Jamie O’Brien is lucky enough to call the North Shore home. He’s lucky enough to have grown up there, surfing the waves unfolding atop its fabled reefs. And that luck, paired with a pile of skill, has turned him into one of the best Pipe surfers on the planet. He’s one of the few who is both talented enough, and high enough on the totem pole, to paddle out on a pink soft-top and have no one bat an eye. He does, of course, catch the wave of the day most of the time on that pink soft top, so it makes sense, I suppose.
Surfing Pipe day in and day out, when the waves are huge and perfect or small and not-so-perfect, must be nice. But it also must make it particularly frustrating at two different times: one, when the lineup is packed. And two, when a contest is on and Jamie’s not in it. The first because no one likes a crowd. The second because Jamie loves surfing Pipeline.
A while back, just before an event, Jamie decided to paddle out and get amongst it. Amongst those crowds and those waves, both of which were formidable. Speaking of events, the Pipe Pro is on. Watch that here.
