Big Surf On Tap For Opening Days Of Pipe Pro
A few days out from the start of the 2024 Championship Tour and it looks like there's some solid swell inbound for Pipeline. The waiting period for the Pipe Pro kicks off on Monday, January 29, just in time for a series of large northwest swells to hit the North Shore.
Come Monday, the surf starts to build thanks to a combination of west and northwest energy. The overhead surf is met by problematic wind conditions. Wave heights build and peak on Tuesday, but it may actually be too big for Pipe and the Kona winds are going to make it challenging at best. It’s likely the Pipe Pro won’t run on this day as the conditions fall apart and the seas are angry.
After that, conditions look to clean up and another round of northwest swell later in the week. This later swell is looking more favorable to get the opening heats in the water.
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“Wednesday AM the 31st is shaping up to be the first decent window. The large swell that peaks Tuesday will be backing down through Wednesday, but still providing surf that is solidly well overhead (strongest early),” reports Surfline’s Jonathan Warren in the event’s official forecast.
“The nature of this swell—plus a secondary/building north swell mixing in—will be more broken-up, which would equate to shifty peaks (A-frames) with both Pipe and Backdoor offering opportunity,” he continues, “And we may finally see favorable local winds, at least for the morning (light offshore). Likely to have a moderate onshore westerly breeze kick up in the afternoon for some surface texture/bump.”
It seems likely the WSL will be keen to run some heats on Wednesday if possible. There’s nothing solid setting up in the Pacific after that, so look for them to potentially make use of the swell. It’s still too early to get a clear picture of what’s going to happen during the second half of the waiting period, but there’s plenty of swell to start, it’s just a matter of finding the right windows to run.
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With more than 25 years of writing about surfing, the ocean and action sports, Jake Howard continues to share stories, profiles and issues that shape the surfing world. One of the premier subject-matter experts in the field today, he's savvy in the ways of print, digital and social media, his breadth of work is expansive. Getting his start writing Surfline surf reports and recording the phone reports for 976-SURF in the late '90s, Jake served as the managing editor for Surfer Magazine in the early 2000s before moving on to launch RedBullSurfing.com and cover surfing for ESPN and the X Games. Over the years, Jake has also enjoyed time behind the edit desk at The Surfer's Journal, as well as the World Surf League, where he worked as the Senior Editor for a number of years. Beyond producing editorial content, Jake has served as a digital marketer and copywriter for iconic surf brands such as Quiksilver, Roxy and Rip Curl. Writing thousands of pages of copy for Surfline, he has deep SEO experience as well. The surf columnist for the San Clemente Times, Jake continues to dedicate himself to the culture and history of the sport through his involvement with the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente.