EHUKAI BEACH — As the big surf crested, curled, rolled and roared at Pipeline yesterday, one intrepid surfer raced across the face of a foaming wave, realized things were definitely not going as planned, kicked his board away and dived out of sight as the next wave in the set crashed down on him like a landslide, like an avalanche, like a cattle stampede.

"Look at that guy," yelled Lindsey Yasui, who was practically jumping up and down with excitement. "What a wipeout. Who is that? Who is that?"

Yasui, a Honolulu taxi driver, and her friend, Roberta Bitzer, a consultant for a Kailua environmental company, had come up to the North Shore to see what everybody was calling the best surf swell of the young winter season.

The National Weather Service said the swell, kicked up by Typhoon Lupik east of Japan, produced waves that reached 20 to 25 feet about 6:30 a.m. yesterday off Oahu's North Shore.

A high surf advisory remains in effect until 6 tonight for north-facing shores off Kauai, Niihau, Oahu and Maui. The waves at Pipeline were still about 20 feet yesterday at midmorning, but diminished quickly. The National Weather Service said it expected waves today in the 10- to 15-foot range.

Bryan Cheplic, spokesman for the city's Emergency Services Department, said lifeguards rescued two people yesterday and warned 600 more to stay out of the dangerous surf.

Yasui, 29, and Bitzer, 28, were watching the action. "We're bodyboarders," Bitzer said. "We know everybody out there. We're regulars here."

Bitzer's husband, Jason, a lifeguard and competitor on the bodyboard circuit, was one of those taking on the waves.

"He told me not to go out because I might die," said Bitzer, who is also a competitor on the bodyboarder tour. A Brazilian, she met Jason at a bodyboarding competition.

"The only people out there today really know what they're doing," Yasui said. "You can learn the hard way. I saw one kid break his board."

They were waiting for the waves to diminish a bit, so they could paddle out and try their luck. There were about 20 people in the water at the time, but as the waves dropped more people ran across the beach with their boards and hit the surf. Within an hour, at least 40 were riding the swells, waiting to catch a wave.

"We all get the guts to go out at the same time and then we don't catch anything," Yasui said. "I might paddle out later. I drive for The Cab ... and I quit early last night on Halloween when I could have made extra money so I could get some sleep and come up to Pipeline today. That's how addicted I am to this."

'THE BEST SO FAR'

Bitzer said: "We love it, that's why we're here. We watch big waves and dream big dreams, but we know our limits and we respect them."

Yasui pointed to a surfer racing through the tube of a curling wave like hot grease on a skillet and said, "Look there's (Alistair) Taylor. He always rides the craziest, gnarliest waves ever."

Then up walked Daniel Dorn, he of the spectacular wipeout, who didn't look too much the worse for wear considering that he had appeared to have been obliterated about 30 minutes before.

"Was that you?" Yasui said. "We were watching you. That was gnarly, dude. How's your head?"

Dorn, 24, a waiter at Haleiwa Joe's, smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck.

"My neck kinda hurts," he said. "I dropped in too late. I took my leash off, dived in and got destroyed. I was totally rolling. I lost my board but it washed up on the beach."

Taylor, a former South African bodyboarding champion, called the swell "the best so far this season," and said he saw some wave faces that were at least 25 feet.

Another world famous bodyboarder, Jeff Hubbard, was sitting on a picnic table watching the action.

"There's so much energy when the waves come out of deep water," he said, "when it hits the shallow reef it just jacks. That's why there's so much energy and big barrels." Hubbard said he surfed for about four hours yesterday.

Hubbard also was happy to see such wave action early in the season. "It's not too crowded yet," he said. "Lots of times on Sundays, Pipeline is packed."

Cheplic said that the two North Shore rescues yesterday were at Haleiwa's Alii Beach Park and Ke Iki Beach.

At Alii Beach Park, a man in his 40s who became exhausted in the surf and swallowed sea water was treated and released.

In the Ke Iki rescue, a teenage boy who got into trouble in the shorebreak was brought out of the water, revived and taken to a hospital in serious condition.

Cheplic said all beachgoers should heed warning signs and consult with a lifeguard before going into high surf.