Watch: A 2-Time Pipeline Master Takes on Huge Teahupo’o

Originally posted on SURFER | By August Howell | Last updated Oct 24, 2025 4:06 PM ET

What John Peck started at Pipeline 62 years ago, Barron Mamiya has taken and molded it into a rare display of athleticism and hydrodynamic knowledge. There’s pigdogging and then there’s what Barron does. Name an all-time great backside tube rider, and the 25-year-old Hawaiian sits with them in the upper echelon. I won’t lay it on too thick, but all you have to do is look at Barron’s back-to-back Pipeline wins on the Championship Tour, his performance at the Da Hui Backdoor Shootout, and his overall body of work at the North Shore’s hardest wave (take last winter as just one example).

Technically speaking, the event wins were in the Pipe Pro, not the Pipeline Masters, due to permitting and IP differences, but we’ll give him the nod here. Barron's work at the reef is masterful. He beat John John Florence in both contests (once in the final and another with an outrageous 10).

Compared to the unruly and shifty dynamics of Pipeline, Teahupo’o’s consistency must feel formulaic to someone of Barron’s caliber. While Pipeline can vary dramatically moment to moment, resulting in closeouts one set and mind-bending barrels the next, the Tahitian slab offers something different. It’s more or less the same approach every time: Make the drop, pull up, get tubed. If you have the guts and skill, that is. But consistently doesn't make it any less deadly. UK stud Tom Lowe and Tahitian local Lorenzo Avvenenti were nearly killed by the wave this year.

At the same time the WSL Finals was waiting out sus Cloudbreak in early September, Barron and a crew of locals and freesurfers were scoring off their heads at Teahupo’o. Parker Davis compiled this cinematic highlight reel from just one day of excellent surfing. Chris Bryan. Andy Woodward. Domenic Mosqueira and Ian Grose all contributed to the cinematic documentation.

I'd say take notes on their approach, but in this instance, with these guys at this wave, they're in a class all their own.

This article first appeared on SURFER and was syndicated with permission.

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