Pipeline is a place of contradiction.
Beauty and chaos. Glory and destruction. Big names and underground chargers. Potential for the best wave ever, and potential for serious injury…or even worse.
It’s the world’s most feared and revered wave. But what makes it so special? Well, just like the aforementioned disparities, Pipeline’s magic above the surface comes from below.
The reef at Pipeline is one of the most notorious in the world. Surfers tell tales of caves, holes big enough to trap a surfer after a wipeout, hold ‘em in there, and never let them up. There’s also the danger of hitting the reef – something that’s happened to a handful of top surfers this season, and left them hospitalized, concussed, and forever rattled.
So, let’s take a look at that infamous reef, as seen in Bruce Brown’s 1994 classic The Endless Summer II. In classic comedic form, here’s Bruce:
“The Pipeline is a very dangerous spot. The wave is bad enough, but check out the bottom.
“Very shallow and very sharp. All kinds of awful things to hit or holes to get stuck into.
“In the holes, you find pieces of surfboard, teeth…things like that.”
Related: ‘The Endless Summer’ Turns 60; How Bruce Brown Sold the Best Surf Movie Ever
Speaking of Bruce Brown, his original The Endless Summer turned 60 years old this year. It was six decades ago that Bruce premiered the flick in the middle of winter in the most unlikely of places – a frigid January day in Wichita, Kansas.
And yet, the film was a hit. Perhaps the biggest mainstream surf movie of all time.
“A brilliant documentary,” a New Yorker review described the film, “perfectly expressing the surfing spirit. Great background music. Great movie. Out of sight.”
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