Watch: A Few Waves From Wednesday Evening At Pipe

On Wednesday evening at Pipeline, while the sun set and the earth cooled, conditions greeted the incoming swell like an old friend – no time lost, no break in conversation.

From the lawn of the Weedmaps house, we watched as the ocean pulsed and 100 bobbing heads took to the lineup. On the inside, 30 photographers and filmers tried to out position each other, hoping for the shot. The next day we got this edit featuring Koa and Makua Rothman, Lucas Godfrey, and Jamie O. 

That afternoon, I watched, drank a few beers with no intentions of joining the crowded mayhem at Pipe and Backdoor. Off the Wall looked slightly more manageable. I finished a beverage, grabbed a 6’8 and paddled out.

Floating over waves, I could see Pipe doing its “it” thing, battles for waves, shouts and cries for increasingly large tubes reverberated through the lineup with the energy of a Roman Colosseum. The boys were hungry for blood. 

I found two waves before dark at Off the Wall, and rolled in. Returning to the house, Nathan Fletcher greeted me with a handshake.

“Where’d you surf?” he asked.

“Ah, just dodged tubes and got beat up at Off the Wall.”

“Right on,” he said. “Most those magazine guys don’t surf when it's like this. They sit and talk shit behind their computer. Good to know you’ll take beatings with the rest of us.”

“I try,” I shyly smiled, feeling proud. 

Probably best he didn’t see any of my waves…