Swell Saturdays: Kelly Slater Surfing the Hawaiian Pipeline in Super-Slow Motion

Pipeline, North Shore Oahu, Hawaii, December 2012.

{Every Saturday, we’re going to attempt to inspire you to get out and surf with a sharp Surf video that will speak to your heart.  SwellBrains.com is coming soon…}

Each Saturday, we’ll bring you a surfing video that won’t disappoint.

The North Shore of Oahu is skiing’s equivalent of the Chugach Range in Alaska.  It’s the holy grail, the cat’s meow, the Pope’s living room, enter prefered cliché here.  But saying all this is actually distorting reality.  Alaska is actually the surfing’s North Shore of Oahu.  The North Shore of Oahu has been surfed since the 50s whereas the Chugach was really skied until the 90s.

Skiing has a lot to thank surfing for:  lifestyle, lingo, the search for the ultimate ride, living off the land, excessive partying, living outside the realm of normal society, and most importantly: living and skiing in a time when it was actually cheap to live and ski in mountain towns.  Surf bumming had a head start on ski bumming with it’s heyday being in the 50s and 60s and ski bumming having it’s heyday in the 70s.

There are very few places in skiing that would be as unnerving and intimidating as dropping into Pipeline.  Good thing we found Alaska’s Chugach.

It’s surreal to watch these guys match up to this wave, make the drop in and stand up comfortably with a 1,681lbs/cubic yard lip over their heads before the whole thing collapses and gives them a glorious full body fire hosing as they get spat out and feel the sunshine once more. 

Video by Nick Pollet:

Some stuff i shot in Hawaii at the end of last year.
Shot on: Sony FS700
Surfers in order of appearance: Kelly Slater, John John Florence, Julian Wilson, Laurie Towner, Joel Parkinson, Jack Freestone, Garret Pakes, Koa Smith, Mick Fanning, Tom Curren and Gabriel Madina.