Surfing
Surfing
In 2026, the WSL Championship Tour is going back to the good old days
After a five-year experiment, the World Surf League's controversial Mid-Year Cut and WSL Finals format are no more. Read on to learn all about the 2026 WSL Championship Tour and where it's headed.
Part of this story
The World Surf League's Championship Tour is a showcase of surfing's upper echelon; the sport's greatest athletes competing at a bucket list of the planet's best waves, with a world title on the line. Since 1976, the IPS, then ASP, and now WSL have provided an ever-changing framework for the coronation of champions, with high-stakes competition and controversy the only constants.
In the late 1990s waves like G-Land headlined surfing's Dream Tour era
© Scotty Hammonds
After five years of the single-day, end-of-season WSL Finals anointing surfing's world champs, the structure has been reworked once again. In the wake of a raft of popular changes, the recently announced 2026 schedule is as close to the legendary "Dream Tour" roster of the late 1990s and early 2000s as it has been in a long time, with competitors and surf fans the biggest winners.
Dive in as we break down what's up with the redesigned schedule and the key changes made to the structure of the season.
01
The 2026 WSL Championship Tour schedule
Event
Date
Destination
Bells Beach
April 1 – 11
Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia
Margaret River
April 17 – 27
Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia
Gold Coast
May 2 – 12
Snapper Rocks, Queensland, Australia
Punta Roca
May 28 – June 7
Punta Roca, La Libertad, El Salvador
Saquarema
June 12 – 20
Saquarema, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Jeffreys Bay
July 10 – 20
Jeffreys Bay, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Teahupo'o
August 8 – 18
Teahupo'o, Tahiti, French Polynesia
Cloudbreak
August 25 – September 4
Cloudbreak, Tavarua, Fiji
Lower Trestles
September 11 – 20
Lower Trestles, California, United States
Surf Abu Dhabi
October 14 - 18
Surf Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Peniche
October 22 - November 1
Peniche, Portugal
Pipe Masters
December 8 - 20
Banzai Pipeline, Hawaii, USA
02
What's different about the 2026 WSL Championship Tour?
Pipeline has always been surfing's proving ground, now it's the WSL's too
© Trevor Moran
As of 2026, the contentious WSL Finals and Mid-Year Cut are no more. The CT season will start later in the year in Australia, at the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach at Easter, then stretch much further into the calendar, allowing for the final event of the season to run at Pipeline, in surfing's spiritual home of Hawaii.
While the thinking behind the WSL Finals concept was sound – engineering the season so that the world title was decided in the final heat of the year – it didn't sit well with competitors or the core fanbase. Fans lamented the loss of Pipeline as the annual king and queen maker, as the finals were moved first to California, then to Fiji.
Caitlin Simmers rode a wave of Californian support to a maiden world title
© Tony Heff/World Surf League
The argument for the finals is that, occasionally, when the world title is decided on season rankings, the ultimate moment that crowns the champion can occur before Pipeline, and often as a result of the new champ's closest rival losing, which is all a little anticlimactic.
Hence, the WSL Finals were born, a single-day showcase of surfing's greatest competitors battling it out for glory, with all the hype and fanfare that allows for.
Italo Ferreira was the last surfer to win a world title at Pipe, in 2019
© WSL/Ed Sloane
Ironically, the last time Hawaii closed the season, in 2019, the surfing world witnessed the greatest title showdown in years, with Italo Ferreira beating Gabriel Medina in spectacular waves in the final of the Pipe Masters to claim surfing's ultimate honour.
In the years since, the WSL Finals have been run in moderate conditions in California and Fiji. Despite the titles being decided in front of big crowds, the spectacle was far from the same. Five years later, the surfers and spectators have spoken, and the return to regular scheduling has been widely welcomed.
The 12-stop schedule welcomes a new evolution of the CT, reimagined to meet the ambitions and momentum of surfing’s next chapter
The WSL's solution this time around is superb; the Pipe Masters will be worth 1.5 times as many points as a regular CT event, meaning that once throwaway events are factored into the chances of the title being decided before Hawaii are slim at best. Great stuff.
What else is new? The number of women competing in each CT event is being increased from 18 to 24. Thanks to reformatting the draw, there will no longer be any non-elimination heats for men or women, meaning events can run in less time, and in theory, in better waves. Finally, the Mid Year Cut may be gone, but there will still be a reduction in the number of surfers (to 24 men and 16 women) at the season's 10th and 11th events, to finalise the seedings before Pipe. Want to get deeper into the weeds on all these WSL, including all of these changes? You can do so here.
Watch the World Surf League Championship Tour on Red Bull TV – streaming on web browsers, mobile apps and Smart TVs.
03
Event 1: Bells Beach – April 1-11, Torquay, Victoria, Australia
44 min
WSL Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach
Take an all-access tour of the WSL Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach as the world’s best surfers head to Australia.
"You've got to win it to ring it," is how the saying goes at the longest-running surfing competition in the world, the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach. The event has been held in the small Australian town of Torquay every Easter since 1962, and the honour roll on the staircase lists every legend of the sport. Mick Fanning, Kelly Slater and Mark Richards have all rung the trophy Bell four times, Carissa Moore thrice, while Gail Couper has taken home an incredible and never-to-be-beaten 10 women's trophies!
Bells Beach, still perfect
© Trevor Moran
Italo Ferreira celebrated his maiden CT win at Bells in 2018 by inking a tattoo of a koala ringing a Bell onto his bicep. While Caity Simmers didn't do the same after her first Bells victory in 2024, lifting surfing's most famous trophy was the result that kick-started a maiden world title run.
Jack Robinson claims victory at Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach
© World Surf League/Red Bull Content Pool
In 2025, Jack Robinson and Isabella Nicholls completed an Aussie double at their country's most historic event, adding another chapter to Bells' impervious legacy.
04
Event 2: Margaret River – April 17-27, Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia
44 min
WSL Western Australia Margaret River Pro
Get closer than ever to the world’s top surfers at the 2025 Western Australia Margaret River Pro.
"The West is best" has long been said about the waves of the Margaret River region, and local hero Jack Robinson would be the first to confirm after winning his hometown event, held over the limestone reef of Margaret River's Mainbreak, twice.
Jordy Smith celebrates his triumph at the Margaret River Pro 2025
© World Surf League/Red Bull Content Pool
As well as running at Mainbreak, the Western Australia Margaret River Pro can also be held across the bay at infamous slab The Box, or even further afield at the legendary freight train barrels of North Point. Michel Bourez claimed his first CT at Margaret River in 2015, while Carissa Moore has her name engraved on the beach staircase's honour roll three times.
Griffin Colapinto stacked the highlight reel in 2025 with a perfect 10 at Mainbreak and a crazy nine-point ride at The Box. However, it was Jordy Smith who added his name to the honour roll and drove off in a new car, the trophy riding shotgun.
All you need to know about the WSL's Australian Leg
05
Event 3: Snapper Rocks – May 2-12, Snapper Rocks, Queensland, Australia
44 min
WSL Bonsoy Gold Coast Pro
Come backstage for a deeper look as the WSL Bonsoy Gold Coast Pro returns after a six-year absence.
When the WSL announced the 2025 Championship Tour line-up, surf fans rejoiced when they saw the Bonsoy Gold Coast Pro returning after a five-year absence, meaning the long tubes of Snapper Rocks were back in play.
In 2026, on the second attempt, Snapper Rocks is back on the CT once again
© Andrew Shield
Unfortunately, the devastation caused on the Gold Coast by Tropical Cyclone Alfred in the lead up to the event also washed away the Snapper Rocks sandbanks, forcing a move up the road to the legendary Burleigh Heads.
Erin Brooks took out her hero Stephanie Gilmore
© World Surf League/Red Bull Content Pool
Despite the upheaval, the contest barely missed a beat, serving the world a reminder of all that it had been missing as some of the funnest waves of the CT year introduced a new generation to a Championship Tour icon.
06
Event 4: Punta Roca – May 28-June 7, Punta Roca, La Libertad, El Salvador
44 min
WSL Surf City El Salvador Pro
Look at the 2025 Surf City El Salvador Pro from a new angle and find out the biggest stories.
A recent addition to the Championship Tour, the Surf City El Salvador Pro not only features one of the most rippable rights on the roster in Punta Roca, but it is also becoming a tour favourite, with tropical waves found on the length of the El Salvadoran coastline.
It's hard to take your eyes off the water when Punta Roca is in full cry
© Aaron Hughes/World Surf League
Griffin Colapinto hoisted the trophy at the event's first outing in 2022, while Caroline Marks secured back-to-back victories in 2023 and 2024 to stamp herself as the Queen of Central America.
Caitlin Simmers flies down the line at Punta Roca
© World Surf League/Red Bull Content Pool
In 2025, Gabriela Bryan continued her form streak to claim a win on the women's side of the draw, accounting for Isabella Nicholls in the final, and world champ Caitlin Simmers in the semis.
Jordy Smith en route to a famous victory in El Salvador
© World Surf League / Red Bull Content Pool
On the men's side of proceedings, Jordy Smith claimed his first CT victory in eight years at the righthand pointbreak, winning on a board shaped by his father for the first time at the highest level.
07
Event 5: Saquarema – June 12-20, Saquarema, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
44 min
WSL Vivo Rio Pro wrap show
The WSL panel hands down its verdict after the Vivo Rio Pro served up no shortage of Championship Tour drama.
There is nowhere on the tour quite like Saquarema, Brazil, as the No Contest crew detailed beautifully while hanging and surfing with legendary local brothers João and Lucas Chianca. While competition is held most regularly in the beach break peaks of Itaúna, on rare occasions, the dredging righthand barrel of Barrinha roars to life at the western end of the beach, raining high scores and spectacular wipeouts on the field.
Nowhere in surfing comes close to matching the crowds in Saquarema
© Thiago Diz
The men's honour roll has been a largely Brazilian affair in recent times, while Caity Simmers and Carissa Moore have both enjoyed Rio success in front of enormous, electric crowds on the women's side of proceedings.
Griffin Colapinto snagged the wave of the contest to score 8.23
© Camila Othon/World Surf League/Red Bull Content Pool
In 2025, it was Cole Houshmand and Molly Picklum who claimed top honours at Saquarema. The latter, using the momentum gained by her first CT victory in 18-months, into a powerhouse run that would lead to her first world title.
08
Event 6: Jeffreys Bay – July 10-20, Jeffreys Bay, Eastern Cape, South Africa
44 min
WSL J-Bay Open
Get an access-all-areas insight and enjoy a behind-the-scenes look at the 2025 J-Bay Open.
South Africa's Jeffreys Bay is arguably the planet's greatest pointbreak, serving up freight train tubes and long roping lines that are the dreams of every natural-footed surfer in the world, and most of the goofy-footers too.
Jeffreys Bay in all its glory
© Roy Harley/ASP
From world champions like Tom Curren and Mick Fanning to hometown heroes like Jordy Smith, a long list of surfing icons have carved their names on J-Bay's walls, and the J-Bay Pro has long been a popular fixture with both surfers and spectators alike.
Molly Picklum surfed to second place at the Corona Cero Open J-Bay
© World Surf League/Red Bull Content Pool
After a brief hiatus on the sidelines, Africa's most famous wave returned to the Championship Tour in 2025, with Connor O'Leary and Gabriela Bryan taking home the trophies as classic J-Bay put on a show.
09
Event 7: Teahupo'o – August 8-18, Teahupo'o, Tahiti, French Polynesia
44 min
WSL Tahiti Pro
Experience all the thrills of the 2025 Tahiti Pro from an insider’s perspective.
Teahupo'o, in Tahiti, might just be the most ferocious wave in the world. Won in 2024 by Italo Ferreira, and dominated in competitions past by Kelly Slater, Gabriel Medina, Jack Robinson and John John Florence. 'The Wall Of Skulls' serves up the most picture-perfect yet deadly tubes on the planet.
A rarely seen, yet no less scary, angle of Teahupo'o
© Domenic Mosqueira
The women's tour rejoined the ranks at the End Of The Road in 2022, and while local standout Vahine Fierro has the wave dialled, winning the last event in 2024, Caroline Marks put her maiden world title campaign on track by taking out the 2023 Tahiti Pro.
Molly Picklum's Tahitian win set up her epic Fijian world title campaign
© World Surf League/Red Bull Content Pool
Teahupo'o was the Olympic venue for the Paris games in 2024, with Marks and Kauli Vaast tasting once-in-a-lifetime glory on the sporting world's greatest stage.
Jack Robinson absolutely slayed Teahupo'o to win big in 2025
© World Surf League/Red Bull Content Pool
In 2025, it was Jack Robinson who snatched a last gasp berth in the WSL Finals with his huge win. Molly Picklum also marked herself firmly as the woman to beat in Fiji as she re-wrote the rules for female backhand tube riding on her way to a famous Teahupo'o victory.
10
Event 8: Cloudbreak – August 25-September 4, Tavarua, Fiji
44 min
WSL Finals Fiji
Go behind the scenes as the WSL Finals Fiji crowns surfing's 2025 world champions.
The most welcome WSL news in a long time was the announcement that Fiji would be returning to the CT calendar in 2024 after a seven-year absence. Cloudbreak, a wave as perfect at three feet as it is at 30, has been won by Kelly Slater on four occasions, while Sally Fitzgibbons claimed back-to-back victories in 2014 and 2015.
5 min
Down the Line – Jack Robinson
Jack Robinson talks us through an incredible first-ever mission to Fiji.
Griffin Colapinto and event wildcard Erin Brooks took home the trophies in their first Fijian outings in 2024 before it was revealed that in 2025 the WSL Finals would be moved to Cloudbreak for their final outing, after a four-year run of world titles decided in the high-performance peaks of Lower Trestles.
Molly Picklum soaks in the greatest moment of her life
© Cait Miers/World Surf League
While the WSL Finals signed off by crowning Molly Picklum and Yago Dora world champions, in 2026 Fiji will be back on the Championship Tour as a regular season event, and the tour's hardest charging surfers couldn't be happier with the news.
11
Event 9: Lower Trestles – September 11-20, Lower Trestles, California, United States
44 min
WSL Trestles Pro
Get the Lowers breakdown as Inside Pro Surfing takes us behind the scenes at the 2025 Lexus Trestles Pro.
Lower Trestles, in San Clemente, California, has long been dubbed "surfing's skatepark" in honour of its perfect peaks: waves that pack enough punch to encourage progressive manoeuvres, while offering little risk should things go awry. Griffin Colapinto and Kolohe Andino are local heroes around these parts, but Kelly Slater is king, having claimed victory at Lowers six times.
SoCal's favourite playground
© Peter Taras
Carissa Moore, Stephanie Gilmore and Tyler Wright all won the event in world title seasons, foreshadowing the announcement of Lower Trestles as the home of the WSL Finals, a one-day surf-off to determine the world champion, from 2021 to 2024.
Kanoa Igarashi cuts Lower Trestles to ribbons
© World Surf League/Red Bull Content Pool
In 2024, John John Florence was crowned world champ for the third time, while Californian prodigy Caitlin Simmers claimed her first-ever world title just 20 minutes from her hometown of Oceanside, before Lowers returned to regular duties as a Championship Tour event in 2025, with Bettylou Sakura Johnson and Yago Dora taking home the trophies.
12
Event 10: Surf Abu Dhabi – October 14-18, Hudayriat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
44 min
WSL Surf Abu Dhabi Pro
Take an access-all-areas tour of the Abu Dhabi Pro, as the 2025 WSL Championship Tour unleashes in the UAE.
Although the Surf Abu Dhabi Pro only made its debut on the Championship Tour calendar in 2025, it's not a stretch to say we'd seen the event before, as the Surf Abu Dhabi basin features the same Kelly Slater Wave Co technology that powers California's Wave Ranch, home to four previous CT events.
Surf Abu Dhabi might just be the best wave pool in the world
© World Surf League/Tommy Pierucki
While healthy debate rages around surfing competitions taking place away from the ocean, Surf Abu Dhabi offers some compromise, given it is the first saltwater wave pool. There can be no argument as to the consistency of the conditions on offer, and the fact that the best surfers always win confirms this.
Italo Ferreira and the alley oop that saw him soar to the top of the podium
© World Surf League/Thiago Diz
Across five Championship Tour events run in a KSWC basin, world champions Carissa Moore and Gabriel Medina have won two each, while Italo Ferreira, Caitlin Simmers and Filipe Toledo have all claimed victories too. This leaves just Griffin Colapinto, Lakey Peterson and Johanne Defay as the only non-world champs to have their name on the wave pool honour roll.
The Caity Simmers roundhouse cutback that makes every surfer's heart sing
© World Surf League/Max Physick
Ferreira and Simmers stormed to the top of the rankings with their wins in Abu Dhabi last season, with Simmers' lines drawing plaudits from around the world, and Ferreira's incredible energy powering him to a never-in-doubt victory, as the UAE made a successful debut on the Championship Tour.
13
Event 11: Peniche – October 22-November 1, Peniche, Portugal
44 min
WSL MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal
Come backstage for a closer study of WSL MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal’s biggest storylines.
On its day, Supertubos, also known as the Portuguese Pipeline, is one of the world's best beach breaks, with tubes as wide as they are high broadsiding the tiny fishing town of Peniche and huge crowds packing the sand whenever the contest is given the green light to run.
Supertubos does its thing
© ASP/Kirstin
The Championship Tour first came to Portugal in 2009, for the Rip Curl Pro Search, a competition held in a new location every year. The event was so successful, won by Kelly Slater in firing waves, that little convincing was needed to add it to the full-time schedule.
Italo Ferreira is Portugal's perennial threat
© Damien Poullenot/World Surf League
João Chianca and Caity Simmers claimed their first-ever CT victories at Supertubos in 2023, while Griffin Colapinto took out the MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal for the second time in 2024. In 2025, it was Yago Dora who laid down the groundwork for his title win with a Supertubos victory, while Caroline Marks foreshadowed another stellar season of her own, flying out of Lisbon with the trophy by her side.
14
Event 12: Pipe Masters – December 8-20, Oahu, Hawaii
44 min
WSL Lexus Pipe Pro
You're granted access-all-areas at the WSL Championship Tour 2025 season opening event, the Lexus Pipe Pro.
Hawaii's Banzai Pipeline, on the notorious North Shore of Oahu, is the most famed and feared wave in the world. This legendary stretch of coastline – nicknamed the Seven Mile Miracle – is known to surfers as the Proving Ground, thanks to its life-threatening waves and ability to make or break reputations.
Kelly Slater in front of a full house at Pipeline
© ASP/Kirstin
Pipeline is the jewel in the North Shore's crown. Kelly Slater, John John Florence, Jack Robinson and Caity Simmers are a handful of Championship Tour surfers who've tasted success at Pipeline in recent years, while in the 2024 edition, Molly Picklum locked in the first-ever female perfect 10 at Pipeline on a landmark day for women's surfing.
Jack Robinson rolling into the first perfect 10 of the 2025 season
© Brent Bielmann/World Surf League
I love it. I think the locals see the time I put in outside of the contest, and they really respect that. I’ll spend weeks at a time at the Volcom Pipe House surfing on the North Shore, soaking up the energy of the islands
Tyler Wright took out the women's Pipe Pro in 2025, while Hawaiian Barron Mamiya, at just 25, put himself amongst the North Shore greats with his back-to-back victory, the first surfer to do that at Pipeline since Andy Irons 19 years earlier.
In 2026, the stakes will be sky high as the men and women of the Championship Tour will be jetting into Hawaii with world titles on the line and wild winter swell lines stacking up to the horizon. The new season doesn't touch down for another six months, but when it does, it will do so with a vengeance, as surfers and diehards celebrate the next evolution of the Championship Tour, and hope like heck that all of the WSL's hard work sees a return to the glory days of the Dream Tour once more.
Watch the World Surf League Championship Tour on Red Bull TV – streaming on web browsers, mobile apps, and Smart TVs
Part of this story
