Film
Riding Giants
Stacy Peralta's love letter to the outsiders who turned death-defying big-wave surfing into an art form, tracing the sport from 1950s Waimea pioneers to the tow-in era of Laird Hamilton. Told through the surfers themselves, it's part oral history, part hagiography—reverent, funny, occasionally awestruck by its own subjects. Good for anyone who wants to understand obsession, or just watch enormous waves try to kill people.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you love the history of a sport told through the people who pushed it, and you want the ocean's scale and danger shown with real footage rather than just described.
Skip it if you need a plot or a tight arc, since this loose, affectionate tour lingers on talk and history more than on the water itself.
What it asks of you: Settle in for a leisurely ride of roughly an hour and three quarters, with long stretches of patient, sun-washed talk that builds toward a few thunderous sequences.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Free Solo2018
Same white-knuckle wonder—someone risking death for a private, near-wordless kind of mastery, filmed with the same reverence Peralta brings to giant waves. Alex Honnold's calm is as unsettling as any wipeout.
But Climbing, not surfing, and the tension is claustrophobic rather than exhilarating—less party, more held breath.
Dogtown and Z-Boys2002
Peralta's earlier documentary, same scrappy structure and rock-and-roll editing, tracing skateboarding's outlaw roots the way Riding Giants traces surfing's. His voice is unmistakable from the first frame.
But You'll recognize the tricks—talking heads, archival grain, hero-worship—because it's the same director's template, just with wheels instead of water.
Point Break1991
Pure adrenaline cinema, bank robbers and bronzed idealists chasing the perfect wave, distilling the surf-as-religion myth Riding Giants treats with a straight face, but here played for glorious excess.
But It's a Keanu Reeves action movie, not a documentary, so don't expect nuance—just skydiving, shootouts, and shirtless philosophy.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Riding Giants
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Endless Summer1966
This is the film that made surf documentaries a thing at all—the wide-eyed ancestor whose wonder Riding Giants inherits and amplifies decades later.
The original surf pilgrimage film, two guys circling the globe chasing an endless summer of waves, shot in the innocent, funny, low-fi style that invented the genre Riding Giants inherits.
But The pace is leisurely and the narration corny by today's standards—no crash zooms, no dramatic score, just sun and patience.
More like this (8)
Chasing Mavericks2012
Dramatizes the true story of teenage big-wave surfer Jay Moriarity, mentored to ride the same California break Riding Giants immortalizes. Sentimental but sincere about the mentorship at its core.
But It sands the real danger down into a feel-good sports movie; if you want grit over uplift, this isn't it.
Step Into Liquid2003
A gentler, more sprawling surf documentary covering everyone from grommets to grandmothers, a warm reminder that big-wave chargers are one tribe among many who love the ocean.
But It lacks Riding Giants' narrative drive and mythic focus—more travelogue than character study, and it can meander.
The Dawn Wall2017
Swap waves for granite: two climbers spend years on an impossible route, and the film captures the same obsessive devotion and physical toll that define the surfers here.
But It's quieter and more procedural, built on patience rather than spectacle—no giant walls of water crashing down.
North Shore1987
A cheesy, beloved 80s surf drama where an Arizona wave-pool champion gets humbled by Oahu locals—a fictional, funnier cousin to the culture clash Riding Giants documents for real.
But The acting is wooden and the plot predictable; it's a guilty pleasure, not a serious portrait.
Momentum Generation2018
Follows Kelly Slater's generation of pro surfers growing up together in Florida, the same brotherhood-forged-by-obsession energy that powers Riding Giants, just aimed at a different kind of fame.
But It's more about competitive surfing's rise than big-wave riding, so the death-defying stakes are lower.
180° South2010
A modern adventurer retraces a 1968 road trip to Patagonia, crossing paths with surf and climbing legends, carrying the same slow-your-life-down, chase-your-obsession spirit as Peralta's surfers.
But It drifts into environmentalist musing and travelogue pacing that might test viewers wanting more surf footage.
The Wrestler2008
Both are studies of men who let a punishing physical craft define and consume them—one is a hymn to that devotion, the other its unflinching cost.
A washed-up pro wrestler's body has been wrecked by decades of chasing glory in a sport built on real pain disguised as spectacle—the flip side of the hero-worship Riding Giants celebrates.
But It's bleak, unglamorous, and short on triumph; Mickey Rourke's performance is devastating rather than inspiring.
The Red Turtle2016
Where Riding Giants shows real men mastering the ocean's violence, this animated fable shows one man utterly humbled by it—same awe, opposite outcome.
A wordless, hand-drawn fable about a man stranded on an island, repeatedly thrown back by monstrous waves he cannot outswim—nature rendered as overwhelming and indifferent as any Mavericks swell.
But It's slow, silent, and metaphorical—closer to a meditation than a thrill ride, with zero surfboards in sight.
People
Cast
Jeff ClarkJeff Clark
Darrick DoernerDarrick Doerner
Laird HamiltonLaird John Hamilton
Dave KalamaDave Kalama
David H. Kalama Jr.Dave Kalama
Brian KeaulanaBrian L. Keaulana
Buzzy KerboxBuzzy Kerbox
Titus KinimakaTitus Kinimaka
Gerry LopezGerry Lopez- Mickey MunozMickey Munoz
Greg NollGreg Noll- Evan SlaterEvan Slater
Directing
- Stacy PeraltaDirector
Writing
- Sam GeorgeScreenplay
- Stacy PeraltaScreenplay
Production
- Agi OrsiProducer
- Jane KachmerProducer
- Stacy PeraltaProducer
Recommended by
Point Break, Dogtown and Z-Boys, The Endless Summer, Step Into Liquid, The Endless Summer II, 180° South, Bustin' Down the Door, Billabong Odyssey, Ultimate X: The Movie, The Art of Flight, First Descent, Life Cycles, Future Primitive, The Motivation