Five women advance to the 2025 Championship Tour. Five is not enough women, but life has a way of dealing out numerous disappointments…
Last Wednesday, the women’s Challenger Series came to an end in Brazil. Were you watching? I was not.
At the time, I was in Moreno Valley, California, which seems like a perfectly fine place except for its location very far from where I live.
I wrote the freeway numbers on my arm and actually made it. This felt good! And, I made it back to the coast with just enough time to run out and jump in the ocean at sunset. This also felt very good.
Five women advance to the 2025 Championship Tour, which begins at Pipeline in January. Five is not enough women, but life has a way of dealing out numerous disappointments and we must soldier on despite them. Three women are almost entirely new. The other two, we have seen on Tour previously. On the subject of women we have seen previously, Lakey Peterson has a wildcard for the first seven events.
Let’s get to know the five new girls. It’ll be fun — or at least, more fun than driving all the freeways I could find and a few I couldn’t. Just about anything must surely be better than that.
5. Vahine Fierro
There was a pretty damn fierce battle for this final qualifying slot among Yolanda Hopkins, Luana Silva, Nadia Erostarbe, and Vahine. A second-place finish in Brazil sealed it for Vahine. Now 24, Vahine’s the queen of Tahiti and won last year’s Shiseido Tahiti Pro, where her semifinal against Tati West was one of the best women’s heats of the year. She’s been trying for a few years now to get on Tour, and the rights on the beach-break heavy Challenger Series hasn’t suited her super well.
She’s made it at last, and I’m looking forward to seeing Vahine mixing it up at Pipeline. The rest of the pre-cut schedule, though, is not super goofyfoot friendly. She’ll get to go left in Abu Dhabi, but otherwise, it’s one open face right after another until the cut. Though she’s improved her backhand significantly in recent years, I think Vahine will have a hard time staying above the line. Hopefully, there’s a wildcard ready for Tahiti with her name on it, because she sure does surf Teahupo’o beautifully.
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4. Erin Brooks
Oh hey, I guess we all know who Erin Brooks is, don’t we. In 2024, Erin, 17, won the Corona Fiji Pro at Cloudbreak, her first victory at a Championship Tour event. I doubt very much it will be the last.
All the same, the Challenger Series turned into a bit of a nail-biter for her. Erin picked up a second in Sydney, then struggled through a series of early round exits. Qualifying fourth, her CT spot wasn’t secure until Brazil, where she left the door open with a ninth. But she did make it, just not with the emphatic performance that Snapper suggested she might bring to the project.
At Pipeline, Erin’s a potential winner, but she won’t have it easy. The veterans will bring the confidence that comes from competing there for the past three years. The importance of last year’s finals day for women’s surfing at Pipe can’t be overstated. Erin is very good, but so, finally, are many of her competitors. If she takes to the air at the wave pool, it will certainly liven things up. I’d love to see it. Otherwise, though, Erin faces a similar challenge to Vahine. The Tour has a hell of a lot of open face rights, where Erin’s style could use some fine-tuning, and not a ton of juice, where she seems to thrive.
3. Isabella Nichols
Not really a new girl, Isabella, 27, has bounced between the Tour and the Challengers for the past two years. She’s had some notable results, but too often goes out in the early rounds to stay on Tour. She’s at her best on long rights and at the beach breaks, so she’ll enjoy this year’s Tour schedule. In 2022 Isabella won Margaret River and she’s been third at Bells. She just has to get through Pipe, where she’s never finished higher than ninth.
Isabella’s a stylish surfer, but she doesn’t seem to have that one magic thing that would make her stand out. I think she belongs on Tour, and I’d love to see her notch up some results at Bells or Snapper. She has a knack for beach break surfing that served her well during the 2020 Covid-shortened Tour year and on the Challenger series. This year’s schedule offers her a better chance to make the cut, but the women’s field is now crowded with talent. If this whole surfing thing doesn’t work out for Isabella, she’s also got an engineering degree.
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2. Bella Kenworthy
After qualifying in Portugal, Bella, 17, skipped the final Challengers event in Brazil. Instead, she went to to Indo, where she’s been busy chasing barrels with Sierra Kerr and Sawyer Lindblad. All of which is to say, Bella is making some excellent life choices. A San Clemente girl, Bella originally caught the eye of Vans as a park skateboarder, so she isn’t exactly what you’d call a shrinking violet. Sure, she grew up surfing T Street and Trestles, but she also charges. I am a fan of this sort of thing.
On the way to qualifying, Bella won the Balito Pro and she finished a painful second at the US Open to Sally Fitzgibbons. She’s made it on Tour, though, and she’s got a good shot at staying there. Like the rest of the younger crew, Bella’s a well-rounded surfer. She can get barreled in heavy lefts, she can surf beach breaks, and she’s got an air game. She’s also pretty obviously been working to refine her style on the open faces Trestles offers. Relative to some of the other women coming on Tour, Bella’s superpower is her strength. Girl works out hard, and it should serve her well.
Sally Fitzgibbons
Growing up, Sally always wanted to be a professional athlete. She didn’t really know what sport she would pursue, but she knew what she wanted. So, it should come as no surprise that she’s still competing at 33. Sal has boundless energy, and made it back on Tour after winning the US Open and the Ericiera Pro. She’s been outspoken in her criticism of the limited spots for women on Tour and has called for its expansion. I doubt it’ll happen in time to help her, but she’s right, especially with the horde of talented girls coming up.
In recent years, Sal’s evolved her surfing to be more dynamic and progressive, but I think her days on Tour are numbered. There’s just no way she’s keeping up with the likes of Caity, Erin, and Molly as they grow in skill and confidence. Pipeline still confounds Sal and she’s never placed higher than ninth at the Tour’s opening event. The right-heavy schedule will suit her, and she might squeak through the cut. But there’s only so many more times she can play this game. To her credit, she seems to be making the most of it and there’s nothing to hate in that.
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See you in January, new girls!
