Did You Really Think Riss Was Done?
Carissa Moore takes the Florence Pipe Pro, while Eli Hanneman puts John and Barron on ice in the men’s final.
“The comps not on today, huh?”
“Fuck, it shoulda been. It’s hard to predict because it was forecasted West winds, which is really bad, but sometimes they show up as blowing offshore. Pipe and Backdoor are actually going fucking off right now.”
That was Koa Smith a few days ago. A stormy morning in Hawaii, with winds predicted to wreck the day, the Florence Pipe Pro was called off — a decision likely tied to the peculiarities of the comp permit, which only allows for a limited number of comp days. To complete the event, a day called on is a full day’s commitment. Quite a different animal from a CT event, where one can stretch the window, allowing a heat here, a heat there, a dangle of the carrot to see if the beast will bite.
So, they called the comp off for the day. A decision few would stand by, upon reflection.
Mikey C called it “the most egregious miss on a forecast in a surf event in recent memory.” Ahem. Quite the welcome to the sponsorship fold for the Florence empire.
Does it offer the WSL some relief, often lambasted for the weather patterns of planet earth, that this event carries the Florence name? The brothers competing, all likely involved in the decision to call it off? Not suits and ties fumbling the local dialect, but the Florence family, natives* to the land, unable to interpret its whispers.
Surf comps. Hard to run. Hard to get right. Perhaps this just confirms that it’s impossible to be beautiful all the time, or even most of the time, and therein lies the sweetness of the rare good days. It’s a very human affliction, being unable to sustain euphoria. A night out, a capsule swallowed, bliss flooding in, then the next day’s toll.
Trying to stretch perfection makes a troubled addict, not a content soul. We have to enjoy the hours between the highs. Surf comps are much the same. Mostly tedium, with a few flashes of brilliance thrown in.
Today, the finals of the Florence Pipe Pro ran in sober conditions. No moments of transcendence, nothing that will be remembered forever, but enough to leave you satisfied, maybe even appreciative, of another day lived.
Women’s Final
A very interesting list of names, on paper. Carissa Moore is back. The most lauded, perhaps the most powerful woman ever to surf on tour. But she did leave for a while. And in her absence, the void was filled, as it always is. Gabby Bryan, long a disciple of Carissa, emerged as the most powerful surfer on tour, often compared to her predecessor and, in some circles, even hailed as having eclipsed Moore’s force. The head-high rights would serve as an adequate canvas for a direct comparison.
The first exchange went Carissa’s way. An 8.33 for a tube nicely threaded, a 7.33 for two-turn Gabby combo.
Ruby Berry, 18, from West Aus, the last goofy-foot left in the draw, briefly made her presence known, slipping into the conversation, and the lead, before the two apex-gals reclaimed their territory.
Carissa nursed a couple of turns for a backup score, and then, with 7 minutes left, Gabby Bryan unloaded all the energy she had left in her legs with what the commentary team dubbed a ‘surf movie hack.’ A single, full-powered blow, and just like that, she was in the lead. Carissa needed a score.
And she’d get one. With 5 left on the clock, Riss slipped under the curtain, came out clean, and leaned into a signature wrap to finish. 7.83, said the judges. The lead, said the judges. Nothing, said Gabby. “The refrigerator is closed,” said the booth. Riss wins Pipe after coming 2nd at Haliewa two weeks ago, which also makes her the unofficial Triple Crown champ. Not a bad start to the comeback tour, and a nice little reminder to the pup snapping at her heels.
Men’s Final
And now, over to you, John, to test the legs after a year off tour. Much like Carissa, John found himself face-to-face with the one person who’d dared to challenge his reign, or, at least, his grip on Pipe. Barron Mamiya had already put him in his place twice at the last two Pipe Masters, emerging victorious both times. Who is truly the better Pipe surfer right now?
Well, we won’t find out today. The conditions, it seems, were more suited to an air comp than the heavy water showdown one might expect with John and Barron this deep in the draw. And for the other two in the heat, Shion Crawford and Eli Hanneman, well, they were likely content with the requirements.
Half way through the heat, they had the lead, after multiple blasts into the sky. Eli dropped an 8.67 for a bottom turn straight into an air rev, finishing with a committed crack at the lip. Then, he backed it up, going the other direction with a lofty alley-oop, capping it off with a flex of every muscle in his body as he landed. “He’s not even considering not landing,” said Ivan Florence.
The judges slapped an 8.43 on the scorecard, and Eli had the whole field combo’d, except for John, who now needed near perfection to leapfrog him.
With 8 minutes left, John nearly got there. A tube attempt, the longest of the day, but he was clipped on the last section. “He almost Rumpelstiltskinned that thing,” Pyzel remarked.
A flurry of desperate attempts followed in the dying minutes, with Barron and John both scrambling to take Eli down, but he’d already flown too far. No score could rival his.
Eli Hanneman. Pipe champ, back on tour in 2026. Oh, and despite losing early at Pipe, Finn McGill is officially the unofficial 2025 Triple Crown winner, after after claiming both Haliewa and Sunset.
Mikey C’s Gamble Ramble:
Pipe QS winner picks
$100 on Carissa Moore at +700 to win $700 WON
$100 on Erin Brooks at +700 to win $700 LOST
$100 on JJF at +250 to win $250
$10 on Josh Moniz at +4000 to win $400 LOST
$10 on Billy Kemper at +4000 to win $400 LOST
$10 on Luke Tema at +4000 to win $400 LOST
$10 on Nathan Florence at +3300 to win $330 LOST
$10 on Ivan Florence at +3300 to win $330 LOST
$10 on Zeke Lau at +4500 to win $450 LOST
Women’s QF
$10 on Aelan Vaast to win $65 WON
$10 on Kirra P to win $70 LOST
$10 on Ewe Wong to win $75 WON
$10 on Vaihiti inso to win $160 LOST
$10 on Keala TB to win $140 LOST
Men’s R32
$10 on Ian Gentil at +1000 to win $100 LOST
$10 on Tereva David at +800 to win $80 LOST
$200 on Barron at -200 to win $100 LOST
$10 on Sheldon P at +350 to win $35 LOST
$10 on Zeke Lau at +225 to win $23 WON
Women’s SF
$10 on Aelan Vaast at +350 to win $35 LOST
Event earnings: $443
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