In 2002, surfer Keala Kennelly did the unthinkable. She paddled out in a contest jersey at Hawai'i's hallowed Banzai Pipeline, the crown jewel of Oahu's 7-mile stretch of surf breaks on its famed North Shore. She was competing in the Women's Pipeline Masters, the most revered annual event on the Championship Tour.
But here's the thing: That was a movie. Kennelly was facing off against Anne Marie Chadwick, the character played by actress Kate Bosworth in "Blue Crush," and nearly two decades later, a Women's Pipeline Masters has yet to jump from the big screen to real life.
In fact, until December, women had never competed in a Championship Tour event at Pipeline, where men have monopolized the waves for 50 years. That historic breakthrough came only after a shocking two-week stretch that included a shark attack, a COVID-19 outbreak and a group of daring women. Professional surfing will never be the same.
DEC. 7, 2020
Jessi Miley-Dyer (SVP of tours and head of competition, World Surf League): The women's contest started a couple of days before the men's, so we were the ones to kick off the 2021 world tour. There was a real excitement about that amongst the women, that professional surfing was restarting with us in Maui. It felt like the first day of school.
Tatiana Weston-Webb (pro surfer, currently world No. 3): And to top it off, there was a massive swell heading to Honolua.
Erik Logan (World Surf League CEO): Watching the women put jerseys on and walk down the cliff trail that morning, they were just beaming. It was like this huge exhale.
Tyler Wright (two-time world champion, current world No. 1): In the quarterfinals, I surfed against [seven-time world champion] Steph Gilmore. Steph is the best. She's known as the Queen of the Bay. That heat was so close, and in the final exchange, I knew she could convert and win or I could convert and win. When I took off on that wave, I had a clean entry and picked a higher line and went with what felt natural.
Logan: Tyler threads the needle on this amazing barrel and does a soul arch on the way out and drops a 10. It was amazing.
Miley-Dyer: We had this day of days for women's surfing. It felt like everyone was watching the women's tour.
DEC. 8, 2020
Sage Erickson (pro surfer, currently world No. 5): It was insanely beautiful that morning. There was a lot of mood in the clouds and all these wild rainbows. I got to the beach early because I was in heat No. 1 and I wanted to go out and get two waves before my heat.
Mark Pokini (head of water safety for the Maui Pro): The contest was supposed to start at 8. We have two jet skis designated for water safety and a third designated for media. We drove 12 miles up the coast to the contest site and got there about 15 minutes early. As soon as we arrived, we got a radio call from the booth on top of the cliff that they were going to push the contest back a little later.
Miley-Dyer: I decided to wait for the sun and until lower tide. We didn't have many heats left to surf, so I put the [Maui Pro] on hold until 10:30 or 11.
Pokini: You had the typical locals in the water trying to catch their waves before the contest closes down the site, along with the competitors who are going to surf that day and their caddies, so it was normal Honolua Bay, which is crowded. Just before 8, we heard yelling.
Erickson: All of a sudden, I saw everybody paddling. I was maybe 15 yards from the pack, paddling up the point.
Pokini: It's normal for someone to yell from the top of the cliff, so we were all looking up trying to tell where it was coming from. One of the water-safety guys gave a ride to two surfers who were going in to shore, and when they were halfway in, they saw guys from the WSL camera crew waving their hands and yelling from a dark corner of the Bay under some trees.
Erickson: People were screaming from the top of the cliff, "Shark, shark, there's a shark!"
Pokini: As soon as we got to the accident site, guys were dragging the victim onto the rocks. He was halfway out of the water and his back was toward the rocks, so we couldn't see his injuries. We could see him talking. As we got close, someone said, "shark bite" and showed us his board. When I saw his board, I radioed up to the main booth to activate 911. I told them, "This is serious. This is a big bite. This is a big shark."
Weston-Webb: Jessi texted to say, "Surfers, don't go out in the water to freesurf." Next thing, someone texted the group, "There's been a shark attack."
Miley-Dyer: There were over 50 people in the surf, young kids who'd come out to surf with the tour, women who were competing that day.
Pokini: I sent one ski to clear everybody from the lineup, and I grabbed a couple surfers and brought them in. By the time I got back, the man was unconscious. One of my guys, a lifeguard from the next beach over, jumped off his ski and started CPR. The victim was a familiar face to him. He was a local who always surfs Honolua Bay.
Bob Kane (WSL general counsel): Our broadcast team was recording at the time the incident happened, and we didn't want that getting out. I worked with our head of broadcast to lock down that footage.
Erickson: We got to the top of the point, and you could see the guy who got attacked. You could see his board, see them doing chest compressions. I was praying for him. There wasn't a part of me that thought about the competition. Everything I was working toward and building up to, it all fell away.
Pokini: Firemen, police and paramedics showed up within minutes. Instantly, there were 10 guys working on him. They shocked him and got him into an ambulance.
Miley-Dyer: Everyone is running up the cliff, and I have surfers hysterically crying. I called Erik [Logan] and told him, "We're not surfing today."
Logan: First things first, we had to put the event on hold.
Miley-Dyer: I said to everyone, "Go home, have a shower, call your family. Then we're all going to come together at the hotel to talk about what we're gonna do." Then I had a phone call with the WSL executives to discuss how we could reschedule the contest.
Logan: As a matter of protocol, Maui shut down all the beaches around Honolua Bay for 24 hours. I said, OK, are we canceling the event? Do we have the women finish at Sunset Beach [where the next contest was scheduled to begin in two weeks]?
Kane: In terms of breaks we could move to, there's not a lot of other places on Maui, and we had the permit in place [to run the men's contest] at Pipeline [on Oahu]. To be able to stand up a full production at any other break on Oahu would not have been practical.
Miley-Dyer: The women's tour had never competed at Pipe. For us to take that first step, it would be powerful in so many ways.
Rochelle Ballard (Pipeline pioneer, Kate Bosworth's stunt double in "Blue Crush"): When I started surfing Pipeline [in the '90s], the guys were like, 'You can't do that. Girls don't surf Pipeline.' I was typically the only girl out there.
Sabrina Brennan (founder of Surf Equity): Women have been left out of pro surfing competitions on Oahu for years, which everybody finds shocking. But it's true.
Ballard: "Blue Crush" changed everything. All these women wanted to surf Pipeline. But it takes a long time to figure out that wave. Men started surfing Pipe in the '60s and they ate it. We are going to go through the same learning curve. But the women need support.
Brennan: I started contacting Honolulu in 2016 about gender-based discrimination in surfing on the North Shore. I connected with two advocates from Oahu, Betty Depolito and Carol Philips, who owns a girls' surf school on the North Shore. This has been a long battle for them.
Betty Depolito (Pipeline pioneer and contest organizer known as Banzai Betty): We've held contests for women at Pipeline for 20 years, but not high-rated events. In 2019, we contacted [Honolulu District 2] councilmember Heidi Tsuneyoshi and told her guys were getting all the permits for surf contests and organizations were not being fair to women. She wanted to help. She drafted a resolution that passed unanimously and led to two bills that will ensure competitive surfing events on the North Shore are more equitable toward women.
Brennan: Hawai'i is at the forefront of tackling this issue. Everybody on the city council is in agreement that they don't want to see gender discrimination happening in their parks, which includes the coastal waters. Talking to the councilmembers, that message has been communicated to the WSL, and they are empowered to continue to make decisions that are inclusive of women.
Depolito: We were calling 2020 the year of the woman out here on the North Shore.
Miley-Dyer: Even though there were only five surfers left in the event, all of the women came to the meeting at the hotel. First, I told them I would give them updates on the victim, and we talked about resources we have available if they wanted to talk to someone.
Erickson: I was in the mode of, I'm OK, I can process this. Fearing sharks stands in the way of me being a world champion or surfing in the ocean with my friends. Sharks are a part of nature and part of the risk, but the reward of being out there is greater than the risk. You come up with a lot of great justifications in your head.
Miley-Dyer: Then I said, let's talk about the contest. Everyone agreed surfing at Honolua was not the right thing to do.
Erickson: I didn't want to celebrate going out where someone was just harmed to try to be victorious for myself.
Miley-Dyer: I said, this is our chance to surf Pipeline. We have time remaining on the permit to fit these four heats in. We have the opportunity to make something terrible into something that could be a pivotal moment for the sport. You five would be the first women to surf a Championship Tour event at Pipe.
Erickson: I'll be honest. I don't like big waves. I really value my life. But I was one of the first people who raised my hand and said, "Let's go to Pipe" when it was suggested. As terrified as I was of the idea, a part of me was excited because it was a new challenge.
Wright: Even though we never expected to be there, every one of us girls were ready. Put us in the lineup and we'll have a go. Give us a couple decades like the guys, and we'll put on a show.
Weston-Webb: All the girls were in. "Yeah, let's do it." I was like, "Really? Everyone wants to surf Pipe?" I love getting barreled, and surfing Pipeline in a CT jersey was my dream. But I didn't know it was everyone else's dream, too.
Miley-Dyer: I walked away from the meeting thinking, "Wow, the bravery of everyone in that meeting." They hadn't surfed Pipe a lot, but they all saw it for what it was. I texted Erik: "We're going to Pipe." I flew straight to Oahu that afternoon to start working to make it happen.
DEC. 9, 2020
Kane: Jessi and I arrived on Oahu on Tuesday. The next afternoon, we received news about the victim.
Miley-Dyer: I was at dinner when I got the text message. I was talking with Tyler [Wright] and she knew something was wrong. I said, I was just told the shark attack victim passed away.
Ida Kay (WSL VP of communications): We were on a video call when we found out. Many of the teammates on the call were crying. You can never be fully prepared for a crisis. It was a day of high emotions.
Pokini: You replay everything and think, what could I have done to give him a better chance of survival? He lost the battle, but we know we gave him the best we had. For the women to finish at Pipe, that was historic. But it came at a cost.
Erickson: I was surfing Pipe one morning that week before we competed, and the sky was full of clouds and rainbows, the same sort of mood from finals day in Maui. I got off my board to fix my leash on my ankle, and I looked up and saw the rainbows and clouds, and I panicked. My chest got tight. I had a hard time breathing. I got back on my board as fast as I could and rushed to shore. I honestly thought there was a shark. I realized: This has affected me. I should talk to someone.
DEC. 10, 2020
Kane: When I arrived in Oahu, I learned we had a COVID-positive person on our staff. We identified a small subset of people within our executive team who were in contact, and we put them all into isolation to make sure we contained the virus.
Logan: I found out I had been exposed to the person who tested positive and had to self-isolate. The next day, I found out I tested positive for COVID. Part of our agreement with the county of Oahu was we were going to share any positive results with the community. There were more [cases] than just myself, in the single digits, but when it was me, I decided to go public. On Friday, Dec. 11, we put the [Pipe Masters] on hold. We wanted to show the community of the North Shore that we were not going to be cavalier with anyone's health. [The individuals who tested positive have fully recovered.]
Kay: We work for a global league in multiple time zones during a pandemic. When the tour is on, we have to be ready for anything. But that phone call was also a shock.
Miley-Dyer: Everyone else is in this contact trace, so now I'm running the men's contest as well. That gives me visibility and control, so when I'm speaking to the women, I know that I can ensure them that they are going to go out in the right conditions.
Weston-Webb: Every time I was in the water that week, I saw Carissa [Moore] practicing with Jamie O'Brien and Sally [Fitzgibbons] and Tyler [Wright] and Sage [Erickson], everyone was out there trying.
Wright: Pipe hasn't been on the radar of a lot of the women on tour. We've dabbled and had sessions out there, but when you put a contest on, that's when you see the women in the lineup.
Erickson: We weren't getting cut off or talked down to by the guys in the lineup. We were being encouraged. So many stories I've heard, that's not the usual atmosphere out there. I asked every pro for advice: Jack Freestone, Wade Carmichael, Makua Rothman, one of the gnarliest guys from Hawai'i. I ride for Kelly Slater's company, and he was amazing. He gave me all of his lineup spots, some emergency exit spots on the reef, which was important if I needed to get out of trouble, and some great strategy.
Logan: I looked out my balcony at Pipeline one morning and watched Tyler Wright paddle out with her brother, Mikey, and then she paddles over to Gabriel Medina, and Ross Williams is surfing with Tatiana and Seth Moniz. Here are the best men surfers on the planet bringing the women along with them at Pipeline and giving them insight.
Ballard: It wasn't a shared experience back in the day, being a female surfer at Pipeline. To hear the girls were out there experiencing the support of the men, it makes me smile. It's about time.
DEC. 16, 2020
Kane: There was no ceremonial signing [of the permit variance], but the folks at parks and rec who have been part of the new legislation and know how it will impact permitting going forward, they understood what this meant, having the women surf at Pipeline. They said, "Yes, we've reviewed it and are happy for you guys to proceed."
Logan: We decided the women were going to run on finals day alongside the men. That gave our women time to practice.
Weston-Webb: When they told us, "We are planning to run you with the men," it was a really proud moment. To compete alongside the men at Pipe is a defining moment for us. I don't think anyone thought that would happen. Everyone's eyes are always on Pipe. When someone does something amazing there, everyone sees it.
Conner Coffin (CT surfer and men's CT surfers representative): It made sense, since we had all of the infrastructure in place, to finish their event with ours. Pipe is a completely different wave from Honolua, though, a really gnarly wave. I wasn't sure how the women felt about being thrown out there without much time to practice and prepare, but if they were fired up, then the men would obviously be behind that decision.
Miley-Dyer: Before finals day, I joked to someone, "This is the 'Blue Crush' revival." All of the women who were in that movie had been so instrumental in us getting to this moment. I couldn't imagine not having them be a part of it, so I rounded them up for the broadcast.
Ballard: We'd been waiting for this for years. It was exciting to see how they would handle it. It's nerve-wracking surfing that wave without a contest jersey on, the critical nature of the wave and the shallow bottom, with the caves and lava rocks, it's life-threatening. When they were out there competing, every second was exciting.
DEC. 20, 2020
Weston-Webb: I watched the live feed of the event before my heat, and I listened to Megan Abubo talk about how proud she was of how far the women have come. I remembered all the women who paved the way: Keala Kennelly, Kate Skarratt, Rochelle Ballard. I watched all those women in "Blue Crush." I watched that movie every single day when I was young. I would come home, put it on and dream of getting barreled at Pipeline in a contest. But I thought, that's Hollywood. That's never going to happen.
Erickson: I was standing on the beach before my heat looking at 6- to 8-foot Pipe, and it was big and gnarly, and I thought, making history is never easy. If I wanted to be a part of that, this is what I had to do.
Weston-Webb: I did really well in the freesurfs prior to the contest and got some amazing barrels. I was feeling really confident. But when I got into my jersey and got in the water, I forgot how to compete. I forgot how to ride a barrel. I was in this state of euphoria. I still don't think it's sunk in that I was in the first-ever CT heat at Pipeline.
Erickson: I thought I would be nervous, and I wasn't. I had this crazy peace. Even though I didn't win the heat or do anything crazy, I was out there.
Wright: In their semifinal, when Tatiana and Carissa [Moore] split the peak, the game changed forever in that moment.
Erickson: It's been a hard run for women's surfing, and we took a stand to honor the women who paved the way. We brought a lot of attention back to that generation. Their voices weren't as heard as ours. They went out with no cameras and competed for no money. They did it for the love of surfing and to be a woman out there pushing limits.
Miley-Dyer: Tyler [Wright] won, but Carissa [Moore] was the standout performer of the day. In a lot of ways, she validated the moment. We'll get better at Pipe, but those performances made everyone be like, "Oh, yeah. Wow."
Coffin: Tyler surfed a really solid heat in the final to take the win and took advantage of her turns to get scores in deteriorating conditions. It seems like speaking out for social and racial injustice has given her more of a sense of purpose.
Wright: I was overwhelmed. I was like, Oh my god, we really did just live the real-life "Blue Crush." My younger brother, Mikey, was there, and when I walked back up the beach after my final heat, he was like, "Yes! You're a Pipe Master!"
Ballard: To see them surf Pipeline, there is no bigger proving ground. It's the top level in surfing. I had a smile from ear to ear. I cried. It was a glorious moment. And I think we're going to see it again.
Logan: In February, we applied for men and women for all of our permits on the North Shore. We plan to have men and women surf at Sunset and also at Pipeline.
Wright: Two days after the final, I watched "Blue Crush." Then I watched the replay of the whole day of what we just did and I cried. My generation, we never saw surfing Pipeline as a possibility, but now, there might be Pipeline specialists in the women's field one day.
