Yeah mate the crowds aren't as bad as you hear about. I was there for the masters and a while after it, so saw huge surf and tiny surf. When it's as big as you see there is basically only Pipe, Waimea, Sunset and Haleiwa that are surfable. Even just a couple of days ago pipe was too big and then its only waimea and the outer reefs, at this stage you just join the peanut gallery on the beach!! When pipe is say 2-6ft then pretty much all the breaks along the 7 mile miracle are surfable and there would be a good 8-10 spots to check, Off the Wall was prob my fav wave at this size(3-4ft..at 6ft its pretty gnarly). When its small Rocky Pt gets crowded as and is full of pro's and i never bothered there. I surfed sunset one time when pipe was the size in that pic and sunset was the same size but not as ferocius if that makes sense? It's more a rolling wave rather than a heaving wave. Nonetheless i still had my biggest ever beating out there and had to come in straight away following it in a tizzle!!! When its under 2ft its basically the euhukai beach park which just out of shot on that pic above to the right, gets mega packed with the pros down to 5 year old kids!! It blows you away how close all the spots are, you can literally paddle from pipe to backdoor to OTW in a minute. From the house i had Pipe and Waimea were a 3 minute bike ride either side. There's plenty of waves to be had, do your dues, sit off from the locals, wait your turn and when it comes they'll hoot you onto it. And you just gotta give bodybashing at waimea bay a go