It was Tyler Wright's first win of the season (which would be one of five) and the woman looked like she was on a mission to duke it out the whole nine-yards through Maui. Which, technically, wouldn't be a surprise as 60% of the women who won at Snapper go on to win a World Title.
Aggressive, confident and surfing a fair notch above the rest, it was here that Tyler set the tone for 2016 -- especially in her Semifinal matchup with 3X World Champion Carissa Moore (who had beat Tyler in 11 of 13 of their previous battles).
Equally impressive though, was Tyler's ability to keep her emotions in check despite a period of obvious distress within her family. Her big brother, Owen Wright, was forced to sit this season out from a bad head injury during Pipe and Wright's uncle had just recently passed on top of that. At that time, unsure if Owen would be up for surfing another Championship Tour season, perhaps Tyler's drive gave him some hope, too.