The Women’s Billabong Pro Pipeline returned for just its second edition, kicking off the 2023 Championship Tour in conditions which were a long way from Pipe at its best. Scores throughout were subsequently quite low and the contest won’t exactly be remembered as one for the ages, but nonetheless 10,000 points were on offer and with it the chance to head to Sunset Beach wearing the yellow jersey. This is how the women’s Billabong Pro Pipeline played out.
The Event
Opening Round
The Opening Round kicked off after a couple of lay days in conditions little over head-high, and the difficulty finding good scores was plain to see from the outset. In the first heat, Caroline Marks won with a score of just 6.36, while Tatiana Weston-Webb managed 4.84 and Teresa Bonvalot just 2.04. Scores would improve a little thereafter – Carissa Moore managed 10.43 – but in all just three of the 18 surfers in the event managed a score of 10 or more in this round. For the most part, the big guns made their way straight through to the Round of 16, though Steph Gilmore and Courtney Conlogue were the notable exceptions.
Elimination Round
Just two heats make up the Elimination Round on the women’s side of things; the first contained Gilmore, Caitlin Simmers, Alyssa Spencer, and the second Conlogue, Isabella Nichols and Teresa Bonvalot. Gilmore and Conlogue were comfortably the most experienced surfers in each heat and would have been expected to make their way through to the Round of 16, but as fortune would have it, they were the first two eliminated for the season. Gilmore, in a quirk of the fixturing, was the first cab off the rank sent packing in 2023, having taken out her eighth world title just a few months ago.
Round of 16
Six days passed before the athletes finally got back in the water, and when they did it was once again in conditions just over head-high. After Brisa Hennessey started the round off with a low scoring win, Lakey Peterson accumulated just the second score in excess of 12 for the event, beating reigning champ Moana Jones Wong in the process. A couple of title contenders in Weston-Webb, Tyler Wright and Carissa Moore subsequently advanced, while Caroline Marks was a notable elimination in the final heat of the round.
Quarterfinals
In the quarters, Peterson couldn’t repeat her effort from the previous round, but nonetheless her 6.83 was enough to get past Hennessey and into the semis. A clash of the titans between Weston-Webb and Wright ensued, and while the Brazilian couldn’t get into the swing of things, the Aussie surfed really well en route to a 11.67-1.16 win. Moore then beat Molly Picklum in a low-scoring heat, before Gabriela Bryan and Bettylou Sakura Johnson made Moore’s 6.1 total in that heat look like a 20; Johnson won that one 2.20-1.77.
Semi-Finals
Fortunately, both conditions and the scores picked up a little once the final four got in the water. The first heat was far and away the best of the contest, with Wright and Peterson putting together the two highest scores of the event. Wright’s best wave, an 8.00, was complemented by a 5.43 to take her to 13.43 – marginally ahead of Peterson’s 13.33. Moore surfed every bit as well as them on her way to a 12.17 in the next semi, but she didn’t face nearly as much stress on the way to her victory; Johnson could only muster up a 6.67.
Final
It was the final that we all wanted to see, and which – shameless self-promotion upcoming – many of us predicted. Wright vs Moore, winners of five of the last seven world titles and the two surfers who have best taken to Pipeline since the women were finally given the chance to compete there. The scores in the final weren’t massive, but they were solid enough, and with the added bonus of it being a close heat, it turned out to be a thoroughly entertaining 40 minutes. Moore’s 7.17 on her third wave was far and away the best of the heat, and though she couldn’t manage a very good backup score, that 7 proved to be the difference. Wright’s two best waves were both 5.00s, with her 10.00 score falling just short of Moore’s 11.00.
The World Rankings
The world rankings after one event virtually explain themselves, with Moore taking the yellow jersey – a jersey to which she has become very accustomed to in recent years – to Sunset Beach. Wright will be disappointed with the loss in the final but happy with the start to the year as she attempts to return to title contention, while Peterson and Weston-Webb have also started well. At the other end of the table, Gilmore and Conlogue will be keen to turn things around in the second event, while Marks and Fitzgibbons are other big names who have now started the season on the wrong foot.
What’s Up Next?
Up next is the Hurley Pro Sunset Beach, the event window for which opens up in just a couple of days. That tournament will run from the 12th to the 23rd of February, with Brisa Hennessey the reigning champ and each of Moore, Wright and Gilmore having won here when it was last run prior to 2022 back in 2010. Though the event window again looks like starting slowly, conditions look set to really ramp up in the early stages of next week, meaning this contest should hopefully make for a little more compelling viewing than what Pipe, at times, did over the past week.
