Day One is in the Books….6-10′ Pipeline delivered and so did the competitors!

EARLIER UPDATES FROM JAN 28-31 BELOW

DAY ONE IS ON. LET THE GAMES BEGIN. (Wednesday Jan 31st) WSL’s 1st Event of 2024…The Lexus Pipe Pro

Men’s Opening Round and Elimination Round of Lexus Pipe Pro Presented by YETI Called ON

Surf’s Pumping, a bit peaky but much better from yesterday…the WNW is holding on at 6-8′ there was an occ 10′ 2nd reefers earlier with light offshore trades. SNN

First Day of CT Season Starts at 8:03AM HST
Men’s Opening Round to Start, Followed by Men’s Elimination Round
No Women’s Competition Today
Watch LIVE at WorldSurfLeague.com

Pictured: Two-time World Champion John John Florence (HAW) will be up against Caio Ibelli (BRA) and Jake Marshall (USA) in Heat 7 of the Opening Round at the Lexus Pipe Pro Presented by YETI. Credit: © WSL / Bielmann

BANZAI PIPELINE, Oahu, Hawaii, USA (Wednesday, January 31, 2024) – The Lexus Pipe Pro Presented by YETI, the first stop on the World Surf League (WSL) 2024 Championship Tour (CT), is ON starting at 8:03 a.m. HST. With eight-to-ten-foot waves and light offshore conditions on offer at the world-renowned Banzai Pipeline, the competition will start with the men’s Opening Round followed by the Elimination Round. The women’s event is OFF for the day.

The entire men’s Opening Round is stacked with great matchups, featuring World Champions and former winners at Pipe, as well as exciting rookies we haven’t had the chance to watch perform at this level yet, let alone at one of the most demanding waves on the planet.

World No.7 Yago Dora (BRA) will have the honor to launch a brand new season of professional surfing, his sixth among the world’s best, as he paddles out in the day’s opening heat against Matthew McGillivray (RSA) and rookie Kade Matson (USA).

Pipe specialists Gabriel Medina (BRA), Jack Robinson (AUS), and Kelly Slater (USA) will follow in Heats 2 and 3, and world title hopefuls Griffin Colapinto (USA) and Ethan Ewing (AUS) in Heats 4 and 5.

The reigning World Champion Filipe Toledo (BRA) and heavy local favorite John John Florence (HAW) will launch their 2024 campaign midway through the round in Heats 6 and 7, respectively.

Lexus Pipe Pro Presented by YETI Men’s Opening Round Matchups:
Heat 1: Yago Dora (BRA), Matthew McGillivray (RSA), Kade Matson (USA)
Heat 2: Gabriel Medina (BRA), Callum Robson (AUS), Deivid Silva (BRA)
Heat 3: Jack Robinson (AUS), Rio Waida (INA), Kelly Slater (USA)
Heat 4: Griffin Colapinto (USA), Seth Moniz (HAW), Ramzi Boukhiam (MAR)
Heat 5: Ethan Ewing (AUS), Cole Houshmand (USA), Jackson Bunch (HAW)
Heat 6: Filipe Toledo (BRA), Samuel Pupo (BRA), Shion Crawford (HAW)
Heat 7: John John Florence (HAW), Caio Ibelli (BRA), Jake Marshall (USA)
Heat 8: Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA), Liam O’Brien (AUS), Imaikalani Devault (HAW)
Heat 9: Ryan Callinan (AUS), Jordy Smith (RSA), Frederico Morais (POR)
Heat 10: Connor O’Leary (JPN), Kanoa Igarashi (JPN), Eli Hanneman (HAW)
Heat 11: Barron Mamiya (HAW), Ian Gentil (HAW), Crosby Colapinto (USA)
Heat 12: Miguel Pupo (BRA), Italo Ferreira (BRA), Jacob Willcox (AUS)Lexus Pipe Pro Presented by YETI Women’s Opening Round Matchups:
Heat 1: Tyler Wright (AUS), Bettylou Sakura Johnson (HAW), Luana Silva (BRA)
Heat 2: Carissa Moore (HAW), Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS), Brisa Hennessy (CRC)
Heat 3: Caroline Marks (USA), India Robinson (AUS), Moana Jones Wong (HAW)
Heat 4: Caitlin Simmers (USA), Gabriela Bryan (HAW), Isabella Nichols (AUS)
Heat 5: Molly Picklum (AUS), Tatiana Weston-Webb (BRA), Alyssa Spencer (USA)
Heat 6: Lakey Peterson (USA), Johanne Defay (FRA), Sawyer Lindblad (USA)

Surf’s Pumping, a bit peaky but much better from yesterday…the WNW is holding on at 6-8′ with occ 10′ 2nd reefers light offshore trades. SNN

GO TO WSL YOUTUBE TO WATCH LIVE HERE

EARLIER UPDATES BELOW

No Competition Tuesday 1.30.24 at Lexus Pipe Pro, Likely Start Tomorrow with Promising Conditions
Next Call: Wednesday, January 31 at 7:45AM HST
Favorable Conditions Forecast for Tomorrow to Jumpstart Competition at Pipeline

Pictured: WSL Rising Tides Presented by Pura Vida hosted the first event of the season with Hawaii’s next generation of surfers meeting up with their Championship Tour heroes ahead of the Lexus Pipe Pro Presented by YETI. Credit: © WSL / Heff

BANZAI PIPELINE, Oahu, Hawaii, USA (Tuesday, January 30, 2024) – Stop No. 1 on the 2024 World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour (CT), the Lexus Pipe Pro Presented by YETI, has been called OFF on the second day of the competition window. Windy conditions continued to affect the lineup at Pipeline and forced event officials to go a second day without running the competition. Promising conditions are forecast for tomorrow to start the Lexus Pipe Pro. The WSL Tours and Competition team will make the next call tomorrow, Wednesday, January 31, at 7:45 a.m. HST for a possible 8:03 a.m. start.

Can an American Wave Counter the Brazilian Storm?

Brazil has taken the surfing world by storm in the last decade, and this year will mark the 10th anniversary of the first Brazilian World Title for Gabriel Medina back in 2014. Since then, the country’s talent has flooded the Tour with Adriano De Sousa, Italo Ferreira, and Filipe Toledo claiming their own World Titles.

2024 marks a fresh turn with a Southern California wave of rookies coming hot off last year’s Challenger Series. Sawyer Lindblad, Cole Houshmand, Crosby Colapinto, Kade Matson and Alyssa Spencer join re-qualifier Jake Marshall and will reinforce the existing American contingent led by World No.3 Griffin Colapinto.

Swell on the Horizon, Banzai Pipeline Ready to Roar

Good things come to those who wait, and everyone on the North Shore right now hopes when the wind switches to the offshore easterlies, the infamous Pipeline will come to life. Over the years, this event has produced some of the most beautiful, most intense days of professional surfing with big, round caves both at Backdoor and Pipe, offering opportunities for regular and goofy footers to shine.

Fans will be pulling for the 12 Hawaiians in the draw while the rest of the world hopes for a new victor on the sacred North Shore sand. Africa is the sole region that hasn’t produced a Pipe winner yet and Europe’s last win dates back to 2017, while Hawaii, North America, South America, and Australia have claimed all recent top spots.

For more information, please visit WorldSurfLeague.com.

EARLIER UPDATES

The WCT kicks off Day 1 of Comp Window Monday…

Lexus Pipe Pro Presented by YETI Called OFF for the Day

Next Call: Tuesday, January 30, at 7:45AM HST
WSL One Ocean Partners with North Shore Community Land Trust for Wetland Restoration
More Available at WorldSurfLeague.com

Pictured: Kaipo’i Kelling, Head coach of the Kamakau Surf Team, and Lāiana Kanoa-Wong of Kūmau Productions lead the Opening Ceremony and Blessing at the Lexus Pipe Pro Presented by YETI. Credit: © WSL / Bielmann

BANZAI PIPELINE, Oahu, Hawaii, USA (Monday, January 29, 2024) – Opening Day of the Lexus Pipe Pro Presented by YETI, the first stop on the World Surf League (WSL) 2024 Championship Tour (CT), is OFF for the day due to unfavorable winds at the famed Banzai Pipeline on the North Shore of Oahu. The WSL Tours and Competition team will reconvene tomorrow, Tuesday, January 30, to reassess the conditions and make the next decision for the competition’s start.

“We’re excited to be here for Day 1 of Stop No. 1 on the 2024 Championship Tour season, the Lexus Pipe Pro Presented by YETI,” said Jessi Miley-Dyer, WSL Chief of Sport. “Today, we’ll be off. Right now, we have some pretty big swell. There’s definitely size, but the winds are problematic. Tomorrow is going to be difficult as well, looking similar to today. Wednesday looks like a great opportunity to run. We’re looking at some better conditions and wind patterns. Then, in the back end of the window in particular, it looks like we’ll have some great opportunities. We’re excited to be here and to potentially get going soon.”

Earlier this month, five-time World Champion Carissa Moore (HAW) announced she would take a step back from CT competition after participating in the Lexus Pipe Pro on home turf. The reigning event winner is obviously a fan-favorite and her track record on the iconic North Shore break speaks for itself.

But, she will need to pull all the stops at one of the most technical waves on tour as a lot of her peers are eyeing a golden opportunity to launch the season with a bang. Two-time World Champ Tyler Wright (AUS) who reached the Final twice at Pipe, and has won one and lost one to Moore each time, will likely once again be a threat when conditions turn up.

Moana Jones Wong (HAW), who won the event as a wildcard in 2022, will also be hoping for proper Pipe conditions where experience and technique matter the most to put together another dream run in her backyard.

For the rookies, two first-timers will take on the heavy left and righthand barrels of Pipe and Backdoor, Alyssa Spencer (USA) and Sawyer Lindblad (USA), and while this type of wave usually favors experience, watch out for youth when the season gets underway.

The list of past men’s winners at Pipe includes a lot of World Champions, and hollow waves specialists, two categories not exclusive of each other obviously. The past three years have only seen John John Florence (HAW), Gabriel Medina (BRA), Kelly Slater (USA), and Jack Robinson (AUS) do extremely well, especially when the surf is pumping.

But plenty of other names can be thrown in the hat. Who spent the most time in the lineup in the weeks leading up to the event? Who honed their skills at another heavy wave in the off-season? These are questions that will be answered as soon as the Lexus Pipe Pro gets underway this week.

Pictured: John John Florence (HAW) at the WSL One Ocean wetland restoration project at Waialeʻe. Credit: © WSL / Jennings

WSL One Ocean Partners with North Shore Community Land Trust for Wetland Restoration

For the Lexus Pipe Pro, the WSL teamed up with WSL One Ocean coalition partner North Shore Community Land Trust on a wetland restoration project in Waialeʻe, just down the road from Pipeline, to remove invasive grasses from the wetland taro patch and plant taro.

Since 2020, North Shore Community Land Trust (NSCLT) has led the restoration of a 30-acre coastal wetland site at Waialeʻe, which was once an abundant food system and still hosts several species of endangered waterbirds and fish to this day.

Learn more at WSLOneOcean.org.

Select Your Lexus Pipe Pro Picks Now for WSL CT Fantasy

WSL CT Fantasy is open for the 2024 Lexus Pipe Pro Presented by YETI and will lock after Elimination Round 2. Sign up, create your team, and start playing now.

Players can register now at ctfantasy.worldsurfleague.com and on the free WSL app.

Predawn update Monday Jan 29

Event likely to be postponed due to poor conditions with SW Konas but a new moderate NW has filled in… Wednesday’s NE Trades and a declining high NW will be the 1st decent possibility to start. SNN

Watch Dawn Patrol LIVE at 7:30 AM HST

First Call: Monday, January 29 at 7:30 AM HST for Possible 8AM Start
Lexus WSL Awards Celebrate Achievements of 2023 Season
Rookies Fired Up For Debut Among World’s Best Surfers
Select Your Lexus Pipe Pro Picks Now for WSL CT Fantasy
More Available at WorldSurfLeague.com

Pictured: Carissa Moore (HAW), five-time WSL Champion, will compete one last time on home turf at the Lexus Pipe Pro Presented by YETI before stepping away from competition to start a new chapter. She will face Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) and Brisa Hennessy (CRC) in the Heat 2 of the Opening Round when the competition commences. Credit: © WSL / Heff

BANZAI PIPELINE, Oahu, Hawaii, USA (Sunday, January 28, 2024) – Competitors prepare to launch their World Surf League (WSL) 2024 Championship Tour (CT) campaigns at the Lexus Pipe Pro Presented by YETI, from January 29 through February 10, 2024, at the iconic Banzai Pipeline on Oahu’s North Shore. The class of 2024 has arrived and started to put some time in the lineup in anticipation of another action-packed four weeks in Hawaii. The WSL Tours and Competition team will make the first call tomorrow, Monday, January 29 at 7:30 a.m. HST for a possible 8:00 a.m. start to the opening day of the competition.

Lexus WSL Awards Celebrate Achievements of 2023 Season

The world’s best surfers were honored at the Lexus WSL Awards last night, celebrating the achievements of the 2023 season and welcoming the start of the 2024 WSL Championship Tour. The evening commemorated the newly crowned World Champions across the Championship Tour, Longboard Tour, and World Junior Championships, as well as honors to the 2023 Challenger Series Winners, 2023 CT Rookies of the Year, 2023 Vissla CT Shaper of the Year, and Impact Award recipients.

The WSL Impact Award was awarded to Carissa Moore (HAW), Kanoa Igarashi (JPN), and Puamakamae DeSoto (HAW). The WSL Impact Award recognizes individual surfers who demonstrate the greatest impact and outstanding effort to inspire, educate, and empower the global surf community to protect the ocean.

Pictured: 2024 WSL CT Rookies at the Lexus WSL Awards, [from Left to Right] Kade Matson (USA), Eli Hanneman (HAW), Jacob Willcox (AUS), Crosby Colapinto (USA), Cole Houshmand (USA), Alyssa Spencer (USA), and Sawyer Lindblad (USA). Credit: © WSL / Heff

Rookies Fired Up For Debut Among World’s Best Surfers

If most surfers have the treacherous left and righthand reef break somewhat figured out with years of experience, heavy barrels, and big learnings in the memory bank, for some, it will be a big first this week. Seven surfers are fresh new additions to the CT, having conquered the disputed Challenger Series in 2023.

California will be well represented with newcomers Sawyer Lindblad (USA), Alyssa Spencer (USA), Kade Matson (USA), Cole Houshmand (USA), and the World No.3 Griffin Colapinto’s (USA) younger brother, Crosby Colapinto (USA). Houshmand will lead the talented field of men’s newcomers into the new season. The powerful goofy foot has dominated the Challenger Series with two event wins and will be a major threat in all conditions.

The rookie with the most previous appearances at the CT level (13 wildcard spots), Jacob Willcox (AUS) will join the field as well, but it’s likely Eli Hanneman (HAW), who will draw the most cheers from the North Shore crowds as the Hawaiian starts a new chapter of his competitive career on home turf.

The Lexus Pipe Pro offers all the rookies a golden opportunity to stand out from the get-go. But of course, they will have to contend with some of the best to grace the famed Hawaiian lineup, including 11-time World Champion Kelly Slater (USA), local superstar John John Florence (HAW), Gabriel Medina (BRA), event wildcard Moana Jones Wong (HAW), 2023 Pipe Pro winner Jack Robinson (AUS), and the five-time World Champion and Carissa Moore (HAW), and more.

Big Matchups for Lexus Pipe Pro Opening Rounds

Last season ended in spectacular fashion at the WSL Finals with the crowning of Caroline Marks (USA) and Filipe Toledo (BRA) as the World Champions. This week’s festivities will revive some epic battles that went down in 2023 and undoubtedly create new rivalries on Tour as 34 men and 17 women put everything on the line for a spot in the Top 5 and eventually a shot at a World Title.

The two reigning World Champions must bring their A-game as they face off against local wildcards in their first heat of the season. Marks will face a previous winner at Pipeline, Moana Jones Wong (HAW), and Toledo will be against the Hawaii / Tahiti Nui region winner in 2023, Shion Crawford (HAW).

Select Your Lexus Pipe Pro Picks Now for WSL CT Fantasy

WSL CT Fantasy is open for the 2024 Lexus Pipe Pro Presented by YETI and will lock once the men’s Round of 16 and women’s Quarterfinals start. Sign up, create your team, and start playing now.

Players can register now at ctfantasy.worldsurfleague.com and on the free WSL app.

Lexus Pipe Pro Presented by YETI Women’s Opening Round Matchups:
Heat 1: Tyler Wright (AUS), Bettylou Sakura Johnson (HAW), Luana Silva (BRA)
Heat 2: Carissa Moore (HAW), Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS), Brisa Hennessy (CRC)
Heat 3: Caroline Marks (USA), India Robinson (AUS), Moana Jones Wong (HAW)
Heat 4: Caitlin Simmers (USA), Gabriela Bryan (HAW), Isabella Nichols (AUS)
Heat 5: Molly Picklum (AUS), Tatiana Weston-Webb (BRA), Alyssa Spencer (USA)
Heat 6: Lakey Peterson (USA), Johanne Defay (FRA), Sawyer Lindblad (USA)Lexus Pipe Pro Presented by YETI Men’s Opening Round Matchups:
Heat 1: Yago Dora (BRA), Matthew McGillivray (RSA), Kade Matson (USA)
Heat 2: Gabriel Medina (BRA), Callum Robson (AUS), Deivid Silva (BRA)
Heat 3: Jack Robinson (AUS), Rio Waida (INA), Kelly Slater (USA)
Heat 4: Griffin Colapinto (USA), Seth Moniz (HAW), Ramzi Boukhiam (MAR)
Heat 5: Ethan Ewing (AUS), Cole Houshmand (USA), Jackson Bunch (HAW)
Heat 6: Filipe Toledo (BRA), Samuel Pupo (BRA), Shion Crawford (HAW)
Heat 7: John John Florence (HAW), Caio Ibelli (BRA), Jake Marshall (USA)
Heat 8: Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA), Liam O’Brien (AUS), Imaikalani Devault (HAW)
Heat 9: Ryan Callinan (AUS), Jordy Smith (RSA), Frederico Morais (POR)
Heat 10: Connor O’Leary (JPN), Kanoa Igarashi (JPN), Eli Hanneman (HAW)
Heat 11: Barron Mamiya (HAW), Ian Gentil (HAW), Crosby Colapinto (USA)
Heat 12: Miguel Pupo (BRA), Italo Ferreira (BRA), Jacob Willcox (AUS)

Watch LIVE
The 2024 Lexus Pipe Pro Presented by YETI will be broadcast LIVE on WorldSurfLeague.com and the free WSL app. Also, check out more ways to watch from the WSL’s broadcast partners. For fans watching in the United States, coverage of the competition’s Quarterfinals and beyond will continue on WorldSurfLeague.com and ESPN+.The Lexus Pipe Pro Presented by YETI is proudly supported by Lexus, YETI, Vissla, Florence Marine X, Red Bull, 805 Beer, Bonsoy, Cup Noodles, Pacifico, Sambazon, SHISEIDO, Turtle Bay, Spectrum Hawaii, True Surf, Surfline, Apple Watch, Mananalu Water, Eventbrite, Pura Vida, Alt Sports Betting, and Hawaii Tourism.