Mavericks in Northern California: The gnarliest place in the world to surf. It takes 45 minutes through rocks and a cold sea just to get to the line up. And then there are the 50-foot waves awaiting you.

Riding Giants is more than another blissful surfing movie. It's an outstanding documentary about one era in American alternative lifestyles, when surfing was well-suited to a radical culture of social dropouts. Using an amazing array of amateur film clips, shot for the most part in Hawaii and California from the late 1950s and early '60s, director Stacy Peralta traces the rise of surfing's appeal to young men looking to test themselves in an unorthodox (and sexy) milieu--of "living life to the fullest," as former surfer-turned-screenwriter John Milius (Big Wednesday) puts it at one point. Lengthy chapters on the glories of Oahu's Makaha and the "superstition and dread" that accompanied the big-wave challenge of Waimea Bay are riveting and sometimes heroic, particularly told through the memories of surf legend Greg Noll. Great material, too, about the deadly wonders of surfing Mavericks, California, where the rocks will get one if the violent tides don't.

Purchase the DVD.

Featured: Laird Hamilton
Featured: Jeff Clark
Featured: Greg Noll
Director: Stacy Peralta
Director of Photography: Peter Pilifian
Screenwriter: Sam George
Producer: Agi Orsi
Executive Producer: Nathalie Delest
Executive Producer: Franck Marty
Executive Producer: Laird Hamilton
Producer: Jane Kachmer
Additional Music/Songs: Alice In Chains
Additional Music/Songs: Stray Cats
Producer: Stacy Peralta
Screenwriter: Stacy Peralta
Composer: Matter