Are you just so super excited for professional
surfing to begin again? You’re not. Well. Ready or not, it’s going
to happen…
The waiting period for the 2025 Lexus Pipe Pro opens on
Monday.
Are you ready?
Are you just so super excited for professional surfing to begin
again?
You’re not. Well. Ready or not, it’s going to happen, so you
might as well play along. What else do you have to do? I need to go
surfing and do laundry, but even I will be showing up to watch the
women’s heats at Pipe this year. And you should, too.
In 2024, the women significantly elevated their performance at
Pipe. Caity Simmers,
Molly Picklum, and
Bettylou Sakura were among the stand-outs on last year’s finals
day, which arguably stands as one of the best ever single days of
competition in women’s surfing. Now add talented barrel-wrangler
Erin Brooks and Teahupo’o dancer Vahine Fierro to the mix. It’s
going to be lit, is what I’m saying.
In a sure sign of the sport’s progression, I really can’t pick a
single favorite here for you. There’s no longer just one or two
women who can win at Pipe. And it’s only going to get better from
here.
Let’s take a look at the draw and see what’s up. In the absence
of any idea what the forecast is, I’m going to assume for this
discussion that Pipe is going to do Pipe stuff, because it’s more
interesting. Check local listings for details. You can get your heat draw
here.
Nadia Erostarbe. An injury replacement for the
absent Johanne Defay, Nadia’s most notable result so far is her
quarterfinal finish at the Paris Olympics in small Teahupo’o. In
2024, she finished the Challengers Series in sixth. Close, but not
close enough. She’s a goofyfoot who grew up surfing windy beach
breaks in the Basque Country. I’ll confess I’m drawing a complete
blank on her Olympic heats, but her practice clips at Tahiti looked
alright. Can she transfer that knowledge to Pipe? I guess it’s
possible, but more likely, she goes down in an early round to one
of the higher seeds.
Sally Fitzgibbons. A perennial battler with a
smile on her face, Sal is back on Tour for 2025. She has called for
an expansion of the women’s Tour, and rightly, the WSL plans to
move to a 24-woman draw in 2026. In recent years, Sal has added
more progression to her surfing, but it hasn’t been enough to keep
her on Tour. It’s possible that this year will be different, but
the more years that pass, the more women crowd up behind her. I
don’t expect Sal to do huge things at Pipe. If she makes the cut
this time around, it’ll be on the strength of her consistency
through the rest of the calendar.
Isabella Nichols. A stylish regular foot,
Isabella has fallen off Tour twice now, and scrapped her way back
on. She’s a good point and beach break surfer, but hasn’t shown
especially well at Pipe. At least, not yet. Last year, she went out
early with a ninth. She’ll be alright in happy-sized Backdoor, but
I wouldn’t expect to see her make it past any of the hitters if the
surf really turns on. Surprises are always possible, but more
likely, she’ll be looking down the calendar to joints like El Sal,
the Gold Coast, and Margaret River, which she won in 2022.
Luana Silva. Currently 20 years old, Luana is
back on Tour after missing the cut last year and receiving a
wildcard when Steph decided not to compete this year. In fact,
Luana’s fallen off Tour twice now with a sea of ninths in her
results. In 2024, she made it through the small days to the
quarters at Pipe, but she wasn’t ready for the size on finals day.
She lost to Brisa Hennessey with a heat score of .97. Recently,
Luana won the WSL world junior championship in the Philippines and
she has nice style frontside. She’ll be hoping for a forecast on
the small side at Pipe and looking ahead to slide over the cut
line.
Lakey Peterson. In 2024, Lakey missed the cut
after a string of early exits. Many of those defeats came in close
heats, and after more than ten years on Tour, it was a bit of a
comedown for her, to say the least. Now she’s back with a wildcard
for the first seven events and a new coach in Leandro Dora. From
her clips on Instagram, Lakey’s been throwing some heavy open face
turns lately and she’s looking good on that front. She’s the first
to say she doesn’t like big surf, but she’s plenty capable at
playful-sized Backdoor. Lakey won’t be hoping to win at Pipe, but
if she can score a few points to stave off the cut, I’m pretty sure
she’ll go home happy.
Caroline Marks. Last year, Caroline made it to
finals day at Pipe, it’s true. When the surf was firing, though,
she didn’t go. She lost to Bettylou with a pair of three’s. Against
Brisa in the semis at the Shiseido Tahiti Pro, she lost with a heat
score of 3.67. But she won Olympic gold at Teahupo’o, you will be
saying. Yes, yes she did. Cast your mind back to the size of the
waves that day, and you’ll recall that it was small. From the
opening event at Pipe, Caroline has lots of time to climb the
rankings and she knows it. There’s no real incentive for her to
risk it all on a bigger day and with an Olympic medal and a world
title in her trophy case, she has nothing to prove. But if you’ve
dedicated your whole damn life to surfing, why wouldn’t you want to
get barreled on a good day at Pipe? I don’t pretend to know the
answer to that one.
Bella Kenworthy. A new girl on Tour, Bella was
sponsored for park skateboarding before switching to surfing full
time. A few years back, she released a punk-infused edit that went
hard. The internet refused to show it to me again, but I can tell
you that Bella’s a ripper. Turns, airs, barrels — she’s the full
deck of cards. In her first attempt at the Challengers, she came up
short, but this time around, Bella did well enough to skip the
final event and head to Indo. I like her life choices. In a
generation stacked with talent, Bella’s stand-out characteristic is
her strength and power. For now, the missing ingredient is simply
experience. She’s 18, and it’s her first year on Tour, sure, but
she has the capacity to upset expectations.
Gabriela Bryan. It’s surprising to me that
Gabriela doesn’t have better results at Pipe. A Hawaiian, she’s
strong as fuck. I’m pretty sure some of her turns register on the
Richter scale. An impressively consistent surfer, she’s never
missed the cut since she qualified in 2022. But Pipe seems to
confound her. In her time on Tour she’s had two ninths and one
quarterfinal finish. Last year, she narrowly lost to Brisa, so it’s
possible that she has more to give than she’s shown so far.
Honestly, I’d love to see it. She seems to have all the other
elements in place to be a hitter on Tour — and the more women
crowding the top, the more interesting the show will be.
Tyler Wright. The main memory I have of Tyler
at Pipe comes from 2023, I believe, when she pulled into a scorcher
at Backdoor. She won the first women’s edition of Pipe after going
to turns in the final, and she’s also finished second and third,
relying mostly on going right. While she’s steadily improved her
performances in barreling lefts, Tyler still sits just outside the
top tier at Pipe. It’s possible she’ll surprise me this year. Maybe
she sneaked off to Indo for a month and went left every day. The
challenge for Tyler is similar to that for Sal: The younger women
are coming for her. She’d better get it while she can.
Sawyer Lindblad. Now in her second year on
Tour, Sawyer has a wicked backhand. You’ll probably also remember
her goofy interference at Sunset, where she paddled pretty much
straight through the pocket like a true Trestles grom. Despite this
mishap, Sawyer made the cut and surfed two finals, at Margaret
River and Brazil. Her Pipe record isn’t stellar with a ninth-place
finish after losing to Bettylou. but a quarterfinal finish at
Tahiti suggests she has more to give. Still just 19, Sawyer grew up
surfing with Caity and Bella, and she did trips with both women
over the off-season. It’s possible I’ve ranked her too high here,
but she’s part of the new school and I like her trajectory so
far.
Brisa Hennessy. These next two women in the
ranking surprised me last season. Both Brisa and Tati significantly
upped their game and it was fun to watch them do it. I would still
rate them both below the top women in heaving lefts, but I’m not
counting out continued surprises. Brisa’s break-out performance at
the Shiseido Tahiti Pro, where she lost in the final to Vahine.
Yes, she had a relatively easy draw to get there, but she went for
it anyway. I’m pushing her up the rankings here in the hope that
she brings that same fearless attitude and solid skills to Pipe
this year.
Tati Weston-Webb. Until last year, I thought of
Tati as the girl who went straight in barreling lefts. She is no
longer that girl. Against Vahine in the semis at the Tahiti Pro,
she scored a perfect ten in intimidating Teahupo’o. That was
fucking sick. Tati narrowly lost that heat, but it served to banish
forever the idea that she can’t surf barrels. Like Brisa, it was a
break-out performance and I’m putting her up here near the
favorites for Pipe on the strength of it. I don’t think she can get
past the best women, but she came close to beating Vahine, so I’m
not counting her out.
Moana Jones Wong. Local girl Moana won the
second edition of women’s Pipe with a smooth, swooping style. At
the time, most of the draw was still not sure what to do with Pipe.
Now they know. Over the past few years, Moana has scored some solid
ones in free surf sessions and at the Da Hui Shoot Out. She is
still one of the best women surfers at Pipe, and one of the select
few women who can win if it turns on. Last year, she lost early to
Caroline in small waves, so she missed out on the finals day shack
fest. Can she still match the top women on Tour? That’s an open
question and thanks to the wildcard, she has an opportunity to
answer it. She meets Caity in round 1.
Vahine Fierro. The queen of Teahupo’o, Vahine
surfs her home break with flawless grace. In the past, Vahine
didn’t always make smart choices in her heats, likely due to
inexperience. Heat surfing is a whole thing, as we all know. She’s
improved, and no doubt the grind of both the Challengers and the
Olympic qualifying process helped with that. As she showed in her
heat for the ages against Tati, Vahine can deliver under pressure
now. Does her skill at Teahupo’o translate to Pipe? I’m going with
yes, but it’s perhaps the one weakness she brings to the table.
Bettylou Sakura Johnson. I’ll be honest, I did
not at all expect Bettylou to be one of the stand-outs at Pipe last
year. She came close to winning the semifinal against Molly in
legit good Pipe and I did not see that coming at all. That’s the
heat when Molly scored a perfect ten, and Bettylou came within .30
points of beating her. Though she was stronger at Backdoor,
Bettylou put on a fierce, hard-charging performance. Similar to
last year, she has not posted any clips, but it’s impossible to
imagine she isn’t out there putting in the work. I doubt last year
was a fluke, so I’d expect to see her go deep in the draw and
rattle a few cages. Her opening round is stacked: Bettylou, Molly,
and Vahine all meet in round 1.
Erin Brooks. The hype around Erin Brooks who
just now is starting her first year on Tour is dizzying. What is it
about her, out of all the young, talented women coming into surfing
right now, that has created such a fevered response? I’m not
actually quite sure what to make of it, honestly. In a previous
generation, the Texas-born surfer would likely have been a gymnast.
She has the compact, explosive strength the sport requires and that
she is now readily applying to surfing. Erin’s grown up in Hawai’i
and is already one of the best barrel riders in women’s surfing.
Caity and Molly have the edge in experience. Let’s see if it’s
enough. Erin meets Gabriela and Sawyer in the opening round.
Caity “for the fucking girls” Simmers. The
current world champion, Caity loves a good barrel. I think we all
know that by now. Caity’s a rare talent and she won last year’s
edition of Pipe by beating Molly in the final. It was a
wave-starved heat, which left open the question of just how far the
top two women can go. In truth, the daylight between Caity and
Molly at Pipe — and potentially Erin, too — is so slim as to be
non-existent. That might sound like a candy-ass take, but it’s
true. Let’s see just how much farther they can push women’s surfing
at Pipe. It feels like they’re just getting started.
Molly Picklum. I watched Molly’s heat against
Bettylou live and when I saw her perfect ten, I actually yelled at
the screen. That’s a fucking ten all day! I’m sure my neighbors
enjoyed it. I gave Molly the top spot here on the strength of that
wave and her full-speed ahead willingness to charge at Pipe.
Molly’s not a dainty, elegant surfer. She’s at her best riding big
barrels and smashing massive sections. It’s been some time since
women’s surfing has seen anyone like her, if ever. She came up
short in the final against Caity last year, and I can’t help but
think she’d like revenge.
n
