Last week the Hawaiian Islands enjoyed a plentiful run of XL North Pacific swell to prime the pump for the 2021 Championship Tour season.
CT surfers on Oahu and Maui got their pick of the litter at Pipe and Honolua Bay, and big wavers stacked clips at Waimea and Jaws. Here on the North Shore of Oahu, the buzz is that it was the biggest swell of the season so far.
When the waves cooled down, the sand shifted around the reefs, and perfect peaks popped up throughout the Seven Mile Miracle. With a lot of North in the swell, the hot spot on Saturday was Backdoor and Off The Wall, where we saw John John Florence, Jack Robinson and Italo Ferreira bag the waves of the day.
Preview how the world's best are looking on the North Shore just before the start of the 50th Billabong Pipe Masters presented by HydroFlask.
"Off The Wall was bloody insane last night. Hardly anybody out all the way to Insanities. It was pumping and I surfed all the way to pitch black. Everyone went in and it was still pumping," said 2021 Championship Tour Rookie Morgan Cibilic.
Earlier in the week, Pipe and most of the spots on the North Shore were completely maxed out for two days, so 2019 World Champion Italo Ferriera pulled out the gun and charged Waimea, paying homage to rich history of Hawaiian big wave surfing. As we know from his tow in session at Nazaré earlier in the year, Ferriera is no stranger to charging massive waves of consequnce.
Then on the 3rd, when Pipe began lining up again, the 2018 World Champion and last year's runner up Gabriel Medina snagged this mental bomb and submitted his 2020 Wave Of The Winter entry.
As we set our sights on the start of the 50th Billabong Pipe Masters presented by HydroFlask, we're tracking another Northwest on the horizon, and it's looking like we'll run the Trials right away on December 8th. Surfline is saying it will be "Good to Epic" and surfers are looking forward to taking out the bigger boards in their Hawaii quivers.
"I feel really good, I'm doing everything I'm supposed to do and the waves are supposed to be really good so its gonna be a good event. If it's maxing I'll probably ride a 6'9 but I've been really liking my 6'6," Griffin Colapinto told us.
Stay tuned for the start of the 50th Billabong Pipe Masters presented by Hydro Flask on December 8th -- and click here to lock in your Fantasy lineup.
What's Been Going Down On The North Shore Before The Billabong Pipe Masters?
Bryan Benattou
Last week the Hawaiian Islands enjoyed a plentiful run of XL North Pacific swell to prime the pump for the 2021 Championship Tour season.
CT surfers on Oahu and Maui got their pick of the litter at Pipe and Honolua Bay, and big wavers stacked clips at Waimea and Jaws. Here on the North Shore of Oahu, the buzz is that it was the biggest swell of the season so far.
When the waves cooled down, the sand shifted around the reefs, and perfect peaks popped up throughout the Seven Mile Miracle. With a lot of North in the swell, the hot spot on Saturday was Backdoor and Off The Wall, where we saw John John Florence, Jack Robinson and Italo Ferreira bag the waves of the day.
"Off The Wall was bloody insane last night. Hardly anybody out all the way to Insanities. It was pumping and I surfed all the way to pitch black. Everyone went in and it was still pumping," said 2021 Championship Tour Rookie Morgan Cibilic.
Earlier in the week, Pipe and most of the spots on the North Shore were completely maxed out for two days, so 2019 World Champion Italo Ferriera pulled out the gun and charged Waimea, paying homage to rich history of Hawaiian big wave surfing. As we know from his tow in session at Nazaré earlier in the year, Ferriera is no stranger to charging massive waves of consequnce.
Then on the 3rd, when Pipe began lining up again, the 2018 World Champion and last year's runner up Gabriel Medina snagged this mental bomb and submitted his 2020 Wave Of The Winter entry.
As we set our sights on the start of the 50th Billabong Pipe Masters presented by HydroFlask, we're tracking another Northwest on the horizon, and it's looking like we'll run the Trials right away on December 8th. Surfline is saying it will be "Good to Epic" and surfers are looking forward to taking out the bigger boards in their Hawaii quivers.
"I feel really good, I'm doing everything I'm supposed to do and the waves are supposed to be really good so its gonna be a good event. If it's maxing I'll probably ride a 6'9 but I've been really liking my 6'6," Griffin Colapinto told us.
Stay tuned for the start of the 50th Billabong Pipe Masters presented by Hydro Flask on December 8th -- and click here to lock in your Fantasy lineup.
Morgan Cibilic
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Billabong Pipe Masters presented by Hydro Flask
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Florence was widely considered the best Pipe surfer of his generation-long before he managed to win a Championship Tour event there.
A monumental breakthrough victory for John John Florence at his home break for the 50th Anniversary of the Billabong Pipe Masters.
Australian surfers who had been scoring waves on the North Shore have been arriving home to begin two weeks in quarantine.
The World Champ's new edit shows him preparing to surf in the Billabong Pipe Masters presented by Hydro Flask.