Surfing
Surfing
All you need to know and who you need to watch ahead of the WSL Finals Fiji
With the dust settling after an incredible Tahiti Pro, the surfing world's eyes now turn to Fiji, where the Top 5 men and women will square off at the WSL Finals to determine the 2025 world champions.
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The WSL Finals have lived a brief yet action-packed existence. After four mixed outings in California, producing seven world champions and endless drama, the format will be retired at season's end, but only after the heaving tubes of Fiji's Cloudbreak determine who will wear surfing's crowns in 2025.
Three-time world champ John Florence salutes as Cloudbreak starts to flex
© Ed Sloane/World Surf League
An incredible Lexus Tahiti Pro proved the perfect curtain raiser for the title showdown, with thunderous left tubes locking in the finals lineup. The top five-ranked men and women on the WSL Championship Tour are now making their way to Fiji for the season ender, with glory and silverware on their minds.
01
When and where are the WSL Finals in 2025?
The WSL Finals are a single-day event, to be run between August 27 and September 4, at Cloudbreak, off the island of Tavarua in Fiji. You can watch all of the action live on Red Bull TV.
25 min
No Contest: Julian Wilson hits Fiji
Julian Wilson heads to Fiji: 330 islands, 500 islets, thousands of villages and the friendliest culture.
Fiji is a South Pacific nation made up of 330 islands, 500 islets and thousands of villages that's home to just under one million of the friendliest people on earth. While the local surfing culture is slowly developing, the country has forever been blessed with some of the best waves on the planet, with Cloudbreak the jewel in the crown.
A 10-minute boat ride from both Namoutu and Tavarua, Cloudbreak is a wave that presents itself as part Indonesian, part Tahitian and just the right amount of Hawaiian, and which can be surfed from three feet to 30.
Namotu in the foreground, Tavarua mid-image, Cloudbreak in the distance
© Stu Gibson
Cloudbreak is not alone at sea. Nearby Namotu boasts an abundance of world-class waves, while Tavarua is home to Restaurants, one of the most mechanical left-hand tubes on the planet, and the backup WSL Finals location, in case of Cloudbreak emergency.
What can we expect if competition moves? A shallow, draining left-hander that reels off through multiple tube sections, occasionally allowing for the occasional vicious turn. Not quite as spectacular as the sheer grunt and size of Cloudbreak, but still an incredible sight to see in full cry.
2 min
No Contest Taj Burrow Fiji Retirement Special
Taj Burrow, the world's funnest surfer, retires from the world tour in style in Fiji.
The twin islands have developed a friendly rivalry over the years, with the American-managed resort on Tavarua playing host to the American posse, while the Australian-run operation on Namotu naturally houses the team from Down Under. Namotu was the place to be after Aussie icon Taj Burrow famously declared Fiji as his retirement event in 2016, while things are rather more civilised over on Tavi.
The view that dreams are made of
© Ed Sloane
ADS checks into the game
© Ed Sloane
The foundation that solid surfing is built upon
© Ed Sloane
Eyeing off the light at the end of the tunnel
© Ed Sloane
The Brazilians, Europeans and other assorted surfers on tour, as well as WSL staff, find themselves either dispersed between the two islands or slightly further afield. Once they touch down at Nadi International, wherever you are, if you're in Fiji, you're happy.
02
How do the WSL Finals work?
The Top 5 men and women at the end of the WSL Championship Tour's regular season qualify for the WSL Finals, and then contest a single-day event to determine the world champion. The lowest seeds battle first, then surfing through to the final matchups against the top seeds.
Caity Simmers and John John Florence comparing world title trophies
© Thiago Diz/World Surf League
In the first bout of the day, fifth surfs against fourth. The winner moves on to take on the third, that winner advances to take on second, before the winner of that heat earns a shot at the season's top seed.
Molly Picklum's love for Fiji could grow much greater in the yellow jersey
© Aaron Hughes/World Surf League
Two details to note: The highest seed starts the heat with priority. While the last matchup is a best-of-three heat affair, should the number one seed win the first heat, it's game over, and they're automatically declared world champion.
03
Who has qualified for the 2025 WSL Finals Fiji?
At the conclusion of the 2025 WSL Championship Tour regular season, the top five ranked men and women, as listed below, will surf in the 2025 WSL Finals Fiji and battle it out to be crowned world champions.
2025 CT RANKINGS
MEN
WOMEN
1.
Yago Dora (BRA)
Molly Picklum (AUS)
2.
Jordy Smith (ZAF)
Gabriela Bryan (HAW)
3.
Griffin Colapinto (USA)
Caitlin Simmers (USA)
4.
Jack Robinson (AUS)
Caroline Marks (USA)
5.
Italo Ferreira (BRA)
Bettylou Sakura Johnson (HAW)
04
Red Bull athletes to watch at the 2025 WSL Finals Fiji
Molly Picklum
In 2025, Molly Picklum had the best competitive year of her life. It wasn't until the ninth event of the season that she finally claimed a win, at the VIVO Rio Pro, breaking an 18-month, 15-event drought in the process, but that streak wasn't through lack of success. Picklum reached the quarter-finals at eight of 2025's eleven events, including five straight finals to wrap up the year, icing her season with a second win at the Lexus Tahiti Pro.
Molly Picklum's surfing signals confidence over consequence
© Aaron Hughes/Wolrd Surf League
Also noteworthy, Picklum finally beat Caity Simmers in a heat this year, then did it again, ending a three-year, 0-6 streak in the process and maybe, just maybe, convincing the Aussie that her other drought, winning a heat at the WSL Finals, might be set to break as well.
Molly Picklum celebrates after winning the Vivo Rio Pro
© Thiago Diz/World Surf League
Picklum is widely regarded as the best tube rider on tour, especially in lefts, proven once at Teahupo'o. With Cloudbreak sitting comfortably in her wheelhouse it would be a brave soul who'd bet against the plucky Aussie from the Central Coast of New South Wales realising all her childhood dreams in Fiji this week.
Jordy Smith
After 18 years on tour, is 2025 Jordy Smith's best chance yet at a world title? Without doubt. This season has not only given the veteran South Africa a first-ever win on a board shaped by his father, but it's also the first in his career where he has recorded two victories, in El Salvador and at Margaret River
Jordy Smith, no nerves here
© Ryan Miller
Smith is easily the surfing world's sentimental favourite this week. He's surfed Cloudbreak more than the rest of the field combined, and after realising early on that heavy lefts were a chink in his armour, he's dedicated an enormous amount of time and effort to the Pacific. Even going so far as to buy a house at Pipeline, and turning a potential weakness into a strength in the process.
As a father of two, and with far more life experience and wisdom than his peers, Smith comes to Fiji feeling he has everything to gain and nothing to lose, and that spells danger for his competitors.
Caity Simmers
With one world title to her name and many more to come, Caitlin Simmers comes into the WSL Finals Fiji as somewhat of an underdog. Despite a win in Abu Dhabi and three seconds in 2025, by her own lofty standards, this year has been somewhat subdued for the kid from Oceanside, California. After wearing the yellow jersey for the first third of the season, Simmers let the lead slip in the Aussie leg, then fell to third on the rankings by season's end.
Caitlin Simmers sitting pretty in the pocket
© Matt Dunbar/World Surf League
Simmers might be the best all-around female surfer on the planet, but she'll need to dig deep this week to conjure up another crown. It could easily happen, and if it does, it'll take something special, so stay tuned.
Griffin Colapinto
For Griffin Colapinto, 2025 has been a tale of two halves. After back-to-back 3rd place finishes in 2023 and 2024, this felt like this season the Californian would mount his most serious campaign yet, then things went the other way. Coming into the Aussie leg with barely a heat win to his name and in danger of missing the cut, Colapinto put the foot down and got on a roll.
Highlighted by a crazy tube at the Box, and an insane perfect 10 at Mainbreak, Colapinto's outrageous Margaret River campaign told the world he was back and meant business.
In 2025 Griffin Colapinto has levelled up in waves of consequence
© Brent Bielmann/World Surf League
With three seconds and three thirds from the last seven events, he's a man on fire right now, and after going out of body at XL Teahupo'o at the Tahiti Pro, he put the world on notice that he's ready for war if Cloudbreak bares its teeth. You love to see it.
Caroline Marks
A win in Portugal and three straight third places to finish the season were the highlights of Caroline Marks' year, but maybe the best is yet to come?
Caroline Marks, late and committed at Teahupo'o
© Matt Dunbar/World Surf League
The 2023 world champion has proven time and again she's a big game player, and after winning the Tahiti Pro at Teahupo'o in 2023, then claiming a gold medal at the same wave a year later, the Floridian loves nothing than more than the big stage, and big waves.
Jack Robinson
It couldn't possibly happen, could it? Australia's Jack Robinson needed to win the Tahiti Pro to have any hope of making the WSL Finals. Naturally, Jack claimed his first-ever Teahupo'o trophy to book his ticket to Fiji, and is now a genuine threat of a first-ever title, reinforced by his pre-finals warmup sessions, as seen below.
In waves of consequence, there is nobody better in the world right now than the 27-year-old tube savant, who has been talked of as a future world champion since his pre-teen days.
Jack Robinson earned the first 10 for 2025 with this Backdoor beast
© Tony Heff/World Surf League
Robinson started the season with a perfect 10 at Pipe, another Pacific reef he's taken a trophy home from. Could he bookend the season with something spectacular to collect a crown? It's been 12 years since Mick Fanning won Australia's last men's world title, and something suggests that the Aussies would have to be unlucky to stretch their winless streak to 13.
Italo Ferreira
Even more remarkable than a fourth-to-first win for Jack Robinson would be a fifth-to-first run for Italo Ferreira, but the man from Baia Formosa loves pressure almost as much as he loves surfing with a chip on his shoulder. Last year, Ferreira stormed through the field from fifth to the final matchup before eventually losing to John John Florence. Can surfing's human spark plug go one better this time around?
Italo Ferreira sitting ever so pretty at Teahupo'o
© Brent Bielmann/World Surf League
Ferreira started the year all guns blazing, collecting a win and the yellow jersey in Abu Dhabi and looking like the man to beat, before an Aussie leg to forget sent his campaign sideways. Two quarterfinal finishes from the last three events were enough for the 2019 world champ to make the top five and give himself a fighter's chance at adding another crown to his collection. If there's one thing we've learned, it's that Ferreira loves fighting.
05
What's at stake?
There's no greater achievement in surfing than winning a WSL world title. It's the culmination of a lifelong journey that starts with junior events before progressing to the regional Qualifying Series, the Challenger Series and eventually the Championship Tour. Once you make the CT, a title signifies that you've made it past the mid-year cut, then finished in the top five and beat all comers at the WSL Finals. Your legacy is etched in stone forever.
Italo Ferreira was the last surfer to win a world title at Pipe, in 2019
© WSL/Ed Sloane
In 2025, the men's and women's world champions also collect $200,000 in prize money, an amount that is generally matched by sponsor bonuses and dwarfed by the future earnings and endorsements that come with being a world champion. Second picks up $100,000, and a small fraction of the side-earn as the surfer who beat them.
06
How to watch the 2025 WSL Finals Fiji?
The WSL Finals will be broadcast on Red Bull TV, as well as the WSL's various platforms. In some countries, like Australia, it is also broadcast live on cable television.
Cloudbreak flexes for the cameras covering the event for the folk back home
© Ed Sloane/World Surf League
This year the WSL Finals will also be broadcast on Red Bull TV with a Japanese commentary option. The event window is open, so whatcha waiting for? Tune in now!
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