The anticipation of the opening swell had everyone frantic, especially since the HIC Pro was going to be on. I went to the contest on the second day to watch Jamie O’Brien kill his heat. After his heat, we went back to Pipe to score the uprising swell. Jamie paddled out on his bodyboard to play around on the end bowl, and, unfortunately, he sprained his ankle. Since Jamie was out, I used that time to catch up on some computer work. However, that didn’t last too long, as the swell started to fill in.
I could hear people screaming and whistling from the beach so I knew that guys were getting some insane barrels out at Pipe. I grabbed my camera bag and headed out the door with my bike to try and find a unique angle that no one else shoots. I was able to find a nice zone down the road, which looked almost directly into the barrel at Pipe. I scored a few shots from there, including one of Ezra Sitt on a beautiful Pipeline bomb. Later that afternoon I decided to try and shoot something different, so I shot some slow shutter land shots and got lucky with a couple. The next day was smaller but a lot cleaner and more manageable. Jason Frederico caught a bunch of waves and put on a show as always. Towards the afternoon the waves started to slowly diminish and the winds weren’t that great. That night was Halloween and I’m assuming a lot of people went out to celebrate because the next morning Backdoor was still six feet and uncrowded. A couple of friends and I swam out before the wind picked up and I was lucky to score some beautiful Backdoor waves. Here’s a small selection from the first real swell of the winter.
See more of Jake’s photography by visiting his website or following him on Instagram.
