- 28 minutes ago
Exploring how extreme isolation shaped unique wildlife and human traditions across the region.
Geographic Scale: The Pacific covers an area larger than all the world's landmasses combined, yet land accounts for less than 1% of its immense width
Evolutionary Isolation: Vast distances created rare species, such as giant coconut crabs and specialized endemic insects
Human Adaptation: Island cultures developed deep connections to the sea, including traditional land diving on Pentecost Island in Vanuatu.
南太平洋（即“南海”）——从加拉帕戈斯群岛一直延伸至南极海域——蕴藏着全球四分之一的水量。尽管这片海域广阔无垠且人迹罕至，却孕育了极其丰富的野生动植物，其中许多物种（如繁殖期的鸟类及其天敌）都进行着季节性迁徙。这里的气候与洋流变幻多样，远非只有热带的炎热；这种多变的环境至关重要，甚至连风暴也起到了促进物种繁衍与变异的作用——物种往往会发生奇特的变异，从而在两万多个（且大多彼此隔绝的）岛屿上演化出惊人的多样性。人类在此的演化历程也独具特色，且大多发生在短短两千年间，由此诞生了种种奇特的文化传统。复活节岛的例子便见证了当地生态环境的脆弱性。
Geographic Scale: The Pacific covers an area larger than all the world's landmasses combined, yet land accounts for less than 1% of its immense width
Evolutionary Isolation: Vast distances created rare species, such as giant coconut crabs and specialized endemic insects
Human Adaptation: Island cultures developed deep connections to the sea, including traditional land diving on Pentecost Island in Vanuatu.
南太平洋（即“南海”）——从加拉帕戈斯群岛一直延伸至南极海域——蕴藏着全球四分之一的水量。尽管这片海域广阔无垠且人迹罕至，却孕育了极其丰富的野生动植物，其中许多物种（如繁殖期的鸟类及其天敌）都进行着季节性迁徙。这里的气候与洋流变幻多样，远非只有热带的炎热；这种多变的环境至关重要，甚至连风暴也起到了促进物种繁衍与变异的作用——物种往往会发生奇特的变异，从而在两万多个（且大多彼此隔绝的）岛屿上演化出惊人的多样性。人类在此的演化历程也独具特色，且大多发生在短短两千年间，由此诞生了种种奇特的文化传统。复活节岛的例子便见证了当地生态环境的脆弱性。
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00:03Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh!
00:14Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh!
00:41The South Pacific.
00:46The name is familiar, but 230 years after Captain Cook's epic voyages, this vast ocean remains
00:55little known.
01:05In the endless blue, isolated islands harbor life that's rarely seen.
01:18And these are some of the most pristine waters of any ocean.
01:30The turquoise seas and picture postcard islands look like heaven on earth.
01:39But all is not what it seems.
01:55The South Pacific also has an unforgiving nature.
02:15Islands born from volcanic seas erupt with unique and extreme ways of life.
02:26People succeeded here against the odds.
02:36The South Pacific is a tale of the unexpected.
02:41A forgotten world where isolation has created the bizarre and surprising.
02:58This is the story of life in an ocean of islands.
03:16Out of the blue, a giant emerges from the deep.
03:22Right now, the monster moves silently, but it's equipped with an awesome force.
03:41Some of the largest waves in the world break on South Pacific islands.
03:47Their birth sums up the scale of this ocean.
04:01The storm swell that made these waves has traveled 3,000 miles to reach this shallow reef.
04:12These distances proved a great challenge for animal castaways, but when they found new land, many evolved into new species.
04:25Human colonizers followed similar routes, and the ocean that isolated them from the rest of the world became central to
04:32their culture.
04:37The big waves were an inspiration, and riding them has been a tradition here for more than 1,500 years.
04:44Excuse me to say The sea outside of the silenced zooms.
04:48spilled it into thezin эпic
05:02koji
05:04koji
05:04koji
05:10koji
05:28No other ocean has had a greater impact on the lives of so many different animals and
05:34cultures than the South Pacific and it's all down to its massive size the whole
05:46Pacific Ocean is so large you could fit the world's continents inside it with
05:51nearly enough room for another Africa
05:5810,000 miles wide less than 1% is land
06:06best known are the Hawaiian Islands they sit 1,500 miles north of the equator but
06:13their story was shaped by the South the South Pacific is made up of thousands of
06:20islands united by cultures and bound together by ocean currents
06:30most of the land sits in warm waters but travel south and the character of the
06:35islands change New Zealand is not tropical but temperate the ocean currents which
06:45cool New Zealand's waters occasionally bring icebergs
06:55starting in the Antarctic they've drifted for nearly eight months on the way
07:02passing the most southerly outposts in the South Pacific
07:10where New Zealand's temperate seas merge with the icy waters of the Southern Ocean lies a
07:16solitary piece of land
07:2385 miles of wave-lashed coastline
07:2785 miles of wave-lashed coastline
07:5285 miles of wave-lashed coastline
07:53at certain times of year there's more life here than on any other island in the
07:57Pacific
08:06in August after months at sea elephant seals arrive
08:16they depend on this island for breeding
08:26Macquarie will soon be heaving with 60,000 elephant seals but they won't have the beaches to themselves
08:39one month later another wave of migrants appear in the surf
08:48these are royal penguins and they're about to have their first sighting of land in seven months
08:57they've spent that time hunting for fish and shrimp in the open ocean
09:16one last hurdle and they're back on terra firma
09:23this island is actually the only solid ground these penguins will ever set foot on
09:27the sea
09:34Macquarie's nearest neighbor is more than 400 miles away
09:37and in the opposite direction from their favorite feeding grounds
09:53within days of the first arrivals it's standing room only
10:05nobody knows exactly how these penguins navigate back to Macquarie
10:10but with this many adults returning every year to breed
10:14it clearly works
10:16it clearly works
10:16you
10:18that's fifty
10:23you
10:24i
10:24i
10:27i
10:45It's a long way to get used to it.
10:47Out in the open ocean, royal penguins lead solitary lives,
10:51so these cramped conditions take a bit of getting used to.
10:58Dispute settled, it's time to renew old acquaintances.
11:06The elephant seals have also settled down,
11:09even if some still play hard to get.
11:15Though it's not easy turning down the advances of a suitor six times your size.
11:26A gentle nuzzle, and she appears one over.
11:39And it's not just love that's in the air.
11:42At these southerly latitudes, ocean winds bring rain six and a half days out of seven.
11:48And when it doesn't rain, it snows.
11:54It couldn't be more different from the cliched image of a South Pacific island.
11:59But surprisingly, what makes Macquarie so rich in wildlife
12:03also benefits other islands in the tropical South Pacific, thousands of miles away.
12:12Macquarie's penguins and seals depend on a cold, nutrient-rich current.
12:17And that doesn't stop here.
12:23Powered by the strongest winds in the world,
12:26the current continues east until it hits the tip of South America,
12:30where it's driven northwards.
12:39Over 8,000 miles later,
12:42the cold current reaches the equator and a remote archipelago.
12:53The water has warmed up on the journey north,
12:57but it's still cold and nutrient-rich.
13:01This has allowed some animals to live here,
13:04which you wouldn't normally find this close to the equator.
13:14Sea lions.
13:30Itециated on the Galapagos.
13:31They've been here so long, they've become a separate species.
13:48When the surf's up, the sea lions spend hours just messing around in the waves.
13:56Surfing burns a lot of energy, and they can only do it because these cold seas support
14:02vast numbers of fish.
14:10The sea lions share these nutrient-rich waters with another equatorial misfit, penguins,
14:25the only penguins found in the tropics.
14:34Like the sea lions, Galapagos penguins can survive here because the water keeps them cool and
14:39well-fed.
14:49But these conditions are not constant.
14:53In El Niño years, when currents reverse, warm waters replace cold, fish populations crash,
15:00and then, stuck on Galapagos, penguins and sea lions starve.
15:10Their numbers will bounce back, but it's the price these animals pay for life on these isolated
15:20islands.
15:25There are thousands of islands in the South Pacific.
15:32Many are unbelievably remote.
15:38Some are thousands of miles away from the nearest continent, and hundreds of miles from their
15:44nearest neighbor.
15:50Imagine each island as a castle, and the ocean a giant moat stretching to the horizon in
15:57every direction, and you have captured the essence of their isolation.
16:05It's a wonder how any life reached these islands at all.
16:20But no matter how remote or small an island is, animals have somehow conquered the massive
16:26ocean barrier to reach these specks of land.
16:34For the lucky few that made it, South Pacific islands provided great opportunities.
16:42Once here, they had the freedom to be different.
16:55Crabs may not seem unusual, but there's one kind here that's like no other.
17:05On this little island in Vanuatu lives a real oddity.
17:17It's the largest terrestrial invertebrate on Earth.
17:33The robber crab.
17:37The biggest can weigh up to four kilograms, the same as a newborn baby, and have a leg span
17:44of one meter.
17:46It's a hermit crab on steroids.
17:51At night, the huge robbers really come alive.
18:11Although these crabs are found throughout the Pacific, it's only on undisturbed islands that you can
18:17see them in such numbers.
18:21Exactly why robber crabs have grown so big is a mystery.
18:26But with so few creatures making it to these remote islands, the giant crustaceans seem to have filled a niche
18:33normally taken by medium-sized mammals.
18:40And with almost no competition from other native animals, the crab's huge size allows them to make the most of
18:46another great colonizer, something found here in abundance.
19:02Coconuts are one of their favorite foods.
19:05It's why they're also called coconut crabs, and they've been known to carry them as far as three miles back
19:11to a favorite den.
19:25Robber crabs are perhaps the only animals in the world able to break into a coconut.
19:32The husk is ripped off by powerful pincers.
19:36Other legs drill through the germinating holes on the seed itself until the nut finally cracks.
19:47The whole process can take several hours, but the reward is a meal rich in protein.
19:57Robber crabs may rule the land, but they're no masters of the sea.
20:09An adult crab would drown in a few minutes, which raises the question, how did these monsters
20:17get to so many of the South Pacific's most isolated islands?
20:25This female carries the answer.
20:28Thousands of eggs, which will soon be left to the mercy of the ocean currents.
20:43A few shakes of her tail are all that's needed to send them on their way.
20:50The eggs will hatch immediately.
20:52Then the larvae will have just 50 days to find a new home above the water.
21:04For animal castaways, finding new land in this vast ocean was a chance in a million.
21:12To beat the odds, luck was needed.
21:15And this sometimes came from an unlikely source.
21:19Cyclones.
21:23Each year, these powerful tropical storms form over the huge ocean.
21:39The largest can span more than 600 miles.
22:02Cyclones are one of the most destructive forces in the South Pacific.
22:06Yet surprisingly, they have played a critical role in spreading life to the loneliest islands.
22:15And few islands are more remote than these.
22:23Two thousand miles from the nearest continent, Hawaii is the world's most isolated archipelago.
22:33It's so far flung that less than 500 kinds of animals settled here in 30 million years.
22:42Remarkably, many of these colonizers were carried to Hawaii on the back of cyclones.
22:55For an animal to be sucked up by storm winds carried across the ocean and dumped here alive,
23:01was a matter of extraordinary luck.
23:05Yet that's what happened to the ancestor of this insect.
23:11It's a kind of fruit fly, but no ordinary one.
23:20Hawaii's fruit flies are the birds of paradise of the insect world.
23:25They attract females with elaborate courtship rituals and have a sophisticated range of territorial behavior.
23:35Male hammerhead flies use their heads as battering rams.
23:44A male claviceti fruit fly fanned sex pheromones from his raised abdomen.
23:51His extended tongue is an added attraction.
24:03Since that first colonizer, they have evolved into nearly a thousand species.
24:08Many with their own unique behavior.
24:31When it comes to choosing a mate, females are very fussy.
24:36One wrong move by her suitor, and she's off.
24:52Hawaii's isolation has had a curious effect on the evolution of some of its other wildlife too.
25:00Crawling around these ferns are caterpillars.
25:08They're the larvae of a moth and look ordinary enough.
25:12But these tiny caterpillars are perhaps the strangest of their kind in the world.
25:21When one finds the right spot, it settles down to chew through a leaf.
25:30So far, so normal.
25:37But the caterpillar is not actually swallowing the bits of leaf.
25:42It's channeling a gap between the segments.
25:50When finished, it'll tuck itself into the space.
25:57So what is so strange about this animal?
26:01Well, those are not your typical caterpillar feet,
26:04and what follows is not your typical caterpillar behavior.
26:14This is a carnivorous caterpillar.
26:19With a vice-like hold and a bite to match.
26:30Hawaii's numerous fruit flies were just too good an opportunity to ignore.
26:39And the stick-like camouflage of another kind of meat-eating caterpillar
26:43is just as effective when ambushing prey.
26:59Nobody knows what set Hawaii's carnivorous caterpillars on this extraordinary path.
27:05But it's the sort of quirky evolution that's common on isolated islands.
27:15Each South Pacific island has its own unique set of creatures.
27:23With so many islands, this adds up to thousands of animals found nowhere else on Earth.
27:35Isolated by miles of ocean, human colonizers also developed different ways of life.
27:43Each culture has its own customs, and some are truly bizarre.
27:54The locals are in celebratory mood.
28:08This man is about to perform one of the strangest rituals in the world.
28:22It's a tradition that tests the mettle of the most courageous men.
28:28Having a head for heights is only the start.
28:38Forrest vines are tied around his ankles.
28:42They will be his lifeline.
29:04With forrest vines
29:18For centuries, Pentecost men have been leaping headfirst from wooden scaffolds with only
29:25forest vines to break their fall, a tradition that inspired modern bungee jumping.
29:37For centuries, Pentecost men have been leaping headfirst from wooden
30:07stone.
30:18The jumps may look like acts of madness, but the festival's origins have a serious side.
30:27They celebrate the annual harvest of their staple crop, and with up to nine cyclones pounding
30:34the South Pacific a year, a successful harvest is worth celebrating.
31:00The close calls with Mother Earth are not miscalculations.
31:04The diver's hair is actually meant to brush the ground in a symbolic act of fertilization.
31:17And it's believed the closer the jumper gets to the ground, the taller the crops will grow
31:23the next year.
31:46Human history across most of the South Pacific dates back less than 2,000 years.
31:54By comparison, animal colonizers first arrived on these shores over 30 million years ago.
32:02Yet by the 12th century, people had colonized almost every habitable piece of land.
32:13surrounded by water, the ocean became embedded in their culture, sometimes in surprising ways.
32:31In the Banks Islands, women use the sea to make music.
32:39And their songs celebrate the creatures that live in it.
32:49No matter where people settled in the South Pacific, their survival depended on a deep understanding
32:55of the ocean and its wildlife.
33:13And there's one ocean event that has featured in the Pacific Islanders' calendar since they first arrived here.
33:22It happens on just one night a year in November.
33:29Armed with torches and homemade nets, these islanders prepare for a harvest.
33:38They gather in the reef shallows, watching and waiting for what will soon be a flurry of activity.
33:48As the moon rises, it triggers a natural phenomenon and a very strange spectacle.
34:03The rising of worms.
34:06Palola worms.
34:09These are actually the worms' rear ends.
34:12They're reproductive segments.
34:14The part with the head remains in the coral rock.
34:21When they reach the surface, eggs and sperm will mix.
34:42The tide washes the wriggling worms into the shallows, where they are scooped up by the bucketful.
34:53The whole event lasts just a couple of hours, but in that time hundreds of kilos can be gathered.
35:05Rich in proteins and fats, palola worms are the caviar of the South Pacific.
35:15This may be a short-lived feast, but living in the South Pacific means making the most of anything going.
35:32Every year in June, tiger sharks appear in the shallow waters around this scattering of tiny sandy islands.
35:46They've traveled hundreds of miles in anticipation of an event that lasts less than two weeks.
35:53And their timing is impeccable.
36:06Albatross chicks are sitting ducks.
36:14The sharks may have lost the element of surprise, but their high visibility will make little difference to the albatross
36:21chicks' behavior.
36:25Right now, the focus is on flying.
36:31For fledging albatross, that's not as simple as you'd think.
36:40The problem is the island's runway is a bit short, especially for a bird with one of the world's longest
36:47wingspans.
36:49The maiden flight often ends in a wet landing.
36:54And that's why the sharks are here.
37:01With their highly acute senses, they're on to the chicks within a few moments of touchdown.
37:20During two weeks of fledging, over a hundred albatross chicks make the same fatal error, and the sharks take full
37:28advantage.
37:30The wind being a man.
37:38The wind was a grain of water, and they're on to the birds and the sharks.
37:42The wind was a muchisdiver, so they're not a bit green in the air.
37:42A muchisdiver.
37:51The wind was one of the waves.
37:51It was a very small and карт Напрini.
37:51The wind was a large water.
37:53The wind was plating.
37:53The wind was a great fire.
37:53The wind was a fish-like, which was a large part of the air.
37:55I'm not an alienated pilot as a half raised, the wind was a gigantic tourist or t-foot- disparaged.
37:58in an ocean where food can be surprisingly scarce this annual feast is something these sharks depend
38:04on the size of many South Pacific Islands means that food is often limited the smaller and more
38:21isolated they are the harder it is to survive and in this ocean of islands there's one tiny island
38:30that stands out it's home to perhaps the most remote community of people on the planet with a
38:39truly inspiring story these men are from the island of Anuta
39:11this fishing technique is unique to their island and essential when the weather is too rough for their
39:17boats octopus tentacles are used as bait and it's very effective once a shoal has been found dozens
39:34of fish can be caught in this way the struggling fish are killed with a quick bite to the head
39:58and Newton's have more fishing techniques than almost anywhere else in the Pacific a vital skill given the
40:05size of their island and this is it just one sixth of a square mile in area Anuta is so
40:24small that no
40:25matter where you are the sound of the waves is ever-present life on Anuta has changed little since these
40:40people's ancestors arrived here nearly 400 years ago many a Newton still spend their entire lives on this
40:49remote speck of land Anuta's isolation has meant that the 300 people who live here have had to become
41:02completely self-sufficient almost every square meter of the island is cultivated to grow staple crops like
41:11taro or breadfruit some of this food will be stored in the ground an insurance policy against cyclones
41:27with few trees on the island their wooden outrigger canoes are treasured items and some have been in
41:34continuous use for nearly 150 years without them these people would struggle to survive here since it's the
41:49sea that are newtons look to for most of their needs
42:20the men have a plan for whichever direction the wind takes them
42:26they know the location of every one of their reefs lining up landmarks on the island to gauge their exact
42:32position
42:35it makes fishing trips very productive
42:47Anuta's isolation has shaped their society
42:51too far away to trade with other islands they have a strong community spirit
43:02everything is shared and all work together for the common good
43:06it's the secret of their success
43:17Anuta has one of the highest population densities on earth equal to that of Bangladesh yet on their tiny
43:25speck of land these people have always lived completely within their resources
43:40it's a remarkable achievement and not one that is shared by all who have made a home in the South
43:45Pacific
43:52lost in the vastness of this ocean is an island with a legendary tale of over exploitation
44:08this was once the most inaccessible island in the world
44:17when the first people arrived here a thousand years ago Easter Island was a paradise
44:26thought to be richer in wildlife than even the Galapagos
44:32back then its hills were cloaked with a forest of giant palms
44:38it was also home to one of the largest seabird colonies in the South Pacific
44:47initially life must have been easy for the Easter Islanders the Rapa Nui and with time on their hands
44:55they set to work carving huge stone statues known as Moai
45:03before long each clan was trying to carve larger grander figures than those of their neighbors
45:10competition that was to be their undoing
45:18vast quantities of wood were used to transport the stone statues and slowly but surely the Rapa Nui used
45:25up their islands precious resources eventually their civilization descended into chaos and warfare clan
45:34fought against clan with disastrous consequences
45:57by the time of their ultimate collapse the Rapa Nui had changed their island beyond recognition
46:10these are the hills where the giant palm forest once stood and these are the cliffs that once rang to
46:17the sound of those huge seabird colonies all hunted to extinction by the Rapa Nui
46:26today the giant stone statues are a poignant reminder of the precarious nature of life on remote islands
46:42all South Pacific Islanders must make the most of whatever resources they have and the Anewton's are no exception
46:56they harvest the wildlife that also depends on this little piece of land
47:01they harvest the wildlife that also depends on this little piece of land
47:21each hunter uses his own preferred call
47:28the noise will lure their quarry closer to their nets
47:53noddy turns they've spent the day fishing out at sea so it's only when they return to roost at night
47:59they can be caught
48:07it would be easy for the Anewton's to over harvest the noddy turns even exterminate the colony
48:16but that's not the Anewton way
48:22their approach ensures a future for the next generation to enjoy
48:40august the most martial arts and al-fi
48:46Sui Masa
49:06life has always been precarious in the South Pacific but with the right balance
49:12both people and animals will continue to thrive in this great ocean of islands
49:38some of the biggest waves in the world break on South Pacific Islands one of the aims of this
49:44series was to capture the awesome power of these natural forces from underwater so the team headed
49:57to Pompeii in the Caroline Islands well known for big barreling waves on board was top surf cameraman
50:08Barley Strickland a lot of times you're like oh it was a good shot but if I was one meter
50:13that way
50:14it would have been perfect so to actually get the perfect position it's pretty hard but Barley was
50:20used to a camera housing this size so how is he going to manage with one this big German camera
50:29technician Rudy diesel had only finished building this housing one day before the shoot inside was
50:36a camera that could film in super slow motion and high definition until now no one had ever tried
50:42using one under water unfortunately the camera turned out to be well camera shy boy the anticipation was
51:00there there was huge expectation this is when you're breaking new ground you've got it you've got to be prepared
51:06for the swings around you have to be patient sometimes and there was another problem the waves were timing more
51:15Cornwall than Caroline's the team has brought along world-class surfer Dylan Longbottom to give some scale to the waves
51:23but it was having the opposite effect when you look at the size of the waves here it's hard to
51:30imagine that in a single day if the conditions are right the wave will break sort of way over your
51:35head and you've got this perfect barrel
51:45the next day Rudy felt sure his custom-built housing was now up and running
51:55yes it works the words I like to hear most often shoot yes it's working the words I don't like
52:03to
52:03hear very often really no it's not working I think it's broken but all was well with the housing and
52:09finally it was ready to make a splash barley and Dylan paddled out to the surf zone the waves were
52:28still
52:28small but the hard jagged reef beneath Bali's feet was a constant reminder of the dangers here
52:37and even in small waves getting into position with the large housing was going to be a real challenge
52:51Bali lined up for his first shot
53:00Capturing the action at 20 times slower than normal speed
53:05Oh
53:11An interesting shot but not what the team were after
53:16So why were there no big waves?
53:18There's no land between here and
53:22Kamchatka
53:223000 miles away and it's funny that the waves that arrive here start off around Japan
53:28around the East Coast of Russia and when a storm hits these places it whips up the sea generating swell
53:36It's rather like throwing a pebble into a pool
53:38The ripples radiate outwards which when they reach land make waves
53:45So if the size of these waves was anything to go by Japan and Russia we're having some unusually mild
53:51winter weather
53:56And that was more than you could say for Pompeii
54:01And there were still no big waves
54:05The only good news was that the housing was still working and remained watertight
54:10Despite being soundly tested both below and above the water
54:18And then when the team thought things couldn't get any worse
54:21If conditions got any calmer here we'd probably have small boys out sailing there that toy boats out on this
54:28mill pond
54:28I mean we came for 12 foot barreling waves and we got what a sort of gentle riffle at the
54:34moment
54:35time to check the swell charts and
54:39There was better news on the Russian front a big storm sending swell Pompeii's way
54:45At the end of the shoot the waves arrived the biggest the team had seen so far
54:57The big surf proved even more of a challenge for Bali
55:03And there was still the sharp reef to avoid
55:14Bali's final shots had promise but these waves were still much smaller than the team had hoped for
55:19Having seen the potential of Rudy's camera underwater
55:23I just know I've got to get it back out on one of these locations and use it in a
55:28big barrel because the results will be
55:30incredibly surprising and
55:33totally unique
55:36Four months later with news of a large swell coming from Russia the team were back in Pompeii
55:44This time the waves looked big even with surfers in them
55:50And expert surfer Dylan couldn't wait to get out there
55:55Well, we just turned up and we've seen a couple of absolute monster barrels
56:00So we've got what we came for
56:04I'm pretty nervous right now because I'm better swim that huge torpedo camera back out there
56:11It's dangerous
56:15The big waves had brought surfers from all over the world, but this was definitely a day for the professionals
56:24Go Bali was going to have to use all his surf experience to get the shots without risking his safety
56:32Positioning was going to be everything this really is a dangerous sport
56:37Superficially it looks a bit like skiing skiing down the face of a mountain
56:40The difference here is the mountains actually chasing you. I'm wanting to gobble you up as you go along
56:45Oh
56:50This is what we came for
56:53Bali got into position for his first shot of the day
56:58A ten-foot barrel wave
57:02Capturing a shot like this leaves little margin for error as Bali discovered
57:07Tried to hold on as long as I could it sucked me over the falls afterwards
57:11This thing is so heavy
57:13I was in the foam inside trying to get up
57:16My right leg cramped
57:19And I couldn't get up for ages
57:22I was just lucky it wasn't really much behind it
57:24I'd still be in there trying to get out
57:28For the next shots, Bali's position in the waves was right on the money
57:34Using the slow-motion camera underwater had paid off
57:38Here for the first time revealing the vortices created by huge waves
57:45Then the shot that crowned a perfect day
57:49I shot it and I wasn't sure how good it was
57:51I watched it back
57:52I've still got shivers in my spine
57:54Probably the best shot I've ever got through the water
57:58Without a doubt
58:00And here it is
58:02Big wave surfer Dylan Longbottom
58:05In a 12-foot monster barrel wave
58:08Filmed in super slow-motion
58:11The first shots of their kind ever recorded
58:16And this time Bali's exit from the wave was perfect
58:31Top tips from Gardener's World here on BBC HD in half an hour
58:35After some simple suppers next with Nigel Slater
58:385,002, yes
58:53The first shot on the limb