Believe in the magic of sand…

In this film from the prolific Rory Pringle, which features his master Mason Ho and a network of fellow North Shorians, we are gifted the miracle of a one-day sandbar.

“Few days ago a big swell hit the Hawaiian Islands and pushed sand all over the place,” writes Mr Pringle. “When this happens it makes special waves in places that usually don’t have waves. Surf spots like this only last a little while. This specific sandbar lasted only about 12 hours till it was gone and the boys were on it!”

Oh yes they were.

Like a bomb whose slow fuse has finally reached the dynamite, the sandbar explodes into life.

This little film, short enough to keep your attention but long enough to gift a complete examination of the surfing, is a whirlwind, a dazzling frenzied whirlwind that will tear you up by the roots and carry you high into the heavens, to places you did not know existed.

Pick a teepee and just…poke it, says Mason of the Pipeline takeoff that stopped the world.

Every evening, one imagines Mason Ho rubbing lineament on his aching knees before he puts on his favourite lounge ensemble of lavender pyjamas, robe and bedroom slippers.

He puts a chair near the front window so he can look out for pretty girls with the dusky sloe-eyed loveliness so common in Hawaii.

Mason is thirty-one years old, is the son of Mike, sixty-two, nephew of Derek, fifty-five, and brother to Coco, twenty-eight.

Like Daddy, like Unc, Mason sits enshrined at the top of the Pipeline pecking order.

Mason says his Pipe and Backdoor strategy is simple.

Pick a teepee and just…poke it.

“When it gets really steep, I just poke it down, poke the nose down, just like you’re going to poke…something else. You just aim it, and get as deep as you can.”

Here, from three day ago, an animated portrait of laid-back élan.

Size queen!

You like ’em big? I doubt if there’s a more satisfying experience than riding, in waves of juice at least, a performance gun.

You get the roll in; you stomp on the tail and that curve fits right in.

In this short by Ho and Pringle Productions, Mason and his sister, Coco, both of whom have featured here in bulk recently, disturb the decorum of various lineups, including the wave that one dare not speak its name. 

“Feisty high-performance wave located at the far east end of the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii,” according to Matt Warshaw.

Mason rides, and does so with spectacular highs, a six-foot-nine Lost Whiplash, a board that is not recommended for surfers of lesser than intermediate ability.