A Surf Contest By Any Other Name
Storied History of the Pipeline Masters Threatened by Controversy
The Pipeline Masters (colloquially known as the Pipe Master) has long been considered the most prestigious (non-big wave) surf contest on the planet. It has run uninterrupted since 1971, when Fred Hemmings put together the inaugural event with a six-person invitational format. However, that doesn’t mean it has been without controversy. Indeed, this year’s upcoming event might be the most contentious of all time.
The first bit of drama to emerge from the Pipe Masters came that fateful first year in the early 1970s, when Pipeline’s all-time greatest surfer, Gerry Lopez, thought the contest had been cancelled due to bad conditions, and ended up missing the contest. However, Lopez came back to win back-to-back Pipe Masters trophies in 1972 and 1973, and for a period of time in the 1990s, the contest was actually named after him (Chiemsee Gerry Lopez Pipeline Masters).
Gerry Lopez. Photo from: mensjournal.com
Over the next 50 years, The Pipe Masters was the setting for numerous moments of drama and glory. The contest was soon added to both the Hawaiian Triple Crown of Surfing and the World Tour, serving as the final event for both series. This set up a complicated yet exciting dynamic, wherein the top 44 World Tour surfers found themselves battling a crop of the best local Pipeline specialists—often with world titles and requalification on the line.
A win at the Pipe Masters was the ultimate accolade, cementing a surfer’s reputation as one of the best at the world’s gnarliest wave—not to mention one of the greatest barrel riders on the planet. The contest was all about tuberiding—the bigger and deeper, the better—and stood in stark contrast to many of the other events on tour, which often degraded into a three-to-the-beach grovel fest.
Photo from: https://lushpalm.com/
Pedigreed winners of the Pipe Masters included Lopez, Rory Russel, and Larry Blair (all with two wins in the 1970s), local brothers Michael and Derek Ho (three wins between them), multi-time world champ Tom Carroll (three wins), Kauai’s powerhouse duo Andy and Bruce Irons (five wins between them), and the greatest of all time Kelly Slater (with an astonishing seven Pipe Masters wins). Hawaii’s favorite son John John Florence finally won his Pipe Masters trophy in 2021—and then everything changed.
In 2022, the World Surf League decided to make Pipeline the first stop of the year on tour, rather than the last. This meant the event had to be held in January—but the Pipe Masters had historically been held the second week of December, and that’s when the permit was available. After some political maneuvering, Vans ended up with the license for the event. At the same time, Billabong had begun to sponsor the tour-opening Pipe event in January. (This had previously been the permitted slot for the Volcom Pipe Pro, which was now replaced by the Billabong Pro Pipeline—an event that some people now refer to as the “real Pipe Masters.” In fact, the Pipe Masters Wikipedia page actual lists the 2022 and 2023 Billabong Pro Pipeline events as the most recent Pipe Masters events.)
Photo from: surfertoday.com
This new dynamic created a strange divergence in regard to the world’s most respected surf contest. Suddenly, the contest officially known as the “Pipe Masters” was an invitational run by Vans, which meant the brand could put whomever they wanted into the event. At the same time, World Tour surfers who received invites could only compete if the WSL sanctioned the event or gave them special dispensation to do the contest.
The 2022 and 2023 events were weird ones. In addition to some questionable invitees (most of which were Vans-sponsored athletes or good at political lobbying), Vans also pushed a “barrels and airs” aesthetic that many purists questioned, trying (without much credibility) to push the idea that Pipe was the ultimate air wave. Ultimately, big barrels still won the day, with Balaram Stack winning in 2022 and John John Florence winning his second Pipe Masters in 2023. (Interestingly, Kelly Slater won the Billabong Pro Pipeline in 2022, leading some to claim he had won his eighth Pipe Masters).
At the same time, the one thing that most people agreed Vans had done right was adding women to the event. The latest crop of female chargers stepped up to the opportunity, and Molly Picklum won the 2022 event, while local heroine (and widely acknowledged best woman ever at Pipeline) Moana Jones-Wong won in 2023.
This brings us to the 2024 event, which is scheduled for December 8-20, just as it has been for the past 50 years. The only problem? Three weeks before the event was scheduled to run, a huge online controversy broke out when local pro surfer Josh Moniz noticed that 2004 Pipe Master Jamie O’Brien (widely considered to be one of the best ever out at Pipe) had not received a spot in the event, but was instead first alternate. Josh took to social media and absolutely blasted Vans, calling the brand out for excluding some of Pipe’s best specialists, including questionable athletes due to their affiliation with the brand, and generally tainting the legacy of the greatest surf contest in history. JOB quickly added his two cents to the mix with his own post, and suddenly social media went ballistic, with just about everyone adding their opinion to the controversy (including big names such as Kelly Slater, Julian Wilson, and Griffin Colapinto.
While some thought it was lame that JOB and other locals were complaining about his exclusion, others called out Vans for its blatant favoritism of Vans-sponsored athletes. Still others suggested that the Pipe Masters had lost all credibility the minute it fell from the World Tour and into the hands of its title sponsor, which had effectively turned it into something different than it was ever intended to be. The general consensus seemed to be that the only “Pipe Master-ish” thing about the contest anymore was the name and contest window, but that possessing those two things didn’t qualify Vans’ specialty event as an actual Pipe Masters contest.
Two days after the controversy began, Vans quietly made a change to its invite list. Suddenly, JOB was no longer an alternate, but rather a confirmed competitor, alongside a hodge podge of athletes ranging from Ivan and Nathan Florence (but not John John) and local chargers like Kala Grace and Jake Maki to questionable Vans invitees like Tosh Tudor. On the women’s side, Moana Jones-Wong and Molly Picklum were joined by Teahupoo’s best female barrel rider Vahine Fierro, reigning world champ and Billabong Pro Pipeline champ Caity Simmers, Australian heavy wave star Anne Dos Santos, and local uber-young guns like Chesney Guinotte. Whether this shakeup in the roster was enough to placate the seething masses on social media remains to be seen. Either way, the Pipe Masters will contest its 53rd straight contest in early December. Here’s hoping the waves are firing!
Photo from: https://www.surfertoday.com/
Men’s Confirmed Competitors:
Kaulana Apo (HAW)
Noah Beschen (HAW)
Russell Bierke (AUS)
Benji Brand (HAW)
Harry Bryant (AUS)
Legend Chandler (HAW)
Alan Cleland Jr. (MEX)
Crosby Colapinto (USA)
Noa Deane (AUS)
Imaikalani DeVault (HAW)
Cherif Fall (SEN)
Ivan Florence (HAW)
Nathan Florence (HAW)
Kala Grace (HAW)
Mason Ho (HAW)
Kainehe Hunt (HAW)
Koldo Illumbe (IDN/ESP)
Billy Kemper (HAW)
Kyuss King (AUS)
Zeke Lau (HAW)
Jake Maki (HAW)
Barron Mamiya (HAW)
Makai McNamara (HAW)
Torrey Meister (HAW)
Noa Mizuno (HAW)
Seth Moniz (HAW)
Eli Olson (HAW)
Jamie O’Brien (HAW)
Makana Pang (HAW)
Cam Richards (USA)
Koa Rothman (HAW)
Guy Sato (JPN)
Lungi Slabb (AUS)
Koa Smith (HAW)
Balaram Stack (USA)
Eala Stewart (HAW)
Tosh Tudor (USA)
Kauli Vaast (PYF)
Mikey Wright (AUS)
Kū’i’o’okalani Young (HAW)
Photo from: worldsurfleague.com
Women’s Confirmed Competitors
Erin Brooks (USA)
Milla Coco Brown (AUS)
Gabriela Bryan (HAW)
Puamakamae DeSoto (HAW)
Anne Dos Santos (BRA)
Vahine Fierro (PYF)
Kiara Goold (PYF)
Chesney Guinotte (HAW)
Coco Ho (HAW)
Bella Kenworthy (USA)
Maluhia Kinimaka (HAW)
Sierra Kerr (AUS)
Vaihitimahana Inso (HAW)
Bettylou Sakura Johnson (HAW)
Moana Jones-Wong (HAW)
Zoë McDougall (HAW)
Molly Picklum (AUS)
Caity Simmers (USA)
Luana Silva (BRA)
Ēweleiʻula Wong (HAW)
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