[caption id="attachment_9456" align="alignnone" width="640"] The 2017 WSL Wahine Pipe Pro: Keala Tomoda-Bannert. Image Heff[/caption]

The World Surf League (WSL) Hawaii/Tahiti Nui region will wrap up the 2017/’18 winter surf season this entire Easter weekend at world-famous Pipeline with the Pipe Pro Junior / Wahine Pipe Pro.

 SNN: Surf to be in the 5-8′ range from the WNW at 14-16 seconds to deliver Epic conditions esp. early in the first several hours of each day. We expect a mix of light onshore sea breezes to kick in toward noon pending land heating. This could be the last good size groundswell from this direction before the quiet summer months. Competitors should have two days of epic, barreling surf esp Saturday at the peak of double to near triple overhead and still double overhead on Easter Sunday. 

 The event will be called on tomorrow, Saturday, March 31, at 8:00am HST as a new NW swell builds in and peaks, and will potentially crown winners on both days of competition, Saturday, 3/31 and Sunday, 4/1. Please stand by for another update tomorrow morning after the schedule has been determined.

Athletes to keep an eye on will be defending event winner and 2017 Regional Junior Champion Barron Mamiya (North Shore, Oahu), who is seeded into Round Two Heat 1, along with proven Pipe winner Finn McGill (North Shore, Oahu) in Round Two Heat 5, and current regional junior front-runner Wyatt McHale (North Shore, Oahu) in Round Two Heat 3.

For the women’s QS, Gabriel Bryan (Kauai), who currently leads the regional QS rankings, will be a fierce competitor after her recent win in the women’s QS 1,000 in Tahiti, the Papara Pro Vahine Open, as well as Keala Tomoda-Bannert (Kauai), who finished runner-up behind Bryan two weeks ago. Leila Riccobuano (Honolulu) will also be eager to showcase her fearlessness in the big surf after a maiden victory in Tahiti at the Papara Pro Junior Vahine.

Happy weekending,