After five events, we’ve officially reached the halfway point of the 2022 Championship Tour season. The mid-season cut sent a host of athletes packing, leaving just ten women and 22 men (plus one wildcard each) to battle it out for a spot in the WSL Finals at Trestles. On both the men’s and the women’s side of the draw there are plenty of familiar names up the top of the world rankings, while a handful of surprise packets have also emerged. Let’s take a look at how the ten women who advanced to the second half of the season are looking for the run home.
1. Brisa Hennessy (25,575 points)
Brisa Hennessy is the surprise world number one halfway through the season having put together a run of good results punctuated by a win at Sunset Beach. That gave her the yellow jersey after two events, and despite not many expecting her to hold onto it for long, three events later she’s just snared it back from the much more highly fancied Carissa Moore. Having never finished higher than 11th in a season the 22-year-old remains an underdog this year, but she’s put herself in a great position to challenge.
2. Carissa Moore (24,295 points)
Moore’s hunt for a sixth world title and a third in succession is going pretty much to plan, even if she has suffered a couple of Round of 16 defeats, the likes of which she hadn’t had, incredibly, since 2018. She’s also yet to win an event, but with a runner-up finish at Pipeline and Bells and a third place at Supertubos, she’s still consistently piling up points and finds herself in a group of three that has separated itself from the rest of the field. She’s still the best in the business, and while there are plenty of quality surfers capable of knocking her off her proverbial perch, she’s the deserved world title favourite.
3. Tyler Wright (23,440 points)
After a rough few years, Tyler Wright has gradually been working herself back into contention for the last couple of years, and in 2022 appears ready to launch herself into an assault on what would be her third world title. She’s started the year with a string of good results, finishing third at Pipeline, fifth at the MEO Pro Portugal, before ringing the bell for the first time at the Rip Curl Pro. At her best she looks like the surfer most capable of knocking off Moore, and with a solid buffer on fourth place looks likely to be surfing at Trestles at the WSL Finals later in the year.
4. Isabella Nichols (19,965 points)
2021 was Nichols’ first full year on tour and in it she consistently demonstrated she was up to the level, ultimately finishing in eighth place at season’s end. This year, the 24-year-old appears ready to finish even higher. Her start to the year was a relatively indifferent one, but that all changed at Margaret River when she earned her first ever CT win. That win saw her jump eight spots in the world rankings into fourth, giving herself a great shot at making it to Trestles in the process. She’s still probably a way off matching it with the aforementioned couple of names and a few others below her, but she’s at least given herself a chance.
5. Courtney Conlogue (19,525 points)
Conlogue is among the most deserving world title winners to have never actually won one, finishing in the top ten every year since 2011, the top five six times, and runner-up twice – at 29, could this be the year that she finally breaks through? Her results are certainly trending in the right direction; beginning at Pipeline in the first event for the season, they read 17th, 9th, 5th, 3rd, 3rd. The biggest issue throughout her career, however, has been the presence of the likes of Moore, Wright and Steph Gilmore, who have consistently got in the way, and she’ll once again have to find a way to get past them this year.
6. Lakey Peterson (19,105 points)
Peterson is another who has in the past knocked on the world title door without ever breaking through it, having accrued most notably a second place finish in 2018 and a third place finish the year after. Her season this year has read similarly to her career full-season results, with a second, a third and a handful of ninths, and the biggest question mark surrounding her is whether she’s good enough to beat the absolute best of the best consistently.
7. Gabriela Bryan (19,105 points)
Bryan had it all to do at Margaret River to make the cut, and she pulled through in the most emphatic of fashion – well, almost. The way results fell, no less than a finals appearance would have seen her jump into the top ten, so make the final she did. She couldn’t get over the line against Nichols, but nonetheless it was a huge effort which gives her a chance at making an appearance at Trestles. Of all the remaining women she probably looks the least likely to make it, but with only ten (plus wildcard Caroline Marks) surfing, everyone has at least a chance.
8. Johanne Defay (18,980 points)
It’s been a somewhat frustrating year for Defay, but despite that she’s done enough to find herself in eighth spot halfway through and, as a result, has a chance at making it to the Finals. She’s made it through to the quarterfinals at all five events so far this year – a good start – but unfortunately, has also been knocked out in that very round every time. The Frenchwoman has finished between 4th and 9th every year of her career to date, and will be hoping to find herself in the upper echelon of that range in 2022.
9. Stephanie Gilmore (18,185 points)
For a time it looked as though Gilmore would struggle to make the mid-season cut, but the seven-time world champ put together three consecutive solid results in Portugal and Australia to jump into ninth place and advance by the skin of her teeth. Only one of her seven world titles has come since 2014 and Gilmore is no longer the surfer she once was, but when she finds her very best she is super dangerous, so if she can find a way to make it to Trestles nobody will be particularly keen to come up against her.
10. Tatiana Weston-Webb (17,830 points)
Rounding out the top ten is Weston-Webb, who went agonisingly close to winning a maiden world title last year and entered this season with hopes of going one better. Instead, she’s struggled enormously, being knocked out in the Round of 16 in all but one event. Fortunately, that one event she went on to win, and she can thank that result for the fact that she’ll remain on the tour for the back half of the year. Like Gilmore, Weston-Webb is still a major threat if she finds her form, and given how tight the world rankings are she can quickly jump into the top five if she does so.
As cliché as it might sound, with only ten surfers (plus Marks) left on tour, all of the above names are realistic chances at the world title this year. The top there have established a bit of a gap, but just a little over 2,000 points separates 4th from 10th, meaning the rankings can and probably will change very quickly. Moore and Wright, sitting towards the top of the leaderboard, look to be the best chances, but it will surprise no one if one of the names currently in the lower half of the top ten ends up with a world title in their trophy cabinet.
