Let’s get one thing out of the way first. Yesterday was wild. Or was it the day before? Navigating time zones while sitting in my cubicle trying to keep up with all the drama spun my days into a blur, but it doesn’t matter.
Slater did what Slater does and smoked Seth Moniz in the Men’s final, with a pair of 9s and a couple of (excellent) throwaways to win his 8th Pipe Master Pipe Pro, nine years after his last victory at Pipeline and five days before his 50th trip around the sun.
Life ain’t fair.
Even from the throne, Jimmy Slade is toying with the rest of the field by (maybe, just maybe) teasing retirement. “I might not show up to Sunset – I have to have a talk with myself”. The North Shore didn’t seem to care and dialled up the party mode for surfing’s poster boy.
As sick. Amazing. Nuts. Legendary. (Insert your own hyperbole here) of a day it was, this should have been a double celebration. Hours before Kelly was getting cheered up the beach by Seth Moniz and a mob of spectators, WSL’s Head of Competition Jessi Miley-Dyer prematurely announced the completion of the event- both boys and girls. She back-peddled due to too much wind…Obviously.
The WSL fumbled the first attempt at equal opportunities, which is precisely what I predicted would happen in my 2022 preview piece a few weeks ago.
But more on that later.
Because in hindsight, and as a result of a combination of luck and questionable decisions, throwing the girls into clean, 8-10ft Pipeline a day later seems now like a stroke of genius, thanks to Moana Jones Wong.
The Queen of Pipeline (Chris Cote’s words, not mine) made her intentions clear in the first heat of the day – her semi-final against Tyler Wright. Literally, from the second the horn went, you could smell upset in the air. 3 minutes into the heat, Moana scraped into a Pipeline nugget, threaded through the pit, only to get clamped at the end, which might have cost her the event’s first, and only 10-point ride.
Moana Jones Wong looked comfortable. Tyler Wright did not, despite dropping an 8.83 on a Backdoor beauty – one of only two waves ridden by the 2x World Champ.
It’s strange to see Tyler Wright making a crucial priority mistake with 2.40 minutes left on the clock that pretty much sealed the deal for Moana Jones to surf in her first-ever CT final.
In the second heat of the day, the golden girl (also Chris Coté’s words, not mine), Carissa Moore, took on Californian punter Lakey Peterson, which turned out to be a pretty underwhelming affair. A 7.84 heat total sent Lakey P packing and Carissa into her first Pipeline final.
Let’s be honest, we expected this final. Carissa is the best female surfer – period. Moana Jones Wong is the best female surfer at Pipeline – period. Seriously though, the way the first final day at Pipeline for the ladies turned out, you could have not scripted it any better.
Moana Jones Wong, a local wildcard who grew up somewhere along the 7-mile miracle, is battling 5x World Champ Carissa More in an all Hawaiian match-up for the maiden Pipeline Pro crown.
It’s the David vs Goliath scenario that had me at the edge of my seat. The two best surfers of the event going to town on 8-10ft Pipeline and Backdoor is just nuts. We all expected fireworks right out of the gates. But, unfortunately, only one of the girls lit the fire.
Moana Jones Wong dropped a 6.67 and a 7.67 on two Pipeline screamers, slaying Carissa Moore, who, in her words, ‘felt a little out of place’, to go on to win; the first-ever female CT event at Pipeline!
All hail to the Queen bagging a cool 80G, a Sunset wildcard, 10,000 points, and the Maillot Jaune while making surfing history! History buffs will likely make a parallel between Jamie O’Brien’s 2004 win at the Pipe Masters. Again it was a case of a Pipeline specialist triumphing over the travelling band of professional surfers that get to officially call themselves the world’s best.
In the end, happy endings prevailed even though the 2022 season is off to a shaky start.
There was always going to be opinions about whether the girls should be surfing Pipeline and if the WSL will figure out this equality thing.
As good of a job the Rosies, Kaipos and Co. did in the booth, trying to hype up the performances, they squandered a real opportunity to keep things real and call it what it is; a historic moment that drives change. When the decision was made not to send the women out after the men’s final a little more transparency might have served the WSL well. Similarly, to demonstrate that this was an initiative about women’s empowerment it might have been good to know how involved the women surfers were in the decision making around when and what conditions they would surf. Honesty is often the best policy.
A slight modification to the WSL’s marketing coms would have changed the narrative and, as a result, managed expectations. But instead, the women were put on a pedestal in the form of one of the most critical waves on the planet for the whole world to see them fail.
All that noise created unhealthy expectations. Expectations that the girls will somehow put on the same show as the guys in an arena they have never competed in. Expectations that the girls surf the same wave, the same way in year one as Kelly, who’s been surfing Pipeline since he was 12 years old (I’ll let you do the math).
And this isn’t on the girls or their contribution to the sport’s progress, but instead on the WSL for blowing expectations and dipping into a PR faux pas.
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READ: LONG LIVE THE KING! KELLY’S ENCHANTING PIPELINE VICTORY.
