Photo: Youtube/Eli Hanneman
Eli Hanneman’s never been accused of being a one-trick pony. Heavy surf, small surf, tubes, aerial surfing, power surfing, you name it, the guy noticeably brings a world-class status to just about every aspect of his surfing. It’s tough to look past how hard the Maui-born surfer charges though. He’s on a short list of Pipe’s younger standouts. And as a fan of the CT, it’s athletes like this who make me wish their contest windows could magically feature nothing but double overhead days, a-la the 2024 Tahiti Pro.
“Younger me used to send it wayyy harder,” Hanneman said when he shared his new edit, Highlights.
The clip is a simple compilation of mostly free surf highlights from the past two years, which would cover his 2023 climb through the Challenger Series rankings and into qualifying for the 2024 Championship Tour. Competitively, Hanneman took his first CS win at the 2023 US Open of Surfing and was one of the first athletes in the series to qualify for the tour. He followed that win up with a Semifinal appearance at the Saquarema Pro.
The CT code takes some time to crack for some rookies though, and Hanneman was relegated back to the CS following the 2024 Margaret River Pro.
“Not much winning, but a lot of learning in the last few events,” he wrote shortly after the mid-year cut. “Still cool to do it with my friends. The path to self discovery continues.”
Whenever and however Hanneman climbs his way back on tour, there’s no denying he has all the talent (and wtf highlights) to become a serious threat one day.
