I'll add a bit to dannobee's suggestion, which is right on.
When you're out as dannobee described, follow Reeside up to the intersection with Foam. There is a traffic light on the left side of Reeside as you face it from the sea, and that traffic light is very visible out at sea. If it is blocked by the Steinbeck sign on Canney Row, you're not out far enough. You can use that Steinbeck sign just like a boater uses a range marker. What you want to do is line up the traffic sign with the right edge of the rightmost blockhouse on the beach. When you have the traffic light directly over the right corner of that blockhouse, you are directly over the pipe. What you should then do is back off to the west about 25', drop down, and swim on the bottom on a heading of 120 degrees until you bump into the pipe. Alternatively, move about 25' towards the pier, drop down, and swim on a heading of 300 degrees. Either way will bring you in at right angles to the pipe, since it goes out from shore on a heading of 030.
I think I once measured the distance from the end of the pipe to the first rock pile as 70'. Go due north and you will hit the eastern edge of that first rock pile. After that one, I've found you get more piles if you go NE (045) than if you continue going straight north. In fact, I went out a couple of years ago and swam a grid starting at that first rock pile. I was surprised to discover that the path straight north goes through a Metridium barren for over 100'. There are lots of piles to the left and to the right, but none that you're going to see in <20' vis. until you've gone over 100'!