“Talk Story,” included in your Premium membership, is a series of in-depth conversations with some of the sport’s most influential figures about key moments in the history of surfing. We’ll highlight a different one every couple weeks, and you can check the whole library here. If you’re not already Premium, you can sign up for a Surfline free trial here.

Listening to Greg Noll describe his harrowing 1964 outer reef experience, a vanguard charge far beyond Pipeline’s breakers, his words aren’t the only thing that grab you. All those dates and distances and sizes and numbers become mere minutiae in the overall delivery of one of surfing’s most animated and gregarious legends. From the body language and hand gestures to the expletives and sound effects, Noll becomes absolutely possessed by his memories. Which makes it all so believable. Complete his reflection with Bud Browne’s classic archival footage, and you’ve got something truly extraordinary.