Lexus Pipe Pro 2025: Day Two

Ordinarily speaking, I don't find the surfer-as-athlete trope very convincing.

If anything, the sport has become easier athletically. Coaches and managers take care of routines on land while jetskis take a lot of the pure grunt work of paddling and duckdiving out of the equation.

How hard can surfing be when, faced with incoming avalanches of whitewater, you simply turn tail and jump on the back of a sled? Thus it was good to see, for most of the day, surfers attempting to wrangle an unruly north-northeast swell day at Pipe with a river-like current pushing down towards Off The Wall, a gnarly rip running out at intervals through the lineup and a shallow slug of sand sitting atop the famous reef, smearing its wave contours into unrecognisable double-ups. Doggedness and constant paddling was required to get near the peak and even then surfers found it difficult to be on the bank/reef take-off without being swept to the side.

Double-digit heat totals were a rarity through the final two heats of Women's Round One, the four Men's Elimination Round heats and the two Women's Elimination Round heats. In fact, only Griff Colapinto and Bettylou Sakura Johnson reached that mark, which shows how tricky the conditions were. One clean tube per heat was the average and whoever caught it usually won.

Rookie Joel Vaughan spiked a little nugget in his Elimination Round heat after relentless paddling got him way deep on the peak when the double-up sneaked past the sandbar section.

Joel Vaughan fist bumps after escaping the Elimnation Round (WSL/Heff)

Eliminated from the men's side of the draw today are Sammy Pupo (got nothing), Yago Dora (no rhythm, did not look mentally there), Eli Hanneman (inexplicably gave the wave of the heat to Griffin Colapinto when he had priority) and Imaikalani DeVault (fell too much on waves that could have scraped him through the heat).

We got our first look at Erin Brooks as a full-time CT surfer. If there was a real God (not saying there isn't, I'm agnostic) and you asked him to create a modern pro surfer he (or she) would come up with Erin Brooks. Female (all the momentum is with women's surfing), determined, trains hard, fully-formed skill sets frontside and backside in every type of wave, she's also God-fearing herself which if nothing else puts her in elite company, and of course she's cute as a button. Erin comes on tour already a CT winner at Cloudbreak, a winner at Pipe, a CS winner at both Snapper and Saquarema, and the most hyped rookie since Jordy Smith and Dane Reynolds, or Kelly Slater before that.

So how did she go..?

All three heat totals were sub-10 points. 6.83 in her last place finish in the Opening Round, 7.73 in an advancing position of the Elimination Round, and 7.33 in the last heat of the Round of 16 in a losing position to Molly Picklum. Those numbers seem unreflective of her performance.

To borrow a quote from author Nassim Nicholas Taleb at odds with her Christian ethos: “The world is like a reverse casino. In a casino, if you gamble long enough, you're certainly going to lose. But in the real world, where the only thing you're gambling is, say, your time or embarrassment, then the more stuff you do, the more you give luck a chance to find you." 

Unfortunately, despite multiple swings and an aggressive approach, luck did not find Brooks. She looked likely, at any given point, of scoring an excellent ride. One of the few goofys in the women's draw (and mens!) capable of backside tube-riding to a huge score. That opportunity never came her way. She looked shocked walking up the beach after the early round loss.

According to Joe Turpel, she heads to the Abu Dhabi tub as favourite by virtue of all her wavepool experience. I so badly want to snort and disagree but sanity compels me to agree. He's right. Who can match that frontside/backside tuberiding, airs and turns approach?

Erin Brooks was an unexpected early round caualty (WSL/Heff)

Redemption is a rare phenomenon in pro surfing. There was as clear cut a case of it today as has ever existed. It was Isabella Nichols who gifted Erin Brooks her 10-point ride at Snapper last year, fresh off being cut from the CT. If you'll recall, Izzy looked at it and for whatever reason did not pull the trigger on a perfect wave. That has to be haunting, even for pro surfers who frolic with rainbows and unicorns, and if things do feel tough, they take a year off to recoup. Hell, take two years off. No sport is softer, embarrassingly so. There are even those who have managed to create a victim status out of being a pro surfer. That is what French absurdist Albert Camus, if he were alive today, would term a “curious reversal”; one that's “peculiar to our age.”

Izzy ground her way back on tour after a third place finish on last year's Changa.

Nichols fought a tough heat with a fired up Gabby Bryan with both surfers scoring the top heat scores of the day. When the perfect bomb came through this time, Nichols did not meekly hand it over to Bryan but threaded a deep tube for the highest score of the day. It was a nice moment, redemption for the pull back at Snapper.

Izzy clocking today's highest single wave score - 8.67 (WSL/Heff)

Pickles found her mojo again after a very weird year. After looking unstoppable on the Hawaiian leg some strange malaise settled over her. Disappointing results at Teahupoo for both the CT comp and the Olympics, she made the Final 5 but did not surf well and failed to advance a single position. The hype stayed very, very high but the results fell away. And now she finds herself suddenly as the establishment, defending her position from the new hype queen Erin Brooks. It was back to Pickles at her scrappy best. Punching vertical snaps in big sections, holding off Brooks on the wave of the heat and lacerating it.

Can Pickles hold her nerve in the Tub? Where it's so easy to under surf or over surf. The tempo and the tone has to be perfect. A bum note in the ocean is often forgiven. Falls in the Tub will mean back to the air-con with the freezing Atlantic to look forward too.

It wasn't classic Pipe or Backdoor but a heat win is a heat win for Pickles who needs to get her campaign in order (WSL/Heff)

Sally Fitz was eliminated in last place. Today she rode 8 waves in total, with a 4.00 as her highest score. 3.4, 2.5 and 2.17 being her other scoring rides. Honestly, if we cut all the fluff away, Team Fitz should look at those numbers and reflect.

They are an accurate representation of how Fitzgibbon's surfing currently stacks up against the world's best. She is not competitive at CT level on her current trajectory.

Overt athletes like Fitzgibbon and Brooks, those who make a virtue and commercial enterprise out of working out, got knocked. Anti-jock Caitlin Simmers cruised through, despite often seeming to crumple in pure fatigue after a ride. As if her muscles could scarcely stand the strain her surfing was putting them under.

Make of that what you will.

Better swells are en route, potentially wiping away the memory of a mediocre start to the year. What do we need? Luck, a providential hand to wipe the sand off the reef. Whatever or whoever controls the universe in your own personal philosophy will do, I guess.

I'll throw my lot in with science; it's worked out OK so far.

// STEVE SHEARER

Women’s Round of 16 Results: 
HEAT 1: Lakey Peterson (USA) 10.17 DEF. Tatiana Weston-Webb (BRA) 7.07
HEAT 2: Isabella Nichols (AUS) 14.17 DEF. Gabriela Bryan (HAW) 13.33
HEAT 3: Caroline Marks (USA) 9.07 DEF. Nadia Erostarbe (EUK) 1.57
HEAT 4: Tyler Wright (AUS) 8.26 DEF. Luana Silva (BRA) 7.60
HEAT 5: Caitlin Simmers (USA) 11.00 DEF. Moana Jones Wong (HAW) 9.24
HEAT 6: Sawyer Lindblad (USA) 9.17 DEF. Bettylou Sakura Johnson (HAW) 3.50
HEAT 7: Brisa Hennessy (CRC) 9.27 DEF. Vahine Fierro (FRA) 8.60
HEAT 8: Molly Picklum (AUS) 10.83 DEF. Erin Brooks (CAN) 7.33

Men’s Elimination Round Results: 
HEAT 1: Griffin Colapinto (USA) 10.67 DEF. Deivid Silva (BRA) 8.00, Eli Hanneman (HAW) 4.90
HEAT 2: Alejo Muniz (BRA) 7.83 DEF. Jackson Bunch (HAW) 5.40, Yago Dora (BRA) 2.60
HEAT 3: Ryan Callinan (AUS) 8.33 DEF. Joel Vaughan (AUS) 8.10, Samuel Pupo (BRA) 4.10
HEAT 4: Miguel Pupo (BRA) 8.56 DEF. Liam O'Brien (AUS) 7.10, Imaikalani deVault (HAW) 5.57

Women’s Quarterfinal Matchups: 
HEAT 1: Lakey Peterson (USA) vs. Isabella Nichols (AUS)
HEAT 2: Caroline Marks (USA) vs. Tyler Wright (AUS)
HEAT 3: Caitlin Simmers (USA) vs. Sawyer Lindblad (USA)
HEAT 4: Brisa Hennessy (CRC) vs. Molly Picklum (AUS)

Men’s Round of 32 Matchups: 
HEAT 1: Italo Ferreira (BRA) vs. Edgard Groggia (BRA)
HEAT 2: Seth Moniz (HAW) vs. Cole Houshmand (USA)
HEAT 3: Ramzi Boukhiam (MAR) vs. Miguel Pupo (BRA)
HEAT 4: Joao Chianca (BRA) vs. Marco Mignot (FRA)
HEAT 5: John John Florence (HAW) vs. Jackson Bunch (HAW)
HEAT 6: Matthew McGillivray (RSA) vs. Barron Mamiya (HAW)
HEAT 7: Filipe Toledo (BRA) vs. Deivid Silva (BRA)
HEAT 8: Jake Marshall (USA) vs. Ian Gentil (HAW)
HEAT 9: Jack Robinson (AUS) vs. Alan Cleland (MEX)
HEAT 10: Ian Gouveia (BRA) vs. Ryan Callinan (AUS)
HEAT 11: Rio Waida (INA) vs. Kelly Slater (USA)
HEAT 12: Ethan Ewing (AUS) vs. Alejo Muniz (BRA)
HEAT 13: Griffin Colapinto (USA) vs. George Pittar (AUS)
HEAT 14: Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) vs. Liam O'Brien (AUS)
HEAT 15: Connor O'Leary (JPN) vs. Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA)
HEAT 16: Jordy Smith (RSA) vs. Joel Vaughan (AUS)