Brooks nabbed the tube of the day. Photo: Cait Miers//WSL
Erin Brooks was surfing in a different stratosphere than the rest of the competitors on day one of the Fiji Pro. While half the women in round one failed to notch a double-digit heat total, Brooks reached that mark with one ultra-long tube — a unanimous 10-point ride.
Brooks, who backed up the 10 with an excellent eight, called it the “best heat of my life.”
“I feel so connected to the wave and the place,” Brooks said in her post-heat interview. “Through the whole barrel I was wondering, ‘When is it going to get me?’ I thought I was going to get hit by the foamball, and then it just let me through.”
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Sophie McCulloch, the wildcard replacing Caity Simmers, had the misfortune of running into a surging Brooks in round one. Brooks, coming off her first win of the season in Tahiti — and first time advancing past round two — kept that momentum rolling into Fiji, a wave she’s already won at as a wildcard in 2024.
Brooks set up an all-goofyfoot match-up in round two against Caroline Marks, who has a solid track record of her own in heavy lefts (see 2024 Olympics). It will be the first time these two phenoms have ever faced off.
Day one at the Fiji Pro completed women’s round one, men’s round one, and the first four heats of men’s round two. A decent run of swell will continue to grace Cloudbreak, but the WSL is eyeing a massive swell forming that should hit at the tail end of the window, giving them the option to finish the event early or hold out for potentially better waves.
