The Good Ol' Days: North Shore Enforcer Says Regulating Pipe was a 'Necessary Evil' (Video)
Surf schools, ice baths, and acai bowls.
The North Shore has cleaned up a little.
Gone are the days when slaps were given freely, kooks got sent in, and localism reigned.
In the vlog above from Blak Bear Surf, Keoni "Burger" Nozaki and Rico Jimenez–a former Pipe regulator and Oakley team rider–reminisce about those good ol' days.
Burger begins:
"Rico, you've been on the North Shore a really long time. You were there since like the walking on eggshells kinda days, I watched you guys growing up.
"What was the North Shore like back in those days?"
Jimenez answers:
"The North Shore, back in those days, you'd paddle out to Pipeline on random days and there was still guys out like Dane Kealoha and Johnny Boy [Gomes] and Kawika Stant. These huge big Hawaiians, you did not want to get in their way.
North Shore life, he says, was a little different:
"Ke Iki, all these little haole kids walking around here with a beer in their hand talking shit. You never seen none of that. Guys were scared around here. I liked it like that, it was the Wild West."
When Jimenez and a "bunch of Kauai guys"—Kala Alexander, Braden Dias, Chava Greenlee, and Kai Garcia (Mahina Florence's dad)—moved over, their mission was simple.
They wanted to surf Pipeline.
"It was kind of unruly out here. There were a lot of Brazilians and people dropping in. Where we come from that doesn't happen," Jimenez recalls.
He cotinues:
"We had no problem slapping some heads and beating some guys up. There was some regulations going on, some regulators in town.
"All of a sudden there was a little bit of order in the chaos in the lineup here at Pipeline. People knew where they belonged. Very rarely did people step out of bounds.
"It was kind of harmonious in a chaotic scene out here. It was kind of a necessary evil. It ain't like that out here anymore."
Press play above for more.
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