POTHOLES, PIPELINE AND A NEW QUEEN

POTHOLES, PIPELINE, AND IT’S NEW QUEEN.

WAVELENGTH MAGAZINE

Women’s professional surfing at Pipeline, the Valhalla-esque fabled North Shore surfing mecca, has endured a checkered, potholed history of progression and development, thanks in no small part arguably to an abundance of powerful hindering difficulties holding back women. The recent debut of the first ever women’s WSL CT stop at Pipeline, the Billabong Pro Pipeline, deservedly caused positive shockwaves globally, and crowned not only a new Champion in local charger Moana Jones Wong, but cemented her status as an iconic emblem of progression and change in the WSL. We explore Pipe’s potholed road to redemption, and chatted to Moana, freshly crowned as Pipe’s newest monarch.  

Words: Sophie Everard

22 year old Moana Jones Wong, the new poster child for not just Pipeline, as the first ever women’s Pipe CT Champion, but, for arguably, women’s surfing period, such is the monumental and unquestionable impact her powerful performance has had in surfing since, is obviously still on a deserved high after her barn-storming victory at Pipe. Talking to Wavelength post-victory, Moana told us that her “mind couldn’t believe it! This was really a dream come true and I still can’t believe it actually happened…My game plan for the final was to go out there and just catch good waves. I knew if I could do that I would win.”. Her victory as a relative unknown and wild-card over the current dominant force in women’s surfing, multiple world champion and Olympic champion, fellow Hawaiian local Carissa Moore, is unquestionably forever cemented in surfing history and lore. With an event chocca full of dramatic happenings and surprises, from all-time legend and icon Bethany Hamilton’s last-minute drafting in as a wild card replacing Steph Gilmore due to Covid-19 protocols, to the incredible displays of surfing from the next generation of hard-charging rookies including Molly Picklum, Bettylou Sakura Johnson and India Robinson, the solid swell conditions at Oahu’s North Shore break provided for an internationally applauded display of women’s surfing, of which Moana, looking like the Pipeline vet she is on, reportedly surfing backdoor since she was 12, ultimately snagged it’s first ever women’s crown.

Cast the clock back to 1968 when American surfer and pioneer of women’s surfing, the multiple world champion and hall of fame inductee Joyce Hoffman became the first woman to surf Pipeline, there have been critical periods historically where the above women sparked change that further enabled more women to surf Pipeline.  Rochelle Ballard, a Pipe barrel jedi, and Keala Kennelly, the multiple-decorated champion, first-ever Women’s Big Wave World Champion (on equal pay to the mens) and prominent activist for LGBTQ+ surfers, famously fought tooth and nail to even get waves at Pipeline back in the 90s’ and noughties.  Keala told us last year about the huge impact seminal Hollywood surf flick Blue Crush had on women’s surfing when she and Rochelle were recruited as a leading role and stunt double respectively in the much-adored early noughties movie. Featuring in the film after star and local surfer Sanoe Lake had informed the Director “you guys really need to have KK get some of the Pipe waves that you’re trying to get, she’s the best out there, apart from Rochelle”, KK told us that back then, filming Blue Crush (2001 ish) “we literally got paid to just be at Pipeline every day. There were guys getting paid to block for us and make sure we got waves, it was like a dream scenario. Sometimes I was like, am I dreaming?”. Explaining this as being a dream scenario just attests to and illustrates the fact that even getting priority and getting waves at Pipeline as a woman was a “dream” scenario then:  “because in a perfect scenario I go to Pipeline and the guys are blocking so I get waves” KK explained.  In Blue Crush, Kate Bosworth’s lead character surfs a fictional women’s Pipe event against Keala, which was literally, a pipe dream at the time.  In 2020 when Tyler Wright made history by becoming the first woman to win a CT event at Pipeline during the Maui Pro which had moved location due to a shark attack, it was, 20 years later nearly, finally the moment where women did paddle out IRL into a competition at Pipeline.  Our recent piece, “Talking Underdogs and overlooked women in surfing”, dissected (use link to talking underdogs piece) the challenges women have faced within surfing. As we we explored, zilch pay parity (which massively hindered women being able to progress as athletes and travel to events, and has now been implemented), deeply ingrained sexism, misogyny and homophobia in surfing at the time were monumental roadblocks to women even being able to bag waves at Pipe, let alone the far off dream of a CT event inviting women. If Pipe’s glass ceiling has been accruing gradual fractures over the last 5 decades since the likes of Joyce Hoffman, Rochelle Ballard, Keala Kennely and Tyler Wright have powerfully been chipping*/roundhousing away at it, Moana’s taking of the inaugural Pipeline CT Crown certainly firmly hoofed away a significant portion.  So that glass ceiling is certainly having huge chunks removed from it.  But remnants arguably remain.   As fellow surf mag Beach Grit asked, though yes, the women did garner a historic addition to their world tour schedule with the addition of Pipe, the WSL’s decision not to let women surf the best Pipe competitions conditions ever on the actual day, where 16 men’s heats ran, and 0 womens, was either  “act of chivalry, or at a throwback to the chauvinism of Girls Can’t Surf?”?  Why did the women not surf the best conditions of the competition? Will we ever find out? The Cinderella-esque fairytale story of Moana, a local woman who took on Pipe’s heavy left-hand barrels with the best of ‘em, has monumental resonance though. “Being a local girl who was born and raised a few minutes down the road from Pipeline fills me with pride and gratitude. I grew up dreaming about accomplishing this and at the time it was kind of an unrealistic dream since there was no such thing as a women’s contest at Pipe.”  Moana is now firmly entrenched in Banzai’s history, following in the wake of Joyce, Rochelle and KK, and attests that  “being named among those women is an honor. It feels strange to be an icon to girls and women around the world because I never thought this would actually happen, it was always just a dream. Now that it’s real life I am in disbelief and just hope my story will give encouragement and hope to every girl and woman”.  Wong is though clearly, no one trick pony, and questions have been raised about her lack of invitation as a wild card to the ensuing CT events including the MEO Pro Portugal in Peniche. If Peniche’s Subertubos wouldn’t have been a finer opportunity to display Wong’s talents, who knows what would have.  As she tells us, “I hope women’s surfing keeps getting pushed to be better in heavier barreling waves. I hope we continue to have CT events in waves of consequence. I want to be on the CT. I want to keep getting barreled, going on surf trips, loving, laughing, thanking, and enjoying this ride.”.