Every winter on the North Shore of Oahu the high surf dams the Waimea river-mouth with sand, and the heavy rains flood the valley. During a flatspell, locals led by Jamie O’Brien happily dig out the channels to create a standing wave to get their feet in the wax in preparation for Pipemasters. It was SWELL’s first time back digging the channel since the 2011 night session, and it was even bigger.
On the rainy monday morning, J.O.B and Waimea Valley Conservationists made the call to relive flooding up-river and start the dig.
The dig takes around 3 hours of digging before a surfable flow appears
High banks are critical to creating a c concentrated stream
Performance hybrids and fun sleds like Catchsurf Boards are the choice sleds. And don’t forget aGoPro
Team RVCA showed up to cross train in their new performance athletic gear
Like any north shore line-up, taking turns on the open face usually gets pretty hectic…. unless youre J.O.B. of course.
There’s an ever present danger of debris rolling down river. In 2009 a rebar latent chunk of concrete plowed into a sponger’s backside. Here’s a rouge log tunred into a rodeo bull for Jamie. The crowd went nuts.
