No swimming? No problem. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
November 13 at Pipeline was a day that will be remembered for quite a while. Not forever — Pipeline tends to be a place with swells that seem memorable until the next, bigger, and better one hits — but it’s a guarantee there are at least a few surfers who are still reliving the glory.
“The first near-warning level advisory of the season has filled in on the North and West shores of O’ahu triggering a flock of spectators at Banzai Pipeline,” wrote Oahu Surf Films on YouTube, regarding the video below. “Visitors sat in awe at the size of the waves rolling in with some getting a little too close for comfort.”
Oahu Surf Films is almost always on the sand when a swell hits Pipeline. This time, they didn’t mail it in, either.
“We set up the camera for an entire eight hours to document the day,” they continued. “The swell came in at five feet, 15 seconds out of the northwest at 315 degrees and later topped out at seven feet, 15 seconds out of the northwest at 324 degrees.”
It probably wasn’t the easiest thing to edit eight hours of footage down into a little more than 13 minutes, and it’s a good bet there was a pile of incredible footage left on the cutting room floor. But the 13 minutes you see here is entertaining, to say the least.
“Sit back, turn up the volume,” Oahu Surf Films said, “and immerse yourself in eight hours of surf at one of the world’s heaviest surf breaks.”
