Just a couple of short years ago, the women’s Championship Tour had never been to Pipeline, but that all changed when their 2021 Maui Pro was moved there from Pipeline partway through the contest. After the success of that event – or the end of it – the 2022 season started with the first ever women’s Billabong Pipeline Masters, and in just a few days we’ll get to witness the second. Moana Jones Wong was a surprise winner last year and currently stands alone as the only female champion of the event; let’s take a look at the best chances of joining her this year.
The Favourites
Carissa Moore will, as she has for years, enter this season as the favourite to win the world title, as well as the best chance of taking out the Pipeline Masters. She’s got plenty going for her; not only is she a five-time world champion, she’s also from Hawaii, and has finished second in each of the events which have finished here over the past two years. In the first, she handled the move from Maui to Pipeline better than anyone by putting together a 16.60 in her semi-final before losing the final to Tyler Wright. Last year, she was again the best surfer in the event and put together a couple of big scores, but again fell just short when beaten by Jones Wong. Over the one-and-a-bit CT events which have taken place here she has been a cut above, and is clearly the one to beat at the 2023 Pipeline Masters.
Though she doesn’t technically have a Pipe Masters to her name, Tyler Wright became the first female winner here at a CT event when she beat Moore in the Maui Pro in 2021, and last year she went very close to making it two from two when she made it to a semi. Wright is a fearless surfer who hasn’t outwardly demonstrated any particular problems adjusting to the wave at Pipeline over the past two years, and she will be very tough to beat again this year. After a rough few years both on and off the tour, Wright appeared to be nearing something resembling her best last year before Covid and a host of other issues derailed her season, but if she can stay in the water in 2023 she could be Moore’s biggest threat, both at the Pipeline Masters, and for the world title.
Moore and Wright probably deserve to be atop the list of favourites to take out the 2023 Pipeline Masters, but Steph Gilmore shouldn’t be too far behind them. Gilmore had already been eliminated when the 2021 Maui Pro moved to Pipe and missed last year’s event, so we can’t get much of a gauge of how she’ll handle the conditions, but given she’s the most successful women’s surfer in history and won her eighth world title last year, it’s safe to say she’ll probably go okay. Gilmore has had success in a range of conditions and is as technically sound as anyone in the world, so it’s hard to imagine her wilting under the heavy weight of Pipeline. At 34 she’s no longer at the peak of her powers, but her extraordinary run to victory at last year’s WSL Finals showed that when she’s on, she’s still as good as anyone. If she can find that sort of form at this event, she’ll be hard to beat.
Next Tier
Moana Jones Wong could hardly have had a better start to her life on the Championship Tour. Aged 22, she competed in her first event at the top level at the inaugural women’s Pipeline Masters at her home break, and was unequivocally the best surfer at the event. A couple of tight victories over first Weston-Webb and then Isabella Nichols took her into the semis, and against first Wright and then Moore she put together consecutive heat totals in excess of 14 to be crowned the first ever female Pipe champion in her first ever event. She went on to compete in just one more event throughout the year and so her experience at the top level remains limited, but hey – that didn’t stop her last year.
Lakey Peterson was another who handled the conditions at Pipe pretty well last year – though not to the same level of Jones Wong – making her way through to a semi-final before being defeated by Moore. The American didn’t set the world on fire in the Opening Round – though then again, few did – but in the Round of 16 she put together a 13.83 heat score, the second highest of the round. Peterson is a consistent presence in the latter stages of events, and though she has at times had trouble going all the way, the fact that she is there or thereabouts so often means that she is always a threat. This Pipeline Masters shouldn’t be any different.
The woman Peterson beat in the quarterfinal here last year was Johanne Defay, who performed similarly from a scoring perspective throughout that event. Defay also didn’t set the world on fire in the Opening Round but managed a 12.94 in the Round of 16, before being beaten only narrowly by Peterson in the next round. That started a very unusual run of five consecutive quarterfinals made and five consecutive quarterfinal losses to begin the season for the Frenchwoman, but she turned a corner in the second half of the year and put together the best run of surfing in her career to finish the year ranked second. If that was a sign of things to come then she will be putting herself in contention for a maiden world title this year, and she’s more than capable of starting the year with a bang at Pipeline.
Unlike the aforementioned names, Tatiana Weston-Webb hasn’t exactly excelled in her appearances at Pipeline over the past couple of years. She did win the first ever women’s CT heat here when her quarterfinal against Sage Erickson was moved from Maui, but that was with a relatively low score and she was subsequently pummelled from pillar to post by Moore. Last year was similar; she made it through to the Round of 16, albeit with a very low score, before being defeated by eventual winner Moana Jones Wong. In that defeat she scored a 9.44 heat total, which is her highest in four heats at Pipe. None of that bodes particularly well for her, but nonetheless, Weston-Webb’s best is undeniable. Her first half of last year was indicative of that; she was knocked out in the Round of 16 in four of the first five events, and won the other. The Brazilian found form in the back half of the year and came home with a wet sail, again reminding the world of what she’s capable of when she’s on. An early exit here is certainly a possibility, but if she gets going, she’ll be a very tough woman to beat.
The Roughie
It’s hard to believe that Malia Manuel has never won a Championship Tour event. She’s racked up a host of seconds and a bunch of thirds, but in her ten seasons on tour has never been able to get that monkey off her back. No wins in ten years isn’t a great track record, but the Hawaiian does have local knowledge on her side and surfed better than most here last year. In fact, she put together the second highest heat total in the Opening Round and was solid in the Round of 16, before only going down narrowly to Wright in the quarterfinals. Things haven’t always gone her way throughout her lengthy career, but Manuel will find waves at Pipe and put herself in positions to win, and who knows; if things do fall in her favour for once, perhaps Manuel could put herself alongside Jones Wong on what would be an unlikely list of Pipeline Masters champions.
Our Tip
For the most part, the biggest chances at this year’s Pipeline Masters are the same names we’ve become accustomed to seeing atop the world rankings over recent years. Jones Wong is the obvious exception and could easily make a splash for the second time in as many years, but the woman to beat is clearly Carissa Moore. Few are capable of doing that if she’s at her best, though the one competitor who can is Tyler Wright. Wright has surfed really well here in the past and appears, at long last, to be ready to compete for a world title again. She’ll have to surf extremely well to beat the likes of Moore, Jones Wong and Gilmore, but based on her form last year, her best isn’t far away. If she can find it here, she’ll be tough to beat.
