But, Greg's passion for big surf forced[citation needed] him to leave the professional circuit and focus entirely on traveling the world in search of biggest waves.

At age 15, Long first paddled out to what eventually would be his home big wave break, an island off the coast of Baja California called Todos Santos.

After surfing Todos for a couple years, Long took his big wave act to spots such as Mavericks, in Northern California, and Dungeon's, in Cape Town, South Africa.

[citation needed] On January 5, 2008, Long and fellow riders Brad Gerlach, Mike Parsons, and Grant "Twiggy" Baker towed into waves at the Cortes Bank off the coast of San Diego, on the swell of the decade, that were estimated to be around 60–80 feet on the face.

[2][3] On January 4, 2012, Greg Long, along with his fellow big wave surfers Ian Walsh, Kohl Christensen, Jeff Rowley, Dave Wassel, Shane Dorian, Mark Healey, Carlos Burle, Nate Fletcher, Garrett McNamara, Kai Barger, North Shore locals and others visited the Hawaiian Islands for a day of surfing.

Also, Long focused his efforts on Baja, Mexico, when a natural gas facility ruined a classic big wave surf spot in the area.