Page 3 - MidWeek West - Dec 29, 2021

Aloha surfers and beachgoers,
It’s hard to be- lieve we’re at the end of the year. Time rolled by faster than a tsunami.
BY GARY KEWLEY
It’s A La Niña Year; O‘ahu’s Florence Reigns Supreme
The surf forecast for De- cember has been below av- erage, but there have been insanely good exceptions to the rule.
pressure to our north. These can keep low pressure fur- ther away by blocking these storms from nearing the is- lands. La Niña means a wet season with a large variation in tradewind speeds. For surfers, it means smaller surf overall with the occasional exception. In summary, La Niña is doing its job this sea- son.
victory for this particular event (formerly the Volcom Pipe Pro). Plus, Florence has a Pipe Masters under his belt. He finally scored his long-awaited win in Decem- ber 2020. He’s considered the best at Pipe, in or out of a jersey. Winning handily against the stacked field just solidified his status.
has a Hawai‘i-born surf- er done this, and only five male surfers in surfing his- tory have done it two years in a row — Mark Richards with four, Tom Carrol with two, Tom Curren with two and, of course, Kelly Slat- er with five in a row, Irons with three and now Florence with his two. The ladies have twice as many as the men: count ‘em guys — 10! Time to catch up.
There are a few reasons for smaller-than-average surf, the main one being we’re in a bit of a La Niña year — the counterpart to El Niño. La Niña means gener- ically lower than normal air pressure over the West Pa- cific and at times more high
Now, let’s talk about those exceptions, in particular the recent west-northwest we had for the men’s HIC Pipe Pro held Dec. 17-18.
John John Florence’s last-minute wave at a recent surf content earned him the victory in a jaw-dropping fashion. PHOTO COURTESY WSL / KEOKI SAGUIBO
of feet overhead to near tri- ple overhead. We had nice offshore east trades, too, that groomed Pipe to per- fection. When you add the best surfers into the mix, it
This 6-foot-1, 185-pound 29-year-old surfer is con- sidered by many to be the greatest, most talented wave rider in the world — at least for the past five years. Don’t forget he’s got two back-to- back world titles in 2016 and 2017. Not since Andy Irons
When Florence won his first title, he also won the prestigious Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational at Waimea. Florence pulled
“I got boosted to
Group and private lessons available.
Surf was excellent rang- ingfrom4to8feetonHa- waiian scale — so a couple
ignites into fireworks.
You may have heard that the North Shore’s very own John John Florence won a
kick some variant butt.”
Learn more at HawaiiCovid19.com
A message from the Hawai‘i State Department of Health.
To sign-up today visit:
www.ustahawaii.com/classes
For more information, email:
playandlearntennis@hawaii.usta.com
Pipe contest again.
This is the legend’s fifth
DECEMBER 29, 2021 3
SEE PAGE 7
Tennis for kids and adults
at the Hawaii PrinceTennis Club
Located at 91-1200 Fort Weaver Road in Ewa Beach