Gonna have to keep on paddling. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
Pipeline has been flexing her muscles in recent weeks, and Jamie O’Brien loves nothing more.
He’s got a decent setup, with a house that looks directly at his favorite wave on Earth, so when things start to pick up he can be off the porch and in the water in just a few minutes. Knowing how fast conditions can change on the North Shore, that works in his favor when it comes to being in the right place at the right time. That and the fact that he’s dedicated his life to surfing Pipe and knows it about as well as one can know any wave.
He’s surfed it in all its many moods, from very small to very big, and this particular session leans towards the latter description. Big enough for O’Brien to pull out his 6’8″.
“About to paddle out,” he said in the video below. “The waves are pumping!”
Pumping was an understatement. Third reef was featuring on the horizon and the waves were, according to Jamie, in the XXL range. That means two things: huge barrels and huge wipeouts, both of which were had in spades.
