John John Florence wins his first Pipe Masters; Tyler Wright captures first women’s title at Banzai Pipeline

In a triumph for sports equity, surf history was made Sunday, with the first-ever women’s championship competition being held at Banzai Pipeline, the mythic, barreling, dangerous break long claimed and dominated by men.

Australian Tyler Wright, 26, a two-time world title winner, defeated Hawaii’s Carissa Moore, reigning world champion and four-time world title winner, in the final of the Maui Women’s Pro by Roxy, which was relocated to Banzai Pipeline from its usual site at Maui’s Honolua Bay due to a fatal shark attack on a recreational surfer before the start of the event’s second day of competition, Dec. 8.

And after a dry spell going back to 2000, when late Kauaian and world surfing champ Andy Irons won the Pipe Masters, Hawaii surfers cheered another one of their own, two-time world champion John John Florence, 28, who finally achieved his lifelong dream of winning the prestigious contest in its 50th year at his home break.

“It felt great. I’m so happy,” Florence told the Honolulu Star- Advertiser in a phone call after being greeted and wrapped in the Hawaiian flag after paddling in from the final heat where he defeated Brazil’s Gabriel Medina, 26, a two-time world champ and former Pipe Masters winner. “It was fun. I loved surfing that final with Gabriel. We’re good friends.”

After starting out good-size, then pretty much fading — while still occasionally jacking up and tubing — throughout the day, the waves had picked up a little for Florence and Medina’s heat in the men’s event, following a women’s final marked by long lulls; Wright won for her turns on two waves, while Moore scored the heat’s only barrel, charging a deep left-breaking tube.

But in her semifinal heat against Brazilian Tatiana Weston-Webb, Moore got the highest score in the women’s event, a 9.6 for an air drop into a big barrel.

“Thank you to WSL for giving us the opportunity to surf out at Pipe,” Wright, who had ridden a big barrel at Backdoor, Pipeline’s right-breaking wall, in an earlier heat, told WSL commentator Megan Abubo after her win.

“I definitely don’t take this for granted. (This) is truly special.” At the same time, “it was devastating what happened in Maui,” she added.

Asked about the future of women’s surfing on the North Shore, “the more women who are out (at Pipe), the better,” Wright said with a shout-out to women’s Pipeline pioneers such as Hawaii surfers Rochelle Ballard and Keala Kennelly.

“Those women put in the time and laid the groundwork for us. We stand on the shoulders of giants,” she said. “I’m really excited about the future of women’s surfing,”

Regarding his close final heat against Medina, which he won with a total 11.77 to 11.10, “the waves got really slow. There weren’t as many good sets as earlier,” said Florence, who beat 11-time world champ Kelly Slater, 48, in bigger semifinal waves.

“I was lucky this morning and this afternoon with Kelly, having really quick starts,” he said of the contest officially known as the World Surf League’s Billabong Pipe Masters by Hydroflask.

The smaller, shifting final waves provided Florence with the opportunity to showcase some strategic planning, as well as his trademark art of stalling in the barrel, as he picked off inside leftovers and turned them into long, amazing tube rides, rather than sitting outside waiting for rare set waves.

“I’ve grown up watching my heroes surf this event,” Florence told Abubo.

Appropriately, the trophy was a surfboard shaped by one of those heroes, Hawaii’s Gerry Lopez.

Florence, a North Shore native who was raised with his two surfer brothers, Nathan and Ivan, in a beachfront home at Pipeline, thanked his wife, his family, his team, the WSL, the community “and everybody who supported me through the last few years.”

“It’s been a bumpy ride,” said Florence, who was knocked off the 2019 championship tour by an ACL tear, returning to surf in the Pipe Masters in December 2019 to win a berth, alongside Moore, Floridian Caroline Marks and Californian Kolohe Andino, on the U.S. team for the premiere Olympic surf event at the Tokyo summer games, which were postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Due to the pandemic, both the women’s and men’s events were also held as filmed events without spectators on the beach.

The next stop for the men’s and women’s championship tours will be at Oahu’s Sunset Beach in January.