Page 3 - MidWeek West - Jan 19, 2022

Aloha surfers and beachgoers,
Whoa, what a winter it has been!
tions most of the day, but it was a circus. If you wanted your fair share of waves, you had to surrender to the circus, and even then, good luck with fair share. Still, some pretty epic rides were had including the heroic Mark Healy going left and getting barreled — over and over again. He’s one of the best watermen walking the planet.
ly gets smaller swells with less consistency. La Niña also means a wetter winter, and this most certainly has panned out.
to take part! That’s awesome and gnarly all at the same time. Women are busting down the doors in all surf- ing categories: performance, big-wave surfing and heavy reef barrels like Pipeline, the apex predator.
the Eddie at Waimea, women in the Pe‘ahi Challenge and now, most of all, the Pipe contests. This now includes the World Tour’s Billabong Pro Pipeline Jan. 29-Feb. 10. This event is historic for many reasons, but the main one is that it’s the first-ever World Surf League Pipe con- test for women and men.
weren’t shallow enough. Backdoor is even more dan- gerous than the left, which has killed plenty of surfers and seriously injured plenty more.
We had our first Waimea- sized west-northwest swell of the season with waves reach- ing 12-18 feet on Jan. 9.
For the latest forecast — and it’s looking good — check snnhawaii.com and we will dial you in.
Well, the man of the hour and the day was none oth- er than John John Florence. He’s having a ludicrously successful season in his backyard, winning all of the main contests thus far. No one would be very surprised if Florence won this one, too. Watch out, 2022.
For over 40 years I’ve been watching and reporting the surf for Hawai‘i nei and I have to say, I don’t recall seeing Waimea Bay more crowded. There were nearly 60 surfers bunched together with more than six Jet Skis in the water just in case. There were tons of waves steam- rolling in with good condi-
Then, breathing down the neck of that episode, we got an even bigger one a few days later. It’s rare to see such a one-two punch on this scale, especially in a La Niña winter pattern, which typical-
The Da Hui Backdoor Shootout had gotten in two full days of fun competition at the time of this writing. It usually scores insane waves and this year was no excep- tion. It was some of, if not the best, Pipe that’s been seen this season.
My friend and Surf News Network reporter for over 35 years, Betty Depolito, has been fighting for women’s surfing for decades. We’ve been supporting her hard ef- forts from the start. We used to surf Waimea together in the 1980s. Today, women’s equal status is becoming a full-blown reality: Women in
Going back to the Da Hui Backdoor Shootout — it features the right or back- door of Pipe because you often come from behind the heaving lip and race a faster peeling wave into ever-shal- lower water — as if the left
GQ, droppin’ in 4 U!
What’s new? The girls get
gary@surfnewsnetwork.com
JANUARY 19, 2022 3
BY GARY KEWLEY
Women Surfers Have A Historic Spot In The Lineup
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