The wait goes on in Hawaii for the start of the 2024 World Surf League Championship Tour as strong winds put an end to competition at the Pipe Pro for a second successive day.
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Organisers will reconvene at the Banzai Pipeline on the north shore of Oahu at 7.45am Wednesday (4.45am Thursday AEDT) for the next call, with hopes the surfers will be able to get the season under way.
"Wednesday looks like a great opportunity to run," the World Surf League's (WSL) chief of sport Jessi Miley-Dyer said on Tuesday.
"We're looking at some better conditions and wind patterns.
"In the back end of the window, in particular, it looks like we'll have some great opportunities."
Eleven Australians - five women and six men - are standing by to take to the water, along with Sydneysider Connor O'Leary who is now surfing under the flag of Japan.
One of the highlights of the opening round pitches WA's Jack Robinson, winner of last year's Pipe Pro, against 11-time world champion Kelly Slater from the US and Indonesia's Rio Waida.
Callum Robson, Ethan Ewing, Liam O'Brien, Ryan Callinan and Jacob Willcox are the other Australian men taking part.
In a women's event missing Australia's eight-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore, who has taken a season's sabbatical, last year's Championship Tour winner Carissa Moore kicks off the defence of her title in heat two against Sally Fitzgibbons and Costa Rica's Brisa Hennessy.
Moore has scaled back her competition dramatically this season - she will only surf the Pipe Pro and the Tahiti Pro before stepping away from the WSL after the Olympics.
Fitzgibbons' fellow Australian Molly Picklum will begin her campaign against Brazil's Tatiana Weston-Webb and US surfer Alyssa Spencer as she looks to improve on her fifth-placed finish from 2023.
Tyler Wright, India Robinson and Isabella Nichols are the other Australian women waiting for their chance in Oahu.
Australian Associated Press
