“I’ll confess I had to read that multiple times to
believe it. I wondered if it was opposites day and no one had told
me.”
I am a bad correspondent, but you all know that by
now. I am so easily distracted from the super important
business of watching surfing heats. The sun comes out, there’s a
bit of swell in the water, and off I go, leaving you to watch Tyler
Wright’s double-grab cutback without me.
I am not even going to apologize for this crime.
By now, you’ve seen the results. Tyler Wright won the 2025 Lexus Pipe Pro by beating
Caity Simmers in the
final. I’ll confess I had to read that multiple times to believe
it. I wondered if it was opposites day and no one had told me. It
was not, in fact, opposites day.
If you only watch one heat, pick the semi-final between Caity
and Molly Picklum. It was a total banger and a reminder, if we
needed one, that they are currently the best two women in the world
at surfing Pipeline. Go watch that thing.
As for the rest, well, I guess you could say that finals day was
a land of contrasts. All four quarterfinal heats at the Lexus Pipe
Pro were lopsided affairs and quite honestly slow going.
In the day’s first heat, Lakey Peterson beat Isabella Nichols
with a heat total of 6.50. Isabella tried for a deep tube, but
couldn’t wrangle her way out of it. There wasn’t much more to
it.
Over the past few years, Tyler has become adept at slipping
through tubes at Backdoor, and she put it to use in the second heat
of the day.
In their quarterfinal match-up, Tyler smoked Caroline Marks.
With her backside barrel riding looking super sus, Caroline only
managed a 3.50 heat score. Tyler, meanwhile, cruised through this
one with an 11.84. If you believe in foreshadowing, this heat was
perhaps a good example of that sort of thing.
Watching Caity paddle out was like watching the main act take
the stage after the opening bands. Immediately she showed her
wizardry and found the kind of deep barrel that had eluded the rest
of the field. Caity opened her quarterfinal against Sawyer Lindblad
with a 7.00 that paired a smooth tube ride with a stylish finishing
turn.
Surprisingly, Sawyer mostly watched this heat. She’s usually a
feisty one, and has the skills, so I expected to see a more
competitive heat from her. Girl, a 1.43 isn’t going to do it. Caity
romped all over this one, and advanced with a 14.50.
In the last heat of the quarterfinals, Molly Picklum steamrolled
through Brisa Hennessey. It wasn’t quite the commanding performance
we might have expected from Molly, but she didn’t need to bring her
best surfing to this one. Though she’s typically been a consistent
heat surfer the past few years, Brisa couldn’t make anything happen
in this one. She hit a couple close-outs and that was all she had
to offer. Molly took it easily.
After missing the cut last year, Lakey will be happy to start
her season with a semifinal finish at the Lexus Pipe Pro. On the
opening exchange, it looked like it would be a close heat with both
women scoring 6’s. Although Lakey’s improved at Backdoor she
couldn’t match Tyler, who went from deep to score an 8.60. I will
never love Tyler’s finishing turns, but her front side tube riding
is solid, and she won this one readily.
When Caity and Molly paddled out, the energy level immediately
lifted. They both came to play and it was the first heat that
actually felt like high-level competition with well-matched surfers
who each had the skills for the conditions. Caity and Molly are the
future of women’s surfing and the rest of the field still has some
work to do to catch up.
Molly got the first wave, but it wasn’t a score. Behind her,
Caity dropped smoothly into a short, deep tube and made an easy
exit. It earned her an 8.17, but Molly answered back. Using both
arms to stall, Molly rode out of a longer barrel. She got hung up
on the close-out turn, but it was enough to put her in the lead,
which she held through a long lull. Caity needed a 3.84.
She got it and then some. Going from deep, Caity pumped through
a chandelier and then disappeared. Emerging, she pulled her usual
stylish finishing turn before looking for a tiny cover-up at the
end. She didn’t find it, but that’s Caity: Always be looking for
the barrel. It was technical, precise surfing from the best barrel
rider in the game right now. A 9.50, the score put Caity into the
lead.
Molly never gave up, but her second score, a 7.80, wasn’t
enough. She hit a couple of close-outs, but couldn’t find another
scoring wave. Molly can’t quite match Caity’s finesse in the tube,
but her willingness to keep charging makes her a more than worthy
rival for the 2024 world champ. I can’t wait to see their future
match-ups and this heat delivered.
And it was always going to be a hard act to follow. The final
was ruthlessly anti-climactic. The onshores rolled in and created
speedbumps on the wave faces. What was left of the swell turned
sleepy and inconsistent.
On her first ride, Caity face-planted on the take-off. From the
camera angle, it was hard to see whether she hit windchop or if she
simply slipped, but her magic seemed to desert her. Caity spent the
heat pulling into close-outs and dropping low scores. Tyler only
needed a 6.00 and a 1.70 to best the reigning world champion.
By beating Caity in the final, Tyler opened her 2025 season with
a win at the Lexus Pipe Pro. It marked her second event victory at
Pipe, after she won the 2020 edition of Honolua that finished at
Pipe. In recent seasons, Tyler’s had a lengthy drought, and until
Saturday at Pipe, she’d gone winless since the Rip Curl Bells Beach
event in 2023.
Next up, the Championship Tour heads next to Abu Dhabi to
compete in the wave pool. The shift from Hawai’i, one of surfing’s
birthplaces and its cultural home to a mechanical wave in the
desert feels remarkably dystopian. Welcome to the future. The
robots are coming for us. Mechanical is predictable, and the
contest runs from 14-16 February. Clear your schedules.
With her win at Pipe, Tyler Wright takes over the top of the
rankings as world number one.
She also heads to Abu Dhabi where it’s illegal to be gay.
Happy fucking Valentine’s Day.
Sportswashing is an ugly beast that requires constant feeding,
human rights be damned.
I hate her cutback, but Tyler deserves better. We all do.
