Taking place at one of the best waves in the world, the Tahiti Pro is typically one of the most compelling events on the Championship Tour calendar, but this year it took on added importance as the last contest of the year before the WSL Finals. Filipe Toledo and Jack Robinson had already locked in their spots in the top five, but the other three were still up for grabs; though realistically, a lot needed to go wrong for Ethan Ewing and Italo Ferreira to slip outside of a finals spot. Griffin Colapinto in fifth was the most vulnerable, particularly with Kanoa Igarashi looming ominously just behind him, while a handful of others had a chance of making a last ditch jump into the top five if everything went right. This is how the tenth event of the year went down.
The Event
Opening Round
Idyllic conditions were forecast for later on in the event, but the Opening Round took place in clean, moderate-sized Teahupo’o waves, and for the first couple of heats quality scores were at a premium. Both Ewing and Ferreira failed to lock up their spots in the top five, losing their respective heats, while local Kauli Vaast was impressive in securing a spot in the Round of 16 with a 13.60 heat total. Colapinto, too, was sent to the Elimination Round, though the main threat to his hold on fifth in Igarashi joined him there.
At the other end of the scale, there were a number of surfers who lay down the gauntlet to their challengers, no one more so than Jack Robinson and Kelly Slater. Robinson showed why he has risen to become one of the best in the world with a round-high 16.26, while Slater reminded everyone that even at 50, his backhand tube riding is up there with the best in the business; an 8.50 and a 7.50 helped him to a 16.00.
Elimination Round
With conditions continuing to improve, world number one Filipe Toledo came up against Narabeen’s wildcard Nathan Hedge, and with a 14.83 would have expected to advance pretty comfortably. As it were, however, ‘The Hog’, aged 43, showed he is more than capable of matching it with the best, and stunned the world title favourite with a 15.76 in an incredible heat. The next heat was far less exciting, with neither surfer exceeding a heat total of 7.00, but Igarashi did enough to keep his finals hopes alive by beating Seth Moniz. In the third heat, Ewing overcame a tough matchup against local Michel Bourez to secure a spot in the top five with a 14.00, before an incredibly low scoring heat followed when Jake Marshall beat Callum Robson 2.43-0.97.
But such is the nature of Teahupo’o. When the waves come they are as good as any in the world, but there’s little middle ground. That showed when, in the next heat, Ferreira was eliminated by compatriot Jadson Andre 17.00-16.60, and the door was left ajar for him to lose his spot in the top five. Miguel Pupo then beat Nat Young in an entertaining heat, Colapinto won a pivotal heat against Jackson Baker, before Matthew McGillivray surfed brilliantly en route to a 16.44 to defeat Barron Mamiya.
Round of 16
Conditions were always going to improve into the event, and boy did Teahupo’o deliver come the Round of 16. It was an extraordinary round; just three surfers failed to score at least 14.50 in their heats, each of the first five heats was decided by less than 2.00 points, and four in succession were decided by 0.70 points or less.
In the first, Ewing was eliminated by the ever-impressive Vaast, who continued to demonstrate his wares at this wave with a 17.07 heat total. One of the best two-hour periods of the year then ensued, but rather than harp on about why I’ll let the scores do the talking:
Heat #2:
Matthew McGillivray (17.00) defeated Samuel Pupo (16.43)
Heat #3:
Yago Dora (14.94) defeated Griffin Colapinto (14.63)
Heat #4:
Kelly Slater (17.00) defeated Connor O’Leary (16.83)
Heat #5:
Nathan Hedge (18.30) defeated Jack Robinson (17.60)
The bald brigade of Slater and Hedge were the standout victors, combining for a total of 35.30 at a combined age of 93! Colapinto, meanwhile, suffered a heartbreaking defeat; his loss meant that Igarashi needed only beat Andre in Heat #7 to steal his spot in the top five. And courtesy of a 9.70 on his last wave, he did just that, securing one of the biggest wins of his career to lock in a spot at the Finals. In the other two heats, Jordy Smith was knocked out by Caio Ibelli, while Miguel Pupo beat Jake Marshall in the lowest scoring heat of the round.
Quarterfinals
The incredible scoring dried up a little in the quarters; McGillivray struggled in the first heat, managing just 5.23 and losing comfortably to Vaast, who continued to stake his claim for an incredible victory. Slater then continued his own brilliant run, beating Yago Dora, before Hedge came up against Ibelli in Heat #3. The Aussie wildcard scored an 8.83 on his second wave, the highest individual wave score of the round, but unfortunately he was unable to back it up with a score of any significance and fell 0.24 points short of his Brazilian opponent. Igarashi was eliminated by Miguel Pupo in the final quarter, though he had done what he needed to to secure a Finals spot by that point.
Semi-finals
And so there were four remaining, and what an unusual four it was; Kauli Vaast in just his second ever CT event, Kelly Slater at the age of 50, and the Brazilian duo of Miguel Pupo and Caio Ibelli, ranked ninth and 12th in the world respectively. Vaast and Slater were the first cabs off the rank, in a heat which may have had a greater disparity in total heats surfed at a CT level than any other in history. Vaast quickly showed, however, that experience isn’t everything. He absolutely annihilated the 11-time world champ; he took five waves for the heat and scored 6.77 or more on each of them, with his top two enough to take his heat total to 17.33. Slater, in contrast, took one wave, and scored 1.17 on it.
The second semi was a little closer, but not by a great deal. Pupo was the better surfer from the outset, and when the bell sounded had established a 13.50-7.57 to, incredibly, lock in his maiden finals berth in his tenth year on tour.
Final
Neither Vaast nor Pupo had been here, in a CT final, ever before, so a few nerves would have been forgivable. We needn’t have worried. The inexperienced duo – at least from a finals perspective – put on a show in pumping conditions, and got better as the 35-minute final went on. Vaast couldn’t quite match his score from the previous round but was still able to drop an impressive 15.00 total; unfortunately for him, Pupo pulled out some of the best surfing of his life on the biggest stage, with 9.00 and 8.17 rides helping him to a 17.17 heat total, and a famous inaugural CT win.
The Standings
There were plenty of potential ramifications for the top five heading into this event, but the most likely change was between Colapinto – in fifth entering the event – and Igarashi in sixth. And that’s exactly what happened. By finishing one round ahead of Colapinto, Igarashi was able to slip into fifth place and earn himself an appearance at Trestles. Miguel Pupo, incidentally, went agonisingly close to making an incredible leap into fifth place; the 10,000 points he earned for his win saw him overtake Colapinto, and had Igarashi lost his Round of 16 heat, he would have made the WSL Finals.
At the top of the leaderboard, there was very little change. Toledo held onto first despite his early exit, while Robinson, Ewing and Ferreira all held onto their spots between second and fourth in that order.
What’s Up Next?
It’s finals time! The WSL Finals event window will open on the 8th of September and run through to the 16th, though the contest will take place over just one day. Once conditions suit, the Finals will be called on, kicking off with Match 1 between Igarashi and Ferreira, and by day’s end, the 2022 champion will be crowned.
