SLO County News BlogGolf, Wine, Real Estate, Business & Travel NewsRiding Giants traced to SLOThursday, March 09, 2006While "Riding Giants" chronicles three stages of big-wave surfing in California and Hawaii, the movie itself can be traced to one place and time: San Luis Obispo, 1975.Long before he would direct and write movies, Stacy Peralta and a friend were driving down Los Osos Valley Road on a surf trip when they saw a teenager hitchhiking with a surfboard. "I'd never picked up a hitchhiker in my life," Peralta remembered. "My friend and I looked at this guy and said, 'We can't deny this guy - he looks too friendly." The hitchhiker was Sam George, who would later become the editor of Surfer magazine. When Peralta embarked on "Riding Giants" - a film about big-wave pioneers - George was invited to co-write the script. All four of the guests appearing for tonight's screening of "Riding Giants" have San Luis Obispo County connections. George lived in San Luis Obispo several years. Peralta is a regular visitor. And Greg Noll spent three years fishing off Port San Luis as a commercial fisherman. Jeff Clark, meanwhile, occasionally surfs big waves in San Luis Obispo County. During a recent trip to Los Osos, Clark said, he saw some of the biggest waves he's ever seen. "It was over 50 feet," he said. The county's biggest surfing film event was coordinated by Steve Libby, who just joined the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival in November. "It made great sense," said Libby, a longtime surfer himself, who moved to Grover Beach two years ago. "Surfing is one of the core cultures of the Central Coast." Read More
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