WSL Receives Pipe Masters Slot For December 2019 And Beyond

The first triennial North Shore surf contest permits have been awarded and it all kind worked out the way we expected.

A bunch of non-surfing haoles got most of what they wanted and Pipe will continue to cap off the ‘CT season for the next few years. Whether Goldschmidt and company will attempt to change that somewhere down the line remains to be seen. 

Here’s how the North Shore of Oahu events will play out between 2019 and 2021:

Da Hui snagged a four-day event permit to run the Shootout. The Pipe Pro ain’t going anywhere, whether Volcom will remain the event sponsor is unclear. Sunset and Haleiwa have been locked down for the Triple Crown. Meanwhile the Women’s and Junior’s Pipe event is gone.

The only non-shortboard crew to get space off Ehukai Beach Park was Mike Stewart’s bodyboard invitational, which was awarded a four-day event in late-February/early-March within a truncated event window. Pulling it off will be “hectic in an eight day holding period,” according to Stewart. 

2016 Eddie winner John Florence takes the obvious line.

On the Waimea side of things, the  grabbed the early season swell, while the newest version of the Eddie runs from early December until the end of February.

Helmed by the Eddie Aikau Foundation, and sponsored by Kamehameha Schools, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and Waimea Valley, it’s nice to see that the crown jewel of big wave surfing hasn’t gone the way of the dodo.

The fact that Quiksilver let it go stills boggles the mind. That’s some New Coke level corporate dumbfuckery.

One wonders- will the WSL attempt to force the event to pay a sanctioning fee now that it’s no longer run by Quik or on the BWT? Will the Aikaus play ball? The new trifecta of sponsors swings a massive dick on Oahu, getting on their bad side would be akin to suicide.