“The best is yet to come and babe, won’t it be fine?”
Frank Sinatra’s famous melody rang through my ears this morning while rewatching John John and Joao Chianca’s R16 heat. It’s impossible to say, but I would not put money down that we’ll see better waves this year on tour than the opening 4 days out at Pipeline. It has been absolutely perfect at times. Here’s a recap of what we have seen so far.
Before it all started –
Possibly the biggest wrench thrown into this contest (and the year?) was that Gabriel Medina withdrew from the WCT for the foreseeable future. He has cited his mental health as the reasoning, but there are rumors of a divorce with his wife after just a year of marriage. Caio Ibelli has taken his spot on tour for the time being. A little funny, since those two have a bit of history, but in all seriousness, best wishes to Medina.
Steph Gilmore was forced to withdraw from Pipe due to COVID protocols. The situation was a bit of a head scratcher, as she entered the protocols a few days prior to the event window, and she was expected to be able to clear the protocol in time to compete in the event. Bethany Hamilton got the call up in Gilmore’s place and did not disappoint. More on this later.
Ryan Callinan and Yago Dora both withdrew from the event prior to flying to Hawaii, due to a broken hand and a foot injury, respectively. R.Cal’s injury happened early in January, and up until the week of, we didn’t hear if he would make it to the rock to surf Pipe. His injury is looking at an unofficial shorter time period than Yago, who underwent Lisfranc surgery. Callinan was replaced by Ivan Florence, and Yago was replaced by Matthew McGillivray.
Barron Mamiya, Miguel Tudela, and Moana Wong (Jones?) got the wildcard entries into Pipe. There was a bit of an online push to get Mason Ho in the contest, but I feel the WSL did a nice job of choosing the wildcards.
Something happened to Liam O’Brien, and he had to pull out of the contest the morning of Day 1. What could only be described by Kaipo as a “foot and ankle injury”, Jordan Lawler replaced LOB in the first event of the year. I have not found any follow up to this injury yet, so we have no timetable or guesses for Sunset.
DAY ONE –
Only the men got to surf close-to perfect 6-8 foot Pipeline on the opening day of the competitive year. 4 surfers were sent packing: Morgan Ciblic, Imai deVault, Jordy Lawler, & Jadson Andre. Some standouts included: Barron Mamiya, Seth Moniz, John John, Joao Chianca, & Jack Robinson. Overall, it was an insane day to start off the tour this year. There were a couple of big matchups set up for the next time the contest would resume – Ivan Florence vs. Filipe, Kanoa vs. Owen Wright, and Jack Robbo vs. Joao Chianca to mention a few.
DAY TWO –
History was made on this day, January 31st, as the first ever Women’s CT event ran at Pipe. Although it was smaller compared to what the Men surfed the day before, this is still arguably the scariest piece of reef in the world, and the ladies were charging in conditions that half the guys at your local would be on the sand for. Standouts included Malia Manuel, Bethany Hamilton, and Brisa Hennessy. Tyler Wright looked very comfortable going right at Backdoor on route to the heat of the day; both of her scoring waves individually went higher than 9 other girls’ total heat scores. Caroline Marks and Courtney Conologue were (surprisingly?) the two women who were sent packing with early exits.
DAY THREE –
The beginning of Day Three and man on man heats actually had me a bit concerned; there were some waves, but conditions looked eggy. There was some morning sickness, some lump, just not super clean. It was apparent early that local knowledge and time in the water are going to pay dividends when it’s not perfect out there. Barron Mamiya and Kelly Slater advanced in Heat 1 & 2 respectively, while their counterparts looked a bit confused in the tricky conditions. The swell didn’t start to show its face until about Heat 5, where we would see some pulses, but the consistency wouldn’t show up until the start of the next round. The most controversial heat of Round/32 was the Andino vs. Messinas heat. The rookie took out the tour veteran on a buzzer beater that was highly contested (online). The biggest upset (to some) was another rookie, Joao Chianca taking out Jack Robbo. Another surprising one was Caio Ibelli making the most of his opportunity and taking out Griffin Colapinto.
The Round/16 got off to an absolute bang. Barron faced off against the GOAT in what were the conditions of the day to this point, arguably better than Day One. Kelly did his Kelly thing, and beat the local wonderkid with a 9.23 that he nabbed with under 5 seconds remaining. Kanoa and Leo’s friendly rivalry was overshadowed by the previous heat, but both these kids showed they have some time under their belt at Pipe. Kanoa got through. Italo couldn’t muster over a 5 point ride in some cranking waves, and he lost out to Miguel Pupo. Carlos Munoz, after dislocating his shoulder in the previous Round, actually tried to paddle out to face off against fellow rookie Lucca Messinas, and re-injured his shoulder in doing so. Best thoughts out to Cali. Filipe Toledo was again exposed in big surf. He caught 2 waves in his heat that were much smaller than anything we’d seen in the past few heats. Seth Moniz advanced by catching a couple mild Pipe waves, by his standards. John John and Joao Chianca had the heat of the day. It’s going to be in the argument for heat of the year. It was just a marvel to watch. Here it is for you. You have to watch to see who wins. Caio Ibelli advances again, this time over Callum Robson. The last heat of the day Sammy Pupo impressed everyone by sending it on a couple of huge Pipe waves, making both. Can we see a Pupo vs Pupo final? I am manifesting this. What a day. Quarter Finals will be
Kelly Slater vs. Kanoa Igarashi
Miguel Pupo vs. Luca Messinas
Seth Moniz vs. John John Florence
Caio Ibelli vs. Sammy Pupo
DAY FOUR –
This day was a bit bigger than the first day for the Women. The ladies were fucking charging, and I was really impressed to see the commitment. Carissa Moore was the standout of the day with the two highest scores of the day; a 9.50 for a deep Backdoor tube in R16, then an 8.33 in the Quarters with a smaller Backdoor bowl and a nice hack to finish. Malia Manuel looked comfortable in her R16 heat against Sally Fitzgibbons in some bigger surf, however, she came up just short in the dying swell in the Quarters against Tyler Wright. Moana Jones Wong had two strong heats, showing off her local knowledge and making barrels easily, advancing past Tatiana in R16 and Isabella Nichols is QF’s. Lakey Peterson also has nice momentum going into the semis after two impressive performances, including a buzzer beater with less than 20 seconds to advance over Johanne Defay. In the semi’s we have
Tyler Wright vs. Moana Jones Wong
Carissa Moore vs. Lakey Peterson
What a start to the year folks. Strap in today. I got an email from WSL last night.
“You think you’ve seen the sun, but you aint seen it shine.” – Frank Sinatra
-hwilsin.