Jamie O’Brien has wiped out a lot at Pipeline. More, probably, than most people. That’s because he surfs there whenever it’s on — even if “on” isn’t necessarily perfect Pipeline. If it’s breaking, he’ll give it a shot. He’s famous for being strangely fearless out there, and he’s paid the price with broken bones. He’ll paddle in deeper and on a much less manageable surfboard and pull into whatever the wave throws at him.
Since he’s Pipe royalty, Jamie generally can assume he’s got some form of right-of-way, but there’s more than one Pipe royal. Mikey Bruneau can count himself as another surfer at Pipe who has logged more hours than most, and sometimes, two royals will try and party wave (intentionally or not, we don’t know) on a Pipeline bomb. And sometimes, despite all the experience in the world, it ends… poorly. So poorly that Jamie called it his “worst wipeout at Pipeline.” Feel free to skip ahead to 13:35 if the wipeout is all you came to see.
