Even if you’ve never surfed Pipeline, you know it can be dangerous. The reef is shallow. The wave is heavy. The lineup is crowded. Like Turtle said, “when the wave breaks here, don’t be there.” But someone like Koa Rothman knows firsthand just how dangerous it is. That’s because he surfs it every single time it’s on. He’s one of a handful of surfers whose life revolves around the place. Even when it’s a little too big and he’s surfing an outer reef somewhere, if the swell drops just a bit, Pipeline is in the back of his mind, whispering to him, “I might be good now. You should come check me.” Since Koa Rothman is one of those surfers, people that aren’t one of those surfers have questions. Questions like, “what’s it’s like surfing Pipeline when it’s so crowded?” Well, Koa took a few minutes in between sessions to explain.
“It is honestly the biggest nightmare ever,” he said. “Sometimes, a 150 of the best surfers — or 50 of the best and like a 100 who don’t really know what they’re doing — you’re battling the best guys at Pipeline and you’re battling them to get the best waves of the session. So it’s basically just a complete dogfight. You’re paddling over people, you’re running into leashes, you’re calling your friends off of good waves… and then you have to deal with the wave itself and the reef. It’s just absolute, complete chaos.”
And while it well may be that, we’re sure if you were to ask any one of those surfers, they’d all agree that it’s worth it.
