iStockphoto / RightFramePhotoVideo
Having learned to surf in early childhood at Waikiki before moving to the North Shore as a pre-teen, Hawaiian surfer Eala Stewart knows as well as anyone how Pipeline can humble any surfer on any day.
Speaking with Surfline, Eala Stewart recalled his worst-ever wipeout at Pipeline, also known as Banzai Pipeline or just Pipe, which is one of the most famous wave breaks on planet earth and home to some of the most prestigious surfing competitions the sport has to offer.
His worst wipeout ever at Pipeline actually happened a few days ago, on January 22nd. Eala Stewart said the “conditions were unreal” with “10-12ft stackers on the first reef.” The wave that humbled him was the first one he paddled into that day and wow, did he get clobbered by the incomparably power of Pipe:
Currently, he’s currently the 13th ranked surfer on the 2023/24 WSL Men’s Qualifying Series. So this isn’t just a weekend warrior dropping into the lineup at Pipe.
Eala is 28-years-old and his family moved to the North Shore when he was 12-years-old. He’s familiar with the break, he respects the break, but on this day Pipe got the best of Eala Stewart.
He said a couple of other surfers in the lineup looked at the wave but one of them gave him the nod to charge it.
Dropping in, he probably fell three feet in the air from the middle of the cresting wave to the bottom and at that point his angle to the wave was all off and he just got scooped up and clobbered by the immense power of Pipeline. And because it was an epic swell at one of the world’s most famous waves, there were cameras on hand to film the action.