Erin Brooks might have been born in Texas, and represents Canada, but she owes as much of her surfing pedigree to the high performance breeding ground of Oceanside, California, where she spent much of her formative years. And now the 17-year-old’s wildcard win at Cloudbreak announces the arrival of a bonafide superstar the likes surfing seldom sees. The debut win puts her in an illustrious category of female surfers to take out a Championship Tour contest on their first try, including two-time world champion, Tyler Wright, who won her first elite tour event when she was only 14, as well as eight-time world champ, Steph Gilmore, who took out the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast in her debut when she was 17.
Fittingly, Brooks was coached to victory by Kelly Slater; the 11-time world champion and former child prodigy no doubt seeing something of himself in this exceptional next-gen talent. If anyone is to threaten his record, it may well be Brooks. In what was the world’s first full look at her in a CT contest, her surfing was a cut above and close to untouchable once she overcamse some early round jitters.
Matt Dunbar / WSL
After losing her opening round heat, Brooks was condemned to the elimination round, where she played spoiler against Final Five contender Gabriela Bryan, taking out the heat with a remarkable last-gasp tube. Earlier in the heat the diminutive teen had packed a heavy closeout, weaving through multiple sections at warp speed. The wave closed out and snapped her leash, causing a commotion as she was forced to grab her back up board and hurry back into position, still requiring a score. Under Bryan’s priority, Brooks found another roping tube and locked in to take the victory.
Brooks was unstoppable from that point on, putting up the highest combined total of every round thereafter, taking down world number one Caity Simmers in the quarters (15.33 to 11.60), world number four Molly Picklum (15.26 to 11.80) and world number five Tatiana Weston Webb (15.10 to 12.33).
Apart from the tubes, the performance was marked by what is already a signature bottom turn to top turn combo in which she generates the most acute angle, flies off the bottom and into a variety of hacks, carves and snaps in the most critical section of the wave with peerless power and timing. As good as you’ll see, and as good as has ever been seen.
If Brooks can hold just down her spot top five spot on the Challenger Series and put her radical rail, tube and aerial attack to work against the world’s best on the 2025 Championship Tour, you have to love her chances at the WSL Finals next year, which will be held right here at Cloudbreak.
Aaron Hughes / WSL
Arriving in Fiji, Griffin Colapinto still had some work to do to clinch his Final Five spot, only no one told him. It wasn’t until taking to the water against local wildcard Tevita Gukilau in the Elimination Round, that he was informed he needed to win this heat to guarantee a start at Lowers. It was far from a certainty either as Griffin got off to a nervous start while his blue-collar counterpart, who is a well known underground tube master at this location, found a couple of classic Cloudbreak drainers to pile on the pressure. The Cali kid kept it together, however, ripping off a series of high octane hacks, snaps and fin drifts in the bowl for a stoic victory.
With the pressure off, Griffin was able to free himself up and put on some of his best surfing all year. It was all laughs for his Round of 16 heat with good mate Seth Moniz as Griffin leaned hard on his scintillating slice-and-dice game, peppering the lip line and pocket with blast after explosive blast, sending buckets skyward with supreme style and flow.
That win setup a huge quarterfinal with Gabriel Medina that held major Final Five implications. The Brazilian had served up some of the best surfing of the year, including a near perfect 9.87 for a freakish layback hammer to tube ride, on the way to the quarters, keeping his faint Final Five hopes alive. As the swell backed off and the tubes dried up, the ascendancy switched from the goofies to the natural footers (all four semifinalists were natural), who were able to generate extra power and flow with their back to the wall on this ultra-rippable canvas.
Aaron Hughes / WSL
Griffin’s win inadvertently locked in rival Jack Robinson’s spot in the Final Five. The pair faced off in the semis, giving fans a taste of what’s to come at Lowers. What a rivalry these two 26-year-olds have developed, and there were plenty of pre and post heat shenanigans to go with it, including some verbal jousting and even a mid-heat mooning of Jack by Griffin, which may or may not have gotten inside the Aussie’s head. In a wave-starved affair, Griff ended getting the rub of the stop-start rhythm and eked out a narrow two-point victory.
Meanwhile, Yago Dora and Ethan Ewing were surfing for their spots in the Final Five. Ewing proved he’s as good as any surfer on the planet with his back against the wall, literally and figuratively, producing the greasiest of rail games to progress through a ton of high pressure scenarios and secure his place in the WSL Finals with a semifinal finish in Fiji.
He might have gone all the way had it not been for one of the great upsets this season, after Indonesia’s Rio Waida found an answer to Ethan’s nine-point ride with an 8.93 of his own in the semi final, only to hustle an innocuous looking wave under Ewing’s priority in the dying stages and jam a sequence of radical, quick-twitch stabs in the lip for a 7.33 and the win, along with the highest combined total of finals day (16.26).
The Bali-raised surfer was at home in the Uluwatu-esque lineup as he racked up his first-ever final finish, but ultimately it wasn’t enough to take his first Championship Tour victory. Griffin’s surfing was on point in the deteriorating conditions.
And that’s it for the 2024 Championship Tour. All eyes now shift to Lower Trestles and the WSL Finals. In three weeks time we’ll be crowning our world champions.
2024 WSL Men’s Final Five
1. John John Florence (HAW)
2. Griffin Colapinto (USA)
3. Jack Robinson (AUS)
4. Ethan Ewing (AUS)
5. Italo Ferreira (BRA)
2024 WSL Women’s Final Five
1. Caitlin Simmers (USA)
2. Caroline Marks (USA)
3. Brisa Hennessy (CRC)
4. Molly Picklum (AUS)
5. Tatiana Weston-Webb (BRA)
Related: 17-Year-Old Canadian Wildcard Erin Brooks Earns Historic Win at 2024 Fiji Pro
Related: Griffin Colapinto Wins Fiji Pro, WSL Finals Lineup Locked In