Volcom Pipe Pro & Advisory-Level Swell Coming

By Carlos Rock

Maui Boys Dusty Payne (Lahaina) and Ola Eleogram (Hana) killed it at the Volcom Pipe Pro contest this past weekend.

Maui Boy Dusty Payne in Pipe. Photo: Bielman.

Both surfers made it to the semifinals and Ola advanced to the final where he finished fourth place. This contest saw the many moods of Pipeline and each day saw amazing waves as well as performances.

The conditions went from gigantic Pipeline where they couldn’t even run the contest because the conditions were too hazardous, to epic 6 to 8-foot Pipeline with a west swell, to 4-foot high performance backdoor runners.

The live webcast and the live feed on Time Warner was just as good as watching the action from the beach at Pipeline. Many more contests are taking advantage of this technology to be able to watch these guys surf in real time, from anywhere.

Even ESPN is running a one hour special on the Volcom Pipe Pro sometime soon. Usually something very monumental has to happen in surfing for it to get mentioned on ESPN, more recently Garret McNamara’s 100-foot wave in Portugal.

But, to be able to watch Pipeline in real time HD is truly an awesome thing. Surfers can now see how it breaks and how to ride it well. With this visual of Pipeline going off and the pros riding it showing us how its done pretty much, we can decide if we are ready or not to take on the Pipeline.

It was non-stop barrels and the Maui boys were right up there with the best of them. The final day saw Dusty and Ola lead the way for the Maui crew barrel after barrel at the infamous Backdoor. With a declining swell, the surf dropped into the 4-foot range as Backdoor turned on.

The surf world has entered into the era of John John Florence, as no one could touch him the entire contest. He is also Hawaii’s best hope to bring another world title back to the islands.

More NW swells? Honolua Bay provides. Photo: Carlos Rock.

The North Pacific is taking another break after churning out 20-foot swell after 20-foot swell the past couple weeks, as Ho’okipa is resembling its summer self with small east swells.

But, this calm isn’t going to last long because the weekend (Friday-Saturday) is forecasting 15 to 25+-foot waves from a massive NW taking waves straight into the advisory levels.

The rest of the week sees a bump come up on the north shore as a 6 to 10-foot N-NW is set to hit for Wednesday/Thursday before the surf becomes life-threatening.

It’s been non-stop waves for 98% of this winter and showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Let’s just hope the summer is not the complete opposite.

Summer dreaming. South side Maui. Photo: David Baker.

But, we’ve still got a couple months left in winter.