Photo: WSL
The athletes are bronzed and blonde, and the playing field is spectacularly blue and possibly shark-infested. The events are free to stream and mostly free to attend. Female surfers have proven themselves, via iTunes and Instagram, to be considerable audience draws. Yet somehow still, when the 2015 Women’s Championship Tour started this week, you probably didn’t tune in.
So here’s my definitive effort to convince you otherwise: last year’s race to the championship was one of the most dramatic, under-reported sports stories of 2014, and for those of us who tuned in from the beginning, it was a long, windy tale of Davids, Goliaths, and would-be Cinderellas. Three surfers split the first five wins of the year amongst themselves — 2013’s returning champ Hawaiian Carissa Moore; Steph Gilmore coming off a disappointing 2013 finish (disappointing for her, that is- she still placed fifth); and perennial runner-up Sally Fitzgibbons. A three-way race was underway almost from the get-go.
It remained a three-way race until the end of the year. However, this time, by touch down on Maui for the final event, Moore was already out of the running. It was Tyler Wright who won event number six at Huntington Beach. And it was Tyler Wright who came from behind and a little out of nowhere.
So, on the final day of the final contest of the year, the remaining live wires — all Australian — paddled out into a thrilling and complicated mathematical morass of what-ifs and if-thens that could plausibly leave any of them champion.
For the truly and completely uninitiated, the women’s tour is a lot like the men’s. It’s made up of about ten contests. For every contest, a surfer is awarded points based on how she finishes. For example, 10,000 points for first place and 1,750 points for showing up (kind of like the SAT points you earn for filling in your name). The world champion is determined by aggregating the points a surfer earns over the course of the year’s events.
But those are particulars; to appreciate the drama of what unfolded at Maui’s Honolua Bay, you need to understand the characters in play.
Gilmore, a titan of women’s surfing, was in the lead going into Maui. She qualified for the World Tour in 2007 and won the championship that year. If that sounds crazy, it’s because that’s crazy, like being named NBA Rookie of the Year, but not having time to celebrate because you’re busy getting your ring fitted. Crazier still, Gilmore kept winning. She was champion in 2008, 2009, 2010 and again in 2012.
Gilmore is the winningest surfer on tour, but 2013 was the worst season she’d had since qualifying and for a while it seemed 2014 might not go any better. She didn’t lead the field at all between the season’s first and penultimate events. Gilmore’s the tall, fair surfer with a bright smile and a high ponytail. She’s Gidget, except she’s Michael Jordan.
The other contenders on the last day of women’s competition for the year, Fitzgibbons and Wright, represent very different directions for the evolution of women’s surfing. Fitzgibbons is graceful in the water. She’s one of the hardest working athletes on tour and after a series of near-misses, she came into 2014 with something to prove.
Wright, on the other hand, peaked late in the season and has a raw ripping power. If Fitzgibbons is always-the-bridesmaid-never-the bride, then Wright was the season’s potential spoiler, arriving late and loud to a party that was already full.
Of the three surfers vying for the championship that day, front-runner Gilmore had the best record at Honolua Bay. The 26-year-old had won the last three women’s events held on Maui, but that was five years ago, during Fitzgibbons’ rookie year on tour. Wright didn’t compete there at all that year, because she was too busy being 15-years-old at the time.
On the morning of the final, there were still a couple routes Gilmore could take to the 2014 title, which would be her sixth. The easiest path to victory would be to make the final heat in Maui. It would have been Gilmore’s sixth final of the year, but it was hardly a foregone conclusion. Fitzgibbons and Wright had each made four final heats in 2014, and all three surfers boasted average heat scores within three-tenths of a point of each other. The average score range for the surfers on the women’s tour is about six points, so three-tenths may as well be nothing. That said, when Fitzgibbons trumped Gilmore in Fiji earlier in the season, the margin of victory was .27 points. Sometimes, three-tenths is everything.
If 23-year-old Fitzgibbons were to win the event at Honolua and Gilmore miss the semi-final entirely, Fitzgibbons would finally take home the championship trophy. She was ranked second behind Gilmore headed into Maui. In 2013, she finished third overall. In 2012, Fitzgibbons finished second, behind Gilmore. 2011? Second place. 2010? Second place. She’s Malone to Gilmore’s Jordan.
Sally Fitzbiggons didn’t make the final, though. She didn’t even make the semi-final. It was equal to her worst finishes of the year. Not only would Fitzgibbons not be champ, by the time the sun set at Honolua, she would be pushed off the podium entirely.
As it turned out, though, Steph Gilmore didn’t make the semi-final either, losing by a margin identical to Fitzgibbons’.
.64 points. Nothing. Everything.
Which left it up to 20-year-old Tyler Wright to make and win the final at Honolua if the world wanted to see a new champ. If Wright took the event, she’d face Gilmore in a surf-off.
And who did Wright meet in the final at Honolua? None other than 2013 champ Carissa Moore, whose disappointing start to 2014 had put her out of the race early. Was she to play spoiler?
Photo: WSL | Laurent Masurel
Gilmore watched from the shoreline, ostensibly cheering on Moore, the only person to win the WCT other than Gilmore since 2007.
If Moore won, so would Gilmore. And Moore wanted to win. The Maui event was hosted by her sponsor, Target, and Moore had been vocal about getting the WCT back to Hawaii. On the other hand, if Moore won, so would Gilmore. For the second time in her career, she’d have to surrender the trophy back to Steph.
Moore also knew that if she lost, Gilmore might, too. Wright would have the momentum going into the surf-off. Not just from the final heat, but momentum she’d been building since event 6 in Huntington Beach. Paired with a win at the Roxy Pro in France, Wright had put together the strongest back-half of the season of the entire field.
Somehow, a thrilling and complicated mathematical morass of what-ifs and if-thens had linked the fates of Moore and Gilmore, the two most dominant athletes in women’s surfing.
This story had everything. In Gilmore, it had the sport’s top force looking to cement her legacy. In Fitzgibbons, an ascending superstar desperate to finally seize her moment. Wright, an underdog who kept defying odds. And Moore, who couldn’t win the year, was in control of its outcome.
In the end, Moore won the contest, and Gilmore won the year. Wright finished second, and Fitzgibbons would have to settle for a not-so-distant fourth.
The most exciting thing about last year’s leaderboard is not how it eventually shook out — it’s that all four competitors posted final points tallies within 3,500 points of each other (Fitzgibbons finished over 13,000 points ahead of fifth place). The last time the rankings were so congested at the top was never.
And all four of these women are on tour again in 2015. Odds are it will be another scintillating race. I think the world is out of excuses not to watch.
Also, no matter who wins, the girls generally laugh and smile and pour champagne on each other. I’m not even messing with you.
Photo: WSL | Laurent Masurel
