Women's CT Qualifiers Decided
With the conclusion of the Haleiwa Challenger, the Top 6 of the Women's Challenger Series has been decided and with it the roster for next year's Championship Tour.
After winning Haleiwa - edging out five-time world champ Carissa Moore in a fairytale finish - Hawaii's Bettylou Sakura Johnson jumped from 13th place to 3rd.
In fact, the Haleiwa Final was a portent of the future with three surfers: Sakura Johnson, Gabriela Bryan, and India Robinson, all jumping up to next year's CT.
The Top 6 are as follows:
Gabriela Bryan | HAW
Brisa Hennessy | CRI
Caitlin Simmers | USA
India Robinson | AUS
Bettylou Sakura Johnson | HAW
Luana Silva | HAW
Like the Men's, where pure rookies accounted for three-quarters of the qualifiers, five of the six Women qualifiers have never surfed a season on the CT. Only Brisa Hennessy is re-qualifying after coming 15th on this year's CT.
Also similar to the Men's, the qualifiers represent a generational shift with four of the surfers still in their teens (Bryan and Silva are 17, Simmers and Sakura Johnson are 16)
Comments
Like Gabriela Bryan's power surfing. Lead foot.
Did WSL announce that Molly someone had qualified than one hour
latter announce that she didnt if so thats absolutely unforgivable and
the most unprofessional blunder ive ever heard of.
That was Molly Picklum, who tied for the sixth and final spot with Luana Silva. I'm not entirely sure what happened with the Woz announcement - could it be worse than ten years ago when the ASP prematurely awarded Slater the world title? - but the tie was broken because Silva had the best two event total.
Perhaps they had no rule to break the tie and had to hurriedly make one up?
Really hoping she get some wildcards - really enjoyed her surfing. Also if there is a injury or retirement a that place go to the next on the CT rankings ?
Yep, if CT slots become available through injury etc that place goes to the next CT surfer, not the next CS surfer.
So Bronte Macaulay gets it, not Molly Picklum.
Agree. Gets interesting whenever Molly Picklum is surfing. At first it was just through her appearance in the Postcards with Morgs movie, then I started watching a few of her clips. She shreds.
She was in when I first checked just after they updated the rankings after the comp had finished, clearly in by 2 spots, no tie, then a few hours later she wasn't. Didn't hear any announcement though, probably coz I wasn't listening.
I think they made a mistake on their website and had the cut-off line after the top 8 initially, then fixed it up later.
That Betty Lou Sakoura Johnson is the real deal. Phenomenal that a 16 year old could qualify for the world tour, beat the 4 x world champion in the final in Hawaiian juice with the surfing she displayed. There's gonna be alot of nervous girls on the tour in January.
Bummer Vahine from Tahiti just missed out. I already had her as a favourite for Pipe, Teahupoo and G Land.....assuming Bronte didn't make the cut this year.
All of the girls that made the cut were seriously shredding. Women's surfing is going through the roof at the moment. So sick to watch.
Agree - pumped to see her surfing waves of consequence.
This is going to be some spectacle if the girls get 10 foot Pipe to start the season.
Sure will be. Wonder if the likes of Liam O'Brien, Jackson Baker, etc have ever tackled that also?
Such a tough spot to gain experience at.
In an interview with the Woz, Jack admitted he'd caught very few waves there.
You could imagine how off putting it would be to put in time there with that crowd, when you could be scoring epic waves up and down that coast with a lot less hassle.
With that being said, whenever the 'top tier' pros come up against the 'local specialists' I don't think they ever look too out of place. Yes it's Pipe, but its a wave and these guys are elite, they'll manage.
I'm not sure how much experience he had prior, but remember Byron Boy Soli taking out the Pipe Pro a couple of years ago. It can be done.
I predict rookie carnage.
And a major challenge to the Woz's Female Equality Stance if they are going to send 16 year old girls out into 10 foot Pipe.
It's Pipe. There's always gonna be carnage FR. The Mens CT aren't pipe specialists generally either. Remember Bede? Hoy? Mick Campbell? They were all challenged at first but evolved.
Would be epic if it was all the girls that were Pipe and heavy water specialists...Moana Jones, Vahine, Bronte, Keala Kennelly, Justine Dupont, all these girls would willingly throw themselves over the ledge.
But it's the CT. It's always been like that. Some have the knowledge and skill, others, yep, thrown to the lions.
I love the introduction of younger rookies on the tour. However no one is sending any females out in 10ft pipe. Other than Carissa the other yr was a farce at pipe. Times will change but currently they are not ready for pumping Pipe. WSL needs to change the formula. As previously said 4 person heats, express the comp and utilise best conditions.
Plenty of small to medium sized days in between swells for the ladies. Strategically for the comp it will remove lay days when the men won't have to surf in marginal conditions.
No chance they get to share maxing conditions.
So speaking about 'equality' - why does the Women's tour have 1/2 as many competitors as the Men's?
If we want it equal, how about halve the men's tour?
Also after the mid season cut (Men to 24 and Women to 12) - I'm assuming that means less heats = better opportunity for prime conditions during event window......spewing if you got cut after Margs: you miss G-Land, J-Bay and Chopes
What's happened to van Dijk?
Off the tour?
Not sure what's happening there. She came 13th on the CT, so didn't make the cut, but then she didn't do a single CS contest either.
They did the half cut a few years ago only for one season failed badly.
I feel sorry for the rookies that are going to be smashed just starting to
feel comfortable and have some confidence especially after all the torture
and expence they have endured for years competing and presto see you
never again. That much hard work at least deserves a full season on tour.
100% agree.
Half year cut last time they tried it brought on JJF and Medina onto the Tour mid-year.
I'd describe that as an amazing success.
Rookies coming onto the Tour under-cooked is a perennial problem, but you don't solve it by pandering to it.
Either come on Tour with your skillset at CT level or find a real job.
So what is the purpose of the cut? purely a smaller / more elite field or to make the challenger series more exciting?
It's so surfers who don't make the cut aren't forced to sit out a year.
Both.
Well done to Jan Juc local India Robinson. A lot of hard work and dedication has earnt her a CT guernsey. Wishing her all the best. Go India!!!!
Freeride thats well and good I dont agree and seeing theyre so many
young aussies in, theres going to be a lot of disappointed kids who
wont get a real go to live their dreams because I cant see any real
contenders male or female with the Aussies new kids.
Stiff shit. These kids are not entitled to anything. If they aren't good enough then who cares, like freeride said get a real job and join the real world.
One way to ensure better CT qualifiers would be to adjust the weighting of points for each contest AFTER it is held.
ie. If it was pumping then the contest is worth more points.
Obviously there's a heap of reasons that would be extremely hard to do, but when a guy gets 10,000 points for winning in two foot slop at Huntington it's a bit silly.
The CS was only 4 events this year, with 8 next year and more surfers doing double duty there should be some norming to the fields (both men and women's).
Agree. Reckon this year will be seen as an anomaly where rank outsiders get a start on the CT due to a flash of form, rather than season-long consistency.
Won't happen again.
Looks like Molly Picklum on the CT full time 2022! Hope she's been surfing a few slabs over the summer in prep for Pipe. Good luck Molly
https://www.worldsurfleague.com/posts/495346/caitlin-simmers-declines-ch...