With the conclusion of the Port Stephens Pro in New South Wales, the rookie qualifiers for next season’s Championship Tour have been finalized. Two fresh faces will make their full-time debuts in 2019, one of whom will be Oahu’s Brisa Hennessy.
After reaching the semifinal round during the final QS 6,000 contest on Tuesday, Hennessy locked up a spot and the promising young wahine will get her first taste of the dream tour as a regular. It’s never been a matter of if, but when for Hennessy through the early stages of her career. The talent and determination have been evident, it’s just been a matter of timing and execution.
Her arrival comes slightly ahead of schedule, but the 19-year-old already has reason to believe that she’ll be a factor in her rookie season. She’s surfed in three CT contests to this point, including twice at the Maui Pro. Last season, she knocked out both Sally Fitzgibbons and Coco Ho in head-to-head matchups to reach the quarterfinals. The perception of her from the other top women on tour seems to be that she’ll be ready to come in and compete on day one.
Hennessy now surfs under the Costa Rican flag, which gives her a stronger opportunity to participate in the 2020 Olympic Games. Tatiana Weston-Webb, Mahina Maeda and Kanoa Igarashi have made the same determination, switching up their affiliations for that amazing opportunity. But Hennessy has been one of Hawaii’s rising stars since she was only about 14 years old. She really started coming into her own in 2015 as a Junior and made it into the QS top 20 last season. Her climb has been quick, but steady and deliberate. She’s not the beneficiary of one or two massive results. She’s clearly one of the best in the world and her career seems to be set for a long time to come.
The second rookie for 2019 will be Australia’s Macy Callaghan, who reached the final heat and finished runner-up to Nikki Van Dijk on Tuesday. Callaghan recently took second place as a CT injury replacement at the Roxy Pro France, so her ceiling is certainly quite high.
Malia Manuel may not finish within the CT top 10 (she’s currently 12th) but her spot on the 2019 tour is assured, thanks to some double qualifiers. The top three on the QS — Caroline Marks, Van Dijk and Coco Ho — are all in the CT top 10 heading into Maui. Manuel finished eighth on the QS, just behind Hennessy. Those two and Silvana Lima would be the beneficiaries of all three double qualifiers moving the line down three spots.
The only way for that to change would be for either Sage Erickson or Keely Andrew to win the Maui Pro, while both Van Dijk and Ho also exit early. That would put the winner into the top 10 and move out Van Dijk, requiring her to use her QS ranking to qualify. Lima would be the odd woman out in that scenario, if she were to also exit early and not move in the top 10, herself.
But Manuel is safe because it’s not mathematically possible for Erickson and Andrew to both enter the top 10.
It’s a lot of ifs and maybes with just one CT contest remaining, but there would have to be a major development to alter the 16 qualifiers. The only one with a minor sweat is Lima and the chances she falls out are miniscule.
So welcome to the world of surfing’s biggest stage, Brisa Hennessy. Rookies have made their presence felt quickly in recent years, like Marks this season and Weston-Webb in 2015. Hennessy seems like a rookie in that mold who will be very competitive from day one.
They don’t all have the Hawaiian flag anymore, but Manuel, Ho, Weston-Webb and Hennessy make for a really interesting mix of Hawaii wahine talent set for the 2019 season.
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David Simon can be reached at dsimon@thegardenisland.com.
