We now have 2 days of women’s surfing in the books for the 2023 CT season. And what a couple of days it’s been. Four ladies had to surf 3 heats on the first day, and 3 of them had never surfed Pipe in a heat before. Unfortunately, all 4 of said women lost out on that day. The second day, the quarterfinals, was a bit rough. So far we’ve seen a couple proper tubes, a fair share of head dips, a lot of turns, few upsets, a good amount of closeouts and a collection of wipeouts. Here’s the briefing.
OPENING ROUND
HEAT 1 – First wave of the year was a pretty solid looking Pipe wave that Caroline Marks pulled straight into, before the end section clamped without letting her out. She ended up winning the heat with turns on her backhand for both her scores. Teresa Bonvalot took a heavy wipeout and almost made a Pipe runner, but finished 3rd. Tatiana Weston Webb made it through with a little shampoo at Backdoor and some turns on her forehand.
HEAT 2 – Bettylou gets the first significant wave of the day, a 6.50 on a double arm drag barrel at Backdoor, with a sick grab-rail down carve to boot. She couldn’t find the exit on another 2 rights, leaving her to finish second place behind Carissa. The 5 time World Champ found two Backdoor barrels that looked like there was never a doubt of her making it out of them. Alyssa Spencer found the short end of the stick, but not for lack of trying – she caught some of the biggest waves to come through at this point.
HEAT 3 – First wave of the heat Steph Gilmore caught a rail in the barrel of what could have been a 7+ point ride. She only caught 1 wave after this, falling to the Elimination Round. Macy Callaghan advanced in 2nd place over Steph by doing some turns. Moana Jones Wong proved her comfort and local knowledge by winning the heat on only two waves – both clean, in-and-out Pipe tubes.
HEAT 4 – Sally Fitz wins the heat, finding the only exit from a barrel. Brisa Hennessy advances on turns. Isabella Nichols charged two closeouts.
HEAT 5 – Gabriela Bryan looked really strong early on. I thought she was underscored for this 6.33. Back-to-back barrels at Backdoor left rookie Caity Simmers, and journeywomen Lakey Peterson chasing scores the whole heat. Lakey had a nice high score, 6.17 for threading a long, smaller barrel, but couldn’t find the backup she needed to take out Gabby. Caity Simmers finished in 3rd, but had a couple of crazy drops and lines. I can already imagine her making those exact waves in a few years time.
HEAT 6 – The wind started to show. Molly Picklum didn’t care. Courtney Conlogue sent it over the ledge on a closeout right that she had no chance of making. Right behind, Molly slides into the score of the day, an 8 point ride for the longest barrel of the day, into a crazy closeout hit that was not meant to be ridden out of. But she did, and onto the R16. Courtney made a nice little right tube, but it wasn’t enough to overtake Tyler Wright’s turns.
ELIMINATION ROUND
HEAT 1 – Shocker number 1. Last year’s World Champ Steph Gilmore gets the early boot, going down to highly touted rookie Caity Simmers and her California comrade Alyssa Spencer. In the end, she went down needing a 3.03, which could have been made had she not fallen on a smaller backdoor runner. Caity won the heat handily and showed the world what we are to look forward to.
HEAT 2 – Shocker number 2. Courtney Conlogue loses out to Isabella Nichols and Teresa Bonvolot. Courtney, winning last year’s Teahupoo contest and 2017 OK Fiji pro, is no stranger to shallow, scary reef breaks. Those were not the given conditions. Even so, it seems a surprising loss. She waited more than half the heat to catch her first wave, a bigger backdoor wave that she couldn’t get under the ledge on. It looked like it could have given her a nice score. She scrambled for scores in the dying minutes, but it wasn’t enough to overtake Nichols. The rookie Bonvalot won by finding the only barrel with an exit.
ROUND OF 16
HEAT 1 – A bit surprising they called this round on. Did not look anything like what you would expect from Pipeline. Caity Simmers looked like she wanted to get barreled but couldn’t find the right opportunity. Brisa Hennessy started out strong with turns and kept her foot on the gas, moving on to QF’s.
HEAT 2 – Shocker number 3. Even with these conditions, we were all pretty sure Moana Jones Wong would still sneak her way into a couple Pipe waves that make you realize the true power of local knowledge. And we weren’t wrong. Straight off the (overlapping heat) buzzer, she was into and out of a left, followed by 2 strong wraps and a closing hack. I’m still confused how this score was lower than both of Lakey Peterson’s keeper waves. I thought Pipeline was about the barrel. Sure, Lakey’s turns were very strong, and on critical sections. But Moana’s wave and ride was better, obviously in my opinion. Still, she would have lost because she couldn’t find a back up over a 2.33.
HEAT 3 – No barrels in this heat. Tatiana beats Teresa Bonvalot with some crazy backhand hooks. Even her late scoring wave, a left at Pipe, was pretty sick. She looks like she could start doing some airs with the speed she carries. Speaking of that, Teresa’s last wave attempt was next level. Big props.
HEAT 4 – Heat of the contest so far, for me. Sally Fitz and Tyler Wright were throwing down some huge turns. Sally almost made a wild little tube that nobody had business being in. Tyler ends up winning with a few backdoor waves hammered all the way down the beach.
HEAT 5 – Really no barrels left at all. Carissa pulled into one left at the end of the heat but it was not to be exited. She won the heat over injury replacement Alyssa Spencer by virtue of strong forehand turns. The young Californian couldn’t find a good second wave.
HEAT 6 – I feel like Molly Picklum put a lot of people on notice here. She absolutely ripped the bag out of the conditions that she was given. All but one of her seven waves in this heat surpassed her opponents total heat score. Isabella Nichols seemed to struggle to find a wave with an open face. Pickles heat total was enough to beat everyone but Tyler Wright this round.
HEAT 7 – A back and forth affair, Macy Callaghan got off to a great start with a 5.33. Gabriela Bryan battled back with a 4.67 before scorching the highest wave score of the heat – a 6.50 for two sharp turns on a Backdoor right. Callaghan had an opportunity near the end with priority, but she fell on her second turn on a smaller right that left us wondering. On moves the Hawaiian Bryan.
HEAT 8 – Caroline Marks found the only wave that offered more than one turn, though by the looks of the score, she was penalized by the size of that wave. Bettylou Sakura Johnson wins with two big turns on two bigger waves.
QUARTERFINALS
HEAT 1 – Four days later, and in no better conditions, the Woz waited half the day to start Lakey Peterson and Brisa Hennessy. Lakey fell in a high and tight left barrel to start the heat early, and another wave wasn’t ridden until the heat was more than halfway over. Just over the 6 minute mark is when Brisa got her first keeper score. Lakey found the only exit from a bowl, as quick as it was, and got through because of it. Back-to-back Semi showings at Pipe for the Tour vet Peterson.
HEAT 2 – Either Tyler Wright was on an absolute heater, or she has a huge advantage of knowledge on that reef over the other women. She miraculously found 2 clean in and out Backdoor barrels, and almost made two more. Tatiana Weston Webb only caught two waves amounting for a 1 point heat total. Tyler looks to be the obvious standout of this event.
HEAT 3 – 3 waves total in this heat. Molly Picklum charged what had to be the biggest wave for a female in the event. A closeout, but sick nonetheless. Carissa motored through an inside right to sneak through the heat victorious.
HEAT 4 – Neither of the women in this heat could find anything other than a closeout. Bettylou beats Gabriella Bryan because she pulled into two tubes, just missing the exit on one. Gabby unfortunately only got into one closeout tube. Truly was tough luck out there.
SEMIFINALS – UPCOMING
HEAT 1 – Lakey Peterson vs. Tyler Wright
HEAT 2 – Carissa Moore vs. Bettylou Sakura Johnson
The men’s contest is set to run overlapping heats for the Round of 32, as well as the Round of 16 today. That will leave a total of 10 heats remaining for the event, which will presumably be run tomorrow or Thursday in some bigger, more wind-blown surf. Make your bets accordingly, and strap in for a long day today.
Cheers,
hwilsin