Highlight Reel: Kelly Slater, John John Florence Start Strong at Pipeline

With day one wrapped at the Lexus Pipe Pro – held at the world’s deadliest wave, Pipeline – the WSL’s 2024 Championship Tour season is officially underway.

Consistent, clean, six-to-eight foot waves unloaded on the Pipeline reef Wednesday, providing a full-day of action for the men’s division. And with that canvas of swell, the world’s best surfers painted a daylong mural of excellent scores, brutal wipeouts, promising rookies, seasoned vets flexing their experience and, of course, drama (world champ Filipe Toledo curiously withdrew after round one due to food poisoning).

And so, time to look back on pro surfing’s 2024 kickoff day.

Usual suspects coasted through the early rounds of competition – John John Florence and Gabriel Medina locked in high scoring waves in the eight-point range, and Kelly Slater laughed in father time’s face, dominating surfers half his age.

“That is a lot of events, a lot of heats, and a lot of surfing,” Florence said. “It got me really excited and gave me a lot of confidence actually, thinking, wow I spent a lot of time surfing heats now. Sometimes, at the beginning of the year you’re nervous and feel almost like a rookie, that everything’s starting again for the first time. But no, I’ve been here for a while, and maybe I don’t think about it as much."

But it was Callum Robson, the Australian power surfer, who scored the Wave of the Day (a 9.00) to take down three-time world champion Medina.

“When I got out there, it felt like the energy was shifting towards Pipe, so I tried to establish the inside for the lefts,” Robson said. “I didn’t want to sit and wait for too long, and that first wave made me realize I needed some waves with more draw to them, then I got that 9, which I was stoked on.”

Just goes to show, at Pipeline, it’s anyone’s game.

Lexus Pipe Pro Presented by YETI Men’s Round of 32 Matchups:
HEAT 1: Ethan Ewing (AUS) vs. Kelly Slater (USA)
HEAT 2: Samuel Pupo (BRA) vs. Liam O'Brien (AUS)
HEAT 3: Ryan Callinan (AUS) vs. Jake Marshall (USA)
HEAT 4: Connor O'Leary (JPN) vs. Jackson Bunch (HAW)
HEAT 5: Jack Robinson (AUS) vs. Ramzi Boukhiam (MAR)
HEAT 6: Italo Ferreira (BRA) vs. Jordy Smith (RSA)
HEAT 7: Barron Mamiya (HAW) vs. Frederico Morais (POR)
HEAT 8: Yago Dora (BRA) vs. Jacob Willcox (AUS)
HEAT 9: Griffin Colapinto (USA) vs. Shion Crawford (HAW)
HEAT 10: Ian Gentil (HAW) vs. Kanoa Igarashi (JPN)
HEAT 11: Gabriel Medina (BRA) vs. Crosby Colapinto (USA)
HEAT 12: Miguel Pupo (BRA) vs. Imaikalani deVault (HAW)
HEAT 13: John John Florence (HAW) vs. Deivid Silva (BRA)
HEAT 14: Callum Robson (AUS) vs. Seth Moniz (HAW)
HEAT 15: Matthew McGillivray (RSA) vs. Eli Hanneman (HAW)
HEAT 16: Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA) vs. Kade Matson (USA)

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