- [Andia] In the 1960s, surfing became a worldwide phenomenon.
- [Sean] For as long as I can remember, I've been obsessed with the ocean and riding waves.
- [Andia] All that surfers crave are big waves and small crowds.
- [Kevin N.] How many days I showed up at Bundoran which is in my mind, it was a wave as good as any wave that surfed anywhere in the world.
If there was somebody there, I was gonna know who they were and we were gonna share waves together.
- [Andia] They found both in Ireland.
- [Sean] The ultimate secret spot.
- They didn't even know that there was such fabulous waves in Ireland.
- This sense freedom like the world's your oyster.
- [Kevin N.] Back then, once you met one or two of the Irish surfers, you were introduced into the whole surfing community, which was very small.
- [Andia] These were the years of violence, The Troubles in Ireland.
(explosion banging) - [Davy] And then seeing the ambulance started to arrive and I started realize that that bomb was actually in that building that I had just come out off.
- [Andia] But the surfers built a community across religious and political divide.
- The surfers in Ireland then, they didn't put up with any of this nonsense about north and south, Catholic and Protestant.
The only distinction drawn was in the water and how well you surfed and we were all just surfers.
- [Kevin C.] I wanted the world to know that Ireland was a surfing nation.
We actually had waves as good as anybody else.
- Surfing is best kept to a small community.
These are our waves.
This is my beach.
- [Andia] Should they tell the world or "Keep It A Secret," on Doc World.
Watch on World Channel and in the PBS app.
