Eli Hanneman turned in one of the better showings in his Rookie CT debut at Pipe Wednesday. He didn’t notch the highest single wave score or even the single highest heat total, but he did edge out two established tour vets in the Opening Round (Kanoa Igarashi and Connor O’Leary) for a pass straight to the Round of 32.
‘It’s crazy. Two years ago I was watching this event from a hospital bed. From (an accident while) surfing this wave. So to be here, winning heats two years later is crazy,” the rookie from Maui said after his heat win, calling the experience divine timing for having come full circle.
A single heat isn’t enough to make grand declarations about the future of a professional surfer entering his rookie season. But he is an intriguing competitor when you consider he’s not confined to winning heats in small waves or in heaving tubes. He does it all. Hanneman earned his spot on tour with a win in Huntington Beach last summer — not exactly the pinnacle of waves of consequence. He backed that result up by making the semifinal in Brazil.
“His specific approach to riding waves is unique in his timing,” Ian Walsh told me back in 2020. “He has this innate ability with timing; when he clicks off an air, when he’s projecting through a turn, when he’s hanging at the top for just a fraction of a second before getting down the face and into a bottom turn, lining up the timing with the lip. He has a really unique ability with timing and I think that’s at the foundation of what’s so special about him.”
So how’d he get here?
Hanneman wrapped up the 2023 Challenger Series in fifth place, which was a massive leap in the rankings just like the jumps made by fellow rookies Cole Houshmand, Crosby Colapinto, and Kade Matson. All of those surfers finished outside of the Top 50 on the Challenger Series leaderboard in 2022 before qualifying for this year’s Championship Tour.
“I feel like if I was to leave a legacy behind it would be something involving the WSL and a competitive career more so than being a freesurfer,” Hanneman said long before reaching the Championship Tour. “[And] if I were to describe myself I would say I’m just a kid living on Maui with a dream to pursue a career in what I love to do. And I’m not really trying to make a name for myself from anything other than surfing right now. That’s my main focus. I just do it because I love it.”
