SURFERMAG.COM CURRENT ISSUE vol. 44 #3

1981 Narrabeen surfer/shaper Simon Anderson effectively changes the shapes of things to come with a groundbreaking performance on one of his three-finned Thrusters in the finals of the Pipeline Masters. Whipping around deep on a set wave that Shaun Tomson couldn't push in over the edge of, Anderson bottom-turns deep and pulls up into the tube standing upright, the inside fin allowing the big backsider to climb and drop in the barrel, emerging from under the curtain in the channel to win the event. One week later, a less-publicized but no less significant affirmation occurs when shaper Dennis Pang takes his first, hastily-built 7'4 Thruster out on a good-sized day at Sunset and stylishly proves to the still-skeptical North Shore cognoscenti that the design was no fluke.

1989 Enjoying dinner at Pizza Bob's in Haleiwa, 22 year-old Brock Little, the North Shore's top Young Gun, mentions that he'd someday like to surf Waimea in the moonlight. Dinner partner the late Jack Denny suggests that there is no time like the present, especially considering the moon was, on that evening, almost full, and, at 9:30pm, just rising over the hills of Pupukea. Little, who will later go on to forge a career responding to dares as a Hollywood stuntman, wolfs down his last piece of Sicilian Special, drives to the Bay, entourage in tow, and not only goes out, but actually jumps in off the rocks on the point rather than paddle out through the Bay--a route considered suicidal even in the daytime. While his awed fans watch from shore--hooting only when they make out his tracks shimmering in the moonlight--Little enjoys what he calls "Fun Waimea. About 18 foot."When the following morning word of his nocturnal session sweeps the Strip, Little's transformation is complete: he is now officially a Hellman.

2002 35 year-old Brock Little, fresh from the Mainland and sporting an uncharacteristic wax-rash on his pale chest, sits on the beach under the Pipeline lifeguard tower, shaking his head. He has just been asked a question in regards to his romantic life--more specifically the May-September romance Little struck up with Blue Crush star 21 year-old Kate Bosworth during last season's filming, and has been continuing, somewhat problematically, to this day. Little's rueful response gives the impression that compared to surfing Waimea at night, dating an Hollywood actress just out of her teens is a much more daunting challenge.

1990 The Weatherly family moves into a modest, beachfront house just to the west of the Pipeline right-of-way. Sons Jason and Benji take advantage of their proximity to the most torrid stretch of surf on earth to develop into fine performers in their own right. It's their friends, however, who really establish "Benji's Backyard" as the epicenter of a progressive surfing movement later dubbed "The New School." Kelly Slater, Shane Dorian, Ross Williams, Pat O'Connell, Taylor Knox, Rob Machado, the Malloys, Kalani Robb, Akila and Todd Chesser are just a few of the yard's denizens, all of whom benefit hugely from both the unobstructed view of Pipeline, Backdoor and Off-the-Wall and the inevitable push from the hyper-critical gallery up in the grass. Also living in the yard is a penniless, fresh-faced young videographer from Cardiff named Taylor Steele, whose unblinking eye would go on to provide the new movement with plenty of Momentum.

1981 In one of the strangest episodes in the North Shore's complex social dynamic, California insurance junior-mogul Ray Keller of UIIA Insurance, looking for some sort of entry into the Island surf scene, decides to personally bankroll an attempt to produce a Hawaiian world champion. Keller's campaign involves a liberal expenditure of funds, deemed as "sponsorship" to a number of notable local surfers, including actual contenders Buzzy Kerbox and Hans Hedemann. This deluge of cash, vast surfboard quivers and free automobiles, combined with Keller's shrill cheerleading, produces a intimidating air of entitlement that simmers over at the Pipeline Masters. There, following the semi-final elimination of UIIA-sponsored Buttons Kaluhiokalani due to an interference call, a battery of incensed locals stormed the judge's tower, sending the frightened judging panel scrambling for a nearby beach house. From a position of relative safety the decision was then made to reverse the decision and put Buttons back in what has since been called "The Seven-Man Final." During that heat Kaluhiokalani inadvertently dropped in several more times but (surprise!) still placed third in the event.

1991 In what is considered by many to be the decade's single greatest day of surfing, the '91 Eddie is held in super-clean, maximum-size Waimea, brushed to perfection by un-characteristic south-west winds. Peak moments abound, including one spectacular over-the-falls high-dive by Haleiwa's Kerry Terukina. But it's Brock Little who provides a one-man highlight reel, pulling into and almost out of the biggest tube anybody has ever seen attempted, and then later launching into one of the biggest Waimea waves ever attempted, free-falling mid-face for a horrendous beating. Little eventually finishes second behind Keone Downing on a day that is still the benchmark against which all paddle-in sessions are measured.

1992 By this time the annual Thanksgiving dinner at the single-story, ranch-style home of the Hill family, just down from Laniakea, has become the North Shore's coolest tradition. Gathering for turkey and stuffing with son Ronald is the cream of the New School Generation, including Kelly Slater, the Malloys, the Weatherleys, Brock and Clark Little, Matty Liu, Shane Dorian, Rob Machado, Todd Chesser, Seth McKinney, Akila Aipa, Donnie Solomon and just about every other connected young star on the strip. In the next few years to come, however, tragedy will leave the dinner table with two notable vacancies, an almost a third.