Riding Giants

A few years ago, Stacy Peralta made the hugely entertaining film Dogtown and Z-Boys, a documentary about the 1970s skating pioneers, the Zephyr team. He's repeated the trick with his ode to surfing and beach culture, Riding Giants. Rather than attempting to offer a definitive portrait of the sport, Peralta opts for the scattergun approach, focusing on the characters who have helped to define surfing. The exploits of a trio of surfers - Noll, Clark and Hamilton - are recounted with suitable reverence since these were men whose legendary thirst for the biggest, roughest wave was unquenchable.

As with Dogtown, Peralta brings an insider's knowledge to Riding Giants and his enthusiasm for his subject is infectious. Even if you have no interest into the mindset of those who risk life and limb in their relentless search for the biggest wave, their dedication is unquestionable. Indeed, Riding Giants protagonists may regularly flaunt the thin line between bravery and stupidity, but the sight of a man being willingly dragged onto the ocean to do battle with a sixty-foot wall of water is, quite frankly, awesome. Dude.