Happy Pipe Master John John Florence with Koa
"I get any wave I want" Rothman in background.
POV: Examine the machinations of the
heaviest lineup on earth with Koa Smith in “Mic’d up surfing Brutal
Pipeline!”
By Derek Rielly
A very good behind-the-scenes account of epic
Christmas Eve Pipe swell…
Pipeline is a wave that will stomp a mud hole in your
ass, if you’ll excuse the street patois.
Very few of us will smash through the wall of muscle that
surrounds the lineup to even attempt to ride a wave that’s like an
elevator with the down button punched.
Koa Smith, the almost twenty-five-year-old three-time National
Scholastic Surfing Association National Champion, knows the wave
and its people well.
In this twelve-minute film, Koa brings his GoPro and microphone
into the lineup during the North Shore’s epic Christmas Eve
swell.
We see John John Florence, Mason Ho, Benji Brand, Kalani
Chapman, all the big guns, even Koa Rothman who famously announced
prior to the winter season that he would be taking any wave at
Pipeline he wanted.
Masterclass: World’s oldest pro surfer
Kelly Slater reveals new secret weapon, “You get to a certain
terminal velocity where the fin will lift too much and lift the
tail!”
By Derek Rielly
A juggernaut.
I have a dim memory of a nice man coming to visit me at
a surfing magazine with an invention that allowed the manipulation
of fin angles.
Toe ’em in for looseness, straighten ’em out for speed.
It was a very good invention, I suppose, although most of us
rarely even change fins and I never heard of it again.
Until today, when in a short day-in-the-life piece for Brazilian
TV subscriber channel Canal OFF, we find Kelly Slater
extolling, at some
length, the virtues of the devices before gifting the
viewer several minutes of polished surfing on a variety of fin
configurations.
Kelly Slater, cleverly manipulating
dials.
We also find Kelly killing spiders with a vacuum cleaner.
Essential.
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Dane Reynolds grooms baby into high-level
pro surfer; watch progression here: “This episode is comprised
mostly of Micky wrecking waves and occasionally himself around
town!”
By Derek Rielly
Total flabbergast.
(Editor’s note: Dane Reynolds and Mini
Blanchard’s website Chapter 11 TVis an irregular collection of short
surfing films shot around Ventura that will stoke any crotch fire.
Here, Reynolds’ profiles his little buddy, Micky Clarke, who surfs
with all the heady drama of a rain storm. Reynolds’ heart-felt
paeans to his subjects are equally irresistible.)
Rain or shine my brother would always walk from his van
to the water’s edge with his wetsuit halfway down. I never
knew if it was vanity or just to catch some extra rays, but when
the session was over he’d rip his wetsuit back down in knee deep
water and expose his upper half for the return trip.
He jumps off the rocks and paddles up in a blue and green
Quiksilver suit.
“How’s that thing fit?” asks a nearly 21-year-old Micky
“Good!” says Brek.
After he takes the first wave that comes in I ask Micky, “You
hooked up Brek with a suit?”
“Yeah he showed up at my house with an 18 Pack of Modelo’s and
asked if I wanted to trade for a wetsuit!”
Brek was the ultimate at recognizing opportunities to swoop free
equipment.
An example situation-
I’d be changing out of my wetsuit and he’d walk up… “how were
the waves?” “Kinda fun!” “Shit I wanna surf but I don’t really have
a board I like… What did you ride?” “This one, it’s kinda sick, I
bet you’d like it” “Really?” “Shit… ya you should try it!”
I’d never see that board again.
I asked Micky if he was tripping that Brek showed up at his
house and wanted to trade an 18 pack of beer for a wetsuit… “I was
kinda trippin… but I was kinda stoked!”
This episode is comprised mostly of Micky wrecking waves and
occasionally himself around town the past few months.
Outrageous: Watch Mason Ho in “You know my
reputation. Ninety inches of tough load, I don’t treat you
gently!”
By Derek Rielly
Sensitive but resilient, equally available during
the day or night with a minimum of coaxing…
In this short from the studio of Riordan Pringle, we see
his master, the thirty-two-year-old Mason Ho, riding a ninety-inch
surfboard, a full twenty-four inches longer than his usual
runabout.
You keep rubbing that stick, as they say, and you’re gonna get a
lot more than a spark.
Essential viewing.
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Ageless! @sensitiveseashellcollector
Watch: Kelly Slater give hell to east
Sunset on Mason Ho’s tiny Matt Biolos-shaped Rad Ripper and a Greg
Webber 5’8”!
By Derek Rielly
Swing with Mason and Kelly!
In this twelve-minute short from the studio of Riordan
Pringle, the viewer is gifted a balcony view of Kelly Slater, and
Mason Ho, exchanging surfboards and manipulating
waves, one after the other, at a chip-shot reef east of
Sunset Beach.
Mason, we can never get enough of, brave, charming, witty,
exciting to look at and a really good surfer.
Kelly, of course, sometimes appears as empty as the emptiest
bottle, and as lonely as a radio tube when the batteries are dead
and there’s no current to plug into. Such is fame etc.
