hello you all. first, i’d like to say i feel good to be alive. the first big pipeline/backdoor swell of the year is always exciting for me. i’m not going to lie, but i was scared. even though i can hold my breath for a long time and dive deep, the butterflies don’t go away when you see a 30′ wave face coming down on your head. today was max pipe. 8-12′ and dangerous. the first swell is always the most dangerous because there is still too much sand on the beach creating shallow reef, and backwash on the wave. i paddled out with one thing on my mind. SURVIVE…
i like to go right so the good waves break a little more inside. you have to wait and be patient. and if a huge closeout set comes, say goodbye… today, 2 came. the first one i seen breaking out on the horizon. everybody started paddling to the channel but it broke right in front of us. i looked back and seen joel parkinson right behind me so i didn’t want to throw my board and dive under. it’s too dangerous. so i tried to duck dive it and the wave exploded like a bomb. for the 15 seconds or so i was under water, i could hear fireworks!! pack, pack, pack!!! i came up, looked inside, and seen like 30 guys swimming and broken pieces of surfboards all over the place. leashes were broken and a lot of surfboards were broken. i was lucky… then 30 minutes later, it all happened again. pack, pack, pack!!! broken boards all over the place. there were a lot of broken boards today but luckily nobody got hurt, well, at least for the 4 hours i was there…
i was out there for a long time trying to get a good right. finally, a big A-frame set came to me, i paddled, took off, bottom turned, pulled in, and got a standing barrel. i came out, and came in to the beach. it’s a great way to start the pipeline/backdoor year for me.
now the nerves are gone. tomorrow morning, i’m dawn patroling…. see you in the water…
**check out this video i shot from the water. it’s totally different from the beach…. enjoy…
