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Late season North Shore is kind of the dream.
The WSL has left town, taking the photo hungry pros and all of the fans with it. Lineups are a little less crowded, the waves a little smaller, and it's peaceful.
Two days ago Pipe was firing on all cylinders as a solid swell hit the North Shore, with local legends and pros scoring all day long. Nathan Fletcher got the wave of the day, and a bunch of other pros like Nathan Florence, Michael Ho, and Zeke Lau got their fair share too. Even big wave surfer Mark Healey rolled out of bed for a session in the video below.
Healey captioned the video above:
"March 25, 2024 - Late Season Pipeline Turns ON!!
"Mark Healey surfs some late season Pipeline for one of the last swells of the season on March 25, 2024!!!"
Before he paddles out, Healey says:
"Alright, we finally got a Pipe day, there's a couple Second Reefers. It's been such a slow winter for Pipeline, I think I've only surfed it twice this whole winter. So we've got this late season swell, couple bombs.
"I'm gonna finally get to use this 8'1, WRV Ron Meeks, I have this magic 8'6 and I got just the shorter version made and I'm gonna try to find a big one out there."
Down on the beach, it's like a ghost town.
But he sees promise in the water.
"Woohoo, it's wild out there. Oh my god, wow," he says.
After that, in Healey's words, "It's on."
Press play to watch.
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Why Blue Jackets winger is a logical trade target for the Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens are ready to start the 2025-26 season, with high expectations around the team with a reinforced young core. On Wednesday, Heavy.com proposed a trade between Columbus and Montreal. The Canadiens would acquire Yegor Chinakhov, with a cap hit of $2.1 million, and the Blue Jackets would receive Patrik Laine, with a cap hit of $8.7 million. The outlet had previously proposed an alternative, where the Canadiens obtained Chinakhov for a package of Josh Anderson and Arber Xhekaj, freeing up $4.7 million in cap space. The Columbus coach confirmed that Chinakhov will be a healthy scratch in the Blue Jackets' season opener. Chinakhov requested a trade in July, so a change is not seen as improbable. Blue Jackets' Yegor Chinakhov would fit in well with the Canadiens This trade pitch makes sense because Chinakhov needs a change to get stable minutes on a top-nine team. In Montreal, he could benefit from an environment that maximizes its young offensive players. The Russian's profile would also fit Martin St. Louis' system, as he shoots well and plays well without the puck. In a system that prioritizes possession, the volume and quality of his shots should improve. As he is a restricted free agent (RFA) in 2026, Montreal could maintain contractual control if his production improves. It is a buy-low with upside, as he has recorded a season with 16 goals. This would reduce the risk in relation to larger contracts. The Canadiens could offer a development environment without demanding immediate results. He would not have pressure to be the "savior." Furthermore, not all benefits would be for the player. The Habs are looking for more talent for their wings and scoring depth without sacrificing their defensive structure. The Russian would add shooting threat and quick transitions, especially with centers who gain the zone of control, which could be Suzuki or Kirby Dach.
4 concerning Vikings statistics that must improve after the bye
The Minnesota Vikings are a 3-2 football team heading into their bye week. They've done some good things through the first five weeks of the season, but they also have a lot of areas they need to improve. Frankly, the Vikings are a bit fortunate to have three wins, considering the comebacks they had to mount to beat the Bears and Browns. They've trailed going into the fourth quarter in four of their five games, including three games where they didn't score a touchdown in the first 45 minutes of action. That level of play isn't going to be nearly good enough for the rest of this season. The Vikings have had one of the easier schedules in the league so far, but they have one of the toughest schedules for the remainder of the campaign. Improvement must start with cleaning up these four unsightly statistics, which are all areas where the Vikings rank at or near the bottom of the league. Sack percentage (offense): 11.7 percent NFL rank: 32nd Through five weeks, no team has taken more sacks than the Vikings, whose quarterbacks have gone down 21 times on 180 dropbacks. That 11.7 percentage leads the league; the Ravens are the only other team with at least a 10 percent sack rate on offense. J.J. McCarthy was the worst offender, taking nine sacks on just 55 dropbacks over the first two weeks (16.4 percent). But Carson Wentz was sack-prone too, with 12 of them on 120 dropbacks. It's something McCarthy will have to show that he can improve in order to regain the starting role. Sacks fall on the play-caller, the quarterback, and the offensive line to varying degrees. All three have to find a way to fix this drive-killing issue for the Vikings after the bye week, starting against an Eagles defense that is surprisingly towards the bottom of the league in sacks so far. Third down conversion percentage (offense): 31 percent NFL rank: 31st This one, to some extent, goes hand in hand with the previous stat. The Vikings are converting third downs less than a third of the time, which is not where you want to be. Only the Titans and rookie QB Cam Ward have been less effective on third down this season (29 percent). Kevin O'Connell's team was up near 40 percent last year. Part of this stat has to do with the average third-down distances teams face. But despite their sack woes, the Vikings are actually near the middle of the pack in terms of yards needed on third down. One reason for that is that third down is where a big chunk of those sacks have occurred. Third and longs are tough for everyone, so a big key to being successful on third down is avoiding those situations by staying on schedule on early downs. With that said, the Vikings are also well below the league average with a 47 percent conversion rate on third downs of three yards or fewer remaining, so they also need to improve in short-yardage situations. Percentage of first downs gained via rush (defense): 47.1 percent NFL rank: 32nd Most of the statistics for the Vikings' defense are pretty positive. They've been good so far, even if it's fair to admit that their advanced numbers are skewed a bit by a dominant performance against the Bengals in Week 3. The one area why the Vikings could use some real improvement is in their run defense. The raw numbers for the Vikings' rushing defense (yards per game, yards per carry, etc.) aren't great. But this stat we found was particularly interesting. 47 percent of Vikings opponents' first downs are coming on the ground, which is the highest rate in the league. Teams aren't having a ton of success against the Vikings through the air, but why throw the ball when you're confident you can move the chains with the run game? That stat would be notable by itself, but it's even more interesting when you look at the 2024 numbers and see that the Vikings had the second-lowest rate in this category last season, with just 25.5 percent of opponent first downs being acquired via the run. Accepted penalties per game: 8.8 NFL rank: 1st (in a bad way) Simply put, the Vikings have to find a way to stop generating so many flags against them. They lead the league in both total accepted penalties (44) and penalties committed on a per-game basis. They've had procedural issues on offense, they've committed fouls on defense, and they've been flagged in the kickoff and punt phases on special teams. Across the board, they have to clean up their execution and avoid the negatives that put them in more difficult siutations.
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