more than 70 years, Tom Poaco Stone is one of the guardians of the ancestral culture,
05:16passed down by surfers from all over the world.
05:35All the boards that are used today originate from the boards that Mish Kupuno designed.
05:46My ancestors are the origin of all this. When we left the continent, Southeast Asia, we
06:00renounced the land, and the ocean became our home.
06:07The Polynesians left the south of China 6,000 years ago in huge piraguas and arrived in Indonesia
06:12and the Philippines when the pharaohs of Egypt built their first pyramids. They landed in
06:20Tahiti during the fall of the Roman Empire. They discovered Hawaii at the birth of Islam.
06:29And Easter Island in the time of Charlemagne. And New Zealand in the time of the Crusades.
06:37Navigation became a key element in the construction of our society. We come from the sea, we are
06:45a people of the liquid continent, as they call us today. That is why we learned to dominate
06:50the ocean before we could dominate the earth. We were always on the move, always. We had
06:58to discover lands and occupy them, we had to survive.
07:03The waves are the result of the liquid waves that cross the Great Blue. In the Pacific,
07:09these waves sculpted by the wind travel thousands of kilometers. Those who know how to dominate
07:18the waves and the winds discover paths that advance alone and connect the lands together.
07:28We are a single people, connected by the sea.
07:33Our migration took us to many different islands across the oceans, and surfing became an extension
07:41of that migration. Reading the movements of the water is a form of art. It's a very complex
07:55thing. It's a dance.
08:08I believe that the style of each surfer tells our story. And in my case, I express where
08:18I come from, who I am. People often tell me that I dance too much on the wave. And that
08:26comes from our culture. We are also dancers. It's personal, and everyone has their own
08:33style of surfing.
08:36The violence of the waves on one side and the smoothness of the slide on the other. The union
08:42of opposites that characterizes surfing is magnified by what Polynesians call the mana.
08:50The sacred fire, the energy that impregnates everything that exists.
08:56The mana is an energy in a spiritual part that is present in all parts of Polynesia.
09:02We say that we have the mana, but above all we say that we transmit it.
09:09This force is transmitted through the jaka, a dance and a collective language that unites
09:16the peoples of the water to express love, war, strength, courage, wisdom, or sharing.
09:27This ancient culture, in which surfing played a central role, will be extinguished with
09:41the first contact with the Europeans at the end of the 18th century. Explorers are astonished
09:48at the show of surfing. Passed the fascination in the heart of this Eden, the first missionaries
09:56arrive. Protestants, Catholics or Anglicans, the missionaries are in charge of converting
10:03the people of the water to the European moral order. The nakedness is put to an end. A single
10:09God.
10:10The missionaries did not see with good eyes to do things just for pleasure. You had to
10:16be productive, cultivate the land and not waste time playing with the waves. So they
10:22put people to work in sugar cane plantations. They had to earn their daily wage, go where
10:29they were told and meet schedules.
10:35In a record time, European diseases decimate the Polynesians. Tahiti goes from 100,000
10:41to 6,000 inhabitants in less than a century. The culture of the peoples of the water is
10:47swallowed up by Western civilization. At the end of the 19th century, surfing disappears
10:53from almost all the Polynesian islands.
11:12What is the mystery for which surfing becomes a world phenomenon a century later? In addition
11:19to being a leisure activity for the masses, a lifestyle and a high-level sport is also
11:28a business. What has happened? How have the Polynesians managed to recover their culture
11:36and share it with the whole world?
11:42The answer is here, in the Hawaiian archipelago, in a stretch of the beach of Waikiki. The Polynesians
11:54have erected a statue of the man who changed the course of history. Duke Kahanomoku, alias
12:01the Duke, was born in 1890 and grew up in Hawaii when the island was still a kingdom. He was
12:07one of the last people to know surfing as it had been practiced for thousands of years.
12:14Duke Kahanomoku was a man of the sea. He grew up in Waikiki. From a very young age, he spent
12:21a lot of time in the water learning to row a canoe, to fish, to surf. He loved Waikiki
12:28and he loved to be at sea. Duke is 16 years old when, in 1906, Thomas Edison disembarks
12:38with one of the first cameras in Hawaii, recently annexed by the United States. Edison discovers
12:44the fabulous beach of Waikiki and films a few young people riding the waves. Duke and
12:50his gang are the last people on the planet who know how to surf.
13:00History takes a crucial turn in 1911, during a local swimming competition organized by
13:06white settlers who train in private clubs. Duke, who has become an American since
13:12the annexation, dares to break the racist prejudices of whites and signs up.
13:17The Polynesians call it the force of the maná. Before the general astonishment, Duke beats
13:23the world record of 100 free meters in more than 4 seconds. At the same time, Duke Kahanomoku
13:32becomes the first American Olympic champion in swimming, the first Polynesian pride
13:37of modern times. Duke travels the world with his board and becomes the attraction
13:43of many. Australia, New Zealand and the west coast of the United States made him a hero.
13:53When he returns to the island, he is discovered as an advertising icon. He has turned surfing
13:58into the star product of his homeland.
14:00People were excited to meet him. Greeting Duke Kahanomoku and being able to say later
14:10that you had shook his hand was something that people boasted about. He quickly became
14:16a kind of ambassador and thanks to him the practice of surfing spread.
14:24Thanks to Duke Kahanomoku, Hawaii attracts more and more tourists. And the beach of Waikiki
14:30becomes the symbol of the surf renaissance. But the man who will convert the United States
14:39to surf comes from the interior of the country. In the 1920s, Tom Blake, a single young man,
14:47lives thousands of kilometers from the sea and a surfboard.
14:54Tom Blake is an orphan and has had a somewhat chaotic childhood. He meets Duke Kahanomoku
15:01in a Detroit movie in Michigan. Duke approaches and shakes his hand.
15:08Tom Blake is captivated by Duke Kahanomoku. Shortly after, he moves to Hawaii and self-taught
15:15deepens the roots of Polynesian culture.
15:20He moves to Waikiki and Duke takes him under his protection. Tom Blake idolizes Duke.
15:28Tom Blake will dedicate his life to transmitting the Polynesian maná to the whites. He is dedicated to the design
15:34of surfboards. He hollows them out to make them lighter and gives them different shapes and sizes.
15:41Later, after studying the waves, he came up with the idea of installing a keel on the back of the board.
15:46It is a revolution. Now surfers will be able to cling to the wave
15:51and stand while they slide along the wall. Finally, in 1935, Tom Blake
15:58writes one of the most important books in the history of surf, Hawaiian Surfboard.
16:29The oral teaching of Duke is now available to everyone.
16:35Duke Kahanomoku and Tom Blake are the bearers of the sacred fire.
16:42In the early 1950s, the surf fever swept across the Californian coast.
16:48The ancestral Polynesian sport attracts hundreds of young people in total disagreement with the American way of life.
16:54Tribes are created out of affinity in communities that live on the beaches of Hawaii.
17:00The Polynesian maná is a symbol of the Polynesian spirit.
17:06The Polynesian maná is a symbol of the Polynesian spirit.
17:12The Polynesian maná is a symbol of the Polynesian spirit.
17:18The Polynesian maná is a symbol of the Polynesian spirit.
17:24You had to go down a hill to get to the beach.
17:30In that area, they called it the pit.
17:36Nobody told you what you had to do.
17:42Surfing was not popular at the time. Only small tribes practiced it.
17:48All they lived for was surf. It was their way of expressing themselves.
17:53It was their way of life.
18:00They were a crazy group. They didn't do anything.
18:05They didn't work.
18:08It was a mess. How did they make a living?
18:13Nobody knows. They survived.
18:20Among the rebels, there was a free surfer, proud of it.
18:26Mickey Dora.
18:31Mickey Dora's revolution is summed up in three words.
18:36Lifestyle.
18:39On Malibu beach, he invented the lifestyle of the wanderer.
18:44An image that would accompany surfers for decades.
18:49In one of the few recordings of his voice, Mickey Dora portrays himself like this.
18:54The waves are my escape. My whole life.
18:59I get into the water, I get into the sea, I throw myself, I make my turn on the back of the board,
19:04and I go to the end of the wave as if my life depended on it.
19:09That's the only thing that matters.
19:12I leave behind the shit, the parents who scream, the teachers, the police, the priests, the politicians,
19:17and I head-butt the rocks.
19:22Mickey was a big shot. He had a reputation as a rebel.
19:27He was an anti-system. He was against everything, but he was a cool guy.
19:32When you got into the water with him, he'd say,
19:35Come on, man! And then he'd put himself behind you and push you.
19:40On the beach, everyone called him the cat.
19:45He surfed like a cat.
19:50Fatally, Mickey Dora sacrifices the Polynesian tradition by leaving the wooden boards for the synthetic ones.
19:55Polyurethane foam blocks of a few pounds.
20:01Immediately, the slide becomes lighter, faster, and more acrobatic.
20:06Everyone wants to imitate Dora.
20:09The board she designs becomes the best-selling in the world.
20:13That's how, in the mid-50s, surfing comes out of the marginality
20:17to become one of the incarnations of youth emancipation.
20:22There's Marlon Brando's motorcycle, James Dean's car,
20:27Elvis Presley's Hawaiian shirt,
20:31and Gidget's surfboard.
20:34All I wanted to do was surf. That was all.
20:39Surf is no longer just rebellion.
20:42Thanks to Hollywood, it becomes synonymous with vacation on the beach and sunsets.
20:49The popular surf has just been born.
20:54It arrives in Europe at the end of the 50s and then infects all generations.
21:09I was nine years old and I was on vacation with my family in Britain.
21:15I looked at a little bodyboard.
21:19I was so excited that my mother ended up buying it for me.
21:23And I spent the next ten days surfing on that board
21:28until my belly was covered in scratches.
21:32Every day I came home with blue lips.
21:38I started surfing when I was about 10 or 11 years old.
21:43We went on weekends and on vacation.
21:46It was a little bubble of total freedom.
21:49Having fun, spending time at sea,
21:52a pure love for fresh water, for the waves.
21:56And above all, I didn't want to disconnect from leisure, pleasure,
22:00absolute freedom, sharing, and all that.
22:05That was surfing for me.
22:14In the mid-60s, the few hundred marginal surfers
22:18have become millions of practitioners.
22:21Counterculture and its libertarian rites
22:23are overshadowed by the mass of summer placids.
22:29It's too much for the rebels, and there's only one solution.
22:34Flee.
22:40Three Californians embark on a camera expedition
22:43in search of a new Eden of unexplored beaches and waves
22:46in the Southern Hemisphere.
22:48Their film, The Endless Summer,
22:51sets the foundations for the surfer's journey.
22:55It was a cold winter morning in November
22:57when Mike and Robert were ready for the first stage
23:00of their summer trip around the world.
23:04It was a perfect day.
23:17You can't know if a wave is good until you ride it.
23:20In the first five seconds of his first slide,
23:23Mike knew that he had finally found the perfect wave.
23:35His film popularizes the myth of the backpacker.
23:38Travelling around the world as a nomad.
23:41A mattress on the back of the van,
23:43and the boards on the ceiling,
23:45to live on deserted beaches and slide on unexplored waves
23:49according to the seasons, winds and tides.
23:53The surf trip accompanies the hippie wave to the end of the world.
23:57The beach in Kuta, Bali,
23:59becomes for surfers what Kathmandu, Nepal,
24:02is for backpackers.
24:04A great psychedelic vibration.
24:10Mike Hinson, faithful to himself,
24:12when he rides The Endless Summer,
24:14does it like all his generation, without concessions.
24:19We smoked a lot of marijuana.
24:22We drank LSD.
24:25We wanted to turn the whole world into LSD.
24:28Those were good old days.
24:30We could do a lot of things without risking anything.
24:37We created a lifestyle without working.
24:41We were a kind of self-employed people.
24:45I've been in and out of jail several times.
24:49But I've never done anything really bad.
24:55It was just our lifestyle.
25:01But there's something stronger than the high of the drug,
25:05the adrenaline over the monstrous waves.
25:08Playing with death can also be fun.
25:12It all starts here, in the North Shore,
25:15a coastal area in the northern part of the Hawaiian archipelago,
25:19where from October to March,
25:21the storms that cross the Pacific towards Alaska
25:24cause violent waves and avalanches in the open sea.
25:31There, led by Greg Knoll,
25:33the most daring of the Californian surfers,
25:36these pioneers invented the giant wave surf.
26:00Duke, it's a real honor to be here on your island
26:03for this surfing championship.
26:05I'm glad you came to Hawaii, Bruce.
26:08Named after his godfather, Duke Kahanamoku,
26:11the North Shore becomes the new bastion of the American surfers
26:15and the place of the first major competition in honor of Duke.
26:22The giant wave surf opens a new path
26:25where each surfer must face their fear.
26:30I become a hunter when I'm on the starting line.
26:34I see the waves coming
26:36and suddenly I become a hunter,
26:41choosing the wave that interests me the most.
26:50It requires a perfect technique,
26:52although from the outside you have the impression that it is easy.
26:55It's like a postcard picture, it's a beautiful wave.
26:58But the truth is that it requires a very fine surf,
27:01and I like that.
27:03If you make the slightest mistake, the wave won't let you surf it.
27:11When I saw the size of the tide,
27:13it was like a mountain of black water approaching.
27:17I had never seen such a big wave in all my life.
27:22I was in the right place at the right time.
27:25It was my time, and I didn't hesitate for a moment.
27:28That's why I came here.
27:35And if I die, bad luck, but you have to jump.
27:38If you fall, the first thing you have to take into account is the impact.
27:42Hitting the water at 80 km per hour is very violent.
27:45The wave has a circular movement.
27:47It constantly sucks you up and throws you down while it turns you.
27:53And it can burst your eardrums.
27:57I ran out of breath at the end of the first wave,
28:00and then there was a second wave that broke over my head,
28:03and I couldn't get up again to get my breath back.
28:06And when I managed to get to the surface,
28:08three more waves were coming.
28:10So I had to submerge again.
28:12And when I fell, I thought,
28:14well, it's over.
28:16Thank you, and may God bless you.
28:18Luckily, I didn't hit anything, and everything went well.
28:22You never know how a wave can swallow you up.
28:25You have to trust.
28:27Trust the ocean, and...
28:29That's it.
28:32And sometimes it shakes you a little hard.
28:34Sometimes you don't calibrate things well,
28:36and it sends you to the hospital to rehabilitate a little.
28:42At the end of the 1960s,
28:45the surf revolution comes from the other side of the Pacific,
28:48in Australia.
28:50A new legend is being forged in this junkyard.
28:54A group of young surfers recycle neoprene suits
28:57and launch a clothing brand designed for surfing,
29:00Rip Curl.
29:02And on the front sidewalk,
29:04another brand specializes in the manufacture of short surf pants,
29:07Quicksilver.
29:10But the revolution doesn't end there.
29:12The Australians are going to change the way they ride on the waves.
29:15The surfers have come up with the idea of reducing the size of the boards.
29:19The shortboard is born.
29:21It's much more manageable and allows you to link the turns.
29:27The Australian surfers train tirelessly with one goal in mind.
29:32To impose themselves in the world of surfing.
29:43North Shore, Hawaii
29:48Their conquest will begin in Hawaii,
29:50on the North Shore.
29:58At the beginning of the 1970s,
30:01a new generation of Australian surfers
30:04decided to leave their mark on the North Shore.
30:07They were young and arrogant.
30:09They wanted to end the superiority of the Hawaiians on the North Shore,
30:13proving that they were able to do better than them.
30:21Suddenly, a bunch of arrogant Australians
30:25show up on our waves
30:28without showing the least respect for the local rules.
30:33They were like a horde of rats.
30:36They were piling up everywhere
30:39and they were just going to grab all the waves without showing any respect.
30:47They created a new atmosphere,
30:49a different environment in the water
30:52where the idea of sharing didn't exist.
30:55The Hawaiians said,
30:57what do you want? You are in our home, in our surf area.
31:00You come here and you disrespect us.
31:03And the Polynesians couldn't tolerate that.
31:07Guys, we are going to give you yours.
31:10We are going to put you on a plane
31:12and we are going to send you back to your country.
31:14And don't come back.
31:17The Polynesian revolt in Hawaii
31:19acquires an identity dimension.
31:21The Black Shorts, local surfers,
31:23defend their waves with punches.
31:26They are part of a much larger movement
31:29that will spread all over the Polynesian world.
31:32The massive building,
31:34the destruction of ecosystems
31:36and mass tourism
31:38push the Hawaiians to claim their island.
31:44A team of scientists appears
31:46to change the course of history
31:48and return the lost pride to the people of the water.
31:51The project wants to show
31:53that the Polynesians are one people
31:55uniting Hawaii with Tahiti.
31:58They recreate the conditions of the great original migrations
32:01that at that time everyone thought impossible.
32:04To do this, they build a traditional piragua
32:07that transports 18 men, cattle and seeds.
32:13In 1976, the Hokulea
32:16sets sail from Hawaii to Tahiti,
32:18the land of the ancestors.
32:22After 34 days of crossing,
32:25the sailors of the first Hokulea
32:27cross the coast of Tahiti.
32:32I saw it.
32:34It was there.
32:36There was a huge crowd
32:38waiting for the arrival of the boat.
32:41It was an incredible atmosphere of joy.
32:44It is impossible to describe.
32:48The experience of the Hokulea
32:51benefited all the peoples of the Pacific.
32:57At the end of the 1970s,
32:59the Polynesian people reappropriated
33:01their original culture and their name,
33:03the Maori people.
33:07In Tahiti, the surf
33:09recovers the central place
33:11that had been lost for almost a century.
33:14The surf brought us together
33:17as a united people,
33:20around the same culture.
33:24The truth is that we were a living people.
33:30The surf unites the peoples.
33:33But at that time,
33:35some also realized
33:37that the surf can generate money.
33:40A lot of money.
33:45In the 1980s,
33:47the surf clothing industry
33:49imposed its brands.
33:51It is no longer necessary to surf
33:53to look like a surfer.
33:55The industry moves
33:57to millions of dollars.
33:59And sponsored by the brands,
34:01surfers who compete
34:03in the professional circuit
34:05can finally live from their passion.
34:15Welcome to Huntington Beach, California,
34:17headquarters of Lope Pro.
34:19When we created the professional circuit
34:21in the mid-1970s,
34:23the metal prize was around $ 5,000.
34:25It's true, it wasn't much.
34:27The ambition was to be able to
34:29distribute hundreds of thousands of dollars.
34:34How do you feel?
34:35It's been amazing.
34:37The surfers were dazzled
34:39by the prospect of becoming
34:41professionals
34:43and making a living surfing.
34:45That was the goal.
34:47The professional circuit
34:49gave legitimacy to the surf.
34:51The image of surfers
34:53was complete.
34:55They went from beach vagabonds
34:57to professional athletes.
35:03The sexualization of surfing
35:05is the marketing argument
35:07that accompanies its professionalization.
35:09The worst of the worst
35:11is staged in large shows.
35:13Bikini contests between each batch.
35:15The surfers, on the other hand,
35:17fill in the gaps
35:19between popcorn and jumps
35:22Women surf
35:24whenever there are almost no waves
35:26or when the wind changes.
35:28It's true that women
35:30can't express themselves,
35:32so they don't have spectators either.
35:38Men had priority.
35:40That was for years
35:42the common denominator
35:44of surf competitions.
35:48In the late 80s,
35:50a generation of women surfers
35:52decided to stand up.
35:54They have no sponsors,
35:56no equipment, no money,
35:58but they don't care.
36:00Sorority drives them
36:02to the assault of a world
36:04thought and organized by men.
36:08If we look at the first generations
36:10of women who participated
36:12in the competitions,
36:14they didn't really have a choice.
36:16They all had to open up
36:18saying that they weren't men
36:20and that they could also surf.
36:26Among them stands out
36:28the icon of a whole generation.
36:30Lisa Anderson
36:34Lisa was the person
36:36who embodied that female movement.
36:38She was a little rebellious girl,
36:40tough and somewhat wild,
36:42who was not afraid of anything
36:44and who had a childhood
36:46that was a little difficult
36:48with her parents.
36:52At the beginning of the 1990s,
36:54in a record time,
36:56Lisa Anderson dominated
36:58the most important podiums
37:00and gave the female surf
37:02her letter of nobility.
37:04Sponsors praised her
37:06and very soon she was welcomed
37:08with open arms by an old surfer
37:10who became chief of Quicksilver.
37:12Lisa was undoubtedly
37:14the best surfer
37:16we had ever known.
37:18She came to the Quicksilver
37:20department of styling
37:22and she said she didn't want
37:24to surf in a bikini anymore.
37:26She wanted a short pants
37:28that was feminine and practical,
37:30strong and resistant,
37:32but that also fit her well.
37:34She joined the team
37:36and started designing
37:38short pants for women.
37:40We launched a small series
37:42of short pants for women
37:44and it was a great success.
37:46So we thought,
37:48something is happening here.
37:50The first line of
37:52feminine equipment
37:54is about to be born,
37:56but the Australian chief of Quicksilver
37:58does not want the brand
38:00to lose its male identity.
38:02He insists on creating another brand
38:04named after his beloved daughter,
38:06Roxy.
38:08In 1995,
38:10the magazine Surfer Magazine
38:12gives all the prominence
38:14to Lisa Anderson,
38:16making her the first woman
38:18to cover a surf magazine.
38:20She said,
38:22Lisa surfs better than you.
38:24So Lisa can surf
38:26better than any boy.
38:28It was good.
38:30I think it was quite radical.
38:32But they did it,
38:34and bravo for them.
38:36It was a real change.
38:48At the same time,
38:50the last surf revolution takes place.
38:54A powerful surf,
38:56magnetized to the wave.
38:58A style revolution
39:00that triggers a trick after another.
39:02This new revolution
39:04does not take place in Waikiki or Malibu.
39:06It starts here,
39:08in an American suburb
39:10like any other,
39:12in the early 90s.
39:14This video,
39:16seen over and over again
39:18by a whole generation,
39:20is a mythical recording
39:22for surfers.
39:24The Momentum generation,
39:26as they call themselves,
39:28approaches surfing
39:30in a way never seen before,
39:32clinging to the wave
39:34as long as possible
39:36to combine the greatest number
39:38of tricks.
39:40Among them,
39:42the god of surfers,
39:44Kelly Slater.
39:54He grew up surfing
39:56in little waves
39:58in Cocoa Beach, Florida.
40:00A lot of really great surfers
40:02have come to learn
40:04in really bad conditions.
40:06But it does, it just trains
40:08the sharpness,
40:10the speed,
40:12and then when you face
40:14a higher wave,
40:16like in Hawaii,
40:18it's easy.
40:20I think about surfing
40:22when I'm eating
40:24and I dream about it
40:26while I'm sleeping.
40:28And that's the way
40:30you've got to do that.
40:32Your whole life
40:34has to revolve
40:36around surfing.
40:38If you want to do tricks,
40:40first you have to visualize
40:42them,
40:44imagine what you could
40:46do while you're
40:48watching waves.
40:50You have to imagine
40:52what you could do
40:54while you're surfing.
41:20Fluidity,
41:22quality of the tracks,
41:24degree of difficulty,
41:26and strength of the wave.
41:28An artistic figure.
41:30Kelly Slater is unbeatable
41:32in this game.
41:34He wins consecutively
41:36the world championships
41:38of 1994,
41:4095, 96,
41:4297, and 98.
41:46Surfing is not just a sport.
41:48It's a way of life.
41:54Slater is so popular
41:56that they dedicate a video game to him.
41:58You can surf on Kelly Slater's skin
42:00or face him.
42:02The dream of every surfer.
42:08Kelly is a legend.
42:10There's no one like him.
42:12He's just the boss.
42:14The boss.
42:20At 50 years old,
42:22Kelly Slater holds 11 world championships
42:24and continues to compete
42:26against the best surfers on the planet.
42:30There will never be another like Kelly.
42:32The professional surfer
42:34seems to have no limits
42:36while the popular surfer
42:38takes over the whole planet.
42:40Some purists
42:42stay away from the noise
42:44of the competition.
42:46Leir Hamilton
42:48decides to take the bull by the horns
42:50to rediscover
42:52the roots of the surf.
42:54I looked at the horizon
42:56and thought,
42:58what is this place?
43:00I looked at the horizon
43:02and thought,
43:04okay, that's the ocean,
43:06that's the surf.
43:08I had seen every kind of surf,
43:10all the changes in the material,
43:12the new places,
43:14and I wondered
43:16what might interest me.
43:18Then I understood
43:20that I wanted to do
43:22what no one else could do.
43:24Leir Hamilton grew up
43:26on the North Shore
43:28in Lima, in contact
43:30with the surf of the origins.
43:34Leir was a great athlete.
43:36His ambition was to surf
43:38giant waves,
43:40like his father.
43:42But there was a physical limit
43:44because the greater the wave,
43:46the faster you had to row.
43:48And the human strength
43:50has a limit.
43:54What he needed was propulsion.
43:56So, together with his friend
43:58Bassi Kerbox,
44:00they decided to buy a Zodiac.
44:02With it, they could go faster
44:04than the waves.
44:06So they began to develop
44:08the idea of surfing.
44:10One morning in February
44:121993,
44:14the photographer Silvan Kasenath
44:16flies above the crew
44:18facing the coasts of Hawaii
44:20and immortalizes this historical moment.
44:22The Zodiac was bad inside
44:24and suddenly they see
44:26a giant wave approaching.
44:32The team has been preparing for months.
44:34The pilot of the Zodiac
44:36tows Leir Hamilton
44:38on the crest of the huge wave
44:40that is forming.
44:42Located on the breaking line,
44:44Hamilton releases the link
44:46that unites the others
44:48and launches into the unknown.
44:50They left me in the wave.
44:52The wave picked me up.
44:54While I was rising,
44:56I had the feeling
44:58that I was flying.
45:00I felt free.
45:06I freed myself from the chains of surfing.
45:08It was an evolution
45:10that opened new horizons for us.
45:12As if the world
45:14suddenly grew bigger.
45:20Following the stele of Leir Hamilton,
45:22the surfers
45:24draw a picture
45:26of the wave
45:28that is forming
45:30on the crest of the wave.
45:32This picture
45:34is called
45:36The surfers
45:38draw a new map of the world.
45:40For them,
45:42it is about following the storms
45:44and the tides,
45:46which will decide
45:48and give more rhythm
45:50than ever to the life
45:52of these new surfers.
45:54Justine Dupont
45:56was champion of the longboard world
45:58before dedicating herself
46:00completely to giant wave surfing.
46:02Since then,
46:04she is a wave hunter,
46:06one of the few women
46:08who dares to dance on volcanoes.
46:12When you jump,
46:14you know that you are going to discover
46:16a wave of which you know nothing.
46:18It may be the only time
46:20in your life that you surf it.
46:22It is a unique moment in your life.
46:24That is what makes it special
46:26and what I love about surfing big waves.
46:28That search,
46:30that discovery.
46:34In 2011,
46:36a new wave appears
46:38on the world map
46:40of surfing.
46:42The wave of Nazaré,
46:44in Portugal.
46:46In stormy days,
46:48this wave can reach
46:5030 meters high.
46:52At the bottom of the ocean,
46:54it can reach up
46:56to 100 meters.
46:58It can reach
47:00up to 100 meters
47:02At the bottom of the ocean,
47:04it can reach
47:06up to 500 meters.
47:08It can reach
47:10up to 5000 meters.
47:12It is a geological splendor
47:14that hits the coast
47:16with a deafening noise.
47:18At the top,
47:20it is a sand
47:22where spectators
47:24observe and wait.
47:26Anyone who faces
47:28the avalanche of Nazaré
47:30must be surrounded by a team
47:32prepared for everything,
47:34because the fall
47:36can be fatal.
47:54When I find big waves,
47:56I usually wake up
47:58at 4 a.m.
48:04The whole team is there
48:06at 5 a.m.
48:08We prepare,
48:10we distribute the radios,
48:12we develop the situation plan
48:14and we review the positions.
48:16I gather the team
48:18and we promise
48:20to support each other.
48:22Sebastian Stotner holds
48:24the world record
48:26for the largest wave,
48:2828 meters,
48:30similar to a 10-story building.
48:32I like to go out to the water
48:34just before dawn,
48:36when it is still very dark.
48:38I can see the silhouettes
48:40of the waves passing by.
48:42And when I see them in the distance,
48:44I know they are going to be big.
48:48I can measure the strength
48:50of the wave by its color.
48:52The darker,
48:54the stronger.
48:58Everything that happens afterwards
49:00is purely intuitive.
49:06For me,
49:08this is one of the best moments.
49:10I stand on the wave
49:12and I take the time
49:14to contemplate it as a whole.
49:20That vision,
49:22that speed,
49:24is indescribable.
49:34At that moment,
49:36there is only the wave and me.
49:38You let go of the rope and that's it.
49:40All your senses come to life.
49:42They open,
49:44they are there, awake.
49:46And once the wave
49:48rises behind you,
49:50you feel it.
49:52And you also perceive it
49:54because you see
49:56how its huge shadow
49:58creeps over you.
50:00You feel it coming closer.
50:02You hear it coming
50:04with all its rumble
50:06and the huge impact
50:08of the wave's lip
50:10breaking behind you.
50:12You really feel
50:14the wave caressing you
50:16and you think,
50:19when I surfed the wave
50:21of the world record,
50:23I understood
50:25that we had reached the limits
50:27of surfing
50:29in terms of technique
50:31and the construction of boards.
50:40Sebastian Stotner,
50:42like Tom Blake at the time
50:44or Leir Hamilton,
50:46is the main surfer.
50:48And he does it here,
50:50in an aerodynamic tube,
50:52to increase his speed.
50:56Here, Kelly Slater creates
50:58an artificial wave park
51:00to be able to surf
51:02on what he calls
51:04the perfect wave.
51:10But there is something that persists.
51:13It is the celebration of the ocean,
51:15initiated by the people of the water,
51:17which consists of sliding
51:19through the folds of the world
51:21to test our fragility
51:23against the elements.
51:25Today we are 35 million
51:27riding on the waves
51:29all over the planet
51:31and perpetuating
51:33the love for surfing.
51:38I hope that the new generations
51:40never forget that surfing
51:42is a dance.
51:44A hula, a ballet,
51:46whatever it is,
51:48that is the grace.
51:51Never forget to dance
51:55and always smile.
51:57That's what surfing is about.
52:10www.surfing.org