There’s No Such Thing As An Unremarkable Hawaiian Winter

Last winter, Hawaii pumped for weeks, and weeks, and weeks. Kelly Slater won the Billabong Pro Pipeline in gripping fashion, and the North Pacific didn’t stutter until late April.

This year, it didn’t exactly do that.

Both this years’ Vans Pipe Masters and Pipe CT reaped the difficulties of strange sand and inconsequential swell. Much crying was done, and it was all free.

And yet, even in an off-kilter season for the North Pacific, we still saw an unknown lifeguard win the first Eddie contest in almost a decade, one of the best Jaws paddle swells ever, and a new generation of hell-women cut their teeth at da Pipeline.

Above, the O’Neill team provides their trove of evidence that every Hawaiian winter has a nearly infinite span of incredible moments.

Click for this winter’s digital diary — featuring Jordy Smith, Eli Olson, Torrey Meister, Ian Crane, Caity Simmers and all the rest.