Caitlin Simmers wins Pipeline on an era-defining day for women’s surfing

I'm probably more excited that I had a good day at Pipeline and got a couple of waves, because I usually don't. I was in Hawaii before the comp started and there were days where I had really, really frustrating sessions and didn't make a single barrel. It's weird having to train for an event, but you can't because there's 150 people out and you can't get a wave. It's crazy trying to mind-surf every wave and imagine what you would be doing if there wasn't anyone else out there.

Yeah! How many waves did I get that day, like three good ones? So they're probably the three best waves I've ever got out there. The first wave I got was the first proper Pipe one I've ever made, so I was pretty hyped on that. I've never really got a wave at Pipe until that heat.

Well, the incentive is winning, but the waves were a big bonus because they weren't like that when they ran a couple of days earlier. Those waves were pretty questionable. The incentive to do turns and be really scrappy and force yourself to act like you're surfing a left bank in France when you're at Pipeline is pretty hard, but it was worth it for that day at the end.

Yeah, I'm a big advocate for Girl Power. Maybe it's not that it's cool to be a part of it, as much as it is that's it's cool to see it go down. I'm pretty proud just to be a part of it all, it was crazy. It's just cool that the women got the chance to show they can surf well, because a lot of the time at Pipe they've run the girls when it wasn't that good and they haven't been able to showcase their best. Obviously Moana Jones Wong has been getting great waves in the comps, but she's so good at Pipe that she can get a good wave out there on any day. It was just cool that we had that one perfect day of waves that the women have never had before and we could show that we can get barreled.

It was an in-the-moment thing, rather than thinking, 'Oh, this is going to go viral,' because you can't really plan winning an event like that. It was more of something that came to my mind on the day, when I was watching Bettylou and Molly sending it on huge waves. It was so cool, I'd never seen anything like that in person. There were 10-footers and Molly was dropping into Pipe bombs like it was nothing and I just thought that Pipe is for the girls too, because in the freesurfs it never really seems like it is. So, for me, it was more of 'See! If you give us waves we can do it!'

Before the final, I was like, 'Pipe is for the f*****g girls,' to Molly and she went, 'Yeah, Pipe is for the bitches!' We were talking, saying how we're here at Pipe, it's perfect and we're about to have a final together, and it's pretty cool that Pipe is for the girls. I just thought, 'Okay, whoever wins has to say it.' I usually find it pretty hard to articulate my thoughts after a win and the only thing in my mind was that I didn't want to say, 'I don't know,' again in an interview. So, I just said that.

Yeah. Starting out in the morning, seeing the waves and that it was really good got me excited, but again that morning I didn't get a single wave. I ended up paddling in. The only wave I got was a foamy Pipe wave with a sketchy drop, but I forced myself to go just to get a feel for it. Then, when I ended up getting that first wave in my first heat, it definitely gave me a lot of confidence. I guess it started from there and ended up working out.

I'm not much of a surf nerd, if that's what you mean. I don't really study contests and stuff, but I watch a lot of surf videos.

I would watch a lot of Dane Reynolds. He had an edit called Sampler that I watched every morning for a long time. That and his YouTube channel, Marine Layer Productions. Before this event I was watching a lot of Steph Gilmore's frontside tube riding and there's a girls' movie called Surfing that's pretty cool. I was watching that a lot, too.

I think it just comes from the love of getting barrelled and pulling into closeouts at Oceanside Pier. You have to love eating s**t, which I guess I don't, but I love to get a vision and get barrelled. The thought of big wave surfing is so unappealing, but the idea of being inside of the wave is pretty amazing to me, so it probably just stems from that.

Yeah, that's where you hone your craft!

Totally. One of my favourite things to do is go up against the girls who are so experienced and just so good at what they do. I'd definitely love a couple more heats against Carissa. Hopefully I'll get them one day.

No, it's just a colour. I'm kidding, it's weird being on the top. It's sick, it's crazy and I guess it's the first time I've ever been number one, but it's the first event so as of now it doesn't mean anything more than I won the first event.