Tyler Wright has claimed her first Championship Tour victory since a series of concussion and equilibrium issues to make surfing history as the first woman to win Hawaii’s iconic Pipeline Pro twice.
Wright, 30, upset American No.1 Caity Simmers in a tense final on Hawaii’s North Shore, delivering Wright’s first tour win in almost two years and an encore to her 2021 Pipeline triumph.
Tyler Wright nails a barrel at Pipeline.Credit: World Surf League
Hawaiian local Barron Mamiya defended his Pipeline crown in the most dramatic fashion on the men’s side of the draw, winning a countback in the final against Italy’s Leo Fioravanti after both surfers finished with impressive 17.97 scores from their two best waves.
Fioravanti, who broke his back and was almost paralysed surfing Pipeline as a teenager, smacked the water in frustration when his blistering barrel was contentiously scored as a 9.10. The judges ruling allowed Mamiya to keep his lead on the technicality of holding the highest scoring wave (a 9.8) in the final.
As for Wright, the tour veteran has battled numerous injury and illness issues throughout her career, most notably a debilitating bout of post-viral syndrome left her bed-bound in 2018 after back-to-back world titles.
Last year she spoke candidly of the ongoing complications from an off-season operation that inserted seven screws into her head to ease breathing issues that had left her “semi-suffocating all the time”.
Tyler Wright celebrates her Pipeline Pro triumph.Credit: World Surf League
A skull expansion surgery inserted a maxillary palatal expander into Wright’s mouth to widen her previously narrow airways, an operation she has described as life-changing after competing with breathing issues her entire career.
But Wright’s surgery also exacerbated head knocks she suffered in Hawaii 12 months ago, with concussion issues re-surfacing throughout 2024 and ruling her out of events.
“The whole off-season, I spent a lot of time figuring out how to get the joy back a little bit,” Wright said after trumping Simmons in a low-scoring final.
“Last year I was injured probably a lot more than people thought I was. To come back and have a really nice off-season with my wife (Lilli), it’s so special and this is such a special win.
Tyler Wright tucks into a Pipeline barrel.Credit: World Surf League
“I’m always a little bit scared to love surfing because I’ve been injured so many times. So this has been really nice.”
Wright noted her performance against “the kids” led by 19-year-old Simmers and leading Australian contender Molly Picklum, whose final in pumping Pipeline conditions last year is considered a game-changing day for women’s surfing.
Picklum went down to Simmers in similar fashion at the semi-final stage on Sunday (AEDT) as the pair once again traded high-scoring barrels before the American prevailed thanks to a screaming 9.5 ride.
On the men’s side, Narabeen-based rookie George Pittar bowed out at the quarter-finals of his first Pipeline event as Fioravanti ran roughshod over his side of the draw.
Fifty-three-year-old wildcard Kelly Slater was unable to reprise the barrel-riding that secured his 100th win in Pipeline events on finals day, which featured a series of 9-point rides from eventual winner Mamiya.
