Barron Mamiya looked primed for a breakthrough Championship Tour season in 2024. He found rhythm in the second half of 2023, accumulating solid results and finishing with a season-best third in Tahiti. Then he followed it up by winning the opening event of 2024 at Pipe against none other than John John Florence. Mamiya was on the verge of breaking into the upper echelon of the tour.
But the rest of 2024 didn’t go as planned. He didn’t finish higher than 17th until the last event of the year.
Will 2025 be different? A recent trip that the Oahu native paid to Maui might suggest what’s to come. During the bountiful run of swell that has been gracing the Hawaiian Islands, Mamiya and friends jetted over to the Valley Isle to get a piece of its iconic point break, Honolua Bay.
If Mamiya’s dagger-sharp, powerful carves he displayed on the right-hand walls of Honolua foreshadow the season ahead, we might see him come into his own. Replicating those turns could serve him well on the right-heavy tour and waves like Sunset (which he’s already won), Bells, Margaret River, El Salvador, and J-Bay.
At 24 years of age, Mamiya’s already won two CT events – something many tour surfers never accomplish in their careers. He clearly has the “X” factor it takes to compete among the best. Now it’s just a matter of putting a complete season together.
