Pipe Pro Post Mortem
Well, we needed that. And yeah, I watched. Just about every heat, every wave, every lull. I love surfing, so I locked in. Now, let’s figure out what it all means.
While much of the conversation (as it should be) is about Caity Simmers and Barron Mamiya’s big wins to kick off the year (occasionally) all-time Pipeline, here’s a few notes on what we saw and what we’re thinking.
No shortage of drama — and if there’s one thing surfing needs, it's a bit of drama. Here’s what we remember the day (or two) after.
Who’s in charge of scheduling? I still find it weird we start at Pipe and I’m convinced I never won’t feel that way. If we’re making a playlist, Pipeline is the ender, not the beginning song: The Gold Coast is the sexy tour opener. Trestles is the banger in the middle and Pipeline is our grand finale. The rest are all just tracks.
Stephanie Gilmore, Carissa Moore and Filipe Toledo to step away from pro surfing: WOW, so we’re staring down the barrel of a changing of the guard, a major talent power shift we haven’t seen in some time. And hell, maybe that’s what we need? But gosh, we’ll miss ‘em…
Steph: As usual, Steph is stylishly and gracefully walking away, strutting down the catwalk into the sunset shrouded by sea mist like the iconic surf siren that she is.
Carissa: You can tell Carissa is still in two minds about competing due to the fact that she’s still going to compete in the first event before calling it a year. It may be in her own backyard, but something feels missing. She deserves so much more than pro surfing is giving her on her farewell tour with two titles being more or less taken at Lowers (we can debate that another time) and her final Pipe heat being a bit of a dud, on a strange “hurry-up-and-run-shoulda-been-a-lay-day.”
Filipe: Something’s rotten in the state of Ubatuba. Filipe Toledo isn’t the first pro surfer to “need a break” but after back-to-back world titles, he sure made it an awkward farewell. With there being a lot of chatter about his willingness to surf bigger waves, not catching a wave in your heat at Pipe before calling it on account of “food poisoning” and then never returning it’s going to make people talk. Especially when you consider the forecast for this week at Sunset. Wax up the guns everyone!
Jackson Bunch’s buzzer beater: We had a feeling Jackson Bunch might turn some heads at this event, and following a runner up finish at the World Junior’s in tiny Oceanside last week, Jackson just kinda made sure everyone knows this Maui boy has the map to Pipeline favorited.
Kade Matson’s Wipeout: It was his welcome to the big leagues moment for sure and everyone saw it. But instead of let it get to home, Kade posted the wipeout on his own IG him with the clip from Surf’s Up that bore a striking resemblance.
Moana Jones Wong’s wave after the event: We all watch Carissa and Moana go down in less than stellar Pipe on the “had to run” Thursday before the swell and that left us feeling a bit weird. Luckily, Moana got her moment after the contest ended, getting one of the best waves of the day — men or women. See it below.
In other notes: WSL’s podcast host Dave Prodan’s car was stolen while he surfed V-Land. Another reminder not to leave much more than your slippers in the car. No matter how many influencers and surfers put the North Shore on the map, it’s still the Wild West.
Barron Mamiya calls out WSL for not running on the big day: Ten backs it up by dominating the rest of the event, taking down John John with a 10 in the final. Has the baton been passed down, or is John John still hungry?
"I was all psyched to surf yesterday. I thought we were going to run for sure. I guess they said it was too big or something."—Barron Mamiya
Callum Robson and Ian Gentil put on their hard hats and went to work: Throughout the event both surfers just kept making rounds with no stickers on their boards, dropping some of the best waves of the event, including this 9 from Callum after breaking his thruster and paddling out on a quad and that might have given him the squirt he needed to get through this one:
