Wave and wind conditions shift throughout surf competitions, which are held over 3-4 days; often, the best, most radical ride doesn’t win but is the one that will be remembered, as demonstrated during last weekend’s Vans Pipe Masters at Oahu’s Banzai Pipeline.

On Saturday, in 8- to 10-foot waves, Carissa Moore, enjoying a healthy lead with less than three minutes left in her second-round heat, didn’t have to scramble into a big backdoor righthander. But she went for it, making a late, precipitous drop and tucking neatly up under the jagged lip into the barrel, where she vanished from sight before emerging with the foam ball and tidying up with turns.

The judges rewarded surfing’s first Olympic gold medalist and five-time women’s world champion with what proved to be the highest single-wave score of any surfer, male or female, throughout the event at Pipeline, the dangerous, glamorous break where women’s pro events were historically never held.

“I saw that wave and thought I’d try — I was really late, but my coach always says the late drops get the best rides, so I just kept paddling,” said Moore to Vans interviewer Mahina Florence on the beach.

Earlier this month, Moore became the first surfer and first Hawaiian to win the AAU James Sullivan Award for the most outstanding U.S. amateur or Olympic athlete.

In 2021, Moore won the debut women’s Pipe Masters, then part of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing. She also won the Haleiwa and Sunset Beach events, becoming overall champion. This year, Vans made the Pipe Masters a stand-alone event.

On Sunday, Moore, 30, placed fourth in the final round behind three rising stars — Australia’s Molly Picklum, 20, who secured first place with a backhand Pipe barrel, and Hawaii’s Bettylou Sakura Johnson and California’s Caitlin Simmers, both 17. Johnson and Simmers advanced to second and third, respectively, after Moore lost her runner-up place due to interference.

In the new format, Hawaii surfers comprised 50 percent of invitees, with established stars such as Moore, Coco Ho, Bethany Hamilton-Dirks, world No. 9 Gabriela Bryan and “Queen of Pipeline” Moana Jones Wong, winner of the first-ever women’s Billabong Pipeline Pro, challenged by up-and-comers Zoe McDougall, Brianna Cope, Pua DeSoto, Luana Silva, and Maluhia Kinimaka.

Two-time women’s world champion Tyler Wright of Australia, who defeated Moore to win the 2020 Maui Women’s Pro at Pipeline, also made a strong showing in the new Pipe Masters.

Yet despite the depth and maturity of the female field, one Pipe Masters male commentator called the competitors girls before quickly correcting himself and referring to them as women.

Vans, like WSL, recently began holding men’s and women’s contests at the same sites, and awarding equal prize purses (each Pipe Masters winner received $100,000), but there were only 20 women invited vs. 40 men, and some top-ranked invitees — Stephanie Gilmore, holder of a record eight women’s world titles, and men’s world champions Filipe Toledo, Italo Ferreira John John Florence, Kelly Slater and Gabriel Medina — did not compete.

According to an email from a Vans spokesperson, the top surfers didn’t participate due to injuries or, in the case of Florence and Slater, wedding plans.

Everyone who did show up surfed spectacularly, including men’s finalists Joao Chianca of Brazil (4th), Hawaii’s Kaulana Apo (3rd), world No. 7 Griffin Colapinto (2nd) and winner Balaram Stack of New York, who threaded some deep barrels that overarched his 6-foot-8 frame.

And Moore, currently No. 2 in the world, demonstrated the leadership, humility and sportswomanship that helped win her the Sullivan Award.

After the first day of the Pipe Masters, listening to some male Pipeline greats telling her how dangerous it was out there, “I had a good cry and got some of my anxiety out,” Moore told Florence on the beach.

When she paddled for that backdoor wave, “All I wanted was to improve my comfort level out here.”

The respect and acceptance all these wahine show for the waves, one another and themselves is the reason women’s surfing is soaring off the charts.