Across the boundless world of surfing, there is no reef break as notorious as Banzai Pipeline on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, the ultimate proving ground for surfers. Among many of its seductions, Pipeline promotes the purest brand of surfing: the art of barrel riding.
The waves are so large that, as they begin to crash down on to the ocean, a tunnel often forms inside them. Surfers spend years trying to perfect the technique of barrel riding; entering those tunnels, picking the correct line once inside and hurtling at breakneck speed to the exit before the wave crashes on them.
The weekend before last, the World Surf League’s (WSL) Championship Tour opened its season at Pipeline and the women’s spectacular performances clearly marked a defining moment in the recent history of the sport.
From the beginning of the Pipe Pro semi-final between the Australian 21-year-old Molly Picklum and Bettylou Sakura Johnson, an 18-year-old Hawaiian, both competitors fearlessly attacked the massive waves without hesitation. Each time one tore through a spectacular barrel, the other responded with a brilliant tube of their own. It was a stunning spectacle. It culminated in Picklum scoring the first perfect 10 of the season before a brilliant ride from Johnson in the final 30 seconds nearly snatched victory.
Later that day Caitlin Simmers, a charismatic 18-year-old Californian, triumphed over Picklum after another brilliant duel. As she digested the biggest success of her young career, still sitting on her board in the ocean, Simmers did not hesitate to offer her thoughts: “Pipeline’s for the fucking girls,” she said.
For so long, Pipeline simply did not exist for professional female surfers. While the best male professionals have competed there since its inaugural contest in 1971, for 49 years there had never been an elite professional event for women. Most recently, the women competed across the Hawaiian islands at Honolua Bay in Maui while the men tackled Pipeline.
Change came only by chance in the aftermath of a tragedy. In December 2020 a recreational surfer, Rob Warren, was killed by a shark at Honolua Bay. After deliberating over what to do with the remainder of the women’s Maui Pro, the WSL opted to conclude the event alongside the men at Pipeline. Since then, the best women’s tour has never left.
The growth of women’s surfing has been undeniable. With every year, the field has become deeper, with the younger surfers demonstrating the sport’s continued progression. In 2019 the WSL recognised the sport’s progress by offering women equal prize money at every Championship Tour event.
Still, debates raged on regarding the absence of women at Pipeline; those who pushed for women’s competitions there were told that the waves were too difficult, too gnarly for the women. Some of the surfers themselves also wanted to ensure that when they did begin to compete at Pipeline, they were ready for it.
Learning the ropes of a wave as difficult as Pipe usually takes many years, so women surfers were stuck in a dilemma. There were no similar conditions on the WSL Championship Tour, so there was little reason for many of the top women to focus their training on such big waves.
“Trying to learn how to surf waves like Pipeline and Sunset and those crazy, scary waves that have been dominated by men for so many years, it’s hard to get a break and it’s hard to get a wave to feel like you’re comfortable in these spots, to be able to perform,” said Isabella Nichols, an Australian professional surfer, in an interview with Fox Sports Australia.
For those who wanted to prove themselves at Pipeline, merely trying to catch a single wave there is an enormous challenge in itself. Outside the professional competitions, where the ocean is cleared of all surfers aside from the competitors, a wave as historic and prominent as Pipeline can attract well over 100 surfers on any given day. Surfers have to earn their respect in the lineup before others allow them to ride a good wave and, in such a male-dominated sport, disrespect is common for female surfers.
It is unsurprising, then, that over the past three years the women’s performances at Pipe have improved significantly with every new opportunity to tackle the wave: “It’s been freakin’ phenomenal because I have never pushed myself so much in my life,” said Nichols.
The ad hoc decision to move the women to Pipe in 2020 has proved to be a sliding-doors moment for the entire sport and it is no coincidence that the standard was set by three competitors aged 21 and under this year.
The five-time WSL champion Carissa Moore and Moana Jones Wong, both Hawaiians, remain two of the excellent surfers at Pipe but a fearless new generation has emerged which has tackled the wave without fear or favour, showing their immense skill. Their triumphs this year have ensured that nobody can ever doubt or undermine their presence at the most famous wave in the world again.
“This wave’s terrifying. I respect everyone who wants a part of it and I respect everyone who doesn’t want a part of it. Because it’s friggin’ freaky,” Simmers said. Then she smiled: “Really thankful for this wave.”
In the end, their performances have also underlined what has always been clear about women’s sports. Provide female athletes with sufficient investment, equal opportunities and appropriate stages, and they will make rapid progress, even when tasked with navigating the most treacherous waves and finding the perfect route out the other side.
• This article was amended on 19 February 2024. Banzai Pipeline is a reef break, not a beach break as an earlier version said.
