Women surfers continue to overshadow “lacklustre” men at Lexus Pipe Pro

This edition of Pipe has felt like both the longest and the shortest ever: Schrödinger’s surf contest.

I will watch 10,000 ads. I will watch 10,000 ads for you during the Lexus Pipe Pro, because well, I’m stupid. Have you ever watched the replays on the World Surf League website? There’s an unskippable ad at the beginning of the heat, and yet another ad in the middle of the heat.

If you try to let it run while you cruise to another tab, it will stop. It knows! It knows you are cheating! No cheating allowed. You must watch all 10,000 hours of ads — Lexus, Cali Squeeze, and Apple+ — if you want to watch the surfing. It is not a good time, but I did it all for you. I did it, because I’m stupid.

We have reached the quarterfinals of the Lexus Pipe Pro for the women. As Chas rightly pointed out, it either takes ten days to run a surfing contest or 1.57 days. This edition of Pipe has felt like both the longest and the shortest ever: Schrödinger’s surf contest. The conditions have not inspired. Still, the show must go on.

Let’s start with a few good things. My favorite heat so far came during the round of 16, between Isabella Nichols and Gabriela Bryan. They had the highest scoring heat of the day, and one of the closest. Isabella won it with a clean backdoor tube that she rode out, easy like a week of Sundays. That wave earned her a mid-8, the highest single wave score of the day.

For her part, Gabriela came out swinging. Over the past few years, she’s quietly developed into one of the most consistent surfers on Tour. She threw down a series of hammer turns that earned her one of the highest single wave scores of the day. And in fact, Gabriela’s heat score was the second-highest of the day. Too bad for her that it wasn’t enough. Isabella moves on to the quarterfinals.

After her round of 16 heat, Caity Simmers gave her usual random interview. She was tired from paddling, out of position, and very sad in the lineup. But inside the final five minutes, she found a barrel, a neat double cover-up, and she threw hard into a turn to finish it. Caity also scored one of the few barrels on the opening day. A basic rule of surfing is: if there’s a barrel, Caity will find it.

It does, however, require nerves of steel to be a Caity fan. As she pointed out in her interview, she fell a lot and for most of her heat, she trailed Moana Jones Wong. To Moana’s credit, these were not conditions that suited her at all, but she kept grinding at it. Backdoor, turns, not her thing!

 

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In fact, the opening day sent Moana to the elimination round. She fought her way out, sending new girl Bella Kenworthy home. Then Moana met Caity in the round of 16 and came close to beating her. Thanks to her magical attraction to the barrel, though, Caity won and heads for the quarterfinals.

After Lakey failed the make the cut last year, she was understandably demoralized. It was perhaps a needed wake-up call. She took a hard look at her surfing and decided to put in the work over the off-season. Lakey’s super power is her rail surfing, yes, but also she’s just really fucking strong, and in recent clips, she seems to be putting those things together in an interesting and dynamic way.

Having the Lexus Pipe Pro contest transform into a turn-fest at Backdoor was a gift for Lakey and she’s put it to use. She finished second to Tyler in her opening round, which was enough to jump over the elimination round. Then she beat Tati Weston-Webb to make the quarters. To be sure, Tati had a bit of a shocker. When the wheels come off for Tati, they tend to come all the way off. But Lakey put her experience to use, stayed unruffled, and got her scores. She meets Isabella in the quarters.

I have heard a lot of talk about how Erin Brooks is going to win everything, all the time. I don’t think it’s especially fair to weigh her down with quite so many expectations in her rookie year. But I am just a girl on the internet. No need to listen to me.

So, how’s Pipe going for Erin? Well. She got sent to the elimination round by Gabriela and Sawyer Lindblad. She escaped by beating Sally Fitzgibbons and placing second to Bettylou Sakura Johnson, but in truth, none of her wave scores was anything special.

On the whole, poor conditions often favor experience over pure talent. Women who have been on Tour for a while learn how to spin shit into gold. Caroline Marks is amazingly good at winning clutch heats in bad waves, which is a compliment, I promise. It’s an art form.

Against Molly Picklum in the round of 16, Erin never really got it going. One turn waves yielded a series of low scores. It was a low-scoring heat overall, but Molly predictably ripped a few solid turns. There was one nifty combination where she air dropped off the lip before shimmying around the section to hit the close-out. It was a high six, and kept Erin scrambling to make anything work. Molly moves on, while Erin takes a ninth.

In her heat against Brisa, Vahine Fierro really wanted to get barreled. She managed to find a couple of cover-ups at backdoor, but it wasn’t enough. Over the past few seasons, in particular, Brisa has become a remarkably consistent heat surfer. She’s smooth and steady and she relied on her turns to carry her. It was enough to take a narrow win over Vahine. Brisa meets Molly in the quarters.

After her performance at Pipe last year, it was a surprise to see Bettylou go out early. Overall last season, Bettylou seemed to find her rhythm on Tour and she’s added some much-needed strength to her turns.

But in her opening round heat, she looked surprisingly lost for a local girl. She only surfed two waves and lost to Molly and Vahine. In her elimination heat, she left it until late — like super late — and only advanced after scoring a seven-point ride inside the final 30 seconds to send Sally home.

Luck didn’t find Bettylou when she met Sawyer in the round of 16. Sawyer has a wicked backhand and she looks to have gotten stronger over the off-season. It’s hard to call the Rookie of the Year underrated, but Sawyer keeps catching me by surprise. Her backhand definitely slaps and she put it to use at Backdoor to send Bettylou home. The quarterfinal between Sawyer and Caity should be a very good time.

It feels like Caroline has been on Tour forever, but she’s still only 22. She’s got a world title and a gold medal to her credit already. Caroline has slid through this Pipe contest on the strength of her consistency and smart heat surfing. Caroline rarely makes mistakes and in mediocre conditions, she’s extremely good at winning. Her only weakness is big barrels, which hasn’t held her back all that much.

At Pipe, she’s had a relatively easy draw. She beat new girl Bella and wildcard Nadia Erostarbe in the opening round. Then in the round of 16, Caroline drew Nadia again and quite honestly, smashed her to bits. Caroline advances to the quarterfinals and begins her next world title pursuit.

Tyler also has experience on her side, and like Lakey, she has thrived on this turns at Backdoor edition of the Lexus Pipe Pro. Tyler won her opening round and beat Luana Silva in the round of 16. Luana’s put in some work over the off-season and her turns looked sharp in her opening round win. Against Tyler, though, she struggled to put together a winning heat. Tyler meets Caroline in the quarterfinals.

On Friday, it’s all boys, all day. There’s a pile of men’s heats to finish, and not all that much time left to do it. It either takes ten days or 1.57 days. I don’t pretend to understand it.

Look for finals day of the Lexus Pipe Pro to take place on Saturday.