"This energy comes from (male) coaches… I'm begging them to bring their skills in the air to heat surfing."

I will confess that I did not watch every heat of the women’s Meo Rip Curl Pro held in Portugal over many days this past week. If you like your surf contests doled out a little at a time like the food at a small plates wine bar, then the Meo Rip Curl Pro was the contest for you. I am not a small plates kind of girl.

If you enjoy two-turn combos all day, every day, then you are also in luck! There were a lot of two-turn combos in the women’s heats in Portugal. A pedestrian sort of affair, the beachbreak fest in Portugal didn’t really tell us much about who is the best in women’s surfing right now, but it did tell us what’s missing.

Women’s surfing needs to get into the air, like yesterday.

Perhaps the most anticipated heat came in the quarterfinals when world number one Caity Simmers met Erin Brooks. Like most of the contest, it took place in sloppy, pick-and-choose beach break conditions. Caity had one of her falling heats. Her mistakes make her interesting, but sometimes frustrating to watch. She hit a couple of one-turn bangers, but couldn’t find enough open face to do anything special.

Erin won the heat against Caity on the strength of a long left. She surfed the shit out of it and deserved the score. But I would also like to tie her ams to her sides. They are very animated! I would like Erin’s arms to chill the fuck out.

The notable characteristic of Erin’s surfing, though, is her speed. She springs off the bottom and her turns flow one into the next in a fluid blur of motion. Erin’ on rail, and she’s hauling ass. She rightly advanced to the semis ahead of Caity.

In her time on Tour, Gabriela Bryan has become one of the most consistent surfers in the draw, and she used that trait to her advantage against Erin in their semifinal match-up. Erin had some heavy one-hit slams on her backhand. She knows how to get all up in it on her close-out turns. She’s exciting to watch, but couldn’t really put together more than one turn at a time in this heat.

Imperturbable, Gabriela steadily steamrolled her way though. She managed to find enough open face to put up a pair of two-turn combinations that got her the scores. It wasn’t super exciting surfing, but it was smooth, technically sharp, and she got it done. Gabriela has power to burn and she used it well to land some banging close-out hits.

On the other side of the draw, Molly Picklum opened her heat against Caroline by pulling into a heavy barrel. She bobbled the take-off and slid down the face, but she still got in there. Too bad she couldn’t make it out of that one — it could well have won her the heat. Molly didn’t take another chance on the barrels and lost to Caroline’s consistent turns in a low-scoring heat.

The final between Caroline and Gabriela unfolded slowly, like one of those big Russian novels where nothing much happens for 200 pages. Honestly, I’ve never gotten past the first 200 pages, so I’ve never learned if it gets better. This heat did not. Caroline won it with a 7.90 total heat score to Gabriela’s 6.97. The conditions did not excite. They did some turns. Some turns were better than other turns.

On a whim, I jumped over to see what the men’s final looked like. I do not typically compare the men’s and women’s heats. I stand firmly on the ground that they are separate sports, each on their own trajectories. But I was curious to see what the men found to do with this unpromising set-up. Did they also do some turns?

Well, sure.

But the final heat match-up between Yago Dora and Italo Fereirra had a more dynamic character. I liked Yago’s stalefish. Both surfers got barreled. It was not the most scintillating heat I’ve ever seen, but there was something to watch. The men’s final had energy.

In recent years, women’s surfing has progressed significantly at places like Teahupo’o and Pipe. It’s hard to do everything all at once but the air game in women’s heat surfing continues to languish. A punchy beachbreak like Portugal should yield at least, something? I would think? It did not. Instead, it was turns and more turns, with a side order of turns.

From their freesurfing clips, the women in the new generation can clearly land airs. They’ve all done it. Caity even manages to look super stylish up there. Erin can fly. I am begging them to please bring their skills in the air to their heat surfing. It could be fun! Why not make heat surfing fun? Please give me this one nice thing.

At the moment, there remains an essential conservatism to the approach that many of the women are taking to their heats. I can only imagine some of this energy comes from coaches who are just trying to help them get through the draw. I get the importance of taking the long view.

I would also argue that the cut reinforces safety surfing rather than encouraging progression. If you need to stay in the top ten to make the cut, you’re going to take the safest route possible to that destination. On the women’s side, the small draw at the Championship Tour level combined with the cut is quite simply holding back progression. There’s no incentive to risk.

In 2026, the WSL plans to expand the women’s Tour draw to 24. I’m hoping that creates more space for the women at the top of the sport to push their surfing. They’re doing exactly that when it comes to barrels. Airs next, please.

After the Meo Rip Curl Pro, Caity still sits at the top of the world rankings. Just 300 points separate Molly and Caroline in a close battle for second. Tyler Wright and Gabriela round out the top five, with Erin just outside the top ranks in sixth. Finals day is still well within reach for Erin, who will thoroughly enjoy the lefts at Cloudbreak, as if she needed any extra incentive.

New for this year, the cut arrives after seven events. Currently, Sawyer Linblad, Vahine Fierro, Lakey Peterson, and newcomer Bella Kenworthy round out the top ten. It’s surprising to see Brisa Hennessy below the line after her consistency for the past few seasons, while both Tati West and Bettylou Sakura Johnson are stuck in the back seat of the strugglebus.

Next up is El Salvador, where the sportswashing is heavy and the rocks are slippery. The waiting period runs from 2-12 April. The right point offers a good chance for Lakey and Bella to put some distance between themselves and the cut line. At the top, Caroline will certainly put pressure on Caity and Molly.

I don’t expect to see airs on a right point, but a girl can dream, right? We were promised jet packs and I’m still here waiting.

Though it is notable how even on the worst days, the best surfers prevail.

Toughest event from a fan’s perspective in living memory? From your narrowed and tired Antipodean eyes, almost certainly.

Not to mention the blinkered views of the North American man, woman, they or them.

But tell it to the Euros on the sand, waving Italian flags in support of Leo Fioravanti. Tell it to Marco Mignot’s old man. Tell it to the ever-present, always voracious Brazilian fan, who enjoyed an all-country match-up in the final between Italo Ferreira and Yago Dora, at an event Brazil has historically dominated.

The truth is, waves or no, Portugal always brings the fans. It’s second only to Brazil in this regard, and that counts for something.

But yes, the waves were objectively garbage.

All day the head-on view into the glare made it look like surfing as imagined in a Cormac McCarthy novel. Wind-ripped tones of beige under leaden skies.

To make it worse, the storm that had blown over Peniche in the days prior had damaged some of the infrastructure, meaning that most of the heats shown on Finals Day were punctuated by momentary blackouts.

Worse still: the surfing on screen had no graphics, so no surfer names nor scores. The only way to follow the overlapping heats was to depend on Kaipo and Mitch et al. Not a position you want to be left in under any circumstances.

Just on the infrastructure: unless I’m misremembering this, the whole point of locating this competition in Peniche fifteen years ago was not just Supertubos, but the fact the peninsula was more or less agnostic to weather and offered so many set-ups.

Why do they now refuse to move? Why are they staunchly pitched in Supertubos sand when the waves are likely good elsewhere yet blown to shit in front of them?

My guess is that it’s simply a cost-cutting exercise. But it’s a false economy. Getting the competition completed in better waves and a shorter timeframe should always be the priority.

So I certainly won’t try and dress this as something it wasn’t. But between the glare, there were some moments.

The best two surfers of the competition met in the final. (See statistics to follow!) That in itself can be considered success.

Both Dora and Ferreira turned nothing waves into somethings. Few other surfers in the draw have this ability. This will change in years to come, when young surfers who’ve honed their craft on the air sections of wavepools will make similar closeouts look like something else.

Though it is notable how even on the worst days, the best surfers prevail. The semis, and to a lesser extent the quarters, were comprised of guys you’d want to watch on the best days.

 

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Italo Ferreira made gold glint in morning sun, spinning high and fast in spite of the tempestuous Atlantic closeouts. Yago Dora found impossible waves against Ethan Ewing in their semi final. The dynamism of Dora laying waste to Ewing’s unrealised beauty.

“He’s taking calculated risks, but not over-risking things either,” said Mitch Salazar of Dora, making little sense but not making much sense either.

It was notable that by the final, even Kaipo had tired of his co-anchor.

“The fans on the beach are very well-educated,” claimed Salazar after Yago Dora had landed a clean full rotation in the final. “They recognise when someone’s done something awesome.”

“Anytime you see someone flying in the air, Mitchell, anyone’s going to be impressed,” Guerrero chided.

But I suppose I should cut them some slack. This was a hard gig. The saccharine enthusiasm of children’s TV presenters can only stretch so far.

And since the WSL has such a kink for stats these days, allow me to end on a flourish with some statistical analysis of Finals Day.

From the quarter finals on:

110 waves were scored.

52 of these waves (or 47% if you prefer) were scored at one point or less.

Just 21 of these waves (19%) scored five points or more.

Italo Ferreira (6) and Yago Dora (9) accounted for 71% of these mid-to-high scoring waves.

Are you not entertained?