Watch: Koa Rothman // April Pipeline

Stu Nettle picture
Stu Nettle (stunet)
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Lotta talking in this one. Fifteen minutes of air time for five or so minutes of surfing, but it's worth your while to see Pipeline putting on a December display in April - well outside the regulation season.

Koa bags more than a few meaty ones, enough to tide him over till the season starts again.

Comments

AndyM's picture
AndyM's picture
AndyM Sunday, 26 Apr 2020 at 1:28pm

There's a minute and a half of surfing from 5.35 and a minute twenty of surfing from 10.20.

Lots of slo-mo of pecs and abs, maybe for the tweenies.

Westofthelake's picture
Westofthelake's picture
Westofthelake Sunday, 26 Apr 2020 at 7:17pm

Ha yea. I wish I'd seen your comment before I watched it.

But I've got to admit that 3 or so mins of actual waves and surfing was pretty good. Lots of angles and colours.

nextswell's picture
nextswell's picture
nextswell Sunday, 26 Apr 2020 at 2:26pm

Pretty hard to distance yourself when pipe is solid?!

fcalmon's picture
fcalmon's picture
fcalmon Sunday, 26 Apr 2020 at 2:54pm

buy some merch? really????

ringmaster's picture
ringmaster's picture
ringmaster Sunday, 26 Apr 2020 at 3:22pm

He presents as a bit of an entitled knob on his clips but no questioning the size of his nuts or how good he is in XL tubing surf.

Distracted's picture
Distracted's picture
Distracted Sunday, 26 Apr 2020 at 4:00pm

Prefer this recent raw footage from Mark Takamura. Watch the pack scramble and then some hellman turns, puts his head down, paddles like nothing else and launches into the steepest drop. Awesome.
https://m.

AndyM's picture
AndyM's picture
AndyM Sunday, 26 Apr 2020 at 8:09pm

That's infinitely better value.

Westofthelake's picture
Westofthelake's picture
Westofthelake Sunday, 26 Apr 2020 at 10:33pm

Now that was good.

Malmayhem's picture
Malmayhem's picture
Malmayhem Monday, 27 Apr 2020 at 9:16am

way better cheers

loungelizard's picture
loungelizard's picture
loungelizard Monday, 27 Apr 2020 at 1:42pm

Outstanding, thx for posting

Blake87's picture
Blake87's picture
Blake87 Tuesday, 28 Apr 2020 at 11:29am

Legend. Love this stuff way better

cutty1957's picture
cutty1957's picture
cutty1957 Sunday, 26 Apr 2020 at 4:18pm

try wearing a seat belt when your driving cuz

wally's picture
wally's picture
wally Sunday, 26 Apr 2020 at 8:15pm

My daughter was on the North Shore during the off-season (June) a couple of years ago. She befriended some of the young Pipeline crew. She was amused that none of them wore seatbelts which meant their cars made that constant beep beep noise inside. She asked, wouldn’t it be easier to put the seatbelt on and avoid that annoying noise. They seemed baffled by this and said you just put the music up.

charles-barkley's picture
charles-barkley's picture
charles-barkley Monday, 27 Apr 2020 at 6:58am

Behind the back to stop the beeps

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Monday, 27 Apr 2020 at 7:31am

Possibly one of the best things I've read in years.

troppo dichotomy's picture
troppo dichotomy's picture
troppo dichotomy Sunday, 26 Apr 2020 at 8:59pm

Don't need to wear seat belts when daddy's above the law.

wally's picture
wally's picture
wally Sunday, 26 Apr 2020 at 10:31pm

I think it is a local vibe, Drive slow, belt off.

bipola's picture
bipola's picture
bipola Sunday, 26 Apr 2020 at 9:18pm

some good deep tubes

tango's picture
tango's picture
tango Sunday, 26 Apr 2020 at 9:51pm

Nice wave, but he makes the Shipstern crew look more and more authentic and accomplished. No replays of good waves, no claims. Perhaps there should be a tosspot rating on some of these clips....

bluediamond's picture
bluediamond's picture
bluediamond Sunday, 26 Apr 2020 at 11:08pm

Bullshit aside out of the water, who cares..., what this kid can do in the water is unquestionable. His style suits Pipe perfectly and he'd have to be considered one of the best ever there. Hows that thick one and the speed he comes out of it with. Incredible.

Johknee's picture
Johknee's picture
Johknee Monday, 27 Apr 2020 at 8:56am

"His style suits Pipe perfectly"

You got that right! When it comes to turns, his style/technique is ugly.

SI's picture
SI's picture
SI Tuesday, 28 Apr 2020 at 11:04am

Who cares about circus tricks when there are barrels on offer. The best barrel ride always wins hands down. Interesting comment though...I remember thinking Medina had a stiff ugly style in his earlier years despite his obvious technical brilliance and I never enjoyed watching him surf- I felt like he just ruined the flow of the waves with his fight to fit in as many circus tricks as he could. But then something happened to his surfing and it became more fluid, more in harmony with the flow of the wave - I saw him put on some incredibly stylish surfs out at pipe, Tahiti and JBay. I don’t know what happened, maybe he let go a little with the idea of controlling everything on the wave? So it came to him eventually, I guess it could come to anyone who keeps working at it?

SI's picture
SI's picture
SI Tuesday, 28 Apr 2020 at 11:04am

Who cares about circus tricks when there are barrels on offer. The best barrel ride always wins hands down. Interesting comment though...I remember thinking Medina had a stiff ugly style in his earlier years despite his obvious technical brilliance and I never enjoyed watching him surf- I felt like he just ruined the flow of the waves with his fight to fit in as many circus tricks as he could. But then something happened to his surfing and it became more fluid, more in harmony with the flow of the wave - I saw him put on some incredibly stylish surfs out at pipe, Tahiti and JBay. I don’t know what happened, maybe he let go a little with the idea of controlling everything on the wave? So it came to him eventually, I guess it could come to anyone who keeps working at it?

Max Wax's picture
Max Wax's picture
Max Wax Monday, 27 Apr 2020 at 8:02pm

I find it fascinating how the wave inhales before it exhales at 6.45, not often you get to see that happen. Awesome surfing but i think vlogs are one of the worst things to happen to surfing....

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Tuesday, 28 Apr 2020 at 7:26am

They're horribly inane aren't they?

Save a for a very few examples, I only watch surf movies for the surfing, and I imagine other viewers are the same. Now we've got to sit through these half-baked screen 'scenes' in between sessions.

I'm assuming the extended plays allow for more Youtube ads, is that the reason they're now so popular? Or is also rudimentary character development?

wally's picture
wally's picture
wally Tuesday, 28 Apr 2020 at 8:31am

“All I post are selfies now. That’s what the world’s come to” - Koa Rothman

Max Wax's picture
Max Wax's picture
Max Wax Tuesday, 28 Apr 2020 at 9:18am

Yep so boring! Same as you, I can never listen to the bullshit they say, just skip to the surfing. I think its all about the money in the end, creating content to sell.

Eugene Green's picture
Eugene Green's picture
Eugene Green Monday, 27 Apr 2020 at 9:09pm

Best pipe wave ever? Gotta be up there. No leggie too.

mikehunt207's picture
mikehunt207's picture
mikehunt207 Monday, 27 Apr 2020 at 9:30pm

No leggies the norm at pipe, when you dont make it it means your not in the way with your board tombstoning for someone on the next wave, safer for them and for you (not being in the way and fucking up someone elses wave which cant get you in deep shit)

SI's picture
SI's picture
SI Monday, 27 Apr 2020 at 9:15pm

Side angle, best slow motion of a back breathe then spit I think I’ve ever seen. Pretty cool technology these days with the filming. The small nuances of the wave’s dynamism with the air, so dramatic. It’s some of the stuff about surfing that I remember amazed me as a kid - so raw and visceral, the never ceasing changes and wonder of it; pure nature; that slow mo bought it back to me. Amazing!

goofyfoot's picture
goofyfoot's picture
goofyfoot Monday, 27 Apr 2020 at 9:52pm

Mike I thought they like to wear leggies at pipe in case you get knocked out thy can find your body under water easier?

mikehunt207's picture
mikehunt207's picture
mikehunt207 Monday, 27 Apr 2020 at 10:04pm

Maybe things have changed? Its been a while since I was there but it was very much the go then, the way the water moves your board goes straight in and so do you, rather than eat it and then be stuck in the impact zone / way and fuck up someones ride was a good way to get yourself in way more trouble, also just getting hung up with an anchor of your board and getting a few lips to the head rather than a wash in is more dangerous than having to do the swim

goofyfoot's picture
goofyfoot's picture
goofyfoot Tuesday, 28 Apr 2020 at 9:44am

That makes sense