The Pick Up: Haleiwa Is Hawaii’s Sneaky Performance Venue

Welcome back to the Pick Up a Vans x Stab Joint!

When you think of the Triple Crown and the surfing it facilitates, what comes to mind? Probably barrels, snaps, and cutbacks — the same shit guys were doing in the ’80s, right? Well, what if I told you one of the Triple Crown stops was actually a high-performance mecca? 

Over the past decade, Haleiwa has been the stage for three of surfing’s most notable maneuvers (Dane’s turn, John’s ‘oop, and Griffin’s Hail Mary rotation) and one of its most high performance heats (Julian vs. Dusty in 2014). Sometime around 2010, surfers’ perception of Haleiwa changed from another cutback-and-lip-tapping canvas into a world-class wedge, best used for massive airs and full-fledged lip ventilation. To the world’s best, Haleiwa has become a bigger, heavier version of the Lowers right. 

And while many surf fans appreciate this fact, not everyone is sold on the legitimacy of new-age surfing — at least on Hawaiian turf. Sunny Garcia, six-time Triple Crown Champion and noted “power surfer”, believes airs have no place on the North Shore. To Sunny, Hawaii’s powerful walls are meant to be cut in half, not leapt over like some sort of hurdle. That’s a fair opinion, but it doesn’t negate the fact that a six-foot air is really fucking rad. Nor the fact that a three-foot air won the event in 2017. 

So, on which side of the divide do you fall?

Footage courtesy of the WSL and Manulule Inc.