Watch: Oahu’s Outer Reef Super Session
Koa Rothman, John John Florence and more tackle the biggest Hawaiian swell in years
Dashel Pierson
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It’s hard to imagine that you missed it, but in case you did, Oahu’s outer reefs did their best impression of XXL Cloudbreak over the weekend. (See our coverage of the Super Swell Saturday across Hawaii here, here, and here.)
And while Jaws and Waimea Bay went absolutely bonkers, the Outer Reefs were a standout during the historic swell. An all-star cast shared perfect, gargantuan tubes all day long, including John John Florence and Koa Rothman as shown in this episode of Koa’s Vlog above.
Watch: John John Florence’s Outer Reef Behemoth
JJF packs one of the biggest caverns from Super Swell Saturday and not where you d suspect
Frame grab: Brent Bielmann
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The first thing we thought when we saw this was, “Wait, is there any rule that states that the Wave of the Winter must go down at Pipeline, Backdoor or Off-the-Wall?” Because this weekend, John John Florence threw a completely different wrench in the works at an Oahu outer reef.
And wouldn’t that just be the perfect ending to what’s looking more and more like a perfect winter for the two-time World Champ? Over the past couple months John’s spent his time freesurfing with his brothers and closest friends all over the North Shore, throwing his hat in the ring early at Pipe for the 2020-21 O’Neill Wave of the Winter, dropping bangers in the (virtual) Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, and… oh yeah, winning his first-ever Billabong Pipe Masters.
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Mark Healey spends an inordinate amount of time chasing big waves. He’s logged more time surfing waves of serious consequence than almost anyone else. Remember THAT Puerto wave? Or THAT Pipeline wave? Yeah, he’s logged time on huge waves. He’s calculated about his surfing, though as one must be to last in his business so when the swell that would eventually turn into one of the biggest and best weekends Hawaii has ever seen popped up on the horizon, Healey didn’t just throw himself headlong into it. He’s spent his life preparing for moments like these, and that’s why he’s able to score harder than pretty much anyone else on earth.
The surf got big in the Hawaiian Islands this weekend. That might be an understatement. All the attention has been on Maui. But by the looks of it, Oahu stayed clean and beautiful. John John, Koa Rothman and Mikey Wright, among others, were apparently making good choices and staying close to home. Erik Knutson captured John John paddling into this picture-perfect wave with nary a drop of water misplaced. (It’s uncanny how much this looks like Fiji.) We’re not sure if it’s Outside Alligators, Himalayas, or a number of other outer reef locales. We do know it’s big, clean, and while he didn’t quite make it out, John John Florence was in the perfect position.
O’Neill Wave of the Winter: Top 11 Rides from December
In an age of competitive disappointments, the WOTW is still going full-throttle.
Griffin Colapinto. Photo: Pete Hodgson
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Normally, we do a monthly Top-5 roundup for the O’Neill Wave of the Winter. But December was no normal month on the North Shore of Oahu; in fact, considering the sheer frequency of quality waves gracing the Seven Mile Miracle last month, not even our esteemed WOTW judges could whittle it down, so we just had to showcase more than five rides.
Like 10. Or 11. Hell, we would’ve given you 12, but Flynn Novak’s Pipe whopper wasn’t quite a make.