As the final contest of the season prior to the WSL Finals, it was all on the line in the first women’s Tahiti Pro since 2006. And while the scores certainly weren’t anything to write home about, the importance of so many heats in the context of the season ensured this contest remained enthralling throughout. This is how the event went down as the five surfers who will compete at Trestles in a few weeks’ time were confirmed.
The Event
Opening Round
It was an ignominious opening for the women’s event, with Steph Gilmore winning the opening heat of the contest with a score of just 7.50. As it turned out, that proved to be the start of a trend in a slow Opening Round, though there were a couple of surfers – or one in particular, who showed that there were some big scores to be found. Carissa Moore put together a 13.84 in the second heat, beating out French wildcard Vahine Fierro and Gabriela Bryan – incidentally, Fierro was the only other surfer this round to put together a double figure wave score. In a strong third heat, Caroline Marks beat Tyler Wright and Johanne Defay with a score of 9.50, before Courtney Conlogue beat Tatiana Weston-Webb and Lakey Peterson with a 7.77 total to conclude the Opening Round.
Elimination Round
Johanne Defay was the surprise first competitor to be eliminated at the Outerknown Tahiti Pro, losing another low scoring heat to compatriot Vahine Fierro, but with her spot in second relatively secure that was never going to be the talking point of this round. Brisa Hennessy was up next, likely needing to win her heat to keep her top five chances alive, and she came through when she needed it most against Gabriela Bryan. Tatiana Weston-Webb then all but confirmed her spot at Trestles and ended Isabela Nichols hopes in the process, but it was heat #4 which everyone was waiting for, with Wright – needing to make at least the finals to give herself a chance at the top five – facing off against Lakey Peterson. It was, yet again, a difficult heat in which scoring opportunities were few and far between, and when the bell rang Peterson was ahead by the skin of her teeth. This ensured Wright would miss the finals in a year in which, for a time, she could have almost claimed to have been world title favourite.
Quarterfinals
With four of the top five ranked surfers in the world entering the contest still alive with just eight competitors remaining, the remainder of the Tahiti Pro shaped as centreing largely around who would finish where inside those finals spots, though there were a couple of notable exceptions. Lakey Peterson remained in with a chance of breaking into the top five, particularly with Wright having been eliminated early, and her heat against Hennessy loomed as one which would shape the final five.
There were, however, three heats to get through before those two competed, and in the first of them Weston-Webb was comprehensive in beating Marks in a battle of the backhands. Next up, Conlogue put in the best performance of the event to easily beat Gilmore, before Moore was surprisingly eliminated by local Fierro, who was showing she could compete with the best on her home turf. Hennessy and Peterson rounded out the quarterfinals, and with plenty at stake put on an enthralling battle. Each took a long time to get out of the blocks, but when they did both managed one solid score apiece. Unfortunately for Peterson, her 6.27 paled in comparison to Hennessy’s 7.17, and with a lower back-up score too, she was eliminated, and with it her hopes of competing at Trestles.
Semi-finals
With Hennessy beating Peterson, the final five was already decided heading into the semis, but both her and Weston-Webb still had the possibility to move up a spot in the rankings – the former to fourth and the latter to second. Weston-Webb was up first against Conlogue, in yet another heat in which waves were hard to come by. Neither of them topped an individual wave score of five, but a 4.83 to Conlogue was enough to see her scrape over the line and keep Weston-Webb in third in the world rankings, just below Defay.
In the second semi, Hennessy came up against Fierro, who this time was unable to replicate her impressive displays from prior rounds. The local managed just 2.97 for the heat, and Hennessy advanced easily to her first final since she won at Sunset Beach in the second contest of the year – also passing Steph Gilmore and moving into fourth place in the process.
Final
Despite making the final, it was too little too late for Conlogue to reach the WSL Finals, but a first event win since 2019 would have been motivation enough for the experienced American. Hennessy, too, had already locked in fourth place and so theoretically had nothing to surf for outside of the event itself, but having struggled for most of the year since starting strong in Hawaii she would have been eager to lock in another victory heading into the Finals.
Synonymous with the way most of the contest unfolded on the women’s side, the final was relatively slow at times, but while Hennessy struggled throughout to find a decent ride, Conlogue latched onto one in particular which saw her seal the win. After managing a 4.50 with her second ride, she pulled into a 7.17 – a score just one competitor aside from herself had bettered throughout the event – to take her total to 11.67. As it turned out, that ride alone would have been enough for her to win. Hennessy finished the heat on just 5.20, giving Conlogue her first event win in three years.
The Standings
After all the hoo-ha about potential changes to the top five at the final hurdle before the WSL Finals, very little actually changed as a result of the Outerknown Tahiti Pro. Wright, of course, was unsuccessful in her late bid for a spot courtesy of an Elimination Round exit, while Peterson fell short as a result of her quarterfinal defeat at the hands of Hennessy. Conlogue leapt up the rankings following her win, but the 10,000 points she accumulated were enough only to see her move to seventh.
At the top of the leaderboard, each of Moore, Defay and Weston-Webb stayed put in first, second and third respectively. The only change to the top five was between Hennessy and Gilmore, with the Costa Rican overtaking the Australian to take the fourth seed, though the with the way the Finals are formatted this makes no tangible difference.
What’s Up Next?
Up next, of course, are the WSL Finals! After ten contests and nearly nine months of competition, the final five are locked into their positions, which will dictate who competes against who, and when, at Trestles. The event window runs from the 8th to the 16th of September, but unlike the other contests throughout the year, the Finals will take place over the course of just one day. Once it’s clear that quality conditions will prevail throughout a day during that period, the final event of the year will get started, and by that day’s end, a champion will be crowned.
