Can you cast your mind back to the women's surfing at Pipe and Sunset? 

Feels like a lifetime ago now but we all remember it: the rookies were ascendant, and a wildcard who has never gone close to qualifying made the established order look like rank amateurs etc etc.

Have you been paying attention to the ratings since then? Be honest, you're amongst friends.

I sure haven't. For some reason I just assumed the rookie gals, high schoolers most of them, were still on top and all the former greats of the game were limping around on one leg about to be put out to pasture.

Yeah, but nah. We're headed for a rookie-pocalypse - the high schoolers are about to get sent back to the Challenger Series, or presumably, high school if they can't make heats there. Leaving aside the question of fast tracking kids into full blown pro sport, for now anyways, lets take a look at Day One of the Margaret River Pro, nee the Drug Aware Margaret River Pro.

Six heats of three, which makes up the Women's Round One were run today. Presumably, after the cut it will be four heats, which will fly by in a heartbeat. Already the Women's tour feels about the right numbers compared to the Men's, and sooner or later, in the interests of equality in sport the Women's tour being exactly half the size of the Men's tour, will become an indefensible position. It's mind boggling to me those questions aren't a live proposition now, in 2022.

This means either the Men's tour gets halved to equal the Women's or the Women's gets doubled. My money is on the Men getting halved. Hold that thought for another day.

Margs (Dunbar/WSL)

The surf was scrappy, with a northerly-biased wind coming across the bay, pushing hard ribs into the left and tricky lumps into the right.

We were told this type of surf would suit Bettylou Sakura Johnson but the flinty sense of Fuck You confidence we saw in Hawaii is now long gone. She looked lost and out of sorts, could barely scrap together a heat total above 5 and was sent to the Elimination Round while Brisa and Courtney banked scores on ill-tempered lefts.

Tyler's back baby. That annoys people because she is outspoken and not everything adds up right between what she says and what she does. The worst drug by far in Australia is booze. Not that I have a personal beef with it, but I make no claims to represent anyone's interests who is harmed by it. Tyler does. Her indigenous advocacy has been a major part of her activism, her brand, and it's completely uncontroversial to claim Indigenous communities are the worst affected by alcohol. Which makes Tyler's freshly inked deal with a pre-mixed Rum company a bit...whiffy. Of course it will be studiously ignored by both the WSL and the 'Make or Break' team. Some things are just too difficult to deal with when the main spokeperson for a cause goes off script in search of easy pay days.

Tyler (Hughes/WSL)

Money is great for easing moral wounds but maybe that twinge in her soul had a part to play in her admitting after the heat where she smashed the rights that she was suffering from “high anxiety” which made it “not fun”. No matter, she's surfing better than she ever has. The power is turned up, especially off the bottom, and the telegraphed layback snaps are now used as seasoning, instead of the being the main meal. The main meal is power gouges, speed floats, fins-free closeout hits. The whole damn repertoire is back.

Tyler's dominance brought to mind a recent article from Nick Carroll in which he claimed a huge disparity in performance on the Men's tour which wasn't reflected in the Women's because it was a “boy thing”. I'm paraphrasing but it made me wonder if we were watching the same sport. Moana Jones Wong dominance at Pipeline was the greatest disparity professional surfing has ever seen - in fact it might be one of the greatest in world sport.

The high school rookies were up and now they are down. The Women's tour this year with the new venues and new rookies has been nothing but disparity. It's taken until now, with the return of Bells and Margies, for anything like some sense of order to be restored. Shockingly, with one event left before the cut, only four women are safe from the cut: Tyler, Carissa, Brisa, and Lakey.

Carissa looked shakey in Heat 3 but did enough to get through her geat against Sally Fitz and Mia McCarthy. It will sound silly to say Sally Fitz is surfing better than she ever has, but to my eye she is. There's urgency and intent in every turn. Nothing is wasted, nothing is “given up on”. The style is still a little voguey and forced, but she nurses nothing. Easy win for Fitz.

Sal (Dunbar/WSL)

In the presser Fitz said, “I think my surfing is still relative”. It may be, but it's also still relevant, especially with G'Land next on the card. Wildcard Mia McCarthy did not find a wave over a low 3.

Molly Picklum is one of those rookies who I expected to see in the Top 5 and am dismayed to now see below the cut. If Bettylou looked dead-eyed and forlorn, Pickles surfed like a starving pickpocket let loose in lunchtime London.

The vertical closeout smash she put on was the turn of the day until Issy Nichols' final wave. Steph also looked very spicy through her exchanges with the tricky rights. The cut is definitely bringing out the best in her.

Pickles (Dunbar/WSL)

The Hawaiian rookies had shockers, the Aussie gals shredded. India Robinson consigned Luana Silva to elimination.

The best of the below the cut showings was put on by Issy Nichols, who seems a rookie but is struggling against a stiff sophomore headwind. Issy fell on or missed the crucial second turn and then had to put it all together in the final thirty seconds of her heat for a score. Sets bombed the line-up, and it looked like she was going to end the heat duckdiving Indian Ocean whitewater. She scratched out to the last wave of the set, whipped in late to a frothy boomer and went straight up at one of the trickiest lips to hit on tour. There was a momentary disconnect before Issy put the landing gear down and claimed the ride.

A fun way to end the day and a grappel hook thrown by Nichols to the safe ground above the cut.

Now, lets see these pampered pooches deal with some onshore juice.

//STEVE SHEARER