7’6 Versus 6’2: What’s The Call For 10-Foot Pipeline?

In 2008 Kelly Slater won the Pipeline Masters on an experimental 5’11. 

Soon after, surfers like Jamie O’Brien and John Florence began shaving inches off their Pipe boards, taking off deeper and under the lip on shorter and shorter boards — sliding, rather than gliding, into the pit. 

In the years since, surfboards have continued to shrink at big Pipeline. Now it’s to the point where Barron Mamiya is riding a beefed-up version of his performance shortboard, no matter how big and heavy it gets. At the Da Hui Backdoor Shootout last week, Mamiya was riding a 6’2 — an unimaginable choice for Pipe in the past. 

So is smaller, better? That seemed to be the rhetoric — and the way things were moving — for a while.

However, on the same “Snapt 4” team as Barron, Mason Ho was riding a classic 7’6, and he won the whole damn comp. 

Wanting to hear about the thought process behind such opposite surfboard theories, we gave them a call (separately) to get their thoughts. 

Mason is 5’8 and weighs 147 lbs. He was on a 7’6 x 19” x 2 3/4 39.5L  by …Lost
Barron is 5’11 and weighs 180 pounds. He was on a 6’2 x 19” x 2 3/8” 29.7L #77 by Sharp Eye

Mason, what’s your theory behind riding a big board at big Pipe?
Mason: It’s a theory of my Dad’s, really. He got his first …Lost quiver when I was like 14. He got 10 boards from Matt. And he had all of these pintails and swallowtails. I remember riding them as a grom, but then going back to riding my 6’6 at Pipe because that’s what my generation was doing. My Dad would always try to get me on his 7’10” baby swallow and I’d be like, “Yeah, right. I ain’t gonna go ride a longboard, all my boys are on shortboards.” But then, gradually, I started riding my Dad’s big boards when I was feeling lazy, and I’d always somehow get the best wave of my season on his big boards. I just kinda realized they work for me. So I started ordering two big boards every year from Matt, and tweaking them each season. 

Barron, what’s your theory behind riding a small board at big Pipe?
Barron: I’ve never ridden anything bigger than a 6’4, matter how big it gets. The way I like to surf Pipe, a smaller board works better for me. I like to have a nice shortboard feel when I’m on the wave, just so I can maneuver the board easier and pump in the barrel. Not to say you can’t do that on a big board, but it’s a little harder because the board is so much longer. I just like a super sensitive board.

I also like to sit inside and deep and take off under the wave, versus chipping in and rolling in and going into the barrel that way. It’s just different approaches, and different styles of surfing. Mason likes to ride a bigger board — which is sick, because he can chip in and set his line and do what he wants to do. Whereas John likes to ride a shorter board and airdrop and pull straight in. And that’s just been the approach I like the most. 

Mason, how different is your approach at Pipe on a 7’6, versus something shorter?
Mason: Every year in the Shootout, my goal is to get the biggest Pipe wave of my life. I want the 10- to 12-footers. So I wanted to ride my 7’6 no matter what. This year, on the first morning, I decided to wax up the baby swallow because it felt like it had a little less foam and a little less rocker than my pin. It felt a little more shooter-like, and before I even rode it I knew it might be the best board of my life.

In your Dad and Uncle’s generation, nobody rode boards under seven feet at big Pipe. Do you think your peers could benefit from going longer? 
Mason: It really just depends. To be honest, I never wanted to tell any of them because I’m always competing against them [laughs], but I don’t even want to imagine what Barron or John John would do on a 7’6. I don’t know, they could go back 30 more yards and take the same approach. There are these waves at Pipe — big 12-footers that somehow hold on the reef — where you can always be deeper and further out. You ever seen waves where the guy has the craziest drop ever, but they just get spit on? There are waves out there that nobody has gotten yet. Gerry [Lopez] and all of those guys would have gotten them if they had today’s technology and equipment. My Dad and I call it the Gorilla Bowl. It’s the wave nobody catches. 

In my eyes, when I eventually catch that wave, I’m doing what they’re doing on a 6’2, but on an 8’0. Because that’s the board you need for that wave. Some of those waves have been caught, but only pocket-rode. The same under-the-lip technique that Jamie [O’Brien] and John are using on 8-footers, I want to do that on a 30-foot Pipe face [laughs]. Kalani Chapman has caught one of those, and there are a few other guys, but if you talk to all the gnarly old-school guys, they all say 7’6 to 8’0 is the number for big Pipe, so I feel like I’m passing on this sick history lesson if I do it right. 

Barron, was there a wave during the Shootout where you wished you were on a bigger board?
Barron: No, not really. There were times where I was pretty deep and maybe a bigger board would have helped. But to me surfing Pipe is about positioning. I’m most comfortable under the ledge, but other people are more comfortable on big boards out the back. I’m sure if I rode a bigger board for the next year at Pipe, I’d be comfortable doing it that way. I’m sure at some point in my life of surfing Pipe I’ll get interested in that. But for now, I’m not gonna do that. I’m pretty young still, and I want to push surfing at Pipeline and how gnarly you can get out there on a small board. The way John surfs Pipe — and Jamie [O’Brien] — I like to surf it like them. I want to take off no-hands on a gnarly wave and pump straight into the barrel. Stuff like that. Not to say that what Mason is doing isn’t crazy, because it is, but for now I’m more interested in taking my approach.

Mason, was there a wave during the Shootout where you wished you were on a smaller board?
Mason: No, and I’ve never thought that. Even on a 6-footer. On a big board you can easily go under the lip and grab your rail and ride it like a 6’1. The thing is John and all these guys want the same wave as me. John wants the biggest fucking Pipe wave that will kill the world, and he’s just gonna go on his 6’2 when it comes [laughs]. But the thing is, if he had an 8’0 and practiced his attack on it, it’s the same science. It’s just taking off outside and deeper. But it’s just a different approach. There’s not a right or a wrong way to do it. I will say: It definitely feels more badass on the small boards. That’s why sometimes I paddle out on the mini-boards just to switch up my approach and prove to myself that I can still do it. But for me, with the bigger board, I can go sit in a different part of the lineup and zone out and just wait for the wave of my life. It helps me paddle out on a big day and think about words like easy and fun, rather than survival and gnarly [laughs].