The North Shore’s Shawn Briley is a Pipeline barrel-riding legend.
Briley, or “Briles” as friends call him, is notorious for going all-in at huge Pipeline, or anywhere he surfed, in the ’90s.
He’s known for his fully committed approach when surfing the world’s heaviest waves and his show-up and blow-up mentality. Briley was a full-blown Pipeline hellman until he got “the one,” the wave he could never beat, and walked off the beach, away from Pipe, and didn’t look back.
He didn’t go far though, just to Sunset Beach where he’s been raising his three boys with his wife, Natasha.
Nowadays, the once hard-partying, hard-surfing Briley is a tattooed-covered dad with a lot of good stories and a unique personality who still doesn’t surf.
A few days ago, “Nalu TV,” a streaming platform dedicated to classic surf flicks, posted the Briley flashback above. It’s captioned:
“Shawn Briley has always been a standout in big surf. The waves of Hawaii and Fiji are perfect for Shawn’s style of surfing. Pipeline and Tavarua.
“Shawn Briley segment from the late, great Larry Haynes‘ second film – FLUID COMBUSTION 2 “Mana.”
His little brother is Kalani Chapman, one of Pipeline’s best barrel riders. He almost died surfing Pipe in 2017. He’s still surfing the North Shore and shapes for his own brand, Kalani Chapman Surfboards.
Viewer comments speak for themselves:
“Hellman!.”
“Absolutely one of the best.”
“Shawn rides the cave.”
“Any Footage of Briley Is must see.”
“Briley was definitely one of the best at Pipe in the 90s. Absolute Mad Man out there.”
“Nalu any chance you could find his perfect 10 when he was 18 from the 91(i think) Pipe Trials with the shock blue dyed hair!? He backdoored that pipe wave so well”
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