Barrels at the Bonzai Pipeline, North Shore, Oahu

Going left at Pipeline

  Big waves, but not big enough. That was the word today from Volcom and the other planners of the Volcom Pipe Pro. It was decided to not run the contest but since I was headed that way anyway I took my camera out for a spin.

Getting spit out of the barrel

  Even though the swell was diminishing there were still some monster sets rolling through. And for the first time I got to see some true barrels here. There was a large contingency of surfers sitting at the peak of pipe, but quite a few off the peak scoring rights and lefts off of different sandbars.

High flying at pipe

Backdoor Barrel

   A few pro photographers were camped out under umbrellas enjoying the show. The rain held to a drizzle long enough for me to work my way down the beach taking photos. It was tough to capture much color because of the stormy conditions but luckily the massive waves would break and aerate themselves with tiny bubbles creating a pale blue shade in the next wave.

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 In this last series of pictures one surfer gets deep in a stand up barrel before casually surfing out clean.

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