“That would have been a ten for the guys! That was insane.”
The Texan-born and newly-minted Canadian Erin Brooks has cemented her place in surfing lore after a ten-point ride at Snapper Rocks that officially ended a forty-year perception that women couldn’t ride tubes on their backhand.
Erin Brooks, who its sixteen, was bred to shred, as they used to say.
She moved from Texas to Hawaii when she was nine, surfed Teahupoo at eleven, was taking off on ten-foot Sunset peaks at thirteen and was the youngest ever competitor invited to surf in the Padang Padang Cup.
And, earlier today at Snapper Rocks, Erin Brooks threaded a legitimate top-to-bottom drainer earning her a unanimous ten-point ride from the judges. Not only did it supersede every backside tube by a woman ever filmed, free surf or contest, but it opened the door to a new era of gal’s surfing.
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Erin Brooks gift-wrapped the day by winning the entire event. She now leads the Challenger Series ratings, a six-event feeder system for the top-rung Championship Tour.
Commentary, naturally, was alive with praise for Ms Brooks.
Insane!” wrote Nathan Florence.
Rio Wada, “Tbh that’s 20.”
Teahupoo standout Eimeo Czermak, “Best 10 ever for girls.”
Leo Fioravanti, “Most technical barrel I’ve ever see by a girl on their backhand. Erin Brooks, you’re next level.”
Jackson Dorian, “That would have been a ten for the guys! That was insane.”
Kai Lenny, “That was insane.”
Fisher, “EPIC.”
Sky Brown, “Mind blown.”
The last time Erin Brooks was on this pages was in January during the wild imbroglio over her Canadian citizenship.
Following the “cruel and sadistic” rejection of effort to represent Canada at Paris 2024, the country’s immigration minister Marc Miller did a switcharoo and gifted the kid her prized new passport.
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How can we talk about Erin’s performance at this event without mentioning her immortal post heat interviews?
Stace Galbraith (bless him) sniffed out his angle early, asking Brooks about her love of Timezone. She giggled like the 16 year old she is and gushed about her bff Bella Nicholls and her skill at Pop-A-Shot.
Then when she won (after an incredibly mistake-ridden final) she gushed again thanking God for “letting me win” and expressing her excitement for her dad’s plan to “take me and my friends out for pizza!!!”
If Brooks vs. Simmers will be the next great rivalry, then it will come with a stark contrast between Caity’s awkward yet iconic stonerish murmurings and Erin’s even more awkward enthusiastic Christian youth group-themed gushings
Respect for Brooks and her talent no doubt… but a few take-aways from this all…
1. Where is Kelly piping in respect/credit to her like the others (he usually does pipe in with compliments or his vast of countless global topics, and love for turtles)?
2. Just imagine the adoration, shower of compliments, hours of audible pain Turps has in store for us if/when Brooks is on the ‘CT, if there even is a WSL left then…
3. Perhaps the true “rivalry” each with their own styles in and out of the water, and fan base (we haven’t had an Andy vs. Kelly scenario in a bit) to come on the ‘CT will be Erin vs. Caity?…
The main difference imho is that Molly’s Pipe wave was awarded a 10 on a women’s scaled judging system. (Which I have a hard time agreeing with in theory – as what is deemed possible on a known wave like Pipe is determined by what the Men historically have been able to do. But nonetheless, it is fact of the WSL scoring system.) If JJF or KS rode that same Molly wave, it would’ve been given an 7.5-8.5 pt score tops. No one would be sayin “That was one of the best Pipe waves ever ridden in competition or a freesurf by a male”. Erin’s wave on the other hand was a legit 10pt ride for either gender.
Now if we want to talk non-scaled men vs women surfing, what Stef was doing in that World Champ expression session could’ve been judged on a one system scale. And Molly’s ridiculous Sunset closeout hook was as gnarly as it gets for men or women.
You’d and Jen should do a podcast about Womens surfing
Yep
For what ever reason, this comp was so much better to watch than any CT this year and I’m not talking about the quality of the waves.
This comp seemed more like what CT comps used to be back in the day, more loose and free flowing, before they became sterile and full blown corpo. Maybe it’s the commentary team without Joe, forced drama, etc IDK. I normally force myself to watch CT comps but I actually enjoyed watching this one.
That was a great barrel… for a girl
Canadians shred.
Mooseheads rule!!!
Luana is the new Malia Manuel
Ouch
For real.
You crazy! This way more technical.
Especially the mad hacks post shack
But way less consequence if it went wrong
Please stop with this bullshit. Surfing is not technical.
it was a great wave sent by god,
100%
Strange final. Luana looked radical and novice on the same wave. The Canadian is a small nuke. Would do damage on the mens tour.
Totally , pound for pound she turned as hard as any bloke
What say you Sheryl Swoopes? “dat lil ***** is not a ***** and will never make it!”
https://brobible.com/wp-con…
Nathan Florence has recently revealed himself to be a weak little bitchmade tool who wants to be a mini Elon Musk. Fuck his opinion
Could you please elaborate?
His filmer is a trumper donkey and Nate went full Elon Musk censorship mode on anyone trying to give him solid business advice (in YouTube comments at first) about repping his brothers new company, that it’s not smart to get political when starting a business, especially if you’re supporting the side that hates the environment. Most of it was just purely smart business advice and his replies were generally “cry harder lololol” or “we don’t want you in our products anyway and I would never want to be like YOU”
I’ve never seen so much comment manipulation in my life, must have been exhausting for him to delete so many comments (including his own).
He showed his immaturity and his disrespect for John’s new company. The whole trump thing was a dog whistle and he made it very clear that Trumptards are far more welcome in Florence Marine X and as his subscribers than non-political people trying to give him advice about the new company.
Yeah free speech sucks!
Lately the people squawking loudest about fReE sPeEcH are neo-nazis or insurrectionists or rapists…
Sometimes “free speech” costs $83,300,000 but uneducated fools will never grasp that.
If you’re pretending Nate is a free speech absolutist, explain the 69,000 comments he personally censored because they huwt his feewings while he was calling everyone else sensitive.
Haha thats funny . Misogyny wrapped up as Midgetism. BTW I agree that Musk is our worst export.
I think you need to read the definition of misogyny before you try to use it in a sentence.
Mad respect for Erin! Maybe Pip could consult with her on how to not backside barrel dodge?
35min heat: 16yo Erin Brooks would get more choobed at Pipe or Chopes than Phileepè and it’s not even a joke. That’s a sad state of affairs for the reigning champ.
She rips but I’d be worried if I saw someone looking that young driving a car.
Heck you would’ve been VERY worried in NZ back in the old days when ya could get ya license the day ya turned 15, and buy an old V8 for under $500 (my first was a $150 Holden).
So ya had teams of kids racing eachother all around the country to be first in the water, the speeding bombs often billowing with Cheech & Chong style smoke.
And then there was the after surf beers etc…
Scaring myself by having responsible adult thoughts but now that seems too young.
Praise from Ke11y seems to be absent. Maybe he’s pouting, because he wasn’t able to steal the spotlight.
Not enough side show heats.
Have the North Americans finally learnt to pray harder than everyone else? God has finite surf comp favor #biggestprayerwins
Or maybe they they pray longer? or more times in one day?
I just remember Eli winning the US Open after thanking god after every heat win. Next day his town burned down.
The big man works in mysterious ways.
Serious question: has Erin Brooks ever been to Canada? 🇨🇦🏒
She surfs well. That wave was an epic ride.
She’s good enough to make the US team eventually if she just let her skill do the talking instead of playing some games with paperwork (apparently she didn’t even fill out the “citizenship application” fully or something and needed MORE special treatment)
Does anyone in Canada actually care though?
I bet that one guy in Tofino that had a career for a bit is kinda happy.
Peter deVries, something like that?
Won a 6-star at his local, not bad.
Born in Texas, raised in Hawaii. You can be sure that everyone in both those Canadian provinces are incredibly proud, eh?
I decided I am a citizen of Djibouti and will be expecting to surf at Teahupoo to represent my country. Pretty sure my home country is spelled Djibouti 🤔 if anybody wants to be an Olympian with me.
Snapper has got to be the best wave under headhigh in the world for viewing experience. It’s so fun to watch it break and mindsurf.
Agreed. The WSL should take note.
As much as they try to make it all about personalities, like NASCAR or the WWE, most of us who watch, just want to see some good rides.
I don’t really care where a surfer comes from. Sure, it’s cool to see someone from a place where I feel a connection, doing well. But there have been big chunks of time when that hasn’t been true for me, and I didn’t lose interest in seeing some good rides.
Spectator-friendly spots are key.
Like, does anyone watch a whole Sunset contest? It’s just not a great wave to watch, most of the time. I couldn’t care less how hard it is to surf well, when it comes to watching. A season without Pipeline seems lacking, but otherwise, does anyone GAF about the whole done-to-death North Shore?
In the end, competition is secondary. This is why it does matter if the WSL is run by surfers. People involved in promoting golf, football, or even skiing, really don’t have any understanding of why anyone watches other people surf.