The story of the day is Erin Brooks. She just surfed one of the best waves in Women’s competitive surfing history out at Cloudbreak for a unanimous 10. There are 4 waves that we can compare this to.
Molly Picklum’s 10 at Pipe in 2024.
Steph Gilmore’s 10 at Keramas in 2019.
Erin Brooks 10 at Snapper Rocks in 2024.
Tatiana Weston-Webb’s 10 at Teahupoo in 2024.
All 4 got mentions in social media comments. Steph’s 10 still holds its own; that wave is insane. Keramas just does not pack the same punch as Cloudbreak or Pipeline. The same can be said for Snapper Rocks. That wave for Erin also came in a Challenger Series event, so it didn’t quite carry the same weight. The closest 2 in comparison then would have to be Molly’s Pipeline wave, and Tatiana’s Teahupoo bomb. You take your pick, but no matter what you think, Erin Brooks just undoubtedly entered the top 3 greatest waves ever caught in competition conversation.
She only surfed 3 waves today – Erin that is, netting an 8.00, a 10, and a 6.33. She is clearly the surfer to beat in these conditions. The speed that she surfs with is such a clear point of difference against every other competitor in the draw. I just had a quick google search and saw some sites listing her at a +400 event winner line. If I were a gambling man, I would lock that bet in twice. She could have beaten some of the dudes out there today.
Vahine Fierro surfed pretty well, sneaking in a tube on a sketchy looking inside shallow section. Kika Veselko had a close heat with Tyler Wright that I thought should not have been that close. Tyler dropped a 7 and a massive claim for what I’m not even sure was a barrel. You could see the nose of the surfboard the entire time. Brisa Hennessy was the only other Women to have a double digit heat total (10.66).
Round 2 has some interesting heats lined up – H3 is Sawyer vs Vahine. H4 is Caroline vs Erin Brooks. And H7 is Molly vs Brisa. I expect the Winner to come out of those select heats, though I would like to leave an open option for Carissa, BettyLou and Kika Veselko.
Now for the Men.
I will continue to say it; Round One is the Oscar Berry Round. Poor fellow. He will not win a Heat all year long, as I’ve been saying. He lost again in R1, this time to Ramzi. Luke Thompson caught one wave for a 1.43 and lost to fellow South African Matty McGillivray. Mateus Herdy pulled off what I thought was a bit of an upset, taking down event wildcard and former Junior World Champ Jarvis Earle. I’d heard a lot about this kid, and maybe expected a bit too much. I know he’s coming off a serious injury and surgery within the last year or so, but I do wonder if he has always surfed with that interesting style. The way he holds his back arm, it looks like his entire body, like his chest is squared up and facing the nose of his board. Maybe even his feet too. It’s a different look. Anyways, Eli Hanneman beat the other wildcard, this one the local, Teo Degei.
Seth Moniz beat Marco Mignot in the first heat of Round 2. Seth obviously just won Teahupoo, then he flew home for the birth of his daughter, and now is right back at it. The heat was close, score wise, but I thought Seth looked much better than Marco. His 7.17 was a wild barrel ride I dont think many other surfers are making. More island magic in the air?
Cole Houshmand and Ethan Ewing faced off in a Big Boy Heat in the next one. When Cole turns it on, he always looks tough to beat. It makes me wonder why he is not a World Title threat. I think he is really good when the waves are good; if there’s some push. Ethan was in deep shit early, as Cole got the opening wave and dropped a 7.17. Then, as Ewing uses priority and falls on his first turn, he has to duck dive in front of Cole flying down the line, getting ready to bury the entire rail line of his board in, and through the top of the lip, both hands dragging in the water behind him. He pushed so hard he almost caught the nose, but recovers well and is straight off the bottom into a flared out, back leg, layback pocket snap. Cleaner off the top on this one, and now deeper off the bottom, he pushes the next under-the-lip snap even harder than the last, throwing a huge fan into the offshore winds. One last down carve off of the top for a bit of variety, and a look to the judges asking, “how’d ya like it?” 8.00 Big Guy.
Ethan did really well to stay in the Heat, surfing up a 7.03 that was a difficult wave to ride. I will say that his backhand surfing has impressed me quite a bit recently. He’s always referred to as the Style Lord, specifically in right hand point breaks. Nice to see him surfing well on the backhand. Cole was in control of this heat nearly from start to finish. Even after that 7 from Ewing, he still needed the highest wave of the heat, an 8.14, and Cole choked out the remainder of the heat with priority.
Heat 3 featured, in my opinion, the Surfer to beat at this wave – Yago Dora. I don’t know how you could pick anyone else. I understand that Medina has the track record at this venue, but this is where Yago just won his World Title. Add-in the recent form of Medina, and I had to put Yago as my Power Surfer in fantasy.
Mateus Herdy had an uphill battle, though I will say he surfed quite a bit better than expected. He might have even been undercooked on this 7.67 – dropping straight into the bowl for a high and tight tube ride. Not the longest barrel, but he was pretty deep. Out of the bowl and into 3 searing backhand hangers, all with a bit of variety. It was a step in the right direction for Mateus, and he seemed to make improvements even from the last event at Teahupoo, which is more than Filipe can say over the course of his career.
The last heat of the day featured Kanoa Igarashi vs Al Cleland. After his showing in Tahiti, I felt like Kanoa really needed to show up and net a result, but this is a dangerous draw. It was absolutely howling offshores by this point in the day, and it looked difficult to surf. Kanoa threads through a couple of longer inside tubes, while Al was on the bigger set waves, unable to get as deep in the barrel. Kanoa moves on to Round 3, where he’ll face (in my opinion) event favorite Yago Dora.
A pretty solid day of surfing to start the 2026 Fiji Pro. Not quite the 8-10 foot as Renato forecasted, but Cloudbreak did provide plenty of opportunities for both the Men and Women on Day One. Taking a guess, I think they resume tomorrow with the rest of Men’s Round 2, starting with Heat 5 – Joao Chianca vs Morgan Ciblic. We’ll see what happens after that. Enjoy, and talk soon.
Cheers,
hwilsin
Drew Stanfield