We’re just days away from the world tour season-opening Lexus Pipe Pro (the event which in my mind will always be the Pipe Masters, regardless of the legals) and already the North Shore of Oahu is littered with the survivors of near-death encounters with the shallow, jagged reef.
Big wave charger and all-round brilliant waterman Kai Lenny was the latest of six dangerous encounters so far this winter season, hitting the bottom during the recent Backdoor Shootout event. “First time wearing a helmet at Pipeline and it may have saved my life,” he posted on social media from his bed at the Pali Momi medical centre near Pearl Harbour. “I don’t remember much except that it was during my heat and the lifeguards sat me down in a chair at the [Ehukai] Beach Park. I have a solid concussion and some bleeding out of my left ear.”
“The helmet,” wrote Aussie contender and friend Jack Robinson, accompanied by two sets of prayer hands, a reference not just to Lenny’s conversion to helmet-wearing but to the more general acceptance of surfers of all levels that if you’re going to ride powerful waves over shallow reefs, then it makes a lot of sense to protect your noggin. Tom Carroll recognised that more than 30 years ago, but it took a long time for many of the most macho of big barrel junkies to catch on.
I’m not sure how many of the five previous Pipe survivors this season were wearing head protection, but they all knew what they were doing, proof that ability is not necessarily going to keep you out of harm’s way. The list includes world number four Joao Chianca from Brazil, Tahitian Eimeo Czermak and Pipe local Koa Rothman.
Just a few days after Kai Lenny’s near disaster, a novice surfer was dragged unconscious from the break on a four-foot day, reminding me of my one and only experience of the fabled Pipeline back in the 1970s. Okay, I wasn’t quite a novice but my previous North Shore surfing had been confined to the more user-friendly Rocky Point, Jocko’s or Chun’s, with a couple of not very memorable sorties into the washing machine that is Sunset Beach. Pipe on an overhead day looked do-able, so without seeking the advice of more learned friends I paddled out alone and started looking for a familiar face in the crowded lineup. Finally I found one, but as I paddled towards my Hawaiian friend, hoping to watch what he did and follow suit, he saw me coming and whistled and pointed at an oncoming set.
He was calling me into a wide one, which probably offered an easier exit strategy into the channel. Without thinking, I paddled and launched over the ledge. The drop wasn’t long but I barely made it, turned up the face unsteadily and right into the barrel. I still remember the momentary thrill of seeing the reef flying past beneath me until the wave sectioned and shut down in front of me, throwing me from my board. Moments later I hit the reef, not with my head but with my heel. And then my knee and my elbow.
I hit the surface, took a deep breath and checked the damage. Just a bit of bark here and there but I was bleeding profusely. I would have to go in. Phew!
In later years I would become comfortable surfing many reef breaks of note in Indonesia and Fiji, but I never tried to surf Pipeline again, and after a December morning in 2005, I never wanted to.
I’d been at the ASP world championship awards banquet the night before and was walking off a hangover between Sunset Beach and Pipeline when I suddenly noticed a commotion on the beach in front of Ehukai Beach Park. As I drew closer I could see that the crowd on the sand was watching a large group of surfers pushing a motionless surfer on a longboard through the shorebreak. By the time the lifeguards started CPR at the water’s edge, I was part of the crowd. When I saw the surfer’s face I went into shock. It was Malik.
I didn’t know Malik Joyeux very well, but he had recently joined our team at Quiksilver Europe, a team rider for the Gotcha brand, part of our stable. Just 25 that fateful day at Pipe, the French Tahitian was only at the start of a pro surfing career, but he was already recognised as one of the world’s leading big wave riders for his performances at T’eahupoo and winning the 2003 Billabong XXL Tube of the Year. He was fearless on the surf and gracious out of it. Everyone loved Malik, and here he lay dead on the sand.
According to reports, Malik had dropped into a thick peak, fell backwards and took the full impact of the lip, breaking his board and ripping his leg-rope from him. Surfers and swimmers searched frantically but by the time they found him way up the beach at Pupukea, he had been underwater for 15 minutes.
I hope Pipe is pumping for the Lexus Pro next week, I hope defending champ Jack Robinson wins it again, and I hope all competitors take Jack’s advice and wear a helmet.
