How shallow is the pipeline reef?

[ferrari4756]

Hey guys how shallow is pipeline while waiting in the lineup?

and how shallow is it over where your riding the waves in (and hopefully not wiping out)?

Thanks

[pollardhimself]

http://www.surfline.com/surfing-a-to-z/pipeline-history_883/


Depending on size, Pipe breaks over one of three reefs. First Reef breaks more often and has the most impact, handling up to 10 feet with the perfect cylinders that gave Pipe its name. The extreme shallowness -- only a few feet in some spots -- translates to a bounce off the craggy, cement-like reef with each wipeout. Second Reef is a bit farther out, fringing in the 10- to 18-foot range as it regroups into a First Reef bomb. Third Reef, which starts to come alive at 20-foot-plus, breaks a good half-mile from shore and is rarely surfed.

[Swellinfo]

about 5 feet or so. the further out its breaking the deeper it is.

[ferrari4756]

woah guys thats crazy thanks for your replies. when you wipeout and hit the reef, isnt it very sharp and you get cut up? or is it not since its a lava reef?

[Swellinfo]

about 2 feet over the inside.

[pollardhimself]

I dont see how they do it i was just there and seen a pro fall on his head from a 15ft + wave and he survived, there even body-surfers out there its nuts, you will see little kids out there too

[fockerRN]

I surfed rockies point, which is just down the beach from pipe. The wave there jacks up fast and is pretty steep. At the end of a nice sesh I nose dived and broke the tip off my rental board on the shallow reef. It's pretty freaky to surf there, b/c you're looking down at the reef hoping/wishing you don't fall off cuz you know it's not gonna feel good picking pieces of reef out of your skin!

[markjacob]

Hi all.
I think it is about 5 feet.

[dbiz135]

5-2 feet depending on the tide and swell... At low tide there is definetly some exposed reef and that goes for alot of the spot on the North shore!

[notjamee]

I surfed rockies point, which is just down the beach from pipe. The wave there jacks up fast and is pretty steep. At the end of a nice sesh I nose dived and broke the tip off my rental board on the shallow reef. It's pretty freaky to surf there, b/c you're looking down at the reef hoping/wishing you don't fall off cuz you know it's not gonna feel good picking pieces of reef out of your skin!
what a freakin puss, quit surfing

[TubeSeeker]

You obviously have no clue what you are talking about. The pipeline reef has 3 technically 4 stages.

Outer Log Cabins- This wave feathers out of really deep water. If the reef it was breaking was super shallow, it would be a barrel. This is about 20-25ft Deep according to underwater bathymetry models. This wave only breaks on 15-20ft swells and the period has to be over 15 seconds.

3rd Reef- This wave is basically the same as Outer Log Cabins. It is just as Shallow, but the only reason this wave picks up, is because the shoal from ricky point is much deeper creating a refracting effect which picks the wave up higher. This will start to break at around 15-20ft.

2nd Reef- This wave is the first wave of all the pipe reefs that can be paddled. The reason this wave picks up is because after 3rd Reef, the wave shoals out, then mushes. In between 2nd and 3rd Reef the Reef drops from about 15-20ft deep to about 30-40ft deep. When it hits the end of the rocky point shoal, the wave picks up dramatically setting a wave breaking to about 10ft of water. Once the wave reforms, it hits first reef. This wave starts to really break at around 10-12ft.

1st Reef- After the 2nd reef reforms into this reef, the water level drops around 6ft. Thats why pipeline barrels is because of the waves strength over all the reefs, and then it comes out of deepwater and slams on a 4ft reef. People don't seem to understand that the only time you can get hurt by the reef at pipe is on the take off. because if you look right after the take off 10-15 yds down the line, it turns into sand. 1st reef breaks from Flat-10ft.

PIPELINE WILL CLOSE OUT OF ANYTHING THAT IS REALLY BIGGER THAN 15FT.

BEST PIPE SWELL-- 10FT WNW @17SEC, LIGHT TRADE WINDS, MID JANUARY OR FEBRUARY.

[mikeb2056]

You obviously have no clue what you are talking about. The pipeline reef has 3 technically 4 stages.

Outer Log Cabins- This wave feathers out of really deep water. If the reef it was breaking was super shallow, it would be a barrel. This is about 20-25ft Deep according to underwater bathymetry models. This wave only breaks on 15-20ft swells and the period has to be over 15 seconds.

3rd Reef- This wave is basically the same as Outer Log Cabins. It is just as Shallow, but the only reason this wave picks up, is because the shoal from ricky point is much deeper creating a refracting effect which picks the wave up higher. This will start to break at around 15-20ft.

2nd Reef- This wave is the first wave of all the pipe reefs that can be paddled. The reason this wave picks up is because after 3rd Reef, the wave shoals out, then mushes. In between 2nd and 3rd Reef the Reef drops from about 15-20ft deep to about 30-40ft deep. When it hits the end of the rocky point shoal, the wave picks up dramatically setting a wave breaking to about 10ft of water. Once the wave reforms, it hits first reef. This wave starts to really break at around 10-12ft.

1st Reef- After the 2nd reef reforms into this reef, the water level drops around 6ft. Thats why pipeline barrels is because of the waves strength over all the reefs, and then it comes out of deepwater and slams on a 4ft reef. People don't seem to understand that the only time you can get hurt by the reef at pipe is on the take off. because if you look right after the take off 10-15 yds down the line, it turns into sand. 1st reef breaks from Flat-10ft.

PIPELINE WILL CLOSE OUT OF ANYTHING THAT IS REALLY BIGGER THAN 15FT.

BEST PIPE SWELL-- 10FT WNW @17SEC, LIGHT TRADE WINDS, MID JANUARY OR FEBRUARY.

No reason to get arrogant telling people they have no clue what their talking about. You've taken these long descriptions from a website. It's not a uniform depth, what's the depth range at 1st reef? 2nd reef? 3rd? From what I've heard, there's places where it's less than 2 feet deep at 1st reef, which is the one you see standing on the beach.I read a story about a guy lying down on the reef and having is nose out of the water. That's insane.

[rodndtube]

If you don't know you shouldn't go.