| Bodyboarding tour expecting 12ft waves in Pipeline |
| Wednesday, 13 February 2008 16:10 |
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The timing for the start of the 2008 IBA World Men’s Tour could not be better with the event window (Feb 17th – 24th) being stacked with a series of solid swells. Ben Matson from Swellnet.com.au is the official forecaster and is excited about the prospects. Good Swell forecast for Pipe start. “Wow.. what a forecast period. Very large swells all of this week pre-event, with good winds too. Right on cue, another strong NW swell is expected to arrive on Sunday, and should produce excellent waves at Pipe. At this stage it looks like winds will generally be light, as the storm track is a little closer to the Islands than usual. However, there’s no indication of a Kona, which is good news. At this stage Sunday should see an increase into the 10-12ft+ range at Pipe, possibly a little larger (we’ll wait and see how this storm develops over the coming days). I’m not sure whether it’ll be in the water at first light though, the timing is a little unsure at the present time. Although this swell is then expected to ease during Monday and Tuesday, it will probably remain quite sizeable and more than contestable at Pipe. Winds are currently looking good too with light trades. A series of smaller storms forming off Japan at around this time (Sun) are expected to generate a new pulse of NW swell, arriving late Wednesday or perhaps early Thursday. Whilst this looks to be marginally smaller than the Sun/Mon swell, it’s still expected to be quite solid, somewhere around 8ft, give or take. It’s too early to have confidence in the local winds but there’s no suggestion of any major disruption to the trades at this stage”. Damian King (Aust) is no stranger to the reef at Pipe. He has won the title several times and along with most of the worlds best riders is taking advantage of some ideal lead in conditions to warm up for the event. “I arrived 4 days ago and the swell hasn’t dropped below 6 feet...pipe has got no sand on the reef so things are shaping up nice. However it has been really crowded so I think everybody will be taking advantage of surfing pipe for the contest. The forecast is looking good so hopefully it goes off for it!!!" said the former World Champion. The check-in for the event will be between 12 – 3pm this Saturday at Ehukai Beach Park. Source: IBA World Tour |
