Beauty And The Beast
Friday - February 03, 2006
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Young gun Mark Healy sizes up a tube at Pipeline
All right, surfers! Welcome to February ...
January has already come and gone, leaving us with plenty memories of epic surf! One of those memories was “Day 1” of the Monster Energy Pipeline Pro held last Saturday. It was up to 10 feet with clean, hollow barrels for the courageous competitors. We can expect yet another BIG swell right as this MidWeek arrives at your house. The contest is likely to go with Day 2 of three so ... if you can make it to Ehukai Beach, you won’t regret it. But try to go early - please - so traffic doesn’t complicate things.
Why Pipeline and its gladiators draw such big crowds isn’t hard to understand. The arena is so close to shore you can feel the energy. Plus, the men who surf this place are death-defiers (don’t check my spelling ‘cause there’s no such word). You sit or stand there wondering how they survive some of those wipeouts! I mean, they literally are swooped up in tons of water and slammed into shallow reef. If you were to take a dive at Pipe on a flat day you’d see what I mean. You’d also see how the waves themselves have shaped the reef over ions of time. I swear, sometimes that wave breaks so hard it cracks the solid volcanic rock. It most certainly breaks bones ... all the time.
Another big reason so many folks go watch this gift from Mother Nature is simply its beauty. How Pipeline got its name is obvious. Whirls and swirls of solid H20 up to 20 feet high look alive!
There are so many facets to the way it tubes - some are razor-edged while some waves are jagged cliffs. Most look like a rotating Pipe. Some waves jack up and up before pitching out 20 feet while other waves “throw” immediately just enough for a tube. Some waves reel so fast down the line surfers can’t keep up and disappear inside never making it out ... while other waves open wide and peel slower allowing for easy exit (my preference, of course). Sometimes the water looks like metal - lead and steel, to be specific. It can feel like it, too! Just ask anyone who’s taken one “on the head.”
The sound of Pipeline is beautiful and awesome as well. When you really listen it has many “voices” - the deep rumble of impending doom or the crack of a whip revealing its speed. The “spit” sound is often softer, but at times can surprise you with its volume. Inside the tube it can actually seem quiet and still! Indeed, there are quiet “refrains” with most swells of water. However, let’s not leave out the nearly constant background noise of the broken white water rolling toward its final end. Ahhhh ... the sound of each separate life of a breaking wave ... it’s like a symphony of musicians each playing his or her own instrument. At times there are solos and pauses, but most often they play together - beautifully! Listen ...
Beauty and the Beast ... that’s all a part of the attraction for our young guns ... they ask her out all the time. She usually always says yes, if you’re willing to go out and get her. The hard part? Knowing what it’s going to cost before she rewards you. That really depends on her mood. One thing for sure, nothing is more beautiful ... nor beastly! Pipeline ... To get some, don’t miss the Monster Energy Pipeline Pro. Log on to SURFNEWSNETWORK.COM or call 596surf or 638-rush or 596-wave. The SNN Team will tell you “on or off” each and every day.
Mahalo to you for being here with me ... stoked! GQ, dropping in 4 U!
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