5 Takeaways From The 2024 Championship Tour After Hawaii
The race for the 2024 world title blew right open in Hawaii. Before the season even began, it started with five-time world champ Carissa Moore stepping away, then eight-time world champ Stephanie Gilmore and two-time and defending champ Filipe Toledo followed suit. Three of the most dominant surfers of the current era, out for the season. The absence of this trio will become more apparent when it gets closer to WSL Finals time, given they’ve combined to win the winner-take-all event four times. But the news was enough kick the new season off with plenty of questions. Here are five answers we learned after events at Pipeline and Sunset Beach:
1. Molly and Caity are the new Steph and Carissa.
It’s early days, but Molly Picklum and Caity Simmers battling for the world title at Lowers in September feels like a likely scenario. They both came away from Hawaii with a win, but even more, it feels like it’s going to be hard for the rest of the field to keep pace all year long. Picklum is in absolute attack mode. Simmers, like the young Jedi she is, has begun to realize her full power. They’re picking up right where Stephanie Gilmore and Carissa Moore left off.
2. Is this Jack’s year?
Jack Robinson clicked into another gear at Sunset Beach. Now sitting number two in the world, if he surfs with that precision, commitment and focus all year long, look out. With Margaret River, Teahupo’o and Cloudbreak on the schedule, the regular season is built for him. And with the Olympics at Teahupo’o as well, he has much to look forward to in 2024.
3. The top five women in the world are all under 25 years old.
A generational shift is at hand on the women’s Championship Tour. At 24 years old, Brisa Hennessy is the oldest woman in the top five. World champ Caroline Marks, currently in fifth on the leaderboard, is only 22, while Picklum’s 21 and Simmers is only 18. Other young women like Bettylou Sakura Johnson, Luna Silva and Gabriel Bryan also got in the mix in Hawaii.
Gallery: Early Round Action From Two Heavy Days At Sunset Beach
4. Land of the Rising Sun rising.
The performances of Kanoa Igarashi and Connor O’Leary in Hawaii have them comfortably situated side-by-side in the top ten. Igarashi looked reinvigorated at Sunset, and with a house in Portugal, he’s no stranger to Peniche and Supertubos. Look for the boys with the Japanese flag on their shoulder to keep leaning in strong all year.
5. Where does Brazil go without Filipe Toledo?
Coming out of Hawaii, there are no Brazilian surfers in the top ten of the men’s leaderboard. Italo Ferriera is the highest ranked South American at 13th, while three-time world champ Gabe Medina is languishing all the way down at 26th. While Hawaii wasn’t kind to them, Portugal is somewhere the Brazilian contingent have historically performed well and is a great place to turn things around.
Aussies Molly Picklum, Jack Robionson Sweep Hurley Pro Sunset Beach
With more than 25 years of writing about surfing, the ocean and action sports, Jake Howard continues to share stories, profiles and issues that shape the surfing world. One of the premier subject-matter experts in the field today, he's savvy in the ways of print, digital and social media, his breadth of work is expansive. Getting his start writing Surfline surf reports and recording the phone reports for 976-SURF in the late '90s, Jake served as the managing editor for Surfer Magazine in the early 2000s before moving on to launch RedBullSurfing.com and cover surfing for ESPN and the X Games. Over the years, Jake has also enjoyed time behind the edit desk at The Surfer's Journal, as well as the World Surf League, where he worked as the Senior Editor for a number of years. Beyond producing editorial content, Jake has served as a digital marketer and copywriter for iconic surf brands such as Quiksilver, Roxy and Rip Curl. Writing thousands of pages of copy for Surfline, he has deep SEO experience as well. The surf columnist for the San Clemente Times, Jake continues to dedicate himself to the culture and history of the sport through his involvement with the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente.