Caity Simmers, Barron Mamiya Win Pipe Pro, New Era Dawns On Championship Tour
The future is now on the Championship Tour as 18-year-old Caity Simmers and 24-year-old Barron Mamiya earned huge wins at the Pipe Pro on a day full of statement-making performances. The first event of the 2024 WSL Championship Tour season, Simmers and Mamiya now start the year rated number one in the world, wearing the yellow leader’s jersey.
Monumental wins for both surfers, for Simmers, the victory ushers in a new era of women charging Pipeline. Facing in-form, Aussie Molly Picklum in the final, who was coming off of a 10-point ride in the semifinals, the young Californian showed exactly why she’s already being considered a world title contender—just six months after earning rookie of the year honors. Taking advantage of the rights at Backdoor, the comfort, poise and grit she showed under pressure illustrates how far her surfing has come in such a short amount of time.
“I was pretty terrified, we were talking about it out there, and were like, we made it!” Simmers smiled after taking her third career Championship Tour win.
“It started with all the girls that battled all the guys,” she continued. “It’s always been known the girls can surf Pipe, but I think the last few months it’s become really clear. I’m really proud.”
For Mamiya, who’s grown up on the North Shore watching Championship Tour events at Pipeline his whole life, the day was a dream realized. Dropping a perfect 10 of his own in the final, he rose to the occasion against two-time world champ and event favorite John John Florence. From his first heat win the final, Mamiya was a man on a mission in this event. Leveraging the power of local knowledge, his comfort under the ledge and ability to find the diamonds in the rough was unsurpassed. Mamiya also won the 2022 Sunset Pro, so don’t expect the local boy to take his foot off the throttle one bit.
And like that, we’re off and running on another lap around the sun on the Championship Tour. There’s a whole new generation of surfers emerging who are hyper talented, unafraid and ready to go toe-to-toe with anyone. From Simmers and Mamiya, to all the young rookies that got their feet in the wax for the first time, world champs like Florence, Gabe Medina, Filipe Toledo and Caroline Marks have their work cut out for them.
Watch: Molly Picklum Scores Perfect 10 In Firing Surf At Pipeline
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.