Photo: WSL / Tony Heff
Gerry Lopez getting spat out of a perfect tube, followed by a plume of spray. Michael Thompson taking off way too deep and showing off the biggest pair of balls imaginable. Kelly cruising into backdoor perfection. AI knifing into deep caverns, fueled by rage and fury. The High-Five. The Snap. These are the images that come to mind when one thinks of the Pipe Masters. It’s arguably the most famous surf break in the world, and has been since guys started taming it on the Lightning Bolt boards in the ‘70s.
The contest window of the 2016 Pipeline Masters certainly hasn’t resembled the Pipe we’ve come to know, love and fear. The best in the world kicked off the event earlier this week in conditions that more closely resembled a contest at Trestles. In fact, the very headline on this site when the trials kicked off said it clearly: Pipeline Invitational Called On; Waves Kinda Suck.
The swell forecast for the rest of the event window doesn’t look promising. Sure, there’s still time, but something still doesn’t feel quite right when Pipe Masters heats are being decided by turns in lieu of barrels. This isn’t the first time it’s happened though. When Taj Burrow won in 2009, Pipe looked like an average Southern California break. In the moment it felt like the conditions had diminished the victory, but Taj has one of the most coveted trophies in surfing and forever has his name etched on an elite list. Still, I remember feeling somewhat outraged last year when the judges rewarded turns and airs when the conditions had stopped offering barrels.
Those were finals days, so one can’t get too riled up about the first round of the competition being held in such conditions (especially without an encouraging forecast on the horizon). Randy Rarick once reminded us surfing is different from other sports because the playing field is never the same. The dimensions of a tennis court never change, and nobody ever walks to one just to stare at it in the same way we look at the ocean. So here we are, ultimately at the mercy of Mother Nature. There are still plenty of heats on the way, and hopefully we’ll see them decided in more traditional Pipe. It doesn’t have to be huge, but hollow would be nice.
