Your Excuse For Avoiding Pipe Is Backed By Numbers

But now would be a good time to go, did you see that late season swell? Banzai doth boil in late March. 

Everyone knows Pipeline gets crowded, very few have taken the time to do an actual headcount. Town & Country Surfboards, the brand started by Craig Sugihara 50+ years ago in a barber shop, recently flew a drone over the Pipe lineup on a fine winter’s day and counted the heads. 

97 is the figure they arrive at between surfers and boogs. 106 if you include water photogs. 

Pretty incredible when you think about crowd density, ‘tis just a patch or three where they gather. If all 106 people each spread both arms out one meter, you would have a konga line of Pipe diehards equalling 212 meters in length. 

If that’s not enough to skewer your hopes of getting a wallhanger, just remember, the paddle back out is less than 50 metres and most of the crew getting waves are paddling straight back to your inside. Fuck your 8 hours of diplomatic bobbing. It’s a sunk cost. Haleiwa is probably cooking with five guys out.

There’s more to the 8-mile miracle than its centerpiece.