Next weekend’s Pipeline Billabong Pro, the season starter for yet another new-look World Surf League Championship tour, will be historic for several reasons, not least of which is that it will be the first full women’s WCT event held at the iconic and dangerous break.
Australia’s two-time world champion Tyler Wright broke the glass ceiling by winning the Maui Roxy Pro there this time last year, but that was after the event was switched to Pipe from Maui’s Honolua Bay halfway through because of Covid issues.
WSL’s Jake Howard wrote of that victory: “While there were surely other local women that predated her, the paddle-battle for inclusion in the lineup at the most infamous break in surfing has been going on for the better part of half a century. Today’s performance by all the women that surfed Pipe is a monumental step forward that will undoubtedly set the stage for even greater things to come. For Wright, it’s obviously more than just another contest victory.”
Howard was referring to the less than perfect storm which had engulfed the powerful Wright, world champion in 2016 and 2017, since 2018, when she contracted a particularly virulent dose of the flu while competing in South Africa, leaving her with little-understood post-viral syndrome. Although the condition took her out of competition for almost two years, it also made her stronger as a person.
In May 2020 she came out on national television, acknowledging the love and support of her then partner, singer/songwriter Alex Lynn. In September 2020, feeling her way back into surfing contests, she turned up at the Tweed Coast Pro with Black Lives Matter painted on her board and took a knee alone on the sand for 439 seconds, one for every First Nations person who has lost a life in custody since 1991. She was the first high profile surfer to do so.
She later told media: “I have an opportunity to show up and be exactly who I am. I want to show up with my humanity first and foremost and with my values. My values are equality and inclusion, that’s what I want to represent.”
In December 2020, while Covid raged around the world, she returned to Hawaii for the season, and paddled out for her first heat at the Maui Pro with a Pride flag sewn on her contest jersey. Inspired by the courage of her convictions, she went on to win the event with a heroic display in challenging conditions. The champ was back, and on her own terms.
Surfing needs more Tyler Wrights, but in this year’s race for the title she is going to be up against some stiff opposition from her fellow Australians, as well as old rivals like reigning champion Carissa Moore. In the women’s draw for 2022, seven of 18 (39 percent) are Aussies, including last year’s form surfer Sally Fitzgibbons ranked number three, and multiple world champ Steph Gilmore ranked number five ahead of Tyler at eight.
Also in the draw are WA power surfer Bronte Macaulay and Coolum’s engineering student Isabella Nichols, as well as rookies India Robinson and Molly Picklum. Molly, from the NSW Central Coast, was a last-minute inclusion on the main tour when California’s Caitlin Simmers decided not to take on the tour this year.
“Although it is eventually a goal to be on the CT, I’m declining the spot for 2022,” Caitlin told the WSL. “I’d like to work on my surfing, spending time with my family and friends, and school to be more mentally and physically ready to face that challenge.”
Molly, 19, finished the 2021 Challenger Series just one spot below the CT cut-line, but don’t underestimate this powerhouse because she just scraped in. She’s been trained by champion-maker Glenn “Micro” Hall and was one of the standouts at Kirra during the recent Seth swell. At Pipe she won’t hold back.
Australian representation on the men’s tour is not as dominant, with nine of 36 competitors (25 percent) but it’s a refreshing mix of exciting newcomers and a few tour vets returning. Newcastle’s Morgan Cibilic is our highest-ranked man at number five, followed by WA’s Jack Robinson at 12. Further down the list Ryan Callinan, Ethan Ewing, Connor O’Leary and Owen Wright represent talent and experience, while rookies Liam O’Brien, Callum Robson and Jackson Baker complete the list.
It’s shaping up to be an interesting first half of the year, with two Hawaiian events, followed by a chilly strike mission to Portugal and then the two-event Australian leg at Bells and Margaret River. Let’s just hope that Covid leaves it alone.
