Banzai Pipeline

There are three reefs at Pipeline in progressively deeper water farther out to sea that activate according to the increasing size of approaching ocean swells.

It got its name in December 1961, when surfing movie producer Bruce Brown was driving up north with Californians Phil Edwards and Mike Diffenderfer.

When the reef is hit by a north swell, the peak (the highest tipping-point of the wave where it begins to curl) becomes an A-frame shaped wave, with Pipe closing out a bit and peeling off left, and the equally famous Backdoor Pipeline peeling away to the right at the same time.

[5] Numerous surfers and photographers have been killed at Pipeline, including Jon Mozo and Tahitian Malik Joyeux, who was famous for his heavy charging (gutsy surfing) at Teahupo'o.

[9] A few of the notable surfers at Pipeline are Phil Edwards (who is credited as the first person to surf it),[10] Greg Noll (first to surf Second/Third Reef in 1964), Joyce Hoffman (first woman to surf it), Butch Van Artsdalen, Gerry Lopez, Mike Stewart, Shaun Tomson, Mark Richards, Wayne 'Rabbit' Bartholomew, Peter Townend, Michael Ho, Simon Anderson, Tom Carroll, Sunny Garcia, Kelly Slater, Danny Fuller, Jamie O'Brien, Rob Machado, Andy Irons, Mick Fanning, John John Florence [11][12][13] Moana Jones Wong has earned the nickname "Queen of Pipeline.

"[14] In 1964, John Peck[15] and Dick Catri[16] were some of the first surfers to appear while inside the Pipeline tube in a published film.