SURF RIDERS OF HAWAII

[Music] [Music] Hi there. This is Bill Bur. Welcome to Adventure. True. Filmed as it happened throughout our fascinating world. This time around, I'm going to show you one of the fastest, the wildest, most dangerous sports of the 20th century. It's a sport for the very young and the very daring. And those are the people who have taken to surfing like a duck takes to water. For centuries, this sport has been popular in the islands. But in the past decade, young people the world over have started risking their necks wherever and whenever they could find a wave to ride. And the rougher the better. For the first time on television, we'll get an underwater view of this exciting sport as they ride waves 40 ft high on our thrill packed true adventure we call Surf Riders of Hawaii. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I want you to meet our special in-person guest. His name Bruce Brown, and he's made surfing popular to almost everybody because of his fine pictures. Bruce, I guess you'd be considered the outstanding surfing photographer in the whole wide world. How did you get started in this uh sport? Well, Bill, I started surfing myself about 10 years ago. And the obvious thing for me, I was so jazzed over the sport, so excited was to uh film it, put it on film, so the rest of the people in the California world could see what it was like. Well, Bruce, where's the best place to surf? Well, Bill, probably the best all-around place to surf in the world is Hawaii. Well, what are we waiting for, Bruce Brown? Let's go there and see it. Well, there's a lot of good reasons for going to Hawaii. beaches and palm [Music] trees, exciting things to see, hoola girls. But to a certain kind of true adventurer, Hawaii only means one thing. And what is that, Bruce Brown? Well, to the true adventure, Bill, we call this true adventure a barefoot adventure. And their favorite sport is surfing. And they're going at it right now. [Music] And I suppose, Bruce, that Hawaii, since surfing was almost born there hundreds of years ago, is the best place for it. That's right, Bill. Hawaii is by far the best surfing area in the world, although there are many other places they surf. They have much bigger surf in Hawaii and much more surf year around. They also surf in California. They're starting to surf a little bit back on the east coast. They surf in Peru, South Africa, Australia, and many other spots around the world. Bruce, there are a lot of questions a lot of people would like to ask you. How high are those waves? Some of these bigger waves than the shots here, Bill, are about three stories high, about as high as a three-story building. And what is the critical point in riding one of a wave that size? Well, the most critical point would be the takeoff or paddling into the wave and standing up. It's just about like stepping down an open elevator shaft. Then the next question after that is the most dangerous part about surfing. The most dangerous part would be getting hit with the surfboard. The boards weigh between 25 and 40 lbs. And when they're thrown with the fantastic force of the wave, and they hit you, they really can do a lot of damage. Just like standing out in the freeway and getting hit by a car. So, of course, this is what we try to avoid, getting hit by the board. Look at the size of that one. Obviously, it takes great physical stamina to perform this sport. What kind of uh people do it, Bruce? Amazingly enough, all kinds of people, the majority are young, active American males, but there's a lot of uh of professional men, doctors, lawyers, whatnot, that surf a lot. Not on the real big waves, but do a lot of surfing. They all go on a lowbudget trips to Hawaii, buy these old cars over there for $50 or $60 rather than rent a car. And there's always enough manpower to push the cars halfway around the island. And sometimes that's what they do. This one's running right now. They called this car the jungle cruiser. Had one headlight and didn't have a battery. Say this fella is really on economy class, isn't it? Right. Retreads. What happens when there's no surf or, you know, nothing to do? Well, there's always something to do for the barefoot adventures. Here they're finding something to do. They're taking their Saturday afternoon bath. Go ricocheting off the rocks. [Music] The water was about 2 ft deep there. People throw their old broken Coke bottles in, so it makes it sort of interesting if you don't land in quite the right place. Here's a shot coming up. That's was really dangerous. Slipped in the rocks and almost landed back on the rocks when the wave broke. Even getting in the water for surfing sometimes is a little bit exciting. If there aren't any beaches, you jump off these low cliffs into the water to paddle out. Wait for a wave to come so it's deep enough and then jump right [Music] in. Well, the surfers over on the other side undergoing a pastime they call slime sliding. Once you get in this bathtub, some it's a little hard to get back out again. But whatever the barefoot adventurers do or the surfers do, they always do it with an eye for excitement. It gets pretty exciting when you get in one of these narrow gorges and the waves come pounding in. How far out do they have to go to get to some of these big waves? Some of these big waves break over a half mile offshore, so it's a long time paddling out. and uh even a longer time making the inevitable swim in when you lose your surfboard. These waves are immense. How do they get that big, Bruce? They're caused by huge storms in the North Pacific up around the Beering Sea, the Alaska area. winds that blow 80 to 100 miles an hour for weeks on end in one direction toward Hawaii, pushing these huge ground swells into giant waves that finally come and hit the north shore of the island full force, which they're doing right now. It doesn't happen very often, but when the conditions are just right, big waves like this really power into the island. They rattle windows and houses. Amazingly enough, two miles inland, you're sleeping at night and the windows in your house are rattling. As you drive around the northshore of the island and the surface this big, there's so much spray in the air from the waves that you have to drive with your windshield wipers going just like it was raining. [Music] [Applause] [Music] I suppose it's almost impossible to ride waves that big. It's almost impossible to get out through the waves. They're breaking straight across the whole north shore of the island. If you could ever get out there, it would be possible to ride. Maybe not possible to get back in again. But so during this period, what do the fellas do for fun? Well, they have things going like sand sailors, which they're riding on right now. made up of aluminum tubing. It's got big balloon tires and the sail sail up and down the beaches getting up speeds of 40 m an hour or so along the sand. They can do about 60 on the highway except the sand sailor doesn't have any brakes. You get tired of sailing up down the beach, you can always start aiming at fishermen. I imagine the Hawaiians really appreciate that, don't they? It improves relationships. Yes. [Music] The seagulls don't know what to think when they see the sand sailor come cruising by. They have many things like any surf where the surf is too large to get out. In one day they may do two or three different interesting little things. Even driving the cars over these muddy roads, it gets sort of interesting at times when you drive your head through the steel roof of the car bouncing so much. Oh, there's our economy traveler again, right? Nice paved paths. They're heading up to a place called Himea Falls that the surfers go to in Hawaii. [Music] the waterfall. They've taken the secret tunnel in, known only to a few barefoot adventurers and the ancient Hawaiians. The real sport isn't splashing around down below. It's jumping off the top of the waterfall. A few stay down there and a few leap from above. It's about an 80ft jump, so it's pretty thrilling. The rocks slope outward. So if they don't jump out far enough, they land on the rocks. And this can be quite colorful. Yes, I'm That's a very apt description. I take it the fellas are sort of auditioning to go to Aapulco, right? I think if they start diving, they'll be ready. I was taking these shots sitting in an old inner tube, holding my one finger over a leak and trying to keep from getting handed on by the surfers. Did this give you any feeling of trauma, excitement in your heart? Just when this jump came and he landed in my lap was sort of exciting. A little bit painful, too. We're with Bruce Brown in Hawaii and the Barefoot Adventurers. Bruce, what's happening here? Well, two of the surfers have just arrived in Hawaii and first thing they do, of course, is purchase an old car from one of the local car lots. They're heading out to the north shore of the island, going over the famous Pali Cliff, get a view of the whole windward side of the island and into their new $50 delight. They start cruising down the steep pali road. Really a treacherous road. They were happy with their car. It had a radio heater, neither of which worked. Everything worked fine except for one thing. Didn't seem to have any brakes. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Well, they managed to get down safely. and then went to another little bit safer thing to do. Call it body surfing. I think a surfer would rather be body surfing on the highway. Although, I don't know which is the most dangerous. I think we better explain body surfing now. We don't have boards out there now. Just bodies. Huh? Just bodies. You hope you don't have any bodies. They're riding the waves without the surfboard. your body being the surfboard, the surfer, the whole works. What makes this particular body surfing exciting is that these large waves are breaking in about 2 ft of water. So, it's important that you land properly. If you land on your feet, you can easily break a leg. If you land on your head, you can break your neck. So, the best thing to do is try to flip out of the wave and land flat in your back. Then the worst that happens knocks the wind out of your break your back. Here's not the thing, dude. Put your arms out in front. Then all you do is break both your arms before you break your neck. I take it that you should have blue cross when you do this. Blue Cross, Red Cross, federal aid. Well, actually, there's a cushioning effect when they hit the sand because you only hit with a few tons force instead of the anticipated 12 tons force. You really get bent out of shape doing this, though. You come up with your arms and legs in the wrong sockets. The surf gets big. A lot of the surfers end up on the beach entertaining themselves. The rest are out in the water getting entertained. Find not many of the body surfers have any sinus problems. Seems that this body cleans out the old sinuses, all eight cavities, sometimes brains and all. [Music] Well, there's a courageous one fixed up his sinuses. Here's a interesting sport the Barefoot Adventures have invented. It's a version of arm wrestling except they call it toe wrestling. They take these matches very seriously. Fantastic wagers are placed in each match and athletes foot is spread through the community. Couple of the servers Dell Cannon and Harry Neil going out of Delangle hold on Harry's big [Music] toe. There's always more than one way to win one of these toe wrestling matches. My joke is is exciting though. The rematch too. I think the ultimate zone in tow wrestling is three contestants making a total of 30 toes. When they get going, you look like a bunch of dying angle worms. [Music] [Music] Well, I must confess this may spread throughout the United States. New sport. I hope [Music] not. About once or twice a year in Hawaii, the big sur hits. And when it does, the surfers are all on hand to ride it. Sometimes it's a long wait for the waves to come up. Waves generally this size. Sometimes breaking very close to the beach. Fact, some of the places break so close to the beach that when you finally end up the wave, you can look right down and see what the sand crabs are up to. Well, we've been kidding a bit uh about the surfers, but they must be in tremendous physical shape. And how do they keep the poison balance? What uh what do they do to to learn this, Bruce? All you do is go out and start practicing. It takes quite a while to get the technique down, especially riding the big waves. It's very similar to snow skiing except uh in surfing the mountains moving along with the [Music] surfer. And it gets pretty painful when you hit the water. You're going so fast it feels almost like you're landing on cement when you hit. I've seen surfers pop all the buttons right off their trunks. They hit so hard. These are called wipeouts for obvious reasons. underwater. We went under to take a look at the surfboards going over. It's really a beautiful sight, the coral reefs and up above the surfboards coming over. Almost all the surf in Hawaii breaks over the coral reefs. That's of course what caused the waves to build up that far [Music] outside. Those are tremendous shots, Bruce. Really? [Music] That's another wipe out. This big surf. Some of the surfers wait four or five months just for these one or two days of big surf. But it's really a thrill and really worth waiting for. It's something that taking off in a wave like this, looking up at the fantastic amount of water above your head. It's just hard to imagine the thrill it gives you. Speaking of the fantastic amount of water above your head, how long do you have to hold your breath when you get underneath all this water? Quite quite a bit. Quite a long time. In fact, it seems like 3 or 4 months, but uh I don't imagine it amounts to more than 35 or 40 seconds, but it'd be like holding your breath for 30 seconds inside an automatic washing machine cuz you really get churned about. Paddling out can be a problem if you get caught inside one of the waves. It's about impossible to shove a board through a wave like that. Small surf, the surfers paddle out, turn their board over, hang on, and and shove through the wave. But with this gigantic surf is impossible to do. Just dive as close to the bottom as you can get and hang on to a piece of coral. Sometimes you end up on the beach. Like it or [Music] not, these some of these big waves are at famous Macaha Beach in Hawaii where they have the International Surfing Championships each year. Of course, they don't hold the championships and waves this big since it's such a rare thing. In fact, I think this was the first time in 3 years that Kaja had broke what they call point surf or the real big certain in Hawaii. The other famous beach or well-known beach for big waves in Hawaii is a place called Himea Bay. So between Himea Bay and Macaha, you have a corner on the big wave market in the world. But it's certainly a spectacular, fascinating, thrilling sport. Bruce, won't argue with you there, Bill. It's sure a lot of fun, and it's awfully exciting. Here's a shot that I took from the water, sitting on a surfboard, watching the surfer come by, and notice he disappears behind the wave that looms over his head. This surfer comes with about an eighth of an inch of getting hit in the head with another board. And that's definitely the most dangerous part of surfing cuz you only get hit in the head with a surfboard once. [Music] Well, ladies and gentlemen, there's not much you can say after seeing an exciting picture like that, except that I'd like to point out to all of you that uh that happens to be just the part of a fulllength feature that Bruce Brown has made called what, Bruce? We call it Barefoot Adventure, Bill. It runs about 90 minutes. It's in full color and it has a original musical score by Bud Shank, who's a very well-known jazz musician here in the West Coast. I might point out that you live in Dana Point, California, don't you? I live in Dana Point, uh, Bill, as much as I can get home between the lecture trips and then you go out to various cities and people contact you by sending letters to Bruce Brown, surfer, Dana Point, Cal, California. Right, Bill? Bruce, what kind of people go surfing? just young people or No, surprisingly enough, Bill, people of all ages. There's kids right down to four or five years old that surf and I know of one man who's 82 years old and surfs avidly every day. Bruce, you know what I think the thing that intrigues me mostly is when they're on the wave is that sense of balance. That board weighs about what, 80 lb or 90 lbs? Uh, no, Bill. They're made out of polyurethane foam. They weigh about 25 to 30 pounds. I didn't realize that. And yet it's it's real balanced. How do they stay up on it? It just takes a lot of practice. You get out in the water and spend a lot of hours in the water riding back and forth, paddling in and paddling out and riding in. And after a few weeks, a few months, a few years, you become proficient at it. Bruce, what's your future plans for making pictures and surfing and so on? Well, I've got a new film I'm working on right now that'll be dealing with surfing with a little a new theme to it. Uh, it's going to take place, of course, partly in Hawaii, partly in California, and partly in a couple of brand new spots. Florida for one. I didn't know they had big waves in Florida. They don't, Bill. We were lucky enough to get down there just before one of the hurricanes, and we got some fairsized waves in Florida. What can you remember? One thing in your career as a surfer that you'll never forget as long as you live, one incident that might have happened to you. One, uh, as a photographer, of course, we use the parts we shoot from the beach. who use tremendously long telephoto lenses. And uh there's one particular surfing spot in California that's uh right close to a marine base where they carry on some work that's a little bit secret, I guess. And I was down there early one morning with my long telephoto lens shooting and they picked me up as a spy and I spent the morning in the That was your most dangerous time of being a surfing photographer when Bruce Brown was arrested as a spy. Well, I hope the next time you see Bruce, it will be in a lecture auditorium. I want to thank you, Bruce, for being with us on the program. Very much. Thank you, Bill. It was my pleasure. And I want to thank you out there for sharing this true adventure with us. Until we meet again, this is Bill Bird saying, "May all your adventures be happy ones. [Music]