How shallow is the pipeline reef?

Discussion in 'Hawaiian Islands' started by ferrari4756, Oct 27, 2009.

How shallow is the pipeline reef over where the waves are breaking?

Poll closed Nov 17, 2009.
  1. 3-4 feet

    1 vote(s)
    14.3%
  2. 4-6 feet

    6 vote(s)
    85.7%
  3. 6-8 feet

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  4. 8-10 feet

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  5. 10-15 feet

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  1. ferrari4756

    ferrari4756 Member

    8
    Oct 25, 2009
    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
     
  2. pollardhimself

    pollardhimself Member

    12
    Aug 3, 2009
    http://www.surfline.com/surfing-a-to-z/pipeline-history_883/

     

  3. Swellinfo

    Swellinfo Administrator

    May 19, 2006
    about 5 feet or so. the further out its breaking the deeper it is.
     
  4. ferrari4756

    ferrari4756 Member

    8
    Oct 25, 2009
    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?
     
  5. Swellinfo

    Swellinfo Administrator

    May 19, 2006
    about 2 feet over the inside.
     
  6. pollardhimself

    pollardhimself Member

    12
    Aug 3, 2009
    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
     
  7. fockerRN

    fockerRN Well-Known Member

    57
    May 20, 2006
    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!
     
  8. markjacob

    markjacob New Member

    3
    Jan 19, 2010
    Hi all.
    I think it is about 5 feet.
     
  9. dbiz135

    dbiz135 Well-Known Member

    172
    Oct 3, 2007
    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!
     
  10. notjamee

    notjamee Well-Known Member

    80
    Aug 30, 2008
    what a freakin puss, quit surfing
     
  11. TubeSeeker

    TubeSeeker New Member

    1
    Jun 14, 2010
    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.
     
  12. Waverider82

    Waverider82 Well-Known Member

    256
    Mar 26, 2010
    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.
     
  13. rodndtube

    rodndtube Well-Known Member

    819
    May 21, 2006
    If you don't know you shouldn't go.