Ehukai Beach Park

You don't have to be a surfer to make a pilgrimage to the reef break at Banzai Pipeline. In fact, it's a lot less life-endangering to keep feet planted in the sand and watch the monster waves at Ehukai Beach Park. Pipeline, on Oahu's North Shore, is one of the world's most famous surf breaks. Its perfect, barrel-shaped waves have made the careers of countless pro surfers -- and claimed the lives of others. It is, quite simply, one of nature's most awesome spectacles.

Yet driving along the meandering Kamehameha Highway, you could blink and miss Ehukai, just one of countless public beaches along this stretch of the shore. Like most of Hawaii, this attraction wears its stunning natural beauty casually. No big flashy signs, just a tiny parking lot, small bathroom, some wild chickens wandering around, and a pathway down to the 1.2-acre beach.

There are actually several different waves here, created by three successive reefs: The one closest to shore generates the left-breaking Pipeline wave (to the right from a shore-watcher's perspective), and Backdoor, which goes right. Further out, Second Reef and Third Reef can create even bigger surf.