January has been good to Northshore surfers. After a long wait, January 4th delivered the first Waimea swell all season. For the most part, waves were in the 15 foot range, but there were some 18 foot sets and some say there were freak 20 footers. The Backdoor Shootout followed with 3 of the best Pipe days all year. The first day was pretty amazing, especially in the afternoon when the waves were thick, round and juicy. The second day got a little too big mid-morning and they put the contest on hold for a while, but then it turned on again and contestants were scoring once again. The final day was smaller, but still pretty epic and they almost ran a fourth day which would have been just as good even with a dropping swell. Reef McIntosh won $30,000, not to mention some of the best waves at Pipe all season with just three other guys. The surf dropped, the swell direction veered north and conditions fell apart after the Shootout, but then came back together for a solid west swell this morning. I think it was a little bigger than they were expecting today since this evening was nearly 10 feet Hawaiian scale tonight without a high surf advisory issued. Strong southerly winds were straight offshore, but still washing the waves out a bit. It was not perfect, but there were a few nice waves. Liam McNamara is putting on a Pro Jr at Sunset and supporting the local kids. A little pack of them were ripping out Pipe this morning and their event has a little bit of a waiting period before the Volcom Pipe Pro on January 24th. The Pipeline Bodyboarding Pro starts February 15th and goes until the 24th and the Women's Pipe contest starts on the first of March. With just 10 days between these contests and such a late start the Northshore surf season, sessions at Pipe seem more scarce than usual. The waves have not been perfect there this year by any means however. The abundance of north swells early on, set up a weird sandbar which is crossed up with the reef. There have been epic waves, but not necessarily those epic days that we love. It was starting to look better tonight and hopefully with south winds and NW swells all week, there will be some fun surf action before the next contest.

Pipeline_Tuesday, January 3, 2012

The surf has been beautiful the past few days. Perfect conditions blessed us for most of today and yesterday with a few hours of onshore crumble. The swell came up on New Years Day. It was a more northerly swell mixing in with a NW, but it was a lot more organized and powerful than most north swells tend to be. The surf reached 10 feet by the evening and I heard Sunset was picture perfect. The next day the waves veered a little more from the NW. It started out in the solid 6-8 foot range, but dropped all day. It was pretty small throughout most of the day today, but by the evening the swell was showing. I saw a third reefer break at Pipe this evening which was one of the first of those I have seen all year. The waves were still not very good at Pipe, and have not really been very good all year. The sand is really weird so it seems like the lefts never turn on, it is just a sporadic gem here and there, but no consistency. I got pretty excited watching it tonight though because even though it wasn't too good, it looked like this incoming swell might be west enough to wash that pesky sand out of there so we can start having some fun.

It seems like they are downgrading tomorrows swell a bit. The Quicksilver Eddie Aikau website is claiming a "slim to none" chance of running their event, but the buoy readings seem to show that it will be too big for the Backdoor shootout which is also on tap. The buoys seem a little off this year, the new buoy #1 (51101) does is not as reliable as the old one and I think it is set in a different location all together. The swells seem to register on that buoy earlier (causing the swell to show up closer to 12-16 hours rather than the former 6-12 hours) and the wave heights seem exaggerated compared with the old buoy #1. (I guess I am just noting this in case anyone else noticed)

Man, the holiday crowds have been pretty nutz. I tried to check the surf late on News Years Day and the traffic was pretty much deadlocked past V-Land so I had to turn around and go home. Then today, I went into Haleiwa around noon and as far as I could see on the high road there was nearly deadlocked traffic again. Luckily it only lasted to the Laniakea turtle tourist trap, and then it cleared. whew. I am sure tomorrow will be another crazy day, there are still a lot of people in town, I guess they are extending their holiday.

Squiddy past away a few days ago. Anyone who has been surfing the country for a fair amount of time knows Squiddy and has enjoyed his presence on the Northshore. I will never forget him from the track house days at V-Land; those were good times and he was such an important part of that special era of surfing on the Northshore. His memorial service will be at V-Land on January 28th Saturday morning at 10am, and the paddle out is at noon. RIP Squiddy.

2011 Pipe Champion Kieren Perrow at Shipterns Bluff Tasmania 2001

It has been pretty peaceful on the Northshore since the circus left town early. December 16th was a really nice day at Pipe. It started out about 4-8 ft and real clean and had some 3rd reefers that evening. By the next morning, it was pretty mixed up and all over the place again. It never really recovered after that, it has just been windy and disorganized. Not that many people are around though so at least the junk waves are uncrowded. The kids seem to be enjoying the small waves on the sandbars.

It was a pretty exciting Pipe contest. The first day was probably the best Pipe all season and the other two days would rate in this years top ten even though that is not saying much. Everyone is stoaked that John John won the Triple Crown. I think in some way we all feel like he is our kid. There is a bit of mystique behind John John however and that is his Mom. In my opinion, no one ever really gives her the credit she deserves. She has been surfing the Northshore for over 20 years. People used to get us mixed up when we surfed V-Land, because they thought it was impossible there could be two haole females surfing out there during that time. Alex aka Mom John used to charge on a short board back then. While John John was making a statement riding Pipe at such a young age, Alex was one of the first and still one of very few women to attempt it on a longboard. She has definitely made her own mark in the Pipe lineup. She paddles out when it is ten feet. Anyways, just thought I should give her some props for being a single Mom of three great kids and a Pipeline pioneer all at the same time. I think her passion for surfing has certainly played a role in her sons success and she is an inspiration for the ladies.

My husband Sean Davey has been shooting recent Pipe champion Kieren Perrow since he was just starting out. Kieren went with him on the first magazine trip to Shipterns Bluff in Tasmania, Davey's home town. At that time, none of the magazines wanted to fund a trip to Shipterns because they did not believe it was worthty of coverage and I think they have sent a team of surfers every single year since then Kieren is another really nice and respectful guy. He spends a lot of time in the Pipe line up when he is here. He is super humble and respectful to the locals, always acknowledging us and just fitting in with the mix instead of trying to be a stand out. I guess you could say, he lets his surfing do the talking.

On December 3rd, Surfrider hosted the annual John Kelly awards. Cora Sanchez who co-founded the Oahu Surfrider chapter with Peter Cole was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award. Kona Brewing Company won most environment friendly Hawai‘i company and Kyle Thiermann won the pro surfer award for his five-part video series which encourages good habits for a green environment. Surfrider also hosted a big beach cleanup with the support of San Lorenzo, Airwalk and professional surfer Anatasia Ashley. Mauli Ola foundation also held a benefit at Haleiwa during the Triple Crown. It is nice to have a break in all the action up this side, but the Haleiwa International is still on. It is hard to get a hold of the schedule this year so I am not sure when the next contests are on. I heard the Volcom Pro starts at Pipe near the end of January, which will then be followed by the Bodyboarding Pro and the Women's Pipe contest, all within about ten day increments. I guess we better surf it up now. Hope it gets good.

Merry Christmas!!

Been a crazy week. It seems there are less pros this year, but a lot more kids and fans than ever before. We got a smaller NW swell on Tues-Wednesday setting up the beach for the Pipemasters.Upon sunrise of the first day of the waiting period, we saw one of the biggest bombs of the whole swell and the contest was on. It surged off and on in the 8-12 range for the first 2 days and was pretty wild at times. There is still a bit of a sanbar at Ehukai which runs into the left causing some waves to close out. The first two days of the Pipemasters were by far the best waves all year, but hopefully there is still better swells on the way.I am standing here watching the waves under an unreal lunar eclipse which was super bright and beautiful earlier. So far, the waves seem on the small side, but we will have to see what happens when the sun comes. We are all hoping for the quickest run Pipemasters in history. The event was super efficient and well run this year.It is nice to see the contest directors consideration of the residents. The crowds have been almost Eddie like. I used to come early and most the spectators would not show up until an hour or so into the event. I have been on the beach for an hour already and there are tents, people sleeping on the beach and the parking is filling out already. It is such a new era of surfing. The newness is good in some was, but sad in others. Looks good enough to run. Hope they go! Good Luck John John and Alex (Mom John)!

Well two big swells graced the Northshore, for the Sunset waiting period, unfortunately they were onshore throughout the majority of the swell; the first one hit early November 27 and the most recent swell came on December 1st. Neither swells were very good at Pipe because of the wind and the northerly angle, but it looks like that might change this week just in time for the Pipe masters. It is pretty painstaking the first big clean west will be taken over with the contest, but, at least it will finish fast and we will have long break between contests until after Christmas. It might be the perfect conditions for Pipe local John John Flourence to excel in his chance to win the Triple Crown. Contest directors are on top of things as they set up the stands for Pipe two days ago and it was complete by this morning. So far the sign says IPE, so maybe not pau yet, or maybe it might be more fitting to just add a "Y", for the Yipes masters. The guys have been out practicing already even this morning in one foot surf. Whatever happens, it should be an exciting week of surf!