A Brief History of Women’s Surfing at Pipeline
The reigning Queen of Pipeline, Moana Jones Wong. Image: WSL / Bielmann
As women prepare to take their rightful place on the competitive stage at the world’s most storied wave, we look back at the trailblazers and ceiling smashers who got us here.
Of all the awe-inspiring waves across the globe and the competitions that take place among them, none captivates the surfing public’s imagination so much as the North Shore’s Banzai Pipeline.
The revered Pipeline Masters was reserved only for men from its inception in 1971 until 2020, when Tyler Wright won the first-ever women’s Championship Tour (CT) contest at Pipe. Moana Jones Wong gave a heroic performance to kick off the CT in 2022. This December, at the 2022 Vans Pipe Masters, women will compete for the prestigious title alongside men with a newly reimagined contest format.
What follows is an effort to compile fragments of history in order to illustrate the significance of the women’s Vans Pipe Masters debut. It is by no means an exhaustive exposition.
Who Was the First Woman to Surf Pipeline?
400 - 1900
In pre-contact Hawaii, surfing existed outside of the gender boundaries entrenched in today’s culture. Surfing was for everyone. Legends of surfing Hawaiian princesses and queens live on.
Was surfing practiced on the North Shore back then? Probably not. “Bodysurfing, maybe,” surf historian Matt Warshaw tells us. “Likely not boardriding, as those finless boards, without rocker, would have been so difficult to handle at Pipe.” Too fast, too steep, too hollow.
In the early 20th century, colonizers drove surfing to the brink of extinction. It was not until many decades later that women found their way back to acceptance in the waves. The relationship of those original wahine waveriders to what we now know as Pipeline remains a mystery.
1960s
Joyce Hoffman is widely credited as the first woman to surf Pipe, though a handful of others were documented venturing out around the same time.
In 1964, Candy Calhoun penned an article in Surf Guide about conquering deep Pipe barrels sans equipment. Having paid her dues with a few trips over the falls, she found her groove and spent a fair amount of time in the tube.
A clip from 1966 in the movie Sundance shows two women, Nancy Nelson and perhaps Rell Sunn’s sister, taking a few glorious wipeouts at Pipe. The movie, as the Encyclopedia of Surf entry points out, was mocking these women—but their bold attempts were anything but embarrassing.
All of this took place only a few years after the first modern male surfers pioneered Pipeline’s renaissance, making women a foundational part of the wave’s contemporary history. Joyce tackled the ferocious break once and for all in 1968.
Images: Encyclopedia of Surfing
Wrestling for Acceptance on the North Shore
1970s - 80s
As the women’s pro surfing gained momentum, a new class of athletes rose to prominence and established themselves as fixtures in heavy North Shore surf. Margo Oberg, Lynne Boyer, “Banzai Betty” Depolito, and Becky Benson were big names. Tough-as-nails Jodie Cooper gained recognition as one of the first to routinely thread heavy barrels at Backdoor and Off the Wall.
These women have rarely been given the airtime they deserve, and this little subheading is no exception. An upcoming exhibit at San Clemente’s Surfing Heritage and Culture Center titled Under the Radar will shine a long-overdue spotlight on their careers and contributions.
The Blue Crush Era
1990s - 2000s
Keala Kenelly, Rochelle Ballard, and Lisa Andersen were chargers the likes of which the world had never seen before. Both made it known that they dreamed of winning contests at Pipeline.
Their surfing inspired a movie that inspired a generation. The Roxy aesthetic was booming. “We were living this rockstar life,” Rochelle told Emocean Magazine (Issue 02, 2021). But “people were still hating on women’s surfing and saying we sucked.”
Raising the Bar
2010 - 2020
High-profile contests for women at Pipeline were few and far between, but that didn’t stop champions like Carissa Moore and Coco Ho from proving their chops there.
Frustration began to grow around the lack of opportunities for women to compete on the North Shore. An organized movement including Keala, Rochelle, Betty, and many others brought these demands for inclusion to the halls of government. In January 2020, the city council of Honolulu voted unanimously to support the inclusion of women in contests on the North Shore.
In December 2020, the WSL made the decision to move the Women’s Championship Tour (CT) final from Honolua Bay to Pipeline. Champion Tyler Wright offered the Sydney Herald her candid thoughts on what this meant for women’s surfing:
“Women aren’t seen in that lineup. That’s the reason this [event] is such a monumental thing. Honestly, we can catch the waves, it’s just that we don’t get the practice competing with 150 guys.”
Both Tyler and runner-up Carissa Moore laid down impressive performances, proving once again that women belong.
Tyler Wright, 2X world champion and the winner of the first women’s CT event at Pipeline. Image: WSL / KEOKI SAGUIBO
The Queen is Crowned
2022
In 2022, the WSL made history by introducing Pipeline to the official Women’s CT schedule. In doing so, the sport’s governing body acknowledged that no wave is beyond the capabilities of its female athletes.
North Shore local Moana Jones Wong was the standout performance of this event. She prevailed over reigning world champion and Olympic gold medalist Carissa Moore, showing the world exactly what it means to be a pipeline specialist.
Who Will Be the Next Pipe Master?
December 8 - 13, 2022
Tune into the 2022 Vans Pipe Masters to find out. With an entirely reimagined format and a field of 20 women, it is sure to be an event for the history books.
Invitees: Carissa Moore, Moana Jones-Wong, Coco Ho, Pua DeSoto, Betty-Lou Sakura Johnson, Zoe McDougall, Tatiana Weston-Webb, Bella Nalu, Sophie Bell, Laura Enever, Malia Manuel, Bethany Hamilton, Aelan Vaast, Caity Simmers, Vahine Fierro, Maluhia Kinimaka, Luana Silva, Sierra Kerr, and Tyler Wright.
