Riding Giants

If you haven’t seen the documentary film Riding Giants then it is highly recommended. Even if you don’t have much of an interest in surfing it is fascinating on many levels.

From the point of view of an internal martial arts practitioner there is a real gem of an anecdote in there. During an interview with Surfer’s Journal editor and big wave surfer Steve Pezman, he references the adversity experienced by Laird Hamilton in his younger years. Laird Hamilton is one of the main protagonists in the film and is a legendary big wave surfer and innovator. The anecdote relates to how Laird defended himself against his peers when he moved to Hawaii. He was a cultural outsider and in his younger years was regularly involved in physical altercations. Steve Pezman goes on to describe how Laird developed his own system of defence based around a heavy dead weight palm strike, imagine a gorilla or bear and the way they use gravity, their body weight and connectivity in a completely intuitive way and you get the idea. No doubt he also figured out basic combat skills such as closing distance, anti-grappling etc. to make it effective.

‘I remember when I first experienced a particular brand of internal power. It was in a semi-cooperative push hands setting but this guy had a way of manipulating your guard below his and would then drop his ulna bone down in a totally relaxed manner on just the right point that would create the ultimate dead arm and a feeling that I just wanted to walk away and give up. I would circle around laughing and shaking my now useless upper limbs whilst experiencing a Proustian rush of playground dim mak.’

Tim - Head Instructor; Wu Xing Taiji Boxing Alliance

The real mind blowing part is that Laird’s opponents are described as, in a similar way to the above, having an emotional response. In his case it is specifically described as shock and embarrassment for the recipient of this internal palm strike and this response combined with the refined striking system is highly reminiscent of internal martial arts skill. Fundamentally, Laird discovered Tai Chi Chuan for himself.