While “history” and “surfing” might seem to go together about as well as Spicoli and Mr. Hand, director Stacy Peralta and writer Sam George have compiled a sterling account of big-wave surfing’s past and present in the 2004 film “Riding Giants.” Written by Surfer magazine editor George, the brainchild of skateboarding star Peralta is the follow- up to Peralta’s 2002 documentary debut, “Dogtown and Z-Boys,” exploring lives of big-wave surfers in the same vein that “Dogtown” explored the counterculture phenomenon of skating. Compiling an array of amateur film clips shot mostly in Hawaii and California in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Peralta takes viewers from surfing’s Hawaiian roots to its current big-wave daredevils risking life and limb to push their skills. “Riding Giants” is also a stunning look at the sport’s most dramatic venues – Waimea Bay, Maverick’s, Jaws, Teahupoo – and the larger-than-life personalities who conquer them.
