Surfing
Surfing
The new generation of surfers ready to make waves
Take a look at the new crop of young, globe-trotting pro surfers who look set to dominate the WSL's Championship Tour for years to come
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Come and meet the future surf stars from around the world who are ready to usher in a new era, make the sport their own and dominate on the WSL Championship Tour.
01
Sierra Kerr
Sierra Kerr is known for her progressive style and natural flair
© Anna Kucera/Red Bull Content Pool
Daughter of World Surfing League Championship Tour legend, Josh Kerr, and already a Junior world champion, Australian shredder Sierra Kerr is as close to the definition of a next big thing as you can get in surfing.
Seen as a future star of the sport while still in her teens, Kerr gained attention for her fearless approach and versatility while excelling in a host of major junior events. Her innovation and style marking her out from the rest of the field.
Now competing in the WSL Qualifying Series, the second-tier of international, Kerr is also building a reputation as a progressive free surfer and looks set to help redefine women’s surfing in years to come.
02
Erin Brooks
Erin Brooks winning the Vans Pipe Masters in wild style
© Brent Bielmann/Vans
Pocket rocket Erin Brooks might be small of stature, but she's seriously big on talent, as victory on her Championship Tour debut at the fearsome Fiji Pro as a wildcard in 2024 very definitely shows.
Already recognised as one of the best tube riders in the world as she surfed her way the ranks, the Texas-born, Hawaii-raised and Canada-representing 18-year-old made her full-time CT debut during the 2025 season. Another win escaped her, but Brooks scored an impressive three podiums (at the MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal, Bonsoy Gold Coast Pro and VIVO Rio Pro) as she got to grips with the demanding schedule and at the very top of the sport.
"I wasn’t happy with my first year on tour,” she admitted in a post-season interview with Red Bull. "It was a bit of a shock, but I think that’s good for me. Last year was the best competitive year I've had, with lots of wins. I felt unstoppable, but then I definitely got humbled real quick."
Erin Brooks in action at the VIVO Rio Pro
© World Surf League/Red Bull Content Pool
I wasn’t happy with my first year on tour. It was a bit of a shock, but I think that’s good for me. I felt unstoppable, but then I definitely got humbled real quick.
Now, with a year of Championship Tour competition under her belt and a very clear idea of what she needs to do to be on top, expect the highly touted Brooks to follow hot the heels of ripping young rivals Caroline Marks, Caity Simmers and defending champ Molly Picklum by surfing right into Championship Tour contention.
03
Jarvis Earle
Jarvis Earle is on track to become Australia's next CT contender
© Brett Hemmings/Red Bull Content Pool
Ripping out Sydney suburb Cronulla with a mega-watt smile and a Junior World Championship title to his name already, a lot of Aussie surfing insiders have Jarvis Earle tapped as the country's next Championship Tour hero.
The lightning-fast 21 year old goofyfooter is known as a real contest king, who really delivers when the jersey gets pulled on and the pressure is really on. Equally adept at cracking the lip as he is tucking into the tube, Earle's arsenal of explosive aerials are already famous online and he's not even reached the CT yet.
After winning the 2022 World Junior Championships, Earle has been on the contest grind ever since, working his way up the battlefield that is the Challenger Series, with the goal of reaching the Championship Tour roster getting ever closer. Earle is taking it all his stride and staying grounded, though, despite the expectation.
Jarvis Earle carves the waves in Sydney
© Brett Hemmings/Red Bull Content Pool
My ability to go for it under priority and still get scores is another strength, and I'm a really competitive person.
"There’s a lot of pressure, especially after winning the World Juniors. Everyone expects you to perform," he explained in a recent interview. "I've been learning a lot about staying in the right mind space. I always try to stay present in the moment and not get caught up on what’s happened in the past, or what could happen in the future.
"I think I’m pretty well-rounded as a surfer and I feel comfortable in any conditions. My ability to go for it under priority and still get scores is another strength, and I'm a really competitive person. If the conditions are bad, it might not be that fun for a free surf, but once you chuck the rashie on, it makes it exciting and gives you something to work towards."
04
Kauli Vaast
Kauli Vaast is the undisputed master of charging Teahupo'o waves
© Gaetan Charlin/Red Bull Content Pool
What more do you need to know about Kauli Vaast than the 24-year-old who was born and raised in Tahiti won the 2024 Olympic gold medal on his fearsome home waves at Teahupo'o aged just 22, forever cementing his place in surfing history. There's so much more to Vaast than his golden moment however.
After catching his waves aged just four, Vaast cut his comp teeth on the waves of the French domestic scene – a very different prospect than the picture postcard waves of Tahiti, but a key reason why he's recognised as a brilliant all-rounder and not just a barrel master.
After making a statement by qualifying as a wildcard for his Championship Tour debut at Teahupo'o as a 17-year-old in 2019, Vaast returned two years later for a run all the way to the finals, before scoring the dream win on that fateful day in 2024.
Kauli Vaast tubing in Teahupo'o
© Ryan Miller/Red Bull Content Pool
Following that up in 2025 with second overall in the Challenger Series, including victory at the Ericeira Pro, means that in 2026 Kauli Vaast will be a full-time CT competitor for the first time. The sport's big guns are already on notice, but is the island boy ready for grind of tour life? "I've been doing it since I was nine-years-old! Managing big airports by myself with two boardbags, a suitcase, my backpack. Changed flights, changed gates, you name it. And then you meet new people, make friends all over the world and discover new places and new waves. Do I like travelling? No, I love it!"
05
Caitlin Simmers
Caity Simmers: 2024's WSL Women’s World Champion
© Jimmy Wilson/Red Bull Content Pool
Can you be a next big thing if you've already become the youngest ever WSL Women's World Title winner at the age of just 18? Definitely, because American prodigy Caity Simmers is only just getting started.
Born and raised in Oceanside, California, Simmers really showcased her potential on the world stage when she won the prestigious US Open of Surfing at just 15, making her the second-youngest champion in the long history of the event. This result saw her qualify for the WSL Championship Tour, but she declined her spot to work on her craft a little longer, in a move not seen since a teenage Taj Burrow did the same in 1997.
And what a move that turned out to be, because Simmers exploded on to the Championship Tour stage in 2023. It took only three events for get her first win at the Meo Pro Portugal and before the season was through she climbed onto the podium three more times, including another victory at the Rio Pro. She wrapped up the year with fourth place finish at the WSL Finals, comfortably securing the Rookie Of The Year trophy in the process.
Simmers won on the man-made waves of the Abu Dhabi Pro in 2025
© World Surf League/Red Bull Content Pool
Then, in 2024 Simmers won it all. After a stunning, historic win at the Pipe Pro, the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach and Brazil's raucous Rio Pro to finish on top of the 2024 WSL Championship Tour rankings and earn her place in the Title Match at the WSL Finals, held just down the road from home at Lower Trestles. There, in front of a raucous hometown crowd, she resisted the challenge of the reigning champ Caroline Marks to claim her maiden title and, at 18 years, 10 months and 12 days, overtook five-time champ Carissa Moore to become pro surfing's youngest-ever world champion.
Simmers came incredibly close to going back-to-back in 2025, only to be denied by Molly Picklum in the thrilling final heat of the WSL Finals Fiji, but still aged only 20 she'll be back for another crack at title glory in 2026 and for years to come. Caity Simmers isn't going anywhere.
06
Caroline Marks
The youngest-ever female to compete in a World Surf League event, American Caroline Marks has tasted enough success to know that she's hungry for a whole lot more. Forget peer pressure, Marks’s two older brothers provided all the necessary incentive she needed to ascend the ranks in surfing, and with a surf break across the road from the family home in Florida she had the perfect training facility growing up.
Caroline Marks lays it on rail in the Mentawai Islands
© Marcelo Maragni/Red Bull Content Pool
Marks's meteoric rise continued when the family moved to California to support her quest for success. She qualified for the WSL Championship Tour in 2017, won Rookie Of The Year in 2018, won two Championship Tour events to finish second in the world in 2019 and now in 2023 she's surfing in her first-ever WSL Finals after finishing third in the world at the end of the regular season.
"Caroline has always had a crazy backhand," says local heavyweight Griffin Colapinto, when asked if Marks can win a world title. "Then when she moved to San Clemente and refined it at Lowers, I think she now she has the best backhand in women's surfing."
We'll take that as a yes and how right Colapinto was proven to be when Marks won her first WSL World Championship title in September 2023 by landing the Rip Curl WSL Finals at Lower Trestles in San Clemente. The first of many, no doubt.
07
Molly Picklum
Queen Molly Picklum ascends surfing's throne
© Ed Sloane/World Surf League
Last, but most definitely not least, the champion: 2025 WSL Championship Tour women's title holder Molly Picklum. And what champ the 2023 year old Aussie is!
Hotly tipped as the heir to Australian female surfing legends Sally Fitzgibbons and Steph Gilmore, Picklum first qualified for the WSL Championship Tour in 2022 and secured her maiden victory in just her second season, at the 2023 Hurley Pro Sunset Beach in Hawaii.
From there on, the native of Australia's Central Coast never let her foot off the gas, scoring the first women's perfect 10 at Pipeline during the Lexus Pipe Pro in February 2024, winning the following Hurley Pro Sunset Beach event and then going on an incredible run in 2025 that ended up with her claiming the crown in Fiji.
Starting off the series with 3–2–3–3 finishes set Picklum up brilliantly and then she really let loose as the season reached its crescendo to go 2–1–2–1 in the final four events, making her the form surfer heading into the winner-takes-all WSL Finals - and she didn't falter.
Molly Picklum's surfing signals confidence over consequence
© Aaron Hughes/Wolrd Surf League
It's something you can never take away from me to be a world champion. I'm just so grateful to get the opportunity to do what I love
At Fiji's legendary Cloudbreak, Picklum beat Caroline Marks in a best-of-three showdown to realise her dream and be crowned world champion. "I really feel like this is the cherry on top of what I've done to my career and my personal life, really turning things around," said Picklum after winning the title. "It's such a trip and something you can never take away from me to be a world champion. To get this after such an amazing season is so special and something I'll remember for life. I'm just so grateful to get the opportunity to do what I love."
Like Simmers before her, still only in her very early 20s, Picklum still has years ahead of her to add more world titles to the trophy cabinet, starting right now during the refreshed and revised 2026 WSL Championship Tour.
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