Pipeline Season Opens with Back-to-Back XXL Swells at Ehukai

The Pipeline season opened with extraordinary conditions this week, with back-to-back north groundswells producing wave faces in the twenty-five-to-thirty-foot range at Ehukai Beach Park on the North Shore of Oahu.

The first swell, generated by a storm system west of the International Date Line, arrived Monday with long eighteen-second period energy that caused Pipeline to break further outside than most active surfers have ever seen it. Multiple sets closed out from Off The Wall through to Backdoor, leaving only a narrow window for the most experienced tube riders to navigate.

A second swell arrived Thursday before the first had fully backed off, creating an overlap that produced irregular but occasionally perfect conditions at Backdoor. Reef McIntosh, who has surfed the break for thirty years, described Thursday as one of the ten best sessions he could remember.

Lifeguards have asked non-expert surfers to stay out of the water for the remainder of the swell period, which is expected to ease by Saturday.