-
A fourteen day waiting period certainly seemed like ample time to
score enough good waves to finish a two day event. With more prize
money, international competitors, and sanctioning body rating points,
tackling one of the world's heaviest waves.
- Of course Mother Nature can rarely be relied upon. Pipe itself seemed to be hibernating, but the spot formally known as Backdoor was showcasing some fun semi-hollow rights that ended with a dump in the thick grainy sand. It certainly wasn't normal for the North Shore, but it was fun! It was all about riding short boards instead of guns, and actually racing out to catch a set wave instead of racing for the channel.
- Maybe you can see this coming, or maybe you are expecting a happy ending in all this, something along the lines of the last day being blessed with sunshine and rainbows. Nope, not this time. The final day of the two week waiting period looked to be promising at first light with residual albeit chunky sets pounding the shoreline. By the time the heats were underway it was pouring rain, onshore, and very back washy. The long boarders did their best to sneak in a few nose rides. There was even a very impressive 360 landed in the shore break.
- There wasn't enough daylight to wait out the lifeguard mandated two hour break following a shark sighting and had to split the prize money equally.
- It was all a bit too silly to take and yet oh so familiarly typical. We had prepared ourselves to surf Pipe. We did our laps in the soft sand, brought our big boards, watched every surf DVD's Hawaiian section, imagined the massive tubes and dreaded the inevitable wipeouts. Of course, it isn't every contest that we get chased in by sharks. All of that together made it just too funny.
- Of course Mother Nature can rarely be relied upon. Pipe itself seemed to be hibernating, but the spot formally known as Backdoor was showcasing some fun semi-hollow rights that ended with a dump in the thick grainy sand. It certainly wasn't normal for the North Shore, but it was fun! It was all about riding short boards instead of guns, and actually racing out to catch a set wave instead of racing for the channel.
(Wednesday; November 5, 2003)
The imagery has definitely been playing in my head
with the steadily decreasing number of days before I will get to
compete at Pipeline. PIPE! A part of me jumps up and down, doing a
little jig, excitedly anticipating the chance to actually surf Pipe.
Sure, I've been out there before. I've sat in the capacity exceeded
lineup without getting a wave. I even caught a few once, many years
ago in the springtime when it was calm and friendly, hence, not
really Pipe. I've spent many a six hour day glued to the sand during
the Pipe Masters absolutely transfixed on the heroics performed just
yards away from my safe vantage point. But when people ask, and they
ask often, "ever surfed Pipe?" I have to honestly say, "well, not
really." The countdown ends in a change to that response. And there
the other part of me, the one that values life and limb, the part of
me robs me of my energy. Pipe? Yikes!!
