Brent Bielmann / WSL
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.
