Billabong Pro Pipeline Set to Kick Off an Historic Season on the World Surf League’s Championship Tour

2022 Billabong Pro Pipeline

The only Pipeline event with World Title Implications, the Billabong Pro Pipeline will celebrate the iconic wave and the best men and women to ever ride it

It truly is a new era for women’s surfing and we can’t wait to see these women break barriers while the whole world is watching.”

— Stephanie Hendrickson, Billabong Women’s Global VP of Marketing

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA, UNITED STATES, January 28, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Billabong is honored to partner with the World Surf League (WSL) for the inaugural Billabong Pro Pipeline, the only WSL Championship Tour event at the world’s most infamous wave on O’ahu’s storied North Shore. The event will kick off an historic 2022 season, the first season with a mid-year cut and a full event schedule ending with the WSL Finals at Lower Trestles in September.

On top of this, 2022 marks the first year in the League’s 45-year history that the world’s best women will be competing in a WSL Championship Tour event at Pipeline. “To see the number of women charging Pipe and Backdoor over the past 10 years — and in the past few years in particular — is beyond inspiring,” says Billabong Women’s Global VP of Marketing Stephanie Hendrickson. “It truly is a new era for women’s surfing and we can’t wait to see these women break barriers while the whole world is watching.”

Of course, all these “firsts” didn’t happen overnight. And to honor those surfers who

helped lead the charge to this milestone, Billabong partnered with the WSL and Hunt House Pictures to create the Pioneers of Pipeline series. Narrated by North Shore lifeguard, artist and bodysurfing legend Mark Cunningham, this 14-part video series takes us through the decades as Cunningham shares memories of the greatest men and women he’s ever seen at his beloved Banzai Pipeline. To complement the series, Cunningham created a “found object” art installation on display at the event, featuring selected treasures he discovered during his countless dives along the reef that gives Pipeline its teeth. The artwork will be sold by auction with proceeds going to the North Shore Lifeguard association. To view the artwork and place your bid, go HERE.

In addition, to provide more context on the women’s long overdue first-ever WSL Championship Tour event at Pipeline, we’ve created a four-chapter series narrated by North Shore royalty Coco Ho recognizing the brave women who helped pave the way to this historic moment in surfing. The series can be viewed in full HERE.

Both video series will air during the Billabong Pro Pipeline broadcast on worldsurfleague.com, spotlighting the trailblazers of eras past while today’s best set new benchmarks at the world’s most challenging wave. “I am so grateful just to be competing at the spot where my heroes, guys like Derek Ho, Sunny Garcia and Andy Irons, inspired me to chase my dreams,” says 2019 world champ, 2021 Olympic Gold Medalist and Billabong team rider Italo Ferreira. “There is no spot like Pipeline, and I can’t wait to kick off the year at my favorite wave.”

“It’s always been a dream of mine to compete on the Championship Tour,” says 2022 CT rookie and North Shore local Luana Silva. “And to surf in my first-ever ‘CT in my backyard and be a part of history at the same time is something I will remember forever.”

The event waiting period begins tomorrow, January 29, and will run through February 10 pending conditions.
Tune in to worldsurfleague.com and billabong.com for event status each day. To purchase merchandise from this historic event, go to billabong.com.

For more information on Billabong, please visit www.billabong.com or Instagram at @Billabong and @Billabongwomens.