THE BACKSTORY
Both surfers and fans will tell you, there's something special about walking through the event infrastructure at Ehukai Beach Park on the North Shore of Oahu during the Billabong Pipe Masters. It's a mix of surfing tradition, inspiration and Polynesian culture. There's a sense of history, and the wall of former Pipe Masters winners -- it's not like anything else in the world of sports.
The world's best surfers return to Hawaii's North Shore for the 2015 Billabong Pipe Masters, the final event of the season.
It's hard to imagine that Hawaiians never went seeking Pipeline's hollow perfection before 1961, when surfer Phil Edwards gave it a try, later bringing filmmaker Bruce Brown and his camera. But as history tells it, Edwards was among the first to challenge the terrifyingly beautiful wave by which the talent of locals and professionals are judged today.
Gerry 'Mr. Pipeline' Lopez. - WSL
"I'm sure someone had surfed it at some point," said Gerry Lopez (HAW), who helped set the bar for performance at Pipe. "Pat Curren and Flippy Hoffman used to camp right there and I know they bodysurfed it. But I have spoken to Bruce Brown. He doesn't claim that was the first time it was surfed, but that is the first time it was recorded. Later that day, word got around and a handful of other guys paddled out."
Tom Carroll still knows how to make the classic drop at Pipe, displayed during the 2014 Heritage Series event on the North Shore.
Either way, it has become the most storied break in all of surfing, and it's all about what happens behind those heavy liquid lips.
Lopez first surfed Pipe in the early 1960s and by the late '60s boards were getting shorter, specifically tuned for riding the deeper, more critical part of the wave. While he was winning Pipe Masters events in 1972 and '73, in the heart of the single-fin era, Lopez began shaping boards himself.
"The first was the Coral Cruiser," he said. "That was the prototype of Pipe guns for the '70s. Those boards had the tail of a Waimea [big wave] gun, but the key to making it work really good was the low rail."
The late Andy Irons during the 2009 Billabong Pipe Masters. - WSL
Pipeline is one of those spots that can define a surfer and professional career. Some of the best in history -- Shaun Tomson (ZAF), Mark Richards (AUS), Mark Occhilupo (AUS), Tom Carroll (AUS), Kelly Slater (USA), and Andy Irons (HAW) -- are all former winners at Pipe. Today, the boards are even shorter to allow for longer barrels and a certain degree of high-performance surfing. Some CT competitors ride specific quads to get more speed coming through those tubes.
THE WAVE
A bird's-eye view of Banzai Pipeline on the North Shore of Oahu. - WSL
Surfline Best Conditions
Swell Direction: WNW-NW
Surf Height: A few feet overhead to triple overhead
Wind: Calm, or light South-East
Tide: Medium
The North Shore is known as the Seven-Mile Miracle, packed with more quality surf breaks than anywhere in the world. And winter arrives, the North Pacific starts delivering energy toward that coast, and especially at Pipe.
"It's tilted perfectly to receive the brunt of any northwest swell that happens to swing though the Pacific," said Lopez, "And that reef at Pipe hasn't changed much in all these years. Anything with a slight west angle is going to create more open, hollow, waves. But as long as it's a clean swell, there's going to be waves and it's going to be an exciting contest."
2014 Triple Crown and Pipe Masters Champion Julian Wilson won the Final with a 9.70.
Shallow reefs are surfing's greatest double-edged sword: The more shallow and dangerous the reef, the more hollow the cavern. The one big variable at Pipe is the sand, which can build up on the reef and cause those magic barrels to close out.
"[Sand] determines if it's going to be pretty good, or really good," explained Lopez. "In the summertime, the sand builds up and the beach gets wider, but the first day that Pipe really broke this year looked pretty good from my perspective. I was there in early October and couldn't believe how narrow the beach was."
Sand over the reef was a variable at the 2014 Billabong Pipe Masters, but as the event marched ahead and the swell direction changed, the waves cleaned up. Reigning World Champ Gabriel Medina took full advantage.
While Pipeline proper is a left-breaking wave, taking Backdoor -- the right-breaking wave beside it -- has become highly regarded. For the first 15 years of competition, the left was the primary source of scoring potential. The judges and scaffolding were set up on the east end of the beach. They couldn't even see the right. But eventually, the heroics of going right started to rival Pipe.
THE APPROACH
Riding Pipeline may take as much technique as bravado, but watching every riveting ride from the beach or the couch really doesn't. Though nearly every wave ridden at the Pipe Masters features a surfer firing headlong into a throaty tube, the high-range scores are the ones that make it out.
Kelly Slater's 2014 Titles hopes were cut short by Alejo Muniz, but he was still able to display his classic style for a 9.57 before elimination.
But then there are those where we completely lose a surfer behind that tropical water curtain, write them off, and go on with our lives. And somehow, they come through the darkness flying into the Hawaiian sunshine.
There are six surfers in contention for the 2015 World Title, only one of whom, Julian Wilson (AUS), has ever won the Pipe Masters. Favorites in this event are Gabriel Medina (BRA), who made the Final in 2014 on his way to his first World Title, seven-time Pipe Masters winner and legend Kelly Slater (USA), and of course, John John Florence (HAW), who lives just a few dozen feet away from the break and has won other Pipe events multiple times, but never the elusive Pipe Masters.
Watch the World Title race come to a dramatic finale at the Billabong Pipe Masters LIVE on the World Surf League and WSL App beginning December 8.
Break Breakdown: Gerry Lopez Talks Secrets of Pipe
Jon Coen
THE BACKSTORY
Both surfers and fans will tell you, there's something special about walking through the event infrastructure at Ehukai Beach Park on the North Shore of Oahu during the Billabong Pipe Masters. It's a mix of surfing tradition, inspiration and Polynesian culture. There's a sense of history, and the wall of former Pipe Masters winners -- it's not like anything else in the world of sports.
It's hard to imagine that Hawaiians never went seeking Pipeline's hollow perfection before 1961, when surfer Phil Edwards gave it a try, later bringing filmmaker Bruce Brown and his camera. But as history tells it, Edwards was among the first to challenge the terrifyingly beautiful wave by which the talent of locals and professionals are judged today.
"I'm sure someone had surfed it at some point," said Gerry Lopez (HAW), who helped set the bar for performance at Pipe. "Pat Curren and Flippy Hoffman used to camp right there and I know they bodysurfed it. But I have spoken to Bruce Brown. He doesn't claim that was the first time it was surfed, but that is the first time it was recorded. Later that day, word got around and a handful of other guys paddled out."
Either way, it has become the most storied break in all of surfing, and it's all about what happens behind those heavy liquid lips.
Lopez first surfed Pipe in the early 1960s and by the late '60s boards were getting shorter, specifically tuned for riding the deeper, more critical part of the wave. While he was winning Pipe Masters events in 1972 and '73, in the heart of the single-fin era, Lopez began shaping boards himself.
"The first was the Coral Cruiser," he said. "That was the prototype of Pipe guns for the '70s. Those boards had the tail of a Waimea [big wave] gun, but the key to making it work really good was the low rail."
Pipeline is one of those spots that can define a surfer and professional career. Some of the best in history -- Shaun Tomson (ZAF), Mark Richards (AUS), Mark Occhilupo (AUS), Tom Carroll (AUS), Kelly Slater (USA), and Andy Irons (HAW) -- are all former winners at Pipe. Today, the boards are even shorter to allow for longer barrels and a certain degree of high-performance surfing. Some CT competitors ride specific quads to get more speed coming through those tubes.
THE WAVE
Surfline Best Conditions
Swell Direction: WNW-NW
Surf Height: A few feet overhead to triple overhead
Wind: Calm, or light South-East
Tide: Medium
The North Shore is known as the Seven-Mile Miracle, packed with more quality surf breaks than anywhere in the world. And winter arrives, the North Pacific starts delivering energy toward that coast, and especially at Pipe.
"It's tilted perfectly to receive the brunt of any northwest swell that happens to swing though the Pacific," said Lopez, "And that reef at Pipe hasn't changed much in all these years. Anything with a slight west angle is going to create more open, hollow, waves. But as long as it's a clean swell, there's going to be waves and it's going to be an exciting contest."
Shallow reefs are surfing's greatest double-edged sword: The more shallow and dangerous the reef, the more hollow the cavern. The one big variable at Pipe is the sand, which can build up on the reef and cause those magic barrels to close out.
"[Sand] determines if it's going to be pretty good, or really good," explained Lopez. "In the summertime, the sand builds up and the beach gets wider, but the first day that Pipe really broke this year looked pretty good from my perspective. I was there in early October and couldn't believe how narrow the beach was."
While Pipeline proper is a left-breaking wave, taking Backdoor -- the right-breaking wave beside it -- has become highly regarded. For the first 15 years of competition, the left was the primary source of scoring potential. The judges and scaffolding were set up on the east end of the beach. They couldn't even see the right. But eventually, the heroics of going right started to rival Pipe.
THE APPROACH
Riding Pipeline may take as much technique as bravado, but watching every riveting ride from the beach or the couch really doesn't. Though nearly every wave ridden at the Pipe Masters features a surfer firing headlong into a throaty tube, the high-range scores are the ones that make it out.
But then there are those where we completely lose a surfer behind that tropical water curtain, write them off, and go on with our lives. And somehow, they come through the darkness flying into the Hawaiian sunshine.
There are six surfers in contention for the 2015 World Title, only one of whom, Julian Wilson (AUS), has ever won the Pipe Masters. Favorites in this event are Gabriel Medina (BRA), who made the Final in 2014 on his way to his first World Title, seven-time Pipe Masters winner and legend Kelly Slater (USA), and of course, John John Florence (HAW), who lives just a few dozen feet away from the break and has won other Pipe events multiple times, but never the elusive Pipe Masters.
Watch the World Title race come to a dramatic finale at the Billabong Pipe Masters LIVE on the World Surf League and WSL App beginning December 8.
Billabong Pipe Masters
Adriano de Souza é campeão mundial e ainda vence Medina na final do Pipe Masters.
Steep drops, heavy sets and throaty tubes are all in a day's work for pro surfers. But it's what you don't see that makes them heroes.
Temporada 2015 da WSL foi encerrada com uma decisão verde-amarela inédita e com Gabriel Medina campeão da Tríplice Coroa Havaiana.
Adriano de Souza takes down the field for the final event of the season and wins his first World Title.
Adriano de Souza addresses the world (in English and Portuguese) moments after winning the 2015 World Title.
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