Tuesday, 22 January 2013

21st Jan. Pipe Tidies Up...Kelly Turns Up, and The Boys Are All Over It.

The winds have swung around and everything has come together. It's "game on".

After waiting the last couple of days and watching that monster swell being screwed over by the bad, bad, bad winds (which was like a form of torture for me by the way) it's all lining up very nicely today. The pack are out there tearing it up, and amongst them was the ever reliable KS, and yes......he did get the wave of the day as far as I'm concerned.
I shot so much data (photo and video) that it is going to take me forever to go through and dig out the best bits, but straight off the top I dived in and found a couple of reasonable shots to throw up here.
There where stacks of excellent rides by all the crew and it was an outstanding day all round. 

I will keep adding to these posts over time as I go through the files in down time, so keep checking back in here for new entries.
                                                        Above......Slater in full flight.

                            That hound looks like he's about to make a meal out of that guy's stick.

                                                               Pretty well perfect pipe

                  Above two shots... A very nice Backdoor pipe wall with Matt Bromley inside it.

Agony and Ecstacy.
                                                  

Sunday, 20 January 2013

The North Shore Cops A Flogging...20th Jan.

The Islands are still very much in the grip of the big swell that hit a few days ago. It's holding steady with all reefs including the outer reefs going off. Pipe and all places (except Waimea Bay occasionally) are basically unrideable. There are a few die hards that are having a crack at Waimea but it ain't pretty out there I can tell you. As I was hoping a few days ago, the winds are slowly swinging around and maybe tomorrow (Monday) we will start seeing some cleaning up of everything with some offshore breezes and the camera will get a run again. At least by Tuesday I should be back into it seriously with any luck.
Dave Wasell and others have been called over to California for the Mavericks comp a couple of days ago, so this swell is eating up the entire Northern Pacific at the moment, I just hope it stays around and all indications are that it's not going to drop under about 10 feet for at least the next week, which is absolute perfect Pipe size so stay posted and see what happens.

I have just been down the beach for a while again and witnessed yet again another pack of unwitting tourists get nailed by a big clean up sneaker set. They were just laying around sunning themselves and up it came, cleaning up all in it's unrelenting and unstoppable path......then all the squeeling and sobbing starts.....wet and shell shocked bodies looking around themselves wondering what the hell just hit them and all the belongings floating back down the beach on the way out to the Pipe reef.
 Just standing there looking up the beach towards Sunset, I could see all the shiny glistening things like cell phones, cameras, wallets and purses etc, towels, clothes, and whatever else going back out with the set. It's funny and sad at the same time seeing this happen time and time again here, but it is quite an amazing thing to witness. Mother nature at work in a very spectacular way  You know what they say...."never turn your back on the ocean"
Above.....You wouldn't even want to guess what's going on here, you also wouldn't be able to get a word in sideways is my guess! What's the one on the right doing.....she's not even facing anyone, just talking to her hand . This one is from a couple of days ago. You can click on any of the photos in this blog to enlarge.

Balaram Stack dropping down the face in a sequence of a nice Pipe run into the beach with a bit of scraping the ceiling on the way, this was taken on one of the crossed up days in the early part of this swell.


Friday, 18 January 2013

The Pacific North West Ignites.......



That was the heading for the surf report a day or two ago.

 Well they were right, but now all we do is wait for the bad/no winds to come good and clean everything up at Pipe. This swell will top out this afternoon with 40 foot faces so that should be interesting. My guess is that it will be way more  "user friendly" in the next few days when this monster calms down a bit. Maybe Waimea Bay this arvo...... Pics from the last few days are coming. This mornings report below.

Regional Summary: Extra large WNW swell is washing out the north shore this morning with wonky conditions due to the N/NW wind flow. Most spots are completely unrideable today with huge waves in the 3-4 times overhead range with even larger rogue sets. Watch for an increase in surf heights throughout the day with potential 40 foot wave faces when this swell peaks later this afternoon. Waimea Bay and outer reef tow-in potential should be at its best this morning....use caution as this is for experts only! If headed to the north shore watch for major traffic jam!! Light winds will make clean offshore morning conditions and potential onshore sea breeze during the afternoon. How long will this swell last? Check our extended forecast for all the details.

This shot above is from my first day. Some lucky punter hooking into the base of a nice solid Backdoor Pipe bomb.


A pretty good power hook of the top of another nice one of the first days offerings.

           Another nice bottom turn, this time lining up for a Pipe wall and a crack at the prized barrell.
One very happy guy in the absolute right right place, and looking pretty relaxed about it all.
A bit of speed in the pit,,,about to go inside for a nice little cover up.

Huh.....!

"If In Doubt...Don't Go Out. You might get swept away and drown".... sort of stating the obvious when you're looking at a place like the North Shore.

"The Upgrade" A brand new ragtop "Stanger" with about 2,173 miles only on the clock. I went to pick up my rental which by the way I had booked from Australia as the cheapest economy small car I could get....a Chevy Aveo or something similar. I pull out my booking voucher at the airport and the dude looks at it and says...."Mr Stewart, it looks like you're a regular renter of our vehicles so we would like to upgrade you today to a convertible Mustang, would that be ok with you sir" What was I supposed to say !

 Anyway, for one of the shagged out wave days we had in the next few days I pulled the lid down and went cruising the island. Pulled over up near Velzyland somewhere and tooked this shot. 
My mate Luke is stiring me up calling me "mister upgrade" now as I also got an upgrade to business class on the plane trip on the way over here and also going back. My first upgrade ever and I get two of them back to back on the same trip. Nice.....It actually made all the hard work through the year seem worthwhile.


Tuesday, 15 January 2013

On The Way To Day One.

"Waiting For Big Wednesday"......Well, as it turns out I probably won't be waiting that long at all. Below are the various days surf reports starting from Wednesday, the day I get there. I should be on the ground in HON at around 6am and over the island and on the beach at Pipe at around 10 or10.30am, well that's if the Kam Hwy hasn't turned into a car park by the time I get over there as it quite often does when swells this size are running....every man and his dog comes over for a sticky when it hits these sizes.
If it all pans out like it seems to be going I could have some of my best images and video footage on the first day, (and here I've got a solid week of 20' plus) as soon as I land.....now that's a big bonus.  Click on the "Visit Pipeline" tag below for a 30 second look at the beach cams there.

Remember......the time over there....(4 hours ahead, but yesterday)

Cameras ready, batteries charged, cards cleared and hard drive is waiting for a data overload.

Stay posted and we'll see what happens. !

The following break has met, or is expected to meet, your Surf Alert® requirements:
LOCATION: Pipeline

Conditions:
Date: Wednesday Jan 16: 01:00 AM
Surf: 19 - 28ft 


Conditions:
Date: Thursday Jan 17: 01:00 AM
Surf: 12 - 15ft

Conditions:
Date: Friday Jan 18: 01:00 AM
Surf: 20 - 28ft 


Conditions:
Date: Saturday Jan 19: 01:00 AM
Surf: 26 - 38ft 


Conditions:
Date: Sunday Jan 20: 01:00 AM
Surf: 24 - 34ft 


Trigger:
Surf Height: Greater Than 8 ft.
Lookahead: 120 hrs

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