Riding Giants” is a semiserious, often rollicking, multigenerational insider’s look at the origins of surfing, the colorful and subversive birth of surf culture, and the mythology and the lure of the big wave. This passionate and fluid film is without question the first authentic history of surfing from its humble Hawaiian beginnings to the big business it became to the still-rebellious universe it inhabits today. “Riding Giants” is a study of individuality and freedom, the pursuit and techniques of pure kinetic pleasure, and the risk-taking and attitudes that characterize its leading figures.