Following her performance at the 2022 Billabong Pro Pipeline, which she won as a wildcard, Moana Jones Wong was widely and deservedly dubbed, the Queen of Pipeline.
Then 22 years old, the Oahu native solidified her status as one of, if not the, best women to surf Pipeline ever in history. She raised the bar with that performance, set the benchmark for what could be done, and paved the way for future female charging.
And today, she’s still charging Pipe. Like this recent wave, which happened after the Lexus Pipe Pro wrapped Saturday, and which could easily stand up as a contender for the coveted, although currently unofficial, Wave of the Winter honor.
“Paddled out after the comp,” Moana wrote about the wave. “Didn’t think I would catch a wave (it was packed). Said hello to all my friends, got stung by a bee and a few minutes later this wave came straight to me.”
Longtime surfer and surf commentator Selema Masekela wrote:
"That would’ve been a 12. Incredible."
In this year’s event, Moana went down in the Round of 16 to reigning world champion, Caroline Marks. On Finals Day of the contest, both the men and the women were greeted with pumping Pipeline conditions with two perfect 10s going down on both sides of the draw. In the semifinals, Molly Picklum and Bettylou Sakura Johnson surfed what some are calling the “greatest heat in women’s surf history.”
As mentioned before, Moana paved the way.
But after Moana’s epic ride above, she found herself in trouble. So much so that she needed rescuing, which came courtesy of North Shore lifeguard and 2023 Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational winner, Luke Shepardson.
“Rode this wave into the sandbar after and ate it on dry sand, broke my board, got recycled by 3 slab barrels,” Moana wrote, “was eating sand and thankfully @casualluke came and saved me on the ski thanks Luke!!!”
Just goes to show, that nobody’s safe at Pipeline. Not even the queen.
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