Queen Of Pipeline Moana Jones Wong Gets Wildcard Into WSL Pipe Pro
Less than two weeks out from the start of the 2024 WSL Championship Tour season and Pipe Master Moana Jones Wong has been given a wildcard into the Pipe Pro, which gets underway on January 29. Shattering barriers over the last several seasons at the most formidable stretch of reef in surfing, Jones Wong is regarded as the undisputed queen of Pipeline.
Other wildcards announced for the event include Jackson Bunch, who just finished runner-up at the World Junior Championships in Oceanside, California, and rising star out of the North Shore Shion Crawford, who's coming off a win at the Sunset Pro earlier this winter (where he beat Bunch in both the semis and final).
Jones Wong has a long connection to Pipeline. She competed there for the first time in 2014, then went on to win the HIC Pipe Pro and Vans Pipe Masters in 2021, as well as the 2022 Pipe Pro. As more inclusive events have been held at Pipe and more women are taking to the heavy, highly competitive lineup, she's been leading by example from the start.
A graceful, fluid surfer with a deep connection to the wave, her talent and natural affinity for the tube at Pipeline have drawn comparisons to the great Gerry Lopez, aka Mr. Pipeline, who is largely responsible for pioneering and innovating tube-riding at Pipe.
All of the wildcards will go into this year's Pipe Pro as low seeds, meaning they will be facing the top-ranked surfers on the Championship Tour today. No small task the upset the best of the best in the most consequential wave on tour, it's a hell of a way to start the season.
John John Florence, Moana Jones Wong Top Podium At 2023 Pipe Masters
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.