Surfer mag.com has a video of tudor and some other longboarders riding at pipe. joels riding that board that was the subject of discussion a while ago on this message board.
The local TV station in Hawaii has footage of the Hansens Energy Longboard Expression Session at Pipe. It was anything but foo foo surfing, Lance Ho’okano taking off soooo deep on dredgers and pulling in deep. It was for men only!
Just a personal opinion but I think Pipe would be increadibly easy to ride on a modern longboard.
yeah id say it would be. they take off way before the shortboarders, get an easy drop and set up for the barell. i just wouldnt want to get caught inside with a hulking big 9ft block of foam and a 10ft set wave about to break on my head.
My thoughts exactly Eddie. I always thought that the drop and bottom turn was the whole deal at Pipe. A modern longboard with the newer rockers. Seems like it would make Gerry’s spot even more of a cake walk.
I’ve mentioned this in the past, but just figured I throw it out there, once again… there was ( and probably STILL IS) a HUGE “portagee”/Hawaiiian named leonard who (before the longboard renaissance) consistantly rode big pipe on an old school, single fin (the FAT kine) board. That was in the seventies/eighties, and I’m sure that some of you know exactly who I’m talking about. HE was heavy, the boards were heavy…yet the guy whipped that thing around like nothing!
More of a cake walk? Have you been out at Pipe on a day with any size? Of all the waves I’ve ever been on, Pipe was the LEAST like a cake walk that I can think of… just because some guys can make it look easy doesn’t make it that way. Liam McNamara was almost put in a wheelchair there recently, on a relatively small wave. That place is dangerous. Regardless of the length of your board…
Dangerous yes. But complicated, NO. One of the simplest waves I’ve ever ridden. And yes I have ridden it big. Second reef, which is even easier.
i think it depends on the quality and direction of the swell. sometimes its picture perfect other times it can become tricky,
Agreed. It can be tricky when the swell is wrong or there is more than one swell running. But even with those incumberments it’s still pretty much drop, turn and tuck.