Placeholder Image

字幕列表 影片播放

  • ( intro music )

  • Greg Long: I do feel fear,

  • but that fear is actually

  • one of the underlying motivators of why...

  • I ride big waves.

  • How are we ever meant to truly grow in our lives,

  • if we don't occasionally step out of that comfort zone?

  • The feelings of fear...

  • I open my arms and I welcome them.

  • ( applause )

  • Greg Long: Thank you guys, very much.

  • I'm Greg Long.

  • I'm a professional big wave surfer.

  • I have dedicated my life

  • to following the greatest ocean storms around the globe,

  • in pursuit of riding the biggest waves in the world.

  • As you continue to ride larger and larger waves,

  • the stakes at play in order to do so,

  • continue to escalate.

  • Eventually, you get to a point,

  • where you've begun walking a fine line.

  • It's a line between riding that next greatest,

  • biggest wave of your life,

  • or possibly dropping down the face

  • of the one that could end it.

  • For over a decade... I walked that line.

  • Until one day,

  • I stumbled over the other side.

  • Thankfully, I'm still here today

  • to share with you guys, my big wave journey.

  • One that has literally taken me to the edge and back.

  • ( music )

  • With a playing field that is constantly in motion

  • and always changing...

  • It is very easy to make mistakes.

  • ( music continues )

  • And the consequences...

  • they are very real.

  • But when you reach deep within yourself,

  • bringing your mind and body into momentary sync,

  • with the rhythm and power of the swells,

  • and for brief moment, seemingly defying nature,

  • and successfully riding one of those waves.

  • For me,...

  • there's no other feeling in the world like it.

  • ( music )

  • ( applause )

  • Greg Long: Thank you.

  • So, I grew up

  • in the small beach town of San Clemente,

  • in Southern California.

  • It is a popular surfing destination

  • known around the world, but not for its big waves.

  • It's known for its small perfect

  • cobblestone point breaks

  • that allow your average surfer to go out there

  • and just really have a fun and joyous time.

  • When I was 14 years old,

  • I started seeing these photographs in the magazines.

  • Photographs of the newly exposed big wave break,

  • by the name of Todos Santos.

  • And Todos Santos is on an island

  • off the coast of Northern Baja.

  • And, it was renowned immediately as

  • one of the best big wave breaks in the world.

  • And at 15 years old, I got to go down

  • and surf this wave Todos Santos.

  • At the same time I was competing competitively

  • in the amateur series, in the Progressive Surfing,

  • doing the turns in the small waves.

  • That's what I grew up surfing.

  • And I had a very decent amateur career, and actually

  • won... was the National Amateur Championship title.

  • And immediately I had

  • all the surf industry taking notice saying,

  • 'Okay, he's the next kid we need to sponsor'.

  • Well, I was 18 years old, and I used that opportunity

  • to sign my first professional contract,

  • but in doing so,

  • I knew that's not where my heart was.

  • I could've cared less about these contests.

  • I wanted to ride these big waves.

  • So, in signing up professional contract,

  • I was allowed a travel budget that I could use

  • to go to the contest, or as I figured,

  • at my own disposal.

  • ( laughter )

  • So I turned my back on competitive surfing

  • and I set off on this life of adventure.

  • It became an obsession of mine...

  • beyond the passion, obsession.

  • I'd pack up my bags, and I would go,

  • and I would live down in Cape Town, South Africa,

  • the bottom of Africa.

  • And during the most torrential storms

  • of the Roaring Forties, all in hopes of waiting

  • for a wave by the name of Dungeons to awaken.

  • It's called the Cape of Storms

  • for a good reason.

  • And it seemed like every single week,

  • we were constantly battered with another storm.

  • And an opportunity to surf these big waves.

  • You have all of these

  • incredible harsh elements against you and then

  • sometimes the most daunting of them all...

  • was the real locals.

  • ( laughter )

  • I wouldn't surf with these locals.

  • ( laughter )

  • But all those elements,

  • they hardened my Southern California ass up real quick!

  • ( laughter )

  • And it gave me this confidence,

  • that I could then take to any other break

  • around the world...

  • which is what I did. Sometimes, it was Mexico,

  • it was one of my favorite destinations,

  • wave called Puerto Escondido.

  • West Australia

  • all of South America, Chile and Peru

  • South Pacific, Tahiti, Fiji.

  • Now people often ask me,

  • 'Greg, do you ever get scared?'

  • I do feel fear,

  • but that fear is actually

  • one of the underlying motivators of

  • why I ride big waves,

  • why I choose to put myself out there.

  • How are we ever meant to truly grow in our lives,

  • if we don't occasionally step out of that comfort zone?

  • And that's what big wave surfing has taught me,

  • and one of the greatest allures of it,

  • is embracing that fear in a positive light.

  • Simply acknowledging it as a space

  • where I can grow in my life.

  • Now, over the course

  • of my surfing career in my later years,

  • there was one wave that captivated me

  • beyond comprehension.

  • And it is called the Cortes Bank,

  • an underwater seamount that sits

  • 100 miles off the coast of Southern California.

  • It's mainly recognized as a maritime hazard.

  • But to big wave surfers...

  • it's our Mount Everest.

  • Cortes Bank has the ability to produce

  • the largest rideable waves of anywhere in the world.

  • But it also has challenges and dangers

  • that no other big wave break has.

  • Your horizon line,

  • it extends 360 degrees around you.

  • There's no landmass in sight. No reference point,

  • as to where you're going to actually can sit and lineup.

  • There's no continental shelf.

  • So these open ocean swells are travelling

  • at speed upwards of 50 miles an hour.

  • That's twice as fast as your typical big wave.

  • The currents out there are moving at the pace

  • of an easy flowing river,

  • so it is impossible to stay

  • whatever it is that you want to

  • without paddling incessantly.

  • And then the lineup, it spans over the course

  • of about three football fields.

  • There's no rhyme or reason

  • as to how and where these waves actually break out,

  • there on the seamount.

  • Then, in late December 2010,

  • another massive low-pressure system forms off

  • the coast of California.

  • I see that there's an opportunity

  • to go out to the Cortes Bank.

  • And I had one goal.

  • All I wanted to do was paddle into

  • the biggest wave of my life.

  • I'm out here in the lineup.

  • And here it is before me.

  • I turn around, I put my head down

  • and I paddle my heart out.

  • I go,

  • I go,

  • I go... right over the front of my board

  • and on to my face.

  • I bet that story didn't end

  • the way you guys thought it was going to.

  • ( laughter )

  • They usually never do.

  • Well, I was the happiest man alive.

  • ( laughter )

  • Why you may ask.

  • Well, one, I was okay.

  • Two...

  • that was the opportunity that I'd been waiting for.

  • I would've rather have gone on that wave,

  • and eaten ****, wiped out, than not.

  • And sat there and wondered for the rest of my life,

  • 'Could I have made it?'

  • I paddled back out and I wanted to do it again,

  • not wipe out.

  • ( laughter )

  • I wanted to make one of these waves.

  • So, after about an hour, back in the lineup,

  • and I see a great set approaching.

  • Lineup the wave that I like,

  • just like I had done so many times before,

  • I put my head down and I go.

  • Further on the shoulder I was joined

  • by fellow suffer, Garrett McNamara

  • and together we take

  • the plunge down the face of this wave.

  • We get to the bottom and we both immediately realize

  • that we've misjudged the speed,

  • and our distance to the shoulder.

  • And we are immediately overtaken

  • by this mountain of white water.

  • Now, I've ridden bigger waves in my life.

  • I'd wiped out in much more dramatic fashion

  • in my life before.

  • But there was something about this wave.

  • The way that it hit me...

  • with the power and the force.

  • It's like nothing I'd ever experienced.

  • It was like a five-story building

  • of white water being dumped on my back.

  • I was immediately pushed... into the abyss.

  • And I'd been down so long running the risk

  • of what's called 'the two-wave hold-down',

  • where you don't actually make it to the surface

  • before the second wave passes over you.

  • But I still have the time

  • to probably swim to the surface

  • and get that breath before it hits.

  • And as I am about ready to penetrate

  • this aerated water and get that breath...

  • that second wave, towering wave,

  • four-stories tall,

  • lip comes pitching down

  • and it lands right on top of me.

  • My body instantly felt like it was torn in two pieces and

  • shaken in this violent state of semi-paralysis.

  • But even worse...

  • all of the wind that was in my lungs...

  • was immediately expelled out, knocked straight out of me.

  • But as that wave, that lip hit me,

  • it pushed me right back down

  • to this place... 30 feet below the surface.

  • My body was begging me to breathe,

  • to re-inflate my lungs. But I knew that I couldn't.

  • And if I didn't, I would most certainly

  • drown in that very instant.

  • So, my thoughts go a little something like this,

  • 'Well, you've really done it now, Greg.

  • But don't worry, just relax.

  • You are going to make it to the surface.

  • You are going to be okay.'

  • At the same time, the turbulence

  • from that second wave that had hit me began to subside.

  • As I started to think about swimming for the surface,

  • I heard and I felt the third wave

  • pass over the top of me.

  • And I immediately go back into those cartwheels and spins,

  • caught in the turbulence of it,

  • and realize that, you know, these full body convulsions

  • began to slowly settle down.

  • Hands began to tingle.

  • Just feel the overall life in me start to slip away.

  • Flashes of light in the corner of my mind,

  • but I'm still going.

  • I let go of the tail section of that board,

  • the last energy that I have in me.

  • I let go and I take one more double-arm breaststroke.

  • Reaching for the top I know it's coming...

  • and then blackness.

  • Blackness and silence.

  • I come to the surface... face down.

  • They pulled my lifeless body

  • on to the back of the rescue sled,

  • and I was completely unresponsive.

  • As fast as they could they rushed me back

  • to our support boat, which you see

  • in the distance here.

  • And they began readying themselves to give me CPR,

  • but first they are checking my vitals

  • to see if there's any signs of life.

  • And, as they're getting ready to start CPR

  • and hopefully to bring me back,

  • I let out the most feeble gasp for air.

  • All the while, there is just water and foam

  • and blood coming out of my mouth,

  • but I'm still trying to breath,

  • completely unconscious.

  • It was about three minutes they sat there waiting,

  • those gasps got larger and larger and then finally,

  • the lights came back on.

  • The coastguard was called,

  • but we are a 100 miles into the ocean.

  • It's going to take them some time

  • before they can get there.

  • Four hours later, the coastguard arrived.

  • I was packaged up,

  • friends walked me out to the bow of the boat

  • and in the cover of darkness and massive seas,

  • I was lifted in a basket up to the coastguard chopper.

  • I was life-flighted to San Diego,

  • immediately admitted to the hospital,

  • where I underwent a whole series of tests,

  • CAT scans, x-rays, checking for the brain trauma,

  • internal damage, internal bleeding.

  • And then monitored for secondary drowning,

  • making sure that my lungs didn't backfill with fluid

  • as I slept through the night.

  • The next morning the doctor comes in,

  • signs-off on the paperwork and says,

  • 'You are good to home, Greg.'

  • ( laughter )

  • I had promised myself I was done with big wave surfing.

  • That I had pushed it to the edge,

  • I was given a second chance

  • that I've got no reason to go back there.

  • I've explored my greatest potential,

  • what I'm capable of. I know it now.

  • I don't care about it any more.

  • Three weeks later...

  • another big swell forms in the North Pacific.

  • ( laughter )

  • Yeah, you guys can see where this is going.

  • ( laughter )

  • And I get a call that they are going to have

  • the Mavericks Big Wave Contest.

  • Mavericks is one of the premier big waves in the world

  • and this contest is one of the most important

  • in the big wave surfing world.

  • It's big wave surfing community.

  • So I pack up my car

  • and make the eight-hour drive north to Half Moon Bay.

  • And I paddle out and I surf the contest.

  • But things were different.

  • I would immediately disappear back

  • into that deep, dark, lonely place

  • beneath the ocean at Cortes Bank.

  • While my mind would flashback to the physical agony

  • that I was experiencing

  • when I was lying on the deck of the boat,

  • desperate to breath.

  • But for the next six months, I continued to push myself

  • and surf every single big wave,

  • travelling to all these destinations

  • just as I had done so many times before.

  • And eventually, I became so exhausted

  • physically, mentally, emotionally.

  • I just had to stop.

  • I realized in that moment...

  • I was living my life in fear.

  • All I had ever known was a life in a world

  • of surfing big waves.

  • It frightened me to think of things any different.

  • But it was also in that moment

  • that I realized I had all the answers to this riddle

  • that I was trying to solve in my mind.

  • That the ocean is this amazing metaphor for life,

  • when you think about it.

  • You are on this constantly moving playing field.

  • You know, the winds, tides, currents are always changing.

  • Tides go in, goes out,

  • there's an ebb and a flow to everything.

  • And I was always so good

  • at adapting to those changes...

  • in the ocean.

  • Those new feelings of fear

  • that I had never experienced before.

  • I opened my arms and I welcomed them

  • just as I had always done.

  • And simply acknowledged them as places in my life

  • that I was meant to learn and grow from.

  • I started to regain that confidence

  • and I started moving forward in my life.

  • I was having more fun than ever.

  • And then the world gave me the opportunity,

  • for once and for all go back out

  • and face those deepest, darkest fears...

  • once and for all.

  • ( music )

  • You know, I didn't get much sleep last night.

  • I was just tossing and turning and living everything that

  • I went through the last time I was out here.

  • The last time, last thing I remember

  • I was literally on the bow on the boat, like this,

  • you know, looking up at the coastguard helicopter,

  • you know, being lifted out of here

  • in a freaking basket.

  • ( music )

  • Yes. Alright! Thank you, guys.

  • Love you all for being here. I appreciate it.

  • Let's go surf.

  • ( music )

  • Thank you guys for being here. Love, respect and gratitude.

  • ( applause )

  • ( outro music )

( intro music )

字幕與單字

單字即點即查 點擊單字可以查詢單字解釋

B1 中級 美國腔

國家地理直播!--格雷格-龍:大浪騎手 (National Geographic Live! - Greg Long: Big Wave Rider)

  • 324 18
    胡柜樹 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
影片單字