The 2023 Vans Pipe Masters is on. The invitational event features 60 surfers who have three rounds to post their top three highest scoring rides at Pipeline on Oahu’s North Shore. The top four male and top four female surfers with the highest total scores will advance to the finals, where they will duke it out for a cut of the $420,000 prize purse.
The lineup is unsurprisingly stacked and among those competitors is YouTuber and Pipeline vet Jamie O’Brien. True to form, he vlogged the whole thing. In his latest post, JOB gives us a rare POV view of what it’s actually like to surf in the Pipe Masters.
The video starts in his garage, a mere 20 minutes before he’s scheduled to compete in a heat. From there we see the process from top to bottom, complete with asides to camera from Jamie and some cross-talk between him and the other competitors.
“It’s a nuts one,” said O’Brien when he finally did get out in the lineup. “Hopefully gonna get a couple of crazy ones. It’s all we can hope for. The talent’s out here. There’s waves. All we can do is kind of hope the mental one comes and we’re going to get so barreled.”
