|
Spot: Pipeline, HI
The Waves
Thus spake Kelly Slater – with Jason Borte - in Pipe Dreams: “The surfing spot, known as Pipeline, has become surfing’s winter nucleus and is the epicenter of the surfing world. It’s the ultimate arena. Swells from Alaska’s Aleutian storms march through the Pacific and meet the Hawaiian Islands with open-ocean speed. As they near the shoe, they focus on the reefs, which amplify their size and energy. Plenty of surf spots are longer, many are bigger, and some are even gnarlier, but Pipe which sits midway along Oahu’s North Shore, offers the greatest ten seconds on Earth It is the yardstick by which all other breaks are measured.”
Enough said? Wait, there’s more!
First Reef is what most people think of when they think of Pipeline. The inside reef breaks up to 10 feet, unloading on the reef and barreling and spitting toward a sandy channel.
Second Reef is farther out. The waves aren’t as hollow and the water is deeper, but it’s still a big wave that reforms in the inside into Big Trouble.
Third Reef breaks at 20 foot plus and is rarely surfed.
Best Swell, Size and Direction
Randy Rarick is a professional kahuna. As one of the directors of the Van’s Triple Crown, on Rarick’s Sunset-honed shoulders rests the responsibility for sniffing the wind, trusting his bunion, consulting the Internet Gods and giving the thumbs up and thumbs down for contest days at Sunset, Pipe and Haleiwa.
Rarick lives and dies by his wave knowledge every December so his word on ideal size and direction for Pipe might as well be from the Burning Bush: “To let you know about Pipeline conditions, the obvious if you want ‘Pipeline’ is to be solid west, with the sandbar washed away from previous swells and nice easterly 5 to 15 MPH trades. That means the guys will only be going left at the Pipeline. Now, however, there is a desire by the competitors who are regular foot, to have Backdoor operating. That requires more of a north/northwesterly swell, to open up the rights. So, now days, the idea of ‘Pipeline’ includes ‘Backdoor’ and has blurred the traditional concept of what it is to ride the Pipe. Personally, the last good Pipe contest was in 2000 when Rob Machado won, because there were absolutely no rights and in my personal opinion, the Pipeline is all about the lefts. If you want to talk about Backdoor, that is a whole 'nother aspect.”
Pipeline can be ridden both ways at a pretty small size, but the wave doesn’t really take shape on the inner reef until it gets to six feet. There is no real upper limit, as Pipeline moves out to Second and Third Reef.
Ideal winds are trades which blow offshore, or dead calm. Tides aren’t that much of a factor in Hawaii, but for the most part, surfers like more water over the reef than less.
Surrounding Spots
Pipeline is just about in the middle of the Seven Mile Miracle of Oahu’s North Shore. The North Shore is evidence that there is a God and He loves surfers, because the North Shore is perfectly positioned in the middle of the Central Pacific to take in all that swell roaring down from the Gulf of Alaska, and there is an astounding array and variety of surf breaks from Kaena Point to Kahuku.
Immediately to the east are the sandbars of Ehukai Beach Park, then the reefs of Pupukea, then Turkey Bay, Gas Chambers, Rocky Point, Monster Mush, Kammieland and the world famous Sunset Beach.
To the west Off the Wall is the next spot over, then Aint’s, Log Cabins and at the end of Banzai Beach is Rockpile. And beyond that: Rubber Duckies!!!!!!
Difficulty Level
Gerry Lopez once famously said, “Pipeline’s a cakewalk when you know how.” But Lopez got that know how from the 60s into the 70s, when surfers were fewer and that stretch of beach was quiet, partially virgin territory.
In this crowded world, getting that know how at Pipeline is not easy, when there are a half-dozen webcams pointed at the spot, surf forecasters predicting swells weeks in advance, and enormous crowd pressures by surfers, bodyboarders, bodysurfers and even SUP wanting to get barreled, get famous, get some money.
The wave is tricky, the crowd is trickier and all together that makes Pipeline quadruple black diamond.
Localism Factor
Legendary. There was a time when the Pipeline was as hallowed as a heiau and any transgression there was dealt with harshly - and the transgressor was shown the door. Dropping in at Pipeline, snaking, paddling behind, getting greedy, bailing your board was profoundly kapu, but crowds at Pipeline have done to the Old Laws what Christianity did to the kapu system and now where there once was order, there now is chaos.
The lifeguards can only do so much. They are there to pick up the pieces after accidents, and can’t really control the situation in the water. So to do that, a number of local benevolent societies have emerged to enforce the kapu.
During the 70s and 80s, the Hui o He’e Nalu were a presence with their black shorts, an unofficial badge which commanded respect. The Hui were and are an informal Hawaiian water police force who made sure newcomers and outsiders followed the rules of respect. The Hui still exists but has been joined by the Wolfpack and the Pipeline Posse, crews of concerned Hawaiian natives who had respect slapped into their heads as kids, and saw crowds overwhelm the unwritten laws of respect which had been true at Pipeline through the 20th Century.
When there were too many infringements, drop ins, collisions, accidents, fights, a crew of guys decided they were mad as hell and couldn’t take it anymore: “Back in the day, there was a REAL set of rules,” said Brad Dias, one of the top Pipe surfers over the last 15 years. “You wouldn't be able to go out there and break ANY of these rules without paying the consequences. Nowadays, the law is getting involved because there have been a bunch of fights at Pipe, due to the enforcement. You can't just do that kind of stuff anymore. You need to approach it in a different way, nice and level headed, and just have a little more calmness about the whole deal. It's been changing a bit, we've been trying our best.”
“Pipe Posse” is clever, as it evokes groups of concerned private citizens banding together to bring order to a lawless land. Does it work? Sometimes. Not really. The only time real order is imposed on a good day at Pipeline is during a surf contest. Every December, the Association of Surfing Professionals World Championship Tour ends with the Pipeline event. Where almost all WCT events are man on man heats, the Pipe contest has four-man heats from the trials to the finals, bending to community pressure to run the events in the shortest time possible.
While it’s always exciting to see four of the best surfers in the world attacking Pipeline, only having to worry about the wave, it is also nice to see order restored to one of the most overrun lineups in the world. Four great surfers out at pumping Pipeline will catch the best waves, but also let a lot go by. But if four guys are catching half, or one third, or one quarter of the waves coming through, that means the ideal crowd at Pipeline is eight, or twelve or sixteen people. Maybe 20, but that’s it. Forty is at least two times too many, and the crowd at Pipe, when you add up surfers, bodyboarders, bodysurfers, photographers and other flotsam and jetsam can be as many as 100.
|
