One of the craziest things about surfing on the North Shore is how fast a swell can fill in. You can be bobbing around on a fun, head-high day at Rocky Point, paddling into waves that don’t scare the shit out of you, and within a few minutes, you look down the beach at Pipe and realize that it is positively bombing. All of a sudden — if you’re of the average variety of surfer, which, as the term “average” implies, is most of us — things get hairy. And there’s nowhere else on the North Shore that focusses all that quick energy like Pipeline. Little to BIG in a heartbeat. Fun to terrifying in the blink of an eye.
Off Da Lip, a North Shore-centric YouTube channel that you should definitely be liking and subscribing to, filmed at Pipeline the same day that the Hurley Pro Sunset event was called on. It wasn’t the easiest day to surf, but for those who managed to snag one, it was unforgettable. Watch in real time as a huge northwest swell filled in. And while you’re watching, imagine sitting out the back as the horizon turns black. Nervous?