Photo: Koa Smith // YouTube
By all accounts, Pipeline has been in the midst of a crazy swell event. Some forecasts predicted as much as a week of firing Pipe, and the best of the best have been out there to take full advantage. Surfing’s most popular vloggers have all weighed in about the run of swell, from Jamie O’Brien logging a near-death experience to the Florence brothers displaying a little sibling rivalry in the lineup. Now, Koa Smith is the latest to throw his hat in the ring.
Unlike his YouTuber brethren, Koa didn’t seem to have any crazy mishaps during the swell bender. His experience in the lineup was just a whole lot of fantastic surfing in incredible conditions. The whole thing was documented in a recent YouTube post that included a rip-roaring surf edit, along with a few sweeping drone shots to sweeten the pot.
Just before he headed out, Smith explained how prolonged swell events like this one are especially beneficial for producing highlight reel-worthy footage.
“This is the beginning of a long pipeline surf bender,” he explained. “Sometimes at the beginning of winter, you haven’t really gotten your waves yet, and when you do stand up on a good wave, you’re pretty careful and you just want to make it. But when we get runs of really good waves, and we get our reps up, then we don’t really need to make the waves, so we’re kind of like relaxed and do a little bit more risky type of surfing.”
