OPENING THE BACKDOOR AND ENTERING PIPE
Our continents are united by one body of water. In its frozen form, Inuit, the First Nations people of the Artic region, build houses on it. The same briny solution forms tsunamis, which destroy villages, buildings, and countless lives. When we paddle, duck-dive, and catch those liquid thrills, it could consist of droplets from ancient Inuit homes, remnants of tsunamis, waves that crowned the Maui Pro winner … or sneaky tides that snatched away sandcastles we built as kids. The ocean captures moments in time. Lassoed to the moon, tides rise and fall … its crests and troughs fill our lives.
It’s mid-January and during a phone interview with Tyler Wright, the first female to win a CT event at Banzai Pipeline, we discover she’s recuperating in Hawai’i. “I’ve been out of the water for a month now,” she says. During the event, we, like many, were unaware of Tyler’s physical ailment when she competed at Pipe. A medical expert advised her to stay out of the water. “Life is hard, but you can do hard things,” she says in an encouraging, yet uber-rational way. As sure as Pipe claims more lives than any other surf break, Tyler is accurate about life’s adversities. There is no victory without learning from defeat. No rainbow without the
