Riding Giants is a breathtaking documentary that showcases the origins of surfing. Even though I grew up in L.A. and hit the beach plenty in my youth, I knew very little about this particular scene. I wasn't exactly the surfing type, but after watching this outstanding, funny, informative and thrilling film, I wish I had been.

Riding Giants traces the early beginnings of the surfing movement and tracks it all the way to present day by way of amazing archival footage and interviews with surfers then and now.

The film was directed by Stacy Peralta (who also made the fantastic Dogtown and Z-Boys), and like his last picture, he's assembled some truly remarkable footage. The surfing imagery in this picture took my breath away. This is truly exhilirating stuff.

Equally fascinating are the men and women who lived the surfing lifestyle. Each surfer--as presented in the film--has a charismatic and charming way about them that's wonderfully infectious. In particular, I really loved listening to Greg Noll's stories. Seriously, I'd love to hang out in a bar and talk to this guy for hours.

As Peralta so diligently displayed in Dogtown and Z-Boys, the surfing scene wasn't merely a sport or a hobby, it really was a way of life for many people. These surfers ate, drank, slept, lived and loved for those bumps in the oceans. Surfing was perhaps the original extreme sport and Riding Giants takes us to the cutting edge of how some of it's bravest pioneers continue to push it's envelope.

The movie succeeds not only as a documentary about how the practice of surfing evolved into such a pervasive cultural influence, but as a poetic depiction of why this desire to catch the perfect wave remains such a compelling passion for so many.