Okay, so you may have vision of paddling out at Pipeline (one of the heaviest breaks in the world), catching the wave of your life and flying home a hero.

Well, sorry but it ain’t going to happen. If it does, it is going to take a long long time.

“I waited ten years for that wave,” Nic Von Rupp told Mpora, after catching a Pipe bomb last December. “I have surfed it every year since I was 14, and that was first time in a decade I was sitting in the right position for a proper Pipe set.”

Now we don’t mean to be all negative. Why wouldn’t you want to surf the world’s most famous wave? Well it’s gnarly for starters, and it’s crowded for seconds. Plus it is always being watched, so any mistakes can come back to haunt you.

A whistle coming from the Volcom house that overlooks the break, signalling that someone has dropped in or done something wrong at Pipeline, is one of the most panic inducing sounds in surfing.

Additionally there are so many other waves in close proximity that there is no need. Even the stretch from Waimea to Haleiwa has at least 20 different breaks, from easy rollers at Chuns to lumbering racers at Laniakea.

Pipe is Pipe. It is special, crazy wave, but we’d recommend you leave it for the pros.