Billy Kemper helped create the platform, Joey Johnston justified the effort. Photos: Amelia Gray
“The best surfers out here are the locals.”
Those words from Billy Kemper — big wave vet and Pipeline fixture who serves on the World Surf League’s forecasting and event team in tandem with Surfline’s Kevin Wallis — succinctly explain his motivation for coordinating the first-ever Locals Opening Round of the Pipe Pro Challenger.
On Saturday morning, Pipeline and Backdoor were baring their teeth – powerful waves that grew throughout the day, in seemingly unruly fashion. Tough to read. But thanks to Kemper’s diligence and the willingness of locals who got the call, 20 Pipeline specialists were ready to compete in five, four-man heats where the first and second place finishers would advance to the Round of 80.
A WSL representative explained that the Locals Opening Round is essentially a version of the usual wildcard allotment to locally respected athletes who deserve a place in a contest at their home break, enhanced to accommodate the expansive field of talent in this region. Kemper said he spent months developing logistics with the WSL and navigating red tape with the Honolulu mayor’s office to find the solution.
“Looking at only a handful of locals being in a Challenger event…it takes away the best surfers out here. These guys live, sleep, and eat Pipeline, and it’s a lot different from these guys coming in from different sides of the world,” Kemper said, noting he was particularly happy to see former CT competitor Ezekiel Lau and young upstart Legend Chandler advance in the event thanks to the Locals round. “The locals are definitely making a strong stand today, and I think they’ll continue on through the entire event.”
Kemper acknowledged the difficulty of the round’s conditions, which foiled his own efforts in Heat 5, where he exited third. Of the 40 waves that went into the two-wave totals of all the opening-round surfers, only eight scores broke a 7.50, and many of Hawaii’s best had to finish their heat with less than a two-point total. But for the few who struck gold, the riches were plenty.
Joey Johnston’s 8.83 was the only wave of note in the first heat, and it was one of those legendary type barrels that gets the crowd on shore completely riled up It was a rare find in a heat where even former Da Hui Backdoor Shootout champion Koa Rothman was sent home with only two fractional scores. In wild conditions requiring endless paddling to seek potential, only Makana Pang, Kala Grace, Koa Smith, Benji Brand, and Ezekiel Lau joined Johnston in finding excellent scores in the opening set, whereas Pipeline Master Jamie O’Brien was unable to secure a second wave score.
The six surfers with excellent opening round scores were joined by Cody Young, Legend Chandler, Lucas Godfrey, and Mason Ho in the Round of 80, and six of those 10 would go on to advance to the Round of 64 by finishing first or second in their heats. Pang, Lau, Chandler, and Ho all secured a spot in the 64 with exceptional heat wins, threading thundering barrels and dropping down wave faces that sometimes reached 15 feet, like on Ho’s last wild ride at the end of the day that earned a 9.07. But the first Locals Opening Round athlete to finish first for the second time on Saturday was beloved underdog Joey Johnston.
The youngest son of Town & Country shaper and legendary surfer Don Johnston, Joey Johnston isn’t usually a comp guy. He’ll admit it himself. Even total domination in both heats he surfed Saturday didn’t make him curious about competing more. He just relishes Pipe without the usual crowd of 100-plus strangers.
“It doesn’t happen often to be able to surf with only three other guys out — and they’re my friends, too, so there’s no awkwardness between us,” the local hero said. “We were talking story and it was just like another day out in the lineup. The only difference is, you know, you want to see all your friends make it and, unfortunately, two don’t.”
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On a day full of clamping closeouts and quick in-and-outs with minimal scoring potential, Johnston found two memorable barrels — first with a huge cavern where he was hidden for seconds in the Locals Opening Round, and again with a steep, knifing drop into a short but sizey barrel in the opening heat of the Round of 80 — always at Backdoor.
“Honestly, I feel like everytime I surf out here, I pretty much only go right, just because 99 percent of the crowd is looking left,” Johnston said. “So I’m just trying to go the other way that no one else wants to go.”
Johnston said in a post-heat interview Saturday he didn’t care who he draws, he was just stoked to keep surfing Pipe. He wasn’t stressing which board he’d ride either. He was frothing.
That chill approach served him well: On Sunday, Johnston secured his third consecutive heat win of the event with his third excellent score on yet another Backdoor bomb where he disappeared in the double-overhead cave before being shot out with the spit for an 8.17. Pounding his chest and looking to the beach, he was fully connected to the ocean’s energy.
“When Billy called me, I couldn’t believe it at first. I was like, there’s no way,” he said. “I guess all this time that I’ve been putting in out there the last few years has paid off, and now I’m here in the big leagues.”
