A North Shore summer and a North Shore winter exist in entirely different universes. It’s actually fascinating what some good waves can do to the energy of the place, with every nook and cranny of the Seven Mile Miracle lighting up with winter swells and bringing world-class talent out in droves. And then the waves disappear for a few months and so do all those people, giving way to slow and quiet summer days.
Pinballs is a perfect example of those vastly different realities. While the words “Waimea Bay” elicit images of the heaviest shorebreak on the planet and some of surfing’s most historic big wave moments, “Pinballs” will just make you chuckle. Why? Because Pinballs and Waimea Bay are technically the same place. Except they’re not. Waimea Bay is gnarly. Pinballs is a mushy, slopey little wave that rolls through the point when the right swell angle lines up, minus all the thumping, bone-crushing 20-foot faces of a true winter swell.
So here’s a glimpse of a day at Pinballs with Jamie O’Brien (at around the 16-minute mark), if for nothing else but to see the alternate universe that is the late summer-early fall North Shore.
