After over a month of boogie invaders, Jeff Hubbard claimed his second consecutive Pipe title. Jeff is a local Hawai‘i surfer who is well respected by the Hawai‘i surf community at large. He surfs Pipe every swell. Check out his web page www.hubbbodyboarding.com As with all the other contests this year, the boogies scored nearly perfect Pipe for two full days of their four day event. On the second day of competition, Pipe was in the 8-12 foot range and a little wonky in the morning, but the first four waves ridden in the contest were perfect barrels with guys getting spit out. For the most part, the boogies cleared the Northshore as the waves dropped over the last week, but the girls will stick around until Banzai Betty's women's Pipe contest which starts on March 1st and includes a day of women's short boarding, a day of women's bodyboarding and a day of jr mens. www.pipegirls.com

Since the bodyboarding event, there have been a couple 6 foot days, but the wind has been really strong and cold. Today was the first day with good conditions, but the waves were small. I guess we are expecting two back to back swells starting tomorrow so hopefully the wind won't pick back up so strong again. Town also had its first real dose of swell in a while with sets up to 3 ft.

Roxy is holding a contest called "Let the Sea Set you Free" for those who think they embody the spirit of a Roxy Girl. If you want to check it out go to www.roxy.com/seaforyourself.

After the Volcom Pipe Pro, we had one big storm swell that provided two days of really disorganized Pipe. It was not much of a problem for the onslaught of boogie boarders that are here for the Pipe challenge which starts in 2 days. There has been a stand up surf event running at Sunset which finished today in pretty epic 10-12 foot surf. Pipe started out in the 6-10 ft range this morning, but grew to 10-12 by midday. Today was one of very few second reef days all year that was open to free surfing instead of a contest. It was not epic, but there were some great rides. Good thing too since the boogies start their Pipe challenge on the 15th running to the 24th and Banzai Betty's Women's contest kicks off just four days later on March 1st. Her contest will span three days this year to include a Jr Mens event. If you are thinking two events back to back with just a five day gap seems a bit tight, stay tuned, I plan to discuss the problem of the contest situation on the Northshore in a later post which I hope people will participate in and share their views. I appreciate all of your comments. Actually, I did not realize I had comments since they moved them to another place on the blog, but it is really encouraging when people let me know they read and enjoy my posts! I am really looking forward to doing some new and interesting posts in the future that will help document surf culture in Hawai‘i so stay tuned!

Lifeguard Bouvey Bradbury won the Bum Rush Contest at Makaha today. He came in from a early surf and as he went to check into the lifeguard tower he was awarded a $1000 check from Sun Bum. I know Bouvey from surfing Banyans back in the day when we both lived in Kona. He must be so stoked!

After the Backdoor Shootout, the waves dropped and small perfect waves prevailed through most of the ten day gap between contests. It was fun surf for everyone. Unfortunately however, the next solid swells occurred right on time for the influx of bodyboarders and surfers who came to practice for the two back to back events. The Volcom contest started out with an unreal west swell which got bigger than expected washing out by midday, forcing contest directors to cancel after just a few heats. They then ran on a more marginal day before lucking into the best day all year on January 30th. Early that morning in the dark, I saw an white water break way outside and all the way across looking like and 18 ft sets. The first two hours were a bit warbly and washy, but by midday the waves were pretty incredible. A long period straight WNW swell with second reef sets is hard to come by, especially in the last couple years. By that evening it looked like perfect Pipe, but it was so crowded after the contest that the guys riding waves from the second reef were bumping into surfers on the first reef and falling off. The swell dropped a lot by the next day, but the contest ended with one of the most exciting finals ever. John John Flourence beat Jamie O'Brien and Kai Barger in the last few minutes of the heat. Right now, it is Boogieville at Pipe as their event will start on February 15th. Banzai Betty seems to be considering running Jr mens in her event this year. If so, she will take the whole 3 or 4 days allotted for her permit from March 1-15.

A new company called Sun Bum which features a wide variety of sun care products has innovated a new form of surfing contest which met the islands for the first time yesterday (Februrary 2nd). The Bum Rush, as they call it, is initiated at an unannounced location and $1000 is awarded to the free surfer who is surfing the best on the day. Sun Bum makes it clear that this is not even necessarily the best surfer, but just one person who their team of judges selects. Yesterday the Bum Rush showed up at Haleiwa with local judge Kawika Foster and Dustin Boshart awarding Kai Matsumoto with the $1000 award. You can find out more at bumrushtour.com

Volcom Pipe Pro 2012