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

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.