Moanalani Jones Wong (born May 16, 1999) is an American surfer who has been called the "Queen of

Pipeline A pipeline is a system of Pipe (fluid conveyance), pipes for long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas, typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countries ...

Early life and education

Jones Wong was born and raised on the North Shore of

Oahu, Hawaii Oahu (, , sometimes written Oahu) is the third-largest and most populated island of the Hawaiian Islands and of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital, Honolulu, is on Oahu's southeast coast. The island of Oahu and the uninhabited Northw ...

, alongside her younger sister. She was homeschooled. She entered the University of Hawaii West Oahu in 2016, initially majoring in biology. In her junior year, she switched her degree to Hawaiian and Indigenous Health and Healing (HIHH), after taking a class in the subject. She graduated in 2021, and was part of the first class of students to graduate with the HIHH degree. Her thesis was on surfing and its importance in Native Hawaiian culture.

Surfing career

Jones Wong began surfing as a child, and competed in her first surf contest at age 5. As she grew older, she was driven to improve her surfing skills in order to keep up with her close friends, who were also surfers. She first paddled out to the Banzai Pipeline at age 12. At age 11, she began a sponsorship with

Billabong In Australian English, a billabong ( ) is a small body of water, usually permanent. It is usually an oxbow lake caused by a change in course of a river or creek, but other types of small lakes, ponds or waterholes are also called billabongs ...

, which she continued until age 17. Jones Wong competed in local contests until age 16. Jones Wong has never trained under a coach, and has said she doesn't follow any specific training or diet regimes. In 2022, Wong began wearing a helmet while surfing the Banzai Pipeline. Jones Wong competed in the 2014 Surf n Sea Pipeline Women's Pro, and in 2015 came fourth in the event's final. She also competed in the 32-mile Molokai 2 Oahu paddle race with her father, Dawson Jones. In late 2021, Jones Wong won the HIC Pipe Pro. She won first place in the women's division of the 2021 Vans Pipe Masters, and won the 2023 event the following year. In June 2023, Jones Wong was included among the surfers profiled in the docuseries ''Surf Girls''.

Personal life

Jones Wong is of Native Hawaiian descent. She met her husband, Tehotu Wong, at V-Land, a surfing spot on the North Shore. In her spare time, she does

jiu jitsu Jujutsu ( , or ), also known as jiu-jitsu and ju-jitsu (both ), is a Japanese martial art and a system of close combat that can be used in a defensive or offensive manner to kill or subdue one or more weaponless or armed and armored opponent ...

and

hula Hula () is a Hawaiian dance form expressing chant (''oli'') or song (Mele (Hawaiian language), ''mele''). It was developed in the Hawaiian Islands by the Native Hawaiians who settled there. The hula dramatizes or portrays the words of the oli ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wong, Moana Jones 1999 births Living people 21st-century American sportswomen American female surfers American people of Native Hawaiian descent People from Oahu University of Hawaiʻi alumni